How I established my Shopify Store for Brides

I am not only a knitter I also migrated my shop to Shopify

I have had my Shopify Shop since the beginning of 2018. Before that I was with my shop at Strato for over 10 years. I did the migration from Strato to Shopify myself. And here's my conclusion:

• I would always switch to Shopify.

Why Shopify is the right choice for me

I was at Strato for about 10 years and carried out many SEO acitivities that were almost ineffective, I almost always stayed with the same number of visitors. At Shopify I started with an already higher number of visitors and SEO measures were immediately visible. My visitor numbers have almost doubled within 2 years. I will report on the other advantages at the end of the article.

How did I get into Shopify?

I am not a friend of great research, mostly I make my decisions quickly, which has also turned out to be a mistake. I have seen a good video to Shopify on the YouTube channel: Mein Geschäft.

Nevertheless, on the advice of my partner, I looked at other shop solutions, such as: Magento, Shopware, WooCommerce, Wordpress. Most of these systems require in-depth technical knowledge, e.g. setting up your own database. I didn't want to spend my time with that. So my decision was made quickly: It will be Shopify. This shop can be completely set up via the frontend. Registering a domain and setting up Google Webmaster Tools is part of every shop system.

I took the following steps when migrating to Shopify:

• Setup of the Shopify test shop (14 days free of charge, at the moment even 90 days due to Corona)
• Data transfer using an app from the Shopify app store; here you can choose which data should be transferred, a format post-processing was necessary, but feasible
• Establishment of the administrative area:
• Payment methods
• Legal
• Navigation
• Domain redirection (from Strato to Shopify - until termination takes effect). A "com" domain can also be hosted directly by Shopify, for "de" domains you have to find a host, I chose Linevast. My emails also run here.
• Connect Google Analytics
• Set up / connect GoogleWebmaster
• Integrate social media channels
• Set up blog
• Customizing and selection of the appropriate theme (free and costly available, I started with the free "Debut" and have now switched to "Prestige", which costs a few dollars but is worth it. The products are presented much nicer and one has more features integrated.

My shop was online within 1 week, whereby I first ran both under different domains. So I could still test the Shopify shop. After a few weeks, I completely redirected to Shopify via my Strato hosting. My successor host for my domains was Linevast. Again, I didn't want to stay with Strato because this company has mediocre customer service and has charged for services not ordered, complaints were ignored. Not recommendable.

The setup went well and easily. Shopify has provided extensive online information via the Help Center and Shopify University. For me, the biggest help was the chat function.

Shopify benefits

• Without setting up programming skills
• Intuitive front end
• Apps with and without cost extend the functionality of Shopify
• For me: state of the art
• Help is quickly available via the chat function
• Choose between many different designs, using themes
• The code is customizable, even inexperienced people can familiarize themselves with it, help is available in the forum and online help
• The shop can be operated from 29 EUR per month, a Shopify fee per turnover also applies
• The Shopify app for mobile phones provides information about all activities in the online shop, including every order, if desired

Here is one of the latest apps that I have integrated into my shop: Affiliate app

Disadvantages of Shopify

• Multilanguage is not integrated, apps are provided for this. I have tested some and I did not like one, now I have installed a simple free translation app in the German shop that translates directly when used: GTranslate. The disadvantage, from an SEO perspective, there is no content.
• International domain: www.beemohr.com
• German domain: www.beemohr.de

More about Shopify

Shopify is a shareholder company based in Canda, founded in 2006. The founder; Tobi Lütke is a programmer from Germany. Already more than 1 million companies in over 175 countries use Shopify. Big brands like Tesla and Budweiser are amongst them.

Here is the phenomenal development of the Shopify share as of April 9, 2020. I am holding shares of Shopify.

Source: Shopify Financials