Shopify
What is Shopify?
Building an online store used to be a genuinely difficult, technical undertaking, which is part of why fewer shopping sites existed on the early internet. As the internet grew and online shopping became mainstream, more businesses moved into the digital space — and demand for easier, faster ways to build a store site grew right along with it. That demand is exactly what platforms like Shopify were built to solve.
Shopify has become one of the most widely used store-building platforms in the world, with the specific goal of making it possible for far more businesses to operate online. If you’ve heard the name before and want to understand it better, here’s the real picture.
Shopify is one of the major players in global e-commerce, and the numbers back that up:
More than a million stores have been built on Shopify.
Stores using Shopify operate across 175 countries.
Combined sales from Shopify-powered stores total roughly $230 billion.
Shopify employs more than 5,000 people.
Shopify’s role in online retail has grown substantially, and many stores built on it have scaled into multi-million-dollar businesses. Its core strength is speed and simplicity — you can launch a fully functioning store without writing code, managing hosting, configuring a domain, or installing any software.
Part of what sets Shopify apart is that it doesn’t stop at just hosting your store — it actively supports your business growth. You get built-in tools like live chat and payment processing, along with ongoing support to help resolve issues as they come up.
These strengths are exactly why Shopify has become a top choice for people setting up an online store. Whether you’re selling physical products or digital ones, Shopify is a genuinely strong platform for building your storefront.
How to build an online store with Shopify?
One of Shopify’s biggest advantages is that it requires no installation and no separate hosting — building a store is fast and straightforward. That simplicity is exactly why most beginners choose Shopify over more technical platforms like WooCommerce.
Step 1: Creating a Shopify account
Our team starts by setting up your account on Shopify.com.
Step 2: Choosing a site template
Once your account is created, you have your own online store ready to configure. Shopify’s store builder is genuinely easy to use and doesn’t require any special training — here’s a quick look at the key parts of the panel.
The first real step is choosing a template that fits your brand. Our team selects a template based on your specific business and audience, to make sure it actually appeals to your customers. Shopify offers a range of templates, including several free options.
Step 3: Adding your products to the store
With your template in place, it’s time to add your products.
How products are organized on your site has a real impact on whether customers stick around and buy.
Grouping related products, writing clear descriptions, and choosing the right titles all matter for drawing customers in. Our team handles this with attention to detail, drawing on real experience with what actually converts.
Step 4: Additional Shopify setup
At this point, your store is functional and ready to sell. From here, we refine the site’s design and build out the homepage with the right elements to represent your brand.
Our team walks through every step of this with you — including setting up accurate shipping costs for your products.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Shopify?
Ease of use: Shopify is genuinely simple to work with and requires zero coding knowledge.
Support: Shopify’s support team is available to help resolve issues through calls and messaging whenever you need it.
Robust features: Shopify covers what a real online store needs — discount codes, tax configuration by region, shipping settings for different countries, and a wide range of other built-in tools.
Add-ons and integrations: Shopify has a large library of free and paid apps you can use to extend your store’s functionality, including tools like live chat.
Sell nearly anything: A Shopify store can handle physical products, digital goods, services, memberships, event tickets, online courses, and rental products.
Google Analytics & Shopify
Google Analytics is a free web analytics platform that tracks detailed performance metrics across your site. Here’s a quick look at why we set it up alongside Shopify’s own built-in analytics.
Google Analytics covers metrics like traffic sources, click-through rates, conversions, bounce rate, time on page, and much more. It’s a free SEO tool that gives store owners the kind of detailed data needed to make informed decisions.
As an online store, you’re likely running multiple marketing efforts — influencer partnerships, email campaigns, and more — all of which ultimately drive traffic back to your site. Google Analytics is what lets you actually see how each of those channels is performing.
Why do I need Google Analytics if I already have Shopify Analytics?
It’s easy to assume Shopify’s built-in analytics give you everything you need to run your business — but in reality, it only offers a high-level summary, not the full picture required for informed decisions.
Shopify Analytics shows total sales, average order value, and conversion rate, along with a few pre-built reports that require little setup. It’s a convenient starting point, but it has real limitations.
For example, if you want to compare traffic sources or see which devices customers actually shop on, Shopify Analytics alone won’t give you that level of detail — Google Analytics will.
How do people actually interact with your Shopify site?
You likely have a clear mental picture of how visitors will move through your site — but real user behavior often looks different from what you’d expect.
Under Behavior → Overview in Google Analytics, you can see a clear picture of how your audience actually behaves on your site. From there, we review your content and landing pages to identify which product pages are performing well and which ones need adjustment.
Frequently asked questions
About INTVIPS
INTVIPS is a digital marketing agency serving businesses internationally, with a primary focus on the USA. Our team has 10 years of experience with Shopify store setup alongside eCommerce marketing and SEO services. For official platform documentation, see the Shopify Help Center. Questions about your store? Reach us at Intvips@gmail.com or +1 (438) 299-5211.