It is a well-known fact and reality that present-day customers are inclined towards convenient and hassle-free shopping. It is because of this inclination and preference that the eCommerce sector has created an unparallel market grip and has become the primary shopping medium for many.
As the scope and size of the eCommerce sector are increasing, brick-and-mortar stores are seeing fewer consumers than ever before. Speaking factually, the e-retail market was valued at USD 4.21 trillion at the end of 2020, and these figures have only increased since then. Understanding this shift in consumer shopping trends, more and more traditional businesses are going ‘digital’ and are starting to sell their products online.
When a business plans to go digital, it has two options to choose from, which are to build a custom eCommerce platform or use third-party web builders like Shopify.
Businesses often prefer the latter option as it enables them to gain all the benefits of eCommerce less the cost and time requirement of building a custom e-retail platform. Today, Shopify is one of the most popular web building tools specializing in eCommerce web development. Let’s understand more about this platform and how it benefits businesses for seamless online selling.
Shopify at a Glance + Concept of Drop Shipping
In simple words, Shopify is a website building tool dedicated to creating fast-performing and user-friendly e-commerce stores. This platform works as SaaS (Software as a Service) and enables businesses to get an online selling medium for their products at economical rates.
Today, 19% of all the eCommerce platforms that exist on the internet are made using Shopify. These figures are expected to increase in the coming years as more and more businesses are realizing the tremendous potential and scope of Shopify as an eCommerce web-building tool.
It won’t be wrong to say that developing an eCommerce website or mobile app on Shopify is a cakewalk process. To explain, one does not need any technical knowledge or expertise to build a Shopify website except for a desktop and an internet connection.
Just like any other web builder, all you need to do to create a Shopify website is drag and drop different elements on a template, and you are good to go. The platform offers users a number of readymade themes to choose from. Alternatively, you can also customize Shopify development and create a unique store.
Moving forward, we will look at the difference between using readymade Shopify themes and custom Shopify development and will try to determine which one is a better option.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Readymade Shopify Themes
Readymade design themes are a set of pre-available designs that the users can choose from on the Shopify platform. These themes are created keeping the eCommerce niche in mind and are handy for businesses to create an eCommerce website on Shopify.
Let’s understand the advantages and disadvantages of these readymade themes in detail in the upcoming section.
Advantages
Less Time to Market
It is essential to understand that these designs are pre-made templates that are ready for use on the platform. All you need to do to create a website is drag and drop different elements as per your preferences.
With readymade designs, you can create a Shopify website in hours. As a result, this approach enables the business to cut down on the design and programming process, which are two of the most time-consuming stages of the web development lifecycle.
This enables e-retail businesses to reduce their website’s time to market and facilitate its rapid launch. This aspect of readymade Shopify themes is especially useful for businesses looking to create an eCommerce website for their business but are short on time allowance.
Easy to Use
Generally speaking, it is highly easy to use readymade themes for web development. Web builders are made for people who lag in the technical expertise of programming but still want to build a website.
Readymade Shopify themes are no exception in this matter and are highly easy to utilize and user-friendly. You can browse from a plethora of themes available on the platform and select the one that matches your requirement.
Once you have selected the theme of your choice, all that is left to do is add elements in the right place, and all the coding takes place automatically in the background.
With this aspect of Shopify development, anyone and everyone can create an eCommerce website for their business without any experience or qualification in the actual web development field.
Cost-efficient
Developing an eCommerce website can turn out to be a cost-intensive affair. To elaborate, web development is a lengthy process that involves numerous stages. Design and development are two of the most vital stages of the process and also the one with the highest capital requirement.
Depending upon where you live, the rate to hire a programmer can be as high as $150 to $200 per hour. Of course, these charges are not feasible for every business, especially startups that are just entering the eCommerce market.
However, with readymade Shopify themes, you can skip the cost of hiring a designer and developer for your web development project. These Shopify themes enable businesses to design and develop their website on their own and save on the costs that they would otherwise incur in the design and development stage.
This aspect of readymade Shopify themes makes them especially useful for businesses on a limited budget, as these themes are totally free to use, and you can get an e-retail website for your business at a relatively low price.
Disadvantages
Limited Functionality
Just like any other readymade theme design, there is very little that you can do to change the theme as per your requirements and niche. This makes it highly challenging for businesses to create a high-end UI design for their platform and, therefore, guarantee top-notch UX.
In readymade Shopify themes, there is low to no scope of theme customization, making it almost impossible to change the website’s architecture. Moreover, it is challenging to determine whether the available architecture will work for your website or not.
This often limits in limited functionality of the website and makes it impossible for the business to use UI to deliver a high-end UX. This can be a disaster for eCommerce businesses, as user experience is the most critical aspect that can either make or break an e-retail brand.
To add to that, in certain cases, one cannot help but settle for limited element availability, further degrading the website’s UI and compromising the user experience.
Common Design
We discussed earlier that it costs nothing to create an eCommerce website using Shopify’s readymade designs. Naturally, most of the startup e-retail businesses go for this option, as here, they can get an online shopping platform for their business without any investment.
While this is an ideal option for businesses to test their ideas in the market, it is also important to note that the more a design is used by different eCommerce businesses, the more common it becomes.
To elaborate, it becomes challenging for users to differentiate one brand from the other in cases when both brands are using similar web designs. This can be a major setback for your eCommerce business and can lead to its failure, as the users will not be able to tell apart your brand from your competitors.
Here, businesses need to implement strategies that set them apart from their competitors and enable them to have the upper hand in the market. The only way to achieve this objective in a Shopify website is to customize the website’s design instead of using readymade ones. In the upcoming section, we will discuss everything that we need to know about custom Shopify development.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Shopify Theme Customization
Custom Shopify development is the process of handcrafting your eCommerce platform’s design and writing code for your website. This approach gives businesses more control over their website and helps them deliver a high-end user experience.
Advantages
Unique Brand Identity
Brand identity is one of the most important aspects of every organization. It is essential for a brand to have a unique identity in order to create a distinguished market position. In the case of eCommerce websites, this identity is often the platform’s design and theme.
It is commonly known that it is challenging, almost impossible, for a brand to create a unique brand identity by using readymade designs. This is because there is a high chance that the design you are using has also been used by another platform. This can be especially bad for businesses dealing in same types of goods, as the buyers will often be confused between the two brands.
However, by customizing your Shopify website’s design, you can significantly distinguish your brand from that of your competitor. A custom design enables businesses to create websites that represent their individual ideas and concepts; and align with their niche. This makes investing in custom web design a billion-dollar idea for eCommerce businesses.
More Control Over Website’s Appearance
Today, most e-retail businesses operate digitally with no physical presence. As a result, these businesses must utilize their eCommerce platforms (websites and mobile applications) to their fullest to make the best impression on the customers.
However, e-retailers that use readymade Shopify themes often lag in this aspect as there is very little they can do about the website’s appearance. For example, for well-recognized brands and companies, their website is a representation of their ideas and objectives. This objective is often challenging to achieve with readymade designs that work on pre-set themes and color schemes.
On the other hand, custom Shopify design enables businesses to get more control over their website’s appearance. This appearance can be in terms of the website’s architecture, functions, navigation, element placement, color scheme, etc. A business can modify the design as much and as little as it wants to and create a unique first impression on the users that compels them to buy the listed products.
Increased UX
We discussed earlier that user experience is undoubtedly the most important component of eCommerce. Delivering a high-end user experience is often the key to succeeding in the eCommerce sector.
This high-end user experience requires a design that is in alignment with the latest consumer trends and preferences and enables them to shop for the desired goods online with ease. However, it is a commonly known fact that websites made with a readymade Shopify theme often lag in this aspect.
Speaking factually, websites made with readymade themes, regardless of the web builder used, are known to have a low-quality user experience.
However, a business can easily overcome this challenge by customizing the design and creating one with the best UI/UX practices. To elaborate, the custom design enables businesses to craft user interfaces that are in alignment with the latest market demands and facilitate seamless online shopping.
Moreover, the idea of a user-friendly design varies from one industry to another. Therefore, it is almost impossible to deliver a high-end shopping experience to your users with a readymade design, which is made with a ‘one size fits all’ interface.
High Functionality
Design functionality is a complex phenomenon and a widely demanded factor among website owners. A functional design is one that facilitates seamless navigation throughout the website while also giving it a sophisticated and appealing look. Naturally, the more complex a website’s design is, the less functional it will be and the more challenges your users will face while navigating your website.
However, in order to get the most optimal design functionality, it is essential for a website owner to go for custom design and development. While certain Shopify designs are indeed functional and easy to navigate, it is not mandatory that these designs will be in alignment with your business’s niche, therefore making them an irrelevant option.
Therefore, if you are an eCommerce business planning to create a Shopify website, it is in your best interest to go for custom designing to beat the competition and gain the upper hand in the market.
Drawbacks
High Development Time
It is commonly known that design and development are two of the most time-consuming stages of the web development process. As a result, businesses that lag in time availability often choose to go for readymade designs.
This is because creating a website design from scratch and coding the platform can take a lot of time depending upon the type of features you wish to integrate. The developers have to manually write the code, whereas in readymade Shopify themes, coding is automated in the background according to the drag and drop of elements.
Therefore, if you are a business looking to create a Shopify website in less time, it might be the best idea to go with readymade themes. However, if you do have time for your web development project, custom design and development is the best option.
Cost-intensive
In countries like the US and Canada, the hourly rates of hiring a developer are soaring high, with experienced developers charging as much as $150 per hour. When multiplied by the hours your Shopify website development project will take, the final cost of custom Shopify design and development can turn out to be economically unfeasible for many businesses.
On the other hand, using readymade Shopify themes is a DIY approach to development and requires no additional human resources. As a result, the deviation between the price of the two approaches (custom development and web builder) is very high.
Therefore, readymade themes are ideal for businesses on a low budget, while custom Shopify development is ideal for businesses with a slightly higher budget.
Potential Increase in Load Time
Load time is one of the most important aspects of every website. A high load time can not only degrade the user experience but also negatively impact the website in terms of search engine ranking. As a result, it is in the best interest of your website to minimalize load time and ensure optimum UX and rank on the search engine.
However, it is a commonly known fact that customizing a Shopify website’s design can often result in an increased load time. This is especially the case when an inexperienced designer and developer are working on the project, as they are usually unaware of the importance of optimizing the load time of the website.
Here, you must conduct thorough QA testing after your website’s development and ensure minimal load time of the platform.
We are sure that by now, you would have understood that custom Shopify website development is a better option than going for readymade themes. However, if you are worried about the above-discussed drawbacks of the concept, let us tell you that it is possible to overcome them with ease. Keep on reading and find out how you can get a custom Shopify website without facing these challenges.
How to Efficiently Customize Shopify Store Themes?
If the drawbacks of custom Shopify web development have compelled you to abandon the idea of design customization, we suggest you hold back your thoughts for just a little longer.
We have a solution that will enable you to get a custom Shopify website with less time-to-market, economic viability, and high performance. This solution is outsourcing website development to a design and development agency.
Development outsourcing is one of the most popular approaches to building a digital product and enables businesses to get a high-end website with minimal capital investment and in less time.
These development agencies are essentially a complete team of business analysts, designers, developers, and QA engineers. Having a complete development team enables these development outsourcing agencies to deliver cost-efficient solutions in less time, therefore making it feasible for businesses of all scales and sizes to get a custom Shopify website for their platform.
Final Thoughts
Developing a Shopify website is one of the best options for brands to take their business digital and sell their goods online. This option enables businesses to benefit from rapid platform launch, therefore cutting down on time to market and facilitating seamless eCommerce.
As an e-retail business, you can choose to either use readymade Shopify designs or customize your design as per your preferences. This choice will largely impact the success rate of your platform, as user experience, platform performance, and business scope varies from one option to the other.
Therefore, we recommend you carefully weigh the pros and cons of each approach and choose the one that fits your requirement. This way, you are certain to create an eCommerce platform that aligns with your business objectives and fulfills your digitalization requirements.