What Shopify is and why it's different
Shopify is a SaaS (software as a service) ecommerce platform. Instead of installing software on your own server and maintaining it, the brand pays a subscription and uses the platform as Shopify provides it, and Shopify takes care of hosting, security, backups, updates and the capacity to handle peaks like Black Friday.
That's the main difference from PrestaShop, Adobe Commerce (Magento) or WooCommerce, which are open-source platforms: they give total freedom, but every update, module or traffic peak is the responsibility of whoever runs the shop.
On Shopify, the core isn't touched. What gets adapted is the design, the apps and the integrations. For most brands that's an advantage: less maintenance and less technical risk.
The pieces of a Shopify store
A Shopify store is easiest to understand through its four pieces. Knowing them helps you see where each decision sits and whom to ask for each change.
- The admin: the panel where you manage products, inventory, orders, customers, discounts, reports and markets.
- The theme: the store's design. You start from a Theme Store theme or a custom one, and edit it with sections and blocks without touching code.
- Apps: extra features from the Shopify App Store (reviews, subscriptions, loyalty, search, marketing) or private apps built for the brand.
- The checkout: the payment process, run by Shopify. It's one of its most optimised pieces and the one with the biggest impact on conversion.
What day-to-day work looks like
A product is created with its title, description, images, variants (size, colour) and price. Collections group products manually or automatically according to rules, for example “all products tagged summer”.
Orders arrive in the admin with their payment and shipping status. From there they're prepared, marked as shipped or connected to the warehouse or logistics provider. Returns and refunds are also handled from the order.
Shopify Markets lets you sell in several countries from the same store, with languages, currencies, prices and domains per market. Shopify Flow automates repetitive tasks, such as tagging customers or alerting you when a product runs out of stock.
Integrations with ERP, warehouse and marketing
A mid-sized brand doesn't live in its shop alone: it has an ERP, a warehouse, a CRM and marketing tools. Shopify connects to all of them through its APIs and its app ecosystem.
Typically the ERP is the source of the catalogue, stock and prices, and Shopify sends back orders and customers. In projects like Colvin we integrated warehouse management with the store, and at Toskani, the catalogue, prices, stock and orders with their ERP.
Before migrating, it's worth listing every system, what data it sends and receives, and how often. This is where projects get most complicated and where good planning pays off most.
When Shopify fits and when it doesn't
Shopify is a very good fit for brands that sell to consumers and want to grow without depending on an in-house technical team, with several markets, subscriptions or physical retail. It also works for B2B within the same store.
It may not be the best option if the business needs to change how the platform's core behaves, for example a very particular pricing or catalogue logic, or if transaction costs don't add up with the business model.
At Webimpacto, as a Shopify Partner, the first thing we do is review those edge cases. If there are none, Shopify is usually the option with the lowest total cost and the fastest to launch.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to pay for Shopify?
Yes. It works on a monthly subscription ranging from the Basic plan to Shopify Plus for enterprises, plus payment fees and any apps you subscribe to. Each plan's price is on Shopify's official pricing page.
Can I migrate my shop from PrestaShop or Magento to Shopify?
Yes. Products, customers, orders and content are migrated, and old URLs are 301-redirected so you don't lose rankings. What doesn't migrate as is are the modules: they are replaced with apps or custom development.
Do I need a developer to use Shopify?
For day-to-day work, no: products, orders, discounts and content are managed from the admin. You do need a technical team for custom design, ERP integrations and features that apps don't cover.
We’ll tell you what we would do in your case, no strings attached. A real person from the team replies.
Head of technology at Webimpacto. He leads the development teams that build, migrate and maintain shops on Shopify, PrestaShop, Adobe Commerce, VTEX and WooCommerce.