Shopify is the most powerful ecommerce platform available right now. If you are considering moving over to the platform, now is the best time. Shopify is a great option for stores in Taiwan or China, as many use local legacy options that don’t have international sales in mind. I’ve moved from one platform to another – I know it’s painful, but the earlier you do this the better, as it will only get worse.
Overview
There are a myriad reasons why you should switch over, but here are the top 3:
- App Store (https://apps.shopify.com/) – No other platform has an app store growing as quickly as Shopify’s.
- Shopify’s connectivity – With their growth, the number of sellers they have has become important to other ecommerce sites, such as Walmart and Facebook.
- Shop Pay – Shopify’s own payment system, Shop Pay, which is becoming the leader on Shopify, and now spreading into more websites
We will explore each of these points in detail below.
App Store
The Shopify App Store has a huge number of apps to be used on your store. As of today, there are 5800 apps, and the number is increasing daily. It reminds me of the iOS app store in 2008. There are apps for email marketing, connecting your Pinterest account, add product reviews, and live chat. There should be something for most of your needs. Here are a few specific Shopify apps for Taiwan and China:
- Taiwan invoice (store link). All purchases in Taiwan require the Taiwan government’s invoice, called the Unified Invoice (wiki article). This app will allow that to be created with an invoice
- Taiwan convenience store pickup (store link). This also users to set a pickup point at 7-11, FamilyMart, or HiLife
- Translate your page (store link). Translate the store for whatever language the user has set in their browser
- Chinese ERP Dianxiaomi (store link). Allow a connection with the popular ERP software Dianxiaomi (店小秘).
Shopify’s Connectivity
When you create a store on other platforms, the products stay there. With Shopify, you can take the products to other platforms, by simply installing apps. Here are the larger ones:
- Facebook – Connect your catalogue to Facebook. This allows you to start a store there, which you cannot do with any other platform.
- Google – You can have your products show up in Google Shopping, for free, with the Google channel app.
- Instagram – Using the same app as Facebook, you can bring your catalog to Instagram
- Amazon – There are many 3rd party apps that will allow you to connect your catalog to Amazon. Note that this are mostly paid apps.
- eBay – Connect your store to eBay through the official eBay app
- Walmart – Sell directly on Walmart.com with their in-house integration
Shopify brought most of the above partners on in just the last year. They are likely working on more now. I expect to see integration with other large retailers, as well as expanding what they have with Google (through YouTube and Search).
Shop Pay
The most important payment tool on Shopify is Shop Pay, a tool to allow easy shopping. Enter in your address and credit card data one time, and Shop Pay will save it for you for future purchases. Shopify claims it leads to a 1.72x in conversion rate.
The main features:
- One-tap checkout
- 0% interest on payments that are split up
- Carbon offsets on shipping
- High level of security
In Asia
Getting paid while using Shopify is where it gets difficult for stores based in Taiwan or China. There are payment providers for both countries, which you can find here:
Taiwan Shopify payment providers – https://www.shopify.ca/payment-gateways/taiwan
China Shopify payment providers – https://www.shopify.ca/payment-gateways/china
At Synkun we can also assist with accepting payments, and our fees are lower than that of these payment providers.
If you want more information on how we can help – please contact us.