For small to medium sized businesses, there are a few options for getting your product online, including Volusion, BigCommerce, and Shopify. So why use Shopify? The answer is simple -- it's better! Though all of the providers provide similiar services, Shopify does a better job of integrating them all together, and it also offers more features for a better price!

Review

When considering where to host your online shop's presence, the number of features that you have access to is an important factor. Below is a list of features that you can get from all of the hosts that I previously mentioned.

• Great looking website templates
   
• • Each platform offers lots of templates to get a great looking online store set up.
     
• Ease of set up
   
• • You have an online shop to run, so you don't have time to muck about managing and maintaining your web presence. All of the providers make it easy to build your shop and be up and running in minutes.
     
• Shopping cart and payment processing
   
• • Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion all provide robust shopping cart and payment processing options. All offer credit card payment processing, as well as dozens of payment gateway features.
     
• Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
   
• • If your products aren't listed near the top when someone does a generic seach, your website will probably be overlooked. Each of the services provides excellent marketing and SEO tools.
     
• Inventory management and POS
   
• • A key component of any store is the ability to accurately track and monitor inventory and sales, and each of these service providers offer excellent inventory and POS systems.
     

Why Shopify?

You're probably wondering, if all of these services offer similar features, why would you want to use Shopify? It's not the least expensive of them, after all. (though it's not the most expensive either)
 

Here's what sets Shopify apart

• Mobile Shopping Cart
   
• • Shopify's mobile shopping cart allows you to put your store into your users' hands, wherever they are. And with tonnes of responsive themes available, your customer's can access your store from any device.
     
• No limits
   
• • With even their basic plan, Shopify offers unlimited bandwidth and an unlimited number of products in your store. The competitors impose either limits or transaction fees on their plans.
     
• Accessibility and Configurability
   
• • Compared to the competition, the web designer and store manager offered by Shopify is both the easiest to use, and the most configurable. With the flip of a switch you can go from administering your shop to viewing it as one of your customers would see it.
    
    Another great feature is how Shopify enables web designers to easily offer their designs to clients directly through Shopify's interface. What this means is if you want to get a completely custom and unique storefront professionally built, Shopify makes it extremely easy for your web designer to get you up and running in a flash!
     
• Security
   
• • Security is always at the forefront of online shoppers' minds (at least, I hope it is!), and a particularly great feature that only Shopify offers is providing you a secure shopping certificate. Shopify's competitors require you to either purchase one for almost $100, or go out and buy your own and then incorporate it into their system. 
    
    Shopify makes this otherwise technical process simple--and cost-free!

Good Recommendations Summary

Shopify offers top-of-the-line features at a competitive price, and with various price levels available, it's easy to get your online store quickly running for whatever you can afford. 

Still not sure? You can give the service a try for FREE for 14 days. I definitely recommend that you check Shopify out.