How To Use Shopify In South Africa [Pros and Con]

In today’s post, we’ll be discussing how to use Shopify in South Africa and everything you need to know about the eCommerce platform. 

If you like, at the end of the post, you’ll be able to set up and run a successful Shopify store in South Africa from the comfort of your home. 

So basically, we’ll be discussing the peculiarity of Shopify in South Africa, its pros and cons and if Shopify is available in South Africa for eCommerce sellers.  

We’ll also touch the areas of Shopify payment in South Africa, that is, how you can receive payments on your Shopify store in South Africa if you choose to sell with Shopify South Africa. 

These and more are what we are going to be discussing in this post, and if selling from South Africa on Shopify interests you, I want you to stick around to the end of this post. 

Let’s get started, shall we? 

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that makes it easy to launch your dream business and start selling to your customers.

It’s a complete solution for entrepreneurs who want to easily build their own online store, with no technical skills needed.

Shopify is one of the best-known eCommerce platforms and has become the most popular choice for online stores.

It’s a large e-commerce hosting platform headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and has exploded over the past decade.

It has become a staple for online retailers around the world, being present in South Africa also.

There are several Shopify websites in South Africa reaping the benefits of gaining a self-hosted, easy-to-navigate platform for their online brands and this number is expected to grow. 

Is Shopify Available in South Africa?

Yes, Shopify is available in South Africa. Online sellers in South Africa can now use the Shopify platform to sell their products (both physical and digital) online and offline.

Shopify has partnered with top payment providers in South Africa to facilitate payments from buyers and make it easy for sellers to sell to their target audience.

Buyers can pay in their local currency using their preferred payment gateways, making it easy for merchants to get paid or cash out their payments.

How Does Shopify Works In South Africa? 

As we mentioned earlier, Shopify is basically good for newbie entrepreneurs that are just getting started with the eCommerce business.

You really don’t have to know the specifics to get started with Shopify in South Africa.

To use Shopify in South Africa, all you have to do is sign-up for a free Shopify account, and the Shopify wizard will take you through the whole process.

To start using Shopify in South Africa, you’ll have to have a product you want to sell. Once you have that, upload your product pictures, the shipping order and as well as the product quantity.

Your product image has to be of good quality.

The Shopify platform supports two popular ways of selling online. The first is having your product inventory yourself and the other is through dropshipping

Who Can Use Shopify in South Africa? 

Basically, any eCommerce entrepreneur in South Africa can use the Shopify store to sell their products online. 

So technically, depending on what brand or niche you focus on around physical or digital products, Shopify can be your safe haven.

below are samples of what you can use your Shopify store to sell online, (Both physical and digital products) 

• Fashion
• Art
• Jewellery and Accessories
• Electronics
• Foods
• Memberships
• Home and Garden
• Furniture
• Sport and Recreation
• Toys and Games
• Service appointments
• Craft
• Books
• Consultations
• Quotes, estimates, and assessments
• Rentals
• Donations
• Event tickets
• Digital gift cards
• And much more… 

Shopify Pricing In South Africa

You should know that the cost of selling with Shopify each month varies based on how many products you sell and other tools needed to run it successfully.

However, before choosing any plan, you have a 14days free trial to test the platform. You can do this just to get familiarised with the platform and see what works and what don’t.

Shopify cost in South Africa comes in different plans.

• Shopify Basic costs $29 monthly (and 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction)
• The Shopify plan cost $79 monthly (and 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction)
• Advanced Shopify cost $299 monthly (and 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction)

Another thing you should know about the plan is that – you get a 10% discount on any plan you choose if you pay straight for a year. And a 20% discount if you pay straight up for two years.

You can purchase additional pricing packages or another pricing package for your Shopify store. They include:

• Shopify Lite lets you sell on an existing website, and costs $9/month
• Shopify Plus is designed for enterprises, costing $2000/month

Note: while Shopify does charge credit card fees as well as transaction fees on your sales, it’s actually possible to remove the transaction fees altogether if you use Shopify Payments, Shopify’s own payment system.

But this, however, is limited to a handful of countries. 

Please also note that there is no charge to manual payment methods on your Shopify store such as cash on delivery or bank transfers.

Shopify Payment Gateway In South Africa

With Shopify, you can receive payment or process your payment in two different ways. This includes:

Shopify Payments or
External Payment gateway. (For specific countries)

Other than this Shopify has several other different payment gateways.
If you want to sell internationally and receive payment in dollar equivalent you can either use Shopify Payment, PayPal or Stripe.

Shopify Payment is the company’s payment processor.

The Shopify Payment processor only charges credit card fees, which is basically for collecting your money for you from your customers.

The charges for Shopify payments are more similar to PayPal rates. They charge from 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and it goes lower as your sales go up.

Secondly, if you are selling within South Africa, you are most likely to receive payment in local currency, for this you have to use a third-party payment processor available for South African residents.

How To Sell on Shopify in South Africa

Building your website and choosing a theme is just the first step of using Shopify effectively. There are many more ways to use Shopify to its fullest advantage.

Now that you’re ready to sell with Shopify, you have to actually sell your product and service.

Selling is the process of marketing products online, and it includes everything from marketing, advertising, order management, shipping, and more.

Using social media and SEO (search engine optimization) is extremely important if you want to attract new customers to your Shopify website. They work together, so use both to your advantage.

You can maximize your SEO potential by including accurate product descriptions and other content that has relevant keywords.

It takes a bit of time to build up some momentum, but eventually, you’ll start to see a few new visitors to your site.

Marketing through Shopify is similar to doing any online advertising, however, you get a few more tools to help you through the process.

Shopify offers multiple features to help you get the word out there about your online store.

You can use different Shopify marketing apps such as Facebook channel and SEO Suite to post on social media and track your analytics and SEO.

Many apps are actually free and can be used effectively to create great marketing and advertising campaigns.

How To Add Products in Shopify

https://youtu.be/Qks-MlwP6c4

Adding product images to your online store gives life to it.

This allows your customer to see what your product looks like. It’s very important to upload a good quality product image.

Adding a product image:

To add a product image is very simple. You just have to take your time and really understand how it works. What you have to have to do is head over to your Shopify dashboard and click the product tag.

This will allow you to set all related data to your product.

The next step will give you an edit page where you can easily add the product details.

Filling in the title and description will show your customer what the product is all about.

Furthermore, Under the above icon is a place to upload your image which can also be done through drag and drop.

The next thing to do is to add your pricing details to your product. From the image below you can see several options.

Finally, you can set if you want the product to be online immediately for your customer to see. After this, click the save button and your product will be online.

Shopify Themes and Designs

The themes from Shopify are so good because they have an eCommerce design that’s just so stylish!

They have hundreds of sophisticated themes, so you’ll definitely find your store taste there.

Additionally, you should know that all the themes are optimized for desktop, mobile and tablet views.

Furthermore, after choosing the theme you will like to go with, you can easily tweak it to look exactly the way you want it.

The following are worth customizing:

• The colour
• Adding your company logo
• Homepage appearance

To change your theme, go to the page “Themes” in your dashboard and choose a different theme from the theme

You have many Shopify themes to choose from that can be revised to match your brand and the image you want your store to portray.

Using a Shopify theme does not mean your website will look like the rest, it’s just a foundation you can build your brand on without needing to start completely from scratch.

It’s part of the reason why Shopify is so easy to use – you don’t need to be a web developer to create an attractive website for your brand.

Pros and Cons of Shopify eCommerce Platform

Let’s explore both their strength and limitation when it comes to selling with the popular Shopify platform.

Pros

• Speed
• Hosting
• Website Builder
• Free themes
• Security
• 24/7 Support
• App Store

Cons

• Shopify Payments (Limited to certain Countries)
• Expensive
• Payment gateway limitation

Shopify In South Africa: Summary

The Shopify platform is perfect for any complete beginner or even professional that would love to sell online with the Shopify platform.

Shopify has full 24/7 customer support regardless of your pricing plan. Their support is available always to any paying customers.

So put simply, there’s everything you need to run your store successfully on the Shopify platform. Plus the platform is completely SEO optimized.

If you’re still not certain about the Shopify platform, what I’ll suggest you do is try out the platform with the 14days free trial and see how the platform works.

If you’re not satisfied, all you simply need to do is cancel, and this way everybody walks home happy.

That’s everything about Shopify South Africa, if you have any questions let’s hear them using the comment section.