Shopify Features List for Growing and Scaling Your Store

Why Understanding the Shopify Features List Matters for Growth

Summary

• Shopify offers over 100 features across sales channels, inventory management, marketing, analytics, and developer tools.
• Core features include an online store builder, Shopify POS for in-person sales, built-in SEO tools, and access to 8,000+ apps.
• All plans include unlimited products, bandwidth, abandoned cart recovery, fraud analysis, and 24/7 support.
• Advanced features include multi-currency selling, the Shopify Fulfillment Network, and AI tools like Shopify Magic and Sidekick.
• Shopify serves over 2.4 million live stores across 175+ countries with $1 trillion+ in total sales.

The shopify features list is a set of tools for building an online store that can grow with a business. Shopify provides specific functions for managing multi-channel sales, international shipping, and customer communication, which helps businesses handle operational complexity.

Key Shopify Features at a Glance:

• Online Store Builder: Drag-and-drop editor, 213 themes (free and paid), mobile-responsive design
• Sales Channels: Shopify Checkout (15% higher conversion), Shop Pay, Shopify POS, social media integrations
• Operations: Centralized admin, unlimited products, automated inventory tracking, order management
• Marketing: Built-in SEO, Shopify Email (10,000 free sends/month), discount codes, customer segmentation
• Shipping: Discounted rates (up to 88% savings), label printing, Shopify Fulfillment Network
• Analytics: Real-time dashboards, sales reports, finance reports, fraud analysis
• Global Selling: Multi-currency, multi-language support, international domains via Shopify Markets
• Developer Tools: APIs, Liquid, Hydrogen framework, Metafields, 8,000+ apps in the App Store
• AI & Automation: Shopify Magic for content generation, Sidekick AI assistant, Shopify Flow
• Security: PCI compliance, SSL certificates, built-in fraud detection

I'm Steve Pogson, founder of First Pier, a Shopify Expert Agency in Portland, Maine. Over two decades, I've worked with brands like Wyman's Blueberries and Hyperlite Mountain Gear to implement and improve their use of the shopify features list to increase sales and efficiency. Below, I'll explain each major feature category and how to apply them to specific business needs.

Shopify Features List: Related Topics

• shopify advanced features
• shopify ai features
• how does shopify work

Core Platform & Storefront Builder Features

Shopify's core platform provides the necessary tools to build and manage an online store. When you sign up, you get access to the Online Store Builder. My experience shows that the quicker a store can be launched, the faster the business can start learning from its customers.

The Theme Store is the starting point for storefront design. It offers a wide selection of themes, including 213 designs (200 paid and 13 free options), covering various industries. These themes include built-in features like predictive search. You can explore online storefronts to see what's possible.

The drag-and-drop editor allows for customization without coding knowledge. This means you can change layouts, colors, fonts, and content to match your brand's aesthetic. Mobile commerce readiness is a key part of the platform. My team focuses on mobile responsiveness for all our clients, as mobile commerce accounted for almost 80% of e-commerce site visits and 66% of online orders in 2023. Shopify themes are designed to function correctly on any device, which helps businesses make sales to mobile shoppers.

All Shopify stores include custom domain support and web hosting, which means you do not need to set up and manage your own servers. Plus, you get unlimited bandwidth, so you never have to worry about your site slowing down during traffic spikes, no matter how many visitors you have.

Creating a Custom Storefront

With Shopify, you get full storefront customization. The platform is designed so that you typically don't need coding to build a store. Shopify's theme editor gives new merchants the tools needed to launch quickly.

For those starting out, Shopify offers many free themes. These templates allow you to get started fast with industry-specific designs that you can customize. If you are looking for different visuals or more customization options, the paid themes offer more choices.

Every Shopify plan includes brand asset management, so you can keep your logos, colors, and other branding elements consistent across your site. When building your store, you'll focus on key pages:

• Homepage: Your homepage should state what your brand is about and what makes it different from competitors. Many customers start their shopping journey with a quick Google search, so your homepage needs to be direct and informative.
• Product Pages: These pages are important for sales. I always advise clients to structure product pages with a clear hierarchy of information, starting with details like photos, descriptions, price, and a clear "Buy" button.
• Collection Pages: For stores with many products, collection pages help organize items. For large inventories, filtering on these pages helps users narrow down results.
• About Page: This page helps customers understand your brand's mission and story.
• Blog Functionality: Shopify includes built-in blog features, allowing you to share content and improve your store's search engine presence.

Here at First Pier, we frequently help our clients improve their ecommerce UX design, ensuring their custom storefronts are effective at converting visitors into customers.

Sales Channels: Online, In-Person, and Beyond

Shopify supports omnichannel selling, allowing you to sell products wherever your customers are and manage everything from a single platform.

At the heart of online sales is the Shopify Checkout. This system is designed for speed and reliability, and it converts 15% higher on average than other commerce platforms. A key part of this is Shop Pay, an accelerated checkout option that stores customer information for faster future purchases. This is important because the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.99%. To address this, Shopify offers built-in abandoned cart recovery, which automatically sends emails to customers who leave items in their cart without completing a purchase. This feature can help you recover a portion of otherwise lost sales. You can check who has abandoned their carts directly from your Shopify admin.

For businesses with physical locations, Shopify POS is a key feature. It allows you to sell in-person and keep sales, inventory, and customer data connected to your online business. You can explore Point of Sale (POS) to see its full capabilities. Shopify POS offers unlimited POS logins across all main Shopify pricing plans, which allows staff to process sales. It also integrates with various hardware, such as cash registers, barcode scanners, and receipt printers, to create a retail hardware setup. From my perspective, uniting online and offline sales is important for a consistent customer experience. Here at First Pier, we offer Shopify POS implementation services to help businesses integrate their in-person sales.

Beyond your online store and physical locations, Shopify also supports other sales channels:

• Social Media Integrations: Sell directly on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, reaching customers where they spend their time.
• Marketplace Selling: Integrate with popular marketplaces to expand your reach.

Shopify Features for Operations & Marketing

Shopify provides a centralized admin panel where you can manage all aspects of your business. This includes order management, customer profiles, and more. With the Shopify mobile app, you can run your store from anywhere, allowing you to check orders, update products, and respond to customers on the go.

Shopify also uses AI to help with certain tasks. Shopify Magic is an AI-powered suite that helps with content creation, marketing, and customer support, such as generating product descriptions or marketing copy. Additionally, Sidekick is an AI-powered virtual assistant that offers real-time business information and tips for managing your store. These tools are designed to save time and help you make decisions based on store data. If you're interested in making your operations more efficient, we can help with Shopify automation services.

Inventory, Shipping, and Fulfillment

Inventory management is a central part of any e-commerce business. Shopify provides tools to handle this, starting with unlimited products on all plans. You can track stock levels, set up low stock warnings, and manage purchase orders for vendors. The system automatically updates inventory across all your sales channels as items are sold, returned, or transferred, which is a benefit for businesses selling both online and in-person.

When it comes to getting products to your customers, Shopify Shipping helps manage the process. You can explore Shopify Shipping to see how it can simplify your logistics. Shopify Shipping partners with major carriers like USPS, UPS, and DHL, offering discounted rates on shipping labels—you could save up to 88%. This feature also allows you to print labels directly from your Shopify admin.

For businesses looking for more extensive logistics support, the Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN) handles order fulfillment, returns, and product storage. While Shopify doesn't natively support dropshipping or print-on-demand, its App Store offers many integrations for these business models. Here at First Pier, we also provide Shopify shipping optimization support services to help you find better rates and improve processes.

Marketing & Customer Engagement: A Shopify Features List

Attracting and retaining customers is important, and Shopify provides a shopify features list for marketing and customer engagement.

Built-in SEO tools help your store rank higher in search results, making it easier for customers to find you. This includes optimizing meta titles and descriptions, and automatic sitemap generation. 44% of consumers begin their online shopping journey with a quick Google search.

Shopify Email allows you to create, send, and monitor email marketing campaigns directly from your admin. You can send 10,000 emails each month for free, no matter which plan you're on. This is a tool for communicating with potential and existing customers.

To encourage sales, Shopify includes discount codes and gift cards. You can create various promotions and even combine discounts. Customer segmentation allows you to group shoppers by their purchase history or other attributes for specific marketing campaigns. For influencer marketing, Shopify Collabs connects you with influencers for affiliate campaigns.

My team at First Pier often helps clients with email and SMS marketing services, building marketing plans that are designed to increase sales.

Analytics, Security, and Global Sales: A Shopify Features List

Making decisions based on data is important for growth, and Shopify provides analytics and reporting capabilities. The analytics dashboard gives you real-time information on sales, orders, and online store visitors. You can also generate detailed finance reports and product reports to understand your business performance. Here at First Pier, we use ecommerce analytics and analysis services to interpret this data for our clients to inform their business plans.

Shopify includes multiple security features. It is PCI compliant and provides SSL certificates for all stores, ensuring customer data is protected. It also includes fraud analysis with Shopify Payments, which automatically flags potentially fraudulent orders, helping you avoid chargebacks and financial losses.

For businesses looking to expand globally, Shopify offers several features. Shopify Markets helps you adjust the store experience for different regions. Multi-language support allows you to translate your store content, and multi-currency support enables you to display prices in local currencies. Shopify Payments allows you to sell in multiple currencies, simplifying international transactions. This global capability, combined with international domains, helps you reach customers in over 175 countries where Shopify merchants operate.

Extending Functionality and Scaling Your Business

While Shopify offers many built-in features, its functionality can be extended. The Shopify App Store is a marketplace where you can find applications for many business needs. With over 8,000 apps available, you can add specialized features, integrate with other platforms, or automate workflows. You can explore the Shopify App Store to find tools for everything from marketing to customer loyalty programs.

For those with specific development needs, Shopify offers a set of developer tools. The Shopify APIs allow for custom integrations and functionalities. Shopify's open-source programming language, Liquid, is used for customizing your store's themes and integrating microservices. Developers can learn about Liquid to create different store designs.

Shopify also supports headless commerce with its Hydrogen framework and Oxygen global hosting solution. This allows developers to build custom storefronts and deploy them for fast page loading. You can explore Hydrogen & Oxygen if you're looking for a highly custom, performance-focused setup. Additionally, Metafields allow you to extend Shopify with custom fields, letting you store structured information about products, customers, or orders that isn't covered by default fields.

For high-volume merchants and enterprise-level businesses, Shopify Plus offers an even more extensive shopify features list. This includes advanced customization options, dedicated support, and higher API limits. My team at First Pier specializes in Shopify Plus optimization services, helping larger brands improve their operations.

Understanding Shopify Plans & Benefits

Shopify offers various pricing plans, each designed for businesses at different stages of growth. While specific pricing details are available on the Shopify website, it's important to understand the features included. You can view pricing plans to find the right fit for your business.

A main benefit is that certain features are on all plans regardless of the tier. This includes:

• Unlimited Products: You can list as many items as you want without restriction.
• Unlimited Bandwidth: You won't be charged based on website traffic or file uploads.
• Brand Asset Management: Centralize your logos and branding elements.
• Fraud Analysis: Built-in protection with Shopify Payments.
• Manual Order Creation: Create orders directly from your admin.
• Discount Codes: Offer promotions to customers.
• Custom Pricing by Market: Set different prices for different regions.
• Abandoned Cart Recovery: Automatic emails for incomplete purchases.
• Analytics and Finance Reports: Essential data for business insights.

This set of features provides a functional starting point for an online business. Shopify's structure means you can start small and upgrade your plan as your business grows. A main benefit is that you typically don't need coding skills to get a store up and running.

Support is always available, with 24/7 customer service ready to assist you. The platform is built with security measures, including PCI compliance and SSL certificates, protecting both you and your customers.

Overview of Shopify Plan Feature Differences (Conceptual):

To Sum Up

The shopify features list includes tools for businesses at different stages of growth, covering product display, sales, shipping, marketing, and analytics.

My experience working with businesses in Portland, Maine, and beyond has shown that correctly applying these features is important for meeting business goals. Here at First Pier, we provide services to help brands build and operate their online businesses on Shopify. If you need assistance with your e-commerce store, you can learn more about our award-winning Shopify e-commerce agency.