From year to year in Singapore the retail sales are increasing very slowly, in some months it’s even decreasing slightly. As the retail store owner, you have to think more on acquiring new customers with the marketing campaign. You know well that customers are switching the shopping behavior to the online world. The purchase decision might happen in both places: your retail store or online through an e-commerce store. In this blog post, we’ll review how Shopify might help business based in Singapore (SG).

 

Outlines

• What is Shopify?
• Shopify Theme - your storefront look
• Shopify Apps - extend your Shopify store functionality
• The Learning curve. How to get started quickly?
• Shopify Point Of Sale (POS). A great retail solution.
• What if you need some custom work with Shopify Store?
• Shopify Singapore experts
• Meetups with ecommerce experts in Singapore?
• Shopify payments is available in Singapore
• Shopify pricing plans for Singapore market
• Wrapping up. How much to open Shopify store in Singapore?

 

What is Shopify?

Shopify is merely the “e-commerce platform” that help you sell online, in social media, in-store or around the world :). It’s like “all in one package” solution that easy to use and help you focus on your business. Starting from $29 which is equally $S39 based on xe.com site, you can have the functional e-commerce store with an included payment gateway. You don’t have to worry about the security, hosting part, and other stuff because Shopify already covered you.    

When it comes to building the online store, there might be some thoughts with the complexity of execution. To create the online store, you’ll need to cover two parts of a system. The layout of your storefront which you’ll need to pick the right Shopify theme, and functionality part of your store with Shopify apps.

Shopify Theme - your storefront look

With Shopify themes, you can easily find both free and paid themes directly from the Shopify Themes marketplace at https://themes.shopify.com/. The Shopify premium themes cost from $120 (~$S163) up to $180 ($S245). The navigation of the theme store is done well with categorizing themes by industries such as Clothing & Fashion, Furniture, Health & Beauty, Electronics, Food & Drink and other.

 

In the case, if you want to find the alternative non-official Shopify themes, there is the marketplace called ThemeForest and independent Shopify partners. SellerSmith Team also released and distribute Shopify theme called SalesHunter and following the Shopify coding standard.

 

Shopify Apps - extend your Shopify store functionality

Moving forward with 2,400+ Shopify apps marketplace you can find the essential addon from the functionality point of view to your e-commerce store. The quality control of the apps is top notch with a strict multilevel and careful check. With such workflow rest, assured you’ll get a quality extended functionality to your Shopify store. In this marketplace, you can find both free, paid and free to premium model Shopify Apps. Plenty of choices will give you full freedom with choosing the best solution to fit your business.

 

Now, let’s get back to the Shopify platform itself. You’ll have to spend time on learning Shopify itself and how to use it. Thanks to Shopify because of the massive library of Shopify educational material.

 

Shopify Learning curve. How to get started quickly?

If you’re familiar more with video content, so there is Shopify Youtube channel is the excellent starting point. You can find plenty of video tutorials via official Shopify channel.

 

If you’re looking for more text / image-based content like How To / What type articles drop a visit to Shopify help center at https://help.shopify.com/ You can find a lot of useful, short and exact answers on your questions.

 

Shopify Point Of Sale (POS). A great retail solution.

You’re running the offline retail store. Customers can reach you both offline and online, so how to keep the inventory and synchronize between your Shopify store and your retail store? Thanks to Shopify because you can solve this problem quickly with Shopify POS at https://www.shopify.com.sg/pos

 

Below is the short video introduction

 

If you’re interested to learn more about it just watch the webinar about Shopify POS.

 

Take an action. Where to buy Shopify POS hardware in Singapore? You can directly at https://www.square.sg/pages/shopify-pos company located in 10 Anson Road #09-19, Singapore 079903. Drop a call to check the items on availability with phone number +65 6524 1850.

 

What if you need some custom work with Shopify Store?

When it comes to the brand, you surely know that the customization work is required and need to hire professional freelancers. The Shopify partners ecosystem is a quite broad and you can find the trusted partner to work. Looking at freelance marketplaces in the Shopify niche there is Shopify Experts marketplace, Heycarson.com, Taskhusky.com, and ShopHelper.io. 

Besides, for the low-cost Shopify work setup, you might consider Fiverr.com as well.

 

HeyCarson is worth to mention Shopify service provider with quality services output for a reasonable price. The payment structure is built by “tasks” which is quite flexible and convenient.

 

Hang on, but I’m in Singapore… so if there is any agencies, partners or experts knowing Shopify and can provide support?

 

Shopify Singapore experts

When it comes to the local agency and consultation, there is the name Jumpstart popup in my mind. These guys are the official Shopify Expert, and you can find them on Shopify Experts marketplace as well. In Singapore, you can see seven certified Shopify experts covering different jobs from Shopify Basic up to Shopify Plus merchants. Depending on your budget and needs pick the best to fit your needs.

 

Before contacting Shopify experts, you might be looking for more insights with the ecosystem or discovering Shopify platform itself. In that case, I’d recommend you to participate in Shopify meetups.

 

Shopify Meetups in Singapore?

Just last week by July 4, Shopify organized the local meetup at WeWork co-working space. Jumpstart Shopify Expert team participated in the event and shared valuable lessons with the community. The community here is a quite robust and if you’re around Singapore get in touch with Sarah Tan, Shopify International Partner Manager.

Image Source: JumpStartcommerce

 

Another way to connect with Shopify merchants around the world is Shopify Ecommerce University Forum. Discussions are raised from merchants and Shopify partners. When I started my Shopify journey about 2 years ago, the first place I have found was Ecommerce University forum. When you create the account there, you’ll receive the weekly newsletter from Shopify Forum team with hot trending topics in the ecommerce.

 

Shopify payments is available in Singapore

By October 25, 2017, Shopify officially announced Shopify Payments are available in Singapore! This is excellent news since with Shopify payments; merchants can easily accept the credit card from customers. The credit card rate is a quite competitive and you can focus now on another part of the business.

The alternative Shopify payment methods might be PayPal, CyberSource, Payment Express and other. You can learn more about payment solutions for Shopify at https://www.shopify.com/payment-gateways/singapore  

 

Shopify pricing plans for Singapore market

You can find the detailed pricing structure directly at https://www.shopify.com.sg/pricing.

There are the three main Shopify packages called Shopify Basic, Shopify, and Shopify Advanced. For enterprise merchant level there is Shopify Plus plan. If you’re just getting started, I’d recommend you to give a try with Shopify Basic plan. Later on, you can upgrade easily to higher Shopify plans with the price adjustment. Shopify supports well such billing cycle flow. 

The Shopify pricing plans for each market is different, so in the case when you open the Shopify store in Singapore, please pay attention to the credit card rates. There are different rates between Singapore and International/Amex cards.

 

To save the money with Shopify, you can subscribe for a yearly plan. Additionally, there are two years and three years plans available to choose. You’ll save from $S49 up to $S356 with Shopify.

 

To learn more about which plans to choose for your Shopify store read the full Shopify plans review at our blog.

 

Wrapping up. How much to open Shopify store in Singapore?

Let’s do a quick math and outline expenses you’ll need to cover: 

• Shopify subscription plan: $S39 - $S407 per month.
• Learning Curve with Shopify: your time.
• Shopify Expert / Partner services: $S50 - $S1,400.
• Shopify Theme: $S0 - $S245 one time.
• Shopify Apps: $S0 - $S140 per month.

 

Let’s do some final math and refine numbers again. So open the store living in Singapore will cost you around $39 :) if you’re just getting started and invest the time in learning Shopify and the system itself to build your store. With help, Shopify partner just added up around $S150 - $S200. In the case, you decide to use the professional Shopify theme, and I recommend you to do that, add up $S250. The theme matters because it’s your storefront and showcase your brand identity. In short, you’ll need to invest around $S500 in opening the store. 

To keep in mind the important thing that there would be two type of costs. The first cost is when you set up and launch the store and when you are running the store. The second cost is related to the monthly base. Monthly cost usually comes from Shopify subscription and Shopify apps. So it varies and depends on your apps needs to make your store serve your audience.

The last, but not least is you need to take into account that the cost is just for launching Shopify store not taking into account the expense with marketing and acquisition customers like running ads via Facebook, Google, or other paid channels.

 

Now, it’s your turn and take an action with 14 Days free trial with one of Shopify plans.