Everyone is in agreement. Shopify is the most popular e-commerce solution. Many merchants migrate from platform like Woo commmerce, Prestashop or Magento. Some even migrate from an in-house solution.
But what we don't say or say little about are the weak points of Shopify. Here are a few. To know them is to know how to circumvent them. Shopify itself is aware of this, and is working on its weak points.
Internationalization
Shopify database is blocked. You cannot add a table or a column. When filling in the product title and description, you must choose a language.
The solution today is to use applications like weGlot or translate and adapt in order to translate all the content of the site and return the language to the user in front.
When using information systems to create or update product sheets, it is complicated to also update the English version, for example. The applications offer automatic translations but need to be revised. They also offer imports, but it is therefore necessary to multiply the flows.
We hope that one day we will be able to use the local themes folder to fill in all the wording in each language and that each object (article, blog, collection, product, page) will offer the wording in as many languages as desired.
GDPR
Shopify didn't care too much about it at first, but with its European market getting bigger and California having a similar law, Shopify improved a few things.
First, Shopify strengthened its apps. Since apps can have access to a lot of data, it has automated requesting access and deletion of data upon user request.
It has also created a feature to block the deposit of cookies before the user's authorization. Shopify blocks all shopify cookies as well as pixels installed in the shopify back office as a sales channel or in the online store settings.
She also just created a new tool called pixel, which I call shopify tag manager. So that apps or user can drop pixels under cookie blocking functionality.
The problem is that to date the end user cannot choose which cookie to accept and which cookie to reject. Mandatory according to GDPR.
speed and seo
Loading speed is at the heart of Google criteria to be well referenced. There are still a lot of scripts that hamper the loading speed of shopify themes (although you can still achieve very good results with a little work). Last year, Shopify launched Hydrogen, a framework for creating headless sites and having control of all the elements to load. We will talk about it in a future article.
Shopify has also just acquired remix, a utility that allows you to load the content of the next page even before clicking on a link. See what they're going to do with this technology - apply it to shopify themes or the back office that's lagging every now and then.
For 18 months, we can create a txt robot and have control over which pages are offered to Google robots. The site map is always automatic, however we can only offer an html site map.
Despite its defaults, Shopify remains the best solution. She is always working to improve herself in continuous integration and to open new APIs.
If you have questions or are hesitant to get started, watch our YouTube channel, read our blog or contact us!
Link to our YouTube channel: Tranzistor Shopify agency - YouTube
