COG Branding is an experienced reliable Shopify Website Development Agency located in Sydney. Our Shopify website developers are eCommerce specialists.
Many small businesses come to COG Branding with a variety of creative and digital briefs. A common breif we are asked is how to set up a small business website. There are a few options, and Shopify is a great place to start and a regular software product we introduce to our clients.
What is Ecommerce?
Let’s begin with a general definition of Ecommerce. Ecommerce is short for “electronic commerce,” and is any business or commercial transaction conducted electronically. Ecommerce is most well-known as the process of buying and selling physical or electronic items online. Some day-to-day examples of ecommerce include online retail shopping, auction sites like eBay, trading goods and services between corporations, and online banking.
The Shopify websites we design, develop, host and maintain are clients and businesses that choose to partner with COG Branding because we are a trusted Australian website development agency located in Sutherland Shire, Sydney. We have a team of in-house Shopify Developers and they’re ready to meet and consult on your eCommerce requirements.
Our Sydney Shopify website developers deliver a full service solution for Shopify websites that covers strategic briefing, agile development processes, technical scoping, front end UX Website Design, custom website development and Shopify Website aftercare.
We know you want a Shopify Developer that is affordable, communicates clearly, and understands the Shopify Liquid language and e-Commerce. Plus, you’d like a digital expert to offer solutions for better performance in Google, UX, and solve hosting, email and domain issues. Trust COG Branding – the Small Business Shopify Website Experts.
Small to Medium sizes brands choose COG branding as their Shopify website development partners as we’re a SME focused, located in Cronulla, Sydney and provide a broad range of Website Development Agency services and products. providing SME’s first class BigCommerce website development solutions. Our full team are in our web development studio during business hours, we’re client facing and happy to join the briefing process and client discussion.
So firstly, what is Shopify?
Shopify is a website that allows people to buy and sell physical goods, services, and digital products over the internet rather than at a brick-and-mortar location. Through an e-commerce website, a business can process orders, accept payments, manage shipping and logistics, and provide customer service. Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify is the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Shopify allows merchants to sell anywhere they want and unites all sales, customers, products and business data within a central platform. Many sellers build an online store on Shopify, then add other sales channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, a brick-and mortar store or in-person mobile sales.
Shopify has integrated with dozens of payment gateways, but also offers its own which is powered by Stripe. If you choose to use this you will not incur any transaction fees plus you will benefit from lower credit card fees. It also doesn’t require a merchant account to use. There are three main types of e-commerce: business-to-business (websites such as Shopify), business-to-consumer (websites such as Amazon), and consumer-to-consumer (websites such as eBay)
What Are Shopify Themes?
Shopify Themes are the templates our merchants use on their ecommerce stores. Every month thousands of business owners download these templates — many of which are created by our partner community. Shopify offers a couple of free eCommerce templates of their own, which you can find on their theme site though mostly the better themes are paid for.
Most of the Shopify themes allow customization. You can tweak changes in colors, font, layout, navigation, etc., to your liking. If you need help with customization, a Shopify developer like COG Branding can help you with that. It’s cheaper to have our Shopify website developers tweak the website than to build it from scratch. A new Shopify theme can run you anywhere from zero to a few hundred dollars, with certain customizations costing even more. There’s nothing wrong with choosing a free theme, especially if you’re just starting out, but paying a little extra for a premium theme is a great investment in the long run. Often we start with a theme our clients like, the we build modifications on top of the original Shopify theme.
Whether you’re ready to take your Shopify store design to the next level, are just getting started, or your current theme just isn’t cutting it for your scaling brand anymore, there are plenty of awesome Shopify themes to choose from. Shopify currently offers hundreds of themes listed on sites like Theme Forest and Template Monster to choose from that aren’t affiliated with Shopify or other ecommerce platforms if you wish.
While there are tons of theme options for you to choose from, there will be times where you need something that’s more customized for your business. Luckily, you can create a Shopify theme from the ground up with COG Branding or customize an existing theme to create one that fits your brand – we’re a leading Sydney Shopify Development Agency so get in touch anytime.
What Are Shopify Plugins?
Shopify plugins (also known as Shopify Extensions, like Magento Extensions) are software add-ons that you can install on your Shopify website. These add-ons let users expand their online store with additional features and functionalities. Shopify extensions can help store owners improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, collect more leads, and much more Shopify offers thousands of different plugins in the Shopify app store, and over a thousand of them are completely free. That’s great news for store owners, because it means you can automate a number of the tasks you do on a daily basis.
The Shopify app store contains over 6,000 apps and plugins that enhance the capabilities of the basic platform. Installing the right Shopify plugin can add functionality to your eCommerce website such as improve your SEO and SERPs and enabling complex digital marketing functionality, help simplify store management, assist in backing up your website, manage your inventory and organizing the content on your site. Shopify apps have features that make managing your store a seamless experience for you.
The paid and premium Shopify apps and plugins offer a range of solutions such as search engine optimization (SEO) to client portals used to display private information to logged-in users, eCommerce and inventory management connectivity. Not all available Shopify Apps are appropriate and they may not function properly or may not function at all, plus with a US Dollar fee, our Australian dollar often doesn’t see value with the product based on the cost of softwares against profit margins. These sorts of scenarios are what COG Branding Shopify developers will assist you with.
How Is Shopify Different To BigCommerce?
Shopify and BigCommerce are both subscription-based e-commerce platforms that help businesses of all sizes, from sole traders and store owner operators to large international brands. Both platforms offer the ability to upload and manage unlimited products, file storage and bandwidth on all their plans along with online storefronts, points of sale, online sales channels, customer support and gift cards.
Both platforms are similarly priced, however, BigCommerce offers more built-in features while Shopify offers more than 8,000 paid and free third-party apps in its app store. Because BigCommerce is more feature-rich, those features are scalable, requiring a steeper learning curve. Shopify tends to suit larger brands, though BigCommerce seems to be better for very large stores that are only selling online. Both platforms offer tailored, powerful solutions, but BigCommerce is equipped to handle larger scale omnichannel growth.
The pricing is similar for both platforms. For $29 per month, Basic Shopify includes a buy button, an online store with two staff accounts, an online credit card processing fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents and up to four inventory locations. For $29.95 a month, BigCommerce Standard plan provides similar features with the exception of unlimited staff accounts. While Shopify charges a 2% transaction fee when users do not use Shopify Payments, BigCommerce does not have a transaction fee.
There is often a debate between BigCommerce vs Shopify: a showdown between two ecommerce giants. Shopify powers over 800,000 online stores. It’s up to the business the brand and the owner of the store COG Branding tailor all our technology Solutions to the business and client brief. We don’t push the business to change to suit the software.
Both platforms allow beginners to build a beautiful online store. For true website building novices, Shopify is easier to use, making it a go-to choice for beginners. One of the reasons BigCommerce is such a powerful e-commerce builder is that it offers built-in tools that require a learning curve. Shopify, on the other hand, is fairly reliant on its app store, making its basic platform more user-friendly for beginners.
Heard enough?
COG Branding are expert Shopify Website developers for small to medium businesses. Get In touch Today (02) 9523 6007.
Connecting Brand to Business via Shopify Websites
COG Branding is a Sydney technology solutions agency with an approach that transfers knowledge to business and brand stakeholders with the goal of increasing client side intelligence. We know this assists the success of the broader businesses digital transformation process. Part of the COG Branding small business technology service suite is to provide aftercare that maintains the investment and achieves ongoing performance.
The Shopify Website solutions that COG Branding agency delivers our clients perform because they deliver against the brand objectives while connecting to the core business offer and supporting its digital function and purpose on the internet.
All COG Branding CMS Shopify Websites are built to enable easy administrator access for multiple users of different levels of security, and enable easy content updates. Our Sydney web design agency receives all types of web design briefs from different clients and businesses such as Shopify medical, pharmaceutical, industrial, FMCG, small business, action sports brands, building and construction, athletes, musicians, charities, events, sports clubs, clubs, pubs, restaurants, bars and many more.
What Is The Shopify Website Design and Development Process?
COG Branding are experts in the Shopify Development Process, and it starts with our proven Seven Steps To Success. As professional Shopify development experts we lean into our Shopify design process to ensure the outcome for all our website development projects are controlled and achieve project success at go live.
The COG Branding Website Design and Development Process follows a rigorous 7 step method, that results in your own unique website. The steps include:
- Site Architecture
- Wireframes
- Website Design
- Staging Server
- Content Upload
- UAT
- Go Live
The COG Branding approach is to work closely with our clients, collaborate with Digital Marketing and Creative Design teams if required to ensure the relationship during development and during aftercare is well serviced with clear communication. Our process is second to none, below is an elaboration on what each of the steps involve in detail.
Site Architecture
The Site Architecture is the hierarchical structure of your websites pages. This structure is reflected through internal linking. The focus is on the user and on user requirements, considering web content, the business plan, usability, interaction design, information, and web design. It also considers the navigation system of the website.The Site Architecture helps users easily find information and to help search engines, primarily google to crawl and index the site, as well as understand the relationship between different pages.
Wireframes
The Website Wireframes work inline with the Site Architecture. They are a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of the website layout. They depict which interface elements will exist on key pages and are purposely built without colour to establish the functionality and structure of the website. The wireframes ensure that the website will be built to meet the primary business objectives.
Website Design
The Website Design is responsible for the visual aspect, which brings together the layout from the Wireframes, now including colour, logos, images and any iconography. We most commonly only design the home page as these design elements and styling will be applied across the rest of the website design. The delivery includes both desktop and mobile views to display how the website will function on both devices.
Staging Server Development
A Staging Server is a type of server that is used to test a software, website or service in a production-similar environment before being set live. It is part of a staging environment or staging site, where it serves as a temporary hosting and testing server for any new software or websites.
Content Upload
The Content Upload stage of the website process works inline with the Staging Server. This step involves bringing across all the text content from the Wireframes, as well as any images and iconography, which are either supplied from you or we create/source online. We may ask to work with you at this stage to fulfil content in areas that we can’t make up e.g. a History or FAQs page.
UAT (User Acceptance Testing)
UAT (User Acceptance Testing) is a thorough process in the last phase of the website process. This process is anything from a button linking to the correct place to a form submitting to the client’s email. We go through the site and test that everything is working and functioning as it should when the website is live. We follow a strict UAT process and review everything to be inline as per the previous deliverables (Site Architecture, Wireframes, Website Design).
Go Live
Once you’ve reviewed the staging server site and approve go live, we do what’s called a soft launch. This is simply taking the website live and letting it sit for 1-2 weeks—no marketing, no email deployments to let people know the website is live. It is critical to let this sit a few weeks to let Google crawl and index the website, this also gives us more space to make critical website updates should there be any more requested.
Aftercare
All WordPress websites from COG Branding are deployed with aftercare and warranty. We’re here in support and pride ourselves on our service and ability to ensure our small business clients get value from their digital assets and learn how to manage their own technologies.
Read enough?
Head over to the COG Branding Shopify Website Case Studies to review some of our projects that have used Shopify in their small to medium business to get results. View Projects Here.
What Types Of Businesses Use A Shopify Website?
Bottom line: Shopify is one of the top e-commerce performers because it offers a dependable combination of features, applications, and integrations. The platform is highly customizable and scalable while at the same time being extremely secure. And all small Australia businesses can appreciate that. Shopify is an eCommerce super power. There is nothing that limits Shopify from what type of business can benefit from this type of technology.
Our website designers are located in Sydney based Shopify website developers, all Liquid Themes website development experts delivering Shopify designs and websites for hundreds of COG Branding‘s clients. Their mandate is to make it easy for any business no matter what the size or industry achieve success online via a Shopify CMS Website.
The CMS solutions that COG Branding deliver our clients perform because they deliver against the brand objectives while connecting to the core business offer and supporting its digital function and purpose on the internet. While all businesses are unique, as are business owners, the fundamentals that a business needs form online marketing such as SEO, reliability, mobile optimisation and security for example is all the exact same. Is your business one of the below?
- Needing a Shopify website for a Medical business?
- Need a new Shopify website for a restaurant?
- Need a new Shopify website booking system solution for a nutrition company?
- Upgrading an old website for a hotel?
- Want to create a Shopify Website for a Surfing Product?
- Ideas for Small Business and SMB Start Up Websites?
- The Best Website Shopify for a Construction Company?
Shopify Website Design
The COG Branding Shopify Website Developers include UX Designers that are focused on designer first class user experiences across mobile, desktop and device environments for your Shopify website. COG Branding deliver innovative UX design solutions that are focused on delivering dynamic and intuitive user journey’s that consider Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and user engagement. Our UX (user experience design) approach provides positive user experiences and build brand equity.
All our Shopify website developments and website designs considering the key function of the website page itself. From looking to convert digital marketing leads via a basic form or to contain rich media and brochureware content – we’ll make sure that the design satisfies function. To ensure this happens all our projects begin with an extensive briefing process, no matter the business type or client requirements. Our experienced project managers ensure our clients understand the project, the process and all the required technical items to ensure the project begins and ends in a smooth professional and swift manner.
Responsive Design
Responsive web design or responsive design is an approach to web design that aims to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes from minimum to maximum display size to ensure usability and satisfaction. We make sure that our Sydney Australia based website developers build websites that are responsive for Mobile and Tablet. This covers, iPad and iPhone devices, and Android Tablets and mobile phones such as Samsung Galaxy, Surface Pro and Google Pixel.
Mobile Responsive Website Design is also when the layout and/or content responds or adapts based on the size of screen they are presented on. A responsive website automatically changes to fit the device you’re reading it on – just like the one you are on now.
Responsive web design is important because essentially, responsive design is a way to put together a website so that it automatically scales its content and elements to match the screen size on which it is viewed. It keeps images from being larger than the screen width, and prevents visitors on mobile devices from needing to do extra work to read your content. COG Branding are focused on CRO (Conversion rate Optimisation) and responsive Shopify web design is key to this.
All our website developments and website design projects begin with an extensive briefing process, no matter the business type or client requirements. Our experienced Cronulla based project managers ensure our clients understand the project, the process and all the required technical items to ensure the project begins and ends in a smooth professional and swift manner. We have a comprehensive briefing process and also an extensive hand over process that gets any Shopify Website Development off the ground on the right foot for our Australian clients. We Make it Easy for our Local Clients!
Need More Information on Design?
Head over to the COG Design Here.
What Technology Is Right For My Business?
Confused where to start with the technology available for your small business? Allocate 3 minutes to our solution builder and we’ll point you in the right direction. Start Here: https://cogbranding.com.au/technology-solutions/what-technology-is-right-for-my-business/
Our Sydney Shopify website development team are focused on building websites and provisioning softwares that are common sense for our clients. While Shopify is a single type of software, it integrates with hundreds of other CRMS, Email Marketing softwares and social media. So we know it’s our job to ensure that we approach all our clients business problems with a global solutions discovery process. We don’t expect our clients to understand how to get their Shopify website to function with the Stripe Payment Merchant or Paypal account , that’s for sure. And that’s why small businesses love COG Branding – we’ll do this for you!
We have a comprehensive briefing process and also an extensive hand over process that gets any Shopify Website Development off the ground on the right foot for our business partners. While your email solution might not be part of the Shopify development brief, the website will be using SMTP protocols to send and receive emails form the website, and we’ll end up talking about it at some stage. It’s examples like this that ensure that as Shopify Partners we are reviewing more than just the immediate Shopify instance, but also the myriad of softwares and technologies plugged into and running alongside the website itself.
LiveTeam
LiveTeam is the online support service for small business, and the COG Branding LiveTeam support desk is provided to all our website hosting and development clients to ensure we have swift and responsive service for you during and after the Shopify development project. LiveTeam takes the responsibility to support our clients with at-call online support via the LiveTeam online service portal. LiveTeam is also available for businesses on a subscription model that can be tailored for your own business and client/customer requirements.
eCommerce Website Hosting
When it comes to ecommerce platforms, there are a few standout leaders. Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce are all well-known and well-loved options. But which one is the best solution for your business? Many clients struggle with understanding the digital space as it moves so quickly. And, many SMB business owners ask themselves the question of what technology is right for my business. Our management of website hosting services is logical and made by a common sense approach. We know that advanced technology and software solutions require smart humans to guide and manage the implementation into the business itself, though we also ensure that the decisions we make on behalf of our clients needs to be transparent and easily understood by our customers.
Ecommerce hosting pertains to a web hosting platform that serves an electronic commerce website, which includes features such as payment processing services, security initiatives, SSL, shopping cart software and more. There are many ecommerce web hosts to choose from. The right one depends on your sales volume, traffic, site size, budget and experience with web development. When you rely on your website to deliver your income, you need to start by selecting the right host.
Software updates and security fixes for devices are released all the time, but people often forget to treat their websites with the same care and attention. BigCommerce sites are regularly neglected after launch as many developers move on from their client after the project is finished with little acre for proper aftercare procedures. With only 50% of installations running the latest releases – meaning that more than 125 million sites are vulnerable.
More than 30,000 websites are hacked every day, often due to a lack of regular maintenance. When not cared for properly, websites are far more vulnerable to hacking loss of function and even going down with a loss of all data. COG Branding align with the best hosting partners to ensure we can provide the best performance and security.
Shopify Hosting
Shared hosting is the most popular type of hosting for Shopify stores. It’s also the most affordable, starting at just $9 per month. With shared hosting, your store will be hosted on a server with other websites. This means you’ll have to share resources like bandwidth and CPU power with other stores.
Shopify hosting is generally very fast. Even if your shop scores low compared to other Shopify stores, it’s still hosted by Shopify and is therefore faster than the average ecommerce experience. It’s like having the slowest JetFighter on the Aircraft carrier. Shopify was the first hosted ecommerce website solution to use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a large network of servers placed across the world to ensure your customers can load your website store quickly, no matter where they are. The Shopify CDN is operated by Fastly, one of the most reputable CDN companies.
Digital Marketing For Shopify Websites
Our SMB clients come to us for many brand marketing services, and developing a marketing plan for your small business is a regular brief for us, and common for any client needing a Shopify website. As a leading Sydney full service digital marketing agency, COG Branding supports all our clients with online and offline digital marketing solutions, alongside the Shopify website development projects. There are many cross overs in digital marketing the a Digital producer will do in their daily routines that involve digital marketing such as SEO, SEM, Email Marketing, CRO, Analytics and other third party software integrations. The COG Branding team are experts at providing support and service for Technology Solutions surrounding business development.
COG Branding builds our customers their Shopify website and some clients remain with us on a support program for Digital Marketing such as the Velocity Marketing Support Program. Our focus as a digital marketing agency is primarily owned media, though we also understand a core function of digital marketing is to drive leads and interest via paid performance marketing. Here the synergy in what COG Branding delivers is of high value to small to medium businesses in Australia.
Part of our aftercare in developing a Shopify website drifts into the digital marketing space in areas such as indexing at Google search. Part of our Shopify website projects is to ensure Google is indexing the website via Search Console and the sitemap is neat and tidy. Our websites are built and launched to achieve immediate inbound search engine traffic by being submitted and optimised for Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. So we also include our customers a Google Analytics account which can be used later on for traffic management and insights on user behaviours.
Shopify DropShipping Marketing
Firstly, some context. Drop shipping is a form of retail business wherein the seller accepts customer orders without keeping stock on hand. If you choose the right niche, implement a proper small business digital strategy and constantly improve your customer support, dropshipping will be the most profitable business model to run. COG Branding are experts at Shopify DropShipping Store Marketing and provide a full service dropship marketing service suite for our Shopify website clients.
How does dropshipping works step by step?
- Seller signs agreement with dropshipper.
- Customer orders online.
- Seller receives order.
- Customer receives an order confirmation.
- Seller forwards the order to dropshipper.
- Dropshipper ships the order.
- Customer receives their product.
Our leading Sydney digital marketing agency has a team of professional marketers specialising in paid performance marketing across Google Ads and Social Media that connect your online business to your targeted customers. You may ask where can I market a drop shipping websites? Both Facebook and Google are great choices to advertise your dropshipping business and increase sales. Google ads target people who are actively looking to buy something or get information about it, while Facebook ads target people based on their interests.
A COG Branding Shopify Digital Marketing Program is built to perform and ensure your Shopify Digital Asset wins online and stands out from your competitors. When the Scope of Work includes Digital Strategy, COG Strategy provides superior digital strategy supporting Digital Marketing that is required by your project.
All our Shopify dropshipping store marketing solutions make sure that the marketing message and strategy is at a premium, and it supports your Shopify Store today and in the future. If you’re a small business with a Shopify website store and need to get your store generating real customer sales, you’ll need to understand both the consumer market and what they’re looking to buy, where they live, how much they want to pay for shipping and what they want to expect to pay for your products.
The typical dropshipping commission rate is between 15% and 20%. The commission rate is the percentage of revenue from each sale that you pay out to vendors, the sales team, or another party for driving sales. For many ecommerce website owners the prospect of spending your time and money on managing your inventory is a real deal breaker. If you create an ecommerce store which uses a dropshipping business model, you’ll never need to carry any inventory, but you’ll need to focus on your marketing!
We deploy Digital Marketing programs that strategically communicate the key elements that differentiate your Shopify business and brand from the next. We know the fast pace of the Dropshipping and Shopify ecommerce is competitive and tough. Our digital marketing strategies are proven for a variety of other industries and that’s why we’ve transferred our digital marketing experience to Shopify ecommerce Marketing businesses.
Your website should perform and connect seamlessly with social media and email marketing, plus support the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Our Shopify Dropshipping websites are also built and launched to achieve immediate inbound search engine traffic by being submitted and optimised for Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
COG Branding agency truly understands our role us to make life easier for our ecommerce entrepreneur clients, so we offer a ultimate Shopify dropshipping marketing support to ensure our customers start their own journey in ecommerce successfully. Our team of professional Digital Marketers specialising in Social Media Marketing and Google AdWords Marketing that connect your online business to your targeted customers.
COG Branding understands what you require from your digital marketing strategy, performance marketing and how important the accurate management of branded digital activities is for any small Australian business and brand.
Why choose a COG Branding Agency Sydney As Your Shopify developer?
Our focus is local and our offer is to build lasting partnerships, so together we can learn about each others businesses position – customer and supplier. These relationships generate quality digital suites that become a key part of business equity, and when supported become efficient and deliver a more sustainable business model. Here we know our services increase margin and mitigate risk that simple decreases operating expenses.
We’re an Australian owned Shopify website development company that has worked with a global roster of clients for over 10 years, and our success has come from hard work, a true Aussie work ethic and from this our business has grown to achieve a strong referral network that we are proud of. Your business can also achieve project success, if you need a quality and reliable digital website agency – look no further!
We lead as a specialist Sydney small business digital marketing agency, providing innovative and astute advice on what online marketing activities will work best for your business, and how it will build brand equity. Importantly, we assume it’s our responsibility to ensure your digital brand assets, channels and platforms are managed and performing to their highest potential.
As a leading Sydney Shopify website design company our focus is towards delivering performance Shopify engines that are eCommerce workhorses for our clients brands and products. We know inventory needs to be walking out the door and stock needs to be turned. COG Branding understands your Shopify Website will have Google Ads and Facebook Campaigns driving performance marketing leads to your website and the business demands measurable growth and results.
We’re a website development company has years of Shopify Website development experience through the many digital projects our website design agency has delivered to clients across Australia and the world. We have a firm understanding that the most successful businesses are the ones tapping the power of connectivity within their digital marketing and digital asset stack to achieve growth, sustainability and security. COG Branding will ensure that the Shopify template or custom design stimulates your customers to take action, become brand advocates and refer them to their network. COG Branding is all about nurturing a sustainable future for all our clients Shopify and eCommerce business assets.
