Trying to find the right ecommerce platform is a little like online dating and searching for your future partner. Lots of choices, but hard to tell which one is the right choice for you.

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And with an ecommerce platform, you don’t get the benefit of “dating” for an extended period of time to see if your needs and interests are compatible with what they have to offer. You usually have to make a commitment after a two-week trial period with most Ecommerce platforms.

Even if you have a detailed checklist of “must haves,” two weeks is not a lot of time to determine your compatibility issues.And even if your ecommerce platform is compatible with your needs now, will it be able to grow with you as your needs change or will you grow apart?

I’ve had a chance to experience using several Ecommerce platforms in my business  and, just as with a spouse, no system is perfect. But some are much better than others and Shopify  is one of those that are MUCH better than other systems.

In yesterday’s blog post, I wrote about 2 of the key reasons why I am thrilled that I chose Shopify for my Ecommerce platform. Here are two more:

3 Everyone has jumped on the mobile reader bandwagon since The Square released it. Although other vendors tried to get me to use their mobile reader, I stayed loyal to The Square —-until Shopify came out with their mobile reader.

The Shopify mobile reader has the advantage of syncing with my Ecommerce website so I can manage my entire business from one dashboard. And when I add products or update inventory on one side of the system, it will instantly update across the board.

I have over 600 products that I sell on multiple platforms — online, in store and trade shows. Keeping track of the inventory (even though a lot of my products come through drop-shippers) used to be a challenge before I switched to Shopify.

It used to be so frustrating and time consuming in situations where I sold the last one of an item in my retail store but forgot to update this on my website. Then I would have another customer place an online order for this product. They then become irate because the product is showing in stock and I’ve taken their money, but I am sold out of the item. The Shopify mobile reader takes care of that.

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Note: I do have one beef about the Shopify mobile reader. The company gives you only one free reader and then you have to purchase additional ones at $19 each.  That sucks because you always want to have a least two (one for a back up) and you want even more if you travel to trade shows (one in your bag and one to leave at the warehouse). By comparison, the Square provides free mobile readers and I don’t think they have a limit on how many you can get.

4 Shopify understands that I am a small business owner not an analyst. So I appreciate that they provide a quick snapshot of my important analytics right in my dashboard.

And it is presented in a very user-friendly format. Their analytics are more detailed and accessible than the ones I had before from other Ecommerce platforms and are MUCH easier to digest than google analytics.

The dashboard has quick snapshots on top products, top search engines, top referrals, number, etc.

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of visitors and more with the ability to easily drill down for more information with the push of a  button. And their dashboard is easy to read on your phone, tablet or desktop.

While is isn’t directly related to analytics, it does relate to getting key information quickly: I love receiving Shopify text alerts on my phone when I have an online sale.

Also I just got Tomorrow I will address two pet peeves that I have with Shopify that I wish they would change.

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