Shopify is a cloud-based (SaaS) e-commerce platform used on a subscription basis, developed by Shopify Inc., which is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. It lets you open an online store under your own brand, manage your products, orders, stock and customers from a single admin, and sell both online and in a physical shop.

Renting servers, installing software and keeping up with security updates are Shopify's job; you focus on your product, your marketing and your customers. At Booster Wizard we are an official Shopify Partner, and in this article we answer the question “What is Shopify?” from the point of view of a business owner selling in Türkiye.

Short Definition: What Does Shopify Do?

Put simply, Shopify offers everything an e-commerce site needs as a ready-made package: store design, a product catalogue, a basket and checkout, order management, reports and marketing tools. According to Shopify's own figures, the platform was released in 2006, and today millions of businesses in more than 175 countries sell with Shopify. As you grow, what changes is not the platform but the plan you choose and the features you add to your store.

How Does Shopify Work?

Think of Shopify not as buying software but as subscribing to a service. When you open your account, your store starts running on Shopify's servers and you are given an address ending in myshopify.com; if you like, you connect your own domain. The main parts of the system are:

  • Online store: the storefront where your customers browse, look at products and add them to the basket. It runs on mobile-friendly themes.
  • Admin: the back office where products, stock, orders, customers, discounts and reports are managed. It can also be used from your phone with the Shopify app for iOS and Android.
  • Themes: the templates that define how the store looks. The Shopify Theme Store has free and paid options, and the theme code can be fully customised.
  • Apps: add-ons installed from the Shopify App Store that give the store new features. Product reviews, loyalty programmes, shipping and invoicing integrations are added this way.
  • Checkout: the step, built into every Shopify store, where the customer enters their address and payment details.
  • Shopify POS: a point-of-sale app that runs on iOS and Android devices. It brings physical shop or event sales together with the online store on the same product and customer data.

Hosting, the SSL certificate, security and platform updates are managed by Shopify. The sitemap (sitemap.xml) and the robots.txt file are also generated automatically.

What Can You Sell on Shopify?

Shopify is not tied to a particular sector; it is used in very different fields such as fashion, cosmetics, food supplements, home décor and electronic accessories. What you can sell can be grouped roughly as follows:

  • Physical products: with up to three options such as size, colour or material, and up to 2,048 variants per product.
  • Digital products: downloadable content such as e-books, templates, audio or video files, and online services.
  • Gift cards: cards customers can buy for themselves or as a gift.
  • B2B sales: wholesale selling to dealers and business customers with dedicated catalogues and prices; the scope depends on the plan.

You can show your products not only on your own site but also on sales channels such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google, and manage the orders from these channels in the same admin. Each channel has its own eligibility requirements, so these should be checked before setting it up.

Shopify's Key Features

As a business owner, these are the main features that will make your day-to-day work easier:

  • Unlimited products and hosting: plans have no limit on the number of products, and web hosting is unlimited.
  • Marketing tools: discount codes, email campaigns, customer segments and abandoned checkout reminders come ready in the admin.
  • Reports: ready-made reports and custom analytics that track sales, customer and product performance.
  • Online Store 2.0: editing pages with sections and blocks without writing code, and adding extra product information with metafields.
  • Shopify Markets: selling to different countries from a single store, in local languages and with market-specific prices.
  • Sidekick: Shopify's commerce-focused AI assistant built into the admin.

The platform does not stand still either: in its Editions announcements, published twice a year, Shopify introduces more than 150 updates at a time. New features become available in the same admin without the need for a version upgrade project.

Can Shopify Be Used in Türkiye?

Yes. A Shopify account can be opened from Türkiye, the admin can be used in Turkish, and Shopify's pricing page for Türkiye states that 24/7 support is offered in Turkish. You can publish your store in Turkish and sell in Turkish lira. Even so, there are a few important details you should know:

  • Payments: Shopify Payments is not available for Türkiye-based stores. Card payments are collected through local payment providers such as iyzico and PayTR, and the instalment and 3D Secure flow is planned during setup.
  • Currency: because Shopify Payments is not available, orders are processed in the store's default currency, which is Turkish lira (TL). Market-specific price adjustments for markets abroad can still be made.
  • Shipping and e-invoicing: domestic carriers and e-invoice/e-archive integrators are connected through apps or a custom integration.
  • Physical shops: although the Shopify POS app can be used, Shopify's integrated payment hardware is offered only in certain regions, so in-store payments need to be planned separately.

For every need without a ready-made app, such as marketplaces, ERP, accounting or dealer rules, we develop a brand-specific app on Shopify's APIs. The article in which we explain why we recommend Shopify to Türkiye-focused brands: Why Shopify for brands selling in Türkiye?

How Do Shopify's Plans Differ?

Shopify offers plans at different levels: Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Every plan includes the online store, checkout, unlimited products and the core marketing tools; as you move up, capacities such as the number of staff accounts, inventory locations, reporting and the level of support increase.

An important detail for Türkiye: when you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify charges a transaction fee that varies by plan, and this rate is lower on higher plans. Your payment provider's own commission is paid on top of this. Because prices change over time and are shown in US dollars on Shopify's page, we recommend checking the current amounts on the official page. The article in which we go through the plans and the total cost item by item: Shopify prices and plans

Shopify's Advantages and What to Plan For

These are the main reasons we recommend Shopify to our clients:

  • Scalable infrastructure: a store starting out with a few products and a brand handling heavy campaign traffic run on the same infrastructure.
  • Design freedom: you can start quickly with a ready-made theme or shape the theme code entirely around your brand.
  • A large ecosystem: there are thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store and many developers and agencies working with Shopify around the world.
  • Ready for growth: you can increase capacity by upgrading your plan and expand abroad from the same store with Shopify Markets.

On the other hand, the following points need to be planned from the start:

  • App costs: many apps charge a monthly fee, and these fees should be included in the budget on top of the plan fee.
  • Local payment set-up: the payment provider application, instalment options and the third-party transaction fee should be clarified before setup.
  • Fixed URL structure: on Shopify, addresses follow patterns such as /products/, /collections/ and /pages/; when moving from another platform, old addresses should be linked to their new equivalents with 301 redirects.
  • Legal texts: pages such as the KVKK (Turkish data protection) notice, the distance sales contract and the returns policy should be prepared specifically for your business.

Who Is Shopify Right For?

The short answer: almost any brand that takes online selling seriously. Shopify is a particularly good fit for these businesses:

  • Start-ups opening their first online store that do not want to deal with technical infrastructure.
  • Brands whose sales are mostly or entirely in Türkiye and that want a fast, reliable store with a distinctive design.
  • Brands selling in Türkiye today, planning to expand abroad tomorrow and unwilling to go through a second platform change.
  • Businesses with physical shops and marketplace sales that want to manage every channel from one admin.
  • Manufacturers and wholesalers selling B2B to dealers and business customers.

Local e-commerce platforms offer local payment, shipping and e-invoicing connections out of the box. On Shopify we meet the same needs with ready-made apps and, where no app exists, with custom apps we develop ourselves, while Turkish-language support comes from our team. For a detailed comparison with a local platform: Shopify or ikas?

How to Get Started: On Your Own or With a Partner?

If you are starting with a simple catalogue, you can set up Shopify yourself. The general steps are:

  • Open a Shopify account and set your store details, default language and currency (TL).
  • Choose a theme and apply your logo and brand colours.
  • Add your products together with their images and descriptions.
  • Set up your payment provider, shipping rates and legal pages.
  • Connect your domain, try every step with test orders and take the store live.

If you are moving from an existing platform, want a brand-specific design or need integrations such as ERP, marketplaces and e-invoicing, working with a Shopify Partner significantly reduces the cost in time and mistakes. Booster Wizard is an official Shopify Partner listed in the Shopify Partner Directory since December 2024. We read products, customers and past orders from the source platform's API, write them to the new store with the Shopify Admin API and protect old addresses with 301 redirects. We completed the Shopify migrations of Aceso, Koolseed and Hoito this way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Shopify free?

No, Shopify is a paid platform that works on a subscription. A short free trial is offered for new accounts; after that you pay monthly or yearly depending on the plan you choose. Some themes and apps are also paid separately.

Can Shopify be used in Turkish?

Yes. The admin can be used in Turkish and you can publish your store in Turkish. If you sell abroad, you can add more languages and offer the store in other languages too.

Do I need to know how to code to use Shopify?

No. Adding products, managing orders and editing pages in the theme editor are done without code. Coding is needed for a brand-specific theme, custom apps and integrations, and a Shopify Partner usually takes on this part.

What does the total cost of a Shopify store depend on?

The total cost depends on the plan fee, the theme and apps you use, the payment provider's commission and the setup service you hire. The article in which we explain the plan levels and cost items in detail: Shopify prices

Conclusion

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that brings store, checkout, order and marketing tools under one roof and manages its own infrastructure. In Türkiye, a few things such as payments and currency need to be set up for local conditions. When these are planned properly, you have a store that sells strongly in Türkiye and is ready to expand abroad.

If you are planning to open a Shopify store or move your existing site to Shopify: See our Shopify Partner services