Is Shopify Legit: Is Shopify a Safe Platform to Use?

I used Shopify for dropshipping in the past before I consolidated my websites in a single platform. Today, I will share with you some technicalities that prove Shopify is a safe and legitimate platform for dropshippers and buyers.

We will discuss: 

• Reasons Shopify is technically safe
• Advantages of using Shopify over other platforms
• Tips to avoid being scammed 

Key Takeaways

• You can sell not only physical products but also digital products in Shopify
• People who use Shopify should worry about marketing, not site security and safety
• Some suppliers are scammers, and the supplier databases cannot detect them 

In the end, I am confident that you will trust Shopify as a store-building platform. In addition, this article should prepare you for the potential scams you will face ahead of your dropshipping journey.

Let’s get started. 

What is Shopify: Is Shopify Real or Fake?

Shopify is real, not fake. 

It’s just that people sometimes misunderstand what it is; they think it is like Amazon. However, Shopify is not a store; Shopify is a store builder. 

Shopify is a platform where you can build an online store without coding knowledge. For a long while, WordPress and WooCommerce dominated this space. The founders of Shopify were not happy with the existing options at that time, so they built Shopify.  

Shopify became a huge hit. As it sits today, you can:

• Build an online store from scratch with no HTML or any programming language
• Add applications to your online store to add more functionalities 
• Integrate a payment processor from a wide ang of options so you can charge money online 
• Add product photos, add-to-cart-buttons, and sell digital goods

Essentially, Shopify makes it possible to build a fully functional store with a few clicks. The company takes off the burden of manual coding work, documentation, and application for approval from financial processors.

Shopify is not free. They do offer a free trial program for 14 days, after which you must choose a plan. The plan starts at $25 monthly as of the time of this writing. At that rate, you can build a fully functional online store. 

Is Shopify Safe for eCommerce?

Yes, Shopify is safe for eCommerce.

You can use it without worrying about security, not only for you as the dropshipper but also for your buyers. As always, where there is money, there are also scammers—we will talk more about this in detail later. For now, let us talk about software security. 

1. Level 1 PCI DSS Compliant

There is an international standard for payment processing online, and Shopify complies with this standard. By default, all stores built on Shopify are PCI DSS Complaint.  

The PCI DSS is a set of rules governing the handling of credit cards and personal information of users and customers. Shopify ensures that your customers’ information and card numbers are all safe.

Compliance means that:

• Shopify and all stores built on it conform to PCI standards
• The servers that host the Shopify stores go through regular vulnerability checks 
• Shopify conducts regular security audits
• The company self-regulates and conducts regular self-assessments

PCI compliance reduces the risk of exposing data to hackers. As a dropshipper, you no longer have to worry about how to implement this standard manually as it is already there. 

2. GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation

GDPR is a European standard meant to protect customer data. It also includes laws on how a merchant like you, or Shopify, must handle customer information. Shopify, by default, is compliant with this law. 

However, not all dropshippers must comply because this is a European Union law. So, if your target market is Asia, you do not need to be compliant with this. Shopify, however, provides you with the option to enable it.  

3. Secure Sockets Layer or SSL

SSL is an encryption standard. What it does is to jumble information, or encrypt it, and only authorized computers can decrypt the code and make it useful.

Somewhere between the exchange of information between a website’s servers and its customers or users, a hacker can intercept information and use it, such as names, billing addresses, and credit card numbers.

Encryption is what prevents this interception from happening. Typically, you have to purchase this service separately and implement it on your own. With Shopify, SSL is an application or standard that automatically applies once you build your store.

In addition, a certificate for SSL costs money, but Shopify shoulders this cost for all their users. You no longer need to pay extra to implement this security system.

5 Important Reasons to Use Shopify as a Dropshipper

There are many platforms you can use to build your dropshipping store. Right off my mind, I can probably name a dozen, but I can say from experience that Shopify is the best choice, and I will explain why in this section.

1. Build Your Store with Clicks

Gone are the days when you had to tinker with CSS and HTML to build a website. With Shopify, all it takes is to choose a theme and then replace the images, texts, and videos with your own. There is no need to code to build a Shopify store.

Here are some of the things you can do: 

• Select the number of columns and add sections as you deem fit
• Create product categories or collections
• Standardize how your product pages look like
• Add a blog roll to your website
• Create headers, footers, and menus

You can, to a certain degree, toggle the code of a theme, but I would only recommend doing this if you are a coder. As a dropshipper, coding knowledge is not a necessity. You can start your dropshipping store today and not even need a programmer to work with you.

2. Sell Physical and Digital Products

There was a time when Shopify only allowed physical products. Today, you can also sell digital goods. Some examples of these are:

• Audio files
• Architectural design
• Images and artwork
• Plans, Excel sheets, and templates

You can also sell eBooks that you wrote. Or you can build an eBook website where other creators sell their digital products, like Smashwords. Since Shopify now allows digital products, there is no limit to what you can do with the platform. 

If you are a dropshipper, you can innovate and become a drop-servicer where you sell the services of other people instead of physical products.  

3. Lots of Payment Integrations

Shopify has an in-house payment processing system. You have the option to use that, meaning you no longer have to sign up for an account with another payment processing system. However, Shopify charges a transaction fee for this service. 

If you do not want to use Shopify’s payment processing system, you can use third-party applications. Some examples are:

• PayPal
• Stripe
• 2Checkout
• Opayo
• Skrill
• Verifone
• WorldPay

There are so many options, and the ones I mentioned here are just a handful. The way it works is that you sign up for an account with these payment processing providers. Once they approve your merchant account, they will give you digital keys.

The next step is to integrate the payment processor with your Shopify account, which you can do either with an app or by merely typing in the digital keys in the space provided for you.

Using a third-party payment processing system is not a hassle at all. The instructions and steps are self-explanatory—you just need to click on a few links or buttons to make the choices and enter the information required to complete the integration.

4. Applications and Extensions

Shopify has an app store where you can buy applications that can do wonders for your store. These are apps that either boost what is already in Shopify or add functionalities that do not exist in your plan. 

Here are some examples: 

• Apps that import products from a supplier to your store
• Email marketing 
• Product bundling 
• Timers for seasonal sales
• Print-on-demand applications

It is not mandatory to use these apps, but it would help if you used them. Many of these are free, with a provision to get more functions if you pay a monthly subscription.

5. Sales Channels

Finally, you can integrate Shopify with other sales channels like Facebook and Instagram. What does this mean? 

Let us say that you have an Instagram Shop. Once you integrate Shopify and Insta, all the products you load to Shopify will automatically reflect in your Instagram store. If you delete a product in Shopify or modify it, it will also happen to your Instagram Shop. 

In essence, Shopify becomes your control hub for multiple stores, making it possible to manage multiple stores with only one dashboard. 

Ways Dropshippers Get Scammed on Shopify

Shopify is a safe system, but the world is not safe. Unfortunately, scammers and fraudsters will find their way into any crack, and this includes loopholes in the choices you make. 

So, no matter what Shopify does to improve its system, there is always a vulnerability that scammers can exploit.

As such, your only course of action is to exercise diligence and be aware of what is going on in the industry. In this section, I will discuss the five most common scams to avoid if you are dropshipping in Shopify.  

1. Bad Product Quality

Supplier databases always take pride in their vetting processes and claim that their suppliers are top-of-the-line. The reality is that they have no evidence to support that claim. How else can they say that a supplier’s product is top-notch if they did not order it themselves? 

No supplier database tool or company will order all the products of the supplier just to verify their quality. It is your obligation as a dropshipper to do this. I am not saying that the supplier database companies are bad—they verify the legitimacy of a supplier via government documents only, not through physical means.

As far as product quality goes, what looks great in the picture does not always look good in person. In addition, there is no way you can assess the material used in a product by merely looking at photos. 

There are suppliers out there who use photography to their advantage. The images look good. Once you dropship that product though, your customer is likely going to be unhappy because the quality is so dismal.   

What should you do, then?

Always test the products, is what you must do. Buy one piece, and then decide if this supplier is being honest about how they present or market their goods. 

2. Counterfeit Items

Do not work with suppliers who sell counterfeit items. Some suppliers sell toys, comic books, live-action figures, and collectibles—all fake. 

If you want to sell branded goods, you must only work with legitimate suppliers. These are suppliers licensed by the brand to distribute their products. 

To validate, check the supplier’s website and its documentation. Still, the best thing to do is buy the item to see if it is legitimate. The last thing you want to do is to get flagged by the real owner of the patented product and shut your business down.  

3. Unscrupulous Practices 

Some suppliers fake their product reviews, and also those whose business practices do not serve the best interest of their customers. 

For example, I once had an order from CJDropshipping that took weeks to process. I even had an order that was never processed. I am not saying that CJDropshipping is a bad company. It’s just that I dealt with a supplier on the platform that did not care. 

Again, the best way to check if your supplier is reliable is by ordering the product. There is no other way.  

4. Data Theft

Suppliers will certainly have access to your customer’s information—and yours, too. There is no way you can ask the supplier to ship your order to a customer without giving your customer’s name and address.   

The only way you can avoid this is by working with a globally renowned dropship marketplace. These are huge companies that put suppliers and dropshippers together. As big companies, we can, to a certain extent, expect that they are compliant with existing legal expectations, particularly those that have something to do with data security.     

I also recommend that you use a separate credit card for ordering or fronting the goods you sell. Control the amount of accessible funds in that card. If, by any chance, that card gets compromised, you will not lose a fortune. 

5. Fake Buyers | Stolen Cards

One thing to watch out for is fake buyers. In the online world, some scammers steal credit card information and then use that information to make online purchases. 

Once the real owner finds out, he will file a chargeback. If you are the dropshipper that processed this payment, you will find yourself in serious trouble. 

• You will lose money because you paid your supplier 
• The supplier will not refund your money because they shipped the item
• The real card owner will file a chargeback, and this money gets deducted from your account
• Your payment processor will view you as a crook and bn you or put a hold on your account

What you can do to prevent this is to use a payment processing company that uses several checking mechanisms to determine potential credit card fraud. PayPal is good at this, so I recommend that you use either Stripe or PayPal. 

Is Shopify Legit to Buy From How to Prevent Being Scammed as a Buyer

It is not only dropshippers who spend money on Shopify. The customers who buy from Shopify stores are equally at risk. As a buyer, here are some tips on how you can prevent being scammed.

1. Do not pay via bank transfer or remittances

A bank transfer, including remittance-type transactions like Western Union, is deemed voluntary—that you know who you are sending your money to. Do not do this if you want to buy an item online. If you made this purchase with a scammer, you would never have a way to get your money back. 

Instead, you must only purchase using a legitimate payment processor like PayPal or Stripe. These payment processors offer a guarantee to the buyer that they will get a refund if they so happen to deal with a scammer. 

With PayPal and Stripe, you can file a dispute. The company will ask the seller to produce a shipping label. If the seller cannot produce this, you get your money back, and this seller’s PayPal account will likely be put under restriction.  

2. Always Look for Reviews or Feedback

Do not skimp on the effort to look for customer reviews for a Shopify website you want to buy from. Some reviews are fake, so it is best to look for comments and reviews on other websites, not the store itself. 

The first place you can go to is Reddit. If the store you are looking at has reviews already, you are in luck. If not, open a thread and wait for responses. 

You can also visit the seller’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok page. Verify if the store is legit. If the social media account has little to no activity, you can back up and just look for another seller of the same item. 

3. Trust Your Instincts

If the offer is too good to be true, it probably is. Items offered at super high discounts are dubious. If coupled with a non-credit card payment processor, like Western Union, expect this offer to be a scam. 

In addition to this, take a long hard look at the website or store. Is it professional enough? Can you honestly say that the owner took the time and spent money to build a professional store?

If there is anything in your gut that makes you feel the store seems shady, trust your instinct and walk away. Scammers always lure gullible people with money. Forget about the money you will save if it is not worth the risk. 

4. Prepare to File Chargeback

The last thing you can do to protect yourself from being scammed is to prepare to file a chargeback. Credit card issuers have their option—you can call them and report what happened, and they will give you back your money. 

However, this does not come free. On average, credit card companies charge anywhere between $20 and $100 for this service. Nevertheless, it is still better than to lose a lot of money. Knowing this, it is best to test a store for small purchases only before committing to a bigger one. 

FAQ: Is Shopify Legit

Is Shopify the best option for dropshipping?

Yes, Shopify is the best platform to use for dropshipping because it is easy to use. The creators of Shopify built it for one purpose: e-commerce.  

Is MyShopify legit?

Yes, it is legit. MyShopify is a subdomain of Shopify, and they use it as the domain or URL of stores of users and subscribers who do not want to purchase a third-party domain name from a registrar. 

Is Shopify a trustworthy site?

Yes, it is a trustworthy site. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and that says a lot about its legitimacy as a corporation.

Can you make money from Shopify?

Yes, you certainly can. You can use Shopify to build a dropshipping store or sell digital products. 

Is it a good idea to use Shopify?

Yes, it is not just good, but it probably is the best thing to use if you want to sell online. 

Summary

Where do you go from here? The next step is to sign up for a Shopify account, which you can use for 14 days for free. 

Conduct experiments and tinker with the system—you do not need to add a credit card to do it. In addition, if I may recommend, sign up for a free Dropship.IO 7-day trial account and explore the tool. 

Dropship.IO is an all-in-one spy tool that allows you to discover winning products and spy on what makes Shopify stores successful!