We recently made the decision to go with Shopify as our e-commerce platform for “Food for Champs”. I evaluated several platforms, such as Magento, xtCommerce, osCommerce, Volusion, as well as separate shopping cart apps such as FoxyCart in conjunction content management systems.

I got hooked on Shopify because it makes sense. It was developed by people who appear to have a sensible understanding of what is important and what is not, and who are not trying to implement every single feature that would be “nice to have”. Simplicity matters.

Their mantra “A shop in minutes, a business for life” is true: you can set it up within minutes, and you don’t need a tech guy to do it. They manage hosting and deployment, so all you have to do is pick a theme, enter your products, set up payment gateways, and you’re good to go. There are 5 different packages available, or you can call them and figure out something specific if none of the 5 meets your needs. I found that they are happy to help.

Shopify also recently launched a contest where you can win $100,000 from January 1 – June 30. All you have to do is join here, start a new shop and have the most revenue for two consecutive months. I encourage everyone to try it. You might actually end up with “a business for life”.

If you had any experiences with Shopify – good or bad – post it in the comments. I’d love to hear what you think.