CBD Startups, Don’t use Shopify!
So, you’re starting a new business selling CBD, right?
You’ve probably searched “sell CBD online” and have clicked the Shopify CBD landing page and thought, yes, this is what I need.
Wrong!
You should stay far far away from Shopify if you’re starting a CBD business, it’s that simple.
And here’s why…
You won’t be able to take payments
Yep.
If you start a CBD business with Shopify, the harsh reality is you more than likely won’t be accepted for a payment gateway and you won’t be able to sell online.
You won’t believe the number of new startups that have come to us with this issue in the CBD industry.
It’s an issue that’s crippling for start-up CBD businesses, many use their life savings paying designers, buying stock, employing marketing agencies, and then not being able to make any money back.
This is a serious problem that needs to stop!
EDIT – We can now help! Fill out this form!
Other reasons not to use Shopify if you’re a CBD store are:
- Out of the box, SEO is poor
- Vendor Lock-in
- You don’t own your website
- Payment processes
Out of the Box, SEO is Poor
SEO (search engine optimisation) is vital to the success of any business – especially startups in competitive markets such as CBD – and therefore it is very important that you choose a website platform that supports your SEO efforts.
Over our decades of experience in the SEO industry, we have come across so many cases of people struggling to get SEO results due to the restrictions of their Shopify website.
Whilst it is possible to optimise a Shopify store, there is a range of technical issues which at best will slow down your SEO efforts, and at worst completely harm your efforts.
If you want to achieve great results for your startup CBD business, there are many more flexible & suitable platforms to choose from an SEO perspective.
Vendor Lock-In
One of the things that attract people to Shopify the most is that it is a hosted platform. This makes set up much easier as there is no need to find hosting companies or install software.
However, this also comes with its pitfalls.
Most notably, this means that your entire business is contained within Shopify, and therefore you live and die by their sword so to speak.
If Shopify were ever to shut down, suffer some sort of major security issue, or simply decided to delete your website, there is very little that you can do about it, and your website could be lost too.
Similarly, the closed platform approach means that you are limited to what Shopify allows when building or modifying your website.
Alternatives such as WordPress & Woocommerce are open source and allow much more freedom and flexibility for you to make the changes that you desire and have full control over your business.
You don’t actually own your website
When you use Shopify’s e-commerce platform, you do not own your website.
You may own your images and text, but you do not own the code, the hosting, or the system.
If you’re already a Shopify customer and are thinking of leaving, you will not be able to take your website with you, and you will have to start from scratch.
Payment Processors for CBD Stores
You’ll need to work with a high-risk payment processor. An industry is considered high-risk when there’s a greater-than-normal legal requirement or fraud potential related to the type of products being sold.
High-risk payment processors are willing to accept the additional risk involved and provide payment processing for online stores in these industries.
dijitul can help you secure a payment processor as well as build you a website that is capable of taking payments for CBD products. Contact us today to start selling CBD online.
EDIT – We can now help! Fill out this form!
What can you do?
I hope you’ve read this article before you’ve committed to anything. We get businesses in the CBD world coming to us all the time because they’re having issues with Shopify and their payment gateway, and hopefully, you’ve found this before it’s too late.
If you’re starting up a CBD business and need help with design, development, marketing, and a CBD payment gateway, get in touch with us today for free advice.
Disclaimer: Shopify is a great platform for most, but because of the strict payment gateway T&C’s it’s very hard for Shopify CBD businesses to sell online and make money.