Shopify review 2025: Is it still the best for e-commerce?

Let’s be honest, Shopify is basically synonymous with e-commerce. It’s the go-to for millions of online stores, from tiny startups to massive brands like MrBeast and Beyoncé. If you’re looking to sell stuff online, you’ve probably already bookmarked the Shopify homepage. And you’re not wrong ,it’s fantastic for getting a store up and running fast.

But what about when things really start moving? This Shopify review is for anyone who’s past the "just launched" phase and is starting to think bigger. We’ll get into the great sales features, for sure. But we’re also going to talk about the real-world headaches that show up when your orders pile up, especially when it comes to customer support. Shopify gives you a beautiful storefront, but keeping customers happy as you scale is a whole different ball game.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is essentially your entire online store in a box. It’s a platform that handles everything from building your website and processing payments to managing inventory and even some basic marketing. You don’t have to piece things together yourself.

It’s what’s known as a SaaS (Software as a Service) product. This just means you pay a monthly fee for access, and they handle all the technical stuff in the background, like web hosting and software updates. You just log in and focus on your business.

The biggest draw is how easy it makes everything. You can have a professional-looking store ready to take orders without writing a single line of code. But it’s key to remember Shopify’s main job is selling. It’s amazing at that, but for other parts of your business, like customer support, you’ll likely need to bring in some outside help through apps and integrations.

A real look at Shopify’s core features in this Shopify review

So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what you’re actually paying for. Shopify is packed with features, but it has its quirks, too.

Store setup and getting started

Getting your store off the ground with Shopify is pretty painless. The dashboard is clean, and adding your first products is as simple as filling out a form with titles, descriptions, and prices.

They’ve even added an AI tool called "Shopify Magic" that can write product descriptions for you. If you have a huge catalog, this can be a lifesaver for getting your store launched without spending weeks writing copy.

But when it comes to the visual design of your store, you might feel a bit boxed in. Shopify uses a section-based editor. It’s great for beginners because you just stack pre-made blocks to build a page, but it’s not a true drag-and-drop system like you’d find on Wix. If you want precise control over every little pixel, you might find it a bit frustrating.

E-commerce and sales features

Okay, this is where Shopify really shines. The tools for actually selling your products are top-notch. You can list unlimited products on any plan, which is great for stores that plan to grow. It’s also a champ at multichannel selling, making it easy to sync your products with Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, and eBay.

Shopify supports over 100 payment gateways, but you’ll probably want to stick with their built-in Shopify Payments. Why? Because if you use it, they won’t charge you their own transaction fees (which can be up to 2% per sale). You’ll just pay the normal credit card processing fees. Plus, handy features like abandoned cart recovery emails are built-in, even on the cheapest plan, which is something other platforms often make you pay extra for.

Pro Tip: Check out Shopify’s "smart collections." You can set rules to automatically group products by tags, price, or other criteria. It’s a huge time-saver for big inventories and keeps your store looking neat without you having to do it all by hand.

Shopify’s app store can be a gift or a curse

The Shopify App Store is both one of Shopify’s best features and one of its biggest headaches. With over 16,000 apps, you can find a tool for almost anything you can imagine: customer reviews, loyalty programs, fancy shipping calculators, you name it.

But here’s the catch: you have to rely on these apps for a lot of things you’d think would be built-in. Want better reporting, custom contact forms, or ways to sell products with lots of variations? You’ll probably need to install (and pay for) an app.

This leads to two big issues. First, the ‘sticker price’ of Shopify isn’t the real price. Your monthly bill can get surprisingly high once you add a few app subscriptions. Second, it gets complicated. Juggling a bunch of different apps, each with its own settings and support, can be a pain. It can even slow your site down. You really start to feel this when you’re growing fast and trying to manage customer support.

The growing pains of customer support

As your store gets bigger, some of the things you loved about Shopify at first can start to feel like limitations. More orders always means more customer questions, and this is where Shopify’s built-in tools can’t really keep up.

What Shopify gives you for support (and what it doesn’t)

Out of the box, Shopify gives you a couple of tools to talk to your customers. There’s Shopify Inbox, which is a simple live chat tool, and Shopify Email for marketing campaigns. You can also use the blog feature to create a basic FAQ page.

For a brand new store, this is probably fine. But these tools aren’t built for a high volume of support requests. Shopify Inbox is just a chat window; it can’t resolve issues on its own. And your blog is just a static page, not a smart knowledge base that can answer questions for you. You’ll find your team answering the same things over and over again: "Where is my order?" "What’s your return policy?"

The support problem every growing store faces

It’s a story we hear all the time from successful Shopify stores. The sales are rolling in, which is awesome, but the customer support inbox is a disaster zone of the same three questions on repeat.

You don’t have to look far to see the frustration. A quick scroll through user reviews on Trustpilot shows this is a major pain point. When your team is buried in tickets, response times drag, customers get annoyed, and your brand takes a hit. It’s a support gap that Shopify’s basic tools just can’t fill.

The old-school solution was to just throw more people at the problem by hiring more support agents. But that gets expensive fast and isn’t a great long-term fix. Today, smart businesses are using AI to automate the repetitive stuff. This lets AI handle the common questions, so your human team can focus on the tricky issues where they’re really needed.

This is where something like eesel AI comes into play. It acts as an AI layer that works with the tools you already have. You don’t have to ditch Shopify or the helpdesk you’re used to, like Gorgias or Zendesk. It just makes your current setup way smarter.

How an AI support agent can fix this

Just having a great product isn’t enough; your customer experience has to be great, too. A smart support system is what lets you grow without chaos. Here’s a practical look at how an AI platform like eesel AI can upgrade your Shopify store without making you switch all your tools.

Because eesel AI connects directly with Shopify and helpdesks like Gorgias, Zendesk, and Freshdesk, it creates a much more efficient system. Here’s what that actually means for you:

• Answer order questions instantly. When a customer asks, "Where is my order?" the AI Agent can automatically look up the live order status through its Shopify integration and give an immediate answer. Your team doesn’t have to lift a finger.

• Make sales around the clock. You can put eesel AI’s AI Chatbot right on your storefront. It learns your product catalog and can answer pre-sale questions, recommend products, and help shoppers find what they need, even at 3 AM.

• Slash your number of support tickets. By learning from your past support tickets and help docs, the AI Agent can automatically resolve up to 70% of those repetitive questions. This frees up your agents to handle the stuff that actually needs a human brain.

• No big setup required. This is a big one. eesel AI is designed to be a layer that sits on top of your existing tools. It’s not a replacement. You can get it running in minutes without a team of engineers, keeping the workflow you’re already comfortable with.

This flowchart gives you a visual of the difference:

Shopify review: A look at Shopify’s pricing

Shopify breaks its pricing into three main plans for different-sized businesses. Here’s how they stack up:

Plan Name	Price (Billed Annually)	Best For	Key Feature Difference
Basic	€21/month	For solo entrepreneurs	Core e-commerce tools, 2 staff accounts.
Grow	€59/month	For small teams	Lower transaction fees, 5 staff accounts.
Advanced	€289/month	As your business scales	Lowest fees, advanced reporting, 15 accounts.
Plus	$2,300/month	For more complex businesses	Competitive rates for high-volume merchants.

The monthly prices look reasonable, but don’t forget about the app store costs we talked about earlier. Once you start adding apps for support, marketing, and other features, your total bill can easily be double or triple the plan price. This is why looking at a tool like eesel AI, which bundles many of these support functions together for one price, can end up being a more predictable and cost-effective option.

So, is Shopify the right choice? Our final Shopify review verdict

After all that, what’s the final word on Shopify? It’s an incredible platform for launching a store and handling sales. For anyone who wants to sell online, its easy-to-use design and powerful sales features make it a no-brainer.

But its built-in tools just aren’t designed for customer support once you start growing. If you’re serious about scaling your business and keeping customers happy, you’ll need more. Adding an AI automation tool like eesel AI isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the piece that lets you handle growth without the chaos, turning your great storefront into a business that can actually scale.

Ready to get your customer support under control?

Your Shopify store does a great job of getting customers in the door. Let eesel AI help you give them the amazing support that will keep them coming back. See how our AI Agent can plug into your store, start resolving tickets, and free up your team.

Try eesel AI for free or book a quick demo to see it in action.