If you’re thinking about taking Shopify for a test spin, the free trial offers the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Whether you are looking to setup a new Shopify store or migrate your store to Shopify from another platform, the Shopify free trial gives you a chance to take a peak under the hood to find out how easy it is to setup, launch, and manage a fully responsive eCommerce website.
Which is the Best Shopify Free Trial Offer?
It’s easy to understand why you might be confused about how long the Shopify free trial is, or which free trial offer is the best, because it does change.
For example, during the Covid-19 crisis, Shopify extended their free trial to 90 days to help store owners get online while in-person selling was significantly limited.
Plus, over the years, Shopify has offered several different types of free trials, and there is plenty of content on the internet that talks about these old offers. For example, you might have heard about:
- Shopify 90-Day Free Trial – This was offered recently, but ended in November of 2020
- Shopify 60-Day Free Trial – This offer is from several years ago, but many pages still reference it (with a disclaimer that it is no longer available)
- Shopify Free Forever Plan – This allowed new Shopify store owners to stay on Shopify for free until they had generated 50 orders. This plan also ended several years ago.
However, the typical Shopify free trial runs for 14 days. And, if these changes, they publish it on their Free Trial page, so you don’t have to go hunting for some kind of secret free trial offer that doesn’t actually exist.
That’s why you will often see a variety of free trial offers in the search results. However, they all end up linking to the same place – which is the current Shopify Free Trial offer.
Want to see exactly how long the Shopify Free Trial is as of today?
Click Here!Although a 90-day free trial sounds nice, it really is far more than you need. After all, who wants to wait 3 months to start investing in their new business?
4 Reasons to Start a Shopify Free Trial
Think of it like taking a car for an extended test drive. After all, it may not be a large investment when you consider that the basic shopify plan is only $29/USD per month, there is an investment in time and effort, and you want to make sure you are investing that in the right platform.
Although there are dozens of reasons why it makes sense to set up a free trial, here are what we believe are the top 4.
- Take the Shopify platform for a test run. Although we can talk about all the great features of Shopify (and we have, in many blog posts), there’s nothing quite like seeing it in action for yourself.
- Get a head-start on your eCommerce site development. You can get a LOT of stuff done in 2 weeks. From design, to content, to products, to backend settings. That way, when you are ready, you’ve already completed most of the work.
- Create a sense of urgency to help propel your business. One of the reasons we prefer the shorter free trial period is that it motivates shop owners to dig in and get things done. It’s too easy to procrastinate when there is a 90-day window. And, before you know it, 3 months have gone by and you’re not closer to getting your business online than you were before. Once you sign up for the 14-day free trial, you know that you have 2 weeks to take advantage of all the features of Shopify for free.
- Absolutely no obligation. If you decide you don’t want to continue with your Shopify eCommerce store, you don’t need to do anything. Your free trial will expire, and your drafted site will automatically be deleted after the trial is over. You don’t even need to reach out to ask Shopify to cancel your account.
Benefits of the Shopify Free Trial
Shopify offers some amazing eCommerce features that will help you get online and sell more. Although it may not seem like a lot of time, 14 days gives you plenty of opportunities to see all those features in action.
For example, during the Shopify 14-day free trial you can:
- Add products to your trial store so that you can see how beautifully they will display inside your online store.
- Create product collections to organize your products in an easy-to-navigate way.
- Test out some of the settings that are available to you within the Shopify admin section so that you can see how easy it is to configure tax rates, shipping, and other sales elements.
- Write and post important content for your site, such as an About Us page, policies pages that cover your shipping policy, privacy policy, return policy, etc.
- Checkout the themes that are available. Although you can purchase 3rd party themes during your free trial, you do have to pay for those themes separately, so make sure you are going to continue with Shopify past the free trial before investing in a premium Shopify theme.
What You Cannot Do During the Shopify Free Trial
There are a few things that you cannot do while in Free Trial Mode with Shopify. These features require you to select a paid plan. However, keep in mind that plans start at only $29/USD a month and you aren’t charged until the end of your free trial.
- Set up Shopify Payments - Although you can get (practically) everything setup and ready to go, you cannot connect the payment processor while in free trial mode. You need to select a plan before you can take payments through your shopify store.
- Install Premium Apps – Although there are plenty of free Apps inside the Shopify App store, certain premium apps will not be available to you until you select a paid plan and have your credit card details on file to purchase the upgraded app features.
As you can see, you can do almost everything you need to up your store during the Shopify free trial. However, unless you decide that Shopify is not the right platform for you (and we can’t imagine that happening), you will need to select a monthly plan before you can start actively selling your products or services.
If you don't select a monthly plan before the end of your Shopify free trial, your Shopify store will automatically be placed on pause, which means you won’t be able to do any more work on the site.
Plus, your account will automatically be suspended, and your drafted site will – eventually – be deleted. This usually occurs within 30 – 90 days but can happen sooner.
Get Started on Shopify Today
If you’ve been pondering whether or not to take Shopify for a test spin, this is the perfect time to give it a try.
Or, if you need help getting your Shopify website off the ground quickly and efficiently, reach out to us to find out what we can do to help you sell more online.
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