Shopify is a commerce platform made by Shopify: a hosted service on which a business runs its online store and its other sales channels. Shopify hosts the store, so the business does not run its own servers; hosting, a custom domain and an SSL certificate are included.
A merchant builds the storefront from a pre-built theme or from a text prompt, adds products, and sells through Shopify's checkout. Shopify Payments charges customers' cards at checkout; with another payment provider, Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee. The same admin handles orders, inventory, shipping labels and taxes, and the store can also sell on social networks, marketplaces, in AI chats and in person with a point-of-sale card reader. Built-in marketing tools send email campaigns and create discount codes. The Shopify App Store adds features through more than 21,000 apps, and Shopify.dev gives developers APIs to build apps and custom storefronts.
Shopify is sold as a subscription in several plans, billed monthly or yearly, plus a percentage fee on each card payment.