Development of stores on Shopify, WordPress, Magento, and other e-commerce platforms. Shopify on Cyprus

What is Shopify and who is it for?

Shopify is a Canadian SaaS platform for online stores founded in 2006. Today, it powers 4.4M+ stores in 175 countries, including Tesla, Allbirds, Heinz, Gymshark, and Kylie Cosmetics. The main difference from WooCommerce is that Shopify is fully SaaS: hosting, security, updates, PCI DSS, backups - all included in the subscription. Ideal for international trade, fashion, beauty, food, and electronics stores. Popular on Cyprus among English-speaking businesses and exporters.

When Shopify is the Right Choice

• Shops with 50,000 - 50,000 SKU — golden middle ground in catalog volume
• International trade — Multi-currency, multi-language, local payments in 175 countries
• English-speaking team — best documentation and support in EN, tools in Shopify Academy
• Fashion, beauty, food, electronics — industries with ready themes and apps
• Business with exports from Cyprus — in EU, US, UK, UAE — Shopify handles taxes and customs
• Without IT resources — all technical tasks are handled by Shopify itself
• Business with medium and large turnover — Shopify's commission is made up for by its convenience.

When Shopify isn't the best option

• Small store up to 10-50 SKUs — $29/mo subscription may be excessive. Better alternatives include Tilda, RecCMS, or WooCommerce
• Unique B2B logic — Shopify Plus exists but is more expensive with limited customization. Better Magento or custom on Laravel
• Non-standard processes — Custom apps are paid, development is more expensive than WooCommerce.
• Russian-speaking market — Shopify is weaker in RU localization, lacks native support for YuKassa, Robokassa
• A large catalog with over 50,000 SKUs — Shopify will do, but cheaper and faster on Magento or custom.

How much does a Shopify store in Cyprus cost?

• Self on Dawn theme: €0 + Shopify license ($29/mo). No experience needed to get started.
• Freelance developers: €300-1500. Quality varies
• Shopify ExpertsWeb studio · Limassol · Working across Cyprus and the EU
• 62px: €590-19900. Customization of Liquid, headless, Shopify Plus. 62% discount for case study publication.

Shopify subscription - separately: Basic $29, Shopify $79, Advanced $299, Shopify Plus $2000+. We tailor the optimal plan to your sales volume. Often, Basic is sufficient at launch, with upgrades as sales grow.

Shopify Pricing - What to Choose

• Basic ($29/mo) — for start. Up to 1000 orders/month, 2 users, basic reports
• Shopify ($79/mo) — most popular. 5 users, gift cards, professional reports, advanced analytics
• Advanced ($299/mo) — for medium business. 15 users, custom reports, third-party shipping, additional locations
• Shopify Plus ($2000+/mo) — enterprise. B2B, Shopify Functions, customisation of checkout, dedicated launch manager, multiple stores from one account

Shopify vs WooCommerce - what to choose

• Shopify - SaaS, all included. More expensive than subscription ($29-$300+ per mo), but cheaper in support. Better for English-speaking and international businesses.
• WooCommerce (on Shopify) WordPress) — open-source, requires your own hardware. Cheaper in subscription (hosting $5-20/mo), but more expensive in support. More flexible for Russian-speaking users

If you're English-speaking and don't want to deal with tech - Shopify. If you're Russian-speaking with flexible processes - WooCommerce. If planning to scale in EU/US - Shopify is better.

Shopify topics

The topic is store design. Options:

• Dawn — Official free Shopify theme. Well optimized, minimalist. Basic start
• Sense, Origin, Crave — other free Shopify themes for various niches
• Premium Shopify themes ($180-350) — Impulse, Prestige, Motion. High-quality, tested
• ThemeForest themes ($60-90) — wider selection but quality varies, harder to update
• Custom theme — Drawing in Figma, assembling on Liquid + JS. From €4990

Liquid - Shopify template language

Liquid - a simple template language from Shopify (like Twig, Jinja). Used in themes to display products, collections, pages. We customize Liquid on implementation:

• Unique design for hero, product page, cart, checkout
• Custom blocks in themes: gallery, FAQ, reviews, upsells
• Conditional logic: display blocks by countries, languages, categories
• Dynamic sections - the admin can drag and drop blocks in the editor.
• Integration with custom apps via Liquid + JavaScript

Payments on Shopify in Cyprus

• Shopify Payments — integrated, essentially Stripe. Minimal fees. Available in Cyprus
• JCC Smart — Cypriot equilising. Integrating via external payment provider
• PayPal Express — for international clients
• Apple Pay / Google Pay — mandatory on mobile, +20% conversion rate
• Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay — buy now, pay later for EU/US
• Crypto — via CoinPayments, Coinbase Commerce
• UKassa, Robokassa — for the RU segment, via external providers

Delivery and taxes

Shopify natively handles taxes and shipping:

• Taxes by countries - automatically calculated (including Cyprus VAT 19%)
• Delivery: Akis Express, ACS Cyprus, DHL, FedEx - via apps or manual rates
• Customs declarations for international shipments
• Drop-shipping via Oberlo, DSers (for AliExpress), Spocket (for US/EU suppliers)
• Pickup in store — for local customers
• Multiple locations - several warehouses with different shipping logic

Headless Shopify using Hydrogen

Hydrogen - a Shopify framework based on Remix (React). Used for headless stores:

• Storefront as a Next.js/React app with Shopify only as backend
• Ideal speed and SEO - LCP < 1s
• Storefront API + GraphQL for product and content queries
• Unrestricted customization with Liquid
• Deploy on Oxygen (Shopify) or Vercel/Cloudflare

Suitable for premium brands where speed and UX are critical. Up to 3-5 times more expensive than standard Shopify development, but pays off through conversion.

Shopify Apps - what we usually install

• Klaviyo — Email marketing #1 for Shopify, abandoned cart triggers, post-purchase
• Smile.io / Yotpo Loyalty — loyalty programs, points, referrals
• Judge.me / Yotpo Reviews — customer reviews with photos
• Recharge — subscriptions for products (for food, beauty, supplements)
• ReConvert — upsells on the thank you page
• Bold Multi-Currency — extended multi-currency
• Translate & Adapt — Multilingual support from Shopify
• SearchPie / Boost AI Search — improved search
• Tapcart — mobile app from the store

Post-launch support

30 days of free support immediately after go-live: adding products, minor fixes, training, assistance with app setup. Afterwards - packages from €190/month: operational support, A/B tests, conversion optimization, new sections, app updates. The Shopify platform updates automatically - no worries.