So, my friend sells & ships books in his country.

He found a very good niche, and currently ships around 1,000 books per month.

Marketing only via instagram & tiktok.

The crazy thing is that all the sales go through whatsapp messaging (zero automation!)

More clients than he (and his team!) can handle.

So, we sat together and tried setting up a Shopify store….

Took us 4 days to fill in all the minimal required data (store details, products, shipment details, policies, basic ecommerce store styling).

The price of the basic plan is around $60/year -> that’s what we were aiming for.

Main blockers: #

1. Setting up delivery. #

We required an add-on “select a delivery locker”.

select a delivery locker InPost

The minimal Shopify plan that allows this feature is $960/year.

“Select a locker” is the most preferred delivery option by clients today.

This is a giant cost for just one feature.

2. Connecting a payment processor. #

The local payment processor “Przelewy24” has been verifying the vendor for 4 weeks already (they are very slow) => can not start selling.

Minor inconveniences #

  1. Styling the store - too much freedom to make it ugly
  2. Adding legal policies (return policy, terms & conditions)