Turbify (formerly Turbify / Yahoo! Turbify) has been
around since the 1990s. There was a time when it was the most popular e-commerce
platform around. Like all other e-commerce platforms, it's highly proprietary,
with its own unique way of organizing products, categories, and pages. It also
comes with its own programming language, RTML, to tailor and customize
templates, which determine how the online store looks and behaves.
It has served
its merchant community well - a testament to that is the fact that many current
Turbify stores have been around for decades. However, development and progress
on the platform have slowed down over the years, and it's been pretty much
stagnant in recent years. Development is ongoing, but it's targeted toward the
back-end systems, and there have been no user-facing upgrades for quite some
time. Mainly for this reason, an increasing number of Turbify merchants have
been looking elsewhere to host their e-commerce stores.
There are many options
to choose from when it comes to online store platforms, but perhaps the two most
popular choices among Turbify merchants who have already migrated are
BigCommerce and Shopify. Of the two, Shopify has, by far, the
larger market share and is more customizable than BigCommerce. For that reason,
Shopify is our platform of choice when we are asked to migrate our Turbify
clients.
Why do you want to leave Turbify?
When considering moving your business from Turbify, it's important to have the right reasons for your decision. The most common reasons we hear are:-
"I want to perform better on the search engines"
This is a prime example of why not to migrate. SEO is mostly a function of the content (text) on your pages, and to a much lesser extent, technical factors such as proper HTML tags, meta tags, structured data snippets, and page load performance. None of these factors are platform-specific. If your content is sub-par, your pages won't rank high no matter what platform your store is on. And the technical aspects can be addressed at the template level through proper code and optimization. -
"My Turbify store looks dated"
This, again, is not a function of the platform. Chances are your store is based on one of the older Turbify (or maybe even Turbify) templates and/or it hasn't had a "facelift" in some time. Turbify as a platform is more than capable of delivering a cutting-edge design - either completely custom or based on one of the more modern Turbify themes or on our Fanal 2.0 theme.
If your store is simple enough (no complicated product options or website functions), then in many cases you can easily switch to a different platform such as Shopify, pick a modern theme, customize it, and you'll be good to go. If, however, your main concern is bringing your Turbify store into the 21st century, contact us - we can help. -
"I pay too much for Turbify"
This can be a valid reason if your store is large and has a high volume of sales. In those cases, Turbify's rev-share pricing model can become a substantial part of your operating costs. Most other platforms have tiered pricing, so how big your store is or how much you sell has little or no bearing on how much you pay for hosting. However, like budget airlines, other platforms get you with the extras - you typically pay a monthly fee for add-ons, themes (sometimes), and outside services for custom functions. -
"Other platforms have apps and plugins"
This is true. Many years ago, Yahoo! Turbify toyed with the idea of an "app marketplace," but the idea never really took off and was eventually shut down. Still, Turbify is so customizable via its template language and API support that a knowledgeable developer (such as us) can custom-build virtually anything you can think of.
Shopify, on the other hand, has an extensive and growing selection of apps you can add to your store - and in most cases, adding an app is just a click away. There are, however, a couple of negatives associated with marketplace-based apps that you should keep in mind:- Most apps are subscription-based, and those monthly recurring fees can add up.
- Shopify relies heavily on apps, and even things you might take for granted in Turbify require an app on Shopify. Want to add custom options? You'll need an app. Want to offer volume discounts? You'll need an app. Want to show "real" breadcrumbs on your pages? You'll need an app.
- Apps have limited customizability. While many have flexible settings, if you want something that can't be achieved by tweaking those options, you might be stuck. Developers can sometimes rig apps to add alterations (visual or otherwise), but since the code runs from the app developer's site, it's out of reach to your own developers.
Next: What to consider before Migrating from Turbify to Shopify