# Shopify

> Shopify is a subscription-based commerce platform: merchants either have Shopify host their online shop or build their own shop front on its Storefront API.

Original page: https://t10.de/en/glossary/shopify
Publisher: total10 GmbH, https://t10.de/en/glossary

Shopify's terms of service describe a complete commerce platform on which merchants can unify their commerce activities, among them the online shop, point of sale, product management, stock, payments and shipping. The same terms define a 'store' as an online shop hosted by Shopify or on a third-party website, and the definition also covers any shop front built on the Storefront API.

Merchants choose one of several subscription plans, which differ in monthly fees, transaction fees and shop features. Apps extend what a shop can do. Shopify's developer documentation says they run inside Shopify's own surfaces and work with its APIs and shop data. Through the Admin API, software can read and write products, customers, orders, stock and the rest of the data behind the merchant's Shopify back office.

The [Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/migrating-to-shopify.md) lists several ways of migrating from another system, ordered from the least to the most technically complex. One is to export the data to CSV files and import them into the new shop, although some data cannot be moved this way.

For new shops we recommend Shopify, and it is where we move existing Shopware 5 shops once the switch pays off. Our own samen.de shop runs on it, at shop.samen.de.

## See also

- [Shopware](https://t10.de/en/glossary/shopware): Shopware is e-commerce software from shopware AG in Schöppingen, Germany; the vendor says its current product, Shopware 6, is a complete redevelopment of Shopware 5.
- [SKU](https://t10.de/en/glossary/sku): An SKU (stock keeping unit) is a code that a merchant chooses freely and uses internally to keep track of stock, unlike the GTIN, formerly EAN, which is issued by the GS1 organisation.
- [API](https://t10.de/en/glossary/api): An API (application programming interface) is a defined set of functions and rules that lets one piece of software use the features or data of another system or service.
- [CSV](https://t10.de/en/glossary/csv): CSV stands for comma-separated values, a text format for tables with one record per line; on our pharma pages it also stands for computer system validation, which has its own entry.

## Where the term appears

- [Online shops: Shopify and Shopware 5](https://t10.de/en/online-shops)
- [samen.de](https://t10.de/en/portfolio/samen-de)
- [Shopware 5 end of life: what it means for your shop](https://t10.de/en/blog/shopware-5-end-of-support)
- [total10 - software for e-commerce and pharma](https://t10.de/en/)
- [E-commerce for SMEs: shops, content, AI](https://t10.de/en/ecommerce)
- [AI product copy and SEO content with RAG](https://t10.de/en/seo)

## Sources

1. [Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen (zuletzt aktualisiert 20. Oktober 2026)](https://www.shopify.com/de/legal/agb), Shopify, accessed 2026-11-07
2. [Overview (Intro to Shopify)](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/overview.md), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-11-07
3. [Build apps](https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build), Shopify (shopify.dev), accessed 2026-11-07
4. [Shopify API reference](https://shopify.dev/docs/api), Shopify (shopify.dev), accessed 2026-11-07
5. [Migrate to Shopify](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/migrating-to-shopify.md), Shopify Help Center, accessed 2026-11-07