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Shopify is a store. A brochure site is not.
Shopify is a store. A marketing website is a brochure with a phone number. People mash those together because both have a homepage. They are not the same product, and the wrong one wastes a month. If you need a cart, checkout, inventory, shipping, and a payment processor, you need a store platform. Shopify is a common one. So is Square Online, so is a custom shop we would quote separately.
If you need hours, services, photos of the work, a map, and a way to call or write, you need a brochure. Putting a fake “buy now” on a brochure does not make it a store. It makes a button that disappoints people.
What Shopify is for
Products with a price, a quantity, and a ship-or-pickup path. Merch. Parts. A bakery that wants online orders with modifiers. A brand that will actually photograph 200 SKUs. Shopify takes a monthly cut plus transaction fees. That is rational when the cart is making money. It is a meter you do not need if nobody is checking out.
Shopify also wants you to live in apps: reviews, upsells, subscriptions, a theme you will fight. Fine for a catalog. Heavy for a plumber. If your “store” is three PDF invoices a month, you do not need Shopify. You need a form and a phone.
What a brochure site is for
That is a marketing website: one long page or a few sections, phone-ready, a form or the buttons you need, title and meta tags, hosting setup, help pointing the domain, one round of changes. Most of those jobs finish in under 72 hours when the brief is clear. It is not Shopify, a member portal, or an app. Those get a separate quote.
| You actually need | Buy this |
|---|---|
| Quotes, bookings, “call us for price” | Brochure. A form beats a cart you will not stock |
| Two T-shirts and a maybe | Do not open Shopify yet. Sell them where you already get paid |
If you already sell somewhere else
Restaurants: link the ordering app you already answer. Salons: one booking button to Vagaro or Square, not a homemade calendar. Contractors: a form with the town and the problem. DJs: a date on the form. That is brochure work. We have done it. See live work.
If you truly need a cart — dozens of products, discounts, shipping rules — say so before you pay the marketing-site price. We will tell you it is a different job. A hosted website with a “shop” link is $49/mo, hosting included if you want it ($54).
Basic SEO on the brochure is title, meta, Open Graph. We do not promise you will outrank a Shopify plus-ad spend. Worldwide, 24/7. Phone (813) 328-6079.
Free next step: paste the URL you have — store, brochure, or both.