One of the many advantages of using Shopify is its simplicity for many merchants.
Whether you are a DVNB, a brand, a distributor, an artisan or any other type of online seller, you have certainly struggled with technical problems.
At Shopify Pikka, we believe that technical issues are limitations and frictions to merchant growth. And even if we are above all a technical e-commerce and webmarketing agency specialized in Shopify , we particularly like when everything is fluid.
Especially with SSL certificates! SSL certificates have indeed become essential over the years to protect the security of customer data and computer exchanges on the web.
Today any e-commerce site worthy of the name must have an SSL certificate at least on the order or payment confirmation page.
But the best is obviously to have an SSL certificate on its entire command tunnel, see on the whole site as recommended by Google.
But what is an SSL certificate?
An SSL certificate is a small piece of code generated by an authority external to your site and which will make it possible to encrypt communications between your site and the client's browser.
It is a method of protecting online communications that has become essential, especially for paying online. Generally a certificate is paid for, but under Shopify the certificate is free, for more details see Shopify Pricing and Pricing .
SSL certificates were indeed initially used to protect the "sensitive" parts of e-commerce sites such as the checkout and the payment page.
From now on, and under pressure from Google, all sites must be in https. the S at the end being for "secured" by an SSL certificate.
The SSL certificate therefore now protects all the pages of the site and has become essential for good online referencing and generating trust with customers.
Shopify offers you the SSL certificate for free for your store
But the SSL certificate also has its drawbacks. Already it's quite expensive if you want a "quality" certificate, because yes there are all kinds.
In addition, an SSL certificate can be a real hassle to install and maintain over time. It must indeed be renewed regularly so that it continues to guarantee the security of exchanges between Internet users and your site.
Having a certificate renewed automatically and for free with Shopify is therefore a real plus! No technical configuration or maintenance is required, everything is managed by Shopify as soon as you have connected your domain name to your online store.
And with Shopify or Shopify Plus , you have no risk of losing your SSL certificate or forgetting to renew it, which can happen to even the largest e-commerce sites:
And how do I get a free SSL certificate if I'm not on Shopify?
It is also possible to obtain an SSL certificate for your Prestashop or Magento store but this will require technical skills to install it.
Unlike Shopify, there is no one-click installation of a free SSL certificate for open source stores. If you have an e-commerce agency that manages your site, it is best to ask them how to do it.
If you want to do it on your own, you can get an SSL certificate for free from Lets Encrypt. Please note, this is done on the command line and you will have to remember to renew it regularly!
