eCommerce platforms are the backbone of online stores, providing the front-end and back-end structure that supports B2B and B2C companies. They offer a seamless customer experience and enable scalable growth for any online business.

As a cloud-based tool, Shopify provides full control over the structure and setup of your store. It is a great choice for businesses that sell physical and digital goods or services. Shopify’s flexibility, feature-rich capabilities, and customization are some reasons why over 1 million businesses in over 175 different countries utilize it as their preferred eCommerce platform.

Shopify is an excellent platform, and its development store offering, i.e., demo store capabilities are incredibly valuable to test design and app functionality. If your store sells products, each with less than 100 variations, then Shopify is an excellent option. Here’s the lowdown on how to create a Shopify development store, and the benefits it offers eCommerce businesses.

What Is a Shopify Development Store?

Shopify allows users to set up free development stores that have some limitations. Development stores can be used to test the themes and apps you create or to set up Shopify accounts for clients. A recurring commission is earned when you set up a development store for a client and transfer it to them.

Building an eCommerce website from scratch is a tall order, however, Shopify is a platform that can help you immensely in this undertaking. Over one million businesses use Shopify as their preferred eCommerce platform because it offers quality, efficiency, simplicity, and rich features. A Shopify ecommerce development store account gives eCommerce businesses the ability to install and test new themes for their digital “storefronts” before they decide to use the platform.

Shopify Development Store Main Features

According to Shopify, Development stores allow organizations to:

Install and test apps and themes still in development

Build a demo Shopify store

Essentially, development stores offer the ideal test environment to build online eCommerce platforms without any trial constraints that expire after a set length of time. With Shopify, you can set up a development environment without affecting your original storefront (if you have one) and then migrate your store over to the new design once you’re happy with it.

Pro-tip: All new development stores are password protected. This means that visitors can only access the development store by entering the password on the password page, logging into the development store’s admin, or through a Shopify Theme Store or Shopify App store demo link. Unlike the customizable password page for a free trial store or paid plan, the development store password isn’t linked to the online store’s theme and cannot be customized.