When Shopify launched earlier this year, it was the first to provide sellers with a serviced on-line store. That means no mucky software upgrades to perform. All of that is handled by the Shopify staff. In return they take a commission on the value of the sales.

But what is truly great about Shopify is its simplicity. It’s incredibly easy to customise, and whilst its feature set is limited compared to other shopping cart systems it should be sufficient for thousands of store owners.

But today I’ve had it with the Shopify community. Or more specifically feature requests. It’s time for people to ask themselves “do I really need this feature?” Constraints are a blessing to on-line stores. As more options and features are introduced to a store, it becomes more difficult to maintain – both for the developers and the store owners. Plus, if you provide a more complicated, feature-ridden, on-line store to shoppers, there will be less sales.

Adding more to Shopify reduces the value of Shopify. Instead it takes Shopify away from one of its niches and towards becoming a behemoth like Zen Cart, X-Cart or osCommerce. That would be a really bad move.

If you don’t believe me, read these:

• First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Users
• Choices = Headaches
• The Paradox of Choice
• A serious point for ignoring users