I've looked at Shopify and it does look like it is a good platform for most uses depending on the kind of market that your client is in however I would be careful. I'm sure that it's all shared hosting which could be a speed/performance problem and the lack of control of the backend would be my main issues. I would just hate to have an issue that I have no control over make the site less optimized.

I think if you're in a niche market that isn't too competitive you should be okay with it. I know they handle all the PCI compliance and stuff like that. I would however probably choose Wordpress over it any day just because of the features and controls.

I think that a site can look good with no images if it's a little blog or a personal website however when it is something like HVAC or an industrial service type company images should be used to convey the message of what they do. Otherwise, a user may be confused about what the websites is about or it would make the site look like it was built on a hosts 'site builder'.