E-commerce stores are an essential part of people’s lives, thanks to which, many of you might have started to run successful online stores on web portals that run on e-commerce platforms. Online stores have made people’s lives very easy as they can conduct basic transactions at their fingertips without having to run to the shopping mall or the grand market. Most importantly, e-commerce stores are more profitable and growth-oriented than opening retail stores. However, opening an online store is definitely challenging, as that requires multiple factors to be taken care of. Choosing the right e-commerce software is definitely important for a successful outcome.
Let us take a look at two of the most popular e-commerce platforms today: WooCommerce and Shopify. These two are the most successful e-commerce solutions to set up online stores. They are mostly chosen for their flexibility, ease of use and the options that they provide. Both offer great solutions for processing payments, customized design, great UI/UX, shipping options and perfect control over your store. Which one should you choose? Let us help you decide on that!
Let us check out WooCommerce:
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WooCommerce and its Advantages
WooCommerce is a free plugin that is used on WordPress websites. WordPress allows you to set up your own website beautifully and sell your products for free, thanks to WooCommerce working in the background. You can choose from a great variety of free and paid themes which can be used as per your taste and needs. Here are some of the Tricks that one can use to customize their WooCommerce Store and subsequently increase their store functionalities to have additional business advantages. However, you have to keep in mind that there are going to be additional costs such as purchasing an SSL certificate, domain name, hosting etc. WooCommerce supports unlimited products and can be integrated with Google Analytics for better insights.
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WooCommerce Disadvantages
Though the installation of WooCommerce is quite an easy process, it has some disadvantages as well. The user should understand that WooCommerce is not a full-fledged e-commerce content management system. It’s a WordPress plugin and is not suited for large stores that are specifically e-commerce portals. If you are going to sell a number of products or if your traffic is heavy, it is probably better to choose a CMS that is specifically targeted at e-commerce stores, instead of WordPress, which is more of a publishing platform.
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Who is it for
WooCommerce is recommended for small businesses and startups that do not have much to sell but have more information to share on their blogs or websites. As WordPress is more suitable for a blog-like platform, it makes sense to use WooCommerce if you are going to be using your web store to sell just a few products to your readers. After all, bear in mind that WordPress isn’t designed for online stores, but it is a great blogging software and offers amazing publishing features.
Let us check out Shopify:
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Shopify and its Advantages
Shopify is an online web-based platform that acts as an all-in-one solution for entrepreneurs to run their own online stores. It’s also one of the easiest and quickest ways to set up an e-commerce site. For a business owner who is not tech savvy, this is very important. You don’t have to know how to code or nor do you have to learn any programming languages to setup your online store with Shopify. Now, Speed up your Shopify store without giving up on the functionality.
With just a few clicks, you can upload your product details and their pictures, and your online store will be ready to go. You don’t have to worry about hosting your website, setting up your content management system, integrating payment gateways, setting up your blog or any of the technical complexities associated with setting up an e-commerce site, as all these features are part of the Shopify platform.
Shopify provides many free themes and layouts to choose from. You also do not have to worry about SSL certificates or SEO, as all these features are optimized for store owners on Shopify. With great flexibility, scalability, 24/7 support and ease of use, Shopify is a great choice.
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Disadvantages of Shopify
A disadvantage of Shopify is that all your data and your website is not completely yours. In the event of policy changes or hikes in fee structure, you will not have many options. Also, Shopify provides comparatively less blogging features, little creative freedom for its users compared to WooCommerce.
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Who is it For
Medium to large enterprises can easily choose Shopify as it is the best choice for heavy traffic stores and because Shopify provides 24/7 support, payment gateway integration, SSL Certificate, themes, etc. for a small subscription.
Shopify is also an ideal choice for entrepreneurs who are not tech savvy but quickly wants to set up his e-commerce store on his own. Shopify helps even rookies start from scratch and launch a fully operational online store in no time. For example, an artist who wants to sell his art on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram etc will find Shopify useful.
WooCommerce or Shopify?
WooCommerce is great for anyone who has an existing WordPress-hosted site, as they can quickly setup an e-commerce store. WooCommerce provides extensive blogging functionality as it is integrated with the WordPress. WooCommerce requires a bit of technical knowledge to integrate it with WordPress. It is difficult for many people to integrate payment gateway, manage hosting, etc.
Shopify, on the other hand, requires no major technical knowledge at all. It’s the ideal solution when you want to start your store from scratch. Shopify is also well suited for medium to large organizations that are very cautious about SSL Certificate and secure online transactions.
In short, if your business is small, and you have a lot of information to share on your company blog, go with WooCommerce installed on a WordPress portal. However, if you are a medium to large business, or if you are an entrepreneur with no technical knowledge, choose Shopify, as it is specifically made for those who want to sell goods and products online.
You may also like:
Tricks to Customize your WooCommerce Store Part-1
7 Tips to Speed up your Shopify Store
How to create Multiple Websites in Woocommerce
