WooCommerce or Shopify: Which Should Be Chosen For Your Ecommerce Business?

When it comes to build an ecommerce store, there are many ecommerce web development platforms available which really stand heads and tails above the rest. Out of these Shopify and WooCommerce are most popular and that is for a reason. However selecting the best platform can be a typical question as both seem pretty good. They both have good reviews and number of people recommending them. So how do you know which one is appropriate for you?

Here’s a comprehensive to break-down of everything you want to know about Shopify and WooCommerce with recommendations on which one is suitable. Let us help you on what makes one solution better than the other:

What Is Shopify?

It’s an online ecommerce development platform that enables you to build an online store. Here you don’t need to hire an expert developer as Shopify will guide you by the hand. There’s a huge community of users and experts of Shopify willing to help if that’s not enough. You can sell products, including physical items, shipped products, and even services. Those having a brick-and-mortar store can integrate it with your Shopify UAE store.

Anyone looking to build an online store or a turnkey solution, than Shopify is a solid option which allows running really quickly.

What Is WooCommerce?

For better understanding of WooCommerce, it’s important to WordPress, a popular open-source website building platform which runs 28.9% of the internet with some of the biggest sites out there. But WordPress was never designed with ecommerce in mind. It was designed to one-point solution for creating and managing content with a dynamic website. It is immensely popular due to plugins which extends its functionality in exciting ways and allows doing much more than just publishing blog posts. To add more WooCommerce is a plug-in which adds a host of ecommerce features like shopping cart, product pages, and inventory management to any WordPress site.

Features Of Shopify

Let’s explore Shopify to give you a good feel for the service.

Design Options

Shopify offers 50 professionally designed store themes, out of which 10 are free. These are professionally designed with easy customization facility according to look and feel of your shop. These themes are outsourced to be designed by professional developers who ensure that it’s appropriately updated. Also Shopify makes it easy to change the design options like colors and styles on your ecommerce store. Those preparing for a new product launch can edit the sections of store without taking it offline.

Pricing Options

Shopify offer various pricing tiers that gives more features as the price goes up. The most popular pricing package for Shopify are:

• Lite ($9 per month)
• Basic Shopify ($29 per month)
• Shopify ($79 per month)
• Advanced Shopify ($299 per month)

Shopify Features

Shopify offers a robust set of features right out of the box, including:

• Unlimited file storage
• Multiple languages
• Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
• Drop shipping capabilities
• Manual order creation
• Discount codes
• Blog module
• Card Payments
• Free SSL certificate
• Mobile commerce optimization
• Editable HTML and CSS
• Fully featured mobile app
• Product importing via CSV files
• Different product variations
• SEO-ready site structure
• Individual product reviews
• Social media integration

Shopify now offers enterprise solution called Shopify Plus. You can check the power and features of Shopify Plus in our previous posts.

Ease Of Use

Shopify makes everything quick and easy with live dashboard to track your store performance with adjust settings like shipping, taxes, handling new orders, giving refunds, and more. Every option is available on a single panel so you don’t have to visit multiple spots while adding new products.

Customer Support

Shopify is an all-in-one solution with first class customer care available 24*7 basis via phone, email, or live chat. They have extensive knowledge base containing solutions for most common problems. If you’re worried of getting stuck or run into a problem, Shopify wants to set your mind at ease.

SEO Practice

SEO practices like meta-description and site copy are allowed here with assumption that one needs to add sufficient product descriptions, home page copy, and other SEO-related items. Shopify themes also have reputation for natural linking structures, fast pages loading and clean codes which are important for search rankings.

Why Choose WooCommerce?

Let’s try to explore WooCommerce which offers the same functions with one key advantage: control. Since Shopify stores are developed on Shopify platform, one gets limited in what you can do like themes and selling options. Whereas WooCommerce offers with unlimited options due to WordPress which already have number of themes and plugins to enhance the stores.

With Shopify website is not yours, but you get URL, and you’re restricted only to what Shopify allows you. This approach is good for beginners and lazy entrepreneurs, but not for those that prefer a hands-on approach.

In detail, WordPress and WooCommerce plugins facilitate in building your own store with vast library of plugins to customize and get more control — especially when it comes to designing.

Design Options

WooCommerce has been designed to work with majority of WordPress themes, meaning that designing options are endless. If you have a WordPress site and a preferred theme, WooCommerce will work with it. Those getting started must pick a theme that advertises compatibility to ensure that all features are displayed correctly.

For example; Storefront theme is a fine choice for your ecommerce store.

While Shopify has a range of themes, WooCommerce can also be incorporated into any WordPress theme with own library giving it more variety, not just in template design, but in site features. This creates a nearly infinite selection of possibilities.

This also means that more time is needed for designing website, and all plugins are not free. However Shopify themes are well designed, and you don’t need to mess with design, here Shopify is a better option.

Pricing Option

One needs to purchase a few things like web hosting, a domain name, a theme (if you require a premium one), and any premium plugins. When we talk about pricing, WooCommerce is a cheaper alternative. But, if you purchase a premium theme or plugins, costs will go up.

Features

Here’s what you’ll get with WooCommerce:

• Hundreds of plugins
• Runs on WordPress theme
• Payments via PayPal and Stripe built-in
• Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
• Complete control over your website
• Face book stores extensions
• Unlimited products and categories
• Inventory control
• Mobile-friendly structure

WooCommerce does a lot and it’s free. It’s core features are similar to Shopify’s paid plans which might seems like a more affordable option, but you should be aware that for getting advanced features you may need to buy paid plugins.

Ease Of Use

Working with WooCommerce is as easy as working with Shopify. The initial setup isn’t difficult, but it can take a longer time and involves a few technical glitches, but it’s really not difficult.

To get started with WooCommerce, you need to:

• Buy your domain name.
• Purchase web hosting.
• Install WordPress.
• Install WooCommerce plugin.
• Install plugins needed.

There are several web hosting services provider having specialization in WordPress to take care of everything. Some even provides 1-click WordPress and WooCommerce installation to get your store up and running. Once your online store is up and running, you can proceed with a setup wizard to help you set up; currency settings, shipping options, payment gateways, and more.

Online Support

Unlike Shopify, doesn’t have a central customer support staff. But you can find solutions on their forums or by creating a free account at WooCommerce website. Additionally WordPress and WooCommerce are open source; developers can create the themes and plugins available for support.

WooCommerce SEO

Here WooCommerce outperforms Shopify as WordPress is best for blogging which gives a significant advantage for SEO. In fact, Shopify sites host their blogs externally on WordPress. Using WooCommerce means consolidating the crucial segments; comprehensive CMS for content management and specific SEO concerns like meta data.

So Which Should You Choose?

Ultimately, the choice between Shopify and WordPress comes down to what you want out of your ecommerce store. Both are outstanding for building ecommerce store. If you’re familiar with WordPress, then you might be on learning curve than having to learn the ins and outs of a completely new CMS. But whichever you choose, the end result will be a functional ecommerce store that can accept payments and process orders.

So the question is “What are you waiting for?” The world needs another Amazon. Go create one!