WooCommerce or Shopify?

by | May 18, 2022 | E-Commerce

If you operate an e-commerce business, chances are you are familiar with online platforms to drive your store’s shopping experience. Two of the most popular platforms for e-commerce are WooCommerce and Shopify. While the latter is its own platform altogether, WooCommerce is an extension of WordPress.

Let’s get into which platform is best for which kind of business and what you should consider for your own business.

A Quick Comparison

WooCommerce is a great option for businesses that are just getting started with their online presence because it is less expensive than Shopify and you can get started setting up your store relatively quickly.

Shopify, on the other hand, is ideal for businesses that are looking to scale up their online operations quickly and efficiently. It offers a wide range of features and integrations that make it easy to manage your inventory, process orders and promote your products.

Now that we’ve gone over some of the key differences between WooCommerce and Shopify, let’s dive into each platform in more detail.

WooCommerce

Here are some of the key benefits of using WooCommerce:

Cost: One of the biggest advantages of WooCommerce is that it is free to use. You will only need to pay for hosting, which starts at around $20/month depending on the hosting platform. I personally recommend Cloudways to host WooCommerce websites.

Flexibility: WooCommerce is a very flexible platform. With plugins, you can extend the functionality of your store to do just about anything you want.

Customization: WooCommerce gives you a lot of control over the look and feel of your store. You can find themes and plugins to customize just about every aspect of your store.

Ease of Use: WooCommerce is pretty easy to use. Even if you’re not a tech-savvy person, you should be able to set up your store relatively easily.

Shopify

Shopify is ideal for businesses that are looking to scale up their online operations quickly and efficiently. It offers a wide range of features and integrations that make it easy to manage your inventory, process orders, and promote your products.

Here are some of the key benefits of using Shopify:

Cost: Shopify has a monthly subscription fee, starting at $29/month. This is more expensive than WooCommerce, but you get access to a lot more features.

Features: Shopify offers a wide range of features out of the box, including abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, and automatic tax calculations. These features are things that you would need to set up yourself with WooCommerce.

Ease of Use: Shopify is much easier to use than WooCommerce. It has a user-friendly interface and easy-to-understand features. You can get started setting up your store relatively quickly.

Customization: With Shopify, you can customize your store’s theme, some aspects of its layout and install a few different supporting apps. However, you don’t have as much control over the look and feel of your store as you do with WooCommerce.

Scalability: Shopify is a very scalable platform. It can handle a high volume of traffic and transactions without any issues. This makes it ideal for businesses that are looking to grow their online presence quickly.

Which is Best for You?

Of course, this question comes down to the type of business you operate and how many products you offer your customers. For small businesses, WooCommerce is typically the preferred choice as it is essentially free to operate and has a wide developer base. It’s also a good platform if you only have a handful of products you want to sell online. If you have a larger catalog of products, you may want to consider Shopify.

 

Jeff Romero SEO Consultant

About Jeff Romero

Jeff Romero is the co-founder of Octiv Digital and writes about topics in SEO, paid search advertising, web development, WordPress, e-commerce and more. Jeff has been featured in the Huffington Post, Medium, ManyChat, Realty Times and many SEO blogs.

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