Are you thinking of starting an online shop?

Not sure whether you should use Shopify or WooCommerce?Shopify and WooCommerce are the two top E-commerce platforms in the world. Choosing the right e-commerce platform that fits your business needs is crucial for your success. In this short guide, I will talk you through the pros and cons of both.

Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce solution that makes it easy for you to create an online store, accept payments, and manage your inventory, all from a single platform. With Shopify, you don’t need to worry about the technical aspects of managing an eCommerce site such as web hosting, security, caching, etc.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plugin built for WordPress. It allows you to leverage the most powerful content management system (CMS) and use it to run an online store. WordPress is the most popular website builder on the planet powering 43% of all websites, and what many don’t know WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform (even more popular than Shopify). Because of the open-source nature of WooCommerce, you can customize every aspect of your store and easily add custom extensions.

What to Look for in an eCommerce Platform?

There are a few things that you absolutely need to keep in mind when starting an online store. These key factors will help you decide which platform is better suited for your needs.

• Budget – The initial cost of starting a fully functional ecommerce store.
• Ease of use – It should be easy to use even for absolute beginners.
• Payment Methods – It should have support for multiple payment methods (e.g. PayPal, Stripe, other merchant processors).
• Integrations – Number of services and third party tools you can integrate to grow your eCommerce business.
• Scalability – The platform should be able to scale as your business grows.

Cost: Shopify vs WooCommerce

Cost is often the most important consideration for eCommerce website owners. You need to evaluate the cost of getting started while also keeping in mind the variable costs for add-on services and software.

The True Cost of Using Shopify

Shopify makes it super easy to start your online store. Their basic plan starts at £22.00 per month, and you can upgrade to the Shopify plan for £59.00 or the Advanced Shopify plan for £226.00 per month.

Shopify plans include an SSL certificate and web hosting and, a Shopify branded subdomain (e.g. https://your-store.myshopify.com). If you want to use your own .com domain name, then you’ll need to purchase it separately. The basic Shopify plan comes with enough features to set up a new online store.

You can add unlimited products, 2 user accounts, unlimited file storage, and more. However, this pricing doesn’t include third-party tools and add-ons that you’ll need to take your Shopify store to the next level. As your business grows, these costs will start adding up, and you’ll soon be paying a lot more than the basic plan.

The True Cost of Using WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin for WordPress.org (also known as self-hosted WordPress). It is open-source and available as a free plugin. However, you’ll need a domain name, SSL Certificate, and a WordPress hosting account to start a WooCommerce store. Typically, a domain name costs $14.99, an SSL Certificate costs $69.99, and web hosting costs around $7.99 / month. This is not cheap, particularly when you are just starting out. Thankfully, there are several hosting companies that are now offering specialized WooCommerce hosting plans which significantly reduces the cost.

As you can see, the cost of starting a basic WooCommerce store is significantly lower than Shopify. WooCommerce also doesn’t charge you a percentage fee on transactions which is a very nice perk. Keep in mind that WooCommerce costs start adding up as you purchase paid extensions. Your hosting costs will also increase as your online store grows. However, one clear advantage of using WooCommerce is that you can often find free alternatives to premium themes and paid extensions. You can also keep your costs in control by only purchasing the tools and plugins as you need them. With the number of free themes and free add-ons available for WooCommerce, it’s definitely the winner when it comes to cost.

Ease of Use: Shopify vs WooCommerce

Most users starting an online store are not web designers or developers. Even users who are familiar with basic concepts need a platform that is easy to use and gets out of their way.Let’s see how Shopify and WooCommerce stack up in terms of user-friendliness.

Shopify – Ease of Use

Shopify is a fully hosted platform which means you don’t need to install, manage, or update any software. You also don’t need to worry about security, performance, backups, and compatibility issues.As soon as you sign up, you can choose a design from many of the free Shopify themes. After that, they walk you through customization and then help you add products.

Shopify comes with an intuitive drag and drop interface. Managing your product pages, sales, and inventory inside Shopify is a breeze. One downside of this guided, polished, and highly optimized user experience is that it limits your control. You can only use the design and development tools provided by Shopify or add-ons available in their marketplace. However, this is not as bad as it sounds. For most users, the large selection of extensions and themes available in Shopify is more than enough to get started and grow your online store.

WooCommerce – Ease of Use

WooCommerce is not a hosted platform like Shopify. This means you will need to install the WooCommerce plugin, manage updates, keep backups, and make sure that your website is secure. There are plenty of free and paid plugins that can automate most of these tasks for you. But as the result is so close you can imagine that there are plenty of scenarios when actually WooCommerce would be the better choice.

You should choose WooCommerce if:

• You already have a WordPress website
• You absolutely need multilingual support
• You want to squeeze the last bit of SEO juice out of your store
• You don’t care about speed or scaling and just need the cheapest option available…

To discuss your online store requirements get in touch!

Visit: www.gingerwebsitedesign.co.uk
Call: 07498 200 574
Email: gingerwebsitedesign@gmail.com