WordPress vs. Shopify: Which Is Better for Ecommerce?
Are you considering launching your online business and thinking about the tools that you can utilize for your online business? If yes, then you would be surprised to know that there are plenty of ecommerce stores that you can choose from. However, the most popular choices among all those ecommerce platforms are WordPress and Shopify.
In case you already have a WordPress website, it’s likely that you’ll want to stay with the WordPress platform. So, all you need to do is install WooCommerce to begin selling your products and services along with your WordPress website. The best part about it is that you’ll get amazing results because of WordPress’s flexibility and cost-effective prices.
Shopify is a great option if you’re quite focused on e-commerce and want an inclusive website builder as per your requirements. Shopify is the leading e-commerce platform and can help you generate a lot more sales. The only negative point that you may find with Shopify is that it costs a lot more than WordPress. But you can still try Shopify for free for a maximum of 3 days, and there’s no credit card required. It will help you a lot in knowing whether it is the right fit for you or not.
In this insightful blog post, you’ll get to learn about which platform is better, WordPress vs Shopify. So, let’s begin!
WordPress vs. Shopify: Which Is the Right Option?
With unmatched adaptability and impeccable performance, Shopify will prove to be a holistic ecommerce website builder and provide you with an excellent website in a short time span. Even if you’re exploring this platform for the first time, you can ask Shopify support for help to assist you with the technical stuff. The Shopify support team is available 24/7, and they’ll resolve all your issues. If Shopify is the right fit for you, sign up for the 3-day free trial and test its features before opting for it.
If you want to utilize the functionalities of WooCommerce, you first need to have a WordPress website. The most wonderful thing about it is that you’ll get direct access to different types of functionalities. It can range from different types of WordPress themes and even apps to taking care of content and SEO as well. In case you want a more manual solution and have the basic know-how around the technicalities, you should definitely check out WooCommerce.
WordPress(WooCommerce): The Clear Winner
Open Source
WooCommerce is completely free and is open-source as well. That’s why it is the number one option for startups and even small businesses that want to have a robust online selling platform. One of its USPs is that it integrates wonderfully well with WordPress. Moreover, any person, designer, or programmer can change the code, giving you access to a big community that will help you get inspired. You can even share ideas to make the site management a lot simpler. However, you need to be aware that there are some WooCommerce extensions for which you will have to pay a certain fee.
Personalization
You can choose from the theme of your choice from a huge variety of professional and great-quality themes. Alongside this, you can even decide about how you want your website to look by tailoring different types of sections, such as header, footer, product pages, and even checkout. If you think about the plugins, then they are also customizable.
Useful Plugins
WordPress plugins are very helpful for e-commerce sellers because they don’t complicate the tasks and rather simplify them. WooCommerce is itself a plugin that will convert the standard WordPress website into a properly functioning e-commerce store. You just have to upload the products, and the whole process becomes a lot simpler. There are distinct types of plugins that you can use for distinct types of tasks.
Flexible Product Management
You can even create web stores with the help of WooCommerce to sell not just physical but digital products as well. You will also have the opportunity to add the products on a regular basis and even have different product types as well. The platform will help in making the inventory a lot simpler because of its WordPress-centric user interface, which will ensure that you track the current stock levels and take care of the day-to-day inventory.
Mobile-Friendliness
In today’s time, mobile devices have become an important part of our lives. That’s why WordPress’s mobile-friendly design and themes are a great starting point. You can benefit from it considerably because of the responsive website technology without facing any issues related to the creation of new websites.
Many Extensions
There are different types of extensions available, which consist of free and paid ones as well. They can be selected as per your particular requirements in case you have a WordPress website. It’s a great option if you can add functionality to your online store to boost the customer experience without even writing code. You also have different types of extension options like store management, product page, checkout, payments, shipping, and reporting.
Helpful SEO Capabilities
WooCommerce SEO isn’t as challenging as the olden times. The reason behind this is the WordPress plugins and extensions that you can opt for according to your particular requirements. You can choose any plugin or extension that you feel is right for optimizing your website. Moreover, the extensions and plugins must undergo updates, which will make it a lot more efficient and safe as well.
Foolproof Cybersecurity
Hackers have a lot more advanced methods nowadays to steal your private data. However, on the other side, consumers are also aware of their right to privacy. So, WooCommerce will give a lot more priority to foolproof privacy, along with safety in transactions, to create a dependable and safe environment for the users. There are many updates that will ensure that this e-commerce platform will be vigilant about the security problems and will be very much aligned with the new version of WordPress.
Different Payment Gateways & Currency Support
WooCommerce provides geolocation support, which will help you accept different currencies across the world. You can have many payment gateways and even shipping options to attract customers living in distinct countries. This will definitely increase your sales and revenue. If you think from the customer’s point of view, the flexibility to pay in a particular currency and tax rate will make things a lot easier. So, both parties will have a win-win situation.
Instances Where WooCommerce Lacks
It Lacks Contemporary Features
WooCommerce helps developers build web stores. That’s why you can’t utilize the platform as a proper e-commerce content management system or CMS. The reason behind this is that it lacks some of the most important contemporary features, which can even make the store management easier. Furthermore, many of the themes and features will improve the customer experience, which will cost a lot of money, increasing the project’s overhead.
Regular Updates
The frequent updates that you’ll receive are going to ensure that your digital store has proper security and is properly aligned with WordPress. However, it can become a bit too much. With many updates, WordPress for e-commerce can become significantly more time-consuming. So, you should be prepared to take care of common problems that are related to updating a WordPress plugin. It includes having data backup and testing as well.
Difficult for Beginners
When you navigate WordPress, you’ll arrive at the conclusion that it is challenging for people who don’t have specific experience in web development or marketing. The same thing applies to WooCommerce as well. There’s minimal maintenance support, and you’ll have to depend upon online forums to get solutions. You should have a good amount of web knowledge to know which advice you need to follow. Furthermore, if you want to tailor your site, you require robust coding knowledge.
Performance Issues
The thing about too many plugins is a reality. WooCommerce users usually have to install many plugins to add functionalities, so they’ll have to pay for the price somewhere else. Plugins take up a lot of memory, and you may even have to face a slow downloading speed along with subpar performance.
Shopify Wins in These Cases
Mobile-Responsive Themes
Did you know that there are ten free themes and 64 premium themes available in Shopify? Each one of these themes is mobile-responsive. This clearly means that your website will automatically reformat as per the smaller screens, which will appeal to customers who have logged in through their smartphones. The themes will look fantastic and even professionally designed. It is available in distinct styles which will match your brand test.
Robust Security
Are you aware of the fact that a customer will only wait for just three seconds on your website? If in that time frame, your website doesn’t load, they’ll abandon the site. In fact, one in every ten customers expects that the website will load within a second. To adhere to this requirement, Shopify provides 100% SSL to ensure that the website loads with lightning-fast speed. Alongside this, customers pay through credit cards, which keeps things a lot more secure. At the same time, Shopify has several cybersecurity experts on their team who keep its website hack-proof. They even integrate it with different payment providers so as to ensure that the checkouts are quick and even safe for the customers.
Custom Domain
Once you’ve signed up with Shopify, you’ll get a custom domain name, and you can also choose one as per your needs for your business. It will help you a lot in carrying out the right type of branding for your company. Furthermore, it will also give you the flexibility to take control of the exact site location along with your domain store. You can even make changes to the domain site along with your domain store.
Situations in Which Shopify Loses
Transaction Fees
The fees start from $39 per month, and Shopify gives plenty of subscription plans that you can choose from, according to your needs. However, you need to know that there’s a basic plan that has only basic features, while on the other hand, $39 for an e-commerce platform isn’t particularly cost-effective. While Shopify supports different types of payment gateways, you should use Shopify Payments. It’s because if you don’t use Shopify Payments, you’ll have to pay a transactional fee in addition to the payment processor fee. Moreover, you mustn’t forget that you have only ten free themes, and you’ll also have to pay a one-time fee for other options.
Performance Limitations
Shopify is a customizable platform, but it still has some glaring limitations. In case you want to get all of the benefits, you should work on your coding extensively, because otherwise, it will remain locked. On the other hand, you can even customize your website without having to spend long hours by carrying out detailed coding on its platform.
Minimal Learning Curve
Each one of the e-commerce platforms has its own learning curve, but Shopify’s learning curve is even steeper. The thing that complicates it a lot more is the website’s jargon. For example, rather than saying categories, Shopify utilizes Collections. However, these might even confuse some of the customers. But the main issue with Shopify jargon is that it complicates the user experience significantly. So, the minimal learning curve can cause plenty of issues related to the Shopify store, and a negative user experience is one of them.
Final Words
You cannot opt for the right platform between Shopify vs WordPress easily, as both these options have their own set of benefits. Shopify is one of the spectacular e-commerce website builders that offers amazing support to help with the technical stuff. WooCommerce is an impeccable choice for those businesses that have WordPress-powered websites. So, at the end, it depends upon your particular requirements.
Are you looking to get spectacular WordPress or Shopify development services? If yes, Kinex Media should be your only choice. We provide customized web development services for businesses. Get in touch with us now to book our web development services today.
