What is the best platform for online stores? There are various online platforms that facilitate the creation of those web pages whose objective is to be an online store.
In this post, we will analyze the most used ecommerce platforms in 2020: Shopify and WooCommerce. Of all the online stores that exist today on the internet, 28% have been developed using WooCommerce and 11% using Shopify. Next, we will compare the main differences and features of Shopify and WooCommerce to see which is the best platform for online stores depending on the type of profile and project that you are going to set up.
Main differences
There are a number of differences that we believe are important to highlight as they will greatly affect when deciding which of the ecommerce platforms you should choose to create your online store.
Shopify
It is a user-friendly platform in which everything is included. It is a platform where many of the complicated steps of setting up an online business such as obtaining a domain or installing some certificates are eliminated. is very easy to useits menus are very intuitive and its loading speed is especially fast. Makes anyone can set up a shop with almost no experience prior, though problems may come later when you want to be more
WooCommerce
It’s about a free plugin for WordPress CMS. Being a plugin that has to be incorporated into WordPress, its use is more complex than Shopify’s because it’s less intuitive. You need your own domain and hosting, but this is much more customizable. that is, you allows more functionsbut need more knowledge about WordPress and web design.
Prices and costs
Accounting is one of the most important factors when setting up a business and that is why we must always keep an eye on it. Let’s see the different price and cost options offered by the platforms.
Shopify
In this case we can see how Shopify offers three types of monthly subscriptions ($29,$79,$299/month). Depending on the type of subscription you choose, you will have access to some conditions or others. With the most basic subscription ($29/month) you can start selling perfectly, the benefits of higher subscriptions are linked to saving you money on commissions from payment gateways, shipments or increasing the number of worker accounts. In addition to this cost, we will have to pay for the domain (around $15), in this case, they will be in charge of maintenance.
WooCommerce
One of the great advantages of WooCommerce is that it is totally free. To access this you need to have WordPress installed on your domain which is also free. The only payment you will have to make to have access to it is the purchase of a domain and the payment of a hosting server.
In addition to these payments, which arise from the creation of the online store and its maintenance, recurring payments may arise from the use of applications, plugins or themes within the platforms. Both platforms have app store and themes. In the case of Shopify you have the Shopify Themes Store and the Shopify App Store and in the case of WordPress you can use the plugin store and the theme store.
It is difficult to make a general analysis of the prices of the themes or applications since these vary a lot depending on the type. What we can say is that the variety of themes and applications is more extensive in WordPress.
Design and customization
Shopify
Setting up an online store on Shopify is very simple and easy and the designs can be incredible since by nature Shopify is created solely for the creation of ecommerce and makes the process very simple. But there is a problem and this is that the number of free themes that Shopify offer is very limited and therefore it is more difficult to make a custom store without spending money in other different themes in the theme store or on other web pages. In the case of the Shopify theme store, there is little variety despite its quality and great optimization.
WooCommerce
In the case of WooCoomerce it is very different, despite having the previously mentioned inconvenience of the greater difficulty of use, its level of customization is extreme and the level of design that can be achieved with respect to Shopify stores is higher. Furthermore, regarding the topics free that exist we can find great variety. As for the payment themes, we also find much more variety than in the official Shopify store.
Positioning: SEO
Shopify
In this case we can observe the most basic tools such as SEO titles, meta descriptions, or image or alt text descriptions. These will suffice as long as you are producing good content on your website. In addition, we can also find applications in the store that will allow you to increase your chances of improving SEO. It is also worth noting that Shopify offers the SSL certificate for free.
WooCoomerce
the tools of SEO that you can use on your website are perhaps broader due to the great variety of plugins that exist in WordPress to help you improve your SEO positioning. In the case of the SSL certificate, it can also be installed for free using plugins.
However, many studies carried out by people in the sector have shown that Shopify loading speed is faster than the loading speed of WordPress sites because they have their own dedicated servers. Therefore, we believe that this section should have Shopify as the winner since loading speed is one of the most important factors in positioning.
Security and commissions
The website security is a very important factor so much for user experience as for positioning. In the case of Shopify, the security certificates are included by default, in the case of WooCommerce you have to install them yourself.
As for the commissions, in addition to the commissions that payment gateways such as paypal or stripe have that you can use on both platforms, in addition Shopify charges commissions ranging from 2.9% to 2.4% depending on your subscription plan.
So which one should you choose?
There is no correct answer. We do not believe that there is a perfect platform or one better than another. We believe that the answer lies in your level of knowledge about Web Design.
If you have zero knowledge about WordPress, you will probably create an online store with WooCommerce it will cost you much more than creating it with Shopify, however, if you already have experience using a CMS, perhaps you should choose WooCommerce for its level of customization and the monthly savings it can bring you.. However, if you don’t have that much experience, Shopify is also a very good, intuitive and fast option that will make the process of creating your store easier and you will get very good results.
However, remember that it is important to analyze the business first what is going to be assembled, think about customers then make a strategic web design plan where we think about the key factors and let us decide what interests us most to reach our objectives forever thinking about the sales funnel.
I hope I have clarified the 2 best options to set up an online store in 2020.
José Alegre is CEO of . Universo Empresa is a Digital Marketing and Web Design Agency that offers services of Digital marketing, Web design Y Private consulting.
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