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Shopify vs Woo Commerce: Which one should you go for?

Moiz Khan Jul 09, 2020

With the availability of multiple feature-rich ecommerce platforms, initiating an online store has become quite convenient. But at the same time, it is quite confusing to pick the best one. Deciding which one to go for is dependent on what you are looking for. Shopify and WooCommerce are the most renowned e-commerce platforms, allowing anyone to set up an online store and sell their products. Below, we are going to compare Shopify and WooCommerce and help you decide which one you should go for.

WooCommerce


WooCommerce gives you the access to get hold on the most robust content management system and employ it to run an online store. It is an open-source platform where you can customize each feature of your online store.

A Detailed Overview

WooCommerce is a WordPress Plugin which offers free core plugins. Apart from that various add-ons are also available out of which some are paid while others are free.

WooCommerce has multiple features to offer:

  • Various payment gateways such as PayPal, COD, BACS etc.
  • Flat rate shipping and tax setting which incorporates various tax classes and local tax rates
  • Detailed reports including reviews, inventory level, incoming sales, and overall store performance
  • Discount choices, usage restrictions, integrated user reviews.
  • Variety of products inhibiting both physical and downloadable goods


Designing Options

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The developers of WooCommerce are familiar to the worth of design in eCommerce which is the reason they offer WordPress themes that have been specifically optimized for WooCommerce. The specialty of WooCommerce is that it is highly compatible with WordPress when comes to the rich theme selection.
WooCommerce themes proffered on Envato Market have been specifically customized for the plugin itself. Not just this, it also offers various other features like zoom in facilities, attractive sliders, bold imagery and a very receptive design and other top-level aesthetics.

SEO

Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, there are multiple SEO benefits to consider. WP is popular for content essentially and inhibits great SEO capabilities. So, when you place both together, you can assemble both content and information which brings the opportunity of high search engine ranking. Apart from that, WP holds blogging in an adequate and logical way along with the archives and categories which it offers.

How it helps you sell

WooCommerce facilitates its users with free basic features in the core plugins. They are the best to begin with. If you desire to magnify your online store’s prospective, you will naturally choose WooCommerce extensions.
WooCommerce provides many interesting options which allow you to raise your scale, such as selling on Facebook, instinctively record sales in QuickBooks, connect your store with MailChimp, creating repeated subscriptions and a lot more. Some add-ons are paid while others are free.

Help and Support

With a widespread community of users along with developers whose emphasis is to refine and extend WooCommerce through the development of themes and add-ons for it. It offers reliant ecommerce development service along with thorough documentation. Due to which it becomes convenient to find help and chances are that the solution to your problems already exist there.

Costing

Although WooCommerce has a lot of free stuff but there are some payments attached to it. For instance, for a WordPress website you need to buy your own domain name and setting up a hosting plan. The cost varies since it is all dependent on the hosting plans you prefer and the add-ons you desire to pick for your online store.

Shopify


Shopify is an e-commerce platform which has brought convenience to the creation of an online store, accepting payments and managing inventories. Without the worries of handling technicalities like security, web hosting etc.

A Detailed Overview

Shopify is a self-hosted solution but unlike WooCommerce, Shopify offers no free plans but the costing is manageable. This self-hosted solution makes your store ready in a matter of minutes because there is no supplementary software to install.  Just like WooCommerce, there are variety of themes as well as add-ons offered by Shopify which beautifies your store.

Shopify’s main feature includes:

  • Number of professional themes available from Shopify as well as the themes available on Envato Marketplace
  • It is well responsive and owes a mobile-friendly design
  • Gives the ability of owning your domain name
  • A complete blogging platform availability
  • Provides in-depth reports and site-analytics
  • Social media and e-mail marketing integration
  • Product variation, reviews and discounts


Designing Options

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Although, Shopify is not that much of a feature rich like others. It provides a good collection of themes to begin with. Its themes range from free to paid. If you wish to add extra features, Envato Market provides an excellent selection of popular yet affordable Shopify themes. Its themes offer features such as zoom in facilities, quick view options, newsletter, look books, social sharing, huge-menus and a lot more than these. You have a wide variety of multipurpose themes to opt for.

SEO

Shopify development Services has devoted servers which caters purely to Shopify stores. Its overall performance in minutely better as compared to WordPress. It has integrated SEO features like image optimization, tags, alt, defining titles and product descriptions. Another plus point is that SSL certification comes with every plan of Shopify without any charges.

How it helps you sell

Shopify provides a great collection of free features. These features contain discount codes, cart recoveries, Facebook selling, the capability to offer gift cards, and lots more. Just like WooCommerce, Shopify facilitates unique add-ons which gives you the ability to cross-sell, track deliveries and others.

Help and Support

Shopify offers an in-depth documentation and a vibrant community.  When compared, WooCommerce support comes majorly from the community, whereas Shopify has a very devoted team which is available 24/7.

Costing

Shopify offers various degrees of pricing plans ranging from lowest to highest. It also offers a 14-day free trial so you can decide whether to go for Shopify or not. All the plans include limit free products and bandwidth, a blog, free SSL certification. Domain name can be directly bought from Shopify and even you have the flexibility to connect with existing domain name. Final cost will be defined on the basis of the add-ons and features you have bought.

Which platform to prefer?

Both Shopify and WooCommerce are dominant eCommerce platforms. It is a very close comparison. Both are feasible choices for initiating your online store in a quick and smart way.

Apart from being easy to use and feature-rich, both platforms facilitate a number of options when it comes to visual appearance of an online store. They are suitable for a wide variety of industries and are guaranteed to make your page noticeable to the users.

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