The best products, services, and ideas can end up going unnoticed or unsold unless you can get them in front of customers. And nowadays, eCommerce businesses accomplish that through robust online purchase platforms—or eCommerce platforms.
Think of eCommerce platforms as the new storefront; whereas people used to walk past a shop window or browse and purchase in person at a retail outlet, those opportunities to see and purchase your goods are now taking place online. And an eCommerce platform is the tool you use to make your online store a terrific customer experience through ease of use, customer support, and more.
Here we want to take a look at two of the more popular and feature-driven eCommerce platforms that businesses utilize—WooCommerce and Shopify—and find out if one or the other offers more benefits or features that can benefit your online business.
eCommerce Platforms for SMBs
WooCommerce
To get started, let’s take a look at WooCommerce. Similar to Yoast, the WordPress plugin for SEO, WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin that integrates with one of the world’s most popular content management systems – WordPress. The open-source WooCommerce WordPress plugin, launched in 2011, has allowed countless businesses to add an eCommerce store to their WordPress site, enabling a wide range of robust features and security while enabling virtually any business to turn their site into an eCommerce site.
According to some estimates, the WooCommerce eCommerce plugin is currently utilized by more than 40% of eCommerce websites – nearly double the percentage of sites using Shopify. While there are many reasons for the popularity of WooCommerce, two of the biggest factors are the fact that so many businesses already utilize WordPress as their CMS, and that WooCommerce is an open-source platform that is very beginner friendly and free to start using.
In addition, WooCommerce is often praised for its scalability, meaning that as your business and your eCommerce store grow, the platform is capable of handling increased product listings, customers, and sales volume.
Given this popularity, it should come as no surprise that there are tons of well-known and highly trafficked businesses using WooCommerce stores for their online sales. Just a few terrific examples include Nalgene, Offerman Wood Shop, Orange Amplifiers, and Nordic Ware Australia.
Shopify
As mentioned above, Shopify comes in at just around half of the usage that WooCommerce currently sees, but it is also growing rapidly. Between 2020 and 2022, the number of active Shopify stores grew by more than 200%.
Much like WooCommerce, Shopify is designed to be a user-friendly eCommerce platform that allows small businesses and large companies alike to expand their online sales. Unlike WooCommerce, however, Shopify is not free or open source; instead, Shopify is a subscription-based software solution, with multiple monthly subscription pricing plans available depending on various business needs and features.
Most Shopify plans include all of the essential elements you would need to begin selling through an online store, including customer accounts, payment processing for online and in-person credit card usage, shipping, and so on. There is also a Shopify Lite plan, but this version does not offer you the online store option that is a part of other plans.
In terms of some of the big names currently relying on Shopify, you’ll likely recognize names such as Fitbit, Penguin Books, Budweiser, and Red Bull (among many others).
WooCommerce Vs Shopify for eCommerce Businesses
Between these two eCommerce platforms there are definitely a good number of similarities. For example, both WooCommerce and Shopify offer mobile-responsive functionality, they allow customers to use coupons and promo codes, they feature built-in shipping rate calculators, and they let you display and sell an unlimited number of products.
Beyond the basic similarities and differences between the two, let’s go deeper into what separates these two remarkably popular eCommerce platforms and some of the ways that these differences may impact your choice to use one or the other.
Setup and Installation
WooCommerce setup is easy and fairly straightforward. You simply download the plugin from the WordPress application store to get started. However, because it is a plugin and not a comprehensive eCommerce solution, you are still responsible for setting up your SSL certificate, hosting, domain name, and so on.
For many businesses this is not a big deal (because you may already have done that for your WordPress site), but it is worth mentioning and making a note of. WooCommerce does make the addition of products fairly easy, since it is just like creating other content for your site within the familiar WordPress CMS. But for some functions, WooCommerce may have a steeper learning curve than Shopify.
Shopify differs from WooCommerce in that it is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that does not require connecting it to your existing website. Once you sign up with Shopify and select a plan (from basic Shopify to advanced Shopify, etc.), you’ll be provided with a cloud-based Shopify store, custom domain, and SSL certificate—items you need to source separately if using WooCommerce.
Rather than creating individual listings for each of your products manually, Shopify does allow you the option of uploading a CSV file of your entire product catalog, or even bringing your products over from another platform.
While WooCommerce is known for being the eCommerce solution for businesses with WordPress sites, Shopify can also be integrated into your existing site on WordPress, Squarespace, and other platforms. And the continued growth of Shopify points to further enhancements and possible integrations in the future.
Price
Earlier we mentioned that WooCommerce is a free option, while Shopify is based on a software-as-a-subscription model. And while that’s true up front, there are still costs associated with using both.
The WooCommerce plugin itself is free to download and integrate into your eCommerce site on WordPress. However, you will still need to pay for your domain name, SSL certificate, and possibly custom themes (if utilized). For hosting and the SSL certificate, you may pay less than $50 per year for your eCommerce site. But additional variables affecting the total price include the amount of storage you need, and any extra features or services you might want to add to your eCommerce site.
Shopify offers a number of different subscription options. The lowest priced Shopify plan is Shopify Starter, which allows you to sell products through social media and on messaging apps for as little as $5 each month. Basic Shopify comes in at $29 monthly, and plans go up in features and capabilities from here to $79/month for Shopify and $299/month for Advanced Shopify. High-volume businesses doing significant monthly sales may opt for Shopify Plus, which is a top-tier, $2,000-per-month solution.
Variables that may impact the real cost of a Shopify plan include things such as credit card processing rates, transaction fees, and additional functions. Any of these individual rates is usually reduced as your subscription level goes up, so be sure to consider these as part of your overall rate estimate.
Comparing costs on Shopify vs. WooCommerce is not entirely straightforward, but you can see that the monthly fees associated with Shopify plans are higher than getting started with WooCommerce. Additional pricing considerations include your web hosting plan and hosting provider’s costs, other payment options you may choose to accept or incorporate, your use of Shopify themes or WordPress themes, whether you need to purchase templates, and so on.
Dropshipping
For businesses offering physical products, dropshipping has become one of the most popular and most important innovations. Dropshipping essentially allows small businesses to produce and ship products once an order is placed, sending them directly from a wholesaler or manufacturer to the customer. This relieves small businesses of the headaches and costs associated with having to mass produce and store items up front, then wait for orders to (hopefully) come in.
Both Shopify and WooCommerce function very well for small businesses that utilize dropshipping for their products. The main difference here is in pricing. Shopify will generally be more costly here than WooCommerce, especially if you are running multiple stores or online storefronts for your business. Shopify also charges a commission based on your sales volume, and so there is also this cost to consider when choosing between the two.
On the plus side, both WooCommerce and Shopify offer add-ons or extensions that make dropshipping easy. Shopify also integrates with third-party marketplaces such as AliExpress, which can be useful if you are already utilizing and familiar with those options.
Products
As for comparing the two platforms when it comes to products, they stack up fairly evenly. Both Shopify and WooCommerce let you create an unlimited number of product listings. WooCommerce allows you to have unlimited product images and galleries, too, and does not have restrictions on customization. This makes WooCommerce a very attractive option for businesses that want full control over the look of their storefront or eCommerce site.
Shopify is a great choice for those eCommerce businesses that don’t want or need extensive customization, though. Shopify offers nearly all of the same features for your product listings as WooCommerce, including blogging, product reviews, and unlimited products. Shopify also features product tags that have SEO built in, and it makes inventory management very easy as well (without having to add or purchase additional plugins).
Both Shopify and WooCommerce allow you to categorize products easily, making it simple for your customers to sort, filter, search for, and find exactly the products they want.
Payments
Of course, the biggest part of selling things as a small business is making sure that it’s easy for customers to pay you. Fortunately, whether you ultimately choose WooCommerce or Shopify, you will find that you have multiple payment options available.
Shopify allows you to utilize their built-in option, Shopify Payments, which makes it faster and easier for many small business owners and entrepreneurs to get their shop going quickly. In addition, Shopify can be connected to numerous payment methods such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and so on.
WooCommerce also allows you your choice of multiple payment gateways, including PayPal, Square, Stripe, Amazon Pay, and many others. The difference here is that WooCommerce will require you to install these options as a plugin, and keep up with the updating of those plugins as necessary.
The main difference here again is pricing. WooCommerce will only cost you the fees charged by your selected payment processor (i.e. whatever fees PayPal charges). Shopify, on the other hand, charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction when using Shopify Payments. If you choose one of the third-party providers, there is an additional transaction fee that can go as high as 2%.
Although those fees are likely higher than what you will pay with WooCommerce, the ease of having payment processing built in and ready to go right out of the box makes Shopify a worthwhile choice for many eCommerce businesses, and especially those that are just getting started.
When it comes to customer information, many businesses have different needs for collecting data through checkout fields. While the basics are often the same for any product or service, you may be interested in creating custom checkout fields for your eCommerce site. If so, WooCommerce is a terrific choice because it allows you to add and remove fields, decide which fields are required or optional, edit the design of the checkout process, and much more.
For Shopify users, only those at the Shopify Plus level can edit the checkout page code. At other subscription levels you can still add logos, modify colors and text, and choose which fields are required. Because of the “out-of-the-box” design and approach of Shopify, though, you won’t have quite as much customization available as WooCommerce offers.
Shopify vs WooCommerce—Which is Better?
Figuring out which option is better is ultimately going to be a unique process for each business. As you’ve seen, there are advantages to each of these options, as well as considerations.
For example, WooCommerce is ideal for someone who is well versed in web development, and who is interested in having maximum control over the setup process.
Meanwhile, Shopify is an ideal choice for small business owners and store owners who do not have a lot of technical knowhow, but who are looking for a hosted platform that will allow them to start an online store as quickly and easily as possible.
For both of these options there are countless tutorials available, and a wealth of information on everything from third-party payment gateways to search engine optimization within your store and more.
Choosing the best eCommerce platform for your business needs and goals will often come down to some concrete factors and your personal preference. If you already manage your business’ online presence through a WordPress website and you are very familiar with that platform, WooCommerce is a strong choice. If you don’t yet have a website set up and you are looking for the fastest way to get your online business transacting, then starting with a Shopify store might be a strong option.
Create Your Own eCommerce Website Today
Hopefully this article has given you a good breakdown of the two most popular eCommerce options for small businesses and large corporations alike. If you’re just getting started on launching your eCommerce business, there are a number of additional articles and resources at UpCity that can offer further insights into best practices for eCommerce strategy, as well as some of the must-have items to make your eCommerce site an effective one. And for top-level consultation, service, and advice on your eCommerce development project, you can always reach out to one of dozens of verified providers in the UpCity network.