Looking for the best eCommerce platform for your shop? It is a major choice, and one that is going to have a really long-term impact on your company and entrepreneurial journey.
Additionally, it is a really challenging choice, with a great deal of different factors to take into account. I mean, choosing the very best eCommerce platform is sort of like trying to decide on the very best car…
There is not one overall winner, but you have to prioritize different things and make a decision according to your needs.
Like one automobile will be the very best for your own certain demands, and another vehicle will be the very best for somebody else’s certain needs. But there is no universal best automobile for everybody.
Well, it is the exact same story with all the ideal eCommerce platforms.
Saying that one eCommerce solution would be your greatest all-purpose eCommerce solution for everybody, whatever the company they operate, would be nothing but crazy. There are always gaps, trade-offs, attributes which are crucial for several companies and completely immaterial for many others, etc..
That is something called common sense, Right?
Perhaps if we take a look at the figures, the sector will tell us a very different story.
For example, while Shopify is Most Likely the first name most people think about when they hear “e-Commerce”, It Is possible to see that WooCommerce is actually the leader in the eCommerce Area (chart by Visualizer Lite):
That is BuiltWith.com information , and as you may see, based on these amounts, WooCommerce has 22% market share general — across the whole web.
Does this imply that WooCommerce is, possibly, really the ideal eCommerce system of all of them, regardless of what particular needs you may have?
Let us find out that now. Let us make it a bit more helpful and handle the subject more widely. So:
That is our help guide (5,200 words! ) ) To find out the very best eCommerce platform to your unique needs. We will be looking at several features and characteristics supplied by the leaders of the eCommerce business, then point out what will be the ideal eCommerce platform for different kinds of users.
Can WooCommerce really come on top? Let us see:
The Ideal eCommerce platform contenders
Alright, so the first thing everyone understands when they begin searching for the ideal eCommerce platform for their next business or project is the general prosperity of platform in this marketplace.
If you’re unfamiliar with the subject, merely to demonstrate how mad it really is, here are the platforms which I thought about for the comparison between best eCommerce platforms:
- BigCommerce, Magento, LemonStand, Volusion, Shopify, OpenCart, osCommerce, PrestaShop, FoxyCart, Spark Pay, 3dcart, Big Cartel, Wix,Shopify, WooCommerce Squarespace, Selz, Gumroad, Storenvy, Weebly, E-junkie, SendOwl, Ecwid,
Those are few of the most popular eCommerce platforms which have their communities and dedicated users.
And, of course, they call themselves the very best eCommerce platform at the marketplace… but that is not exactly how things are, I guess.
Therefore, when choosing the final lineup for the very best eCommerce platform, I have decided to concentrate on a few variables: recognition, overall standing, features, customer support, pricing, and ease of usage — all based on preliminary evaluations and my prior experience with the programs. Long story short, we are going to be looking at:
- Shopify (www.shopify.com)
- WooCommerce (www.woocommerce.com)
- Magento (www.magento.com)
- BigCommerce (www.bigcommerce.com)
Phase 1: Who’s the hottest one?
Irrespective of everything I have mentioned above, pointing out of the winner of this popularity contest is not as simple as it might seem.
Whilst WooCommerce is actually the most frequently used eCommerce system available on the market, is it remarkably popular with all the trendy kids?
Getting a quick glimpse of Google Trends — that I accept are not 100 sure truth and are not definitely the final verdict– we could find some interesting results:
First of all woo commerce being popular in market share doesn’t triumph in the Google interest over time trends
It’s been behind Shopify (currently holding the winner title ) and only lately marginally crossed the Magento (the former leader).
After we zoom out a bit, we can observe the eCommerce area was dominated by Magento to the larger part of the decade, jointly with Shopify but Shopify has not taken over the market now.
Everyone has their own way of analyzing Google Trends, but what things to bear in mind is that Google’s “interests over time” metric only relates to search term popularity — as in, how often people look for something — it does not signify, however what occurs afterwards, or that’s the perfect eCommerce platform. They promote themselves in a lot of areas, new women and men become vulnerable to the brand new each single day, plus they explore Shopify around the internet.
It doesn’t create Shopify the perfect eCommerce platform available on the current market, but it certainly makes one to listen to and examine carefully. That we are going to do.
Phase 2: Features
Let us begin by searching through the noteworthy features of every one of our eCommerce platforms. Even though you can find this information on every platform’s official site, being able to peek at them in one place is always excellent. Therefore:
The thing to understand essentially is that every one of those eCommerce platforms provides essentially the exact same pair of “key eCommerce features” — attributes that are vital for each online shop. But the comprehensive collection of these features can be overwhelming, so I recommend you to do your research and comprehensive comparison and get an idea of the platform you finally want to try and then you can visit their official websites for all the details.
For example, Shopify has their POS (point of sale) system which lets you market your merchandise on the internet or on your brick-and-mortar shop with no extra tools or machines — such as extra cash registers, etc.. This can lower your total costs of running a shop hugely. I really don’t feel like I need to make statements such as,”I like WooCommerce’s product direction over I really do Shopify’s” here since it does not really bring much significance to the dialogue. I am only an individual. And my view on the ideal eCommerce platform isn’t any more significant than another individual’s. But the way WooCommerce does something might be more likable for some of you than just how Shopify does the exact same thing. So the important thing here is to test those attributes out on your own and compare that which stage only feels better.
Having said that, as it comes to the best eCommerce system based on the overall abundance of attributes that every platform has to offer, I’d rate it :
I understand this may not seem that useful immediately, but please bear in mind. This decision comes down to the total focus of Shopify on providing essentially every characteristic that a shop owner may gain from, rather than devoting 100 percent to the internet aspect of things. But that’s just me.
Phase 3: Designs
Next, let us discuss the ideal eCommerce platform in regards to layout customization. (Not just readymade layouts, but also the entire abilities of these platforms in regards to customizations and alterations of what the last shop resembles.) Let us take this one :
Designs in Shopify
The layouts or themes out there in Shopify are extremely striking, modern-looking, and ought to be in a position to work in about any market or type of company. The sole drawback is that there are only ten free themes available right now. Shopify appears to be cutting back on the amount of free themes. I am pretty sure that they were more in quantity a few years back.
Just a notice; if you’re trying to find a theme, you do not have to cover as much focus on the particular kind of merchandise showcased in the plan demonstration — those are simply illustration and they do not specify the goal of the theme. Once you pick a theme, they could be adjusted quite well, such as things such as the header, footer configurations, typography, colours, and much more. Obviously, you may even set backgrounds and graphics directly how you want them.
In the long run, Shopify is aimed at providing you a partly pre-filled design which you merely should adjust to match your precise needs the majority of the time. It is not a blank canvas in which you are simply thrown into and do not know what is next.
Designs in Wocommerce
Since you probably already know, there is no such thing as designing in WooCommerce as such. It is a wordpress plugin that is used to create different ecommerce features in the wordpress website. It has its benefits and pitfalls. On the one hand, you have to keep using your existing theme and the entire thing ought to have the ability to work just fine. So less hassle in your part in the case that you currently possess a working WordPress site. However on the other side, you may also encounter some issues with specific regions of the shop not being exhibited as you would like them to. In extreme cases, you may be even made to change the website’s theme entirely to make everything match (but this does not happen frequently ). That having been said, getting things to look precisely like you want them may require a while, and you’ll rarely get the best result without performing some manual tweaks from the theme’s CSS or through some other plugins or means. Here is what my test shop looks like about the default WordPress theme right now:
General, when constructing an entirely new online shop with WooCommerce, it is a good idea to decide on a particular WooCommerce-optimized theme instead of going with a general setup. Here is what the Exact Same shop of mine looks like about the official WooCommerce theme Storefront:
Only to be 100 percent fair, however, we must mention the tens of thousands of WordPress themes which can be found on the net… and the majority of those being capable of managing a WooCommerce shop installation. So WooCommerce is most likely the best eCommerce system in the style flexibility standpoint. And above all, a lot of these topics are entirely , therefore it is going to minimize your initial installation costs, but more on this in the future. In the long run, where Shopify’s theme selection was excellent because of its out-the-box quality, WooCommerce’s provides you more in regard to the customizations potential, but in addition, it requires additional work.
Design in Magento
Though I really don’t have a lot of experience with this platform– despite its prevalence in the market — by what I see, Magento isn’t really powerful in the design section. First off, the business behind Magento does not offer you any themes of their own, which means you only get the principal software. But, those themes are just not that magnificent (at least in my own view ), possibly apart from a few themes on ThemeForest, and you get much more variety and modern-looking layouts from another eCommerce platforms within this listing.
Designs in Bigcommerce
The way BigCommerce approaches themes is sort of like Shopify’s strategy. What you buy is a pair of nicely-designed online shop layouts that follow a particular style and just have to be adjusted here and there. BigCommerce provides you access to both paid and free subscriptions, even though the free section is much more compact than Shopify’s — only seven themes in the time of composing. Should you turn your focus to compensated themes, those can become quite pricey — regularly $145-$250.
As soon as you select the theme, the customization is quite excellent. There is a good deal of settings to play with . In general, a pleasant and effective interface. Total, BigCommerce appears to be providing a little more layout customization possibilities compared to Shopify. There are many components which may be corrected or fine-tuned concerning the way that your shop looks and feels. In the conclusion of the afternoon, however, I consider Shopify’s interface a little more favorable, and that I get the impression the Shopify’s designs require slightly less work until you get them appearing 100% straight. But , there is also the large elephant in the room, WooCommerce, along with its compatibility with tens of thousands of WordPress topics. For this , I want to place WooCommerce initial here. So my final decision re design would be:
Phase 4: Customer support
Running an eCommerce shop is a complex matter, and there may come a point in which you require assistance with whatever platform you select.
When that occurs, the best way to get aid will vary radically between different platforms. By way of instance, since the center WooCommerce plugin is a free open source application, there is no single “service” resource for WooCommerce itself. Alternatively, you’d want to reach out through other ways.
Maintain those essential differences in mind while you make your choice…
Total, Shopify or BigCommerce are most probably the best eCommerce platform should you appreciate being able to readily get help, but let us not get ahead of ourselves!
Shopify
When it concerns the Shopify platform , Shopify provides 24/7 support. There are a couple of distinct ways which you can touch base:
- Phone
- Live chat with agent
But not all of the tools which you will use at your shop will probably be official Shopify tools. In other words, you are probably going to be using some third party programs, in addition to possibly a third party Shopify theme.
In this scenario, you’d want to reach from the provider of the product for service, which is hit or miss depending upon the provider.
WooCommerce
The core WooCommerce plugin is a free open source application. That is fantastic for keeping prices low, but in addition, it means there is not necessarily dedicated service for the heart free tool.
Today, that does not mean that you’re out of luck. Moreover, the WooCommerce staff does provide support for several of the paid extensions they provide. In accordance with these,”We simply encourage our Products, offered on WooCommerce.com”.
Beyond this, you will find a great deal of community assistance since WordPress/WooCommerce is so common. You will find a lot of tutorials etc, all which may help you to find answers. Or can pay us to get a WordPress care assistance, a few of which provide dedicated WooCommerce service programs.
However , in other case , such as Shopify, you might also generally get support right from the developers if you acquire a third party extension or theme.
BigCommmerce
They provide support via:
- Phone
- Live chat
These service staff can assist you with more than just the technical things, also, as BigCommerce advertises them having the ability to assist with”anything associated with promoting on BigCommerce and developing your company”.
BigCommerce additionally has a major knowledge base should you prefer helping your self.
Magento
Magento is sort of like WooCommerce as it comes to offering assistance. While I will Discuss pricing in much more detail in another part, Magento comes in two packages:
- A free open source tool you can set up yourself (known as the Community Edition).
- An hosted (and compensated ) enterprise service in the Magento team.
Should you utilize the free Community Edition, Magento doesn’t offer support. Alternatively, you ought to rely on community service or got for a third party service service.
But if you cover the Enterprise edition of Magento, then you are going to receive dedicated support through email and phone.
Like others, Magento additionally keeps a knowledge base which you may utilize.
If you don’t want to handle this yourself, no need to worry. You can contact us for any assistance and support regarding your eCommerce Store regardless of the platform you are or will be using, and will take care of that.
Phase 5 Ease of use
There are two important thing that are important to consider when analyzing the ease of use of the Very Best eCommerce platform: Just how simple it’s to begin and build an internet shop from scratch and secondly if the consumer handle everything by themselves, with no external assistance.
Shopify
The signup procedure in Shopify is quite well optimized. It requires the user step by step and does not request a lot of information at every stage.
To begin, all that is required is the email address, password, and a title to your shop. Following that, Shopify takes you from the hands and asks a few questions to have a better knowledge of where your company is at. All this information helps them maximize your shop from the get-go.
It is really neat, and really does a fantastic job in pointing you in the ideal direction and also to all the very important tasks which you may do while handling your shop
You can find your orders, products, clients, reports, and everything.
Additionally, Shopify takes an interesting approach in regards to the positioning of the internet shop itself from the consumer panel.
That is why all management sections which are purely about the online shop are managed in the”Online Store” section(it is possible to see the sidebar link from the picture above).
Besides the online shop, Shopify also enables you to use a easy purchase button, Facebook selling module, or their renowned Point of Sale program (to market in a real-world brick shop/place ).
This is actually cool, and the general absence of noise in the UI makes it all very simple to use, not just when you are first setting up the shop, but if dealing with it on a daily basis too.
The somewhat more mundane items — such as the most important store configurations — are introduced in an easy, not confounding manner.
Overall, I must give it to Shopify at the ease of use division — 10/10.
WooCommerce
Starting a WooCommerce shop is much more than straightforward provided you currently have a functioning WordPress site.
To start with, let us bear in mind that WooCommerce is eCommerce plugin, whereas Shopify and BigCommerce are all eCommerce services which don’t need any setup per se. To begin using WooCommerce, first you must discover a fantastic host, install WordPress in your accounts, and just then it is possible to proceed into the WooCommerce section of this offer. Fortunately, nowadays all fantastic web hosts offer you one-click installs for WordPress. (For this, we advocate WooCommerce hosting using SiteGround.)
As soon as you own WordPress, essentially all you do is set up the primary WooCommerce plugin, activate it, and you are ready to go.
WooCommerce will then take you throughout their on-boarding wizard, and assist you place all of the important information of your internet shop
Through which, the aim of every page inside the shop is clarified, you have to place the shop’s place (money, place, default settings ), taxation, online payments integration, along with other items. And fine, I understand this isn’t especially a problem for you perhaps, but we must keep in mind that WordPress could be rather confusing to a newcomer, and also the necessity to set up a WordPress website and just then a WooCommerce shop is far from intuitive.
Even when you do be able to put in everything, the continuing work with your shop is not as apparent as it’s with Shopify, for instance. Even Taking a Look at the primary WordPress sidebar, it becomes evident that the eCommerce elements get a little lost among all of the additional WordPress-proper stuff:
Alright, maybe I want to reduce WooCommerce some slack here. Everything I’m calling”an issue” here is essentially just a problem for the first two or three occasions when you learn how to socialize with the entire setup. Following that, it is pretty much smooth sailing, as well as also the administrative tasks could be carried out quite effectively.
Furthermore, in the event that you currently have a fundamental comprehension of WordPress as a platform, then you might discover that handling products functions very similar to handling pages or posts.
Overall, I would say that WooCommerce is as easy to use as Shopify. Only that that comes as a minor con is the initial setup and the fact that it’s a plugin and not a standalone tool. I will give wocommerce 8.5/10 in ease of use
Magento
Obtaining an internet store started on Magento from scratch can be much more problematic compared to WooCommerce.
Let us focus on the free community version here, for reasons which I will describe in the pricing department.
Like wordpress, you will get one step installer for magento from all good web hosts that you can use to install your magento site.
I do not suggest installing the system . Though there will be the official docs and a great deal of tutorials, it is nevertheless a rather technical procedure you don’t want to manage.
Following the setup, the principal dashboard is quite clear and provides you all of the principal features in a neatly organized menu.
That having been said, the appearance and feel of that is considerably more technical than it’s in Shopify or even BigCommerce. Magento is aimed at providing you all of the eCommerce attributes possible and letting you determine just how much of it you actually require. The reports are amazing, so are the stats and advice you obtain about the condition of your shop, but overall, this can be a much more enterprise-level platform, and maybe not so simple to grasp for somebody who’s only getting in their eCommerce travel.
Total, Magento has its own learning curve that is marginally steeper than Shopify’s or WooCommerce’s, but a lot of it is from the first setup and receiving your shop operational. However, I give it 7/10 mainly on account of the challenging installation.
BigCommerce
Below the hood, BigCommerce is very similar to Shopify — they are both cloud-based eCommerce platforms, plus they are both something which you subscribe to, instead of something which you just download and then set up yourself.
Due to that, BigCommerce installation is extremely simple also, just like Shopify’s.
This dashboard is fine, no special issues with it, but it is a tad bit less favorable than Shopify’s. I do acknowledge, it may just be me and my very own preference towards particular UI options over others.
The only apparent disadvantage is handling and adjusting your shop layout. This one is somewhat awkward and not as instinctive as coping with WooCommerce themes or Shopify layouts. Aside from that, managing products, clients, orders, etc., it is all good.
In regards to the total overview of the simplicity of usage around, I must provide it to both Shopify and BigCommerce since the very best eCommerce platform in regards to ease of use. As good as WooCommerce and Magento are, that the newcomer consumer will simply not have the ability to place up those platforms by themselves.
Phase 6: Pricing
The best part. Or worst part?
I figure it is the best if you are using WooCommerce, and also the worst in case you are using Magento… but I am getting slightly ahead of myself.
Here is the Complete pricing table comparison
One important issue to point out would be not to get too enthused with WooCommerce’s apparently attractive pricing. While, yes, the platform itself is absolutely free, and all of the elements required to make it usable (including PayPal payments, etc.) are free, you may require quite a few of paid extensions to receive some useful additional capabilities. This will increase your invoice.
For inntance, and I understand That Each business Differs and needs different components, but I believe we could presume that those extensions can prove useful for many:
- Product Add-Ons — for extra product personalization choices. By way of instance, you may ask your client what kind of text they would love to have printed in their t-shirt. $49.
- Printt Invoices & Packing lists. $79.
- Product Bundles — provide kits or other sorts of product packages. $49. $79. $79. $79. $49. Search engine optimization is obviously crucial for eCommerce platforms.
- USPS Shipping Method– get quick shipping rates from the USPS API. $79.
- UPS Shipping Method– the same for UPS. $79.
- Order/Customer CSV Export– export order and customer data to a CSV file. $79.
- And we will surely not forget about the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin. $49. SEO is always key for eCommerce platforms.
Once we add up all that, that is $414. And if you would like support for over 1 year afterward consider yearly payment.
Naturally, in all honesty, those add-ons could be bought as you move along and precisely once you want them, but it is nevertheless an investment which you’ve got to be prepared to carry on. From the table above, For the hosting in Site Ground, I am saying that it is around $100 annually. They’ve some hosting programs they promise to become WooCommerce-optimized. From those 3 tiers readily available, I would not recommend going below GrowBig or even GoGeek, that can be $5.95 and $11.95 respectively.
Doing the maths, let us say that you want only half of these extensions mentioned previously, therefore around $192 of extra investment necessary to reach out to your customer. Plus the hosting company $72 — also we’ve got $264 for its year. Still very — really — appealing pricing, but far from “free”
(Just for comparison, the ideal eCommerce platform program in Shopify — $29 — adds around $348 per year, even though you might want to buy some extra paid Shopify programs in addition to that.)
And we are not done yet.
Another factor to remember when choosing the very best eCommerce platform for yourself would be to inspect the transaction fees and credit card processing prices. But, based on the payment gateway you use, you may acquire double-charged with a few eCommerce platforms.
For example, Shopify charges 2 percent per trade if you would like to use an outside gateway for example PayPal rather than Shopify Payments. In addition to this, PayPal also costs their particular fee, at the assortment of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
BigCommerce and WooCommerce do not place any fee in addition to your transaction so much as I know, therefore the only fees that you pay are those from the payment gateway.
Total, for me personally, it comes down to this:
I adore WooCommerce for the simple fact which you’re able to find the bare-bones working installment just for the purchase price of hosting, and now that I adore Shopify for their $9 entry-level subscription plan. That is why they get 10/10.
Final Decision
Here Is how things stand Contemplating all that Has been Mentioned above:
In case you’ve got a WordPress site and you merely wish to begin an internet shop within an addition to it, then there is hardly any point in picking out anything aside from WooCommerce. Underneath the hood, it is only a WordPress plugin which you are able to install and maintain everything under a single admin panel. WooCommerce does not lack in any critical eCommerce region. You will be thrilled with it using it base of your internet shop.
Nonetheless, in any instance — and particularly if you’re a little – to midsize company — go right ahead and test Shopify. It is the easiest to use interface, the easiest setup of all of the platforms included, and offers you the complete package of attributes necessary to construct and conduct a successful eCommerce shop.
Here is yet another look at all of the features rated when Looking for the best eCommerce platform:
But clearly, that is only me and my very own opinion, and that I completely respect that you may have yet another favourite on this listing. Don’t hesitate to talk about in the comments. What is the no.1 important quality that the ideal eCommerce platform has to possess?Need help with your eCommerce Store Development or need assistance or support services ? Check us out here. You can hire us for any type of consultancy as well.
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