With worldwide retail eCommerce sales expected to increase by over 85% from USD 3.53 trillion in 2019 to USD 6.3 trillion in 2023, the eCommerce industry only continues to expand rapidly. Therefore, to benefit from this massive growth, it’s important to choose the best eCommerce platform for your online business.
Whether your business is a start-up or scale-up, you need to be smart and strategic in deciding which eCommerce platform would work best for you. Two of the top eCommerce platforms for launching online businesses are Shopify and WooCommerce. Both platforms have a sizable market following in addition to having a distinct and thoroughly developed set of features.
Shopify is usually the first choice of most online business owners. However, as the business grows, business owners eventually notice the limitations that come with using Shopify. If you feel the need to move to a self-hosted platform for more control as your shop grows, switching to WooCommerce might be the best option for you. You’ll even learn later on that eCommerce platform migration isn’t that hard to do.
But if you’re still unsure about making the switch, we’ve listed down some pros and cons of using Shopify and WooCommerce.
Shopify vs. WooCommerce
Shopify pros:
- Can be integrated automatically with many apps
- All hosting software is included
- Availability of customer and sales representatives
Shopify cons:
- Monthly subscription
- Higher upfront costs
- Takes a cut of transactions
- Poor SEO ranking compared to WooCommerce
WooCommerce pros:
- Highly customizable
- Plenty of available themes and plugins
- Better SEO performance compared to Shopify
- No monthly fees
WooCommerce cons:
- Needs online development knowledge
- Requires to contract a web hosting environment
- Requires routine maintenance
In addition to the pros and cons listed above, Shopify and WooCommerce have other points of comparison. For instance, WooCommerce is free, open-source, and can be modified to the code, as compared to Shopify which is a closed platform that does not allow access to database and charges a monthly fee.
Shopify operates on a transactional basis, which may negatively increase your operational costs as each transaction has a corresponding fee to facilitate and fulfill. On the other hand, with WooCommerce, you completely own the website and the system, making it more cost-effective for the business.
If your online store is currently hosted in another eCommerce platform, full-service web development agencies like Cultura Interactive can migrate it to WooCommerce while keeping the integrity of your business and customer base without disrupting your operations.
Every business has a set of particular needs that must be satisfied. And if you want to thrive in the eCommerce industry, you need to pick the platform that best meets your requirements. If you want a platform that will allow you to reach your full potential, you should go for WooCommerce.
Shopify’s ReCharge App vs. WooCommerce’s Subscriptions
If WooCommerce has WooCommerce Subscriptions, Shopify has ReCharge. Not sure which option will serve your needs better—ReCharge or WooCommerce Subscriptions? Don’t worry; we understand your dilemma. To make it easier for you to choose which of the two best meets your needs, we’ve differentiated them below.
Recharge is a subscription management tool that functions as an add-on for the Shopify checkout process to control recurring purchases, billing, and payments. It offers a variety of advanced subscription management solutions in addition to basic capabilities that support your business needs. Additionally, it allows you to create a whole new subscription experience or convert Shopify’s current product catalog into any form of recurring order.
On the other hand, WooCommerce Subscriptions allow you to add brand-new payment options to your Woo store. Despite being a premium plugin, you get value for your money. Setting up and running a WooCommerce subscription offer is significantly simplified by the plugin. You can build and manage goods with recurring payments with WooCommerce Subscriptions. This shows that the residual income from these payments will be available for tracking in the future. Additionally, you can offer a range of subscriptions for both physical and digital goods.
To sum it all up, both are great subscriptions to add to your eCommerce store. If you’re looking for a reliable recurring subscription software for your Shopify business, the ReCharge Shopify App can be the solution that helps handle subscription orders, customer relations, marketing, and explore new growth markets.
But if you’re looking for a plugin that’s easy to use with most of its functionalities already on the dashboard, WooCommerce Subscription might be the best fit for your business. It offers a plethora of payment gateway options for automatic recurring and manual renewal payments, as well as automatically generating email invoices and receipts.
Top Benefits Of Choosing WooCommerce
The ideal e-commerce option for entrepreneurs wishing to create and maintain a flexible and highly adaptable web store is WooCommerce. WooCommerce comes with more opportunities to modify and customize.
WooCommerce also allows better search engine optimization. WooCommerce enables you to change each and every part of your SEO, no matter how technical it may be. Its smooth integration with WordPress will also be advantageous to you because it will make it simple for you to publish reliable, excellent content.
WooCommerce allows you multiple variables for your eCommerce store. You can also easily add a product’s variations after integrating it. For instance, you may offer four colors and seven sizes for one t-shirt, totaling 28 product combinations. You can add as many variations as you like for each product.
Final Thoughts
It takes time to migrate your online store from major eCommerce platforms including Shopify to WooCommerce. You may have to create the layout from scratch and set up parameters in addition to exporting and importing your items and customer data from one platform to another. Fortunately, it’s all worthwhile. You have greater growth and expansion options with WooCommerce than with Shopify. They’ll always have new features for you.
WooCommerce is entirely free to use, and it is supported by a group of developers committed to making it as adaptable and versatile as the market demands. As the industry continues to evolve, WooCommerce evolves with it.
Cultura Interactive provides all the tools required for pros while also making it simple for beginners to design a WooCommerce website. Anyone can set up and manage a professional online store with WooCommerce in a matter of minutes.
As a fully certified WooExpert vetted by the WooCommerce Platinum membership program, we understand the nuance of an unoptimized shopping experience for your customers. We’re one of the very few agencies recognized by WooCommerce to uphold high standards of understanding, implementation, and customization of the WooCommerce platform.
Our team of senior experts consistently hone their skills to allow us to fully customize your online store from the ground up or migrate your website from another eCommerce platform without losing a single renewal.
