When you’re planning out your ecommerce business, it’s important to start with the right platform and infrastructure. You have a ton of options for building your online store, such as WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, and OpenCart. A lot of people narrow down their final options to WooCommerce and Shopify. But how do you know which one is better? And even more important, which one is right for your business?
Comparing WooCommerce vs. Shopify offers an essential starting point when you’re trying to get your store off the ground. Below we provide a guide to help you see if WooCommerce is the right platform for you.
1. WooCommerce Themes are Easy to Use
Your WordPress theme creates the look and feel of your website. It is everything when it comes to building an online store that aligns with your brand. The website theme should be visually pleasing, easy to navigate, match your brand’s esthetics, and it should help showcase your products without adding distraction.
WooCommerce has a wealth of themes that you can choose from and you’ll love the fact that WooCommerce outperforms Shopify when it comes to cost. While both WooCommerce and Shopify have a few free themes, most store owners opt for a premium theme. WooCommerce themes will run between $50-$100, where Shopify themes will cost $300+.
2. WordPress Offers Ton of Plugins to Augment Functionality
Every store is unique and each store will have slightly different needs when it comes to functionality. WordPress offers over 50,000 plugins to augment it’s core feature set. WooCommerce also has a list of official extensions that will build out all the features you need to manage inventory, shipping, taxation, and marketing.
As with themes, plugins will vary in price, but WooCommerce will outperform Shopify on value.
3. WooCommerce is Easy to Use
There’s a learning curve associated with creating any website, but the last thing you want is for your experience launching your site to become cumbersome.
With WooCommerce, the learning curve is slight, since everything about setting these sites up is straightforward. Since it’s WordPress-based, you have access to countless tutorials, videos, and a community of people that can answer any question that you have.
The soon you get your site up and running, the sooner you can build your brand and start earning.
4. You Have Lots of Customization Options
When you work with WooCommerce, it’s easier than ever to have full control over your website and online store. Whether you want to integrate it with social media, embed video, or start a blog, you’re always just a few clicks away.
WordPress and WooCommerce also have lots of options for connecting to on demand services and marketplaces to help expand your supply chain and market reach.
5. There are a Number of Payment Options
WooCommerce offers several payment options you can provide your customers so they can use any method they prefer. You can use WooPayments, Square, or Stripe payment gateways that let people pay with Visa, Mastercard, and other debit and credit cards. You can extend traditional payment options to offer PayPal, Apple Pay, and Amazon Pay. And if it fits your business model, you can even offer extended payment options through Klarna.
6. The Features are Abundant and Plentiful
You’ll want to choose WooCommerce because of the features that it offers right from the start. From simple or variable products to downloads and affiliate links, WooCommerce offers lots of options.
WooCommerce comes with basic shipping, order management, and analytics. And as your store grows, you can continue to add more and more features to accommodate the business changes.
7. You Benefit From WordPress Functionality
WordPress is, without question, today’s standard-bearer when it comes to developing a blog or a website. WooCommerce truly triumphs over Shopify because it is built on the back of WordPress programming.
If you’ve learned WordPress, you’ll thrive when you build a WooCommerce website.
If you’re new to WordPress, the resources for this platform are infinite. You’ll have plenty of support behind you when using the WordPress platform and can hit the ground running with the skills you’ve picked up along the way.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: The Choice is Clear
When comparing WooCommerce to Shopify, it’s clear that WooCommere is considered the cream of the crop for a reason. We can offer you some of the best tools and expertise for your website.
When you’re ready to host and launch your WooCommerce site, reach out online to request a demo. If you’re ready to review hosting options, check out our managed WooCommerce hosting!
Kevin MacGillivray is the Chief Marketing Officer at Pressable, where he’s focused on helping more creators build fast, secure, and successful WordPress sites. He’s driven to grow Pressable’s impact and make it the go-to choice for more businesses. Kevin enjoys making technology feel simple, useful, and inspiring through clear storytelling, creative experiments, and building new ways for the community to connect and thrive.
Kevin lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where you’ll often find him swimming in the ocean, exploring local trails with his dog, Minerva, or embracing the West Coast’s vibrant lifestyle and easy rhythm.
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