Shopify vs WordPress: Which is Better for an E-commerce Platform, and What are the Differences?

With the outbreak of the domestic novel coronavirus, the growth of e-commerce has become even more promising. Shopping online has become a habit for most people. And if you want to build your own online e-commerce platform, it has become very simple, achievable without programming. In this article, we will introduce two popular e-commerce platformsDifferences and Pros & Cons of Shopify vs WordPress. Shopify and WordPress are two independent platforms, both capable of building e-commerce websites to sell goods online, so we will discuss which platform is more suitable for your needs, selecting the best e-commerce platform for you based on your own situation, capabilities, and resources.

Introduction to Shopify

Shopify is very famous in the e-commerce platform space and is welcomed by many foreign trade professionals. It comes with a large number of e-commerce-centric features, combined into a super easy-to-use package. The platform was created to ensure that almost anyone can choose it and create their e-commerce website without getting bogged down in complex details.

Shopify's origins can be traced back to 2004, when it was an online ski equipment store called Snowdevil founded by Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake. Their experience trying to create an online store left them dissatisfied with the existing options for e-commerce platforms. So they started building their own e-commerce platform. As of October 2019, Shopify has served millions of e-commerce professionals worldwide, supporting1.4 million full-time jobs. In 2018 alone, its revenuereached $1.073 billion,and the revenue for 2019 is estimated to be between$1.545 billion and $1.555 billion. Not bad for something that started as a snowboard equipment store.

Introduction to WordPress

  On the other hand, many people also use WordPress to build e-commerce platforms, but WordPress is a versatile website-building program, with e-commerce being just one of its extended features. Compared to Shopify, it is not suitable for beginners. However, where it truly shines is in its flexibility. Due to its vast number of themes and plugins (free and premium), you will be able to create a website with both great appearance and powerful functionality. WordPress is an open-source content management system, with origins tracing back to 2003, all the way to the lesser-known blog system b2/cafelog. WordPress was originally a fork of a system created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Later, it received the GNU General Public License, and since then, it has become the guideline for WordPress. Therefore, WordPress is and will remain free. Since its inception, a large community of talented individuals has transformed it from a small blogging platform into the dominant content management system, powering over 35% of websites on the internet.

Shopify vs WordPress Comparison

General Ease of Use

Before choosing a platform, it is important to first consider whether the platform is easy to use, especially when consideringbuilding your own website. Simplicity and advanced features often cannot coexist; do you need it as simple as possible or more features? Are you willing to give up control over your website for convenience? You need to think carefully because Shopify and WordPress have different answers to this question. In this case, the ideal choice depends on your level of technical knowledge and personal preference.

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Shopify:

When it comes to ease of use, Shopify is undoubtedly more user-friendly than WordPress. Once you create a Shopify account, you can immediately start adding products without any setup. The interface is also clean and easy to navigate. The user interface also makes it clear where you need to go to use various features, such as analytics, marketing, etc. Adding products is also easy and streamlined, so you can set everything up and start selling products right away.

Another huge advantage of using Shopify is that it handles hosting for you. You don't need to bother choosing a hosting service or installing any type of content management software, as this is done automatically. In the trade-off between convenience and control, Shopify leans entirely toward convenience, while controlling the ownership of the website; you can build a website and sell goods on Shopify, but the ultimate control of the website is held by Shopify.

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WordPress:

On the other hand, WordPress is a bit difficult for beginners. First, you must purchase a domain and server before you can install WordPress. Although there are many helpful resources to assist youInstalling a WordPress Website, Shopify users only need to purchase a domain. After setting everything up, you will need to installWooCommerce Pluginto enable e-commerce for your website. Only after installing the appropriate plugin can you start building your website. Although for beginners, it may be unclear which plugins to install and how to use them, making it somewhat more difficult than Shopify. However, all data in WordPress is controlled by you; you have complete control over the website, but lose some convenience.The actual process of adding products, setting prices, creating coupons, etc., will vary depending on the plugins added. WooCommerce also has many functional plugins for you to choose from. When selecting plugins, users must be careful to avoid plugin compatibility issues. In summary, compared to Shopify, WordPress places much higher demands on users, requiring a certain level of expertise.

Appearance Design

Both Shopify and WordPress offer you a variety of Themes that you can install on your website. Moreover, as long as you know how to design, both allow you to design Themes yourself. Despite these similarities, there are actually significant differences in their design options. Shopify's Themes are not as abundant as WordPress's.

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Shopify:

When it comes to design options, Shopify has many Themes available for your website. You can go to theShopify Theme Storeto choose your favorite Theme. They are usually well-designed, clean-looking, and can help you showcase your products. You can choose from free and premium Themes, all designed for e-commerce websites. There areover 100 Themesto choose from, which is somewhat limited for a Theme directory, but the Themes included are professionally designed. Shopify's free Themesare only8in number, with the rest priced from$140-180each. While the Themes are certainly good, the prices are on the high side. With some searching, you should be able to easily find WordPress Themes of comparable quality at a lower price.

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WordPress:

Flexibility is where WordPress truly excels, especially evident in terms of design options. In the WordPress Theme repository alone, you can findover 4,000 free Themes. Similarly, onlyThemeForestthere areover 12,000 WordPress Themesavailable for sale. With WordPress, you hardly need to worry about not finding a Theme for your industry. Moreover, it's easy to find premium Themes with a wealth of features, which are much cheaper than any Shopify. Additionally, if you choose a universal Theme (such as Zakra), you can customize all aspects of the website. After all, you will have complete control over the website's design with WordPress.Although WordPress has a rich selection of Themes, without experience, you might find that the Theme you choose is not suitable or you don't know how to debug it, which can cause some trouble for beginners.

E-commerce Features

Now, let's delve into the most core issue. First, both Shopify and WordPress can handle all e-commerce functions. Comparing Shopify and WordPress is a bit difficult because it's hard to determine the exact e-commerce features WordPress offers, as it depends on the installed plugins. The most popular and feature-rich WordPress e-commerce plugin isWooCommerce,so we'll use WooCommerce for comparison here. You can easily enable many useful e-commerce features for both WordPress and Shopify, such as unlimited products, secure payments, built-in analytics, and more. However, you should consider some differences, as they can affect the visitor's experience on your website. Since we are comparing the two platforms here, let's look at the differences between them.

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Shopify:

Shopify offers a series of powerful features and can be set up with minimal changes. The notable features available in the basic plan are as follows:

• Abandoned cart recovery
• Dedicated support
• promo code
• Free SSL certificate
• Fraud analysis
• Shipping discounts from USPS, UPS, or DHL Express.
• Point of Sale (POS) system for selling from physical locations

With some higher-tier paid options, you can also access advanced features such as hardware peripheral support and professional reports.Shopify App Storefurther supports it, containing various paid and free apps to help improve your website. If you find this complex, don't worry, you can directly refer to these popular Shopify apps below:

• Pre-order Manager: Enable pre-orders for your store.
• Smile: Rewards and Loyalty: Integrate loyalty points, referral programs, and VIP programs.
• Wishlist: Add wishlists and personalized email campaigns.
• Insert SEO: All-in-one SEO tool to optimize your store.
• Yotpo: Product and Photo Reviews: Display reviews, ratings, photos, etc., for your products.
• Fera Social Proof: Insert customer testimonials, recent buyer popups, etc., to increase conversion rates.
• Candy Rack: Allow automatic upsells with additional services, free gifts, and packaged items.

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WordPress:

In terms of e-commerce features, WordPress is certainly not lacking. As with design options, you will need to do some work to search for relevant features and add them to your site. This is done byinstalling different plugins, which can be more complex than you might expect. Using just WooCommerce, you can have the following features:

• Full control over your data
• Sell anything on your site
• Unlimited customization
• Tax options
• One-click refunds
• No transaction fees
• Product ratings and reviews
• Over 400 official extensions

You can install only WooCommerce (free) for product sales, but if you want to expand your store's functionality, there are many excellent extensions available. Additionally, if you feel WooCommerce is not suitable for your niche, you can completely discard it and choose one of the many other e-commerce plugins. The possibilities are truly amazing. Some of the best plugins that can support WooCommerce are as follows:

• WooCommerce Buzzer: Marketing automation to boost sales.
• WooCommerce Mailchimp: Email marketing campaigns for your website.
• WooCommerce Subscriptions: Create and manage products with recurring payments.
• Product Bundles: Product grouping tool.
• User Registration: Build registration forms for your online store.
• WooCommerce One Page Checkout: Allows for super-fast one-page checkout.
• WooCommerce Product Filters: Add advanced filters to your store.

Search Engine Optimization

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When operating an online store, excellentSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)is absolutely crucial. After all, goodSEOmeans your website has more opportunities for search engine visibility, which in turn means more revenue. Both Shopify and WordPress have many built-in options designed to help your website rank higher in search engine results. Additionally, you can extend them through plugins or apps. Below is a comparison of Shopify vs. WordPress SEO features:

Fees

Comparing the costs of Shopify and WordPress is more complex than you might think. It's not simply a matter of which is cheaper than the other. In reality, you'll find that the actual cost of WordPress depends on how much you are willing to spend. On the other hand, Shopify has a simpler and more flexible set of plans, which is less confusing for beginners.

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Shopify:

Shopify comes with a strict set of payment plans that offer different features based on how much you are willing to pay. The different plans are outlined below:

• Shopify Basic Plan:This plan provides you with the very basic features needed for an online store. It is perfect for startups and small businesses that just want a fully functional store without any frills.
• Shopify Plan:This plan is suitable for various businesses and comes with lower credit card rates and transaction fees. With additional features like unlimited Staff POS PINs, gift cards, and professional reports, you will be able to create a more efficient and engaging online store.
• Advanced Shopify:The Advanced Shopify plan is best suited for large enterprises and features more powerful capabilities along with the lowest credit card rates and transaction fees. With advanced customer reports, you will have access to important information about your customer base.

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WordPress:

With WordPress, the cost entirely depends on your choices for themes, plugins, hosting, domain, etc. Therefore, it has a higher pricing ceiling and a lower pricing floor. You can easily choose the cheapest combination to create an online store, but you can also choose to spend more to build an e-commerce website. To illustrate the costs involved in running an online store with WordPress, we will outline and provide examples:

• Domain:Typically tens of yuan per year
• Hosting:Prices vary depending on configuration, usually several hundred yuan per year
• WordPress Software:WordPress software isFree
• E-commerce Plugin:WooCommerce isFree
• E-commerce Theme:Premium WP themes generally cost around $59, including one year of technical support
• SEO Plugin:Can be used directlyFree premium SEO plugin

A fully functional e-commerce websiteAnnuallyThe total cost is around 1000 to 2000 yuan, and this is without calculating other potentially used paid services. If you have sufficient funds, you can invest in other plugins and WooCommerce plugins to extend the website's functionality.

Customer Support

Another type of support you need to consider when choosing the right platform. After all, every minute your website is offline due to issues is a minute of lost sales. As with other cases, in this situation, Shopify vs. WordPress depends on how you wish to handle this issue. Shopify's dedicated customer support seems like an obvious advantage, but it's worth noting that you can also get similar services from WordPress if you choose the corresponding plugins/themes.

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Shopify:

Shopify has a dedicated support team that answers any questions that may arise 24/7. Not only that, it also offers multiple ways to contact the support team. You can chat with them directly, chat with them via phone, send them an email, or even tweet at them. Therefore, if you lack the technical knowledge to solve problems that may arise on your site, you don't need to worry because there will always be someone to help you. Furthermore, Shopify also has many other resources to assist you, including free tools, support forums, documentation, etc.

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WordPress:

Since WordPress itself is free, you won't get dedicated customer support like Shopify does. You can visit support forums and register to ask questions via support tickets, rather than having real-time customer support. Although it may seem bad, this is mitigated by WordPress's large and active user base and similarly large knowledge base. At the same time, there are a large number of WordPress articles online, and you can easily find solutions to most problems through Google. As mentioned earlier, you can access high-quality dedicated support for hosting, premium themes, and plugins. However, it is the website owner's responsibility to make informed decisions and choose the right theme or plugin. If possible, there will be no shortage of customer support.

Conclusion

So far, our article on Shopify vs. WordPress is summarized here, where we compared two of the most feature-rich e-commerce platforms. Both Shopify and WordPress themselves are great platforms that can serve you well, but be sure to note their specific advantages so you can make an informed decision. Shopify is a conveniently mobile option, packing all necessary features into a neat package that even people without technical knowledge can use directly and get started. Compared to WordPress, it has certain limitations, but you don't need to spend much time to set up your own website. If you just want to build an online store and are willing to give up control, go for Shopify. Conversely, WordPress offers a great deal of flexibility and a vast amount of potential functionality. However, it requires more input from the website owner, so things aren't as convenient as with Shopify. If you're prepared to invest time and effort, you can create an excellent site that meets your specific needs. On the other hand, if you're lazy about it, or if you make the wrong decisions, you might also end up with a bloated website. If you feel ready to take on the responsibility, then you should use WordPress. Simply put, for beginners making a B2C website, Shopify is better. For B2C, WordPress might present some problems you can't solve and require time to research. For B2B websites, WordPress is more suitable.