- As of 2019, 80% of people
in Australia are shopping online.
And very soon, one out of every 10 items,
we purchased off an e-commerce store.
This means it's time to meet your customers
where they are online.
If you're a business that's looking
to expand your digital footprint with an online store,
chances are you've probably started
researching e-commerce platforms,
specifically Shopify and WooCommerce.
But the question is, which platform should you go with?
Don't worry, in this video, we've got you covered.
We're gonna be weighing up the pros and cons
of Shopify and WooCommerce
to help you in your decision-making process.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, guys, it's Liv here from Neighbourhood,
where we help brands find, sell, and keep their people.
So first up, let's get to know
the two e-commerce platforms we're comparing.
Firstly, Shopify is an e-commerce platform
that allows you to create a website
and use their shopping cart solution
in order to sell, ship, and manage your products
all in one place.
It allows you to add new products, process orders,
and manage your store data with ease.
WooCommerce, on the other hand,
is best for those with an already-existing WordPress site
who are looking to diversify their business
with an online store.
It's a WordPress plugin that's an open source,
which means anyone can use the platform
or modify it to meet their needs.
Next important question, how much does each platform cost?
Shopify is a subscription-based platform.
So if you know which level of plan you're on,
you'll know what charges to expect each and every month,
which is a plus for budgeting.
There are three levels of packages
and pricing you can choose from.
The basic Shopify, at $29 USD per month,
Shopify at $79 USD per month,
which is aimed at someone looking to grow their business,
and finally there is Shopify advanced at $299 per month,
which is for larger-scale e-commerce businesses
looking to scale.
There are also a range of features,
which I'll get into shortly,
that come with Shopify right out of the box,
even at the basic level.
Here are just a few of the cool features,
the pricing structure, and the card transaction fees
direct from their website.
One of the biggest call-outs
from the suite of Shopify packages
is the free SSL certificate, hosting, and sub-domain,
all included across the board.
Regardless of the size of your business,
whether you're starting out
or whether you've been around for a little while,
Shopify have pricing plans to match.
On the other hand,
WooCommerce is a free, open source software plugin.
So technically, it doesn't cost you anything.
However, there are a number of items
that don't come with the plugin.
There are additional costs, such as hosting,
cost of a theme if you choose a paid one,
domain name, SSL certificate.
And if there are any other extensions
or features you need to add, it could cost you.
There's no definitive number for WooCommerce,
as it really depends on your requirements
and what's not offered to you out of the box.
While it might sound pretty good that it's free,
it does require more setup,
and you could run into unforeseen costs down the track.
WooCommerce technically
is the cheaper option out of the two.
However, as I've mentioned, you could end up paying more
as you add more extensions and require more features.
With Shopify, you at least know
exactly what you're going to hit with every month,
which, for a business just starting out,
is essential to stay afloat.
Moving on, how does Shopify design?
Shopify makes it super simple
for anyone with no design experience
to create a website that's not only functional,
but looks professional.
Shopify outsources their designs
to a group of professional web designers
who often add updated themes
which are current and engaging.
There are between eight to 10 free Shopify themes
for you to choose from at any one time,
and they have two to three styles
of variations to choose from.
If none of the free themes take your fancy,
there's always the option to spend a little more
with the paid options,
which range from $140 to $180.
And at time of writing, there was also an ample 64 options,
all with their own styles.
To avoid the risk of using similar themes
as other Shopify users,
customizing your chosen design is essential.
With no developer experience,
you can alter basic colors and styles.
It's for the more significant changes
that you'll require the help
of a more experienced developer.
So how does WooCommerce design?
WooCommerce is basically a plugin for WordPress,
which means it doesn't necessarily
offer design traits of its own.
However, it does open the door
to countless themes available to WordPress.
In most but not every case,
you'll be able to use any of the numerous WordPress themes
and make it work along WooCommerce
to deliver a complete website.
If design is particularly important to you,
it's worthwhile styling with a WooCommerce theme
and working backwards for your website.
The WooCommerce website
is actually a theme of theirs called Storefront,
which you can select yourself
or use their range of child themes for Storefront.
Most of the themes cost $39 a piece,
but there's the odd WooCommerce theme
that costs up to about $119 each.
While both are completely customizable,
the variety of options available to you
from WooCommerce and WordPress
make it the more superior platform.
That's not to say that themes available
on Shopify aren't high quality,
and you wouldn't be able to find an option.
There's just many more options
available through WooCommerce.
At the end of the day,
it will come down to your own designer preference
and how you wish to portray your brand.
Now let's have a look at the features.
How feature-rich is Shopify?
There are a whole range of apps
which allow you to integrate and essentially do anything
you could need your e-commerce store to do.
This is a pretty significant list
of the essential Shopify features
they offer right off the bat,
which you should check out in the article below.
To give you a bit of a comparison,
some of these free features
offered with a Shopify subscription
would cost you an additional $700 to $900 on WooCommerce.
So how feature-rich is WooCommerce?
As it's part of WordPress and is open source,
developers around the globe
create various extensions and plugins
for you to add to your website.
If you're tech savvy enough
and can find the right plugins for your website,
there isn't much you won't be able to do.
Not everything is free.
However, you can still do enough
through the free tools to get by.
We've listed the features below in the article,
so check it out.
Again, which one you choose is completely down
to your own personal preference.
However, out of the box,
Shopify delivers more features and tools.
Everything Shopify has on offer is designed entirely
at making your online store function efficiently
and make it as easy as possible to operate.
While WooCommerce certainly is feature-rich,
it requires a little more understanding
to add new features and extensions.
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Finally, let's assess the ease of use
of each platform overall.
I mentioned just before that Shopify is designed
entirely to make your life easier
and build an efficient, effective online store
that's easy to use.
As long as you've got basic computer skills
and don't still use Windows 95,
I think you're gonna be okay.
The most important factor is that you don't need
any design or website development skills
in order to set up a basic store.
Everything from adding products,
creating orders, discount codes, and analytics
is all easily accessible and intuitive for first-time users.
It's worth attempting to learn yourself how it all works.
But if it's too hard, they have an extensive help center,
which answers most, if not all questions.
It's also worth noting
that I left a link in the description
to a webinar we recently did
on how to build an online store
in one day with Shopify.
Definitely would recommend you check it out
if you're a first-time user.
So is WooCommerce easy to use?
Technically, once it's set up, yes.
Yes, it is easy to use.
And most would argue that it's just as easy as Shopify.
If you've already got a WordPress website,
then WooCommerce would be simple to set up.
However, without an existing site,
there's one hurdle you'll hit
if you don't have much technology know-how.
As it's a WordPress plugin,
you not only need to setup WooCommerce,
but you'll need to purchase a domain,
sign up for hosting, set up WordPress with a theme,
then you can finally add the WooCommerce plugin.
This is all before you can even
start adding products to your store
or can actually set everything up.
While this differs from the easy,
one-button sign-up required for Shopify,
once you've got the above steps down,
WooCommerce is just as intuitive and simple to operate.
Both platforms are designed
to make your life as easy as possible.
They're purposely designed for people
with little to no experience in the e-commerce world.
If we overlook the setup for a moment,
it really is hard to differentiate both platforms.
Even their interfaces look and feel really, really similar.
If you've got someone with a knowledge
of WordPress and development,
you shouldn't have too many issues.
But for someone just starting out from scratch,
then the obvious choice we would recommend is Shopify.
So if you found this video helpful,
feel free to share it with someone that you know
that needs a hand with an e-commerce platform.
You can also subscribe to our blog,
where you'll find a bunch more tools, tips, and templates
to help you find, sell, and keep your people,
just like Neighbourhood does.
And that's it from me.
Happy marketing.
(light music)