- This video is sponsored by LitExtension.
The world's number one
eCommerce platform migration solution.
Hey guys, my name is Christian Taylor.
Welcome back to Craylor Made where I like to talk
all things, branding, marketing and entrepreneurship.
So today we'll be taking a look
at the best eCommerce platform for your online store.
If you've been researching eCommerce solutions
you've likely identified two popular options
that you're comparing.
Shopify and WooCommerce.
Shopify is a hosted eCommerce solution
with plans starting at $29 a month.
WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress
which is also a free platform.
So your only cost would be for web hosting
and your domain name.
WooCommerce does have some paid add ons
so you can choose to spend more to get more features
but it's hands down the way to go
if you're on a tight budget.
You can't argue with free.
Getting into the setup experience,
Shopify is much smoother.
You can get started with a 14 day free trial
and the setup wizard walks you through each step
of creating your account and provisioning your store.
Once you're sent to the admin panel,
it's a pretty straightforward interface to add products
and manage orders and customers.
With WooCommerce, things are more complicated.
First, you'll need to identify a web host of choice,
install WordPress and connect it to your domain name.
And after you've set up WordPress and selected the theme,
then you can install the WooCommerce plugin
and there's a setup wizard to help you configure the basics.
Some web hosts is like cloudways
offered to combine most of the setup process into one step
allowing you to set up WordPress and WooCommerce
in one installer with a few clicks.
We'll talk more about the pros and cons
of free and open source versus paid and hosted
later in the video.
But for now, let's focus on the backend management.
You can manage your WooCommerce store
in the WordPress admin dashboard.
There's a WooCommerce option on the menu sidebar
and managing orders and settings is pretty straightforward.
In typical WordPress fashion though
there are some things that just don't make sense.
Why is products a separate menu
that's disconnected from the WooCommerce menu?
And what is reports on the WooCommerce menu
when there's a dedicated analytics top level menu items?
Some of the interface just doesn't make sense.
These sorts of confusing quirks are unfortunately common
with the WordPress UI.
Overall though, the WooCommerce backend
is one of the more intuitive UIs
of WordPress plugins on the market.
It's easy to manage inventory, shipping
and variations for each item.
It's also easy to view orders and enter tracking numbers
when the orders ship.
WordPress is an open source website builders
so you also have access to the posts
and pages sections of WordPress
if you wanna have a blog, about page or contact page
on your online store.
Shopify has a superior backend management experience
and that's largely
because Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce platform.
You only use Shopify if you are building an online store
where WordPress is a generic website builder with plugins
like WooCommerce that can give eCommerce functionality.
So you're dealing with the software
that was built to be an online store
versus a generic website builder
with all of this extra software added on top.
With Shopify you can get to orders, products, customers
and analytics in a click.
Order fulfillment is speedy allowing you to use J and K
on your keyboard to page through orders
for quick fulfillments.
When it comes to eCommerce management and fulfillment,
Shopify is the clear winner here.
However, if you also wanna use your store as a blog
or have other pages on the site that are more advanced
than a basic contact page or about page,
WooCommerce has the advantage
thanks to you having full access to the power of WordPress.
Shopify does have a blog feature
but it's inferior to WordPress in every way.
Personally, if you do go with Shopify,
I would advise setting up a separate WordPress blog
on a sub domain.
After all WordPress is free
and it's just better for blogging.
This is the approach The Longhairs took
with their Shopify store
and using both Shopify and WordPress gives them the best
of both platforms for the ultimate eCommerce experience.
So far we've compared pricing and backend UIs
but there's a lot more to consider
with picking the right eCommerce platform for you.
Let's think about some features
that can potentially boost your sales.
I love that Shopify automatically runs
an abandoned cart campaign by default.
They've designed the checkout screen
to where you have to enter your email address
to get your full total with sales tax and shipping.
So if a customer starts to check out
and decides to close the tab,
Shopify automatically sends them an email a few hours later,
reminding them of the items they left in their cart.
While I don't have any backend metrics to vouch for this,
I can tell you from my own consumer point of view
there are absolutely times where abandoned cart emails
have gotten me back on the store
and I ended up checking out.
I strongly believe that abandoned cart emails
are an easy way to boost sales
and Shopify including that automatically is a major win.
We also need to consider customer confidence
and convenience.
As a consumer, I know the Shopify checkout screen.
It's consistent for every Shopify store
regardless of the styling and theme of the site,
so when I see it, I feel comfortable entering my card number
knowing that it's a trusted eCommerce platform
and my card number is not gonna get stolen
or end up on the dark web somewhere.
Likewise, I also know
that most Shopify stores support Apple Pay
and as a consumer, I prefer Apple Pay
because I like to check out with Apple card
and get 2% cash back,
instead of the one and a half percent cash back
I would get with my other credit cards.
Apple Pay takes some of the friction away
from the checkout process,
making consumers more likely to spend more money.
Abandoned cart emails and Apple Pay
are possible with WooCommerce
but you'll need more plugins and extensions
some of which cost money.
And I've personally never gotten Apple Pay
to function properly with WooCommerce.
We also have to think about reliability.
Shopify is a proprietary hosted platform,
meaning for your $29 monthly fee,
Shopify will handle as much traffic as you can send them.
With WordPress and WooCommerce,
you are responsible for picking your own web hosting.
Each web host will offer varying levels of speed,
quality and reliability.
You could use some basic starter hosting
from Namecheap for less than $3 a month
but if your eCommerce store starts to take off
and you need hosting,
that can scale with you and that you can rely on,
you'd wanna use a managed hosts like WP engine,
which starts at $36 a month
more expensive than Shopify's basic plan.
And you could still end up having to scale up
and spend even more money for web hosting
based on your storage traffic, all right.
So it's evident
that Shopify is the clear winner here, right?
Well, if we're going on features,
ease of use, reliability and customer experience,
yes, absolutely.
Shopify dominates the eCommerce space for a reason.
But there are three major cases for using WooCommerce.
Price, ownership and customizability.
Talking price, WooCommerce and WordPress
are both absolutely free.
So go get some basic budget web hosting
and you've got a fully functioning eCommerce store
for less than $36 a year,
just over the price of one month of Shopify.
Since WordPress is open source, you also own your store.
You get to make the rules.
With Shopify, there are certain categories of items
you're not allowed to sell.
Chances are you won't be limited by this.
But if you do happen to be in one of those niches,
WooCommerce might be the way you have to go.
Shopify is a proprietary hosted platform
which means you're operating under their rules
and they can always suspend your store
at any time for any reason.
And again, while this is highly unlikely
and it's pretty much only if you're selling
certain categories of items
Shopify doesn't allow, it's always a possibility.
And with WooCommerce, that's not happening.
Also because WordPress is open source,
WooCommerce is completely customizable.
You could get your hands dirty and code your own extensions
or modify the source code to make it work
exactly how you'd like.
Yes, Shopify does have a developer API,
but you're definitely more limited in what you can do.
There's other factors too
that we don't have time to discuss in this video,
such as fraud detection algorithms
and extension availability
for things like dropshipping from AliExpress.
You definitely have to do your own research
and find out what's most important to you
when picking an eCommerce platform.
But here's my ultimate conclusion.
Shopify is the superior eCommerce platform overall
but WooCommerce is great for anyone starting out on a budget
or those who have specialized needs
that require ultimate customizability.
But the most important thing
when picking an eCommerce platform is to just get started.
It can be a difficult decision.
But the longer you wait to start your online store,
the longer it will take you to start getting orders
and grow your business.
If the cost of Shopify is a barrier,
just start with WooCommerce.
On the flip side, if you've been using Shopify
and you really just need the flexibility
that WooCommerce can offer, don't be scared to switch.
You're never stuck with the platform
you decide to start with.
And you might be wondering,
how easy is it to switch between platforms?
It's actually super easy to transfer
your eCommerce data between platforms,
thanks to today's sponsor LitExtension.
LitExtension is the world leading
eCommerce platform migration solution
founded in 2011 by a team
of eCommerce website development experts.
Whether you want to run a basic migration yourself
with a few clicks using LitExtensions automated tool
or have an expert migrate your online store from A to Z
with the LitExtension all in one package,
your online stores data can be transferred in no time.
LitExtension can effortlessly transfer data
from WooCommerce to Shopify or vice versa
but that's not all.
LitExtension supports over 100 eCommerce platforms
to transfer your data to your new online store.
I tried transferring my WooCommerce store to Shopify
using both the automated basic migration
and the all-in-one package and both worked perfectly.
LitExtension takes the pressure off
of picking the right eCommerce platform
and gives you the freedom to just get started
with your online business.
When you outgrow your current eCommerce platform,
transferring to something new is just a few clicks away.
They'll even give you a free demo migration
to make sure data can be transferred correctly
before you pay.
Enjoy first-class 24/7 dedicated support,
unlimited free re-migrations
to make sure your new store goes live
with no data left behind and the best accuracy
with no downtime on your current store.
Visit the link in the description below
to transfer your online store today.
Thanks to LitExtension for supporting the channel
and I think their tool really makes your decision easier
for which eCommerce platform to pick.
It goes right along with what I said earlier.
The most important thing is that you just get started.
Use the platform you can afford
that best fits your needs now,
and know that you can effortlessly transfer
to a new platform at any time in the future.
So which eCommerce platform do you prefer?
I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments down below.
And if you liked this video,
do be sure to hit that subscribe button and click the bell
so you don't miss when I release new videos.
Thanks again to LitExtension for sponsoring this video,
make sure to check out their link and the description below
to easily transfer your data to your new online store.
And with that said, I'll catch you guys next time.