Getting your supply chain and logistics right is key to a successful e-commerce business. Because of this, many companies are choosing to partner with a reliable third-party logistics provider or 3PL for their warehousing and fulfillment needs. But what does a smart e-commerce platform look like?
While some larger companies may have the resources and skillset to build their own e-commerce sites in-house, many startups and small businesses don’t. That means they work with e-commerce platforms to help them create their own professional online stores. And these platforms can help catalyze these businesses into enterprise-level brands.
Two of the most popular e-commerce platforms today are WooCommerce and Shopify Plus. Because of their widespread use, let’s take a deeper look at WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus so you can choose whether either platform works best for your business.
Defining WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is essentially a WordPress plugin. In other words, your site needs to be WordPress based: That means you need to create a WordPress website in order to use WooCommerce. By implementing WooCommerce into your Wordpress site, you’ll be able to transform it into a fully functioning online store. Its vast, customizable features enable you to offer a variety of products, create a shopping cart, manage inventory and shipping, and set up an easy checkout process, among other scalable functions.
Shopify Plus
Shopify is one of the most well-known e-commerce integrations available. As a cloud-based, fully hosted solution, Shopify allows you to build an online store without needing to code the site yourself or download any software. The premium version of Shopify, Shopify Plus is catered to larger, high-volume companies. This means it’s designed to handle loads of traffic and offer advanced multi-channel features and customization.
Examining Features: WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus
As you think critically about what you need in an e-commerce platform for your online store, let’s explore the similarities and differences of common features in WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus:
Scalability
In the WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus debate, both offer scalability, but in different ways. As a fully hosted platform, Shopify Plus manages security, server management, and performance on its own, so you don’t have to. If your business is entering a high-growth phase, having the strong infrastructure of Shopify Plus already in place makes it easier to handle increased order volumes and shopping traffic.
In contrast, WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform. This gives your company greater control and flexibility for the hosting of your online store, which can be ideal as you scale and grow. However, this also means it’s up to your business to manage your own servers, which can be a challenge with the increased demands of scaling. For this reason, some WooCommerce users will utilize a third-party hosting provider instead.
Customization
Customization is an important aspect of your online store to cater to the needs of your target customers and stand out from the competition. When it comes to customization in WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus, both platforms have it in spades. As WooCommerce is self-hosted and tied to WordPress, it provides access to a variety of themes you can use to create a professional-looking online storefront. Plus, it offers thousands of plugins and tools you can add on in its WooCommerce marketplace to create a more unique shopping experience, including a customized checkout process to help prevent shopping cart abandonment.
Shopify Plus provides a wide range of customization options as well. With its fully hosted, structured framework, the flexibility and theme options aren’t as vast as WooCommerce, but with stricter approval criteria, the options available are top-notch. In addition, with Shopify’s user-friendly interface, you can easily change your online storefront features and implement apps to customize functionality.
Pricing
As you’re considering which e-commerce platform to use based on your budget, it’s important to know that with WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus, each uses a different type of pricing model. Shopify Plus charges a fixed monthly fee that starts at $2,000 and covers all of its features. Though high, businesses may appreciate this predictable, comprehensive pricing. On the other hand, WooCommerce itself is a free plugin, yet you can expect a wide range of extra costs to cover your own hosting, security, domain, and additional plugins.
Integrate Your e-commerce Platform with Smart Warehousing
In weighing WooCommerce vs. Shopify Plus, both platforms can elevate your e-commerce business. And if you partner with a 3PL that offers seamless integration with your platform of choice, your company can reach the stratosphere. At Smart Warehousing, our warehousing and fulfillment technology works with your entire tech stack, from Shopify to WooCommerce and more—so you can easily keep up with growing demand and deliver all your online orders to customers on time. Contact us today to learn how to streamline your fulfillment process.