Anyone who is new to making money online, or even veterans who are looking to make extra cash, will be thrilled to hear about the numerous opportunities that exist online to make fast cash. As the name implies, you’ll find a multitude of ways to make money online. Some of these ways, such as getting paid to take surveys, enjoy a very reputable reputation for being some of the more enjoyable ways to make extra cash. But if you’re looking to make serious money, you’ll need to decide between two popular destinations that can be found online; Shopify and WooCommerce.
What Is Shopify?
If you’ve been searching for the right platform to build a business on, you’ve probably heard of Shopify. With nearly 500 million active monthly users across the world, Shopify is the go-to eCommerce platform for entrepreneurs, digital marketers, and online retailers. Whether you are selling your own products or those of third parties, you can build and grow your business on Shopify. Launched in 2006, Shopify is now a household name and one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world.
As a business owner, you can take advantage of a host of features that make running your shop a breeze. You can integrate with hundreds of popular APIs, set up multiple stores from a single base, and even make your online store available for customers in over 170 countries. All that, and it’s completely free!
What Is WooCommerce?
While Shopify is undoubtedly a household name when it comes to eCommerce, you may not have heard of WooCommerce, which is essentially the shopify platform for WordPress users. With over 150 million active monthly users across the world, WooCommerce is the perfect choice for online stores that want to take their functionality and presence on mobile channels and social media platforms.
WooCommerce allows users to build their store completely within WordPress, which gives them the flexibility to grow with the platform as their business grows. Along with the freedom to use WordPress itself, WooCommerce offers various premium extensions, such as a shopping cart, shipping calculator, and more, which can help businesses of all sizes and sizes to grow and flourish.
The Major Differences Between The Two Platforms
So, what exactly makes these two platforms so special and why should business owners and marketers take notice? Let’s dive into the differences.
Ease Of Use
While both platforms are suitable for basic online stores that want to sell their own products or those of third parties, Shopify definitely has the upper hand when it comes to ease of use. For example, if you’re just setting up your shop and don’t have a lot of experience, you can use Shopify’s simple and straightforward dashboard to get a feel for how things work.
The dashboard of a Shopify store looks like this:
- You have your store name and slogan
- You can add a description of your store
- There’s a place to add products
- To add a category, just click on the + sign in the upper right-hand corner
- Then, you’ll see all the existing categories and sub-categories
- You can add new products by clicking on the + sign in the upper right-hand corner
If you’ve been searching for the perfect platform to build your business on, Shopify is the clear choice. With its popularity, scalability, and user-friendliness, it’s little wonder why nearly 500 million users have chosen to shop on this eCommerce platform.
Features
The platforms are fairly similar when it comes to features, but Shopify has the upper hand when it comes to the extra features that it offers its users. For example, Shopify allows you to integrate with hundreds of popular APIs (application programming interfaces), which can connect your store to over 250,000 apps and websites that you can add value to through your products.
These features are valuable for businesses of all sizes and sizes, whether you’re a solopreneur or have an online store that you want to take to the next level. Even if you’re a seasoned business owner who has built a large platform, you may not have the in-house staff to manage all the technical aspects of a project like this one.
The fact is that with Shopify’s versatile dashboard and ease of use, your team may not even need to touch a server to get the job done. If you’re looking for a simple yet robust and feature-packed solution that can give you an edge in your niche, Shopify is the clear choice.
Reputation
You may be wondering how a brand new to the eCommerce scene can get a five-star rating on both Shopify and WooCommerce. The answer is simple; they haven’t been around that long, so there aren’t that many reviews to track back. But what we can see is that these two platforms have established themselves as the go-to’s for eCommerce because not only do they provide a wealth of features, but they also allow for endless scalability.
Since both Shopify and WooCommerce are fairly new to the scene, there aren’t really any bad reviews to speak of. But, of course, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any issues that savvy business owners and marketers should be aware of. For example, Shopify doesn’t provide any sort of insurance for businesses that are created using its platform. So, if you’re looking for a reliable SaaS solution for your eCommerce business, Shopify might not be the right choice. (See also: How to Find the Best SaaS For Your Business)
Which One Should You Use?
So you’re curious about what type of business you should build on Shopify or WooCommerce. Let’s examine the various factors that should be considered.
What Type Of Business Is Suitable?
If you’ve decided that you want to build a Shopify store to complement your current one that sells physical products, you should consider using this platform. With its popularity, scalability, and ease of use, you’re sure to find more than enough customers to compliment your existing business.
If you’ve decided that you want to build a WooCommerce store because you want to sell your own products exclusively or because you want to sell a particular type of product that WordPress supports (like clothing or accessories), then this is a great option. With over 150 million active monthly users, you’re sure to find a community of customers that want your product. Plus, with its versatility and myriad of features, WooCommerce allows for a greater degree of customization than Shopify.
Which One Should You Avoid?
If you’ve decided that you don’t want to build a Shopify store because you want to sell a product that is directly imported from another country, then this is the wrong platform for you. Shopify stores can only be set up to sell products from within the United States.
Similarly, if you’ve decided that you don’t want to build a WooCommerce store because you want to sell a very specific type of product that requires a lot of customization (think furniture, large appliances, and more), then this is also the wrong platform for you. The fact that you can’t directly import products from other countries with WooCommerce means that you’ll need to learn how to programatically create your product list.
Final Takeaway
As we stated at the outset of this article, there are numerous ways to make money online. What we covered here are just two of the more popular choices that can be found online. But like we said, if you’re looking for a reliable and versatile SaaS solution that can grow with you as your business does, Shopify and WooCommerce are the clear choices. And as you can see from the differences we discussed, not only do these two platforms provide a wealth of features, but they allow for endless scalability as well.