WooCommerce or Shopify?

[littlepatchofheaven2015]

I currently sell on ebay and have my own website hosted through Freesites.

I am thinking of changing my website over to an ecommerce site and have been researching and tossing up between WooCommerce (Word Press) or Shopify.

The main reason I want to change over is for the intergration side of things. I am sick of doubling up when I list something on ebay, having to do the very same thing on my website over and over, then when I sell something on either the website or ebay, having to update my stock quickly so I don't sell something I haven't got etc, etc. I like the idea of only having to list a product once and have it sync to the other platform and having my inventory all in once place etc.

I was hoping to get some advice on which to use - if any of you use them and what your experiences have been like? Cost comparisons, postage options, benefits, for or against, all of that sort of stuff, if you don't mind sharing and helping out with your advice?

Any advice would be greatfully received. 

Thanks in advance for your help, cheers, Linda

[dazzledayz]

Shopify or Big Commerce (either or) should suit you if you don't like coding that much.

If you are ok with getting under the hood I'd suggest a Magento installation in preference to Woo.

Wordpress based systems are known to have security issues and the extension packs are quite expensive.

Although it's a free platform, the ecosystem is such that you won't be up and running without a somwhat hefty bill.

With Magento, the security is built in, upgrades are regular and most of the features you need are either free or built in.

The Community edition is free (like Wordpress) and the platfrom is scalable.

You'll need to keep an eye on site speed and not overload your site with plugins; plus you'll need a good hosting provider though you won't necessarily have to go above a shared environment in a simple installation with an honest host.

Whatever system you choose, you need to stay on top of SEO as Google's requirements change over time so you'll need themes that can be regularly updated and there will always be a need to stay in touch with what the latest Google search requirements are.

Google is a bit like eBay in that they change their algorithms fairly regularly but at least they DO tell you what the changes are.

Whichever way you go, it's never going to be a case of set and forget.

That's what Amazon and (to a lesser extent) eBay are there for.

[littlepatchofheaven2015]

Thank you so much for your reply - I have only just seen it. I ended up going with WordPress/WooCommerce and I am currently setting up my website.

I see now why a lot of people would use Shopify instead as it would be a lot easier, but I am enjoying the nitty gritty bits of doing it myself as I have done a bit of this sort of thing before so I think I can handle it - cross fingers.

I haven't quite got up to the security part of it yet, but based on what you were saying I will probably be up for some dollars to make sure it is secure. That is I suppose going to be the downside with this, is getting up and running without having to pay for every add-on in creation. I hope it works out worth it in the long run otherwise I might have to start again and maybe take the advice of the person below and try Magneto?

I will see how I go - but thanks so much for your input, it really is appreciated 🙂

Cheers

[littlepatchofheaven2015]

Thank you so much for your reply 🙂

I didn't see your reply till today and I ended up going with Wordpress/woocommerce and I am very much enjoying the ins and outs of doing it all myself - I think Shopify would be a bit of a cop-out for me as I like doing this sort of stuff and understand a bit about it lol

But yes I am worried now (as I am only in the middle of setting up) that I will end up paying more somehow with all the add-on's, security especially. So if it ends up too expensive, I think I might have to look into Magento - thank you by the way for the info on that one, I didn't even think to compare that one with Shopify and WooCommerce, so thanks for the info.

I appreciate everyone getting back to me with your input, it really has helped immensely, cheers 🙂

[dazzledayz]

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@littlepatchofheaven2015 wrote:

Thank you so much for your reply 🙂

I didn't see your reply till today and I ended up going with Wordpress/woocommerce and I am very much enjoying the ins and outs of doing it all myself - I think Shopify would be a bit of a cop-out for me as I like doing this sort of stuff and understand a bit about it lol

But yes I am worried now (as I am only in the middle of setting up) that I will end up paying more somehow with all the add-on's, security especially. So if it ends up too expensive, I think I might have to look into Magento - thank you by the way for the info on that one, I didn't even think to compare that one with Shopify and WooCommerce, so thanks for the info.

I appreciate everyone getting back to me with your input, it really has helped immensely, cheers 🙂

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There's something I should add about Magento and it IS important.

The community (free) edition on a shared hosting service will only be good for low traffic websites.

By low traffic I mean less than a few hundred concurrent users.

This shouldn't be a concern for most small business websites BUT things can spin out of control if you go in for wide spread marketing campaigns that attract sudden surges in visitor numbers.

In this scenario, site speed can slow down to unusable levels and your hosting company may have a hissy fit.

The way most sites get around this problem is to use AWS (Amazon Web Services) or similar and run in the cloud.

They (Amazon) have a few different approaches to choose from but you can organise your system usage in such a way that in high demand situations, additional new virtual servers can be spun up instantly.

(Check their website as it is quite informative and pricing is transparent)

This comes at a cost of course but the end result is that there is no noticeable slow down during intense marketing campaigns.

The same would probably be true for a Wordpress site as well but Magento is a heavy installation with all its inclusions so WILL be more quickly affected than a lightweight site.

I you have a look at AWS you will find the pricing quite good as it is based entirely on system usage so if you are getting heaps of hits you will pay more but if you have no visitors you'll pay very little.

Installation on these services can be automated via 3rd parties like Bitnami if you lack the time to learn it yourself.

The upside is, if you are getting lots of hits you should be making lots of sales but it does bear investigating.

Good luck.