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As an ecommerce business owner, there are lots of decisions you need to make. One of those decisions is choosing what ecommerce platform is best for your business.
You've probably heard of Shopify and Wix and are thinking - which is better for my business? Is it Shopify or Wix?
Both Shopify and Wix have unique features and perform different functions in specific areas.
In this article, we will compare these platforms side by side and help you decide which ecommerce platform will work best for your business.
Shopify and Wix are both ecommerce platforms that promise to give users the tools and features they need to build their ecommerce website or online store without any coding experience.
Both platforms have a large user base with 4.2 million stores powered by Shopify and over 8.5 million live websites powered by Wix.
Originally, Wix started as an ecommerce solution for building content-based websites. The platform focused on users who wanted to create websites that focused on content like blogs, photography, etc. However, Wix has evolved into a platform with more selling features.
On the other hand, Shopify started and still is designed to be an ecommerce solution to help users create an online store.
Today, both platforms have features that cater to content and ecommerce.
Now, let’s dive into the key differences between Shopify and Wix and compare them side by side:
Building an ecommerce store involves lots of components. However, having an easy-to-use platform can make the process less stressful.
Both Shopify and Wix are suitable for beginners who have no technical website-building knowledge or coding experience.
With Shopify’s basic template, you can set up your store in only a few hours. However, for more sophisticated templates, the process could take a few days. Shopify is specifically built as a dedicated ecommerce solution and comes with a bulky editor that can make the process a tad tedious.
On the other hand, Wix is very intuitive and does everything in one place. Once you master the editor, you can simply drag and drop different elements in one place.
What's more, you can easily make changes to your page and see what your website will look like in real time.
Wix also comes with store pages included in their templates. You can also easily add products, and collections to group your products.
If you run into problems on your ecommerce site, both Shopify and Wix offer support and learning resources including tutorials and guides to help you navigate the problem.
The design and customization of your ecommerce site can affect how your customers interact with your brand. Let’s look at the template options and mobile-friendliness of both platforms:
Shopify has 135 themes you can choose from. 12 of them are free while the others are paid. These themes come with multiple styling options, so you can pick which best represents your brand.
On the other hand, Wix has over 800 templates and 114 ecommerce-related templates that are all free.
When it comes to customizing your template, Shopify gives you the freedom to tweak anything. On the other hand, if you want to change your template on Wix, you will need to rebuild your entire store.
With a large percentage of consumers shopping from their mobile phones, your ecommerce website must be mobile-friendly. Whether you choose to use Shopify or Wix, both will be responsive on your customer’s mobile device.
Shopify has powerful inventory management that has the capacity for a large amount of stock. With Shopify, you can upload both single and multiple products, access stock management tools, and also get professional reports.
On the other hand, Wix has limited inventory management and is better designed for smaller online stores. With Wix, you will need other apps to help with things like analytics and reports.
Both Shopify and Wix allow you to sell physical, service, and digital products. However, you will need an app to sell service products on Wix while you will need third-party integrations to sell digital products on Shopify.
If you wish to expand your ecommerce store, you will need to integrate other tools and apps.
Shopify offers more integration with more than 8000 apps including social media platforms, Google Analytics, etc.
With this large number of plugins and integration, you can translate your store into different languages, enable customer reviews on your products, send automated emails, and much more.
On the other hand, Wix has fewer integrations and plugins including social media platforms like Instagram and email marketing apps like Mailchimp.
For large ecommerce businesses looking to scale up, Shopify will be the better choice.
Shopify offers different pricing plans starting from a Basic plan of $32 per month to a Shopify plan of $92 per month and an Advanced plan of $399 per month. You will also need to pay transaction fees and some extra costs.
On the other hand, Wix starts at a Business Basic plan of $17 per month, Business Unlimited at $25 per month, and Business VIP at $35 per month. Their yearly plan also helps you save on domain name charges. Unlike Shopify, there are no transaction fees or extra costs.
Both Shopify and Wix offer free trials, so you can try to create your online store before subscribing to any of their plans.
Both Shopify and Wix offer many payment options and have their in-house payment gateways - Shopify Payments and Wix Payments. However, Shopify is more flexible than Wix, offering over 100 different payment gateways. For example, Wix doesn't allow you to use Amazon Pay or Apple Pay.
To use other payment gateways asides from Shopify Payments, you will need to pay transaction fees, increasing your overall costs. On the other hand, Wix charges zero transaction fees on any payment option.
Shopify wins with its extensive and flexible shipping options. With Shopify, there are shipping options like local delivery, curbside pick-up, and international shipping. You can also offer free shipping and link up with other shipping providers.
On the other hand, Wix integrates with ShipStation, which is a solution that helps simplify the process of sending products to customers.
You will also need other apps to help with global shipping payments on Wix.
How safely can you sell on Shopify and Wix? Well, both platforms have lots of security measures to protect your online store, so you can be safe while selling.
Shopify and Wix have SSL security which protects the customer's data when they submit personal details like log-in or payments on the site. They are also PCI compliant which means these platforms can protect payment information and reduce fraud.
Overall, both platforms have built-in security measures to protect their site and your store, keeping your users safe as they buy products from your store.
When it comes to expanding your reach, marketing is crucial.
Shopify relies majorly on third-party apps for marketing. While this gives you some flexibility, it can be hard to manage several apps at the same time. Shopify has multiple social media integrations and an in-built analytics feature.
On the other hand, Wix has several tools within it to help you with your marketing. For example, Wix Ascend is a marketing solution that helps you manage your marketing campaigns. They also have an intuitive blog and SEO functionality that are super helpful for marketing your online store.
Both Shopify and Wix go almost toe to toe when it comes to customer support. Shopify offers great 24/7 phone and live chat support. Shopify also has a Help Center and community forum.
On the other hand, Wix slightly beats Shopify with hundreds of videos and articles to help you and an in-editor help which saves you the stress of clicking back and forth between a help guide and your store. You can simply ask for help from the editor.
You can easily integrate Shopify into Wix by adding a Buy Button on your Wix website.
However, you can't integrate Wix into your Shopify store. You will need to create two separate sites for both platforms.
Now to the final question. Which of these ecommerce platforms is best for your business? Well, the answer depends on the type of store, and your business needs and objectives.
If you need an affordable platform that's easy to use with lots of templates and essential features, we recommend Wix.
If you have a large business and want to scale up, we recommend going for Shopify.
Thankfully, both platforms offer a free trial which gives you the liberty to test and find out which is best for your business.
You’ve probably already considered selling on Amazon but its way easier than you think.
Call Us Now