24 Sep Shopify: Is It the True King of E-Commerce?

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Shopify: Is It the True King of E-Commerce?
If you are thinking of starting your e-commerce website, it might be hard to decide which e-commerce platform to use, given that there are so many great ones out there. A few common names that are constantly being thrown out there are Shopify and WooCommerce. It is undeniable that these two e-commerce platforms are amazing, and they do exactly what they are supposed to do (if not more). So, which one of them is the best?
Understandably so, you may want to choose the best platform in the world for your e-commerce site. After all, our business is like our children. We want to give them our best, and we kind of have great expectations for them.
We know you are probably anxious to know the final answer to this question “which e-commerce platform is better -Shopify or Woocommerce?”. So, if you are in a hurry and do not want to read to the bottom of the article to learn why, Shopify is the best choice.
Now that you have your answer, you might want to learn why exactly it is that Shopify is considered to be the king of e-commerce platforms. Right? If that’s the case, then keep reading to find out why.
Why choose Shopify?
Shopify was founded in 2006, and since then, it has grown exponentially from a small platform that very few knew of to the king of e-commerce platforms. It even overthrew BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento along the way.
Presently, the company boasts over 1,000,000 online retailers (and that was December last year). So, there is truly no denying the power of Shopify. Shall we take a look at what has made it so popular?
Shopify is an easy-to-use, reliable, highly-functional platform that offers incredible support. It’s the perfect mix of power and usability (especially for beginners).
Regardless of your experience level using e-commerce platforms, Shopify caters to all. From beginners to experts that know how to use the CSS and HTML files, Shopify is super friendly and incredibly robust. It even has a vast array of themes to choose from so that you can customise your store to make it look modern or minimal, whatever you fancy.
Shopify is so well perceived around the world that even large companies use it for their website. Amongst these companies, you can find names like Tesla Motors, GitHub, and General Electric.
“Find out which e-commerce platform is the true king of the market.”
What about WooCommerce?
You have probably heard of this other e-commerce platform before. We all have – WooCommerce is just as popular as Shopify, with a tiny difference though. WooCommerce is much more technical than Shopify is. So, it will require a certain amount of knowledge to use, whereas that is not the case with Shopify. Any beginner can jump in and start using it without having to learn anything beforehand.
So, WooCommerce is a great alternative to Shopify if you have some base knowledge around e-commerce platforms. Otherwise, Shopify is the better choice for you.
Now we have convinced you, what’s next?
You have decided to start using Shopify. Great! Now, let’s discuss pricing. Shopify’s pricing system can be a bit off-putting at first. So, we would like to explain to you how it works.
Something worth noting is that you will see two components on your bill – one from the Shopify system and the other, a percentage of your revenue. This is taken as a payment processing fee by Shopify.
Furthermore, there are five pricing plans that you can choose from. The pricing for each plan changes according to your monthly revenue. Choosing the right plan for your business will depend on the features you need to be covered. So, take a look at those first before making your decision. If you are unsure about the platform still, you can choose to start a 14-day-trial period.
What are Shopify’s highlights?
Shopify has many great features that ramp up your game, but some just stand out from the rest. These features include:
- Automated Shipping Calculation: A great feature if you ship internationally. This will allow your clients to automatically see the corresponding shipping fee for their country. Forget about any complicated calculations and let this wonderful feature do it for you.
- Social Media Integration: Indispensable nowadays; with this feature, you can easily recreate your e-commerce site on your social media platforms (like Facebook, for example). Your prospective clients will be available to ship your products from the convenience of the “shop” tab without having to leave Facebook.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: A remarketing gem like no other; with this feature, you will be able to retarget those clients through emails.
- Customer Profiles: An amazing feature to build your buyer personas with the right information about your customers that you can later use for advanced segmentation.
- Easy Discount Codes: This “Bulk Discounts” feature is a little gem like no other. It will allow you to generate discount codes for free shipping, percentages, and dollar amounts.
- Shopify Experts: Shopify allows you to get additional support from experts in regards to design, programming, marketing, and more.
- Shopify Fulfillment Services: If you need dropshipping solutions, this feature covers it expertly. Save time in packaging, handling, and shipping.
There are more things to be excited about when it comes to using Shopify for your e-commerce platform. How do professional themes, SSL certificates, unique domain names, and a full blogging platform sound? Yup, we thought so too.
A truly competitive edge
Probably the main thing that makes Shopify stand out from the competition is that they have thought of every possible solution to user needs. Whatever you need, they either have a built-in tool, or they let you install a free app. Either way, you are covered both economically and technically speaking.
In regards to Shopify’s dashboard, it is one of the most fleshed-out control panels out there. Anything you need doing, you can find it under the same inventory, which is a relief, to say the least.
If you are a developer, here’s an extra goodie for you- Shopify has a special interface called Shopify Partners. This lets you play around with new websites without having to create free trials every single time. So, it’s highly convenient and time-saving.
In regards to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and marketing, Shopify has some pretty cool features too. You will be pleased to know that SEO is automated in Shopify, but you can manually customise keywords and URLs. If you want further customisation, that’s a possibility too. You can change the headers, titles, and meta tags. Also, all the URLs are SEO-friendly.
Want to know the best part? Shopify has partnered with Google, so they sometimes give advertising money for free so that you can spend it on your AdWords account.
The best payment system
In the past, if you wanted to accept payments, you had to integrate your e-commerce site with a third-party payment processor, like PayPal. Now, that’s not a necessity anymore since Shopify offers their own payment processor which they have named Shopify Payments. So, if you decide to opt for this payment processor instead of the third-party ones, the previous transaction fees we talked about will be lifted. Quite interesting, huh?
Don’t ever stop growing
If your store hits the roof with sales and you need to scale it up, Shopify will scale it better than anyone else on the market. The higher tiered pricing your products have, the more help you will receive at an enterprise level.
More themes than you can count
Shopify is very similar to WordPress when it comes to building your website. It’s simple, user-friendly, and highly customisable. Shopify offers 100 free templates that you can select from to give your website the look and feel that you want. Use the drag-and-drop feature to quickly change each aspect of your website and easily upload your images. Literally, anyone can use it.
However, if the free themes are not to your liking, Shopify also offers an immense collection of paid themes to expand your horizons even more. Modern looking, minimalist? You name it. It is all there.
24/7 customer support
We had briefly gone over the amazing customer support that Shopify offers its users. However, we want to highlight it a little more because it truly is wonderful. It has a massive community of users that respond to forums all the time. So, whatever your question, you can rest assured that the answer will either be on the forum already or about to be answered by a member of the platform.
To sum it up
There are many wonderful e-commerce platforms out there – WooCommerce, Magento, and many more. If we had to choose a runner up, it would be WooCommerce. However, Shopify is the definite king of e-commerce.
Why? Because of its simplicity of use (anyone with a laptop and internet connection can set up a store and customise it like a pro). Also, because of the incredible features it offers, the active community, the customer support, the amazing themes and because of how robust and well-rounded it is.

There is honestly not much to think about when it comes to e-commerce platforms. Do you want something easy-to-use, highly customisable, powerful, and flexible that can scale up with your site? Then, look no further. Shopify is your answer.
Shopify can be set up by anyone, regardless of their knowledge of website development and e-commerce. But if you still want to delegate this part of your business to an agency of experts, here at edirect, we build and design e-commerce websites from scratch.
If you are interested in our services, contact us!