As an online seller, you have to make a commitment to an ecommerce platform to carry you through your work. Picking a platform isn’t exactly an easy task, as you’ve got to find one that suits your needs, is easy and straightforward to use, helps you grow and will evolve with the products you sell. With that in mind, RepricerExpress breaks down the differences between Shopify vs Magento so you can see which one is the best fit for you.
Shopify: Roots in the Great White North
In 2006 in Canada’s capital of Ottawa, a platform called Shopify got started. They grew quickly and to large size, and depending on when you read this, they have upwards of 150,000 retailers on their site. One of their biggest advantages is how much money investors have kicked in, giving them a nice foundation to work with. Is an IPO in their future? The rumours certainly seem to point in that direction.
Magento: Going With an Open Concept
While one of Shopify’s biggest calling cards is how much investor money they have, what’s attracted about a quarter million retailers to Magento is that it’s open concept. And while they were taken over by eBay in 2011, their business model is something that’s caused retailers to sit up and take notice. Some of Magento’s biggest customers include Nike and Angry Bird’s Rovio, giving it serious cred.
Looking at the Pros of Each Platform
We picked Shopify and Magento because they’re two of the most well-known ecommerce platforms; with their respective large sizes, they’ve got a lot of great things going for them.
Shopify
- They’ll take care of the messy details with their Software as a Service solution, like software patches, server installation and more.
- You can pick the subscription package (Basic, Professional, Unlimited, Plus) that exactly matches what you need.
- The platform will edit the HTML and CSS so you don’t have to worry about learning coding yourself.
- There’s a 14-day free trial you can use to test drive it and see exactly how it works.
- Your buyers can use gift cards, coupons and online payments.
- There’s an awesome customer support section that can help you out if you get puzzled by anything — although with their out-of-the-box design, that’s probably not very likely.
Magento
- Think of Magento as the ecommerce platform version of Android to Shopify’s Apple — Magento offers much more control, customisation, power and decision-making.
- There are specialists and extensions for just about anything you can think of, along with the help you needed to make it happen.
- You can control meta-tags and URLs so you can better increase the effectiveness of your SEO.
- Your site will look entirely your own and there’s almost zero chance your page will have that boring, cookie-cutter look, avoiding the dreaded wearing the same dress as someone else to a cocktail party.
- Selling physical products (as opposed to digital products) is the better bang-for-your-buck option on Magento.
What Will Make You Think Twice?
Shopify
- You’ll be hit with a small transaction percentage fee for every sale, which is factored into before payment gateway costs count.
- You can’t really customise is to your heart’s content and may have to settle or make compromises in some areas.
- They charge more for fewer SKUs, which can be a problem if you’re selling physical products.
- The trial period is half that of Magento’s (14 days versus 30).
Magento
- They don’t have the unlimited bandwidth of Shopify, so you may get stuck with pricey overages.
- Because you can customise things so much, you may get confused and bogged down by the sheer amount of options.
- Their open-source concept doesn’t mean everything is free because the deeper you get, the more you’ll find yourself having to pay for the small things, along with finding people knowledgeable or skilled enough to make use of the little options.
- The a la carte option means you can just bundle things together into subscription plans.
Whichever platform you choose, there’s one constant you should be coming home to at the end of every day: RepricerExpress. We’re like that comfortable blanket on a cold winter day in that we’ll keep you warm, we’re affordable and we’ll put you in the right frame of mind to set on for the next step. When you sign up today for your 15-day free trial, you’ll be putting yourself even closer to the top.
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