Selling products without buying in bulk, without keeping and managing stocks and without making large investments. Dropshipping makes it possible, which has made this online business model enormously popular.
There are several e-commerce platforms that make this easy, but which one is most suitable? In this blog, we'll give you insights into the pros and cons of Shopify and WooCommerce.
Shopify or WooCommerce?
Both platforms are incredibly popular among Web shop owners. In this blog, we will tell you the difference in price, functionalities, different tools and the knowledge and experience required to use the platforms.
The prize
Currently, Shopify has four different subscriptions: Basic Shopify ($29 per month), Shopify ($79 per month), Shopify Advanced ($299 per month) or Shopify Plus (starting at $2,000 per month).
In many cases, the Shopify Basic plan provides everything you need to start dropshipping. You can use a wide selection of free or paid themes with this plan, which means you don't need to create a design or need technical knowledge to start an online store.
Hosting
Wordpress/WooCommerce is an open source platform, which is completely free to use. That sounds appealing, but to have an online store in WooCommerce, there are costs involved that are already included with Shopify.
Thus, you have to arrange your web hosting in WooCommerce yourself. A hosting package quickly costs 15 euros per month (excluding domain name).
For dropshipping you often need a better package than the cheapest package: you want to automate processes and maintain your website speed when you get a lot of traffic to your website. For that, sufficient server capacity is needed.
With Shopify, hosting is included in the monthly fee you pay. Shopify's hosting is known to be very reliable. Do you have a Basic Shopify plan of $29 per month, and do you want to offer a good experience to thousands of visitors at the same time on your shop? With Shopify's hosting, that's no problem at all.
The conclusion? The monthly fees for Shopify and WooCommerce are very close to each other.
Setting up your webshop
Shopify allows anyone to set up an online store easily and quickly, without technical knowledge. WooCommerce is open source and is suitable for entrepreneurs with knowledge experience in web hosting, web design and web development.
On both platforms, the signup process is fairly simple: you register an account, verify your email address and can get started right away. In WordPress, you still need to connect your hosting and install the WooCommerce plugin.
Want to get started quickly, without too much technical knowledge? Then Shopify is best suited for you.
Dropshipping Apps & automation
Both platforms offer ample opportunities in the use of Dropshipping Apps or plugins. In Shopify, there are numerous dropshipping apps available, including our GOGETTERS app. In WooCommerce, there are fewer, but even there, there are ample opportunities to start dropshipping.
In WooCommerce, how well these apps perform again depends on your hosting.
Importing products and automating inventory updates, order processing and automatic sending of Track & Trace are all processes that use your server capacity: something you don't have to worry about in Shopify.
Marketing
Shopify obviously pays a lot of attention to making online marketing tools available. For example, Shopify has built-in integrations with the most popular marketing platforms such as Facebook, Google and marketplaces such as eBay.
In addition to the built-in tools developed by Shopify itself, there is also a huge range of apps in the Shopify App Store that can help you with online marketing. In addition to these tools, Shopify offers a comprehensive Analytics dashboard, making analytics tools like Google Analytics basically obsolete.
Everything in one dashboard and environment? Choose Shopify.
Within WooCommerce, you need several plugins to help you with online marketing. These plugins do not come from the developer of WooCommerce itself and can affect your website speed.
One advantage of WooCommerce is that you determine your URL structure yourself. In Shopify, you're stuck with a certain structure. For example, a product always has the subfolder /products/ in the URL. This also applies to collections, blogs and the checkout.
Do you like having easy, effective and user-friendly marketing tools? Then use Shopify. Want to be able to customize a bit more and have the knowledge to do so? Then choose WooCommerce.
Customer Service
Wordpress/WooCommerce does not have dedicated support. It is not possible to ask anyone from Wordpress or WooCommerce questions. WooCommerce does have a huge community, where you can share your questions on forums and platforms. Experienced WooCommerce developers then often help you with your questions.
On the other hand, Shopify has a 24/7 support desk. Shopify can be reached by phone, email and live chat. So would you like to have a question beacon available when you start your online store? Then Shopify is the right choice.
At GOGETTERS you can always use our support. Whether you have your shop in WooCommerce or in Shopify does not matter. We will gladly help you.
The best choice?
The best choice for a dropshipping webshop depends on a few factors. We always advise beginning entrepreneurs to start in Shopify.
Do you have far-reaching technical knowledge? Then you have a little more options in WooCommerce.
Want ease of use, fast customer service and a highly reliable system for your online store? Choose Shopify.