Introduction
When it comes to the issue of dropshipping, many entrepreneurs might wonder what the best choice for their business is – especially considering the fact that numerous options are available today. Both WordPress and Shopify are some of the best platforms for eCommerce, and they each have their own set of weaknesses and strengths that you should consider when choosing one of them as your dropshipping solution.
For instance, their collective best aspect is their ability to allow you to begin and operate your own enterprise, without necessarily resorting to professionals that eat into your expenses like hiring experts and designers. In this Dropshipping WordPress vs Shopify article, we will have a look at both of them, and break down their differences in order to help you make the best decision for your business, through the following criteria:
- Ease of Use
- Scalability and Pricing
- Themes
- Setup Time
- SEO Options
- Features
- Support Systems
Analysis
Ease of Use
The main basis of Shopify use is through a subscription model, which is easy to use even for beginners. The prices begin at $29 every month up to $299 a month. WooCommerce has a different approach though, as it is mostly free due to its open-source nature. It will create all the basic pages you need from the moment you sign up, making it a winner even for non-technical users.
Scalability and Pricing
The basis of using WordPress as a dropshipping service is through their eCommerce platform WooCommerce. The best part about it is that it is open source and free to use – which will come as a big advantage if you are just starting out and want a platform that you do not need to pay for immediately.
One of the things that are interesting to note is that almost 30% of e-Commerce websites today use WooCommerce as their dropshipping platform, as opposed to the 8% share that Shopify has. Keep in mind though, you will still need to pay up when it comes to the hosting service, like SiteGround, with the annual charges coming at $48.
The advantage with WooCommerce though, is that you still retain complete control of your store at that fee, while Shopify has you paying $29 for the basic plan only. In addition, WooCommerce will allow you to set up an unlimited number of dropshipping stores without any extra charges, as the $48 will cover every store you open through your account. However, in the case of Shopify, you will need to pay the $29 annual fee for every store you open, if you are going to stick with the basic plan.
At the end of the day, WooCommerce is a much cheaper option compared to Shopify, so consider signing up for it if you are on a tight budget.
Themes
When it comes to an eCommerce website, the design is part of the make-or-break aspects: if it is poorly done, your business fails to grow because customer experience is poor or negative, and the opposite is true. Therefore, it is highly important that every website owner makes sure that their web store is both efficient and beautiful.
For Shopify users, there are only ten free designs, although you have a range of more than 100 to select from. The non-free ones go for $100 (minimum) to $180 (maximum) each. For a beginning business, it is a pricey fee to pay for a website design – and it is not even customizable after you purchase it.
WooCommerce beats them at this because their themes are in the hundreds of thousands, complete with giving you opportunities to customize them through their Visual Composer plugin – only at $34, or just like me, I personally use the Jessica child theme from Studiopress for my Woocommerce stores
Setup Time
The main aim of Shopify is giving you a solution you might not have thought of, within the fastest time limit. You only need to sign up, and the process of setting up is easy enough to be done in less than 40 minutes. There are also tutorials on the internet if you need some additional guidance.
However, if you do not want to set up a store on your own and installing all the plugins you require, there is an extra option of buying an already existing store, then customizing it to fit your requirements.
For WooCommerce though, it is different and the process of setting up takes slightly longer, with an average time of 70 minutes.
If you want to open a new store on Shopify, you will have to start from scratch (there are no options of buying additional stores), while for WooCommerce, you can duplicate your store instead within minutes, through a plugin called Duplicator.
SEO Options
This is the bane of many non-technical website owners, even though it is essential for the success of your website. WooCommerce therefore will beat Shopify, because WordPress is much easier to use and is among the most reliable options when it comes to keyword tagging. In fact, more than 95% of Shopify website owners close down within a month after encountering frustration when trying to optimize their SEO, especially if they don not know how it works.
Features
For Shopify, there is an App Marketplace where you can buy plugins and apps that will make your website richer and more efficient. The catalogue is quite extensive too, thanks to more than 1200 apps in their store. Many of these apps have a 15-day free trial, then you pay a fixed monthly fee afterwards.
On the other hand, WooCommerce has more than 75,000 plugins, all thanks to it being an open-source software. There are interesting additions as well, and your choice will depend on what you want to achieve – for instance, affiliate programs, recovery of shopping carts, or follow-up emails.
Many of the plugins and apps are free too, although you can buy premium ones for a one-time fee, like the dropshipping plugin Alidropship, which can help you setup your dropshipping store in no time .
Support Systems
Shopify has excellent levels of customer support, ranging from live chat to phone calls on a 24/7 basis. WooCommerce has no official support channels though, the advantage they have over Shopify is the open-source nature – so there are plenty of user forums where you can find solutions to your issues from other users and even developers.
Final Thoughts
While Shopify offers you an easy way to start your store, it will not benefit you much if you do not know about vital aspects such as SEO. On the other hand, WooCommerce + dropshipping plugin like Alidropship comes out as the winner due to the ease of use, and it is also cheaper to operate in the long term.
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