610.432.2600WordPress Vs. Shopify
When you’re looking to expand your audience and boost sales, an Ecommerce store can be extremely helpful. It gives customers all around the world access to your store any time they want. It’s estimated that globally there will be 2.05 billion digital shoppers in 2020. The thing is that nowadays, there are a lot of different websites you could use to create your online storefront. You need to find one with top-quality technical foundations that you can count on to handle any upticks in traffic or business. Here at NuStream, we understand that this is an important decision that can affect the future of your business. To help you find the best option for your company, we’ve put together some pros and cons of a WordPress vs. Shopify.
What is Shopify?
Back in the early 2000s, Shopify started out as a solution for selling snowboarding equipment online. Today, it’s become one of the top Ecommerce solutions, supporting more than 500,000 online stores. In 2019, Shopify had around a 20% market share — second only to WooCommerce, which is a plugin for WordPress.
WordPress vs. Shopify
You may be wondering what’s better — WordPress vs. Shopify. It’s true that Shopify was specifically designed as an Ecommerce store. On the other hand, WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that has all sorts of uses. Many people use it to manage content for their website or Ecommerce store. If you want a website that is content-heavy and rich with media (like images and videos), a WordPress site may be exactly what you need. Also, WordPress has plenty of themes and over 50,000 plugins for you to choose from. Whatever it is that you need for your website, it’s pretty likely that WordPress has a plugin for it.
Shopify Benefits
Shopify is a popular platform that you may have heard of. It’s designed more-so for people who don’t have experience in website development or coding. But is this the perfect fit for your business? If you need an internet store immediately, Shopify may work for you. Using one of their simple templates, you can quickly set up your store at an affordable monthly rate. There are a bunch of different themes and features for you to select from, allowing for a certain level of customization. Also, there are three different price tiers for you to choose from, based on the level of functionality that you need.
With the huge popularity of smartphones, Shopify is optimized for mobile shopping, and customers can make purchases right from your homepage. It comes with built-in reporting features that allow you to track your sales. Although, a lot of custom-built websites also make it easy for you to track your sales metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators).
Shopify is a hosted solution. Thus, everything you need for your store runs off of Shopify’s servers. You don’t have to buy software or web hosting, but you also only get a limited amount of control over the changes that are made to your store. They also offer a Shopify App Store, a 24-hour support team, a big community of independent developers, a limited amount of built-in SEO tactics, and a top-notch inventory management system.
Benefits of WordPress Vs. Shopify
In the current overly crowded marketplace, it’s vital to make sure your online store stands out from the rest. As a busy business owner, Shopify can make things a little easier for you. On the other hand, it’s probably best to have a store that you can customize to the wants and needs of you and your customers. The initial setup of this type of store may cost a little more, but it can actually make you money in the long-term. You’re getting an easy-to-use store that was designed specifically for your brand. Having an amazing store like this will help you grow your sales.
When it comes to product variations, Shopify is somewhat limited. As an example, let’s say that you sell handmade blouses, and you offer a lot of different colors, materials, styles, and size options. Once you get too many variations, Shopify can no longer help you grow, and you may have to get help from a third-party developer or migrate to another platform. Without the right technical background, this can be a daunting process.
With a customized Ecommerce website through WordPress, there are a seemingly unlimited amount of options that you can use. Additionally, if you decide to set up a store through a content management system like WordPress, your store can evolve as your business continues to grow and develop. If your company changes over the years, it could easily outgrow Shopify’s offerings. Similar to Shopify, you can DIY your WordPress site. In order to get the best custom results, it’s best to go to an experienced website developer.
Drawing in Traffic to Your Store
We hope this article helps you in your decision of WordPress vs. Shopify. But finding the right content management system and building your store is just the first step. Once you set everything up properly, you need to find a way to attract customers to your online store. There are a number of different ways you can advertise your Ecommerce store. You could use e-mail marketing, SEO best practices, PPC advertisements, a blog, or social media. If you could use a hand setting up your store and marketing it to your specific audience, get in contact with the team at NuStream. We have all of the digital marketing services that you need to get ahead of the competition.
Click Here to read How we gained traffic during the Coronavirus Pandemic.