E-commerce:
E-commerce stands for electronic commerce. Just like every other thing going mobile, e-commerce refers to the process of buying and selling products through the internet. The transaction also happens through online available wallets. Sounds familiar? Actually in a casual language is just shopping online through different platforms.
That act of selling and purchasing can happen through any platform available. That can be an online website, a mobile application of a store, and social media pages of different brands, shopping platforms, and many more. Shopping platform includes Amazon, Magneto, Shopify, eBay, Ali Express, and hundreds of other big names.
Pros and cons of e-commerce platforms:
After an explanation of the very term, highlighting the pros and cons can be the next step. Shopping online has made the life of the working class a lot easier. Everything is basically just a click away now. You just need to search for the products you are in need of and after putting everything in the cart; you just need to pay the bill.
These e-commerce platforms even provide home delivery services. Working class does not have enough time to go to the grocery store every other day. Or the excess time of buying a piece of clothing according to the weather. In that case, shopping online comes handy. And work wonders for them.
It just doesn’t save the time of going from store to store for every product. It provides hundreds of brands offering millions of things under the same umbrella. As a result, e-commerce has just taken over the world in a matter of a few years. And paying online is also great assistance because carrying paper money is neither easy nor safe. So online transactions have solved that trouble really effectively.
Cons of shopping online:
But just like any other thing, E-Commerce also offers another side of the coin as well. There are hundreds of benefits of shopping online. And many drawbacks as well. The very first and main issue is the mishap happened through an online transaction of money. Once you have uploaded the details of your card, the e-commerce platform has the authority of using it.
And there are many reported scenes of illegal transactions being made. So every benefit comes with a flaw as well. Even though companies are working to increase the security and take proper care of details of the card of customers. But it still needs a lot of work in that particular department.
Yes, online shopping is convenient. But you are buying some product so that you will be able to use it successfully or look fabulous in it. Not to make a complete fool of yourself. There are thousands of examples available in the form of videos and pictures complaining about the trash sometimes these online stores send to the customers.
Either the size issue or the quality of the product. As the customers do not have the ability to try or look at the original product before buying. This thing gives an edge to all the frauds to take advantage of customers to make money. Even though these buyers succeed in making customers fool, but in no time they also lose all of the customers. Because nobody likes to buy scrap on purpose.
Have you ever thought what happens on the other side, the seller side? What are the parameters there? What kind of approach do they follow? And with mindset are they working? Well, it is a completely different world. Buyers from all around the globe sign up to these e-commerce platforms to sell their products and fulfill the needs of the customers.
Which platform is right for you to create an online store?
Well, the question here is which platform is better? Creating a store online is essential because online presence matters a lot nowadays. But the Selection of a Platform is way more important than any other element. Because the future of your business is depended on the platform of your choice.
All the platforms out there allow you to create an online store along with facilities of receiving and managing the payments. Just not that but maintaining the inventory along with tracking the order is also considered as one of the main features offered by any platform.
But selecting any platform randomly is never an option. As it just doesn’t tackle your benefits only but customers’ experiences are also depended on it. Hence you can’t compromise on it at any cost. As the center of attention of this blog post is a comparison between two main giants of E-Commerce, i.e., Shopify and Magento.
Both platforms have their own strong points and unique as well as exclusive features which make them the biggest platforms. But which is right for your business? And which platform will help you tackle the needs of your customers effectively? I’m going to highlight the main difference between the features of both of these e-commerce platforms, and that will help you decide which the right choice is for you.
Creation of store:
Shopify and Magento are the software which allows the creators to create develop and manage their online store in the form of sites. The coding language of Shopify is Liquid while Magento uses PHP. And that is the first difference between both of the platforms.
Shopify is basically a commercial subscription software. It offers user-friendly interface services. Well, you will get 14 days trial free at the start of the process. But once it’s over, you have to buy a package to continue working on the platform. It provides the domain and hosting as well. So you don’t have to be worried about that at all.
And it is very easy to use as well. Any person, without any knowledge of coding languages or graphics designing, can develop the store in a matter of hours. All it needs is dragging and dropping the material in the wizard mode. And the selection of theme can also be done quickly. Once the outline is created, you can simply add the products and set up the payment procedure which will lead you to the selling right away.
But the procedure is completely different in Magento.
As Magento is an open source community so it is free to use. But it cost you more than packages of Shopify. Since you have to hire a coder and a web designer who will create your store for you. As the developing process of Magento does not involve just dragging and dropping. Magento has advanced features built into the system. And you have to buy the domain and the hosting for your site on your own as well.
Customization and theme selection:
The theme of the site acts as the source of attraction for the customers. In order to get the best out of the situation, having a strong and appealing theme matters a lot.
Shopify offers a limited number of themes for a small price. But to get a wide range you have to pay around about $80-$180 for them. But these themes are easy to install and to work with. And it will give the site a unique and likable look. As far as customization is concerned, Shopify gives you a free hand of selecting and adding anything as you please.
Magento offers themes for $1-$499. But again you need to hire a professional to make the deal for you. Because it is not easy to run those themes, it requires expertise level of knowledge HTML and CSS along with web development. And same is the case with customization. You will need a developer to make the changes for your site.
If you have the money then it will be not a big deal at all. But if you are starting a business just now, then investing so much on a site will not be a good move at all.
Extensions and plug-ins:
The theme and customization are only going to create the look of the site. You definitely need the functions as well. And some functions are offered in the package deal already in Shopify. But there are many more which you must consider associating with your site. That will make the working of the site a lot more proficient and useful.
Shopify does have additional plug-ins and extensions available in the market. But their number can’t beat the variety of the Magento. However, the available add ons are really effective. And after buying them, the extensions are really easy to use.
Just like the creation part, in a matter of few clicks, the add ons will be ready to perform their functions. There are many fascinating and improved versions of extensions available like email campaign, order tracking, and chatbots. All of these will give a makeover to your site and make it more functional than ever.
Magento comes with a wide range of extensions. There are thousands of amazing functionality related to plug-ins Available. And these will make the site more exciting to use. Even though the addition of add ons does not require any kind of coding or professional help. So once you have invested in development, you can add as many plug-ins as you want to. And it will just keep on enchanting the functionalities for your site.
Set up cost:
Creating the store online can be difficult just in terms of finding the right platform but selecting the right package as well. As Shopify is hosted and Magento is a self-hosted platform. So the process and the pricing are completely different in both of the cases.
Which platform is right for your business? This question is actually depended on your budget. If you can afford professional help then going for magneto is a good option. But in the case of small business, it is not practical at all.
Shopify provides its users with domain and hosting in the monthly package. Actually, you have to pay a little extra at the start. As you have to buy the theme along with customization and the additional plug-ins as well. But after that, you just have to pay the monthly charges.
Basic Shopify plan can cost you around $29. Whereas advance Shopify plan can range up to $299 per month. But if you are looking for just Shopify lite with buy button then it will just cost $9 a month. Anyhow there are some hidden charges in Shopify as well. Like it charges 2% to 0.5% as transaction fees for payment gateways.
Magento is a self-hosted platform. This actually means that you have to buy the domain and hosting for your site on your own. The domain can cost around $10-$15, it is not expensive. But the hosting is pretty extensive.
Hosting can cost you around $5 to hundreds of dollars. And that is just decided by the size of your store. If you decide to buy a hosting which is not compatible with your sore, then it will slow it down. And any site which takes more than 3 seconds to open up loses the customer.
In addition to that, the price of templates can range from $1 to $499. And the cost of additional plug-ins is not even added. Yes, Magento is free for everyone. But when you add all of these prices together, it definitely costs more than Shopify.
SEO friendliness:
Search Engine Optimization is the key to success on the internet. As it helps you get on the top of the search engines, where your customers can see you. And through that, the sales are being generated. Different strategies are being followed to get the site on the top rankings because of it the page which customers usually visit.
Shopify and Magento both are doing great in terms of being SEO friendly. Both of these platforms helps your business get notify in the eyes of Google search along with other engines as well. And both of these platforms give the option of associating blogs with main sites also. These platforms allow you to add Meta tags and offer other strategies which help in maximum output.
As Magento is a self-hosted platform, it also gives the option of changing URLs and easy excess to redirects and canonical tags as well. The SEO capabilities can be enhanced through extra plug-ins and extensions available in the market. Once you will add those extensions, the process will be a lot more effective and easy.
Transaction costs:
Shopify charges a transaction fee for payment gateways and it is depended on the plan you have opted. As Shopify charges 0.5% on advance Shopify plan, 2% on Shopify basic plan, 1% on Shopify plan, and 2% on lite plan. So you have to decide the plan accordingly and wisely.
Shopify provides a wide range of options for acceptance of payments. Like the master card, visa, and American Express.
But the case is completely different in Magento. Magento does not offer any options for payment. And it does not charge any money for it either. But there is a solution available for it. There are around about 148 payment integration extensions available. So you can just easily download the extension to tackle the needs.
Inventory management:
Both of the platforms offer different inventory potential. Shopify offers unlimited inventory management option in case of basic Shopify plan which will cost $25 per month. And that act as a huge help. Because the management of inventory plays a very important role in the speed of the site.
Magento is a self-hosted platform and it also gives you the option of unlimited inventory potential. But if you have selected hosting for a smaller online store than for sure a bigger inventory will slow your site down. And nobody is up to the risk of slowing down the site. Right?
Multilingual approach:
Having a multilingual store just multiplies the customers in a matter of seconds. Because that way people from all around the globe has the facility of accessing and using your store for their benefits, in their own language. Just relying on the English language is never a good option. It is true that English is the international language but many people are not being able to understand this language.
Magento offers this facility as it has a built-in system for the multi-language approach. All you have to do is download it and start using it. This gives your brand a whole new dimension. That will help a lot in increasing sales.
But Shopify doesn’t offer this facility. Even though there are many additional extensions available in the market which can be downloaded and used for this purpose. The user has to buy the extension. But it is worth spending money on. Because it will generate sales for your business.
Conclusion:
These are some main dissimilarities and variations between Shopify and Magento. If you have a small business and you are just starting up then I will suggest you go for Shopify. As it is simple, economical, do not require any coding, and provides hosting along with the domain.
But if you are an owner of a big, developed industry then you should opt for Magento. As it will give you the complete control over your site. And you can hire a professional team to make the store just as you want. After spending in the creation of a store, it will help you pull all the customers you need to make big bucks.