As your online business expands and grows, you’ll likely have to reconsider and update your eCommerce store platform. There is an array of choices that cater to each unique requirement of an online business owner.
The open-source plugin for the WordPress website platform, WooCommerce is a great free eCommerce solution in the market, making it a popular choice among the greener web-based businesses. However, many retailers are making a switch from WooCommerce to Shopify these days.
Here, in this blog, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of WooCommerce and Shopify, along with why you should migrate your site to Shopify from WooCommerce.
WooCommerce Vs. Shopify: The Breakdown
The financial capabilities and needs of a business will eventually help determine what platform would work best for it. Understanding the pros and cons of either Shopify or WooCommerce can help in making the right decision.
The Pros and Cons of WooCommerce:
Pro: WooCommerce is customizable. The free software offers basic functionality for turning your site into a stunning eCommerce store. Besides, the paid additions and upgrades, including domain, support, email, etc., can build a stronger platform for bigger businesses.
Con: Its support systems aren’t unified. Additional hosting mechanisms, themes, and plugins have unique sources, meaning that WooCommerce does not offer centralized support to these solutions. Customer support and troubleshooting are made very complicated and could be frustrating.
Pro: WooCommerce provides a wide selection of paid and free store themes. The free options are much used more by skilled web developers, while a novice is better off buying a professional theme. Adjacent firms developing themes compatible with WooCommerce include ThemeForest and others.
Con: WooCommerce isn’t user-friendly. Newbies on WooCommerce could start with the preinstalled version. However, the setup procedure, customization, and troubleshooting are challenging to understand for a less experienced user.
The Pros and Cons of Shopify:
Pro: The platform offers an array of features, segregated under different plans. The starter Lite plan is priced at $9/month, giving limited sales to retailers. The Advanced plan is the highest plan that costs $300/month and includes every feature available to scale your business.
Con: Shopify sets a limit of three product options, restricting customizability on each item. For instance, a retailer trading blankets using Shopify gets to offer only three points of customization for every design- they can allow a customer to choose color, shape, and size, but by sacrificing knit vs shag, material, etc. The retailers who want to provide more options can install third-party applications that remove these limits, though they’ll likely have to pay for them.
Pro: The way Shopify handles its product category is easy and highly intelligent. The smaller retailers can add products manually to a category or collection, while the bigger eCommerce businesses could utilize automated collections for categorizing efficiently and quickly. You could also implement rules in the platform that categorize your items automatically based on factors like tags, titles, etc.
Con: This could be a con or a pro, depending on how you use it. Shopify lets the user write the HTML customization in their website, facilitating an array of customization. But a few features not particularly included in unmodified packages of Shopify, including customer file upload or like line items, should be written by code-savvy professionals. If you are an expert in writing HTML, Shopify can be a cakewalk for you; however, for the non-coder, that could mean a barrier to access certain features.
Pro: Shopify works for both small and large businesses. The platform also includes a variety of safety features now, given the Covid-19 pandemic. The retailers can use ‘local pickup’ that helps customers avoid costly shipping charges and avoid close contact with other people.
Why should you migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?
While WooCommerce provides an array of third-party applications, add-ons and other optional features to cater to scalability and other business requirements, the nature of this eCommerce platform poses a few serious limitations. The limited built-in features, low cost and non-native applications make WooCommerce the perfect choice for new businesses, passion projects, or tech-savvy entrepreneurs wanting control over the function and look of their website. However, as the businesses expand with time, WooCommerce then becomes unsustainable.
On the other hand, Shopify is designed for scalability and ease of use. Its multi-tier plans cater to all businesses and come with the same solution-wide and internal support. From enterprise businesses to new eCommerce retailers, Shopify provides a detailed solution that grows simultaneously with the business.
How to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?
If you have decided to switch from WooCommerce to Shopify, the migration process is quite easy and simple.
- First, export your online store from WooCommerce. Head over to WooCommerce, tap on Tools and then select Export. Choose all content and Download Export File.
- Second, import the data over to Shopify. On Shopify, click Apps and then select Import Store. Choose WooCommerce in the drop-down tab. Tap Add File and choose the file that you downloaded through WooCommerce. Tap Continue Import and then click Import.
- Analyze and update the data. Check that everything imported to Shopify is working fine. If something is missing out, you could add customers or products manually as well.
Things to remember when migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify
When you migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify, you must ensure that you are aware of what sections of your store can be carried over easily and what sections you will have to skip or look for alternatives for in Shopify.
Before starting the migrating process, ensure that you complete the standard administrative settings on Shopify. That will help make the migration process a lot easier.
Final verdict: Migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify
You can choose the eCommerce platform that best suits you. If you are a growing company requiring a new eCommerce solution that allows expanding your retail activities, it may be time that you make the switch to Shopify.
Does this mean the end of WooCommerce?
Of course not!
WooCommerce is amazing if you have custom needs that Shopify does not cater to.
Looking for an expert who can help you in migrating your website from WooCommerce to Shopify? Don’t worry as Auroinfo has got your back. Having carried out several eCommerce migrations over the years, our team of professionals is highly skilled and experienced when it comes to providing a fast, error-free and strategic website data migration, without affecting your sales process. We ensure that all your store data, including orders, products, customers and other related information is transferred accurately and securely, without any downtime. For more detail, get in touch with us today!