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Which eCommerce platform should you choose?
Not all eCommerce platforms are created equal. Don't start an eCommerce store without reading this comparison.
Oct 31, 2019 • 18 minute read
Updated on Aug 4, 2021 by Closed User
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A comparison of the top 6 most popular eCommerce platforms in 2021
If you're planning to launch an eCommerce business, you'll need to decide on the platform for your online store. But not all eCommerce platforms are suited to all business models.
Fortunately for you, we've compared the top eCommerce platforms so you can make an informed choice.
We measured each eCommerce platform on these criteria:
Pricing
Ease of installation and setup
User-friendliness (how easy it is to add and edit store products, check customer orders, etc.)
Upgradability
SEO friendliness
Squarespace
Squarespace has been rising in popularity since its launch 17 years ago. The increasing popularity of this eCommerce platform is mainly attributed to its ability to adapt and evolve constantly with the change in the Internet landscape over the years. Squarespace usage has been increasing steadily, with more websites opting for this eCommerce platform. The graph below shows Squarespace usage between 2011 and 2020.
The statistics below show that Squarespace is leading in market share, with 23.51%, and closely followed by WooCommerce, with a market share of 23.43%.
Squarespace is one of the best eCommerce platforms that offer the best value for money.
Squarespace is filled with painstakingly designed templates and comprises an editor that is rich in features and offers integrations featuring a wide selection of third-party services.
Squarespace Pricing
Squarespace offers its users a two-week trial for building a new site, testing the builder’s features, and deciding whether or not the site is ideal for their business.
Squarespace offers both monthly and annual payment plans, with various plans including Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce. The annual payment plan allows users to save up to 30%.
Squarespace Ease Of Setup
Squarespace comes in the form of a built-in domain, which you can easily replace by a custom domain that you connect to the site on going live.
You can set the custom domain by clicking on ‘Domains’ from Settings or the account dashboard, on the toggle bar above the page. You will subsequently be directed to a page that allows you to look for and purchase the domain name of your choice or connect the pre-purchased domain to Squarespace.
Squarespace User-Friendliness
Squarespace website builder typically operates through drag and drop, which is more section-based, meaning that the pages comprise individual sections. In one sense, this functionality may make things easier for you, since we all know how to use and manipulate drag-and-drop tools.
In one sense it can get a little frustrating when you realise you can’t always be as precise as you want in where you want to drag items. Making more precise tweaks can take you a little while to understand.
Squarespace’s interface is minimal and modern and can appear too clean from the beginning. Finding the required elements may need a few clicks to access.
Editing often gets easier progressively, as you get more and more used to the Squarespace editor.
Squarespace Upgradability
If your business has grown and you need to start adding more functionality, you will need to upgrade your Squarespace plan to enable you to use additional features. You can easily upgrade to a paid website subscription if you are using a free trial or upgrade to a higher plan that suits your business needs. Upgrading to a paid subscription such as Business or Commerce plans enables you to enjoy more features and integrations such as the ability to buy custom email from the Google Workspace and license images from Getty Images.
Is Squarespace Good For SEO?
Today, Squarespace has improved its SEO capabilities, with some of the features including;
XML Site map
SSL Certificates
Clean HTML Markup
Automatic tagging
Customizable image alt attributes
Automatic redirects
Canonical tags
Structured data
Clean URLs
AMP
Search engine and page descriptions
Built-in-mobile descriptions
Google rich image products’ search
Built-in meta tags
Search keyword analytics
But even with these additions, Squarespace still lags WordPress in SEO. It's certainly possible to rank on the first page of Google with your Squarespace website. Squarespace's blogging platform is very limited. But if you mainly write long-form copy like in-depth blog articles. You'll have trouble competing with similar sites that use WordPress. But since this is an article about eCommerce sites and not long-form blog sites, this may not be a deal-breaker for you.
Most beginners find Squarespace SEO challenging because of the way it integrates SEO features such as headings and templates and cover pages. Consequently, beginners need to be ready to embrace a practical approach to the ranking of their sites. However, Squarespace support pages offer adequate and reliable introductory guides to help you manage SEO.
For marketing purposes, you can use Squarespace’s Email Campaigns (an all-in-one platform) or integrate MailChimp to run your email campaigns.
Squarespace Pros
Squarespace presents beautiful, professional website design
Allows you to customize your website through code access
You can restore deleted pages and posts for up to 30 days
Squarespace mobile apps support editing of blog posts, pages, and eCommerce functions on-the-go
The templates are optimized for mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.
The premium plans include a wide variety of third-party integrations such as Typekit, which is offered at no additional cost.
Squarespace is equipped with: Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that creates the lightweight versions of web pages that help load faster on mobile devices; the ability to schedule posts, podcast-hosting ability, and multi-author functionality that are ideal for blogging.
Squarespace Cons
The editor does not autosave, prompting the user to save their work after each change.
The changes made during editing are published immediately upon saving, which can be inconvenient for larger updates.
Squarespace is not ideal for larger websites requiring a deep menu hierarchy, thus making it very challenging to create multilingual websites.
Squarespace Score
Overall, Squarespace is a robust and user-friendly eCommerce platform. It offers a high-quality interface and content management systems that are easier to use and substantially intuitive. Squarespace can help you present content in a gorgeous, magazine-style way due to the extensive layout options.
Squarespace is for you if:
You are a marketer looking to perform Email Campaigns (an all-in-one platform) or integrate MailChimp to run your email campaigns.
Shopify
Shopify is one of the world's most recommended eCommerce platforms because of its quick setup and intuitive interface. Shopify is a completely self-hosted solution, so you don't need to organize any additional web hosting to run the platform.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify offers three different membership options. The higher-paid options offer more complex reporting and also cheaper transaction fees.
The pricing gets cheaper if you choose a yearly subscription rather than a monthly one and further gets cheaper as the pricing plan increases in duration, to the second and third year.
Shopify Ease Of Installation And Setup
It takes minutes to get Shopify set up. Choose your membership plan, follow the guided installation process and your store is live.
If you've registered a website name with a third party, you can seamlessly import it into your Shopify platform by following the step-by-step instructions at setup.
There are several themes to choose from. Some are free and others are paid. The paid themes can cost up to $180. In our opinion, the free themes look sharp and professional, and they're already mobile-optimized, so we recommend saving your money.
All Shopify memberships also include an SSL certificate which enables your shop to securely collect customer information and payments. An SSL certificate alone can cost at least $109 , so its inclusion is a big plus for Shopify.
Shopify User-Friendliness
The Shopify dashboard is clean and simple to navigate. This platform does not require expertise to launch an online retail store. The ready-made templates Shopify offers favor first-time users, who don’t need to possess any design skills.
Adding products to the store is a breeze. Simply select "Products" in the left-hand menu and complete the fields to build out each product page.
Shopify's built-in analytics board displays all the information you need to run your eCommerce store efficiently.
You can display your total sales by day, week, or month, view conversion rates, and returning customer rates. With the higher paid subscriptions, you get more in-depth reporting with unlimited historical data.
Shopify's tracking app, "Arrive," also makes it easy to keep an eye on your deliveries to customers. Arrive is a downloadable phone app that syncs with a customer's email address to scan for delivery codes and automatically keep the customer updated on the status of each delivery.
Shopify Upgradability
The best eCommerce platforms grow with your business, and Shopify does offer some customization.
With Shopify, you can add layers of functionality to your eCommerce store by installing new plugins. There are plugins available for just about anything, from product countdown timers to notification banners and more. This allows you to upgrade specific store functions rather than investing in a complete upgrade.
But Shopify does have an upgrade threshold. It's aimed primarily at beginners, so its core functionality is centered around optimizing product publishing and store navigation rather than extreme customization.
That means your customization is limited to the available plugins. If you want to add a functionality that's not available via an existing plugin, you'll need to hire a web developer to adjust your shop's internal coding.
Is Shopify Good For SEO?
Shopify falls short on the SEO front. It's not optimized to rank organically due to its limited technical SEO proficiency and lean blogging capabilities.
It's still possible to create stunning blogs with Shopify but you don't have as many editing options as a dedicated blogging platform like WordPress. Writing SEO-optimised blogs is one of the most important strategies for marketing your business, so this limitation is a big strike against Shopify.
It's not impossible to rank on the first page of Google with Shopify. Kim Kardashian built her online shop with Shopify and she ranks on the first page for multiple keywords. Now, how much of that is due to Shopify's SEO capabilities and how much is because she's Kim Kardashian is up for debate.
But the major factor affecting Shopify's SEO capabilities is its URL structure. There's currently no way of removing category terms in product URLs.
For example, all product pages will have the term, "/products/," in the URL. Since Google uses URL keywords as a ranking metric, these extra terms make your Shopify products difficult to rank for their intended keywords.
Shopify Pros
Shopify is a fully hosted website, so you don't need to purchase separate hosting.
SSL certificate included.
Extremely easy to set up (great option for beginners).
Plenty of helpful resources, both on Youtube and within Shopify's community.
Easily upgradable from an ever-growing library of plugins.
All themes are pre-tested and UX optimized to maximize conversions.
Shopify can also be used at a brick-and-mortar store through Shopify POS.
Shopify Cons
Not optimized for SEO. URLs and the blogging platform aren't very customizable.
Web developer required for specific customizations.
Transactional fees apply for every external gateway you use.
Shopify Score
Overall, Shopify is a very intuitive and scalable model. You can have a professional eCommerce store set up within an hour thanks to its guided setup process and helpful tutorials. Shopify is a great option for beginners hoping to break into the eCommerce space and also seasoned entrepreneurs who want to open multiple eCommerce platforms with little setup time.
Shopify is for you if:
You are a sizeable retailer that wants to set up a web presence, with the opportunity to grow.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most popular self-hosted eCommerce platforms. WooCommerce is referred to as a self-hosted platform because it is an open-source platform that needs web hosting to function. It's a free WordPress plugin that lets you transform your WordPress website into a professional eCommerce store.
It does take some skill and time to set up the platform, so it's not the ideal choice for those planning to launch an online shop ASAP.
WooCommerce Pricing
Since WooCommerce is a self-hosted eCommerce platform, it is cheaper to acquire and use compared to the hosted platforms like Shopify. Hosting on WooCommerce can cost you between $3.95 and $5,000 per month, as shown below. Most hosts offer free or low-cost hosting services in the first few years.
You will, however, need to account for the domain or site name registration cost, which is approximately $15 per year. You may also enjoy discounts following several years of service.
Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, you can use any free WordPress theme for your store. The paid WordPress themes may help your eCommerce store load faster and provide you with a deeper level of checkout customization.
WooCommerce Ease Of Installation
After subscribing to a website hosting plan and installing the WordPress platform, you can install the WooCommerce plugin through the WordPress plugin library.
Click on Plugins > Add new
Search "WooCommerce"
Click "Install Now"
Click "Activate"
Simply installing the plugin doesn't instantly set up your eCommerce store. It just makes the plugin accessible. You still need to manually build up and customize every component of your online store.
This tutorial guides you through the rather laborious process:
WooCommerce User-Friendliness
The level of user-friendliness depends on the WordPress theme you're using. If you're using a drag-and-drop website builder such as Elementor, you can edit each of your store products simply by selecting them and dropping them into place. You can see below how simple and user-friendly WooCommerce becomes with a theme like Elementor.
But if you add and edit your store products from the WordPress back end, it's confusing to navigate and feels a lot like slogging your way through a program from the early 2000s.
WooCommerce Upgradability
When it comes to customizing your eCommerce store, WooCommerce is packed with both feature options and capabilities. There are more than 400 official extensions to choose from, ranging from checkout functionality to marketing and accounting. You can even install a membership extension to turn your eCommerce store into a membership website and sell your services on a subscription basis.
If you prefer to get your hands dirty in code, WooCommerce is fully open source and managed on Github. Developers can customer AJAX endpoints and even create custom integrations via WooCommerce's REST API. If all that sounds beyond your depth, you can find freelance web developers who specialize in WooCommerce.
With WooCommerce, there's no limit to the level of complexity of your eCommerce platform. If you're just breaking into the eCommerce space, you can start with a basic eCommerce build and upgrade its functionality as you need to.
Is WooCommerce Good For SEO?
Yes, WooCommerce is one of the most SEO-friendly eCommerce platforms. That's because it's powered by WordPress, which is inherently a blogging platform, so WooCommerce stores are capable of ranking for both short and long-form copy.
WooCommerce Pros
Free
SEO friendly
100% customizable
Readily scalable
Advanced features for complex store requirements
WooCommerce Cons
Difficult to navigate outside of a drag-and-drop WordPress theme
Some plugins may affect performance
Setup takes a considerable amount of time
Need to search online tutorials to learn how to set up and navigate the platform
SSL certificate and website hosting need to be purchased separately.
WooCommerce Score
Overall WooCommerce is a very robust platform that's capable of building a very complex online store.
It can be quite intimidating and confusing to navigate for beginners, but if you have the time and patience to follow online tutorials, you should be capable of setting up your own store.
WooCommerce is for you if:
You are a fan of WordPress.