You want to start an e-commerce business but do not have the technical skills to create your online store. Problem: you don’t necessarily have a large budget to allocate to the creation of your site and can’t afford to delegate this task. After some research, you have probably come across different solutions that allow you to create an e-commerce site easily and without needing a lot of technical skills. Whether you sell products with or without stock management, it is indeed interesting to look at the different solutions available to you. Wix and Shopify are two very different proposals, but they both offer the possibility to create an online store without too much complexity.
Now you want to study these two possibilities and need constructive advice in order to make your choice in an informed way. You can’t take the risk of making the wrong choice and losing time in building your store. That’s why we offer you a complete comparison of Wix and Shopify. At the end of this article, you will be able to make your choice in the best possible conditions.
Getting started
For Wix, getting started is really easy. This is the major advantage that is put forward by the marketing team of the tool. Indeed, the value proposition is simple: allow anyone to create a professional website very easily and without the need for technical skills. Wix uses an efficient “drag and drop” system for people who want a very easy way to create their website.
Shopify will certainly require more time to get to grips with the whole interface and be able to create your website. However, there are many tutorials on social networks that allow you to get through quickly with a more satisfactory result than with Wix.
For both solutions, the ergonomics is pleasant. It is possible to quickly adapt to all the features and possibilities that the two tools offer.
The store part
If you want to open more than a website, an online store, your choice should normally go to Shopify. Indeed Wix is not natively designed to be optimized for e-commerce. It is possible to import themes that will do very well. But the features are rather limited, especially when compared with a tool like Shopify.
Shopify is indeed one of the most popular platforms for building an e-commerce site. The tool was designed for that. One hundred percent of the people who use Shopify are building a store. The tool is optimized for that and is not made for building a simple showcase site.
This is why it is the best option between the two solutions we are presenting today. Everything is thought and made to facilitate the life of e-merchants, whether in all the basic options or in the many extensions (free or paid) available in the Shopify app store.
The blog part
The parts dedicated to the creation of a blog are not the most efficient on the market, either for Shopify or for Wix. However, we can note that it will be more pleasant to create a blog on Wix thanks to the “drag and drop” system available. You will be able to have much more freedom when it comes to the look of your blog.
But again, these solutions are not for creating a blog. If your goal is to create a blog and you don’t plan to make a store, you should look into the WordPress solution which will be much more suitable.
Personalization
Both solutions offer themes in order to have a visual that we consider attractive. On Shopify, it is possible to buy themes in order to have even more choices.
You will then be able to customize your online store more with Shopify. You will have many more possibilities. Especially since it is possible to integrate code if you know your way around or if you use an experienced developer. With Wix, this is less obvious. As a result, you will have much less freedom in terms of customization.
The price
The main advantage of Wix is that you can have a website for 0€. The company provides an offer that allows you to pay nothing for the creation of your website. However, this is not without consideration. And the main counterpart is that you will have to accept to see advertisements on your website. This allows Wix to get paid by companies that pay them a certain amount in return for advertisements displayed on the websites of users who pay nothing.
Alternatively, there are other packages that avoid these ads and can give you more freedom. These offers range from 8,50€ per month to 24,50€ per month.
As far as Shopify is concerned, the basic package is $29 per month (about €27). There is a free 14-day trial period that will allow you to test Shopify. Offers can go up to $299 (€277) per month, but that’s for already established businesses. If you’re considering using Wix, then Shopify’s premium offers probably aren’t for you.
In addition to these monthly subscriptions, you should also consider the commissions. Indeed, as soon as you make a sale you will have to pay 2% of your sale amount to Shopify. On Wix, no commission is taken.
Multilingualism
If you want to make a website in several languages, it will be relatively easy to do with Wix. On the other hand, on Shopify, it will be necessary to download an additional application that will allow you to translate your online store. You can choose a free application like “Transate your Shop GTranslate” for example.
Stock management
We have already mentioned that Shopify is the best e-commerce solution between the two solutions presented here. It is not surprising then to know that between Wix and Shopify, it is Shopify that allows a more efficient stock management.
Both solutions offer an easier inventory management. Shopify, on the other hand, offers many more possibilities and fields of action on its products. It is much easier to manage a stock with many references with Shopify than with Wix.
So you need to take this into consideration if you want to manage your own stock of goods.
SEO (or natural referencing)
Concerning the natural referencing, it seems clear that Wix is not one of the most adapted solutions. Indeed, the tool does not allow you to fully optimize your website to rank in Google search results. However, this is essential if you have ambitions for your project and if you want to make it evolve and work on it for several years.
That’s why we advise you to choose Shopify if you consider SEO a priority. There are tools that will allow you to optimize your SEO to the maximum.
Know that SEO is essential if you want to get traffic without spending a euro. The more time you spend on the SEO of your online store, the more you will be rewarded after a few months or years. For an optimal SEO, we advise you to also check out other solutions such as Woocommerce or Prestashop, which may be more suitable.
Marketing and promotional offers
In both cases, you will be able to integrate promotions and offers to sell your products. However, on Shopify, you have the ability to upload apps that will allow you to run post-purchase offers, for example, or offer to purchase a second complementary product.
Shopify again offers more possibilities when it comes to marketing on the website.
Analyzing the results of the store
Again, Shopify is probably the best for you if you like to know all your sales statistics. The tool offers a lot of possibilities to analyze the performance of your store and to be able to implement specific actions to remedy any problems that prevent you from selling more.
On Wix, the possibilities are more limited, which does not allow you to accurately analyze the performance of your store.
You now have an overview of the potential of both solutions thanks to this article Wix vs Shopify. It is important to carefully evaluate your needs before making your choice. Indeed, depending on the business you want to set up, your budget and the time you have to spend on it, it seems normal not to necessarily choose Shopify, even if it is the most complete solution.
