With the growing popularity of e-commerce for business, many online shopping platforms have risen to meet the needs of growing companies. Two e-commerce platforms, in particular, have managed to stand apart as forces to be reckoned with in the world of online shopping. These e-commerce platforms are WooCommerce and Magento. If you are looking to incorporate e-commerce into your business, you may be having some difficulty choosing between these two platforms. If this is the case for you, you have come to the right place. Let’s take a look at WooCommerce and Magento to help aid you in making a decision on your e-commerce platform.
WooCommerce
First, let’s take a look at WooCommerce. For all intents and purposes, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. However, this being said, WooCommerce is so much more than just your typical plugin. Since its launch in 2011, WooCommerce has been growing quickly with over 1.6M downloads to date. Loaded with features and a user-friendly interface, WooCommerce is a hugely beneficial option in the world of e-commerce and is a great choice for startups.
Benefits of WooCommerce
So what are some of the advantages of using WooCommerce? What makes this e-commerce platform stand out from the rest in the world of online shopping? Let’s take a look.
- Price: Perhaps one of the greatest things about WooCommerce is that it is completely free. This is one area where WooCommerce has an advantage over Magento which has a fee of $18,000 per year.
- Features: Additionally, WooCommerce is loaded with great features. This e-commerce platform offers plenty of payment gateway options including PayPal, BACS, and Cash on Delivery. Other great features provided by WooCommerce include marketing campaigns, income reports, and free or flat-rate shipping.
- Flexibility: A great benefit of WooCommerce is that it provides a great deal of flexibility when it comes to listing products. You can easily categorize products, assign sale prices, and more, all without being all that technically-inclined.
- Goes Beyond E-Commerce: One of the benefits of WooCommerce being based on WordPress is that it easily takes things beyond simple e-commerce with allowing you to build your online storefront into a full-fledged website, integrate a blog and more. It is truly an all-in-one e-commerce solution.
- Customization: Another great advantage you will find in using this e-commerce platform is in the fact that it is easily customized to your unique specifications. WooCommerce provides you with 39 different themes to choose from and allows you to easily tweak colors and coding to design your site to your exact preferences.
- Analytics: Analytics are an important part of managing any e-commerce business. However, many merchants are lost when it comes to using statistic analysis to their advantage. WooCommerce has them covered with easy-to-use built-in analytics that will help you master your e-commerce business and make it grow and thrive.
- Other Benefits: In addition to all that is mentioned above, WooCommerce is also quite user-friendly, provides customers with an easy way to rate and review products, includes easy-to-use sales reports and has simple downloading.
Disadvantages to WooCommerce
Now that we have looked at some of the pros to using WooCommerce let’s look at some of the cons. The only real major disadvantage to using WooCommerce is that you will have to pay for hosting. However, this is not a significant disadvantage when you consider the fact that WooCommerce is otherwise free. All-in-All, it is a good option for startups looking for a user-friendly and affordable option.
Magento
Another great option when it comes to the world of e-commerce is Magento. Magento is one of the most well-known and respected options available and for a good reason. Magento is an open source e-commerce option for merchants that allows a great deal of both flexibility and control. For anyone in search of a serious option for big-time e-commerce, Magento is definitely worth the consideration.
The Benefits of Magento
So what is it that makes this e-commerce option so formidable? What are some of its specific benefits over other options? How does it compare to WooCommerce? Let’s take a look.
- Free Software: Though, as we saw above, Magento is a bit more on the pricier side, there is the added benefit of having free software downloads. Having the added expense of download purchases with your e-commerce platform can be a nuisance, so this is a significant advantage to using Magento.
- Features: Magento also includes many great features such as personalized design templates, content management integration, automated email marketing reminders and more. There is plenty at your fingers here to aid you in accomplishing a professional and profitable storefront.
- Mobile Friendly: Magento is also very mobile friendly with usability over a variety of smartphones and tablets. This is a significant advantage in a world where things are moving more in more in a mobile direction. Utilizing Magento for your e-commerce website will be a good way to prepare your business for the future.
- Search Engine Optimization: Help with SEO is also very important when it comes to e-commerce. Magento is built to bring in traffic to your website and give you a greater presence on search engines such as Google and Bing. And for the more technologically-inclined, there are plenty of tools and resources provided for more customized search engine optimization.
- Powerful: If you are looking for an e-commerce platform that can handle a large workload, Magento makes a strong case for itself. With the ability to handle over 80,000 orders everyday, Magento can handle whatever is thrown at it. This leaves you with a lot of room for growth as you build and expand your e-commerce business to its limits.
- Easy Up-Selling: On or offline, up-selling is an important aspect of commerce, and Magento makes it easy to integrate up-selling into your e-commerce storefront. You can give customers the option to check out similar items or show them additional accessories related to the product they are purchasing. If you are looking for a way to increase your sales potential, Magento has a lot to offer.
- Other Benefits: In addition to all this, there are many other benefits to choosing Magento. Some other advantages include that it is well-organized and professional looking, incredibly detailed with numerous options, it includes a plethora of tools to maintain a well-put together site and much more.
Disadvantages to Magento
With all of the advantages to Magento, it is not without its downsides as well. At $18,000 per year, Magento is not exactly cheap. Magento also tends to not be as user-friendly as other options such as WooCommerce. Overall though, Magento has a lot to offer and can be an incredible solution to your e-commerce needs as long as you can afford it.
WooCommerce or Magento
At last, we have arrived at the answer that you have been waiting for: which is better, WooCommerce or Magento? We hope that this does not sound like a cop-out, but it depends on your needs. If you are a young startup, WooCommerce may be a better option for you due to it being affordable and easy to use. On the other hand, if you are a bigger business with the purchasing power to utilize it, Magento may be the solution you are looking for to really see your business expand and grow. Either way, you slice it, these are both powerful tools that can do a lot to take your e-commerce to the next level.
If you have any questions about e-commerce platforms, please contact us today.