If you are looking to start a business I cannot overstate how great dropshipping is. Either as a core strategy or a supplementary one, dropshipping can increase profit, and extend the reach of your store front. Doing it by hand is time consuming, which is why a number of firms have released an app that automates the process. Dropified is one of the better known ones, and in terms of vision, certainly the most broad. Dropified allows you to pull in products from a wide variety of sites, and drop them into one handy location, i.e. your Shopify store. Unlike Oberlo, which focuses on product integration from Aliexpress, the Dropified app can pull from Alibaba as well. Alibaba is the, well, I was going to say big brother, but it’s really more of a gigantic brother to Aliexpress. In addition, as you move through the packages the list of sites you can pull from only grows.

I realize that I have not fully explained what dropshipping is, so I’ll outline it here. Dropshipping, at its most basic, is buying products from manufacturers who hold said items in a warehouse for you. You place an item for sale on your site, and when someone buys it it is automatically sent from the (usually) Chinese warehouse direct to your customer, with you never seeing it. It is fairly low cost to set up such a business, and the profits tend to be fairly high as well. You do need some capital to buy up items, and of course there is an art to designing a store front. Finding a niche is the key to a successful dropshipping business, finding products that appeal to that niche from the sea of Alibaba et al is no easy task, but can be well worth it.

I am going to be taking a look at Dropified in a series of categories, just to make this easier. So let’s start with a look at the aesthetics, how the app and extension feel to use.

Dropified App Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Usability

Dropified, as a product, consists of two parts. An app and a Chrome extension. I use Firefox mostly, so that’s not great for me, but I realize that Chrome is very popular these days. The App contains all the back end info you could need, allowing you to change previous listings and keep track of all of the stuff you are selling, when combined with the native tools offered by Shopify you will never find yourself wanting for data. The extension adds an overlay to Aliexpress and Alibaba, letting you click on items to add to your store, displaying useful information on the item itself, such as shipping info, a must when deciding what to stock, as it does not do to have an item listed that takes literal months to arrive. Personally I find the extension a little cluttered, but I know that others would love to have this level of detail available at a glance.

I hope to see a little more streaming in the future, though in saying that Dropified is an excellently designed product, providing a certain kind of entrepreneur all of the tools they need to succeed. I also expect to see more and more functionality added throughout the year.

Dropified Flexibility & Scalability

The fact that you can pull from Alibaba and Aliexpress is impressive. Oberlo, as I mentioned before, focuses on only Aliexpress, and thus is for the small to medium sized business. Dropified can start big, with the Alibaba wholesalers, and grow from there, which is nice. Their package list is focused on a growing business. As you move through the packages you gain access to a few more features, though the vast majority of features are present in even the Lite package, with the exception of 1-Click Order confirmation, exclusive to the Elite package. The primary thing you are buying is access to other retailers for the purposes of dropping items into your store front. In addition the Elite package allows you to set multiple users, a must for any business scaling, and even multiple store fronts, a new feature to me, and one with limited but obvious uses.

Overall I was left impresses. If the product was a little cleaner overall it would be the best there is. I can forgive it the occasional poorly designed GUI thanks to the massive amount of features contained therein. There is no other firm on the market right now that can match the scope of the Dropified app, and if there is one thing I can get behind it is a firm with ambition. Their product scaling is only going to get better as we move forward through 2017.

Dropified App Cost & Value

This is somewhat tricky. The value of the Elite Package speaks for itself, thoguh I will be explaining exactly why I like it so much, but the value in the Lite package is a little more suspect. If you are just starting your dropshipping business you do not need a wide variety of sites to pull from, nor do you need much in the way of features, so a $9 monthly price seems like a bargain. But Oberlo, the app focused on Aliexpress, offers a very similar feature set for free. When we move though the packages at the Dropified App the value becomes more obvious. You gain a few choice features in the Pro package, such as access to the US product database and way more automation options. Not to mention a vastly expanded list of stores to pull products from. The Elite package goes one, or more like 4,5,6, better, with its 1-Click Orders, even more automation options and access to multiple user accounts. The stores you can pull products from goes up again, and I would list them here, but the list is really huge, click the link to get a good look at the differences in the packages.

Overall, while the base package leaves me a little cold, especially from the perspective of a new store owner, the higher packages scream value so loud as to deafen me to the competition. The Pro package is $27 per month, while the Elite Package is $47 per month. That Elite package is a little over half the price of Oberlo’s top package. When I first looked at Dropified, around a year ago, their pricing was no where near as good as this, the Elite used to be $94 per month, so it seems that some market competition has done some good here. The only issue overall for me is the restriction of the auto order fulfillment tools to the more expensive packages, though seen as I don’t particularly like their Lite package this is a minor issue.

Click here to look over the details on the differences between the packages plus get a free trial.

Dropified App Recap & Review

Ups and downs, but mostly ups. That is how I would describe the Dropified App. The only negatives are the Lite package, which is too Lite in my opinion to be better than their competitors. The cluttered nature of the extension overlay, though that is just personal preference. Those out of the way, the Pro package is perfectly priced, the feature list is vast and applicable to a variety of situations, and the Elite package is so, so good that I cannot find the words to express how impressed I am with it. Add in the discount to the Elite package, down to $27 at the moment, and the 14 day free trial on the software and you have to give it a go.

If you are looking to start a dropshipping business you already know the options available, the big two. Oberlo and Dropified. I have looked at both, and found them aiming at slightly different sides of the market. If you are looking to start small and grow, Oberlo is your man, its focus on Aliexpress is perfect for smaller business.  If you know you want products from as wide a range of retailers as possible, not to mention the excellent pricing, then go with Dropified.

If you want to take advantage of all the current discounts you can click here.

The post Dropified App Review 2018 – Dropshipping and More appeared first on Gazette Review.

Zoey is a new comer to arena, having been founded in 2015, after the owners sold off Pixafy. This new firm uses a system based off Magento, and after writing some high level front end stuff, has allowed the lay person to make a fully featured eCommerce store. Considering their focus on catering to larger companies, what with their excellent scaling options, I do have to wonder why a large company is building their site themselves, rather than hiring a designer to make a bespoke site, but that is besides the point. Fundamentally, what we have here is a streamlined user-friendly Magento, with all the customization options inherent in a do it yourself eCommerce solution.

Shopify, by contrast, offer a service that is at base for the introductory business owner, with ample room to grow your company. They may be a little lacking when it comes to language integration, and their customization options are a little less robust, but they offer superb service, excellent template based site design, and an amazingly competitive price for their products. So the question now becomes, which of these two is better? Read on for the full breakdown.

Shopify Vs Zoey – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

It is imperative that you have a well designed site. If you go it your own and build everything from scratch you will discover how hard that is, unless you happen to have a degree in graphic design. Thankfully both of the solutions offered here have high quality tools that make site building easy. You pick the theme, customize it and you’re done. Let’s take a look at the options.

Zoey:

Right out of the gate you will notice how easy it is to customize a Zoey theme. They have implemented an intuitive drag and drop site builder, and integrated it with a variety of professionally designed templates. I have looked at all that they have on offer and was impressed with the aesthetics here. If you’re looking for a boutique feel they have you covered, if you are after a more robust storefront, filled with products, they can accommodate you. I would recommend you take a quick look through them yourself, it’s all crisp lines and understated colors. Lovely stuff.

When it comes to personalizing them you will not be disappointed. Their customization interface is easy to use, and packed with features, change colors, fonts, move things around, you have tremendous control over what your customers see. Add to that the fact that all of their themes are free of charge, and mobile ready, and this is a bargain. Being Mobile ready is important these days, as research shows that around a third of all purchases online take place on cell phones and tablets.

Zoey have done well in this department. The attention to detail is impressive, and the streamlining of difficult to understand concepts is commendable. There are options for custom code injection too, so overall a great start for the fledgling firm.

Shopify:

Shopify is a powerhouse in the industry, and one of the reasons for that is their design options. Their selection of templates is far larger than Zoey’s, and they are all professionally designed. Not only that but I think it is arguable that they offer a better variety of core concepts too, i.e. a good mix of ultra-modern and amazon-esque ream of product style templates. Not all of the themes are free though, but their free designs are to the same standard as their paid designs. Paid templates run between $80 and $180, far from the most expensive I have seen from other firms.

One issue here is that while the back-end customization has a plethora of options, Shopify does not have a drag and drop editor as standard. You can inject custom CSS code into the site, to add new features, and if you must have the same level of customization options present in Zoey there is an app for that, called Shogun. The best thing about Shopify’s options, their themes tend to need little editing. Each are designed to such a high standard, by folk who know what they’re doing, that any changes made by a non-design major may have a net negative impact on the overall aesthetic. If you want to change things, the options are there.

This is a hard one to call, on one hand Shopify offer more themes and templates, while Zoey have the better overall customization options. I think that will give them a lead in another section, but as it stands here I have to call it a draw. Shopify make this whole thing easier, and they match Zoey in terms of overall look. Be sure to know your limitations when putting your site together .

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Zoey – Features & Integrations

There are a few things that tend to come as standard across all eCommerce solutions, good thing too as without them you’d be unlikely to sell much anything. You need SEO tools to drive traffic, you need social media integration to increase your user base and you need a blog. Thankfully both of these firms offer these, so we’ll need to look a little deeper to decide on a winner.

Zoey:

I’ve already mentioned that Zoey markets itself to larger businesses, and as such might be a little too pricey for those just entering the market. It does mean that in addition to all the regular shop functions, listing items, editing items, selling and taking payments, its basic package includes advanced features as standard. The abandoned cart recovery function is here, which is great for enticing customers back to your store. That feature is present with other options, but most companies hold it back in their more expensive packages. I’ve already mentioned their site design tools, which are some of the best on the market, and they also have a robust discount system built into the back-end.

Every site comes with the full complement of SEO tools, meta keywords and URL optimization, and a blog. A blog is a must have, as when it comes to selling online, content is king. Having a blog will do much to increase your traffic, so be sure to hire a copy writer and make the most of it. They do not charge you a transaction fee, so you can add as many payment gateways as you like, and this software is compatible with what seems like all of them.

Lastly a look at their app store, and while there is plenty to choose from there isn’t quite as much choice here as with other companies. This is based on Magento, and if you’ve looked at their app store you can understand why I might be whelmed by the options available from Zoey. I have been able to find Facebook store integration, but was a little confused by the seeming lack of any other social media integration. I’m certain it is there somewhere, considering how important it is these days, but I walked away scratching my head. They do offer built-in support for both Amazon and Ebay, which are extremely useful and not offered as standard elsewhere.

Shopify:

Shopify’s Basic package is aimed at those entering the market, so we lose a few features that are present in Zoey’s lowest priced package, but don’t let that discourage you. Present here are all the features you need to get a business going, and when you grow there are the higher level packages that match, and in some cases exceed, those offered by Zoey. You can list items, sell, apply discounts etc, and while the site editing tools from Shopify pale in comparison to those offered by Zoey, they are still useful. The SEO tools are almost identical, down to the blog, and finding social media apps to integrate is very easy. Those two things are crucial, I know I’ve said that before, and can save you a ton on marketing.

Outside of the core online features is a service unique to Shopify. The POS system. Shopify POS is an offline/online integration service that links your brick and mortar store to your online storefront. With a simple app you can track sales across your stores, manage inventory and staff and even take payments. The system is perfect for those who like to follow the festivals and conventions, and being able to accept a card payment on the go can be valuable.

Between the two of them I think it is easy to argue that Zoey offer more base features, but Shopify have more apps and integrations. When you add in the unique and useful Shopify POS then it clinches it for Shopify. Won by a hair.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Zoey – Dropshipping

I have multiple articles dedicated to the topic of dropshipping. It is one of the most internet things to come out of the eCommerce market, a way for the average person to take a bit out of the time honored tradition of selling Chinese made goods on the open market. I love the idea, the only caveat to setting up your own dropshipping store is the time consuming nature of buying, listing and verifying. These days though there are apps out for all the major eCommerce sites that make grabbing items from Alibaba et al and dropping them on your own site. Let’s take a look at the options from Zoey and Shopify.

With Shopify there are plenty of dropshipping options, but the two big ones to my mind are the Shopified App and Oberlo. I prefer Oberlo for its simplicity, focusing on the most popular site, makes it much easier to get into. Bear in mind that you will have to pay for both, but there are deals on every so often.

With Zoey there is Duoplane, an all in one solution that allows you to integrate with a wide range of manufacturer sites. Feature wise it is great, and the UI is up to snuff, but I find the price to be a little out of most folks range, especially when just starting out. It reminds me of Shopified in many ways.

Overall, while both are able to provide the service, the low cost options available with Shopify make it far more attractive from my perspective.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Zoey – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

Finally, a section where Zoey shines. First a look at the flexibility, and while Zoey is robust in terms of listing options and app integrations, it does not have the flexibility of Shopify, who can match them in features and ease of use, but have the added benefit of being applicable to entry level users. Shopify have more themes, but Zoey offer more in-depth customization options leading to a draw on flexibility.

In terms of ease of use, running the back-end in both is simple, but with more streamlined report options, not to mention that wonderful drag and drop design interface, Zoey have the upper hand. Don’t let that dissuade you from going for Shopify, they have some wonderfully easy to use tools, and day-to-day management is arguably slightly easier to get to grips with on Shopify.

The battle of Scalability is a difficult one to call. Zoey market themselves for the larger businesses. They argue that they are filling a niche that Shopify left vacant, and while I can understand their perspective to an extent, I don’t think there is much truth to their claims. Shopify cater to the entry level store owner with their smaller packages, and they ramp up nicely for larger stores. When you hit their top package there is one more rung above it, Shopify Plus Enterprise, a bespoke Shopify experience that is custom scaled. It seems to me they have all their bases covered, and the rhetoric on the Zoey site is just that. They fail to cater to the little man, and that fundamentally hurts them.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Zoey – Cost, Pricing & Value

It’s raw figures time, and it’s here we see the differences in target market. Zoey are aiming at the already successful business market, and have priced accordingly. Their least expensive package is $89, with a 10% discount if you buy a yearly subscription. Zoey can boast some of the best customer service in the industry, but when you’re spending that much per month at base it had better come with great CS. Their next package is the Business Package at $199, and this adds HTTPS site wide, mulit-language support and various other useful features for a slightly larger business. The most expensive package is the Premier, and this starts at $599+. All in all that last one seems similar to Shopify Plus Enterprise, though the latter does not have a set price.

Where Zoey is aiming a sniper at big business, Shopify is aiming a scattergun at the world. Their lowest package is a mere $9, though this is just a buy button and does not come with a site. Their lowest real package is $29, and that gets you all you’ll need to get your business going. The more expensive packages add more and more useful features for larger business and are $79 and $179. Cheaper across the board with Shopify, and if you find yourself wanting more there is always the Enterprise service, for a bespoke Shopify experience. Though prices on that last one vary.

This is another section where a winner is hard to call simply because one of these firms thinks they aren’t competing. I would argue that seen as they are in the same market the very much are competing, and Zoey’s singular focus is hurting them. Shopify can cater, and do cater to all sizes of business. Simply saying they don’t isn’t much of an argument.

Winner – Shopify

2018 Update: If you want to take advantage of a no obligation, free trial of Shopify you can click here to automatically apply a free 14 day trial to your account.

Shopify Vs Zoey – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in one solution
• Excellent Customer support
• Unmatched scaling options
• Way cheaper to run
• Large selection of high quality themes
• POS offline integration

Shopify Cons:

• “Arguably” better for very large businesses
• Multi-language support is temperamental at best.

Zoey Pros:

• All in one solution
• Probably the best site creation tools available
• Excellent integrated features.
• Good language support
• Better high level scaling that Shopify

Zoey Cons:

• No entry level options
• Ludicrously expensive.

This has been a difficult comparison to draw. On one hand Zoey argues that they are filling a niche, and there is some truth to that, but it ignores options offered by Shopify. If you have found Shopify lacking in features, or feel you have out grown their service then by all means check out Zoey, they can transfer your whole site over to their service easily. You might want to look into Shopify Plus Enterprise first though. And for those just entering the market, or looking to upgrade from almost literally every other eCommerce solution, check out Shopify.

Shopify For Free: Click Here to setup and try Shopify for free

The post Shopify Vs Zoey – 2018 Comparison & Reviews appeared first on Gazette Review.

Today I’ll be taking a look at two of the fastest growing online store providers available, Shopify and BigCommerce. They share a lot of basic functionality. They are both all in one hosted solutions, they both make setting up shop quick and easy and they both offer an impressively large amount of control over your new online store. Shopify is the older of the two, though not by much, and as such has almost double the client base. BigCommerce is still a force to be reckoned with though, with an impressive 55,000 current users.

Unlike my other comparisons, both of these companies aim for the same niche in the eCommerce market. That means we’ll have a clear winner, read on to find out which is which.

Shopify Vs BigCommerce – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

The first thing a customer is going to see is your store front. It doesn’t matter how many options you provide your buyers if your site looks dated or over complicated. Thankfully all of the themes offered by Shopify and BigCommerce are professional and well designed. When selecting your design much thought will have to go into matching the product you are selling to the design of your site. Sure you can sell hand crafted gilded eggs in an amazon-like ream of products, but doing so will cheapen the look, and put gilt egg aficionados off. So bear that in mind when making your final choice.

BigCommerce:

If I were writing this article even a few months back BigCommerce would have fallen flat. Up until quite recently their selection of themes so extremely limited. Sure, they allow a decent measure of customization, but the variety wasn’t there. They have since addressed this short coming, a very good sign that, and now have a theme store to be proud of. All their themes come with a few built in variables, and allow a good level of customization options. There is one problem with them though. You have to pay for the vast majority.

Currently there are only seven themes in the free pile, with a total of twenty one styles. The styles are little more than minor color variations on the core theme, which is great for setting the mood on your site. They are all of a high standard of quality, but most of them are better suited to the smaller business owner.  Each one can be used to sell a wide variety of products, but they seem to lend themselves better to the bespoke retailer. Their paid themes offer more variety, but cost upwards of $145, which is steep but much cheaper than those offered by other eCommerce solutions.

Most sites are nicely interactive, with sleek menus and integrated product options. They also scale quite well to mobile devices, a must in this day and age. In all, while all the designs on offer are crisp, clean and modern, they lack the variety I have seen from other firms, and having such a small selection of free themes is ultimately a hindrance.

Shopify:

Shopify offer a wider range of themes as well. Everything from the sleek ultra modern to the more down to earth ream of products, no matter what you are selling you can find a theme that suits your needs. Where it has the edge is in the number of free themes, literally over a hundred. It’s a pricing factor that will come up later, but it makes setting up shop with an attractive appropriate theme much easier. They have an awful lot of paid themes too, but unless you find a design you absolutely must have, you won’t find yourself shelling out any extra cash to set up your online presence.

A major selling point with Shopify is versatility, and each theme can be customized in a variety of ways. Not only that but the back end set up is so easy to use that even a novice can add a little personal flair to their site. The same is true of the back end from BigCommerce though, so not much of a direct win in terms of ease of use.

Overall the amount of options available from Shopify is staggering, and if you want the quickest set up time for the lowest price as possible you might want to consider BigCommerce. Their relative lack of options really streamlines the experience. I would still argue that top quality quantity is the key deciding point in this section, where Shopify has the advantage.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCommerce – Features & Integrations

If you’re entering the online marketplace for the first time there are a few things you’re going to have to become familiar with. Social media integration and SEO tools. There is no comparative process with brick and mortar stores. Being able to have your product visible not only on your site, but on your social media pages is invaluable, and managing your SEO is of paramount importance when trying to get your product in front of a customer. Thankfully those features are standard with both BigCommerce and Shopify.

BigCommerce:

One of the nice things about BigCommerce is the wealth of options available from the get go. They offer slightly more customization options for those who know how to code, while still maintaining a user friendly interface. Standard store features come with every package, unlimited listings, integrated purchase options, inventory management, the works. The item listing options might be a little more difficult to get your head around, but the level of control here is impressive. Don’t get me wrong, you can tweak your listing details with Shopify, but BigCommerce’s interface for adding products is much denser, meaning you don’t need to move between pages.

Social media integration is ludicrously important these days, and for good reason. Everybody is on some form of social media, be it twitter, Instagram or Facebook, and BigCommerce has you covered on these fronts. With a simple click customers can buy your items straight from Twitter or Facebook. Their Facebook integration is the most impressive aspect, they allow you to set up a mini shop on your page.

Their SEO tools are some of the best on the market too, allowing you to customize keywords on every page. Add in that ever important blogging feature and you shouldn’t have much trouble driving traffic to your site. In all they offer an impressive list of features. On the downside they do not have an app, they did offer one until recently, so you cannot manage your store on the move.

Shopify:

Shopify comes with a similar list of features. The standard shop tools are robust and streamlined, making it slightly easier to use, especially when simply adding a product. The tools to customize product details are there should you wish to use them, but it isn’t as well integrated as BigCommerce. The app store is robust, containing all manner tools to make your life easier, from advanced stock control to the all important social media integration. There is an app for everything. I looked through BigCommerce’s app selection and found it to be as expansive. It matches BigCommerce on all fronts here, but Shopify has an ace in the hole, POS.

Shopify POS is an offline integration system that allows you to manage your offline store alongside your online store. It also as a handy plugin for your iPad that can take sales, allowing you to get rid of a til, if you still have one. The service costs a little more, but can be added on to any of their packages. The target market here goes a little beyond those with a brick and mortar store though. The portability allows you to sell your goods at conventions and festivals, and even take credit cards in the field. It is a service not offered by many, and one that BigCommerce cannot match.

Considering that the features of online store fronts are becoming ever more homogeneous it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd. with their app and POS system I think Shopify just about edges out BigCommerce. Even if you don’t have a use for the POS system mobile store management is a big plus, and having the option available is always good.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCommerce – Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an interesting aspect on the eCommerce market. It is essentially adding products to a storefront that you bought from sites like Alibaba and Aliexpress, though the term has broadened to include all kinds of other sites, like Amazon and the like. The appeal here is two fold. For the augmented user it allows you to supplement your product range with appropriate items, filling out the theming of the site, increase the content on site, and thus rank better on google. For the solo user you can simply disregard local items, create a store front comprised entirely of things you found on Aliexpress, and make a profit a the same time, so long as you play your cards right. Both BigCommerce and Shopify have some excellent options for setting up drop shipping, so let’s take a look at what they got.

Shopify is the brand I am more familiar with, and I have used the big two on numerous occasions. The two in question are the Shopified App and Oberlo. Oberlo is my favorite, I am more of a supplementary user, and so being able to integrate smoothly from Aliexpress is all I need. It is perfect for those who just want to try out dropshipping for themselves, as the price is low and it is not hard to set up and use. Shopified App is more robust, able to integrate with more sites than just Aliexpress, but this comes with its own issues. It is more of a chore to use on a day to day basis, and the price is high too. Depends on your needs, but it is nice to see both sides accounted for.

BigCommerce have stepped up their game in recent years, and so are no slouch when it comes to catering to the dropshipping crowd. Oberlo have made statements in the past, claiming that they are in the process of releasing their app for BigCommerce, but thus far nothing has come to light. Every so often someone asks the question on their forums, and the reply is the same, eventually. I’m not holding my breath. Home grown options with the firm include Doba and ShipperHQ. Inventory Source is an option as well. Doba is probably the best, complicated, sure, and expensive, but if you want the robust option they are your go to. Light weight options don’t really match Oberlo just yet, but with some work you can achieve a comparable service with any of the others mentioned here.

The Oberlo support is what clinches it for Shopify. There is a lot to like with the options available from BigCommerce, and as mentioned they are a great alternative in general, but for the light weight drop shipper, Shopify wins.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCommerce – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

This is a little bit tricky to compare. Both companies allow you ample space to grow your business, through the tiers they offer, and both provide tools that are easy to use and endlessly flexible. To distinguish which is better in this section we need to look at the smaller things. First the flexibility. BigCommerce’s back end is wonderfully designed, it integrates a wide variety of options in every screen, allows you to tweak almost every aspect of your business and their code support is second to none. Shopify offer a similar level of customization, but there’s is a little more streamlined, less readily available.

That customization is a double edged sword though. It leaves BigCommerce’s back end a little more cluttered, somewhat more difficult to get you head around at the beginning. For the less tech savvy it could leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Shopify, by contrast, is much easier to use. The customization options are there, but only if you look for them. The streamlined back end is far more user friendly, giving them the edge here.

Both firms offer terrific scalability. Moving up through their packages is a simple process, and each one adds tools that are useful for different business sizes. The biggest issue with BigCommerce’s scaling is their annual sales limit. The standard package limits you to $50,000 in yearly sales, with the higher packages going up to $125,000, $1,000,000 and unlimited. Though I’m sure it’s a good problem to have, it isn’t one you have to worry about with Shopify.

Overall I think Shopify has fewer issues in this department. BigCommerce is the more flexible tool, but that makes it slightly harder to use and that earnings limit seems designed to  force you up through the ranks of their package, whether you want to or not. I have to give this to Shopify.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCommerce – Cost & Value

If we were comparing price to price only then Shopify is the winner, but I feel like we need to take everything into consideration before we call it. BigCommerce may cost a few cents extra per month, but they offer the more customizable service, and have slightly better business scaling. Shopify is the more rounded product, excelling in many areas and they offer their wonderful POS system. Let’s take a look at the figures.

Getting into BigCommerce with their least expensive package will cost you $29.95 per month. It comes with everything you need to get started, if you go for a free theme. You can set up shop, buy, sell and not worry about bandwidth limits. Their next package is $79.95 and their BigCommerce Pro is $199.95.  That last one is interesting. It comes with site wide HTTPS, which is great for SEO, and tops out your earnings at $1,000,000, a tough figure to reach. Above that is the Enterprise package, which is priced on a business to business basis.

As I mentioned Shopify is slightly cheaper. Their lite package, while useful for a certain kind of person, does not bear mentioning if you’re looking to set up a site, as it does not come with one. Their Basic package is $29 flat. The next rung up the ladder is the Pro package at $79 and their final unlimited package is $179, a full twenty dollars per month cheaper than BigCommerce’s. Neither company has transaction fees, if you process them through the company, and the credit card fees are identical.

Overall while both companies offer great products at attractive prices, I can’t help but feel like Shopify, by virtue of being a little cheaper, is the better deal here.

2018 Update:

You can get setup and try Shopify for free right now by clicking here.

You can also do the same with BigCommerce by clicking here.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCommerce – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in one Solution
• Many more themes to choose from
• Slightly easier to navigate the back end
• Integrated blogging support
• Shopify POS offline integration
• Slightly cheaper

Shopify Cons:

• Customization, while extensive, is not quite as robust as BigCommerce
• Lackluster language support

BigCommerce Pros:

• All in one solution
• Better integration of features in the back end
• More customization, if you know what you’re doing

BigCommerce Cons:

• A little more difficult to use at first
• Yearly sales caps

Both of these companies offer a fantastic product. You can set up your store quickly and easily on both, but Shopify offer a wider variety of themes, a more streamlined back end and a few features that are not offered by BigCommerce. Yet. BigCommerce is the more customizable tool, if you know how to code a little. It makes it easy to recommend to the more tech savvy out there. If you’re looking to set up shop quickly, but still have the option to tool around, then I would recommend you go for Shopify.

Shopify For Free Update: You can give Shopify a shot for free right now by clicking here.

The post Shopify Vs BigCommerce – 2018 Comparison appeared first on Gazette Review.

I’ll be looking at two eCommerce solutions today, Shopify and Prestashop, and there are a fair number of differences between, the least of which is the price. Prestashop operates under a different business model and as such they do not charge a subscription fee, instead they charge for themes, add ons and various ancillary features that tend to come as standard with other companies packages. Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce solutions on the market, and fro good reason, they combine everything you need to make a successful online business with top notch customer service and streamlined design tools.

So which one is right for you? Read on for the full break down.

Shopify Vs Prestashop – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

Time and time again I have stressed the importance of aesthetics when selecting a design for your website. Granted, unless you hire a designer you are at the mercy of the themes available, but it is always possible to find something that both fits and looks great. Even a modicum of design flair is enough to customize your new store in just the right way as to make it both eye-catching and thematically appropriate. So let’s take a look at the options available to us.

Prestashop:

Prestashop is mostly community driven and when it comes to themes is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand there are more themes available here than for any other platform, with the possible exception of Magento, on the down side most of them were not created by professionals, leaving them looking a little basic. The ones that are professionally designed are both  of high quality and varied though, but they’re a little pricey.

They are broken down into premium and certified partner templates. Premium prices start at $160 while certified start at $85. Even the community created templates aren’t all free, with some of them selling for as high as $320. Considering that Prestashop is nominally free, and there are free templates available, it’s not much of surprise that you are going to see charges for features coming left right and center.

However, when you factor in the customization features, and the fact that you can get lucky with a freely designed theme, you can still end up with a sleek modern site that reflects well on your business. It takes a little work and a sizable amount of learning if you don’t already have the skills, but it can be done. I cannot fault the provider for the variety though. If you play your cards right you may save money in the long run, but it’s going to be a close thing.

Shopify:

It’s not often that I can say that Shopify has fewer themes than the company I’m comparing it to, but that is the case today. It has fewer themes, but it’s easy to argue that the themes they offer, a couple a hundred, are all of much higher quality. Each one is professionally designed and made in such a way as to be fully compatible with multiple screen sizes. Not all of them are free, of course, but plenty are and it’s a rare day that you can’t find the exact theme you’re looking for from the free pile. Unless you can’t live without a premium theme you’ve found, there is little need to shell out the extra cash.

The cheapest of their themes is around $80, with the most expensive one I could find being $180. As I’ve mentioned though, you needn’t bother. The customization options for every theme are extensive, making it easy to tweak each design until it perfectly matches the design ethos you’re going for. Both the boutique-esque ultra moderns and the more robust ream of product designs are available for free, if you go looking.

It’s hard to call a winner here. Shopify may have the more aesthetically pleasing designs across the board, but Prestashop’s community driven nature means that if you go digging you’ll eventually find what you’re looking for, though for how much who’s to say. If you have the time and the money then by all means go for Prestashop, but I’m calling this one a draw.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Prestashop – Features & Integrations

There are so many things you need to take into account when setting up your online store, and a whole lot of extra things to manage once you get going. In my mind the most important two features are your SEO tools and social media integration. All eCommerce solutions come with the same basic features though, product management, sales data, reports etc, so we really have to look at the nitty gritty and understand future needs when making the choice now.

Prestashop:

Getting in and starting with Prestashop is fairly easy. The base features include adding items, customizing your theme, set up pricing rules, track customer orders and buying habits, in fact the record keeping is fantastic, considering it’s free. It’s not often you see such a wide range of stats, unless you pay for the more expensive packages from their competitors. Your SEO tools are pretty versatile as well. You can edit each page, add high ranking meta tags and even make sure to generate SEO friendly URLs.

Overall the core features are impressive, but it lacks some of the functionality of its peers. You can add many of the missing features via add-ons though. Finding the right app is simple. Their app store may be filled to the brim, with more added daily, but their search tools are clean and easy to use. Here you can get that all important social media integration. Finding the right tools is a bit tricky, many of the apps are free, but in order to make sure you are getting all the functionality you need from an app you’ll likely have to pay for it. It’s another cost to take into account before jumping into this free service.

I would definitely advise you look through their app store before setting up a shop. You might find your cost rising a little faster than you thought otherwise, especially when you can get a lot of the features fully integrated with other eCommerce providers.

Shopify:

A similar set up to Prestashop. Core features like unlimited listings, SEO tools, stat tables, site customization the works. But even with the Basic package from Shopify you get a few key features that you would end up paying for with Prestashop. Being able to add meta keywords and SEO friendly URLs is only half the work of increasing site traffic. You need content. Lots and lots of written content, and one of the better ways to get it is with an integrated blog. Shopify’s blogging tool comes as standard, you can get it with Prestashop, but only in app form. In addition there is integrated support for a variety of social media platforms, like Facebook and twitter. Add in an extremely robust app store and you’re onto a winner.

Shopify has recently expanded its feature set to include and offline point-of-sale system combined with a mobile shop management tool Shopify POS bridges the gap between offline store and online store, allowing you to manage inventory and take payment from an iPad. It’s great for both brick and mortar stores and for those who travel to conventions and concerts selling their wares. It’s that feature, when combined with the dedicated integrated services, that push Shopify just that little bit ahead of Prestashop.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Prestashop – Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an increasingly popular pastime, and business opportunity. It is essentially listing items from other sites on your won, combining sources and product ranges into a cohesive storefront. There is an art to it, but if you have the knack you can make a lot of money with little effort. I like to look at two different kinds of user, the power user and the supplementary user. The power user crafts a storefront consisting of no0thing but drop shipped items. The supplementary user adds to their storefront items to complement what they sell themselves, and depending on your needs there are different integrated apps to consider. Shopify is the more professional of the two firms, in terms of content, so the apps are tightly focused for the markets. The options from Prestashop can be as robust, but set up is a little on the troublesome side. There are numerous modules that can be installed, but making them play nice requires more work on your end.

Shopify’s big two are Oberlo and Shopified App. Both are amazing, but I prefer Oberlo, more of a supplementary fan myself, and their streamlined approach to Aliexpress integration is amazing. There is literally no other service that is easier to use, and that really appeals to me. But if you want to integrate Alibaba, Amazon and around thirty other sites into your own store front then you are going to want the Shopified App. Set up is more complicated, and day to day use is a little more cumbersome, but it still saves you an awful lot of time, and is certainly worth it if that is the route you want to go down.

Prestashop’s open community is, as usual, a blessing and a curse. It’s great due to the fact that any site you want to start drop shipping from you can, but the downside is the lack of real professional tools. Some firms have made the jump tot he platform, and integrated well, but on the whole you are going to be wading through a mountain of difficulty getting all the modules to play nice. it can mean that you get the features of Shopified with the ease of use of Oberlo, in terms of day to day operation, but the set up required, and the trouble shooting makes it the less attractive option for Drop shippers.

Both have the tools, but Shopify have the better tools. They make setting up a drop shipping site, or integrate features from drop shipping software the easiest thing in the world. If you want to set up with minimum funds, Prestashop is still the better option, but for a few dollars more you gain so much of your time back, making it more worth it for me.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Prestashop – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

This shouldn’t be too hard to call to be honest. Prestashop offers tremendous flexibility, with the more open source nature of the product, but that limits the ease of use. It’s scalability is limited to the skills of the user, meaning that if you don’t know what you’re doing it can be hard to keep pace with the growing needs of your business. Prestashop offers so many options that it can be a little overwhelming for the user to get their head around them. When coming from a brick and mortar background that can be a big problem, you’ll either need to learn an entirely new set of skills or hire someone who already has them, limited the benefits of a free system. Personally, having as much control over all aspects of my work is preferred, meaning that broadly speaking I see this excessive flexibility as a purely good thing. It does make it harder to use though, long term not the back end, it’s very well designed and quite easy to use.

The scalability issue is not an insurmountable one, but it does require an awful lot of forethought. As a business grows so too will the needs of the owner. With Shopify it’s easy to scale up, just buy the higher level packages and they come with all the new tools for larger businesses. To match that in Prestashop you have to know the tools you’ll need as you grow, requiring a lot of research. Prestashop does offset this with its community focus, but then you’re relying on the advice of competitors. Again, I prefer the method offered by Prestashop, but the Shopify option is far easier and much more intuitive.

In all this depends on your preferences. Do you want to go it alone, digging up the info you need along the way and slow upgrading in real time to your business needs, then go fore Prestashop. If you want a more streamlined experience, with fewer pitfalls, then perhaps Shopify is the better option. Neither stands higher than the other though.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Prestashop- Cost & Value

This should be an easy one to judge, right? I mean, Prestashop is free. Well sort of. When you factor it all in setting up a good Prestashop costs you either time or money, and according to some they are the same thing. If you shell out the cash for your hosting, your SSL certificate, buying a good theme, buying all of the add ons you need you’ll find the price going ever higher. The benefit to Shopify is that you know the price before hand. You know exactly what you’re getting and what you’re getting is what you need. Factor in the time spent building and setting up and going with the subscription might be the better idea.

Shopify’s Basic package is the cheapest one that comes with a store, and starts at $29 per month. It comes with all the features you need to get going, a store front, SEO tool, blogging, social media integration, and some basic stat logs. As you move up the packages you’ll find more features better suited to larger businesses, like gift cards, professional reports and cart recovery. That package is $79 while the final package is $179. Neither company charges a transaction fee, though no matter who you go with you will be hit with a credit card fee for their use, 2.9%+30c is the most common figure, but the more expensive your Shopify package the cheaper that gets, so small savings there.

Overall I think your choice will depend on how much you’re are willing to spend from the get go. On one hand you’ll likely have to spend a decent amount matching the tools that Shopify provide in their Basic package, but you are also quite likely to save in the long run.

Update: You can give Shopify a shot for free right now by clicking here.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Prestashop- Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in One Solution
• All themes are professionally designed
• Excellent customer support
• Shopify POS offline system
• Easier to set up
• Cheaper in the short to mid term, depending on a variety of factors

Shopify Cons:

• More expensive in the long term, possibly
• Back end custom code injection a little harder
• Fewer options overall than Prestashop

Prestashop Pros:

• Fantastic amount of options
• Cheaper in the long term
• Simple to set up
• Community support is unparalleled
• Open Source, allowing coders to really get their hands dirty
• Free

Prestashop Cons:

• Cost can stack up long term if you buy the wrong thing
• More difficult to get your head around
• Not an all in one solution, must buy SSL and host elsewhere

Always a good thing when firms offer very different products. Means that I can recommend them to completely different parts of the market. The control offered by Prestashop is amazing, but the high learning curve makes it less attractive to someone out to drop ship, or quickly set up a personal store. Shopify is much more simplistic. It offers nearly as much customization as Prestashop, and lacks that learning curve. Add in the ease with which is scales and it is makes it the better option for most of us. For those with the knowledge, Prestashop has a lot to offer though.

Free Trial Update: Give Shopify a try for free by clicking here to sign up for the deal. This makes it a great time to get that online store running and taking your business to the next level.

The post Shopify Vs Prestashop – 2018 Comparison & Review appeared first on Gazette Review.

Today I’ll be looking at Shopify and GoDaddy. GoDaddy has positioned themselves well on the market as the go to guys for beginners. They offer many of the standard features at a good price, and they have excellent customer support. Shopify is one of the giants of the eCommerce industry. They have been in the business for longer, offer more features and have excellent scalability. On the surface this one may seem like a no brainer, but GoDaddy is the largest domain name registrar for a reason. Their site creation tools are second to none, but they do not focus on stores.

Which of these tools is right for you? Read on for the full comparison.

Shopify Vs GoDaddy – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

It’s the first thing your customers see, so it better look good. Finding the right theme is one of the most important aspects of your business, right up there with social media management and SEO. Thankfully when you go with an eCommerce provider like Shopify or GoDaddy the messy job of actually designing an appropriate site has been removed. You select one of their professionally designed sites, tweak it a little and you’re done. So let’s take a look at what these companies have to offer in this category.

GoDaddy:

GoDaddy are not new to the business of website design, and when it comes to setting up a site they are masters, but they are relatively new to the business of eCommerce, and it shows in the selection of themes. I inquired about their available themes that are tailor made for eCommerce and found they had just twenty five. It is true that you can edit them, but it is a little disappointing when compared to the competition. What is there is well designed, they did not skimp in that department.

GoDaddy are primarily a website building company, and it shows. There is no way to integrate a GoDaddy website with your storefront, you must create two separate sites for that. The store builder is robust enough to serve as a rudimentary general purpose website, and blog for that matter, but the options available pale in comparison to their primary business.

The major selling point here is the simplicity of it. Setting up a site is streamlined in a way to make it as beginner friendly as possible, but in doing so it strips the user of any real agency. Considering the importance of getting your store front just right, I find such a low level of customization problematic, and not conducive to a long term business strategy. In short, great for a very small first time business owner, not so great for most anyone else.

Shopify:

This is not a hard one to judge. Shopify prides itself on the variety on offer. They have every design ethos you can imagine, both free and premium. You can find the ultra sleek modern designs right next to the more amazon like product list templates. They have plenty of free templates on offer, all of them professionally designed, to the point where unless you fall in love with a particular paid design, you needn’t bother with them. It’s a by-product of having been in the market for as long as they have.

The more expensive themes run as high as $180, and as low as around $80. Steep prices, though not the most expensive I’ve seen in  my travels. Tweaking a design is simple too. The back end tools allow for non designers to get their hands dirty, dragging and dropping background elements, a feature not yet implemented with GoDaddy at the time of writing.

All in all this is not a hard one to call. The winner is Shopify. They have more themes, more variability between themes, they offer easier and better customization and overall the better product. If you are new to the scene, and don’t intend on expansion over the long term, Godaddy may be for you, for the serious business person, Shopify is the better choice.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs GoDaddy – Features & Integrations

You’re going to want get the most out of your money. That’s a given. So you’ll want the eCommerce platform that give you the most tools for the lowest price. There are a few things that seem to be universal with these platforms, adding item, customizing sales options, SEO tools and social media integration tend to come with them all, and happen to be the most important ones. Let’s see how these two services stack up against each other.

GoDaddy:

In the back end GoDaddy lacks many of the options that are available with other solutions. You cannot freely customize the layout of your theme, the drag and drop editing style is essentially industry standard at this point. Their add product options are impressive though, and remarkably easy to use. You click the button and are presented with every option imaginable, from the mundane name to the more exotic item variable with price changing. It’s a well designed system.

Your SEO tools are there, the usual meta tags and friendly URLs, but that most important tool for SEO is a paid for feature, the blog. Integrated blogging is too useful a tool for sales, it increases the content on your site, driving traffic to your store. I would not recommend anyone start a store without considering their blog. Your social media is well integrated though, with their Facebook and eBay options being particularly impressive.

Overall it has most of the tools you need, and if you are new to the online market it may have everything you need, but having to pay for a few features that are considered standard leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The service is still relatively young though, so I imagine that in time we will see more and more features added and properly integrated.

Shopify:

All you need and more, the Shopify Basic package comes with most of the core features you need to get you started. Every package comes with unlimited file storage and item listings, and you can have as many images per product as you like, GoDaddy limits you to nine. Listing items is simple, just fill out the form, add items and you’re away. There are more specialized options available, though they aren’t immediately apparent, a quick look through the interface is all you need to get into them.

Shopify’s SEO tools are as up to date as anyone’s, and the built in blog support is a Godsend. An oft overlooked thing is your SSL certificate, a software security protocol, which comes as standard with all the Shopify stores. They can get pretty expensive, some of them being in excess of $100/year. GoDaddy do not offer one as standard, and the customer must pay $6.99 extra per year, not a terrible price but still a price. Shopify’s most interesting feature is not offered by their competitors. Shopify POS.

Shopify POS is an offline integration tool that bridges the gap between your offline business and your online store. It allows you to track sales and manage your brick and mortar business alongside your eCommerce store. In addition you can take sales on the fly. Great for anyone expanding their brick and mortar business online or those who like to follow the conventions and festivals. It costs extra, but it’s a superb feature.

With more integrated features, and a wider selection of apps, not to mention their POS system, this section is an easy win for Shopify.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs GoDaddy – Dropshipping

I have several dedicated articles that deal with dropshipping on this site, but I feel it might be a good idea to go into detail a bit here too. Basically it is the art of crafting a store front out of the disparate items that populate sites like Alibaba and Aliexpress. Doing it on your own requires meticulous set up time, arduous copying out after purchase, and getting on site holding areas for the items you buy. With dropshipping software you can buy, single or bulk, list them on your site automatically and ship them direct from the warehouse you bought them from, all with a single click. Some firms have made software that allow integration with the likes of Amazon and eBay, but honestly the utility there is limited, and the profit margins are pretty much non-existent. With Shopify there are numerous options available, with GoDaddy, there are a fair few less.

Shopify’s big two in this field are the Shopified app and Oberlo. Oberlo is my preferred option, but only due to the fact that I want a streamlined service, focusing on Aliexpress and ease of use. Oberlo is also very affordable, due to its focus, and the team behind it have done an excellent job designing the end user experience. You shouldn’t count the Shopified App out though, it has many more options in terms of site integration, if you are a power user, looking for an upgrade, and you are willing to pay the price, then Shopified might suit you better.

GoDaddy are a firm that focuses on making sites, not stores, and such their app integration leaves much to be desired. They do allow dropshipping, with their Quick cart system, but it is less easy to use than the likes of the Shopified App, or Oberlo. Adding products is not the one click experience seen in the full fledged apps on other eCommerce solutions. In saying that, it will at least get the job done, and the overall inexpense of GoDaddy as a store makes it at least doable, if not desirable.

Another no contest win for Shopify. I am unhappy with GoDaddy in general, it seems more of a cash grab than a genuine service, but I can see they are trying in some ways. The Quick Cart feature could use improvements, but as it stands right now at least you can use it, firms like Wix eschew dropshipping entirely, and it makes them less competitive in this market. Easy win for Shopify.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs GoDaddy – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

I love this section. You tend to find that one service does some things better than the other, making the contrasting a lot easier. In this case I think it’s pretty easy to argue that GoDaddy can’t quite compete with Shopify in terms of flexibility. It has fewer design options, app options, a less robust back end etc. GoDaddy, by virtue of having less to do, is easier to use, but then runs head first into the wall of scalability. I looked and I looked and I could not find package information.

It seems that as of the time of writing GoDaddy’s eCommerce solution offers just the one package. That is a little hard to believe, and I kinda hope I’m wrong about this. It means that in the long term, and let’s be honest we are all thinking in the long term when it comes to the health of our businesses, GoDaddy has no options. Shopify offer an increasing number of tools that are useful for different business sizes, as you go up the package list. GoDaddy may be intentionally overlooking this market, considering how new they are to the eCommerce game, and that’s fair enough. But that lack of visible foresight is putting them at a fairly hefty disadvantage right from the start.

The options for someone just getting into the online market, i.e. the very small business owner, are huge. Most newer eCommerce companies are specializing in that niche to grow their market share, and to be honest it’s looking a little crowded. Granted GoDaddy are a huge company, so I’m sure they are already working on new features and more packages, but for now they cannot compete with Shopify.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs GoDaddy – Cost & Value

This is another easy section to gauge. GoDaddy offer a terrific service, they really do, but when they price their only package at $29.99 per month you can’t help but feel a little short changed. The features on offer leave much to be desired, and the lack of themes more so. As I’ve mentioned, the service offered by GoDaddy is great for those just entering the market, but they price they offer that service at makes me want to tell you to look elsewhere.

Shopify offer more features for a lower price, their Basic Package is $29. Granted it’s only 99c less, but the point stands that you’re getting more for less, which is kinda insane when you think about it. I mean, GoDaddy has a huge number of employees, you’d think one of them would have mentioned it. Moving up the packages with Shopify is great for Scalability, but less so for your wallet. The next package up is $79, and it comes with a few more integrated features, useful for larger businesses. Their most expensive package is $179, and again has features best suited to much larger online retailers.

I’m a little confused by this one. I don’t understand how GoDaddy can sell their eCommerce solution for so much, when it doesn’t come with a site builder, has a limited number of available themes, fewer app options and little room for scaling. I have a suspicion that I’ve missed something critical here, but considering how hard I’ve looked for it maybe I’m not the issue. Shopify has all of those things and more, easy win.

Plus you can get a free trial right now by clicking here to get the current promo.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs GoDaddy – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in one solution
• Integrated blogging and other content features
• Excellent customer support
• Much better long term scaling prospects
• Cheaper
• More customization options

Shopify Cons:

• Slightly less streamlined that GoDaddy
• Back end code injection takes some setting up

GoDaddy Pros:

• Dedicated support team
• Excellent documentation of features
• A far more streamlined set up

GoDaddy Cons:

• Far fewer options, and what few extended options there are you must pay for.
• More expensive
• No room fro growth
• no website builder
• I could find no apps

This is a no brainer. How GoDaddy, one of the largest site building firms in the world, thought their eCommerce software was up to snuff I have no idea. It lacks so much in terms of basic features, and it leaves them competing with the likes of Etsy Pattern rather than Shopify. I hope they add more over the next few years, but until they do I have to advise you avoid them. Shopify does the same thing, and so so much more, and it does it better.

2018 Update: You can currently register for a free Shopify trial by clicking here to sign up for the deal.

The post Shopify Vs GoDaddy – 2018 Comparison & Review appeared first on Gazette Review.

First up for me will be Shopify and Sqaurespace. Both of these companies have some amazing features, are easy to use and powerful enough to make a sleek modern looking storefront for selling any product you can imagine. Squarespace has a broader outlook, being first a website creation tool and second an e-commerce creation tool. Shopify, by contrast, is laser focused on making an online shop tailored to your exact needs.

So let’s get stuck into the review, beginning with a look at their overall look.

Shopify Vs Squarespace – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

Building an appealing website usually requires months of design work, where are the products on the site? How much should we be throwing at the customer when they first visit? Thankfully the templates provided by both of these firms are extremely high quality. They are all meticulously designed, from sleek modern looks, to a more homey front page, all of your needs can be met with one of these companies.

Squarespace: 

Squarespace is the more out the gate sleek of the two. They offer nine templates, all customization in a myriad of ways. As much as I like the look of them, I can’t help but think they all have a distinctly boutique feel. That us by no means a bad thing, you get what you pay for after all, but I just have trouble seeing someone selling outdoor goods with one of their templates. You can see from the embedded image what I’m talking about.

There are no free or premium templates here, you pick your price, and grab a design. It simplifies it, and makes it seem like everyone gets the same impressive level of work. It is undeniable that all of the bespoke-esque layouts are sleek and professional, but the worry here is that they might be a little intimidating for the consumer. A major selling point here is that all of their store templates convert nicely to mobile browsing, whether on a phone or tablet. Being able to have that level of synergy between formats is a nice touch.

In the end, while it is possible to craft a site that is both welcoming and professional, it requires a little more work on the user’s end. The extra effort seems to fly in the face of their business model, that of making the process of building an online business simple.

Shopify:

The biggest difference between Shopify and Squarespace in this field is that Shopify offer free and premium themes to their customers. The paid designs are similar in terms of quality to the Squarespace ones, but the free templates are far from unsightly. On the contrary, I find most of them a little more inviting. They have a more rugged, Amazon feel, as though the site is less concerned with the artistry and more interested in making product browsing easy. As a consumer I find that most appealing, and from a business perspective it seems to make a little more sense.

That extra layer between you and having your online store up and running, that of picking a theme that suits, does make it a little more time consuming setting up your shop, and if you’re anything like me trying to get the perfect design is likely to be still more time consuming. Not an actual aesthetic issue, and I imagine anyone with an real business idea in their mind knows exactly what kind of site they want.

Again we have some feature match up, as both sites offer templates that maintain their design across devices, it wasn’t too long ago when this would not have been the case. Both of these companies offer a wide variety of templates, but I would argue that Shopify have more diversity in terms of feel.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Squarespace – Features & Integrations

When it comes to setting up an e-commerce site you cannot have enough features. Whether it’s social media integration, discount code generation or even a companion blog, both of these sites offer a wide variety of advanced settings, putting them ahead of the competition. During my investigation into the firms, I have noticed distinct similarities in the kinds of things they offer. So let’s dig in.

Squarespace: 

An all in one solution to setting up an online store. Squarespace have everything, all easily laid out and thoroughly explained. In their basic package you get almost everything. You can sell unlimited products, have an integrated companion site and blog, with a matching theme, excellent commerce metrics and integrated accounting. The full list of features is extensive. With their more expensive package there are more features, such as abandoned cart retrieval. Their full list of features is available on their site, but trying to figure out which ones are not included in the basic package is a real headache. It is literally just a list of features separated into sections. I thought one of the sections might differentiate between the two pricing tiers, but no. Clicking on view all features under the Basic package has the details on features I know are not included in that package.

Overall that is a minor issue, their Basic package still provides first class service, and comes with a $100 adwords credit, Google’s own pay per click online advertising software. It has almost everything you could possibly need.

Shopify:

As an all in one solution Shopify’s features do not differ greatly from Squarespace’s. You get the unlimited product listings, order reports, auto tax calculations, built in SEO, and all manner of other things. In short you get everything you need to get your shop up and running. The features contained in the more expensive packages are well worth it though. Auto basket recovery is a back end heavy process, but having it on your site makes for a smoother end user experience, and physical gift cards are a must around the holiday season.

When it comes to social media implementation Shopify is no slouch. It can mesh with just about any social media platform you care to mention, from Facebook to pinterest, something that it shares with Squarespace. The full time back end support from Shopify is some of the best on the market. The offer 24/7 support for their customers, they pride themselves on the quality of their customer service. Most interestingly they have an offline point of sale system, for those of you who already have a physical store, making it more attractive for those who already have a business up and running but want to expand into the online marketplace.

Allowing you to take offline credit transactions through the site is great for the entrepreneur who likes to travel, setting up stalls at festivals and the like. Overall I would say that Shopify offers better integration between and offline presence and an online one, making it slightly more versatile. But when you compare the online features between the two companies Squarespace offers one or two more features in their lower band option.

Winner – Draw.

Shopify Vs Squarespace – Dropshipping

Dropshipping is one of the most important things when setting up a storefront. Some folk don’t like it, but I think anything that helps bring in customers, and creates a market, is a good thing. I go over it in detail in other articles, but in summary,it is the art of crafting a store front out of warehouse items, via the internet. Sites like Alibaba hold  all kinds of things in their warehouses, and you buy from them, list on your site and ship from their warehouses. It allows you to either supplement a store or create one from scratch. The difficulty lies in selecting the right times to make a cohesive experience for your customers. In the old days doing so was a long and arduous process, cutting, pasting and all kinds of hassle, nowadays you can do it with a single click, if you choose the right eCommerce provider. Shopify have many options in this field, Squarespace, not so much.

There are really only two options when it comes to Shopify, from my perspective. The Shopified App, or Oberlo. The Shopified app is the most robust option, allowing integration from Aliexpress, Alibaba, Amazon and dozens of other sites. It comes with a downside though, the price is a bit steep, and the set up is a little more complicated, there are also numerous glitches than can pop up, I experienced a few during my trial, but it was nothing a refresh couldn’t solve.  I can see what they are selling, options, but integrating Amazon products to your page feels a little pointless, what with the profit being so low in that case. Oberlo is a more focused product, specializing in Aliexpress, the most common source of drop shipped items. The user interface is sublime, and the set up is quick, but you are restricted. I prefer Oberlo, it’s better for the supplementary drop shipper, but both have a market.

Squarespace are a boutique builder, at their very core. I expect their feature set and their themes to expand, as I mentioned earlier, but everything they do is about ultra modern quality. It means that they do not have much in the way of drop shipping support. You can, with difficulty and some programming knowledge, set up a service, but it takes a long time, and knowledge that most don’t have, and those that can do so would be better off using Magento or Prestashop.

For a service that I am so enamored of I am disappointed in the lack of options from Square Space here. They are still an attractive options to the right kind of consumer, but for the avid drop shipper, or those interested in trying it out, Shopify is your only choice here.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Squarespace – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

One of the major benefits to using one of the companies here to set up your online store is the fact that you don’t really need to know how to program to do it. Sure, it would make a few things easier, as they both allow you to implement custom code, but it is not necessary. They both allow the layman to stretch their creative muscles, and really make the site their own. Other options on the market aren’t quite as user friendly, but in this department both Squarespace and Shopify are essentially equals.

When it comes to scalability there is little to differentiate them too. They both offer unlimited listings right out of the gate. If you’re able to track shipping and do your own reports then it’s even possible to maintain a wider presence on the Basic packages from both companies. I would still advise you upgrade your package as you grow, you would not believe how useful auto report generation and in-house gift cards are, but the fact that you don’t need to is very telling with regards to the over all design of the product, i.e. your online store.

Again we have a section with no clear winner, it’s obvious that these companies are very aware of each other in this market, and it is always nice to see healthy competition keeping the prices low and the quality of service high. Unless it’s competition in whatever market you intend to go into, in which case may your competitors be short-sighted and incompetent.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Squarespace – Cost & Value

Here’s where the decision is likely to be made. Keeping costs as low as possible should be in the forefront of your mind at all times. That goes double when moving into the global marketplace. Think about that for a second, buying an e-commerce site is literally opening yourself up to the world market. You can see from the images above the broad price of setting up on Squarespace.

Their Basic package is displayed as $26 per month, but the advertising here is a little misleading, that price is only for those who pay it all up front. Meaning a starting fee of $312 up front. If you’re paying month to month, you’re looking at $30. So if you pay in advance you’re saving nearly fifty dollars for the year, not a bad deal. Shopify’s Basic package comes in at $29 per month flat. Not that big a difference their. The higher level package from Squarespace is $80 per month compared to the next tier from Shopify, which is $79. If you have the cash to pay up front, then by all means take advantage of the bargain, but a dollar is a dollar, and if you have to buy monthly then Shopify is the better option, barely. If you’re looking to take advantage of Shopify’s offline features, then you’re looking at an extra $40. Shopify POS is a fully integrated online/offline system, but requires an iPad to function, though it does allow you to replace your tills and card reader.

This is a hard one to judge. When it comes right down to it the option you should go for depends on your needs, and your available capital. If you’re flush with cash, then Squarespace is the cheaper option, if you’re less so, or you want to integrate your offline store with your online one, then Shopify’s the better option. It’s that extra feature set that pushes it over the line for me.

You can also get an extended free trial by clicking here. Perfect time to stop waiting and get your online store rolling.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Squarespace – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in one solution
• More variation in Themes
• Dedicated support team
• Offline integration via Shopify POS
• Quick to set up
• Excellent pricing

Shopify Cons:

• Instead of a more familiar language like php, the Shopify back end uses Shopify Liquid, a kind of object reference language that can be hard to get your head around, there is an abundance of support for it though. I think it must have been implement to give non programmers a high end language to work with.
• Lackluster blogging support. It is there, but it isn’t quite as good as the competition.

Squarespace Pros:

• All in one solution
• Very nice templates, a boutique-esque feel from most of them.
• More programmer friendly back end features, for those in the know.
• Excellent customer service
• Top notch blogging and general sites
• Great for those with some cash up front

Squarespace Cons:

• Amount of options may be slightly bewildering
• The designs, while beautiful, can seem a little high brow or intimidating
• No offline integration

Eventually Squarespace will be a competitor on the same scale as Shopify, I really do have no doubt, but as yet they are not. They can boast some of the easiest design tools on the market, and their prefabs are all absolutely gorgeous to look at, no question, but if you are looking to start and online business it is better to go with Shopify. They offer the better tools overall, right now, and they have better scaling options. Keep an eye on Squarespace though.

2018 Update: If you want to take advantage of a no obligation, free trial of Shopify you can click here to automatically apply a free trial to your account.

The post Shopify Vs Squarespace 2018 Update appeared first on Gazette Review.

Weebly began life as a simple site builder back in 2006, a student project that evolved into the popular service we know today. They have always allowed users to integrate shops with their sites via plug-ins, but in the last few years released a service that natively supports eCommerce. Since then the number of stores they provide for has grown exponentially, hitting half a million this year. Shopify has exclusively focused on eCommerce since its inception in 2004. They have made a name for themselves with their easy to use tools, ever-expanding list of features and top-notch customer support.

So let’s dig deep and find out which of these two products is right for you.

Shopify Vs Weebly – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

It’s the first thing a customer will see, so it had better look good. There are a few things that have to be taken into account when designing your store front. It must look clean, modern and thematically appropriate. It does not do to have couture fashion all stacked in stooks, or stooked in stacks. You’ll be happy to know that both of these solutions give you the tools to craft a great looking site, with minimal technical knowledge.

Weebly:

Weebly began as a site building service for those without the technical skill to build their own. You would expect then that they have a huge variety of templates with which to get you started, but for some reason this does not appear to be the case. Looking through their list of designs was a little disheartening, and when you narrow the parameters to just eCommerce ready themes the list dwindles to just nine designs. I’m waiting on word back regarding this number, as it may be the case that they only display those nine, but I’m fairly confident in that assessment.

The customization options are fantastic though. They have that classic drag and drop interface, making switching up the style of the site quick and easy. Add in the ability to inject custom CSS and PHP code and if you have the technical skill you can easily make a high quality professional looking site. Considering that the service is marketed towards those without the technical skill to build a site this might not be too large a boon.

If you find yourself underwhelmed with the themes on offer you can look elsewhere. I have been able to find third party sites that sell Weebly themes, and many of them are quite pleasant to look at. Prices run as low as $49 on the mojo marketplace, but even this third party solution has too small a selection available. Overall, while the designs they have on offer are nice, and the editing tools are both easy to use and versatile, there isn’t enough here when compared with their competitors.

Shopify:

Shopify have always prided themselves on the wealth of options available on their platform. From their robust design tools, that allows CSS and PHP injection, to their wonderfully array of themes. Each theme is professionally designed, and many of them are free. In the free designs you can find those ultra modern sleek themes sitting next to the more amazon like ream of products, of which I prefer. The premium themes match, and exceed, the free ones in terms of quality, but unless you find one that you simply cannot live without, there really isn’t a need to buy anything. The premium themes run from around $80 up to a maximum of $180, hefty enough prices, sure, but I’ve seen some firms offering premium themes for near a grand, so I guess they are a bargain?

The main selling point to Shopify’s service is that their themes tend to need little editing. Sure, they have tools in place to let you do just that, and tools that match Weebly’s too, but I feel like beyond minor format changes too much editing on their themes is a bad thing. Designers design, and in this case the designers have designed very well.

This is not a hard section to call. Weebly’s offerings cannot match Shopify’s in terms of aesthetics, and the variety on offer by them is eclipsed by Shopify’s. When we look at the customization options from both firms we find them more or less equal, giving Shopify an easy early lead.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Weebly – Features & Integrations

There are a few features that hold true across most eCommerce solutions. They all offer basic store functions, they all allow you some degree of SEO options, they all have social media integration. So we have to look at the small details in order to call a winner on the features front. Let’s take a look at Weebly’s basic features.

Weebly:

If I were to compare the basic package of both of these companies Weebly would come out at the bottom. Their low-end features leave much to be desired. Thankfully their top package is a little cheaper than Shopify’s and comes with most of the features that one would expect here. You can manage inventory, with a well designed back-end interface, you get your SSL certificates, unlimited storage, listings and bandwidth, coupons, tax and shipping calculator and the ability to sell digital goods. I mention all of these very basic features for a reason. They do not all come with the lower packages. Meaning if you want what I would call the entry-level features for an online store you will have to purchase the top-level package, i.e. the Business Package.

They have an app store, and a fair number of them are free, but the quantity just doesn’t match their competitors. I’m certain they have been well implemented and optimized, but that isn’t enough these days. The social media integration leaves a little to be desired too, and the options recommended by Weebly themselves are not free. All that said, their Business package is a very well-rounded service, and Weebly’s customer support is some of the best in the business. I would like to see a few more features become standard in their lower priced packages, but I understand why they aren’t there.

Shopify:

Shopify are an eCommerce solution first, and as such their lowest viable shop package compares with Weebly’s highest package. You get the same inventory management, unlimited storage, SSL security etc. You also don’t get a transaction fee, though you must use Shopify Payments. Even if you don’t their basic package charges 2%, compared to Weebly’s 3% on their cheaper packages. Overall the online features offered by both companies are great, with those offered by Shopify being a little more polished, by virtue of both focusing on eCommerce, and having been around a little longer. The thing that Shopify has that is currently unmatched is their POS system.

Shopify POS is an offline store integration tool. It allows you to control your brick and mortar business alongside your online store. It can manage inventory on the go, in addition to staff management and taking sales. You connect a little card reader to an iPad and you’re done. It isn’t limited to just brick and mortar stores though. I can see the benefit to those who sell at conventions and festivals too. It costs a little more per month, but for the right customer it can be worth it’s weight in gold.

Shopify’s App store is robust, with plenty of apps available to streamline or automate laborious tasks. Their social media integration is great too, with built-in support for Facebook. Considering that the top eight social media sites are supposedly responsible for around a third of the site traffic to online stores, you do not want to gloss over this.

There is a convergence of features across all eCommerce providers. You tend to find that the newer firms offer the same features, though a little less polished. Shopify’s constantly adding new ones, and with their POS system they offer a service that no other can provide. In saying that I have actively observed Weebly adding new features in near real-time, so perhaps in time they will be a real threat to Shopify. For now though this section goes to them.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Weebly – Dropshipping

I have been looking into drop shipping for the last six months, and have written dedicated articles about it in the past. I will go over it here in brief, for those who don’t know what it is, because I know what that’s like. Dropshipping, to me, is the art of crafting a store front out of items from warehouse stores, like Alibaba. There is a knack to it, making a cohesive store front catering to your market. There are two kinds of user, the ones looking to make it from scratch, and the business people who add items to supplement their own items. I am more in the latter camp, but both approaches can yield positive results, and different apps apply to different methods. Shopify is king of the drop shippers in so many ways, and even if it weren’t, the fact that there are options at all puts it infinitely ahead of Weebly in this field. So let’s look at the two biggest on Shopify, and talk about the lack of options with Weebly.

Shopify’s big two, to my mind, are Oberlo and the Shopified App. The Shopified app is the big boy in the play ground, integrating with everyone, allowing you to add items from pretty much any seller, not just warehouse stores. The likes of eBay and Amazon are supported here, in addition to the old workhorses of Alibaba and Aliexpress. Using it is simple, but a little buggy, nothing a refresh doesn’t fix, but still a clear issue. Oberlo is my preferred option, it is light, simple to use and it works. Only on Aliexpress, but it works. Aliexpress is where most folk get their items anyway, so creating a low cost focused product has really worked in their favor. it is cleaner than The Shopified App, but less featured.

Weebly have zero options here. Well, not entirely true, you can install third party apps into your browser then jury rig a solution with the programming features of Weebly, but doing so is time consuming, not supported, and really really hard if you haven’t the knowledge. Better to spend you time on something else in my opinion.

Swing and a miss from Weebly in this arena. Sad to see, but not surprised. I hope they expand in the future, broken record much, but for now they pale in comparison to Shopify in the world of drop shipping.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Weebly – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

I like this section, there is always an easy answer to each paragraph. We look at flexibility of each platform and we can essentially see a tie. Drag and drop interfaces are easy to use and set up. When we look at the comparative packages you can set up your store however you like with both, in terms of products and product details. What separates them is the themes. Both are easy to customize but Shopify is more flexible due to being able to start in more places.

By contrast Weebly is easier to use due to having fewer back-end clutter, and due to the slightly more streamlined site creation tools. For someone just entering the online marketplace, being restricted can be a good thing. Both products can be as complicated as each other though, when we factor in the custom coding options, but on the surface of it Weebly has this bit.

Scalability is the simplest one to call of them all. Weebly’s top end package matches Shopify’s lowest end shop in terms of both features and pricing. When you hit the top package with Weebly you are hitting the bottom package with Shopify, and thus you have nowhere to go. Shopify’s packages are designed in such a way as to be ever useful to larger and larger businesses. They even offer the Plus service, above their Premium service, for ridiculously large companies looking for a bespoke experience.

With two out of three sections in their favor this bit goes to Shopify too. They offer a more versatile product that, while ever so slightly more complicated, makes up for it with its excellent scalability.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Weebly – Cost & Value

This is a tougher one to call. If I include the lower end packages from Weebly, which I would not advise you go for considering their lack of what I would call standard features, then it looks a little more in Weebly’s favor. But the truth of the matter is you should be aiming for their Business plan if you want to match Shopify at a slightly reduced price.

Weebly’s Starter plan comes in at a very low $8 per month. You can only sell up to ten items, have no phone support, SSL for payments, inventory management tools, coupons codes, digital good and you pay a 3% transaction fee. Next up is their Pro package at $12, you still lack SSL security, pay a 3% transaction fee, no digital goods, inventory management or coupon codes, but you may now sell 25 items. Their best package is their Business package, at $25 per month. It comes with unlimited everything and no transaction fees. You can even make further savings if you sign on for two years, getting the price down to $21 per month, or if you just want to test the water for half a year you can pay $38 per month.

Shopify’s Basic package is $29 per month, and it comes with all the features of Weebly’s Business package, and a few extra besides. While I’m certain you can integrate a blog with Weebly’s business package I cannot find direct reference to it, and that feature is a must for SEO. Moving up the packages you find further features that aid in the management of larger businesses. The Pro package is $79, and give you more detailed reports, physical gift card generation to go well with your coupon codes and abandoned cart recovery, great for catching those customer’s on the fence. Their highest package is the Unlimited, and it comes with everything in the previous package and even more detailed and analyzed stats as well as real-time carrier shipping.

If you want all the basic features of Shopify and don’t mind the comparative lack of room to grow, then the prices offered by Weebly are fantastic. If you want a few extra features from the get go, and excellent scalability, the Shopify is the better option. I’ll be calling this one a draw.

Winner – Draw

FREE TRIAL UPDATE: If you want to take advantage of a no obligation, free trial of Shopify you can click here to automatically apply a free trial to your account. 

Shopify Vs Weebly – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in one solution
• Easy to set up
• More features as standard
• Way more design options
• Intuitive interface
• POS offline integration system
• More robust app store

Shopify Cons:

• More expensive than Weebly
• Slightly more difficult to manage in the beginning

Weebly Pros:

• Easier to set up
• Cheaper
• Great site building tools
• Excellent for those just entering the market

Weebly Cons:

• No real scalability
• The Business package is arguably their only viable product
• Lackluster themes

Weebly is an interesting one. I am almost unsure as to what they are going for as a business themselves. The tool son offer pale in comparison to Shopify, and their scaling options leave much to be desired. Perhaps they are looking to convert their already established client base? If so, then fine, but for new customers they do not offer anything you can’t get better and cheaper elsewhere. Not a difficult one to call, better to go with Shopify if your are just starting out, for current Weebly users there is something here, but if you grow you will want to look elsewhere.

FREE TRIAL LINK: If you want to take advantage of a no obligation, free trial of Shopify you can click here to automatically apply a free 14 day trial to your account. 

The post Shopify Vs Weebly – 2018 Reviews & Comparisons appeared first on Gazette Review.

BigCartel target a very specific niche, that of artists who want an easy way to sell their works online. They offer many of the same features that Shopify do, but don’t seem to have the same scaling that is offered by the industry power-house. For the indie crowd though there is a definite appeal here. The company began in 2005 with a specific purpose, and in the years since they do not seem to have deviated from it.

So let’s break these two down and see which option is better for you.

Shopify Vs BigCartel – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

You must have a good-looking site. It is the primary way with which a customer interacts with your business and if it is a cluttered mess, with a poorly designed interface then you can kiss potential sales goodbye. An overlooked aspect of this is the appropriateness of the design. If you pick a theme that is ultra modern and try to sell fishing supplies it is unlikely to fly, by the same degree selling art in an amazon-like ream of products can cheapen the experience for the user. So lets take a look at what is offered by these two.

BigCartel:

BigCartel focus on the very small business owner. Not even the business owner in the traditional sense, they sell to the artists and the creatives. Which is a little weird considering their lack of themes and templates. Their packages come with a variety of customizable templates, and they are for the most part well designed, but every one of them is from the sleek minimalist school. Great to look at, but with limited variety. If I were comparing them to the like of Etsy, another home craft sales site, then they would come out on top here with little doubt, but I’m comparing them the Shopify, and I find the limited options disappointing.

They do offer a decent amount of customization though, allowing you to craft custom themes, within limits, and there are third party sites filled with professional designs. The issue there is that you have to pay extra for them. I have seen some of them on sale for $60, which isn’t bad, but having to pay anything for an appropriate design is a black mark for me. In the last year they have added a fair number of templates and I fully expect the list to expand, but for now we have to make do with less.

Shopify:

This is an area where Shopify excel. Shopify design all of their themes to be scalable, meaning that the theme you use for your small business will still work well when your business inevitably grows. They have hundreds of professionally designed template for you to play around with, and each one is fully customizable. The vast majority also work well with different screen sizes, and considering more and more people are shopping from the comfort of their phone that feature is a godsend.

They have a wide variety of styles to choose from, whether you’re looking for the more couture boutique site or the ream of products set up, you’ll be able to find something that suits your needs. Not all of their themes are free though, running between $80 and $200 or so, but you needn’t bother with them unless you fall in love with one. The free themes are varied and expanding, with new designs popping up every so often.

Overall, while having fewer designs on offer can make it faster to set up a site, I prefer more options. BigCartel’s templates are great to look at, and they do offer some level of customizing, but they cannot compete with the variety on offer from Shopify, giving them an easy early win.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCartel – Features & Integrations

When it comes to feature integration the more the better. Being able to control inventory and sell items is just the tip of the iceberg. The two most important features for eCommerce are SEO and social media integration. They will be your marketing tools. You set them up right and you will be able to have a steady stream of customers coming to your site, and having a good product will do the rest. Let’s a take a look at the options available from Shopify and BigCartel.

BigCartel:

Due to their singular focus on the very small business owner BigCartel’s feature list is not a robust as others. After the free package, their packages are based on the variety of products you want to sell, not on the additional features you unlock for moving up through them. All  the basic features are here though. You can list products, add images, track sales etc, but adding options to your products is difficult, you’ll need some tech skills to do it, and the options for the free plan are just terrible.

They have native support for Facebook, but adding other social media services is somewhat difficult. Setting up a blog is easy though, and you’ll need the content to rank well on google, so that’s a plus. Overall there isn’t much room to expand, the report generation does not get more complicated as you buy up the packages, and the core features, while well implemented, are not suited to any medium to large-sized business. For the lone salesperson there is a lot here to admire though.

Shopify:

All the features. Really. Shopify’s packages are tailored to add features as you go through them, meaning you gain more tools as your business grows, but on the ground floor you automatically have more things to play around with than with BigCartel. The social media integration is better, and the app store is far easier to navigate, gaining all the add-on tools needed is as simple as clicking a button. They match BigCartel in terms of SEO and you can sell an unlimited number of items. In addition adding options for your product is simple, and you are allowed more images per than with BigCartel too. Lastly Shopify has an ace up their sleeve with their Shopify POS service.

Shopify POS is an offline integration system, tailored to those who already have a brick and mortar store, or for those who like to travel to conventions or festivals. It allows you to keep track of your business online and off, as though they were the same store. You can also take payments on the move, with a small plugin for an iPad, doing away with the traditional till. It’s a service not offered by their competitors, and evidence that the Shopify service is ever-expanding. Add in the 24/7 phone support, compared to BigCartel’s 9-5 Monday to Friday email support, and you have an all round better service.

Not a hard one to call here. BigCartel may offer most of the features that Shopify offer, but with their product listing limits and less robust support network, they cannot compete with them on any front bar the very small business.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCartel – Dropshipping

Dropshipping comes in many guises in the online market place, but the most common is still buying from warehouses and selling on your site. there are some bespoke sellers out there that market their products to eCommerce stores, with unique drop shipping extensions of their won, but for the supplementary user or the power user, you want software that integrates with Alibaba, Aliexpress and even Amazon sometimes. When it comes to grabbing product from those kinds of sites and adding it to your storefront you kind of have to go with something like Shopify. BigCartel do not have a broad spectrum solution to the issue at present, though it may well be something they are moving towards. So let’s look at the details of both firms.

Shopify are the kings of the arena, though in this fight they needn’t be to be honest. There are two options out there, in general. A smaller focused app like Oberlo, or a more robust, but somewhat buggy, app like Shopified. Both have their use, and it really depends on the kinds of store front you are trying to set up./ For what it’s worth, I prefer Oberlo, it is the more streamlined, and to be honest, integrating from Aliexpress is the only one you really need as a supplementary user. If you are creating a store from scratch then it might be worth it to expand and add products from the likes of eBay and Amazon, not great profit, but useful when trying to up your SEO score. Shopified is your go to there. Overall they have you covered for every contingency.

BigCartel do not seemed too focused in this area. There are a number of bespoke solutions, but nothing like Shopified, more like even lighter version of Oberlo. Sorry to see it, but it gives me a clear winner in this field, and I am always a fan of being able to call it solidly for one firm or the other.

Bit5 of a no contest I’m afraid. it is odd to me how common that is for this field. It seems as though others firms don’t attract the app creators, and thus don’t have these lovely integrated apps for automatic, or as close to, drop shipping. An oversight to my mind, but not a huge one.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCartel – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

Let’s begin with flexibility. With their rigid listing limits and lack of themes on offer, BigCartel leave much to be desired in this section. While it’s true that the comparative lack of options does make it easier to use, I think Shopify proves that flexibility does not need to come at the expense of user ease. Shopify offer hundreds of themes, each customizable in the back-end, and allow you to set details on as many items as you want.

When it comes to ease of use though BigCartel are king. They have their service set up to be as simple to use as possible. The lack of thematic options means you can be running in no time, and the limited item listings makes tracking everything super easy. This is a service tailor-made for the sole creator, and having too many things to juggle can make a business too much of a burden. Shopify is easy to set up too though, but they cannot match BigCartel in this area.

And finally scalability. BigCartel is a one size fits all kinda gig. Sure they offer more expensive packages, but they only increase the amount of items you can list, they don’t add extra features. Shopify on the other hand have a variety of features integral to different business sizes. As your business grows you just upgrade your package and gain all the new tools you need. An easy victory for Shopify here I think.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCartel – Cost & Value

This is an interesting section. On one hand BigCartel is cheaper, but they offer less for the money and have listing limits. I can see that they are not trying to compete with Shopify directly, but by virtue of offering a similar service they are competing. Shopify offer more features, and excellent scaling, making them perfect for small ventures that want to grow. Let’s do a run down of prices.

BigCartel have four packages available. Their least expensive is free, but you are limited to one image per product, five products and your URL will be something like Blank.bigcartel.com. No inventory tracking, but with five items why would you need to. There are no transaction costs, though you’ll need to pay credit card fees. Moving up we have the Platinum Package, at $9.99, the Diamond Package, at $19.99, and the Titanium Package, at $29.99. The difference between them is the number of products you can sell, going from 25 to 100 to 300. Once you have more than 300 products it’s time to leave BigCartel, no room for growth.

Shopify have four packages as well, though their smallest package is little more than a buy button add-on for existing sites. The Basic Package is $29, and comes with everything you need to build and grow a business. Moving up from that will grant you more tools, for larger businesses, but without a listing limit you needn’t move up until you want them. The Pro Package is $79 and the Unlimited package is $179.

If you find yourself needing to sell more than 25 items then I would say go for Shopify. It’s ten dollars more, you can grow your business better, and it comes with way more features. BigCartel’s packages are great for the very small business, that does not see much growth beyond.

We tracked down a link for a free trial for Shopify in 2017. Click here to automatically apply a free 14 day trial when you sign up. 

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs BigCartel – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros:

• All in one Solution
• Easy to set up
• Wide variety of options and themes
• Shopify POS
• Scales with any business size
• Excellent price to feature ratio

Shopify Cons:

• Slightly more difficult to use
• More expensive per month
• Language support needs an update

BigCartel Pros:

• Excellent service for the small business person
• Very quick to set up
• Easier to use than Shopify
• Cheaper than Shopify

BigCartel Cons:

• Does not scale well
• Fewer options

Another review, another easy win for Shopify. BigCartel focus on small businesses, and while that might be good in the short term, this is an industry dominated by the scalable solution. With fewer themes, and that item listing limit, BigCartel have shot themselves in the foot before the race. If you are looking to host more than 25 items, you have to go with Shopify, but if you want to sell fewer than five, then go for BigCartel’s free solution.

The time to get your online store up and running is now! You can use this link to get Shopify setup and rolling for free. 

The post Shopify Vs BigCartel 2018 Update appeared first on Gazette Review.

There is one major benefit to Magento though. It is completely free. You can have a site that is as well designed as any, all for the upfront cost of nothing. Granted, it isn’t a hosted solution, like Shopify, meaning you’ll need to find a third party site hosting company, but there are hundreds of them. Once you have the software set up the actual day to day managing of Magento is quite easy.

So let’s take a look though these products, first up a comparison of aesthetics.

Shopify Vs Magento – Appearance, Professionalism, & Overall Look

Deciding on the look of your e-commerce platform is usually the first major decision you have to make. The wrong design choice can make or break an online store. You have to strike a balance between beauty and functionality, while still making the core aesthetics reflective of your product, or products. Thankfully both of these solutions offer a wealth of options in that regard.

Magento:

Seen as Magento is community driven, you will never be hard pressed finding themes for your site. It’s one of the major selling points. The biggest issue with it is that a lot of them are a little dated. It is harder to find pre-made themes with a more modern aesthetic, like those offered by Squarespace. You will have an awful lot of options, and unlike Shopify, the paid options are usually dirt cheap. Magento is not limited to a few templates though, this is open source software after all, so its true strength lies in its customization.

You can create your own templates, well I say you can, unless you have experience with both programming and graphic design you can’t really do anything with Magento. But if you do shell out the cash for a good designer you can have a bespoke site, that matches your vision precisely. It’s that level of freedom that makes it so attractive. An issue that might not be apparent with this solution is the lack of auto mobile sites. So the reality of it is that you’ll need to design not one, but two sites that scale well to different screen size and browsers.

When you have all the options it can be hard to choose just one. I think the argument can be made that the complexity of Magento makes it less attractive to someone just entering the online market, but if you have the capital to build from scratch, and pay your website designers well, the tools on offer here are top notch.

Shopify:

An all in one solution, meaning every aspect of the site is prefab, with a wealth of opportunities for customizing. I’m no programmer, so a system like Shopify would be perfect for me. The themes are varied, but not needlessly bloated with outdated designs. You have a great blend of couture and more low brow themes to choose from, depending on what kind of products you are selling. I’ve mentioned before that I am a big fan of the more rugged Amazon-like themes, plenty of products on display, prices listed nicely, and the vast majority of the free themes fit that description. There are a few sleek modern themes available for free, and they are all quite pretty, but if you find a design that you have to pay for, you can expect to shell out around $80.

That might sound like a heft enough sum, but it’s peanuts when compared to the cost of hiring a designer, as you would likely have to do if you go for Magento. The biggest selling point here is the speed by which you can go from having no site to being up, running and selling online. I don’t think any other e-commerce solution can boast as fast a turn around time.

I think our options here are very different. On one hand we have literally all the design choices in the world, and on the other we have a more prefab based click the blocks together kinda thing. It really does depend on what you’re going for. Do you want to be up and running as soon as possible with a terrific looking site that is tailored to your needs, or do you want to spend a little time, and a reasonable amount of money, setting up a meticulously designed site, that has all the features and the exact aesthetic you want? If I make this a pure numbers game then Magento wins, if I factor in everything else it is a much closer race.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Magento – Features & Integrations

You’re building an online store, so you’ll at least want to be able to sell things. You’ll also want to control inventory, calculate shipping, taxes, generate discount codes and coupons, social media integration, maybe add a few languages and of course the ever important SEO capabilities. Well you’re in luck all these features and more are included with both of these products.

Magento:

This is a hard section to write, not because Magento is lacking, but because the whole thing can be explained by simply saying “Yes.” There is nothing that Magento cannot do, but getting it to do anything is the trick. You can have multiple languages, excellent SEO features, more apps than you could possibly imagine, seriously there are over five thousand of them, a mix between paid and unpaid. It’s those apps that give it its social media integration, which really is must these days. The biggest caveat here is that integrating all of these features still requires an in depth knowledge of website creation, which if you don’t personally have will require an outside hire. Now a fair number of my friends are in the business of site design, so I can attest to the quality offered by going down that route, but it is both more time consuming and filled with unexpected exception errors.

In all, if you go down the Magento route you will not be disappointed, but you also won’t be alone. You will need someone who knows their stuff to get anywhere with the software, unless you decide to learn it yourself, which only adds more time between you and your store launch.

Shopify:

Seen as we have an all in one solution, Shopify has all of the functionality of Magento, with fewer options. With Magento there is a variety of solutions to every problem, multiple apps that do the same thing for you to test out and see which works best. With Shopify there is generally one solution to your issues, and they are all handled in house. Your SEO capabilities are some of the best on the market though. If you want all of the features that you can get with Magento though, you will have top pay out. Only the most expensive version of Shopify can compete in this field with Magento. Not a terrible thing, as it’s cheaper than hiring someone to build the site for you, but it is still an up front cost that not everyone is prepared to pay. I do like that your social media is integrated into the package, and you can have as many plugins as you want too. Remember that setting up a Shopify store is a personal thing, that it can be done by someone with zero technical knowledge.

With there 24/7 support line in place for anyone who has issues, and a back end team adding new features to it ever day, Shopify is the easiest option to pick here. And it has an ace in the hole to push it over the top. The Shopify POS system is a means to link your offline store with your online store, via an iOS device. You can take credit card sales on the fly and control every aspect of both your store fronts wherever you are. It’s perfect for both people with brick and mortar stores and folk who like to follow the festivals and conventions, selling their wares. I sound like a damned advert, but that’s what it does, and it’s an impressively robust system.

If it weren’t for the POS system, Magento would have this won hands down. Here we’re presented with the problem of choice again. If a system offers you unlimited choice, but you cannot use them, are the options really there? Of course they are, you just hire someone. But if short term price bothers you more than long term price then Shopify is the answer. If you have the cash to set up a bespoke site, then Magento is your answer.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Magento – Dropshipping

Dropshipping means a lot of things to different people. To some it is about adding a bespoke item created by someone else to your store, to others it is adding a whole product line from a Chinese warehouse store to your business, and to some it is about raining down troopers on the Covenant threat. Whether you are a small business, a large business of a Spartan II, both Shopify and Magento have you covered. This might e the first time that a firm has stepped up to Shopify’s impressive automatic dropshipping options, and it’s only because the platform is so old and so well supported by its community. So let’s break down the major players from both platforms.

Shopify are the gold standard when it comes to dropshipping. Drop shipping is a great way to extend your product line, or make a new one entirely, by buying from warehouses over the internet and dropping the item onto your store. The big two, to my mind, are Oberlo and The Shopified App. The Shopified App is the more robust solution, allowing you to pull from all kinds of warehouse stores, and even regular stores. it means set up is more time consuming, and a little buggy in places, but overall it is an excellent option. Oberlo is my preferred option, being focused on Aliexpress, and thus far more refined in terms of day to day use, and user interface. Both are for different clients though, the power user in the former, and the supplementary user in the latter. Oberlo is cheaper though, and thus is a lot better for testing out the selling format.

Magento has it all, almost literally. If you want to set up one click drop shipping with Magento there are around 20 or so options, or you can write it yourself, integrate it with whatever browser you want. Going over them all would be very time consuming, so I suggest you take a look through some of the most popular options and run with what ever you feel comfortable with. It’s a little harder to set up, but if you choose Magento for your store you knew that going in.

Shopify is unquestionably the easier to use product in ever conceivable way, but the freedom inherent to Magento makes it a very attractive option in all areas. It also makes it impossible to pick a winner. Both work, and do so with aplomb, but they are catering to two very different markets. I am impressed with what I have seen from both companies.

Winner – Draw

Shopify Vs Magento – Flexibility, Ease of Use, & Scalability

If I look first at scalability this section is a lot easier. It is very easy to ramp up with both of these solutions. There is a little less back end stuff to do in Shopify, all I can really recommend is to get a more expensive package as you go along, whereas with Magento you may need to change your website host, and hire on your site designer for some extra work. That caveat, being unable to do everything yourself, unless you are a programmer, is going to be the biggest issue with recommending Magento over Shopify.

Magento is technically the more flexible of the two, it has more options overall meaning if you have the know how you can change things on the fly a little easier. Shopify does allow custom code in its back end, but the design focus is the make the tools as high level responsive as possible. You lose a little functionality to make it understandable to as many people as possible. It’s that ease of use point that really differentiates. To the right person Magento is ridiculously easy to use, and when the site is set up it does become a hell of a lot easier to manage, but I think it is pretty hard to argue that it is easier to use than Shopify.

Again, I feel like comparing these two solutions is a bit of a non starter. They aim for very different groups within the market. The people for whom Shopify is perfect would simply be unable to get off the ground with Magento, and for a certain kind of person the relative lack of control offered by Shopify would be infuriating. I think that Shopify here is more than competent in all fields, and edges Magento out of the ease of use race.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Magento- Cost & Value

This is a tough one to call. One one hand Magento is technically free, and if you work it right you won’t have to pay a penny to anyone, disregarding hosting and transaction fees. It can make your overhead very small, and fro a new business that is a big plus. But that is in a perfect world, and if you do not have the technical skills required to make the most of the wealth of options that Magento offers, you would be better off with an all in one solution, as the cost of hiring someone on to do the work can be a little expensive. Not to mention regular maintenance, scaling the site up to meet demand and all the other little costs involve.

With Shopify you pay an upfront monthly fee and have everything else taken care of. You gain access to a back end that is designed to be lay person friendly, while still having enough options to satisfy those who can code. You have all the features you need to run a successful business, all streamlined and custom coded to work with your software and you have back end tech support at your beck and call. The lowest priced option, that includes a chop, is $29. Ramping up to $79. If you want to take advantage of Shopify POS, their offline integration system, it’ll cost you an extra $40 per month.

I think if we take the long view then it’s possible that Magento is cheaper. It really depends on who you hire to do the designing and the work in general. A poor choice in the beginning can add up to negatives pretty fast. But best case scenario you do save money in the end. I think the set fees offered by Shopify, and the guaranteed service makes it a more valuable service. There is a market for Magento, i.e. those who know how to code, but for the lay person I would say go for Shopify.

Best of all you can currently get a free 14 day trial of shopify by clicking here to automatically apply it to your account when signing up.  If you don’t like it just cancel before the 14 days are up and you won’t be charged anything.

Winner – Shopify

Shopify Vs Magento – Recap & Review

Shopify Pros;

• All in one Solution
• Plethora of modern themes
• Back end support team, tech support
• Shopify POS offline store integration
• Very easy and quick to set up
• Reasonable price

Shopify Cons;

• It’s not free
• Back end tends to favor Shopify liquid over regular css. Custom code integration takes a little more work as a result for those use to the latter.
• Fewer apps, but what they do have are better integrated.

Magento Pros;

• It’s free!
• Tremendous community support
• Unprecedented amount of personal control
• More apps than I thought possible
• More themes than anyone else

Magento Cons;

• Requires a high level of programming knowledge to get it off the ground
• Many themes are not horribly outdated looking
• Open source software lacks accountability
• More difficult to have offline integration

Magento is the old guard of e-commerce. The Software has been around for a while because the tools are robust, and comparatively easy to use. The Biggest issue is that a new generation of e-commerce solutions are easier to use, and make stores that are nearly, if not exactly, as versatile. Shopify have the easier to use tools, they offer something of a safety net too, an error on a Magento built site can kill a business as easy as make it.

That said before giving Magento a shot (if you decide to go that route) I would recommend trying out shopify first as it’s constantly evolving and a fair bit easier to operate. You can get started for free by clicking here. If you can’t make it work for your needs than purchase a hosting plan and give magento a whirl.

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