Seting up E-Commerce Portal for Small Business
February 22, 2021
by an member from Dartmouth College in Minneapolis, MN, USA
I currently have a WordPress Website that I am looking to add an E-Commerce portal to. What is the best avenue to do this? I am willing to pay a low monthly subscription fee. A plug-in? Through Amazon?
from New York University in New York, NY, USA
You really can't go wrong with either, but if you already have a WordPress site, I'd go with Woo.
I literally had a WordPress site, wanted to add a shop, so used Shopify. This was around###-###-#### For two years I had this Frankenstein setup where I was managing two platforms, neither of which did exactly what I wanted. Really dumb waste of time by me. I switched over to Woo and it's been so much better and more seamless both for me and for our customers having everything together in one place that I can customize to my needs.
Both are great, though. I'd say Shopify is quickest to set up and most user friendly. But, last I used it, Shopify had it's own special coding language. I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how to manipulate their special code myself to customize it. That said, you can hire people for Shopify.
Woo is MUCH more customizable, not only if you know what you're doing, but also for plugins and custom extensions. They have a ton of free and annual fee options that make coding so much quicker and easier AND customizable to your needs.
I've been off Shopify a few years now, but that's my experience. Both great platforms, but I loved the customizability of Woo and that it more seamlessly integrates with my broader site, which is also more customizable. Shopify is excellent if you're brand new, haven't built anything yet, and prefer an out of the box solution.
Hope that helps!
from University of Florida in Washington, DC, USA
If you want to stick with the WordPress site you already have, then adding WooCommerce makes sense, or there are tons of other WP plugins that'll work as well. Lots of options available!