SETING UP E-COMMERCE PORTAL FOR SMALL BUSINESS
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?
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?
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!
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[redacted]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!
For payments, Square/Stripe is pretty easy and Woo/Shopify both will integrate with that. It 100% depends on what you're selling. In a higher-risk payment industry, you'll have trouble getting a standard processor like Square. That's independent from Woo/Shopify, though.
Website upkeep on Shopify is automated. On Woo, it can be automated, but it's a little more complex on WordPress in general. Certainly not difficult, but if you want to do as little as possible, Shopify is easier. 99% of the time you'll update something on WordPress and be fine, but every so often you'll catch a bug.