When deciding to run an e-commerce store, the first and foremost step is to pick a suitable platform for your business. In this article, we will draw a comparison between four popular e-commerce platforms – WordPress, Wix, Shopify and Shopline with different factors affecting your decisions, in terms of ease of use, pricing, website design features, marketing and analytics tools and customer support.
- Brief Introduction of the platforms
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source content management tool to create your own website for free, and the functionality can be extended using plugins. Even function can be developed by yourself. For example, Woo Commerce can transform your WordPress system into an eCommerce system. There are over 30% of online stores using WooCommerce to set up. There are unlimited tractions and products able in WooCommerce. However, you will need web hosting and a domain service fee to store your website files on the internet.
Wix
Wix is a cloud-content-based website building platform including web hosting and design services. The drag-and-drop user-friendly feature and over 500+ templates allows you to build your website without coding and specialist skills.
Shopify
Shopify is a subscription-based software to set up an online store and sell its products. It has over 1 million merchants with famed functionality and flexibility. There are also many free and premium templates for merchants to design their websites. Users with physical stores can also use Shopify POS which is a point-of-sale sale app to work with the hardware at the same time, unifying all your commerce into a single central command centre.
Shopline
Shopline is a platform designed for local small-to-medium-sized merchants to establish an online store in an easy and customizable manner throughout Asia, without any help from technical expertise. It can combine local payment gateway like Payme.
- Ease of Use
Shopify, Shopline and Wix are easier to use for a beginner than WordPress, providing more templates and a simpler interface.
Shopify vs Shopline
Shopline allows merchants to write CSS on their own to create a fully customized storefront design while Shopify allows merchants to write their own CSS but modifications on Shopify require more development protocols to follow if merchants don’t have experience in front-end design, adjusting on Shopify can be challenging.
Shopify vs Wix
Wix is the easiest way for a basic brochure website or small eCommerce store as it is all about drag-and-drop simplicity and easy site-building for beginners. If you are looking for a website builder that can help you to get started in a hurry, then Wix is likely to be the best option for you. On the other hand, Shopify can handle much larger sales, with access to everything from social media integrations, to dropshipping.
WordPress
It is rather more flexible and has more control over your website as plugins and configuration allows initiating the setup. Getting help with the initial setup largely overcomes the downside of added complexity.
- Pricing (Paid Annually)
WordPress Hosting Fee
| Type of Business | Price | Service |
| Startup | HKD $138/Mo | 1 Website20GB Web SpaceUnmetered Traffic50 Email Addresses 1 x 5GB MySQL database best Routes |
| Growth | HKD $198/Mo | 5 Websites100GB Web SpaceUnmetered Traffic300 Email Addresses 5 x 5GB MySQL database best Routes |
| Enterprise | HKD $228/Mo | Unlimited WebsitesUnlimited Web Space Unmetered Traffic1000 Email Addresses Unlimited MySQL database free SSL Certificate Free 1 Dedicated IP Address Best Routes |
Wix:
| Type of Business | Price (HKD)/Mo | Service |
| Business Basic | $127.2 | Secure online payment plans & recurring payments customer accountsCustom domain free domain for 1 year remove Wix adsUnlimited Bandwidth20 GB Storage Space5 hours of video24/7 customer care |
| Business Unlimited | $166.4 | Secure online paymentsPlans & recurring paymentsCustomer accountsCustom domainFree domain for 1 yearRemove Wix adsUnlimited Bandwidth35 GB Storage Space10 hours of video24/7 customer care |
| Business VIP | $215.4 | Secure online payment plans & recurring payments customer accountsCustom domain free domain for 1 year remove Wix adsUnlimited Bandwidth50 GB Storage SpaceUnlimited hours of video priority customer care |
Shopify
| Plan | Pricing HKD/Mo | Transaction Fees | Best for |
| Shopify Lite | $9 | 2.7% per in-person transaction | Businesses that are dipping their toes into selling online |
| Basic Shopify | $29 | 2.9% + 30 cents per online transaction; 2.7% per in-person transaction | Businesses with small-scale selling needs |
| Standard Shopify | $79 | 2.6% + 30 cents per online transaction; 2.5% per in-person transaction | Growing businesses with moderate selling needs |
| Advanced Shoplifty | $299 | 2.4% + 30 cents per online transaction; 2.4% per in-person transaction | Advanced features to help scale your business |
| Shopify Plus | Quote-based | Based on your credit card sale volumes | Enterprise-level solutions for high-volume businesses |
Shopline
| Type of Business | Price (HKD)/Mo | Service |
| Starter | $29/mo | Suitable for e-commerce start-ups to kick off at a low cost |
| Essential | $69/mo | All the basic necessities for e-commerce businesses |
| Standard | $149/mo | Best for growing businesses with more admins and lower processing fees |
| Premium | $259/mo | Scale your business efficiently and become an established merchant |
- Website design features
WordPress vs Shopify vs Wix
This platform provides thousands of templates, both paid and free. With the largest number of high quality themes, this platform provides its users with plenty of options to make their e-commerce stores attractive. However, some of the templates is not safe as there may be some malicious code which may harm the safety of your website.
Unlike Wix and Shopify, WooCommerce offers unparalleled account page customization which allows you to use both plug-ins and code the page yourself. WooCommerce and its abundance of high-quality, professional-looking themes is also a good bargain.
Shopify vs Wix
With more than 500 templates, Wix seems much better than Shopify. However, most of these templates have not been created with an e-commerce store in mind, with only 60 out of them. Furthermore, Wix does not allow you to change the template of your store after implementing one which makes the flexibility of Wix low. But it is easy to design your store with Wix.
Shopify
The official website offers 9 free and 64 paid themes, but some of them come in 2 to 3 versions. The templates are specifically tailored to be used for online stores. Moreover, you can shop for more themes from third-party designers.
Shopify vs WordPress
Although Shopify does offer a lot of customization options, it still can’t compare with WooCommerce in this department. While Shopify allows you to change its functionalities to a certain degree, WooCommerce with plug-ins can make it to be a self-hosted platform which means that you can tweak and adjust almost everything.
Shopline vs Shopify
There is less customization for Shopline as the templates are very limited and the customer may not be able to recognize your shop. Although customization is allowed, CSS needed to be coded by the merchant.
- Marketing and Analytics tool
Wix vs Shopify
Shopify relies heavily on third-party apps for marketing. While this does give you lots of flexibility, it’s hard to compare the two platforms fairly with so many apps flying around.
On the other hand, Wix has changed the eCommerce marketing game with Wix Ascend. An all-in-one marketing solution, Ascend is available as a separate subscription, letting you manage your marketing campaigns easily in one place.
WordPress vs Shopify
Both platforms support multichannel sales, but Shopify is the winner here since it makes it very easy to sell everywhere. You get built-in integrations with Facebook Shop, Instagram, Amazon and eBay on every plan level on Shopify, so you can sell products on some or all of these channels and manage everything in your Shopify dashboard.
Multichannel sales on WordPress depend on the e-commerce plugin that you’re using. For example, the top-rated WooCommerce plugin supports marketplace and social sales integrations, but only with add-on extensions. Some of these extensions are free, but others have annual fees. Basic cart plugins, like the Simple PayPal Shopping Cart, don’t support multichannel sales. So, like many things on WordPress, you can make multichannel sales happen, but you have to use the right plugin to get it done.
Shopline vs Shopify
Standard tools like free coupons, discounts, limited time offers, promo codes, and free delivery are available within Shopline, the platform has also partnered with Google to enable users to boost their online store through google search and platforms.
Shopify, being a market leader in the e-commerce space, also has a wide range of tools to enable customers to boost their website and attract customers. Along with the free delivery options, promo codes, flash sales and other discounts, Shopify has also acquired a system called Kit CRM which is a virtual assistant to help further boost sales and handle marketing tasks.
Although the system costs an extra $10USD per month, with Kit CRM by its side, Shopify has a distinct advantage – the virtual assistant can help store owners with many tasks, including sending standard emails to customers, running Ads on Facebook and Google and advising them with useful marketing advice.
- Customer Support
Shopline vs Shopify
Both SHOPLINE’s and Shopify’s customer support teams may be reached through Email, online chat, and call. SHOPLINE provides consultations and customer services to all its merchants. Instead of relying on external call centres, SHOPLINE ensures that each region has its own local support team that understands the markets their merchants are in.
Wix vs Shopify
The Wix Help Center features an extensive knowledge base that is adequate for finding answers to frequently asked questions and addressing common technical issues. Wix offers call-back and email support for all its paid plan customers. Support is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese from Monday through Friday between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT. Customer inquiries are usually addressed within 24 hours, except on weekends. Priority support is available for Wix VIP plan customers.
Shopify offers true 24/7 live support via email, chat and telephone. Shopify also gives you access to an extensive online help centre that features guides, FAQs and tutorials. In addition, Shopify has nearly 900,000 members in its online forum, where you can also turn for support. The contest between Wix and Shopify for the best customer support is not even close; Shopify wins.
WordPress vs Shopify
Shopify has stronger support options. Shopify’s customer help is second to none. You can receive 24/7 help in a variety of ways, including by phone, email, live chat, and via Shopify’s onsite Help Center. WordPress is different in that there is no direct help. There are only resources, such as forums, that provide support.
As we know, WordPress is a far more technical platform, and as such, it doesn’t anticipate that its users will need their hand-holding. It’s also free, so you’re not paying to get quality service.