Shopify versus Wix: Best E-Commerce Platform for Your Business

Ameeza Zia
12 min readFeb 27, 2023

Are you thinking of starting an online store? If so, then you’re probably wondering which platform to use.

The world of eCommerce is booming, and there are more options than ever when setting up an online store. Shopify and Wix are two of the most widely used platforms. In this post, we’ll discuss Shopify versus Wix.

Which one is the best? Well, the answer to that question depends on several factors, including your budget, preferences, and the specific needs of your business.

Both platforms offer a range of features and tools that make it easy to build a professional-looking website and start selling online. However, they also have some key differences that can impact the success of your online store.

Shopify is a platform that is specifically designed for eCommerce businesses. It has a plethora of features and is highly user-friendly.

Whereas Wix is a general website builder that can be used to create any type of website, including an online store.

Both platforms have their pros and cons, so it’s important to do your research before making a decision. To help you out, we’ve put together a comprehensive comparison of Shopify vs Wix. In this article, we’ll discuss Shopify versus Wix in terms of their features, prices, and ease of use. We also provide our verdict on which platform is the better option for businesses.

Ease of Use — Which is more user-friendly?

Our first comparison criterion is ease of use. Why? Because it is the most crucial.

Consider this. You don’t want to spend a lot of time and effort putting up an online business and modifying the design only to discover that it’s a nightmare to handle daily. Also, if you don’t know how to add products to your collection on Shopify, an online store can be a nightmare.

Shopify: Shopify never claimed that it was the simplest to use, despite its assertions that it is the greatest option for online shops. However, their user interface is so well designed that you just need a few clicks to launch your first store in a matter of minutes.

It’s simple to add products and variants, and we appreciate how they link to tutorials, which is helpful for total newbies. This is especially useful as setting up a Shopify Store is a serious affair. It will take you at least a couple of hours to configure everything correctly. Furthermore, all orders are controlled via an automated fulfillment dashboard. SEO and mobile responsiveness are both addressed.

Wix: It claims to be the best and insists that it is extremely simple to use for developing websites and e-commerce shops. We agree. Or at least we can say, Wix is one of the simplest website builders available. Their user experience is fantastic, and their tutorials and step-by-step guidance are written and simple to follow.

Also, Wix’s drag-and-drop functionality makes styling your content pages much easier than Shopify’s.

Adding an e-commerce module is just as simple with their drag-and-drop editor. If you need to set up an online store quickly, you may utilize Wix ADI, which uses artificial intelligence to generate a ready-made template in seconds.

Themes and Templates — Who offers the best themes?

Which platform, Shopify or Wix, offers more design options?

Shopify: With their 100+ templates, setting up a Shopify store becomes easy. They are contemporary, sleek, and responsive, so they look nice on both mobile devices and desktop computers. Do you want to personalize them? The live editor is a lot of fun and produces wonderful results. If you know CSS and HTML, you can also play around with them to your heart’s delight.

The only drawback is that most themes need a one-time purchase ($140 — $300) since only a handful are free.

There are 60 free Wix:eCommerce templates on Wix. We especially enjoy their catalog galleries, which have a similar sleek and attractive appearance as Shopify’s.

However, Wix’s templates aren’t entirely responsive, so you often have to manually rearrange elements to make them seem a specific way on smartphones.

And although Wix normally offers a ton of versatility when building websites, Shopify offers more comprehensive in-depth customization using code like HTML or CSS.

Features And Product Presentation

In Shopify, you can only add three variants for size, color, or material. Wix provides 6 versions and up to 100 alternatives, such as different color schemes. Both allow you to design titles, descriptions, and image galleries that include stunning zoom effects. However, unlike Wix, Shopify does not offer carousel videos in all of its designs, nor does it readily allow for product modifications, ribbons, size charts, or wish lists.

However, as you delve further into Shopify’s supplementary applications, everything changes. There are several free and paid add-ons available that enable reviews, Facebook storefronts, eBay item importers, and much more. And then there’s Augmented Reality, which is a pretty fascinating and (so far) unique Shopify feature. You can use your smartphone to browse around the product and examine every detail.

It’s worth mentioning that Wix has its own App Market; but, its 300 applications are unlikely to be as customizable as Shopify’s 6,000 apps.

While you may not be able to personalize product pages as readily as you can with Wix, Shopify more than compensates with an unrivaled selection of connectors and add-ons.

Pricing — How much do they cost?

When comparing Wix vs Shopify costs closely, Shopify seems to be more expensive. But to determine who provided the better value, we have to do the nitty-gritty.

Shopify: Shopify is an excellent bargain. The basic version has a tremendous assortment of features, such as unlimited product listings, 24/7 support, discount coupons, and abandoned cart email automation. There are no setup costs, and you may take advantage of a 14-day free trial. You will also receive a discount if you purchase an annual plan.

The biggest disadvantage of Shopify is that you will be charged extra costs if you use a payment channel other than Shopify Payments. While Shopify enables a variety of gateway connections (including Paypal), it’s crucial to consider these additional fees before joining up.

Wix: The free version is the main point of distinction between Shopify and Wix pricing. You get unlimited access to Wix’s free website builder and hosting service. However, you need to purchase a premium membership if you truly want to take advantage of its eCommerce package to its full extent.

According to their terms of service website, Wix offers a 14-day money-back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied with the membership package you purchased.

One other point is that websites created using the platform are subject to a small transaction fee. The more costly options, “Business Unlimited” and “Business VIP,” provide extra storage as well as first-in-line customer service. However, If you want more than 50GB of storage, you need to contact Wix directly.

POS Capabilities

If you run a real business, you’ll be happy to hear that both Wix and Shopify include POS solutions for merging online and offline experiences.

Shopify POS is a mobile software that lets you sell in-store using only your iPhone or iPad. If you live in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Ireland, you may also buy hardware like card readers and receipt printers straight from Shopify

Shopify POS is available in any country where Shopify accepts credit card payments. The software is quite functional, allowing you to sell items, modify checkout screens, receive payments, maintain inventory, create customer profiles, and much more. By delivering shopping carts through email, you may even provide digital receipts and allow consumers to explore in-store and buy online.

The best part? It’s free if you choose the POS Lite package. What’s the bad news? The POS Pro package will cost you $89/month if you wish to use sophisticated e-commerce features like in-store pickup, employee logins, and smart inventory management. However, if you have Shopify Plus, it is free.

Wix POS’s free app has a comparable set of services, as well as extras like local delivery, curbside pickup, and unlimited employee accounts. However, there are a few important limitations. For starters, Wix POS is presently only accessible in the United States, and only for businesses kinds that are supported. For another, you must acquire Wix’s hardware since other types of hardware are not supported — and POS kits start at $550.

If you are not located in the United States, you may sell through mobile utilizing the Wix Owner app and receive payments with Square or SumUp. However, this is not perfect for a physical business because you will be losing out on several crucial aspects.

Login and Checkout Options for Customers

Shopify: If you want your users to register before proceeding to checkout, Shopify provides excellent solutions. It might be mandatory, discretionary, or prohibited, and users can subscribe by providing some basic information.

Customers like to have access to purchase history, order statuses, and pre-filled shipping and payment information throughout the checkout process. If a consumer makes a purchase and then registers an account later, orders are retrospectively correlated with accounts (based on email addresses).

You may manually add users or import a list through CSV from your end. You may organize them using a tag system.

Wix: Wix also allows you to include a members section in your checkout process so that returning customers may save time by logging in. Customers may monitor order status, track orders, update addresses, view subscriptions, and store payment information, much like Shopify. It also allows users to browse wishlist goods that they have saved.

Team Collaboration

With a large team, you may either share your password or create dedicated accounts for your colleagues.

Shopify: Shopify has very strict limits: Shopify Basic only enables two collaborators, Shopify Plan allows five, and Shopify Advanced allows fifteen. What struck us was that an article or product that someone is working on will not be locked for other editors. What you will see is a little picture of everyone who is presently working on a certain page. However, this is simple to overlook.

Wix: You don’t have to worry about the number of team members in any of Wix’s plans. There are no restrictions! The only difficulty you may have is that adding 50 or 100 staff members causes the backend to become sluggish. But I doubt anyone would want to add this many editors in the first place.

Furthermore, if someone else is changing a page, Wix will display a large warning notice!

Tax Settings

allows you to include or remove taxes from the pricing shown on your store. They also provide automated tax rate computations for the United States via ShopifyShopify Tax. If you earn more than $100,000 per year, you will be charged 0.35% of your applicable revenue. You may disable Shopify Tax and use their old tax calculator instead. However, Shopify warns that they don’t “ensure the correctness of tax computations”.

Shopify also provides automated calculations for the EU, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Wix allows you to enable or disable taxes and adjust them per area. Your Wix store will automatically compute tax rates using the free Avalara app. You may even designate product categories for tax breaks. However, this app is only available in the Business Unlimited ($32/month) and above plans.

Therefore, we can say Shopify offers better and more helpful tax options and documentation.

Multilingual Capabilities

Shopify: Every plan on Shopify’s price page supports up to 20 languages. Isn’t it fantastic? Sounds like a free natively integrated language tool? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Shopify does allow you to activate other languages, as well as allow visitors to choose their favorite language. These will be added to your URL as a subdirectory. The hitch is that you’ll still need to utilize third-party software to add/display translations, which will cost you an additional $20 per month on average. All Shopify plans permit up to 20 language variations.

Wix Stores are bilingual by default and are free of charge. The only disadvantage is that it will also utilize the basic URL for the other languages.

SEO — Shopify vs wix — Which takes to you #1 Faster?

When it comes to search engine optimization, both Shopify and Wix perform admirably. You may change the titles, descriptions, headers, alt texts, and redirects on your pages. Sitemaps may be found at yourdomain.com/sitemap, and you can also include a Facebook Pixel code to measure e-commerce conversions on social media.

Both Shopify and Wix feature basic analytics tools for tracking visits and sales. You can also quickly a dd google analytics Shopify or set up Google Analytics to gain even more information.

However, SEO is a critical component in getting your business out there and recognized.

So, highly advise you to hire the services of a reputable, experienced Digital Marketing agency. This will guarantee that you get the most out of this important component of the internet world.

Shipping Cost

While both offer some reasonable shipping alternatives, Shopify goes above and beyond with its own Shopify Shipping service. Shopify’s connection with carriers such as USPS, UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, and Sendle allows store owners in the United States, Canada, and Australia to provide calculated shipping prices and purchase reduced shipping labels.

In addition, the Shopify Fulfillment Network allows businesses in the United States and Canada to pack and ship items from fulfillment centers situated throughout the United States. Benefits include same-day delivery, complimentary packing, and lower shipping charges.

Although Wix has improved their shipping options in recent years, Shopify remains the market leader.

Support

Shopify provides live chat, email, and phone assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their instructions are often clear and informative, and because they have such a huge community, you are sure to discover answers in the countless forum posts. The icing on the cake is Shopify’s great marketing blog, where you can learn how to build your business.

Wix also features an excellent marketing blog as well as well-written tutorials. They provide phone support (particularly, a callback service restricted to business hours), live chat (available 24/7 in English and other languages), and forums, which are comparable to Shopify’s. The community is very large, so you will not feel alone in your struggles.

FAQs

Is Wix or Shopify the better option?

Shopify makes it easy to start an online store, especially if you intend to grow it. Wix is better to use if you’re creating a content-rich website with rudimentary e-commerce functionality, such as collecting payment for services or selling a small number of things.

Which is less expensive, Shopify or Wix?

Wix is more cost-effective than Shopify. However, the more complex your business, the more you’ll love being on a Shopify plan, although Wix eCommerce provides lots of scalability at a lower cost.

What to sell in Shopify?

If you need a business idea but don’t know what to sell on Shopify, the solution is virtually anything. And if you currently sell physical things, you can now add services and other virtual products to improve order value and provide handy solutions for your consumers’ changing demands.

Is it possible to switch from Shopify to Wix?

Yes, it’s possible, You can download 3rd party apps which will transfer items, orders, and coupons from your Shopify store to Wix. These apps are free to install on your Wix site, however, they may charge a fee to conduct the transfer.

Is Shopify better than having your website?

Shopify is the champion in terms of security. It offers an SSL certificate to safeguard both you and your clients. In contrast, you will have to pay a fee to put up your website, and the procedure might be irritating when unidentified difficulties develop.

Conclusion

So, was it a case of comparing apples to oranges? Not so fast: while Shopify is the greatest e-commerce platform for a large online business, Wix is also a viable option in many circumstances. This is where any platform would be recommended.

Select Shopify if:

  • A significant e-commerce system that can expand and sell globally is required.
  • You require multilingual stores with excellent SEO.
  • You desire additional payment gateways and outstanding POS features.
  • You require live assistance.

A Wix shop is ideal if and only if:

  • You want an easier (and less expensive) approach to creating an internet store.
  • If Shopify Payments isn’t available in your country (to save the additional sales fee), your website’s main purpose isn’t to be a store.
  • Creating content (blogs, landing sites, etc…) is the primary technique for you to gain visitors.
  • You desire greater design freedom.

And there you have it! Hopefully, this has clarified a few points for you.

Originally published at https://blog.atlantisbpo.com.

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Ameeza Zia

Looking for copy that cuts through the clutter and converts like crazy? Look no further. I'm Ameeza Zia, and I know how to make words work wonders!