Wix Vs Shopify: Which Is Better For E-commerce?

 

E-commerce has become one of the best ways of making money online. The industry is fast growing as people now prefer to shop online for convenience purposes. A lot of online entrepreneurs are going into the e-commerce business.

They’re looking for the best and affordable website builders for e-commerce hence the comparison of  Wix Vs Shopify. The aim is to make an informed decision to choose which is better.

If you’re planning to launch your e-commerce business, then you need a  reputable platform to achieve it. That is why we’ll compare  Wix to Shopify in this guide. The aim is to keep you informed so as to make a better choice as it suits your goals.

Our comparison will be based on the following:

• Loading Speed
• Search Engine Optimization 
• Dropshipping 
• Online Store 
• Transaction Fees
• Pricing
• Pros And Cons

Wix Vs Shopify: Overview

Wix is one of the leading brands when it comes to building a website. The website builder launched in 2006 now has 180M+ users globally in 190 countries who use the platform for different purposes.

The interesting thing is that it empowers entrepreneurs to build websites of their dreams. Whether you’re a photographer, musician, restaurant owner, fashion designer, etc. Wix got you covered.

Its powerful technology makes it easy for everyone to build their own website. You don’t have to bother about not being tech-savvy. You have the specialized features you need to build your website. 

Some of the key features of Wix are as follows:

• It offers you over 500 designer-made templates for your e-commerce business.
• Access to upload your own font or make use of 100+ different fonts.
• Your e-commerce site is simplified on mobile with all the essentials.
• Have your website design with Wix ADI when you answer to some questions. This will be cool with beginners who don’t know how to set up their site.
• Create and manage blog posts. View comments and share them on your Social Media accounts.
• Offer courses, appointments, and classes from your website.
• An awesome store font to display and sell physical and digital products you’ve on your online store.
• Combine Corvid APIs and other industry-leading marketing tools to grow your business and scale your marketing. 

Shopify is a popular all one e-commerce platform which is designed to help you start, run, and grow your business. It powers over 1,000,000 business worldwide. It is a platform for you whether you want to sell online, on the go, or retail store.

Shopify has amazing features that make it easy for you to run your e-commerce business successfully. It has over 70 professionally designed themes which makes it easy for you to customize your website.

As a web website builder, you can host your website on this platform. A full-featured content management system is attached to your online store. 

Some of the  key features of Shopify:

• Your Shopify online store has an inbuilt commerce shopping cart. This makes it easy for your customers to browse and purchase from your store while on the go. 
• Access to CSS and HTML which makes it easy to customize any aspect of your website.
• You can integrate your Social Media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr on Shopify. 
• Shopify supports SEO practices which are to ensure that your potential customers find your store easily on Search Engines.
• It integrates apps like Inventory Source, Ordoro, ecomHub, which makes it suitable for Dropshipping business. 
• Compatible with Google Analytics which makes it easy for you to monitor the behavior of your customers in your store. You can track visits and sales.

Wix Vs Shopify Comparison: Which Is Better?

Now let’s compare the two popular e-commerce website builders base on the points I stated above.

Wix Vs Shopify: Loading Speed

The speed at these two e-commerce platforms load is what you should consider. You would never want your e-commerce site to be down when your customer is browsing your site to discover a product or even make a payment. Aside from the sales, you will lose, it doesn’t tell good of your brand. So it is important your site has an optimum speed. 

According to its official site, Wix has a server uptime of 99.8 %. It has servers and backup servers all over the world. The e-commerce platform claims that it maintains its server to make sure that every saved data on Wix website can be retrieved in the case of any server being corrupt. 

Shopify claims that it maintains 99.99% server uptime which makes it easy for your e-commerce store to be available all the time.

Its services are available in all geographical regions around the world. Shopify sometimes experiences downtime due to third-party services, errors from public and private apps, and errors from theme customization.

That’s A Tie

Even though Shopify has more server uptime, it has some downtimes. However, Wix didn’t declare any downtime.

Wix Vs Shopify : SEO

Search Engine Optimization is key for you to succeed in your e-commerce business. Many of your potential customers usually go to Search Engines like Google and Bing to search for the products they want.

That’s when your e-commerce site stands a chance to be seen if it is optimized for Search Engines. 

Wix has an inbuilt SEO for every website you build on the platform. This is to ensure that it is found on Google. It has the following SEO features:

• Secure hosting with an SSL certificate which indicates that your site is secured.
• Generates robot.txt.file which makes it easy for Search Engines to crawl important content on your website.
• Structured data that help Search Engines understand your content better.
• Canonical tags to tell Search Engines which pages to index and rank.

Shopify helps potential customers find your stores on Search Engines. It supports best SEO practices like meta tags, title tags, and the use of different keywords in your product description.

Shopify has it own inbuilt SEO to boost the visibility of the content you’ve on your e-commerce store.  It offers resources that you guide towards getting the SEO of your site right. 

That’s A Tie

Both Wix and Shopify have all the features to ensure that your site is visible on Search Engines. They have an inbuilt SEO for every website created on their platforms. 

Wix Vs Shopify: Dropshipping 

Dropshipping is one of the lucrative e-commerce businesses only a few people know about. In fact, some people ask if dropshipping is dead. But the answer is that Dropshipping is alive and very lucrative. That’s why there is a comparison of Wix Vs Shopify as it relates to Dropshipping. People want to know which of the platforms is better for Dropshipping. 

Wix allows you to create an online store that you can decide to Dropship with. Just connect your online store to Modalyst marketplace to source products to sell. To start Dropshipping with Wix, take the following steps:

• Sign up for Wix
• Choose from over 70 beautiful templates to design your online store 
• Customize your store to suit your brand
• Connect to Modalyst Marketplace to source for products
• Add products to your store, write your product description, set your price and shipping locations
• Set your payment method and receive orders. Your supplier fulfills the order and ships to the location of the customer. 

Shopify is exceptional when it comes to Dropshipping. It is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that is the choice of a lot of people when it comes to Dropshipping. The process of starting Dropshipping with Shopify is the same as Wix except that Shopify has more advanced features.

For instance, Shopify connects with a lot of marketplaces like Oberlo, Aliexpress, and Printify. The scalability of your Dropshipping business is better on Shopify. It integrates a lot of third-party apps to give you the flexibility you need.

Its apps are located on the Shopify app store. Its user interface is easy to use so you don’t bother if you’re not tech-savvy. With Shopify, all you have to bother is how to get customers in your store. Shopify handles updates, security, and backups on your store. 

Winner: Shopify

Shopify connects with a lot of Marketplaces while Wix connects with Modalyst marketplace. Also, Shopify offers you a lot of Dropshipping apps you will need to scale your Dropshipping business. 

Wix Vs Shopify For Online Store

With Wix, you can create an amazing online store that can serve any purpose. There are a lot of features available to you. Such as customization of your online store, adding a product, accept payment with different payment methods.

You can create a professional online presence with Wix by designing the logo of your brand with Wix Logomaker. Also, you can run your store anywhere with the Wix mobile app. Wix accepts payment in 40+ different currencies and 4 payment options.

Shopify offers you all the tools you need to build an online store. From the Shopify theme, you can pick from a variety of themes that’ll suit your store. After that, you can add products to your store, set your payment methods.

Shopify accepts over 100 payment methods from different locations around the world. It has an inbuilt mobile shopping cart for customers to browse and purchase from your store while on the go.

With your Shopify online store, you can receive payment in a lot of currencies while Shopify takes care of taxes. You also have the option of choosing from 50 different languages to set your customer checkout. 

Winner Shopify

Shopify has a robust payment method and supports a lot of currencies, unlike Wix. Also, it handles tax issues on behalf of store owners. 

Wix Vs Shopify: Transaction Fees 

This is one thing merchants consider before setting an e-commerce store. Transaction fees are the amount you pay for any transaction carried out in your store. This occurs mainly when customers pay for the purchases made in your store. It is called a processing fee. 

Wix charges you for any payment you receive through Wix payment. It also charges you when you receive payment through third-party payment gateways like PayPal. 

Shopify doesn’t charge you any transaction fee when you use Shopify payment. But charges you when you use third-party payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, First Data.

These transaction fees depend on your Shopify plan. However, Shopify payment is only available in a few countries. Also, Shopify charges you for a refund you made to the customer.

It’s A Tie

While Shopify doesn’t charge you if you use Shopify payment, it charges you when you make a refund. There is not much difference since Wix charges you when using Wix payment but no report of charges in a case of refund. 

Wix Vs Shopify : Pricing

This comparison won’t be complete without discussing the monthly or yearly subscription to these e-commerce platforms. 

Wix has 4  pricing plans which include:

• VIP – $24/month
• Unlimited – $12/month
• Combo  – $8/month
• Connect domain – $4/month

Each of these pricing plans come with different features.

Shopify has 3 pricing plan which includes the following:

• Basic Shopify – $29 per month 
• Shopify – $79 per month 
• Advanced Shopify – $299 per month.

Also, these pricing plans come with different features.

When it comes to payment, Shopify has higher pricing plans than Wix. This may be due to its features which are more suitable for e-commerce websites.

Winner: Wix

For a beginner who is on a low budget, Wix might be a better platform to kick off.

Wix Vs Shopify Review

To even make the process of making a decision on which is better between Wix Vs Shopify for e-commerce, I have all put together some relevant points you may also like to consider. 

Wix Vs Shopify (Pros And Cons)

Wix – Pros

• A  dedicated expert customer care is available to help you through live chat or scheduled call.
• 500+ beautiful templates from which you can choose to build your online store.
• 14-day free trial when you upgrade from free to a premium plan.
• Design your e-commerce store with a drag and drop option.
• Receive payment in over 40 different currencies
• 99.8% server uptime.
• Affordable pricing plans.
• Has it inbuilt SEO to boost the visibility of your e-commerce store.
• With Wix mobile app, you can run your store anywhere.

Wix – Cons

• Doesn’t connect to multiple marketplaces for Dropshipping.
• It has only 4 payment options.
• Doesn’t handle tax issues.

Shopify – Pro

• Takes care of security, backups, and updates.
• Has numerous apps to help you scale your Dropshipping business.
• Handles tax issues on your behalf.
• Set your customer checkout in any of the 50 languages available to you.
• 99.9% server uptime.
• Offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
• Shopify has a robust payment method.
• Connects to multiple Marketplaces where you can source for products for your online store.
• 24/7 customer support via email, phone, and live chat.
• Offers you free SSL.
• Beautiful themes from Shopify theme to design your e-commerce store. 
• Inbuilt mobile shopping cart to allow your customers to browse and shop on your store while on the go.

Shopify – Cons

• Pricing plans are relatively costly
• Charges a fee when you make a refund to a customer.
• Apps needed to scale your online store are not free

Summary 

This depth comparison of Wix Vs Shopify for Ecommerce will help you make an informed decision. Both platforms are powerful to kick start your e-commerce business. But the final decision to settle for any of them will depend on your needs. 

In my opinion, Shopify has some advanced features that will help you scale your e-commerce business. Although it is a bit expensive compared to Wix.

Shopify has robust payment options and offers you a lot of apps that can make scale your e-commerce business easily.

It is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that is also beginner-friendly. But in all make sure you evaluate the comparisons made here against your specific requirements. This is to make sure you identify the best option for you.

Recommend Reading: You can check out my article where I compared Shopify and Woocommerce in detail. Also if you are a beginner who doesn’t know how Shopify works, this guide will teach you how Shopify works.