Ecommerce Wix Vs. Shopify: what is the better choice? The one I choose is Shopify, and I will explain why. While both are useful to eCommerce operators, Shopify outshines Wix in many ways.
Today, I will dive deep into these two eCommerce platforms. In the end, you will understand why Shopify is a better option than Wix.
1. Ease of Use
Shopify is easy to use. The entire process of building a website is simple. Editing your theme is also a breeze. I can say that adding products to the store is also intuitive.
Wix is similar. They designed the site creator to not need any coding knowledge. I also like that Wix has many tutorials for beginners.
The difference between these two is that Shopify was built for online stores. It was made that way from the ground up. Wix, however, started as a simple blog builder. The eCommerce features of Wix were just added later on.
Both site builders positioned the control panel to the left. However, I like the Wix control panel better because of its simplicity.
With Wix, you only see a few links on the control panel. It is like a menu where, after clicking on an option, the original menu disappears, and then the only options are the ones you need for that specific area.
Shopify is not like this, as you can see so many settings and options to the left, and it can be confusing. As a result, Shopify recently changed how you can build a store. Today, there are step-by-step instructions in the control panel that you can follow.
WINNER: The winner for ease of use is Wix. It is probably because they started small as a site builder, and they used this experience to simplify things for the users when they finally launched the eCommerce platform.
2. Payment Options
Payment options refer to the ways a customer can pay you. For example, with Wix, customers can pay you with PayPal, Stripe, and manual payments. Manual payments happen when you charge someone in person and enter that information manually in your store.
You can also charge consumers via their credit cards. In addition to all these, Wix has what it calls Wix Payments. It is a system that allows you to charge customers’ cards without fees.
Shopify has similar options. It has Shopify Payments, but it is not available worldwide. The main difference between Shopify and Wix is that Shopify offers more options.
In Shopify, you have hundreds of choices. You can charge your customers in many ways. Below are some examples:
- IATS Payments
- Skrill
- Oceanpayment
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Paysafe
As you can see, Shopify has more flexibility regarding payment options. The thing you need to consider now is the transaction fees. Since all of these are third-party payment systems, you will pay different rates for transaction fees.
Is this even important? Yes, it is. Some customers only want to pay with Apple Pay. They do not wish to provide their credit card information. If these same consumers see that you accept Apple Pay, they are more likely to buy.
WINNER: Shopify is the clear winner for this round. The more payment options you offer, the more customers you can reach.
3. POS Capabilities
POS refers to point-of-sale. In a restaurant, it is the cash register that records the transactions. A POS is a must for any physical store.
Some sellers do not just sell online. They also have physical stores. However, they want to reconcile sales data from their brick-and-mortar store with their online sales. The problem is: how?
Both Wix and Shopify offer a POS solution. The most basic version is an app. It is an app or hardware where you “swipe” a customer’s credit card in person to charge it.
It means that you can charge someone’s credit card with the app using only your phone in person. That customer does not have to visit your online store.
The other option with Shopify is to buy the card reader—a physical device you can take anywhere. You can use it anywhere in the world for as long as the credit card is something that Shopify accepts. The POS is free, but you need to upgrade to get the best features.
Wix has something similar, with some added features like delivery and pickup. However, the Wix POS only works in the US. In addition, you can only use it for specific business types. Another downside is that Wix requires you to buy the hardware sold at $550.
WINNER: Shopify is the winner for this one. You can use the POS at no added cost. If your store grows in the physical world, you can upgrade anytime.
4. Sales Channels
Sometimes, it is not enough to sell on your website. You need to capitalize on the audiences of big marketplaces like Amazon or Facebook. These are called sales channels.
Shopify has an excellent sales channel integration process. For example, let us say that you have built your Shopify store and want to sell on Amazon.
What you must do is create an Amazon seller account. Then, you integrate your Amazon store with your Shopify store.
From here, all the products you upload on Shopify will appear in your Amazon store. If you delete a product from Shopify, your Amazon will automatically update. Wix also offers this level of integration with sales channels. However, Shopify outnumbers Wix.
Here are the sales channels for Shopify:
- Messenger
- Amazon
- eBay
Wix only has Facebook, Instagram, and eBay. However, you can only integrate your Wix store with eBay on the Business Unlimited plan.
Does this feature matter at all? Yes, it does. If you have a Shopify store, you need to market it. You need to spend money on ads. But if you can integrate that store in different sales channels, you are reaching out to many customers on various platforms.
WINNER: Shopify wins this round as more marketplaces are available for integration. What happens here is that you can use Shopify as your control panel, and then your products become available in these various marketplaces.
5. Checkout Options
This feature refers to the processes involved when customers are checking out. For example, do you require your customers to make an account before ordering?
Checkout options allow you to change the level of information you need from the buyer. For example, you do not need to know the buyer’s address if you sell a digital product. However, here is the problem: some store builders have default checkout options—you cannot alter them.
With Shopify, you can choose how you want this to work. You can make some fields mandatory or optional. Wix has the same, plus you can also create a members’ area. Those who have already signed up before no longer have to enter the same information every time they buy.
Both eCommerce platforms also have an auto-fill feature. So when the same customer checks out, the system will remember them and fill out the checkout fields.
With Shopify and Wix, customers who opt to create an account will access a dashboard. The customer can see his purchase history and order status from this dashboard.
WINNER: Both platforms offer robust checkout options. However, Wix allows customers to create a wish list from your store. Once they log in, they can see this wish list. If they update the price and see that it is on sale, they will likely buy. Wix wins this one because of the wish list.
6. Shipping Features
Shipping is a fundamental feature of any eCommerce platform. You can set a flat rate, weight-based rate, and other rules with shipping features. For both Shopify and Wix, you can set up regions and create specific pricing for them.
For both of these platforms, you get:
- Free shipping
- Flat rate and weight-based rate
- Shipping rules
Free shipping does not mean they will ship the item for you. It only means you can offer to ship for free to your customers.
One difference is the printing of the labels. With Shopify, you can print labels even if you do not partner with a shipping courier. With Wix, you can do this with USPS integration or with apps like Shippo and ShipStation.
Shopify also offers discounted shipping. Depending on your account type, you will get a discount from Shopify’s partners. For example, you can get up to a 64.5% discount on USPS if you are on the Basic Plan. In the Advanced Shopify plan, the shipping discount is 88.5%.
Wix does not have this shipping discount. However, Shopify offers many carriers like DHL, UPS, Canada Post, and others.
WINNER: Shopify wins this one because of the discounts you get. Just imagine: if the shipping cost is $20, you only pay a fraction of that if you are in the Advanced Plan.
7. Tax Settings
In the US and other countries, tax is mandatory to report. If you are in the retail business, your tax is one of your problems. As you sell more, it becomes a tad complicated.
Shopify has a solution for this. You can remove or include tax in your prices. If you include it, the Shopify system will add a tax on top of your product price, which the customer will pay.
Shopify also has a tax system for different countries. While this may not always be accurate, it still saves you the trouble of doing manual work.
Wix has a similar feature. You can choose to enable or disable taxes. You also have a choice to charge taxes per region. However, the tax calculation is not automatic. You need to install an app to make it work.
With the app, you can set tax rules for different products. Such is the case for European sellers where the tax for food is lower than other physical goods. Also, the app is only available in the Business Unlimited plan.
WINNER: Shopify is the winner. It has more tax features than Wix, which you can use even at the basic plan. Wix requires an app, and you must upgrade to a higher plan to use these features.
8. Multi-lingual Languages
A feature like this converts the website into another language. As such, you no longer have to hire coding experts and translators.
Shopify supports 20 languages. You must use an app to translate the page content from English to another language. However, the translation is not automatic.
In this feature, you can set your site to choose what language it wants your site to display. However, this will not work if your theme is not compatible. For one, the free themes cannot accommodate this feature. You must buy a premium theme.
If it is compatible, you will also get an additional URL. For example, your site will have a .DE extension if someone from Germany accesses the site. It will look native to the user.
Wix also has multi-lingual feature support, but it is clunky. It is not SEO-friendly, to say the least. Your site URL will still be what it was.
Is this important?
It depends. If you are a US seller and only want to sell in the US, this feature does not matter. However, you may want to expand your territories. If you do, it is always best to use the native language of the targeted user. It makes the website more familiar and trustworthy.
WINNER: Shopify wins this, but I need to stress that it only supports 20 languages, regardless of your plan. The app also has a price, which is $20 per month.
9. Search Engine Optimization
You want people to find your products. So, when you operate an online store, the last thing you want is to drain money on ads.
Both Shopify and Wix have search engine optimization features. You can create meta titles, meta descriptions and also modify your headings in your product descriptions.
In addition to keyword usage, you can also redirect some of your pages. If you want, you can add a Facebook pixel, which will help you in your marketing campaigns. You can also change the URL, but I advise you to be careful before doing this.
The problem is that both platforms do not give you 100% control over your URLs. For example, there are some pages where they would add sub-folders like “/collections/.” You may not like it, but that is how it works. Not that it matters a lot, but those who have high SEO expectations may find this disappointing.
Of course, you can integrate both with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. I” recommend that you do both. If you do, I guarantee you that you will get better analytics about your traffic than what either Wix or Shopify could offer.
WINNER: The winner for this round is nobody. My decision is a draw. Since they both have the same SEO features, no platform outshines the other.
10. Customer Support
Granted, both platforms are easy to use. However, there will come a time when you need guidance, and this is where excellent customer support comes in.
Both platforms have tutorials and videos on how to build a store. In addition, they have knowledgebases where you can find solutions to your problems. There are also communities where you can ask for help from other users.
Both Shopify and Wix have helpful customer support representatives, and they both offer chat, voice support, and email.
I also like the fact that they not only have a knowledge base about how to use the system, but they also have tons of tutorials on how to market your products. In addition, they have videos that help you succeed.
WINNER: This round is a draw. Both have excellent customer service representatives, a huge community of users, several contact channels, and a knowledge base.
11. Third-Party Applications
Both platforms have an app marketplace. For Shopify, there are over 6,000 apps that you can choose from. They also have many of them.
Shopify has become synonymous with WordPress in all these years, albeit for online stores. Many of these apps are free, and there are those where you need to pay a monthly fee.
The big difference is that in Shopify, the apps are all focused on eCommerce. They help you improve your conversion rate, analyze your data, ship your items, etc.
In Wix, there are so many apps here that aim to improve how your website looks. It is like that because Wix focused on website-building only, particularly for blogs but not eCommerce.
To give you a snapshot, here are the categories of apps on Shopify:
- Sourcing and selling
- Store design
- Merchandising
- Shipping
- Marketing
- Conversion
- Fulfillment
- Customer Service
- Store management
Are apps that important? Yes, they are. No website builder or platform can give you everything that you need. In addition to this, technology improves, and the only way you can use new web capabilities is through apps.
On the surface, apps can make your store look different. All eCommerce operators receive the same kind of store. If you used the same theme with another seller, you have a cookie-cutter store. With apps, you can make changes.
In addition to this, you can also integrate apps for backend use. Some apps help you manage your finances. For example, you can use apps that make it easier to standardize your product prices.
If you want a store that works, apps are the things that will help you achieve your goals. The basic site you can make with both platforms are too rudimentary.
WINNER: Shopify wins this round. There are more apps on Shopify than in Wix. As such, you have more flexibility in scaling your business.
12. Pricing
Shopify pricing ranges from $29 to $299. You can start as an eCommerce operator at $29, the Basic Shopify plan. Pretty much everything you need to run a website is already baked into the system.
However, this plan does not include reports. While a dashboard comes with it, these reports are really very basic. You also do not get shipping discounts from Shopify’s partners like DHL and USPS.
The incredible thing is that even at the lowest plan, there are no limits to the number of sales you can make or the number of products you can upload. The rest of the features you get for higher tiers are just bells and whistles.
On the other hand, Wix offers a lower price for its lowest eCommerce plan, Business Basic. It costs only $17 per month.
At this rate, you only get 20GB of storage space—something that you will have problems with later on if you use high-quality images for your products.
The basic plan also does not allow you to charge in multiple currencies. Also, you cannot sell on other sales channels, which you can do with Shopify at its basic plan. You must upgrade to the next tier to integrate your store with other marketplaces like eBay.
WINNER: The winner here is Shopify. Although you pay $12 more per month, you get value for that money. With Wix, you cannot even do dropshipping unless you upgrade to a higher plan.
Summary: Ecommerce Wix Vs. Shopify
Of all the features that we discussed, you saw how Shopify outranks Wix in so many ways. Sure, Wix scored a few points here and there, and then there are areas where the score is a draw.
Shopify is my preferred eCommerce platform. I like it because it was made for the seller. Wix started out as a blogging platform and only added eCommerce when the industry boomed.
Between the two, you get more value for your money. Wix is offered at a lower price, but you have limitations, and it does not offer a lot of services as much as Shopify does.
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