3 Reasons to Use WooCommerce Instead of Shopify

Picking an eCommerce platform to sell online is a key moment for every business. There are plenty of pre-built solutions on the internet, some of which offer features that let you get online and start selling immediately. Chances are, if you're shopping for an ecommerce solution, you've heard of the larger ones like WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce. But not all these platforms are great at protecting your business. And even worse, some will try to profit off your hard work beyond the money you’re spending for their solution. For example, some will actually steal information you worked hard to get, like customer data, and use it for their own goals.  If you aren’t careful, you could end up stuck with an eCommerce solution that doesn’t serve you anymore.  How can you protect yourself from this?

Issues with Most SaaS eCommerce Solutions

Picking a pre-built solution sounds great. You gain access to a powerful platform that can get you online and ready to sell quickly.  But there is a huge downside in going with someone else’s solution. You don’t really own your shop and the data it processes. The solution’s provider can pull the plug and close down your store any time they want. All of your hard work could essentially vanish at the click of a button and there would be very little you could do about it.  If that ever did happen, here are the main issues you’d be facing.

1. You Don’t Own Your Customer List

This is easily the biggest issue with some of the eCommerce solutions out there. You input your customer data for payment processing and future promotions, but then the platform doesn’t let you export it.  Then, all that data is stuck inside the platform, and should you decide to switch to a different one, you’d have to import the data manually. And manually inputting data for thousands of customers is not only horribly time-consuming, but painstakingly boring. Avoid eCommerce platforms that do this at all costs, unless you are convinced that you’ll stick with them for a very long time.

2. Switching Services is Expensive

When a solution needs to be implemented, you have to adapt your workflows to it, set up automations, and train your staff to use it.  All of this takes time, knowledge, and money—resources that will be gone in the snap of a finger when you switch services. The new platform will require you to re-adapt your workflow, automations, and to retrain your staff. The absolute worst is when staff have to rebuild integrations with third-party payment services. This is where things can vary a lot between platforms, and that can turn into a total disaster.

3. Third-Party Solutions Are More Expensive than WooCommerce in the Long Run

Unless you run a barebones e-store (which you shouldn’t), the platform’s cost and eventual plug-ins and customizations will take a toll on your finances. You’ll still need developers, even with pre-built solutions. And developers are quite expensive. Plus, you’ll need people with a specific expertise if you pick one of the pre-built eCommerce solutions out there. Put simply, this gets pricey fast. With a custom-built solution, you’ll pay a little more upfront for peace of mind later—totally worth it. 

WooCommerce: The Customizable Solution

You don’t need a fully custom-built solution unless you have a huge eCommerce store. WooCommerce is a great solution that provides customization without needing everything to be built from the ground up. Plus, it prevents all of the problems we mentioned above. The beauty of WooCommerce is that everything in your store is effectively yours. You have complete control, and nobody can take that away from you. Plus, customizing it is simply a matter of finding a developer fluent in PHP and JavaScript, two extremely popular programming languages. Thanks to the platform’s popularity, you can find a plethora of custom themes for reasonable prices. Even if you hire a designer to polish up the design a bit, it’ll still be cheaper than dealing with Shopify or other SaaS eCommerce companies in the long run. The last benefit of running WooCommerce that we want to mention is that you can host it wherever you please. Other solutions lock you into their own hosting platform. Managed self-hosting is way cheaper than other solutions, yet maintains strong performance and security.  You’ll be able to focus on growing your eCommerce store without worrying about losing sales to dishonest practices. Want to build an eCommerce store that will actually be yours? Contact us, and we will work together to make it happen.