Launching an e-commerce business no longer demands big warehouses or your own product line. With modern “sell-other-people’s-products” models—dropshipping, affiliate reselling, print-on-demand, and wholesale consignment—you can open a store with near-zero inventory risk and scale as revenue grows. Follow the steps below to move from idea to first sale.

1. Pick the Right Business Model

Choose based on desired control, margin, and startup capital. Dropshipping or POD lets you skip inventory altogether, while wholesale delivers larger margins but requires storage.

2. Validate a Profitable Niche

1. Brainstorm passions + problems. Low competition and clear audience pain points win.
2. Use data tools. Google Trends, Ahrefs/SEMrush, Amazon Best Sellers, and Reddit forums reveal demand gaps.
3. Score feasibility. Check supplier availability, shipping costs, seasonality, and potential average order value (AOV).

Aim for a niche where you can become the expert—not just another general store.

3. Source and Vet Suppliers

• Directories & apps: AliExpress, Spocket, SaleHoo, Printful, Printify, Faire, local craft fairs.
• Check:
  • Reliability: ≥ 4.7 / 5 rating, at least 200 orders.
  • Shipping times: ePacket or local warehouses for < 10-day delivery.
  • Communication: 24-hour response, fluent English/Spanish.
  • Compliance: Authentic products, no trademark infringement.

Order sample units; judge packaging quality and delivery speed yourself before listing items.

4. Build Your Storefront

Essential setup checklist

• Custom domain & logo
• Mobile-optimized theme
• High-resolution product photos (1200 px+)
• Persuasive copy: benefits first, specs second
• Policies: shipping, returns, privacy, terms of service
• Apps/plugins: reviews, upsells, abandoned-cart emails

5. Craft a Profitable Pricing Strategy

1. Cost breakdown: goods + shipping + platform fees + ads + taxes = baseline.
2. Add target net margin. Many dropship stores shoot for 20 – 30 %.
3. Psychological pricing. $29.95 converts better than $30.
4. MAP policies. Check brand rules to avoid undercutting.

6. Automate Fulfilment & Logistics

• Dropshipping/POD: Integrate supplier app; orders sync automatically.
• Wholesale: Use 3PLs (ShipBob, ShipMonk) or local courier pickups.
• Returns: Pre-define RMA flow; publish a clear 30-day window.
• Tracking: Send automated emails/SMS with carrier links.

7. Enable Payments & Tax Compliance

• Gateways: Stripe + PayPal for global reach; add local options (Mercado Pago, iDEAL).
• Fraud tools: 3-D Secure, AVS, CVV checks.
• Sales tax/VAT: Use Shopify Tax or TaxJar; register nexus once thresholds hit.

8. Optimize Product Pages for Conversions & SEO

• SEO: keyword in title, 155-char meta description, alt-text on images.
• Persuasive elements: lifestyle photos, GIFs, comparison charts, FAQs, urgency (“Only 3 left!”).
• Social proof: Loox, Judge.me, Stamped reviews.
• Technical: < 2 s page load; Core Web Vitals green.

9. Generate and Diversify Traffic

1. Content marketing: Blog posts, buying guides, YouTube demos.
2. Paid ads: Test Facebook/Instagram, Google Shopping, TikTok.
3. Influencer collaborations: Micro-influencers (10-50 k followers) often yield the best ROI.
4. Email & SMS: Capture emails with a 10 % coupon; automate welcome and cart-abandon flows.
5. Affiliate program: Reward bloggers with 5-10 % per sale via Refersion or GoAffPro.

10. Excel at Customer Service & Retention

• 24/7 chat widget or AI chatbot for basic FAQs.
• Proactive shipping updates; “delight” emails with how-to tips.
• Loyalty tiers (points per dollar) encourage repeat purchases.
• Solicit reviews 7 days post-delivery; offer small incentives.

11. Track KPIs and Iterate

Use Google Analytics 4, platform dashboards, and heat-mapping tools (Hotjar) to spot friction points. Run A/B tests on headlines, images, and checkout steps monthly.

12. Stay Legal & Ethical

• Display full contact info and clear terms—required in most jurisdictions.
• Avoid counterfeit or trademarked products; penalties are severe.
• Respect GDPR/CCPA: cookie banners, data-deletion requests.
• Obtain resale certificates where applicable to buy tax-free.

Final Thoughts

Starting an online store that sells other people’s products is the fastest on-ramp to e-commerce: you focus on marketing while suppliers handle production and, often, shipping. Begin lean—pick a tight niche, list 10-20 well-researched SKUs, and drive traffic through one primary channel until profitable. Then reinvest profits into better creatives, faster suppliers, and expanded product lines.

Execute each step above with discipline, and you’ll move from idea to first profitable sale faster than you thought possible—without ever touching inventory.

Wondering how does Flippa work? Well, it works like Amazon. But one thing that makes the two really different is the type of products they trade. 

On Flippa, you can trade many platforms like Amazon, weird right? 

To explore this weirdness further, go through this article and I’ll tell you how does Flippa works. 

Make An Account on Flippa

Step 1: Go to Flippa’s official website.

Step 2: Click on Sign Up. 

Step 3: Soon you’ll see the “create your account” page where you need to put basic details like name and email.  

You can also choose to get started with your Google account. 

Step 4: Add a few more personal details, fill in the required details, and click on “create my account.” 

How to Create a Listing on Flippa – The Right Way

Step 1: Visit Flippa. 

Step 2: Click on Sell Now

Step 3: Enter the URL of your website or mobile application 

On the next page, describe what you are selling. Is it an eCommerce platform, SaaS, service, domain, or anything else? 

Provide a few more details like these: 

Next, choose the source of income for the online resource you intend to sell. 

Step 4: Choose services that are integrated into your online resource. Once you’re done selecting, click on continue.

You can go ahead and click on all the integrations you have for your website, put the relevant information, and set up your site for listing.

Step 5: Add images or videos of your website to give it a better look.

Some of the other elements you will be asked to add while listing your website for sale are:

1. Summary: A short description of your business
2. Social media: All social media accounts linked to your website
3. Financials: Include revenue and expenses of the website
4. Primary expenses: Mention the operating cost 
5. Traffic: Mention how many visitors do you get monthly 

How to Set the Right Prices for Your Website Listing on Flippa

There are two ways you can sell your online resource on Flippa:

Auction 

Bidding on Flippa is a popular way to sell your website. You can set a starting price for your online resource and then accept from interested bidders. 

You can also set the duration of the auction. The longer the duration, the more interest you can generate. 

But make sure to include the reserve price (the lowest price at which you are willing to sell). Otherwise, it can be a big turn-off for buyers. 

Asking Price

Here, you can set a price at which you are willing to sell your online resource. 

After that, you can negotiate with the interested parties for the final price. 

Upgrade Your Listing to Reach Out to More Buyers

Standard Listing  – $15

This option is for the standard listing and the performance depends on how well you optimize your listing. 

Premium Listing – $65

This option can increase the ranking of your listing in exchange for a premium. 

Opt for Premium Services on Flippa 

Non-disclosure & Confidentiality – $99 

Getting Non-Disclosure & Confidentiality protects your resources from prying eyes. Each interested party has to accept an NDA before accessing the details of your listing. 

Listing Review and Optimization – $99

This enables you to leverage the expertise of the Flippa team to improve the listing. 

In this one, you can get recommendations to improve listing details, positioning, pricing, and much more.

Flippa Website Calculator – Know the Worth of Your Site

Evaluating your online resource is crucial for determining its worth. If you don’t do so, you might sell at a much lower price than its actual worth. 

Or, you might set the price too high, which will make buyers lose interest in your online business. 

To evaluate your site cost for free, go through this procedure: 

• Just go to Flippa
• Click on Get a Valuation
• Chat with the bot to get an estimated price 

Buying A Website On Flippa

Before you buy any website, please go through these things. Else, you might just end up paying for an asset that won’t return much. 

Business Age & Valuation

Look for businesses that are at least 2 years old. Next, make sure you analyze the financials (last 12 months) of the business you’re interested in. 

Also, assume that some expenses are excluded to boost the earnings. 

Use Filters for Relevant Search Results 

Once you have clicked on the type of business you are interested in, use the various filters available to get relevant listings. 

It will further narrow down your search and help you find the right listings. 

For example, you can specify your budget, business age, monthly users, monthly views, monthly profit, and much more. 

Analyze the Technology Risks 

Having an understanding of the business you want to invest in will always be an advantage. 

So invest in a business that you have experience in or if you are certain you can understand it easily. 

More importantly, never forget to have a proper evaluation of the business you’re going to buy. 

Ask for Insights 

Once you find the business you are interested in, which lies in just the right price range, get in touch with the seller and ask for a few insights.

More importantly, ask them to add you to their Google Analytics page so that you can verify the traffic sources.

Use Escrow

While buying a website through the Flippa auction or by scanning through the listings, put Escrow services to good use. 

Generally, it takes 7 days to transfer funds. 

When you sign in to Escrow all your account details will be verified within a day.

To ensure safe payment make sure you verify all the information mentioned on Escrow.

If you’re looking for the next great thing to boost your revenue and traffic, look no further as leveraging Google Merchant Center Shopify is the way to go. 

This may look like a grand statement to you, so let’s take a look at what Google Merchant Center is and why you should use it.

Basically, GMC lets you manage the way your products look whenever they appear on someone’s Google search. This means that it’s massively helpful when you want to get your product in the best light possible in front of potential customers.

So, let’s buckle up because I’m gonna show you the easiest way to integrate the Google Merchant Center with your Shopify store.

3 Steps to Set Up Google Merchant Center Shopify

Okay, so it’s pretty easy to integrate your Shopify store with the Google Merchant Center. There are just a few simple steps that you have to follow. 

1. You must have a Google Ads account. In case you don’t have any, the first step would be to create it. 

2. After you get the first step right, go to the Merchant Center’s home page and click on “Get started.”

3. Fill out the required business information such as where your company is based, its name, and the URL for your website.

4. From there, you have to agree to the terms of service.

5. Verify your website’s URL on the Merchant Center (it basically checks if anyone else is using it currently) 

6. That’s it, the phase 1 – creating an account is completed. Let’s move to the next phase.

7. The first thing you should do after having an account, is going to the “Settings” tab on the Merchant Center.

8. Select tax and shipping from the drop-down menu. Define the tax rate for the places you want to ship to and the shipping services you will be using for your products.

9. When you’re done with integrating GMC and your Shopify store, you have to add your google data feed to the Merchant Center. For that you must create a product feed, containing all the relevant information about your items. It includes things like a proper image for the product, tax and shipping rates, price, etc.

10. Once you’re done with creating the file, you should upload it to Google for processing, and then it’s ready to be shown to relevant future customers.

There are two ways you can go about uploading your product feed. One is manual and the other is through a specific application that can be found on the Shopify app store.

Once you set up the Google Merchant Center, you can create your first shopping campaign for your Shopify store. 

Steps for Uploading Your Product Feed to The Google Merchant Center

Now that you know how to do the initial setup, let’s look at the two ways you can integrate GMC with your Shopify store.

How to Upload Your Product Feed Manually?

1. Go to your Google Merchant Center and under Products, select Feeds. Click on the + option to add a product feed.

2. From there you must input Country of sale and Language, then click on Continue.

3. Name your feed and choose an input method.

4. After that, select Generate a new Google Spreadsheet from a template.

5. Again from Feeds, select the newly created product feed.

6. There will be a Google Sheet that you have to fill out.

7. In order to get your product data, go to your Shopify store.

8. Select the Products, click on Export, and download the .csv file. 

9. Return to the Merchant Center again to Feeds and select your newly created feed.

10. Click on Fetch now to upload your product feed.

11. Let it upload and it’s all done!

How to Upload Your Product Feed with the Google Shopping App?

1. Go to the Shopify store app and search for the ‘Google Shopping’ add-in.

2. Select it and continue with the installation process.

3. Afterwards, you have to connect your Google account with the application.

4. Integrate your Google Merchant account with this Shopify app.

5. For that, you must provide your store’s currency, target country, and language.

6. You must also choose whether you want to “Automatically import my shopping settings” or if you want to upload them manually.

7. Move on to the final part when your products are uploading. To get it done, wait for 3-5 days for Google to approve each item. 

8. In case any of your product doeesn’t qualify, you can see it in the Not approved tab. There will also be a list of the reasons that would tell you why it’s not qualifying so that you can fix it. 

9. Once you’re finished with all of this, integration is done!

By the way, I would recommend you going with the application as it’s faster and more user-friendly. However, the only problem with it is that it can sometimes glitch.

The manual way takes longer to do but will definitely be 100% reliable (only when you do it correctly). 

The Bottom Line 

If you’re a business owner, you have to sign up for a Google Merchant Center account. Integrating it with your Shopify store will be another great addition to your overall marketing strategy.

Since Google is the most used search engine, many of your future customers are likely on it, which makes it a great place to market your product. 

Stats show that businesses who use it see a 33% growth in revenue and a 79% boost in visibility.

So, take a smart decision as a business owner and take the half-hour needed to set up GMC for your store. I bet that payoff will be worth it.

You might be wondering what horses have to do with Ecwid vs Shopify, no?  Let me tell you that they indeed do. 

Where Shopify is an old established and one of the best (Stallion) platforms in eCommerce, Ecwid is upcoming (Trojan horse) in this competitive market. 

In this article, I am gonna discuss with you the features and benefits of two platforms for creating an online store. I’m going to take a look at the most popular and acclaimed platform – Shopify and the underdog – Ecwid. 

So, let’s get to know what platform for us and who finally wins the race – Stallion or the Trojan horse!

Ecwid vs Shopify – Which is More Powerful

Shopify Overview

Shopify is a platform you can use to create your online store. It’s the most well-known platform for starting a dropshipping business or expanding your physical store online. 

Let’s now take a look at some of the Shopify’s best features:

• Ability to create a truly customizable website, online store, and blog.
• Opportunity to sell on multiple platforms like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and much more.
• Great customer service 24/7
• A dedicated plan for larger corporations
• Unlimited bandwidth and online storage
• Multiple subscription plans for any type of business

Ecwid Overview

Ecwid is another software-as-a-service platform that allows users to create online stores without any knowledge of coding. Along with allowing businesses to start an eCommerce store, Ecwid is also available as a plug-in that you can use to make your already existing website into an online store. 

Let’s take a look at the other features the platform offers:

• A free plan that allows anyone to create a website on the platform
• Multiple other plans depending on the size of your business
• Ability to import and export products 
• Dropshipping integration 
• Multi-currency selling 
• A ton of shipping options to choose from
• Enhanced SEO options 

Ecwid vs Shopify Comparison

Benefits of Shopify 

Let’s explore in-depth the different benefits that you can find by using Shopify.

Quick And Easy Set-Up

If you’re not particularly tech-savvy, but you still wanna create an online store for your company, then Shopify makes that pretty easy for you. 

Shopify’s user interface is simple and can be learned quickly. Besides, it’s also very intuitive and requires zero coding skills, so you don’t need to be a developer to design a professional website! 

Outstanding Customer Service

Even if you get stuck while creating your website, you can always rely on Shopify’s customer service representatives to help you out as they’re available 24/7 via phone, chat, or e-mail. 

On the Shopify Plus platform, you get a dedicated engineer that’s assigned to help you create your online store specifically. 

Integrated Marketing & SEO Tools

Shopify gives you access to numerous marketing tools. It allows you to integrate it with social media channels, email marketing, and other tools.

Shopify’s Major Plus Point: It offers great SEO optimization for eCommerce, which can boost your store to the top rankings in the Google search engine.

Security and Reliability

As the industry-leading SAAS (software-as-a-service) for online store creation, Shopify offers great security to its customers – including SSL certification and PCI that encrypt all data.

Shopify verifies the stability and security of integrated payment services.

Flexibility in Usage

Shopify offers many built-in tools that enable you to showcase products, integrate coupon systems and gift cards, and much more. In the app market, you can also find applications that help you customize shipping and payment options.

Benefits of Ecwid

Affordable Solution

For people that are new to eCommerce or are not sure whether they need an online store, Ecwid is perfect as it offers a free plan. With it, you can test out the platform and the features it offers. And by the way, you can even see the way your business performs on the web and pick a plan you can resonate with. 

Can Be Used On An Existing Site

If you already own a website that you want to turn it into an online store, Ecwid can help you with that. It works as a plug-in that you can implement on many platforms, such as Wix and WordPress. Other than this, it can enable you to turn your existing website into an online store in seconds. 

Point of Sale Option 

If you have a physical store to go with your online one, that’s great. Ecwid offers you a point of sale (PoS) system. It allows you to use Ecwid’s card reader, which is already integrated with other PoS brands such as Square and others. 

ECWID offers you the opportunity to use your mobile device as a PoS one.

Multiple Shipping Options

With Ecwid, it doesn’t matter if you’re a business that owns and ships its product or you use dropshipping; the platform allows you to integrate both business plans and customize your shipping methods.

Digital Files Sale

Not all companies ship and sell real tangible products. A lot of companies offer software, specific data, and files to their customers. Ecwid is a perfect option for this type of business model because you can store and sell files up-to 10 GB in size. 

Additionally, the size can be increased if that is needed for your store. The platform offers an increase in bandwidth and can create a solution design for your company. 

Shopify Advantages Over Ecwid

In Ecwid vs Shopify, many similarities can be found between the two platforms, so it’s crucial that you can see the specific benefits that each of them offers. However, we will start with Shopify first.

Customization & Flexibility 

Shopify offers a ton of design opportunities. It has over 60 themes, which you can choose to build an online store that stands out from the competition. The available designs are tailored to suit different types of stores – from furniture retailers to ones that offer clothes and accessories.

With Ecwid, your site can look great from scratch but you have very limited customization opportunities. And if you want to do more, you either have to do coding or use third-party apps such as the Designer or the Decorator one so that you can have the option to change your eCommerce store design.

At the same time, with Shopify, you get control over the whole storefront design. You can quickly switch themes and adjust the webpage view for mobile phones and tablets. 

In addition, Shopify also provides the option to edit the images you upload directly to the platform and then proactively adjust the website’s color scheme at any time.

The amount of control you get over the design is a major winning point for Shopify in the Ecwid vs Shopify comparison. 

Better eCommerce Tools and Features

Shopify is the world’s leading SAAS program for creating an online store and that’s not by accident. It offers its users everything you may need to create the perfect store for your company.

Shopify does all of the basics quite well but it builds on them, offers you powerful and in-depth tools for further customization. Some of those tools include tracking inventory (so that you never sell products you don’t have), support of multichannel selling, multiple shipping options, unlimited bandwidth, dropshipping integration, and much more. 

Ecwid also offers a lot of the same features. However, they’re less scalable. More importantly, it works great for smaller businesses as they don’t need a ton of preferential support and customization. And guess what? Even the most premium plan offers the kind of functionalities that come with the most basic Shopify plan. 

Overall, Shopify gives you more opportunities to scale your business, better customization for your website, and a bunch of integrations. 

Better customer support 

Another bonus point for the big dog in this battle of Ecwid vs Shopify is the great customer service that they offer. 

With Shopify, you get support over chat, e-mail, and phone all year round 24 X 7. 

Along with that, if you’re a larger business on the Shopify Plus platform, then you even get a dedicated engineer to help you with setting up your store. Additionally, you get access to a help center that provides you with relevant articles and help guides if you ever need a step-by-step solution to an issue you are dealing with.

Ecwid also has fast and responsive customer service. However, the free plan offers only e-mail help and access to an “Ecwid 101” guide.  Furthermore, even the most premium plan doesn’t provide you with any special care like Shopify.

Ecwid Advantages Over Shopify

Faster Build Time

With Ecwid, creating an online store can be done in seconds as it enables you to turn your already existing website into a store. And even if you have to create an online shop from scratch, it’s still a simple and quick process.

It’s not like Shopify is slow and tough to do by any means, but it is more complex because of the variety of designs and customizations that the platform offers. 

Ecwid is great for newcomers into the eCommerce sector. It’s a great gateway into the business for any up-and-coming entrepreneurs who want to try running an online store and want to get started quickly.

Easier to Use

Another bonus point for the underdog in the debate Ecwid vs Shopify is the ease of use that the newer platform offers. Just because it can be used only as a plug-in and due to its limited functionalities in comparison to Shopify, Ecwid is much simpler to learn and use. You don’t need to have any coding skills or even know what website hosting is. 

The software is made so that everyone gets to start an online store, even if they have zero technical experience. 

Shopify is also easy to use. However, due to the more developed nature of the platform and its variety of features, Shopify is sometimes a bit overwhelming for beginners in the eCommerce marketplace. 

That’s why Ecwid comes into picture. 

Ecwid vs Shopify Pricing Comparison

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify offers 3 separate plans that come with different features and prices. Additionally, it has another newer platform called Shopify Plus, which is aimed at larger corporations and has a customizable price tag.

The good thing is that you can test any of Shopify’s plans for 14 days before deciding to use the platform. Yes, without paying anything! 

Here’s a table of the pricing for each of their subscription plans: 

How Much Does Ecwid Cost?

Ecwid offers 4 plans to choose from. There is a free one that I already mentioned several times, which is a big plus for entrepreneurs that are just starting out. 

Additionally, there are three paid plans that you can choose from, which offer more premium features at different prices. 

Here’s a table of the Ecwid prices:

Although Ecwid is definitely cheaper initially, Shopify provides you with all the features you need right off the bat.

The most basic Shopify plan gives you functionalities that you can only find on Ecwid’s most premium one.

Shopify is the perfect choice for any business that wants to scale and grow. Not only this, it provides you access to tools that can help you when your company expands and gathers more clients. With Shopify, you can always adjust your plan to your corporation’s size, no matter how large it becomes.

On the other hand, Ecwid remains the best choice for young people who don’t have much to invest.

Overall, it’s hard to determine a winner in the price aspect of the Ecwid vs Shopify battle, so let’s just move further and see how you can set-up a site on each of the platforms. 

Setting Up Shopify

Interlinking – blog under process

Setting Up Ecwid 

1. Sign up on Ecwid, clicking on the “Get started for free” button.

2. Enter your full name, e-mail address and password, and click on “Next: Set up your Store”

3. Fill in the details asked and click on the “Next” button.

4. Add your company address and postal code, and again hit the “Next” button. 

5. Give them a couple of answers to let them know more about your business for better results. 

6. Choose whether to create a new website or tie the Ecwid store to an already existing one and click on “Finish & Proceed to Dashboard.”

Once you click on that, you are finished with the setup. 

Ecwid vs Shopify – Which One? 

If I were to pick one amongst these two platforms, I would think twice. Both are quite remarkable platforms that serve different purposes.

Shopify is great for scaling your business.

Ecwid is good enough to start your eCommerce journey. 

But, if I’d go with any 1, it would be Shopify.

Shopify is a complete eCommerce platform with a set of apps that no other platform has. It also has powerful features that enable you to adjust the online store to your business’s growth.

If you’re certain about working online and you want to continue developing in the long run, this is something you should look for. 

The fact that Shopify doesn’t have a free plan is a bit of a turn-off, but the 14-day free trial makes up for it.

So, as someone once said – “Old is Gold.” Such is the case here – Stallion is the winner in this race. 

Although thinking about how to start an eCommerce business seems like a confusing idea, it doesn’t have to be so. 

According to Statista’s analysis, eCommerce Business stores have been on the rise since 2014. Along with a rise in the no. of eCommerce business stores, we also see a huge increase in revenue as well. 

eCommerce is one of the fastest-growing industries and anyone like you can make sustained profits. But, the condition is – you need the right knowledge and training. Today, I’m gonna give both. So, follow me amigos! 

How Much Does It Cost to Start An eCommerce Business?

Okay, open your notebooks or create an Excel sheet. It’s high time to assess the total amount of startup money you need. And yes, don’t forget the calculator! 

eCommerce Website Builders & Online Tools

Depending on your business needs, the costs vary across the spectrum. A basic eCommerce store will be priced around the range of $25 and go all the way up to $299 per month. 

But listen, you don’t need all these heavily priced plans for your new store. Start small but start strategically as this would allow you to scale smartly. 

Here are some approximate monthly costs of popular eCommerce website builder: 

WordPress: $25 to $45

Shopify: $29 to $299

Wix: $17 to $35

Now you may ask me if there’s a free way out. Well, there’s one, but you will need to build your eCommerce website from scratch and then pay for hosting. But, coding and designing a website from scratch takes a huge amount of time and effort. And… As you know, time is money. So you can skip that free way  

Licensing And Permits to Start an eCommerce Business

This depends on your state laws and fees. Some states may have prices as low as $30 and some might have ultra-high fees for licensing and getting permits. 

Although most beginners don’t face a lot of fees, it doesn’t mean you should neglect it from your budget. I would recommend you keeping $100 aside for licensing and permits. 

Never let these fees discourage you as these costs are always an initial investment. 

Domain Name And Hosting

When you build your eCommerce website using the popular eCommerce website builders, you get the domain name and hosting included in the package for your first year. However, in the subsequent years, you have to pay for the hosting and domain registration separately. 

The costs can range anywhere between $25 to $100, depending upon the type of features you require. 

Beginners don’t need to worry about the higher costs on the spectrum because the features with the basic plans are very useful and are priced reasonably.

Payment And Processing

Most eCommerce payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, and others will charge you with a transaction fee. Although I hate it too, still the simple logic here is that they need the fees to run their businesses, so it makes sense. 

With that being said, a general estimate would be around 2-3% of the total transaction. 

Here’s some info from Shopify: 

Marketing And Outreach

If you’re planning to be the all-in-one person (like me), your marketing and outreach will be absolutely free. But, I keep reminding myself that time is money, so you should outsource the graphics and editing. 

If I had to put a number on how much you should ideally invest in marketing and advertising your eCommerce store, it would be 5-8% of your annual revenue. For example, if I make $10,000 sales per year, I should invest around $500 to market and advertise my store.

Your expenditure depends on what you’re financially comfortable with. So, don’t find yourself compelled to invest several grands into your eCommerce business. If you don’t have adequate funds, you can always take the route of Dropshipping and experiment your way through while building funds. 

To learn more about how you can get started with Dropshipping, click here.

Now that we have a general idea about the costs related to starting your eCommerce store, let’s see how can we start an eCommerce store. 

Let’s follow a smart sequence. 

1. Let’s pick an eCommerce business model and do some product research. 

2. Once we end up doing the first step, we will craft a proper business plan, taking care of the permits and all that legal stuff. 

Don’t get overwhelmed by the steps. I’ve made the article as detailed as possible so that you don’t get confused. 

Step 1: Research On Various eCommerce Business Models

When it comes to eCommerce, there is a huge range of business models. However, it should not stop you from trying those. Let’s see the most popular and profitable business models applied in eCommerce: 

Service-based eCommerce 

Services basically involve selling your time or expertise rather than a physical product. And what qualifies for a service? Here’s a quick list: 

1. Professional services like SEO, copywriting, designing logos, accounting, photography, videography, animation, and any hobby. 
2. Art, dance, music, yoga, online workout, and other creative classes
3. Training, consulting, workshops and seminars

There are a lot of businesses that run on this model. For example, we have Coursera, MasterClass, EssayShark, MasterPaper, and much more. (Note that this article is not affiliated with any of these websites. These examples are for illustration purposes only.) 

Digital Product Sales

Whether it’s a music playlist, ebook sales, or anything that’s non-tangible and you want it, can be classified as a digital product. 

What I like the most about these digital products is the quantity multiplication. Yes, you don’t have to invest a lot for product creation. A couple of clicks can make you a million copies in no time. 

Easy isn’t it? Well, think again. Selling these digital products requires extensive effort because people are not looking for the products you’re selling. You have to first make them aware of your product and yourself, only then you can get a sale. 

Physical Products

Physical products form a considerable portion of goods sold through eCommerce websites. You can sell anything from subscription boxes to pretty pendants fairly easily. Besides, if you’re a homemaker and are looking to earn the extra cash to support your family’s finances, you can also set up a cooking or baking business and take orders from customers online in your nearby location. 

Along with this, you can also sell handmade goods, paintings, and custom gift boxes. The possibilities are endless!

Here’s a store that sells bookmarks for a luxurious reading experience. 

Here’s a store that sells goodies and eatables! 

Did you get all the business models? That’s great if you did, let’s just move to the next section. 

Step 2: Research for Winning Niches On eCommerce

Choosing a product that you want to sell isn’t as difficult as it seems. First, lookout for trends and see what’s selling the most. But hey, don’t forget to strike the right balance between passion and profit. 

For example, if I l run an online toy store for kids, I will expect to make sales every day or every week at least. 

However, if I sell exclusive paintings in my store, I can’t expect people to make purchases every day. I can generate decent monthly revenue, selling 2-3 expensive and exotic paintings. This is the key concept that you should keep in mind before choosing your product. 

Let’s see other smart factors that would drive your decision-making. 

Solve People’s Problems

No, I am not asking you to start the next NGO. You can release products or services that solve people’s problems. For example, let’ say I would like to eat healthy food, but my job doesn’t provide me with enough time to make my own lunches. 

So what I can do is purchase a monthly subscription from a service that offers healthy meal boxes. And tada! My problem is solved. 

As long as there are problems or requirements that people need to solve or fulfill, any business can succeed, provided it knows how to solve the problem. 

Find Product Ideas in Reviews

During the pandemic, masks were easily customizable and came in all shapes and sizes, except for one. Can you guess the exception?

The reviews section on Amazon was filled with comments about how these masks are not at all useful for those who maintain long beards. 

This is how a smart seller leveraged the opportunity and provided people right with what they needed. 

The key takeaway is that you should keep an eye on comments and reviews to find products that people need. 

Although the products can be restricted to a particular niche, they would sell a lot because people are looking for something like that. 

Best Sellers

In any niche, best-selling items allow you to see what exactly customers demand. It’s easy to locate the best-selling items on most platforms. For example, Amazon has the ‘Best Sellers Rank’ and allows you to see which product performs best. 

eBay has a similar feature called ‘Trending,’ and in Etsy, it’s called Most wanted or Best Selling Item. 

Test it Before You Mess it

In the business world, the simple way to test a product is by making a prototype. Now, what is a prototype? Basically, it’s a simple water-down version of your original product and idea. 

For example, if you already have an idea but don’t want to invest heavily. You can test whether your idea will succeed by building a small landing page to promote your potential product and run a few ads or do some marketing to drive traffic to it.

This will give you a general idea about how your market will respond to your product. 

Step 3: Set up your eCommerce Business

This has to be the most exciting part of starting an eCommerce business. It brings in a range of decisions to make, like choosing what your store should look like, what should you name it, how should you connect with your audience, and much more. 

Have A Great Brand Name

There are 2 key points that you should consider for setting a name for your business: 

1. The name should reflect what you’re trying to sell. 
2. It should either make sense to the audience or it should be unique and memorable. 

Don’t get overfocused on creating a memorable name. Yes, a few brand names sound like honey to the ears but that shouldn’t stop you from naming your store on something you admire. 

Also, note that your website name is very likely to be your domain name. So, before you finalize a name, check the availability of your domain here.

Add in a name that you like in the form of a website. For example www.realisticbooks.com    

And it’s available! 

You can do the same with the name of your choice. 

Create A Logo 

Your business logo makes people feel connected with your brand. You don’t really need to spend a lot on getting your logo done professionally. Most market prices range from $15 to $50, depending on the level of expertise you require. 

Sometimes, the prices may go higher depending on which agency or graphic designer you hire. 

I personally prefer Looka because I don’t have to go through the hassle of designing the entire logo and can easily mix & match elements to make my logo. 

Looka

You can also check out: 

NameCheap’s Logo Maker

Hatchful by Shopify

Design Your Store

With so many eCommerce website builders, you can pick the one that suits your needs. Here’s a guide to picking which eCommerce website builder will be the best for you, depending upon your business needs. (Link the How to Build eCommerce Websites – Best Methods in 2021 article here) 

Prepare Promotional Content

Before you launch, try to build a social media presence that keeps your followers updated with your business’s purpose. 

You can use picture editors like Canva, Adobe Spark, Pablo, Snappa, and many more. Visuals attract potential customers. In that case, make sure to use them wisely and beautifully. 

Step 4: Apply for An EIN, Business Permit & Licenses

Employer Identification Number (EIN)

When you have completed the above steps, you can register for an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Every online business doesn’t need to have one. The key benefit of an EIN is that it allows you to separate your personal and professional finances. 

You can apply for an EIN for free with the IRS using online, mail, fax, or phone methods. Using the online method, you can easily receive the nine-digit EIN right from the comfort of your home. 

Obtaining Business Permits and License 

Now that you have a business permit, you can easily apply for business permits and licenses. The purpose behind obtaining permits and licenses is that you can operate legally within your state. 

Unless you’re filing a DBA to operate under a specific business name legally, you don’t actually need to register your business with the state to establish your eCommerce business as a sole proprietorship or general partnership. 

However, for the other business entity types, you will need to register with your state and receive a general operating license. 

Generally, most eCommerce businesses are home-based, they don’t require as many business licenses and permits as brick-and-mortar stores. To always be on the safer side, you should determine the specific requirements in your area. It’s pretty easy to find them using your state or local government website. The Internet saves you well from such troubles these days.

Even I had a similar question as yours when it comes to “Why on Earth should I register a business that I run in my own home?”

More than a few governments are corrupt across the globe. Anything might happen, so why give anyone a chance to say something? 

So here’s a small list of business licenses and permits that you may need depending upon your business:

• Trade and professional licenses for certain businesses
• Sales tax permits
• Signage permits
• Health, safety, and environmental permits

Step 5: Preparing to Launch Your eCommerce Business

Yay! Now you’ve done around 75% percent of the work, just a little push is required to launch your business. 

Shipping

Your Shipping Rates

Are you going to make your customers carry the full shipping cost or will you offer free or flat-rate shipping to reduce the cost? How will you get orders to your local and international customers? 

If I were you, I would increase the price and give the free shipping. 

Product Weights

Please measure and update the weight of each product you sell. This saves you from the last-minute hassle of weighing everything. You may not know this but if you don’t pay attention to this, you may end up paying an extra $$. 

Choose Your Preferred Packaging

You can order free packaging from some carriers such as USPS, UPS, or DHL or invest in branded packaging. In short, do what suits your business. 

Note: Communicating shipping speeds (as in “Arrives at your doorstep in 4 days) at checkout to your customers can help provide clarity to your clients and does wonders to increase consumer confidence.

Deal with Returns

You might offer the best, sweetest, and the loveliest product in this big wide world. Somehow, an odd customer will pop up out of nowhere, asking for a return. This isn’t to discredit the most valid reasons like damaged products, wrong shipments, and more! 

So, you should be prepared to deal with returns. 

You can do this by: 

1. Offering exact cost pricing for returns
2. FREE returns
3. Flat-rate returns

We love receiving free returns as customers but things go south when it comes to giving free returns as business owners. Well, did I say that you should offer free returns just because people like so? 

Perhaps no. If you repeatedly offer free returns, some (a few like these always exist) buyers may try to use this incentive for unfair practices and return goods that are perfectly okay.  So, always create policies that are fair to both the buyers aswell as you.

Install An Analytics Tool

Analytics are not just for highly complex operations. You should make data your best friend as that would help you draw up a nice future plan. 

Most eCommerce stores will have their own set of analytics reporting built-in so that you can easily track a lot of key metrics. 

Step 6: Post Launch Process You Should Engage In

You’ve done all the hard work in the world now. Don’t slack off at this crucial moment. Just a little consistency and a little bit of advertising and brand engagement can go a long way. 

Promote Your Store on Social Media Platforms

Let’s dive straight into my top 3 tips that can put your brand out in the spotlight for sales: 

Tip 1: Consider offering a discount code to attract people to check your store out and make purchases.

Tip 2: Put effort into the content that you post on your social media platforms. Don’t spam your social media followers with repetitive and low-quality promotional content. 

Tip 3: Every action you take online has the potential to drive traffic back to your store. Don’t forget to add your store URL to your personal online profiles, such as your Instagram stories, Twitter bio, or Facebook status update. 

Wanna Know How to Start an eCommerce Business? – Have These things in Mind!

1. A high bounce rate (visitors that come to your site and leave without buying) may mean that your page took too long to load, or maybe you had targeted the wrong audience.

2. Visitors don’t usually make purchases when they just don’t trust your store enough to buy or if you have targeted the wrong audience. 

3. Abandoned carts during checkout mean you probably need to reconsider your shipping. 

A Few More Things You Can Do to Enhance Your Sales & Get More Customers: 

1. Write and submit a guest post. Share your expertise about a topic and use the author bio box to describe & link your business.

2. Ask for product reviews using sites like TrustPilot or by adding a plugin in your own eCommerce store. 

3. Give your product to a blogger or influencers for free so that they can give a shoutout in return. 

Winning Tips on How to Start an eCommerce Business Successfully

So, let’s play a simple game. I’ll show you a few pictures related to my top tips, you guess the answer, and then I’ll reveal whether your answer is right. 

After all, why should starting an eCommerce business be boring and scary? We can always make the things we do a little bit more fun by adding our own sparkle! 

Tip 1: Hint – We Can Help You Create Brand Name

Yes, you’re right! It’s social media engagement. 

Millennials and Gen Z-ers spend most of their time tweeting, texting, and tagging. In all this social activity, you can easily slide in promotional content about your store and engage your followers. Also, make sure you increase your activity right before a festival because that is when people buy gifts for their friends and loved ones. 

Tip 2: Hint – I Am the Foundation of Any Online Business

The answer is – Building Trust.

You need to build trust between your brand and your customers to retain your business over time. People usually trust their intuition while buying something, so if your brand can generate trust (in terms of a credible-looking website and a good social presence), your sales will grow well. 

Final Tip: Here is Your Best Business Friend 

Yes! It’s data and analysis. 

Just like in any business, you must back your eCommerce store with facts and data. You need to know your customers, their demographics, what things they are buying from your store, and what things they are not. This will not only enhance your business skills but also make you capable of making decisions when the time calls for it. 

Ready to Start an eCommerce Business?

There’s a lot of planning, insight, and execution for starting your own eCommerce store. 

And that is the fun part about it! As long as you follow these tips, tricks, and insider insights listed, you can definitely set up your perfect eCommerce store. 

Your next big success might be just an eCommerce store away. Your eCommerce store can only become successful if you decide to make it a successful one. So, push your doubts aside, follow the steps and let’s get started!

If you’re trying to open an online store, you must be keen to know the difference between Shopify vs Shopify plus.

The most successful platform for creating eCommerce stores has a plan with pretty much everything you can think of to scale your eCommerce business. It’s called the Shopify Plus plan.

The plan is for larger corporations that need a website to handle thousands of transactions everyday. Along with that, the Plus version offers business owners premium support and more customization.

If you’re still wondering whether your company needs to upgrade to Shopify Plus, keep reading. You will get to know about the features that Shopify plus gives compared to the normal Shopify plan.

Advantages of Shopify Plus over Shopify Plan

When I compare Shopify vs Shopify Plus, I try to look into what one plan offers versus the other. After that, I consider the right choice.

Choosing Shopify Plus instead of the standard platform will provide many benefits for your company. If you want to learn more about what those are and how to use them, keep reading.

I’ve analyzed & used both platforms and now I want to tell you which plan is the one you need.

More Opportunities to Customize the Design

The standard Shopify platform offers plenty of themes that you can customize using the built-in editor. However, it’s almost impossible to create an entirely new theme and specific theme for your business.

This is where the Shopify plus plan comes into play! By choosing it, businesses can customize as much as they like to. 

Liquid, which is Shopify’s theme language, makes high-level editing and customization possible with Shopify plus.

Working with Liquid, any business owner can make changes to the code of the website. Besides, could be capable of creating an online store that would be especially designed for the business.

Premium Dedicated Support 

With the standard Shopify plan, you get in touch with representatives via phone, chat, or e-mail. However, if you need further assistance with building your website, you can only hire experts externally.

In contrast with the Shopify Plus plan, you get such a support that is specifically dedicated to your online store and enterprise. Once you sign up, a Launch Engineer will be assigned to you who can aid you with setting up or migrating your store.

Whether it’s an integrated application or specific design that you want to implement, the Launch Engineer will be there to tweak every issue you might face. 

Get Access to Exclusive Apps

Users who decide to go on the Shopify Plus platform will get access to applications that are not available on normal Shopify plans. 

They aim to provide you with more customization tools so that your website can be as useful as possible for your customers. 

Some of these exclusive applications include the Script editor, Shopify flow, and much more! 

Access to Other Helpful Resources 

Being a member of the newer platform, you also get access to many helpful resources. This includes a merchant success program, a partner’s directory, and an online Facebook community.

Along with that, you will be given early access to beta features and you will be able to participate in the Shopify Plus Academy so that you can learn how to manage your store on the platform more efficiently.

Get More Control with the Script Editor

With Shopify Plus, you get the opportunity to work with Shopify Scripts. The integrated Script Editor gives you more control over different parts of the website.

Shopify Script Editor Logo

Utilizing this tool, you can customize your customers checkout experience based on their preferences. Not only this, you can also personalize the shipping details and payment options.

Such a feature is unavailable in the standard Shopify platform unless you have a paid third-party to pull this off. 

Automate Your Processes with Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow Logo

One of the major Shopify Plus benefits is access to Shopify Flow. This is an eCommerce automation platform that allows you to make many customer-facing tasks and processes within your store automatic.

It’s able to tailor the website experience to the customer. 

Let me give you an example: 

Suppose you have a client interested in one specific product and he always purchases it. In that case, you can create triggers that automatically send them notifications, especially when that product goes on sale or is restocked – pretty cool, right?

Thanks to Flow, you can fine-tune the website to make it fit your customers individually. 

Manage Both B2C And B2B from One Place

By adding the wholesale channel option, Shopify Plus offers you a chance to manage both B2C and B2B platforms from the same place. 

Shopify Plus offers users the opportunity to create a separate wholesale store. This feature is a way for you to offer exclusive products and discount prices to clients who purchase from you in bulk. It aims to nurture the B2B relationships, allowing you to create a different experience for your business clients.

In addition, there are plenty of features that can be utilized to make your store even more attractive to them – like offering package deals, subscriptions, etc.

Access to A Unified Dashboard to Manage All Your Sites

There are plenty of terrific Shopify Plus features and one of them is the dashboard that the platform offers. It allows you to manage all of your stores, their analytics, staff accounts, and permission, along with the different applications and tools in one place. 

Besides that, it will give you a full overview of the way your business operates online. It’s gonna enable you to spot recurring issues and to areas that could potentially be automated. This is especially useful for those who manage multiple stores and should be able to control them simultaneously.

Enhanced API Integrations 

With any online store, integrations with third-party applications happen through APIs. By upgrading to Shopify Plus, you will enjoy more API resources such as Gift Card, Users, and Multipass.

Along with letting you use more and more third-party applications, Shopify Plus will also allow you to customize already existing applications or even build your own.

Utilization with Existing Platforms

On the standard Shopify platform, you can connect multiple different applications to your store. On the other hand, one of Shopify Plus’s benefits is integrating specific platforms with the website.

This is especially useful for bigger and more complex businesses and it’s now possible using the API. 

These platforms are specifically created for massive enterprises that work with a huge inventory and make management easy.

So you can choose which ones to integrate based on your company’s needs. From managing inventory and orders to customer relationship management, Shopify plus gives you extremely specific applications.

Limitless Staff Accounts

Another upgrade you will want to check out in this Shopify vs Shopify Plus debate is staff accounts. In the standard platform, you’re offered a limited amount of accounts. And guess what? You don’t have the opportunity to give a different role to each staff member.

On the other hand, with Shopify Plus, you can create an unlimited amount of accounts for the staff. Thanks to the integrated store admin, you also have more control over what they can and can’t do.

Better And More In-Depth Analytics

The detailed analytics dashboard is another one of the many great Spotify Plus benefits. Shopify reveals that they have been working with leading analytics companies to create an easy-to-use dashboard for your specific business.

Currently, it will allow you to get quick updates on stats like sales, most-purchased products, no. of visitors, returning customers, and more.

What’s more to like about it is its dashboard, which also enables you to keep up with the trends of your company. 

Shopify vs Shopify Plus – Time to Upgrade or Not?

It all boils down to what kind of business you own. In this Shopify vs Shopify Plus debate, it’s all about the right choice for you and your company. 

In case you own a small business, a start-up, or a venture that doesn’t get high online traffic and orders, then staying on the standard plan is the correct choice for you.

On the other hand, if you’re the owner of a major enterprise with many customers, Shopify Plus is the plan you have to buy. With this, you will get access to premium features that will be useful for your business. 

On top of everything, you get dedicated technical experts that can assist you in managing your online store seamlessly. 

Shopify and BigCommerce are online stores that allow you to market and sell products. These eCommerce platforms don’t require any software installation as both products run on a web browser.

So basically, there’s always a big dilemma in choosing between the two. As much as both have an adorable reputation, certain differences make either platform more preferable in specific scenarios.

In this article, I’ll be comparing BigCommerce vs Shopify and giving clear illustrations of each. We will look at the advantages of one over the other, their characteristic features, and any information about an eCommerce store.

BigCommerce vs Shopify – Which is More Powerful?

Shopify Overview 

Shopify lets online sellers manage almost all aspects of their shops. It allows them to upload products, change their design, accept credit card orders, and view incoming orders and completed transactions. Let’s have a look at the features Shopify offers:

Shopping Cart

• A secure and reliable shopping cart solution
• Has the potential to integrate with 100+ gateways

Ecommerce Hosting

• Shopify helps you configure your domain name or you can buy a new one. 
• Provides hosting services for your eCommerce website so it won’t be managed by another company.
• When Shopify hosts your website, unlimited bandwidth is included in all plans.

Online Retail

• Sell almost anything on Shopify. From physical items to digital products – it provides an online market for all items. 
• A retailer can create product catalogs in the backend, post blogs, and manage all the content on their website.
• Shopify equips your online retail businesses with an SSK certificate and PCI compliance.

Oberlo

• One of Shopify’s unique features is Oberlo which lets you find and add products to your Shopify store 
• You don’t need a pre-built inventory for Oberlo.
• When you sell something on Shopify, you don’t have to be worried about packaging as Orbelo takes care of that as well. 

BigCommerce Overview

BigCommerce is an online platform for young and developed businesses. It offers an open architecture, app ecosystem, and market-leading performance. Let’s see the features of BigCommerce:

Storefront Design

• The storefront design comes with a page editor, which easily launches and edits site pages.
• Theme customization gives you a fully customizable theme with built-in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Checkout customization customizes the checkout experience with server-to-server checkout API and SDK.

API-Driven Commerce

• Offers a powerful commerce engine with a pre-built plugin for brands with an editorial or content focus.
• BigCommerce’s Acquia Digital Experience Integration allows you to merge headless commerce with sophisticated enterprise content management.

Storefront Conversion Coupons & Discounts

• Create over 70+ native discounts and promotions
• Site speed gives your store blazing-fast speed
• SEO-friendly features drive more traffic to your site

Cross-Channel Commerce Marketplaces

• Reach your customers by integrating with top marketplaces like eBay and Amazon
• Social commerce increases your reach through different social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram
• Multi-Storefront enables you to switch between storefronts with just a single login

BigComerce vs Shopify Comparison

Benefits of Shopify

Quick & Easy Setup

Shopify is a no-fuss platform which is easy to set up. Besides, it’s the best solution for retailers who want a complete system with no development and hosting-related technicalities.

Easy Mobile Accessibility

It’s no secret that mobile visits to stores are higher than desktops and laptops. This makes it essential for online service providers to have a mobile-optimized site.

Luckily, Shopify leaves no stone unturned as it comes with a mobile app to keep track of all important KPIs. You can manage your store to some extent via your iPhones, iPads, or Android. 

More Secure & Reliable

Making your eCommerce store good enough to deal with sensitive customer information such as credit card details. More importantly, it never let down the impatient and insecure customers because of its top-notch security, fast page loading, and high uptime. 

Customer Service

Most eCommerce site-building platforms don’t have a 24-hour support system. Fortunately, Shopify is always there to answer all of your technical as well as other queries. 

Powerful Marketing Tools

To start with, basic SEO features along with advanced eCommerce analytics put Shopify ahead of its competitors. In addition to this, custom gift cards, discount coupons, store statistics, targeted email marketing, and other things like these are cherries on top.

Flexibility 

If we’re going for BigCommerce vs Shopify, or any other platform in terms of versatility, Shopify ranks ahead. The platform has several in-built tools to give you such premium features that are needed for a great conversion rate. 

Retailers can easily showcase their sale products, offer coupons, and customize shipping options. Along with this, there are hundreds of professional, free, and highly customizable themes that can help you control your store’s feel and look.

Benefits of BigCommerce 

BigCommerce is one of the best shopping cart software out there. Have a look at the list of benefits it offers to its subscribers:

Great & Reliable Support

Ecommerce platforms should be able to provide helpful customer support at any time of the day. Just like Shopify, BigCommerce also offers 24/7 call and chat support. 

BigCommerce is SEO-friendly 

With the increasingly competitive space, thriving in an eCommerce business is no minor achievement. The algorithms of search engines change every time.

In this case, BigCommerce doesn’t fail, it follows up with the most up-to-date SEO practices like auto-optimized titles and URLs. The platform lets you add keyword-rich information manually in the SEO field.

Takes Good Care of Shipping

This is one of the greatest benefits of BigCommerce because the platform supports all the major shipping providers.

Did you know you can print shipping labels right from BigCommerce’s control panel?

Mobile Templates

Do you know most people buy from their mobile phones? Yes, it’s true and you need to get responsive websites and such mobile themes that work out pretty well for IOS or Android users. Still, if you are interested in working with code, the platform provides a base for customization.

Social Media Interaction

BigCommerce lets you reach customers through various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and much more. This is especially powerful as there’s a huge segment of customers that exist on social media. In fact, Facebook and Instagram alone have millions of users every day. 

Shopify Advantages Over Bigcommerce

Easier to Use

BigCommerce and Shopify have a straightforward content management system, with a modern dashboard and a straightforward website editor. However, Shopify is easier to operate than BigCommerce and that makes it the best choice for upcoming business models. Although BigCommerce is powerful, mastering its basics is a tough nut to crack. 

Better Design

Both platforms offer a slim amount of free themes. BigCommerce offers 12 whereas Shopify offers 9. As a result of BigCommerce’s drag-and-drop editor, its free themes are easily customizable than Shopify ones.

On the contrary…

Shopify’s themes are less uniform and you won’t have to tweak much.

Better Support and Security

Both BigCommerce and Shopify provide the following:

• 24/7 phone support
• 24/7 live chat support
• Help center
• Community forum
• Email support
• Video tutorials

The outstanding feature here is 24/7 phone and live chat support. BigCommerce’s help center provides you the latest information on eCommerce and dropshipping. But on a fairly competitive BigCommerce vs Shopify platform, Shopify will carry the day. 

Shopify has certain helpful prompts throughout its website dashboard that link directly to a relevant page within the Shopify knowledge center. Simply put, both platforms offer 24/7 support but Shopify’s knowledge center gives much better helpful stuff. 

BigCommerce Advantages Over Shopify

Better Pricing

Both platforms offer different pricing plans. 

BigCommerce: $29.95/month to $299.95/month. 

Shopify: $29/month to $299/month. 

Just like BigCommerce, if you pay annually instead of monthly, Shopify offers discounts of up to 10%. Both platforms offer similar prices but BigCommerce offers better value for money. Its better selection of built-in tools and a complete lack of transaction fees make it a clear winner.

Better for Big Businesses

For large business organizations, both platforms offer custom plans so that you can equip your store with advanced tools.

The Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise plan are primarily meant for large businesses who want to scale things up and get even more profit. BigCommerce Enterprise can handle hundreds of API calls per second. On the other hand, Shopify Plus has a limit of only 10 calls/second. 

Meaning you’ll be able to sync your product catalogs far more quickly with BigCommerce. BigCommerce is better for huge stores since it is equipped to handle large inventories with more built-in tools.

Bigcommerce vs Shopify Pricing Comparison

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

Shopify provides 3 pricing plans and a 14-day free trial. Let’s see each plan in depth: 

Basic Shopify: Comes with all the basics for starting a new business and highly suitable for young business enterprises.

Monthly price: $29 per month

Features

• Online Store – Includes eCommerce website and blog
• Unlimited products – Sell anything and everything
• Staff accounts – 2 Staff members with access to the Shopify admin and Shopify POS
• 24/7 support – Quite impeccable and friendly
• Sales channels – Sell on online marketplaces and social media

Shopify Plan: Carries everything you need for a growing business.

Monthly price: $79 per month

Features: All features in the basic Shopify plan with 5 staff members access.

Advanced Shopify: Comes with all the advanced features for scaling your business

Monthly price: $299 per month

Features: All features of Shopify and Basic Shopify plan with 15 staff member access.

How Much Does BigCommerce cost?

BigCommerce comes with 4 different plans and a 15-day free trial. Let’s see what we can get from these plans: 

BigCommerce Standard

Monthly price: $29.95/month

• Enables you to make up to 50K worth of sales in a year 
• There are no transaction fees involved
• Provides unlimited staff accounts
• Offers 24/7 chat and call support
• Integrations with leading payment gateways
• Special credit card rates via Paypal
• Enables marketplace and social integrations (Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and more)
• Gives you free sitewide HTTPS dedicated SSL
• Comes with a BigCommerce mobile app
• Offers coupons, discount rules, and gift cards
• Enable product ratings and reviews

BigCommerce Plus

Monthly price: $79.95/month

The BigCommerce Plus Plan includes everything that you can get in the Standard plan but offers additional features like: 

• Allows sales of up to $180K annually
• Special credit card rates via Paypal which is powered by Braintree (2.5% +30¢ per transaction)
• Customer groups and segmentation
• Abandoned cart saver

BigCommerce Pro 

Monthly price: $299.95/mo

The Pro Plan comes with everything in the Plus plan but offers additional features. Some of the extras include:

• Allows for sales of up to $400k annually
• Offers special credit card rates via Paypal powered by Braintree (2.2% +30¢ per transaction)
• Enables faceted search (Product filtering)
• Comes with a custom SSL

BigCommerce Enterprise

The Enterprise Plan comes with everything a Pro plan consists of but provides additional features. Some of the extras include:

• Custom facets (Product Filtering)
• Gives you the price-lists
• Unlimited API calls
• No selling GMV limits annually (Custom pricing)
• Special credit card rates via Paypal powered by Braintree (2.2% +30¢ or lower per transaction)
• Express routing and priority support
• Strategic account management available
• API support (express routing)

Setting Up Shopify and BigCommerce

Setting Up Shopify

Step 1:Click here to sign up with Shopify and go for the “Start free trial” button.

Step 2: Fill the form by entering your details as required.Your email ID, followed by a password, store name, and “Create your store.”

Step 3: Enter the details as requested, or still, you just skip and click the “Next” button.

Step 4: Type in the required details and once you’re done, click “Enter My Store.”

Step 5: You are now all set. Your Shopify account is ready! Now you can decide to set a few parameters on your storefront and make it look real.

Note: To have a more in-depth tutorial on setting up Shopify, visit here. 

Setting up BigCommerce

1. Click here and visit the website. On the website, click on “get started”. 

2. Put in your email address,.” then “Continue.”

3. Fill the form, enter your store name and all the relevant information in the respective places as requested.

4. State whether you have an existing website, what you will be selling, and what best describes how you currently sell your products. Afterwards, click ‘Finish.’ In case you don’t want to fill the info right away, you can just press the ‘Ask me Later’ button.

There you go, your shop is ready to rock online!

BigCommerce vs Shopify: Which Is Better? 

One last thing – Knowing which is better depends on who you are and what you want.

Go for BigCommerce if you want: 

• Built-in features that comes with your subscription plan 
• A Large inventory and need better product variant options

Go for Shopify if you want: 

• Control over most of the features of your store 
• Already designed theme options

So the BigCommerce vs Shopify war has a different winner depending on who you are. According to my analysis, Shopify is a bit ahead as it’s easier to use, has an efficient customer support system, template logins, and a bunch of integrations. The more control you have, the better it is! 

When it comes to Magento vs Shopify comparison, things go nothing but complex. Read ahead so that you can equip yourself with some solid points. 

Without ingredients, you can’t make a recipe. Similarly, without knowing about these two, you can’t get to a conclusion. 

Today we’re gonna discuss both platform’s features, pricing, and what makes one different from the other. Sounds pleasing enough? Yes, it is.. So without any further ado, let’s get started. 

Magento vs Shopify – Which is More Powerful?

Shopify Overview 

When you’re looking for an eCommerce platform, it’s all rainbows and butterflies with Shopify as it’s pretty straightforward to use and it offers 24/7 customer service. 

They’re always ready to answer, even when you mess up with your store at 3 a.m. More importantly, it has a bunch of integrations that make it super powerful for eCommerce. 

Point of Sale 

Point of Sale simply means it’s an app or software that tracks your inventory when you’re gonna set up an in-person or a physical store. Besides, it can also be installed for a physical store that you currently own. 

Shopify POS syncs with Shopify to track your orders and inventory for all of your active sales channels, retail locations, and online stores. 

Easy Sales Analysis

You don’t have to hire a data analyst for your website’s performance analysis. With Shopify, it’s easy to analyze sales, traffic, purchase rates, and customer demographics. Not only this, if you integrate to advanced apps like Profiteer, HIT analytics, Xporter, etc, you will get more detailed reports. 

Supports Different Languages & Currencies 

The world is a global village. In that case, let your products fly far and wide with Shopify as it makes this possible by adding multi-currency and web interface translation options.

Magento Overview

Magento is definitely one of the intuitive and robust eCommerce platforms on the market. The fun fact is – most people don’t know that Magneto is an open-source platform with a solid community. Along with this, it offers a huge range of powerful tools for building, marketing, and managing your online store. 

Engage Your Audience

It comes with advanced customer engagement tools like Multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts and Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) to organize your selling activity.

Generate Sales By Strategizing

The platform can generate flexible coupons and modify to stores, customer groups, time period, products, and categories. 

Magento vs Shopify Comparison 

Benefits of Shopify

1. Quick and intuitive store setup that makes it easy to launch your eCommerce store

2. 24/7 customer support and technical assist 

3. A mobile responsive storefront includes a built-in mobile eCommerce shopping cart that increases your sales

4. No web hosting or server maintenance charges because Shopify takes care of it 

Did you know Shopify has an inbuilt payment gateway that charges 0% transaction fees?  

Benefits of Magento

1. Guest checkout enables visitors to purchase a product without the hassle of registration quickly

2. A friendly and seller-supportive open source community 

3. Magento permits shipping to multiple addresses in one order

4. Authorized payment gateways and  integration with Authorize.net 

5. Gives you the ability to alter the  price of the specific product depending upon the group of customers

Shopify Advantages Over Magento

Basic Setup 

When it comes to Magento, the learning curve is pretty steep compared to Shopify. You will have to interpret the jargon and use code to build the online store you want. At some point, you might feel the need for hiring a developer.

Whereas Shopify’s easy customization saves you time and peace of mind. So you can tune in to your favorite song, open your browser, and start customizing your store. 

Beginner’s Sales Tools

Magento’s overall extensions cost installation for sales can get a little bit more pricey and a lot harsher on your pocket. In addition, it relies on its marketplace to enable extra features for your store. 

Being an all-in-one seller, SEO expert, marketer, and designer can be a tiring task. Why don’t you let Shopify carry some tracking and analyzing sales while putting your energy into the business you do? 

It has features like Abandoned cart recovery, which pings your customers that they’ve left a great product in their carts without purchasing it. And speaking of carts, its Multi-channel selling (selling on Facebook, Insta, and more) makes your sales journey a lot easier. 

Web Hosting 

When it comes to web hosting, Magento expects you to be an expert which is time-consuming. With Magento,  you should arrange your own hosting, install, setup, and configure everything before you can actually start your store. 

With Shopify, you can go straight to the customization as it itself hosts your Shopify store.

Read more about Shopify plus vs regular Shopify packages here in order to get better comparison between Shopify packages and prgrams.

Magento Advantages Over Shopify

Advanced Customization

In Shopify, some elements can be modified. However, most features like the checkout process cannot be customized. 

Whereas Magento is versatile for advanced customization and provides integrations that allow for marketing automation systems, CRMs (Customer Relationship Management), and ERPs (Enterprise resource planning). Don’t let the lengthy terms confuse you because Magneto makes it easier for you. 

Open Source 

Shopify is not an open-source platform. It makes use of a proprietary coding language with limited developer support, and you’re pretty much on your own with the help center assistance. 

On the other hand, Magneto is more inclined towards giving assistance for customization and seems to have better developer support. In fact, Magento boasts having  “260,000 developers worldwide who are continually generating new innovations and functionality.”

B2B Friendly Builder

Shopify is usually made to attract visitors and customers (B2C business). They’re not much business-friendly for transactions and heavy operations.

Magento vs Shopify Pricing Comparison

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

There are 3 different plans for 3 different needs!

• Use Basic Shopify for getting started

• Standard Shopify for building a good customer base

• Advanced Shopify for businesses that have started achieving big volumes of orders. 

Additional Plans Offered By Shopify

Shopify Lite: It’s definitely worth investing in, especially when you run another blog or website. It allows you to pop that ‘Buy Now’ button for all of your products on different websites. Customers can quickly checkout in a few clicks and you can easily gain the extra eyes (a.k.a. visitors) for your fabulous store. 

Pricing: $9 per month

Shopify Plus: It’s not for most small businesses, and honestly, it’s not really required until you need highly complicated and advanced features for your Shopify store. 

Pricing:  $2000 per month 

How Much Does Magento Cost? 

Although Magneto is free to install, before you give me a big smile after reading the word FREE, let me pop that bubble and say that web hosting, extensions, and your domain is NOT FREE. 

If we calculate, it would cost anywhere between $10 to $100 per month to host your website on different domain providers. The variation in price exists because the services offered by multiple providers differ. 

Here are the monthly hosting packages offered by SiteGround, which is a well-known web hosting service and goes well with Magneto:  

• Startup: $6.99
• GrowBig: $9.99 
• GoGeek: $14.95 

There are costs associated with buying your own domain, which usually costs around $10-$20 per year. To buy a domain name, you can visit popular domain registrars such as Domain.com, Namecheap.com, and GoDaddy.com, to register your new domain.

Setting Up Shopify

Step 1: Register for Shopify

Step 2: Fill In the Details

After completing this step, wait for a few sections and that’s it. Now you will be able to access your brand new dashboard. 

Step 3: Add In Your Product Or Import Product 

If you’re selling your own products, you can manually add the products. If you’re a dropshipper, you have to import using Oberlo or Google Chrome extensions. 

Step 4: Customize How Your Store Looks! 

Step 5: Set Your Payment Methods

There are a wide range of payment options that you can set up with Shopify. Choose the one that fits well for you and your eCommerce business. 

Step 6: Set Shipping Rates

You can click on manage rates and set your rates accordingly. 

Congrats! You’re pretty much done with setting up the basics of your Shopify store. 

Setting Up Magento for eCommerce

To setup Magneto, you have to install it manually and such a process can be a little time-consuming. However, time-consumption is not an indicator of difficulty here, don’t worry it would be easy and I’ve simplified the steps for you: 

Step 1: Find a Web Server 

A web server is basically where you host your website on the internet. SiteGround is a great choice for setting up your Magento store because it offers free and automatic Magento installation. 

Step 2: Download Magento

Before you can install Magento on the server you just purchased, you need to download the Magento software onto your local computer. 

Let’s go to Magento’s download page. Here, you will see three different Magento installation options: Composer, Git, and Archive.

This tutorial will cover how you can set up the Archive version of Magento. Relatively, it’s easy to install and pretty beginner-friendly.  

Scroll down on the same Magento download page and you will find this ‘Archive’ section. Click on that download button. 

You don’t have an account and I know that too. So go ahead and create a new one. 

Fill in the details: 

After adding details, check your given email ID to see an email from Magento. Once you get it, click on ‘verify your email.’

After validating your email, you will be prompted to your dashboard :

Come back to the Magneto Download site and hit on the ‘download’ button again. 

This time, the file will be downloaded. 

Step 3: Create a Database

Magento installation needs a database on your web host. If you’re using SiteGround, follow these steps: 

1. Create a New MySQL Database: To do this, go to your hosting account’s control panel and find the database section. In the SiteGround control panel, you will find the database section under Site Tools > Site > MySQL. Now click the ‘Create Database’ button.

2. Create User Account: Once your database is ready, find the ‘Users’ tab. Click on ‘Create User.’ After this step, you will receive an automatically generated new username and password. 

3. Set User Permissions: For you to manage the database, the user permissions need to be set. First, click the ‘Add New Database’ button next to the new username. When the page opens, go ahead and choose the desired user privileges and click ‘Confirm.’

Step 4: Run Magento Installation

Once the database is created, run the Magento installation, go to the web browser and specify the URL of the Magento folder. After entering the URL, you will see something like this: 

After all of this, you will get a page like this where you need to click ‘start readiness check.’ 

If you’ve followed the previous steps right, you will see something like this. Yes, click on Next. 

Add Your Database Details Now. I hope you have saved it all, didn’t you? 

Take Care of the Magento Web Configuration

Add your Store Address, Magento Admin Address, Encryption Key type and any other thing that you see. And remember, under encryption Key, you can either use Magento generated-key or a custom one.

Now you can customize your store!

Add the details of your store, like its default time zone, default currency, and language. Don’t worry, you can change these values anytime. 

Create Admin Account

This page will allow you to create an Admin account to manage your store. Note down these credentials for your future reference because you will need them to access your Magento backend.

Install Magento

The favorite part after all the hard work! You’re ready for installation. Press that gorgeous ‘Install Now’ button to get ahead.

Yay, and we’re done! Now you will be able to access your dashboard. 

Here’s a quick summary of the Magento installation process: 

1. Get Your Server Ready: You can use SiteGround
2. Download Magento – Download the Magento software from its official website
3. Create a Database on Your Host
4. Unzip and Upload Magento – Upload the Magento files to your new database
5. Set Up Magento – Add in the details and customizations 
6. Install and Finish – Tada! 

Shopify Vs Magento – Who is the Winner? 

After analyzing the various features of the two eCommerce website builders, I’ve reached a conclusion for Shopify Vs Magento. Shopify is excellent for small businesses and beginners because of its intuitive, easy-to-set-up, and rich in-built features. 

Whereas Magento is targeted towards experienced eCommerce stores and established businesses, who have the budget and time to build an eCommerce store from pretty much scratch. Magento plays around with coding and designing, so if you’re ready to invest your time into setting up and going the DIY route, then Magento is your best bet. 

Both these features are amazing for businesses who have high aspirations and are looking to set up their perfect eCommerce store. Choose the platform that best suits your business needs and get started! 

Shopify vs Etsy – which one? Are you guessing that for hours? Haha, I knew it. See I read people. Just kidding! 

Now that you have searched that, I’m here to tell you the difference between both platforms. 

For small independent sellers, starting an eCommerce store is no less than giving wings to their own dreams and passions. 

For big business owners, eCommerce is about scaling the business to another level. In both cases, these 2 eCommerce website builders make these ambitions possible. Let’s what Shopify and Etsy is capable of.  

Shopify Vs Etsy – Which is More Powerful? 

Shopify Overview

Here comes one of the most popular eCommerce platforms that allow both small and big businesses to position their products in the market. It prides itself on “All the features you want, none of the hassle,” and it’s true to those words. 

Brand and customize your online store

Simply put, you can build your store just the way you want it to look. 

Setup A Mobile-Ready Shopify Store

A majority of customers make purchases through their mobile phones. With Shopify, you can customize how your store looks on mobile devices. 

100+ Payment Gateways

It supports payments ranging from Bitcoin to PayPal. 

Supports Multiple Languages and Currencies 

The world is interconnected, so why should your store be restricted to just one region and language interface? 

Etsy Overview 

Etsy has a wider appeal to sellers who have artistic goods like craft supplies, handmade journals, delicate jewelry, and vintage items to sell. It’s more centered on handcrafted materials than machine-made mass goods. 

Innovation 

Etsy buyers always look for something unique and intricate. So, if you’re a seller looking for an audience who would purchase the artistic goods you’ve spent hours pouring your dedication into, Etsy is the place! 

Featuring Items

Featuring items is a great way to highlight 4 listings that you especially want shoppers to see on your homepage. These listings will appear just above your shop announcement.

Etsy Ads

Don’t lose your wonderful craft in the world of rankings. Etsy Ads allow you to promote your product whenever a customer looks for it.  By the way, you should know that the first row of the search results on Etsy is almost always filled with ads. 

Personalized Storefront

You can make your Etsy storefront as detailed, unique, and attractive as possible. The more personalized your storefront is, the more memorable it would be for customers. 

Shopify Vs Etsy Comparison 

Benefits of Shopify

1. Intuitive and easy to set up
2. Hundreds of integrations to choose from
3. Low page load time, which means more visitor retention 
4. Mobile storefront is easily modifiable 
5. SSL certificate and PCI. In simple words, high security and reliability 

Benefits of Etsy

1. Supports detailed and artistic storefronts 
2. Large demand for handcrafted goods and gifts 
3. A positive and friendly Etsy Seller Community
4. Etsy’s algorithm supports new listings and sellers
5. No competition from mass-produced goods

Shopify Advantages Over Etsy

Customizable Templates and Ease of Designing 

When it comes to designing your storefront, Etsy offers a more rigid structure. This rigidity might make it difficult for your store to stand out. 

On the other hand, Shopify offers a huge range of customizable templates that you can leverage to create a strong brand image and attract visitors. 

Domain Name 

On Etsy, you don’t really get a personal domain name. Instead of that, your domain name looks something like this: www.etsy.com/shop/my-sweet-store-name-here 

Shopify gives you control over your domain name. You can make it as funky or as professional as you like. It’s all up to you. 

Payment and Transaction Fees

Etsy’s transaction fees and payment processing fees can cut a lot of profits when you make a sale. Here’s something that would make you say, “oh, this is definitely a lot of fees.”

Usually, Etsy charges a 5% transaction fee (this fee goes to Etsy), plus a 3%+$0.25 payment processing charge (this fee goes to your payment provider like PayPal, ApplePay, etc.)

Whereas Shopify is our knight in shining armor because it offers a 0% transaction fee, which means FREE whenever you use Shopify Payments. And, there will be a payment processing fee of 2.2%+$0.20.

Customer Support

Etsy has a neat help forum. However, it lacks quicker customer support. If we talk about Shopify, it has 24/7 support, so you can call them up at 3 a.m. when you’ve imported the wrong product and messed up the storefront after drinking the fourth glass of vodka. (Yeah, they’ll understand.) Their customer service makes them one of the best eCommerce platforms out there. 

Etsy Advantages Over Shopify

Bring in More Customers

Shopify is used for advanced SEO because you own your domain name and are very much responsible for driving the audience towards your eCommerce store. 

Since Etsy allows customers to search for products from its main homepage, you don’t really have to spend time making your store rank on Google because you don’t need to. It will be indexed within Etsy itself, saving you from the hassle of SEO. 

Ease of Usage

Shopify has a wide range of things to set up before you finally get started. On the other hand, Etsy provides a neat and clean surface for you to begin your eCommerce store. You can invest your time into your craft rather than spending a lot of time setting up the store.  

Shopify vs Etsy Pricing Comparison

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

The Shopify eCommerce builder comes with 3 different plans to meet your eCommerce needs: Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. Please note that the stated prices are in US Dollars and are not inclusive of state taxes.

Basic Shopify

Cost: $29 per Month 

The basic package is pretty much amazing for people who are just getting started with their online business.

There is no need to overspend and go for Advanced plans for those who have just started their eCommerce business until you know that you have a solid customer base.

Shopify Standard Plan

Cost: $79 per Month 

This plan is made for sellers who have been selling online for quite a while ago and is best suited for sellers who have an international presence.

Advanced Shopify

Cost: $299 per Month 

This plan is for those eCommerce sellers who would like to expand their business to a large audience and already have a strong customer base. 

Additional Plans Offered By Shopify

Shopify Plus

Cost: $2000 per month 

This feature is absolutely expensive and it’s not really required until you need complicated advanced features. Besides, it is mainly present for high revenue-generating businesses so that they can integrate large and personalized tools.

Shopify Lite 

Cost: $9 per month 

Shopify Lite is amazing because it allows you to pop that ‘Buy Now’ button for all your products on different websites. Customers can quickly checkout in a few clicks. This feature definitely backs Shopify’s title of being one of the best eCommerce platforms out there.

How Much Does Etsy Cost? 

Etsy screams “budget-friendly” when it comes to pricing but with a slight twist. It has minimal upfront costs and has no monthly fees for its standard plan – only the listing fees, transaction costs (5% of the total cost of the bill), and payment processing charges (3%+$0.25)  applied to products.

Make sure to create a note of the transaction and payment processing charges because they might add into a large sum fairly easily. 

If you need more features for your store, you can upgrade with Etsy. The Plus plan costs $10 per month and gives a wider set of tools like connecting a custom domain, listing and advertising bonus, cart notifications, and much more. 

To have a detailed overview of pricing, you can have a look at their Etsy fees & payment guide.

Shopify vs Etsy – Which is More Affordable?

When it comes to payment plans, I believe Shopify is the best eCommerce platform out of both these platforms as it has zero transaction fees and your profits won’t get cut.

On the other hand, if you go for Etsy, you may not be able to generate the level of profit you would like to make because of its transaction, listing, and payment processing costs combined. 

After analyzing Shopify and Etsy’s key differences, it leads us to think about how we can set up these stores for our eCommerce business.

Setting Up Your First Shopify Store

Setting up Shopify can be very easy. Follow me for a quick tutorial on how you can set up your own Shopify store. 

1. Register for Shopify

2. Fill In the Details

Tada! Now you will be able to access your brand new dashboard. 

3. Add In Your Product Or Import Product 

If you’re selling your own products, you can manually add in the products. If you’re a dropshipper, you can import products using Google Chrome Extensions. It totally depends upon your business. 

4. Customize How Your Store Looks 

5. Set Your Payment Methods

You will find a range of payment options that you can set up with Shopify, choose the one you and your eCommerce business is comfortable with. 

6. Set Shipping Rates

You can click on manage rates and set your rates accordingly. 

And that’s it! You’re done setting up the basics of your Shopify store. 

Setting Up Your First Etsy Store

1. Visit Sell on Etsy

2. Register,  Locate ‘Sell on Etsy’ and fill in your details

3. Name your Store

4. Add In Your Products 

So first, you need to add in at least 1 listing to set up your store. 

And scroll down to fill in more details. Once you finish filling in all the details, you will be able to move to the next step. Don’t worry, the detail filling process isn’t difficult at all. Just mention the specifications and you’re good to go.

5. Add Payment Methods and Fill in Additional Details

6. Set Your Billing Method

With this step, we know how to register and set up an Etsy store. Once you go through the process of setting up a store on Etsy, you can customize other details like your store bio, add sections, create policies, and much more. 

Shopify Vs Etsy – Who wins? 

Both Shopify and Etsy are one of the best eCommerce platforms available in the market. The winner between the two totally depends upon your business needs.

If you would like to have a professional and self-managed store where you’re in control of its designing, SEO, and structure, Shopify is the clear winner. 

And, if you prefer following a structure, sell your artistic pursuits, and spend less time thinking about product visibility, you can go for Etsy! 

The two eCommerce platforms can be amazing in their own features and capabilities. So, it all boils down to how you can leverage either to make your eCommerce business successful.  

Shopify vs Squarespace – which one is better and why? Is that what you have been trying to know? Okay, I get it. 

Picking a suitable eCommerce platform is a tough nut to crack. From reading reviews to trying the free trial – you have to go through a bunch of things, isn’t so? 

To ease up your pain, I’ve written a full-fledged Shopify vs Squarespace comparison. So let’s just get started! 

Shopify vs Squarespace – Which is More Powerful?

Shopify Overview

It’s a Canada-based company that makes it possible to set up an eCommerce store with no hassle. From tools to guides – there’s everything you need to start an online store of your own. 

Let’s just look at the key features of Shopify. 

Super Easy Customized Website

Building a fully customized website has become easier with Shopify. Probably, that’s why most entrepreneurs prefer Shopify over other similar platforms. With its drag and drop feature, even a super non-techy grandma can build a store. 

Product Inventory and Customer Data

Another great feature of Shopify is its ability to manage product inventory and customer data. Besides, its inventory tracking application alerts you about the stock details and when you should order products.

24 X 7 Customer Support

Whether you’re a pro or beginner in building the website, you will need support at some point in website creation. 

For 24 X 7 X 365 customer support, Shopify has a competitive edge over other eCommerce platforms. And guess what? It doesn’t matter whether you’re on the basic plan or the advanced one, support would be responsive in every case.

Squarespace Overview

Squarespace is a website builder which is made for creative entrepreneurs like you.

Without having any prior web development experience, you can create a unique website in no time, especially when there are some super interesting site-building tools. 

Let us have a look at some of the key features of Squarespace:

Site Building Tools

Squarespace offers a wide range of site building tools like:

• Full-screen editing
• Markdown mode
• Automatically responsive designs
• Custom editor
• Automatic image scaling
• Automatic text wrapping
• Video, gallery, product, menu, summary, code, and button blocks 

Extensions

The extensions in Squarespace gives you the ability to manage all the requirements in an eCommerce platform.

• Financial Extensions: Manage accounts, reconcile sales transactions, and streamline bookkeeping 

• Inventory-Product Extension: Take care of inventory and stock levels

• Marketing-Sales Extensions: Observe and handle selling channels and the promotion of products seamlessly

• Shipping-Fulfillment Extensions: Ship products efficiently 

Squarespace Scheduling

With Squarespace Scheduling, you can select plans for each team member on multiple calendars, even when they’re from different locations. 

It can also sync the calendar with Google and Office 365. Besides this, there’s custom payment settings and automatic email reminders that are parts of Squarespace Scheduling. Besides, it also shares customized confirmation and email follow-ups, isn’t all of this impressive? 

Shopify vs Squarespace Comparison

Depending upon our requirements, both these platforms can be termed as the best eCommerce platforms. To judge in a better way with more aspects, let’s see the benefits and pricing of both.

Benefits of Shopify

Easy to Set up

When it comes to hosting and setting up an eCommerce store, Shopify is one of the greatest platforms. To start something new on Shopify, you don’t need to be a tech-geek as it has its own user-friendly admin interface. 

Marketing Tools and Easy Payment

Shopify offers a wide range of advanced marketing tools, which offer versatile SEO features. For targeting and keeping customers engaged with Shopify, it offers custom gift cards with discount coupons.

Do you know Shopify allows you to set up a stripe payment option without additional costs? 

Excellent Speed

Even though being globally hosted, Shopify gives an excellent loading speed because it has a reliable infrastructure with optimized software. 

Apps Integration

Sellers can add extra functions and features to their store as Shopify has amazing abilities to integrate. And yes, integration is another reason why people love Shopify so much for their eCommerce business. With Shopify, you can never feel like lacking any feature because there are a bunch of apps to pull off specific jobs.

Security and Reliability 

In any other eCommerce platform, you have to deal with customer’s confidential and financial information yourself, but with Shopify, that’s not the case because its host solution takes care of security and provides full maintenance.

Benefits of Squarespace

Designs of the Website

Squarespace adds elegance to your website. One can start building a website choosing a suitable built-in template from Squarespace. Once you do so, the infinite direction and drag-drop tools of Squarespace will allow you to build an outstanding website. 

Excellent Blogging Feature

Squarespace offers excellent and attractive blogging features like Multi-Author functionality, the ability to schedule posts, AMP support, and rich commenting.

For those who seek to have the blog as a central element of a website, Squarespace is the best eCommerce platform for it.

Terrific Customer Service

Customer support of Squarespace is available 24 X 7. Not only this, experts sitting out there are highly trained and know their thing. So if you reach out to them, you may get a solution in less than 10 minutes.

Simple to Use

No pre-installment or updates are required for Squarespace as templates are easily available that you can customize in accordance with the needs of your business. 

Shopify Advantages Over Squarespace

Building an Online Store

The heritage of Shopify as an online store building solution is the main reason why it trumps in the Shopify vs Squarespace competition.

A few key features of Shopify are not yet available on Squarespace. For example, it offers the ability to take payments in several currencies, extensive dropshipping choices, and integration with so many third-party apps. 

Abandoned Cart Saving 

Abandoned cart saving is the main feature that lets users automatically email individuals who leave the store during a purchase. 

Such a facility increases the interest of a user to buy it. What I like the most about Shopify is – all plans of Shopify include the abandoned cart saver function at such pricing, which is lower than Squarespace. 

Marketing Features 

There are many marketing tools in Shopify. These tools assist users in growing their online store better than users of Squarespace. 

For example, users of Shopify can access the built-in email marketing tools and many marketing apps. As compared to Squarespace, Shopify has superior SEO features. 

If you wish to succeed in marketing, then Shopify is the go-to solution for your business.

Shopify App Store 

Shopify provides the best collection of apps. Once you head over to the Shopify app marketplace, you will realize how lucky you are. From easy navigation to getting everything you need to put on your Shopify store is something that would leave you surprised. 

Squarespace Advantages Over Shopify

Building A Content-Driven Website

In the comfort game of Shopify vs Squarespace, the latter one has an upper hand because is because every user of Squarespace is happy about an easy way to build a content-driven website. 

Squarespace has the best templates, intuitive and easy-to-use CMS, superb photo editing, displaying tools, and strong blogging features. 

Shopify is not designed to build a content-driven website. If you like to build a professional-looking website almost immediately, you can go ahead with Squarespace or something better like WordPress. 

Here I’ve done a comparison of Shopify vs WordPress, in case you wanna know what gives WordPress an edge over Squarespace. 

Template Design And Customizability 

The template design and customizable elements in the Squarespace are just perfect. With its hassle-free method to build professional-looking and high-quality websites, you can fulfill your wish of having a professional eCommerce website real quick.  

Shopify has only ten free and 50+ paid templates. However, some templates are not that attractive. 

Affordability

Squarespace is more affordable than Shopify as the cheapest personal plan of the Squarespace is available for just  $16 per month. 

Great Analytics System  

Squarespace has a good analytics system for the non-eCommerce specific builder. If you don’t require eCommerce-related things associated with the analytics system, you can use Squarespace rather than Shopify. 

Page Editors 

Squarespace has the visual and user-friendly nature of the drag-and-drop page editor. You can quite easily drag content blocks and drop them into any column & row. 

You can use different content blocks for creating the appropriate forms, buttons, restaurant menus, photo galleries, charts, and audio players. 

However, Shopify doesn’t include all such templates and niches to build a website in. 

Shopify vs Squarespace Pricing Comparison!

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

All the 3 plans in Shopify have: 

• Online store with unlimited products
• Sales channels with 24 X 7 support
• Manual order creation
• Discount codes
• Free SSL certificates
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Gift cards

The difference is they provide 2, 5, and 15 staff accounts. At the same time, the Advanced Shopify plan offers professional reports, advanced report builder, and 3rd party calculated shipping rates as well.

How Much Does Squarespace Cost?

All the plans include 

• SSL security
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• SEO features
• Templates 
• Basic website metrics
• 24 X 7 support and much more! 

The Advanced Commerce plan of Squarespace includes abandoned cart recovery, subscriptions selling, advanced discounts, and commerce APIs along with the above set of features.

In terms of pricing, Squarespace is somewhat cheaper than Shopify. But, in terms of the value of money, Shopify is the best eCommerce platform amongst the two.

Now let’s have a look at the setup processes of these 2 so that you can get the right insight. 

Shopify vs Squarespace – Let’s Set Them Up!

How to Setup A Shopify Store As A Beginner

1. Sign up on Shopify and Get Free 14-Day Free Trial 

Visit the Shopify website and click ‘Start Free Trial’ and go with the ’14 day free trial.’ 

2. Add Products, Customized Theme and Domain

Visit your online store and select a theme like this -> Themes and click ‘Visit Theme Store.’

Once you select it, you can find a blue button with the name ‘Customize.’ Click it and customize the theme according to your store’s needs.

3. Time to Optimize the Store 

By clicking the ‘Setting’ menu, you will be able to add your store details, domain, and payment provider settings.

Once you’re done, click the ‘Complete Account Setup’ blue button, which can be seen at the right bottom corner.

4. Adding Essential Pages

To add pages on your store, you need to click ‘Add Page’ from the drop-down menu, which will be seen under the ‘Template’ section.

5. Adding Store Products

Now it’s time to add products to your online store. Visit the ‘Product’ menu and select the ‘Add Product’ option. Add your product images and details here.

6. Choose A Price Plan

Pick a suitable plan for your store and hit the publish button.

That’s it, you’re done with setting up Shopify, now hold it right there… preview your website, before hitting the publish button.

Setting Up Squarespace for eCommerce

1. Get Started 

Sign up with Squarespace either with pricing plans or with a 14-day free trial. However, you don’t need to give any details.

2. Choose A Template

Once you sign-in, you will be asked to pick a template for your site, so pick a suitable one for your website.

3. Create A Login

You will be prompted to give your email address or use your Google account details to log in. No choice, you have to do it, haha! 

4. Add and Remove Pages

Don’t forget to manage your site pages well. 

Visit the page menu where you can find an option to add or remove pages, create sub-menus, and other important things.

5. Edit Pages

Once you’re done with the pages, you can rearrange the page sections by clicking the ‘Edit’ option which is in the top left-hand corner.

6. Adjust Design & Branding 

By selecting the ‘Design’ option from the main menu, you can adjust the layout of your site pages.

7. Add Site Information And Configure Key Settings

Provide your business information and other key settings on your website, visiting the ‘Setting’ sections under the main menu.

8. Add Marketing Tools & Ecommerce Features 

If you opt for the ‘Business’ plan, you will be able to add marketing tools & eCommerce features that come right under the ‘Marketing’ and ‘Commerce’ menus.

That’s it! you’re done with setting up Squarespace, you can preview and publish your site. 

Shopify vs Squarespace – Which One is Better? 

Now that we’re looking for something that fits well for an eCommerce store, Shopify clearly has an upper hand because most of your competitors are or will be using the same. 

And personally, I’ve never been a fan of Squarespace, especially when it comes to eCommerce.