ShopifyHousehold name, white people can also move their fingers to quickly build their own e-commerce website. Many domestic cross-border e-commerce companies choose it to build 2C e-commerce website, set up is 2B foreign trade independent station. There are also a large part of people who are amenable to the charm of WordPress to build a website, do not know which one to choose.
Cross-border e-commerce standalone site to build Shopify or WordPress good? Too many people ask this question, so write this article to share our views to help you judge. There is no absolute good or bad, only appropriate or not, to choose according to their own circumstances.
First of all, the conclusion: we think Shopify is a very chicken ribs existence, although it is very easy to build stores, but the success rate of the store to do up not as high as WordPress, fees and so too high and the need for the vast majority of people need to hire outsiders to repair stores and so on. Many e-merchants rushed into Shopify full of enthusiasm to dig gold, and finally found themselves a leek and turned to WordPress in the dust.
It exists for a reason, and there must be advantages to it being so famous.The biggest benefit of Shopify is that it allows sellers to set up a standalone site extremely quickly and get their business up and running quickly, with very low upfront costs. If you want to quickly test products, markets or build your sales channel quickly at low cost, theShopify is the preferred choice.
What is Shopify?
It is a Canadian company's Saas e-commerce website self-service builderPlatformShopify can easily register to sell products, customize decoration, etc. To put it bluntly, Shopify is a website building tool. But it does not have traffic itself, and even more so will not allocate any traffic to merchants.
What is WordPress?
It is a powerful and scalable website builderTools / SoftwareWordPress is the world's most popular CMS, with over 40% of all websites worldwide (including the official website of the US White House) built with it, its popularity can be imagined.
The biggest benefit of WordPress is that it is completely open source, free, without any restrictions, continuously updated, and has countless technicians and companies contributing to it. WordPress has become a complete and powerful website building ecosystem, and many website building companies have started to use it as the basis for building websites.
Cross-border e-commerce independent site to build Shopify or WordPress good?
First look at the July 2022 globalWebsite Building ToolsThe market share of WordPress is 64.3%, Shopify is 6.2% and Wix is 3.4%. All global online retailE-commerce websiteThere are 28% is built by WordPress Woocommerce plugin, if you count other plug-ins built, the share will be higher. the popularity of WordPress is evident.
But not many people know about WordPress, because it is just a website building tool, the vast majority of people simply can not use it and will not use it. Only those of us who are related to building websites will use it and know its charm.
And Shopify is a listed company platform, specializing in building e-commerce sites, in the epidemic rampant + e-commerce outbreak of these years became a household name. Foreigners building online shopping sites preferred it, many national people have also heard of its fame have entered the leek bureau.
Shopify and WordPress have their own advantages and disadvantages, there is no better or worse, and can not judge who is better. There is no way to tell who is better. Everything is about appropriateness.WordPress is more suitable for China's situation, in line with the development trend of cross-border e-commerce, recommended for small and medium-sized sellers to use it to build e-commerce website.
Shopify Benefits
Shopify is based on foreign environment market development, it is more in line with foreign market needs. In foreign countries to sell products online only 3 mainstream options, 1-choice in Amazon, ebay and other e-commerce platform to open a store; 2-choice in Shopify, Wix and other platforms to build their own site; 3 - hire someone to build an independent site for e-commerce (mostly built using WordPress).
E-commerce platform to open a store.The first in Amazon and other e-commerce platform to open a store is the most popular, because free, convenient, trouble-free, reliable ah, and the platform will have traffic distribution to merchants. If I choose to think about it, I will definitely choose to open a store in the e-commerce platform. So Amazon's stock soared in the first few years, and its owner rode the momentum to become the richest man in the world.
But then the e-commerce platform dividend period is over, there is not enough porridge, the traffic is more and more expensive. So Amazon and other platforms began to rise costs, strict management. As a result, store merchants need to pay more and more fees, commissions and so on, but the traffic is less and less, advertising is more and more expensive, business is not good.
And the platform rules are many, can not do without traffic, products are also taken off the shelves, threatening to close store, encounter customer malicious complaints, etc., so that the business began to flee.
Outsourcing of website construction.Where there is oppression where there is resistance, so some people began to build their own independent site of e-commerce. There are no fees, commissions and other expenses, and only a few costs such as servers and domain names are spent each year. No need to worry about products being taken off the shelves, being shut down, malicious complaints, and the ability to customize store design and functionality at will.
The e-commerce independent station to do branding effect is also better, do not have to get into the mire of price comparison, but also access to private domain traffic, combined with social media and other marketing. The vast majority of people do not have the skills to build a website, mainly outsourcing the construction of the site. Outsourcing also has disadvantages: 1- high upfront costs; 2- no traffic distribution; 3- unstable.
Foreign labor is too expensive! Hiring a company to build an e-commerce website costs thousands of dollars, and if the number of products and visitors is large it may cost many thousands of dollars. Many store sellers are not willing to invest such high expenses in the early stage.
The greater disadvantage of the independent site is that there is no traffic, a departure from the platform will not live without traffic. This leads to the need to invest huge amounts of money to attract + marketing, financial pressure on the future is unknown. So even if Amazon and other e-commerce platforms of all kinds of costs add up to about 30%, there are still many businesses do not want to leave.
Another problem with outsourcing is the instability, in case you encounter a company that is not reliable, the service provided and the quality of the website will be greatly reduced. It is not easy to run a store, many things to deal with, the site if you do not get a good mood and business.
Saas self-service website builder.The above-mentioned 2 methods have advantages and disadvantages, can not completely solve the customer pain points, so Saas self-service platform such as Shopify began to be favored. Shopify has all the advantages of outsourcing the construction of the site, 1 - monthly, by order deduction method to eliminate the pressure of the initial capital of the merchant; 2 - Saas build a site can be customized features and design, do it yourself without begging, site quality and service and such are also guaranteed.
Based on these circumstances, Shopify began to catch fire. It is a small investment, saving, stable and reliable, good service, customizable features and design, will not downgrade the product to seal the store of, etc.. Built a perfect set of content management, payment, marketing, logistics and other functions, so become foreigners build e-commerce independent station of choice!
This fatal disadvantage of independent sites without assigned traffic Shopify also has.
Who is Shopify for?
It is recommended that 2C small sellers, especially those who have just entered the cross-border e-commerce business to use Shopify, and then switch to WordPress + Woocommerce to build a website after doing so. This is the lowest cost, the highest efficiency, and high success rate.
The advantage of Shopify is that it is fast, you can set up the store in 1 day and start to store and sell. shopify is a listed company, their technical team is also more reliable, to ensure that the store runs stably. At the same time, Shopify's initial capital pressure will be much smaller, free store, only a small amount of rent per month, not many orders if the handling fee is low.
Compared to this, WordPress is a bit more troublesome and requires specialized technical knowledge to use, the server needs to be selected and configured by yourself, domain name resolution, security certificate, content delivery network (CDN) need to be configured by yourself. If you outsource the construction of a website, these problems do not exist, the company will handle everything, but the quality of the website depends on the reliability of the company.
WordPress to build a 2C website at least 2-3 weeks, if you require a high level of constant modification (Shopify can be changed in less space) to build the station time will be infinitely extended. At the same time, the function and so on may not be stable, there are all kinds of problems. The cost of communication and emotional cost of building a website with the company is not low. Or that is: choose the right company to build the site everything goes smoothly, choose the wrong company physically and mentally exhausted, affecting the cause.
Some people use Shopify to build 2B independent site, there is no purchase function so do not need to give commission and so on, low cost. Seemingly perfect, often end up not get anything, a chicken feather. 2B website is the most important thing is to convert, bring inquiries. This involves attracting traffic, SEO effect, speed optimization and so on.
Shopify limit the number of products, there is a risk of store closure (see the following board introduction). 2B independent station built by Shopify is inferior to WordPress in terms of functionality, speed, traffic flow, SEO effect, etc. If the site is not good, the cost is a waste of time, and if the site is relocated later, the SEO effect may be lost. If the website is not effective, it is a waste of time even if the cost is low. Moreover, if the website is relocated at a later stage, the accumulated SEO effect and uploaded products may be burnt to ashes, which is a waste of time.
Do foreign trade independent station, foreign trade 2B English official website, or suggest the direct use of WorePress, the effect of all aspects are much better.
Shopify Disadvantages
Shopify is good, but do not be greedy, it is not suitable for our situation!
1- Expensive and costly
The above mentioned foreign outsourcing to build a website upfront costs up to thousands, tens of thousands of dollars, and maintenance costs later, so many people choose Shopify. and we have a lot of reliable domestic website builder, get a stable, fully functional website beforeSeveral thousand RMB (no renewal fee). The cheapness in the eyes of foreigners is unbearably expensive in our hearts!
Find us at DiamoBuild a cross-border e-commerce stand-alone website, only 3000+.Lifetime validity with no renewal feesThe maintenance fee is only about 300 per year from the second year. From the second year onwards, we only charge a maintenance fee of about 300 per year, or the customer can choose to maintain the website by himself or by a third party. The ownership and control of the website server, domain name and source code will belong to the client, and there will be no back door and no restrictions on the website. Even if we do not maintain the website, it does not affect the use of the website at all, and the customer can modify/relocate the website at will.
In comparison, Shopify fees are high and costly. Fees include: monthly fees, collection fees, transaction fees, Shopify APP fees, and more! These visible costs alone are counted aboveAt least a few thousand/yearIt is much more expensive than the domestic and international packages to build a website.
And there are costs for renovating the store and SEO optimization, etc., which will cut until you doubt your life.
Shopify renovation costs.Free themes and plugins are too few and unattractive. Basically, everyone will buy paid themes/plugins, and some companies may also pay people to decorate, which is the cost. thousands of templates on the WordPress builder site to choose from, all free.
Shopify Google SEO optimization costs.Shopify is a public company and people have set all kinds of restrictions to ensure profits. To optimize SEO you must first purchase their SEO optimization plugin to do so.
Not only optimize SEO, even compression images and so on have to pay to buy plug-ins, or the effect is very far from. In WordPress most of the plug-ins are free, using free plug-ins can already achieve the desired effect. Even paid plugins can be purchased cheaplyGPL versionIt's only 19 RMB per unit, and it's available for life with one payment and permanent renewal.
See here I believe at this point your mind has produced a thought: Shopify is too pitiful, ha ha ha.
2- Restricted
Public companies will certainly try to increase their profits for the sake of stock price to make users pay more money. How to make users pay voluntarily? The conventional practice is to set limits and let users voluntarily pay to upgrade their packages and unlock features according to their needs.
Shopify has a lot of plug-ins to extend the site functionality as WordPress, but the number and type of its plug-ins is far less than WordPress. backend functionality and modifiable degree is also far less than WordPress free, powerful. This is understandable, after all, they are Saas self-service platform, not open source projects, so will not open all the features and permissions.
WordPress is much more powerful in terms of functionality and customizability, so you can customize your website features and design according to your needs. This is also the primary reason why we choose WordPress as our website building tool.
3- Not as effective at driving traffic as WordPress
The fatal disadvantage of independent stations mentioned above is that there is no distribution of traffic, whether 2B or 2C, the vast majority of independent stations finally die because there is no traffic, and then be shut down. The only way to get traffic and orders is to actively attract traffic to the independent station.
Now the mainstream efficient way to attract traffic are 1 - put advertising; 2 - SEO optimization; 3 - social media traffic. The dividend period has passed, and now the price of advertising is high and the effect is general. Many people around the independent station earned money to advertisers.
SEO and social media traffic is more suitable for independent sites, low cost, good results. WordPress SEO can be optimized and better than Shopify, there are also numerous plug-ins linking social media. For example, 1 - through the plug-in can easily put WordPress productsAutomatic forwardingTo Google Store, Pinterest, etc.; 2- You can automatically carry your Youtube account videos to WordPress website; you can get and display customer reviews of Facebook and Twitter accounts on your website, etc.
Take a step back and use WordPress to build a website to save at least several thousand dollars, use this money to outsource to do SEO to attract traffic to solve part of the traffic problem. For example, our Diamo Google SEO service is only 4000+, one-time fee without renewal, choose 15-20 keywords, the effect of the package more than 1 year.
4- Not out-of-the-box, there is a threshold for use
Shopify although very convenient, but the actual operation of a lot of difficulties, such as decorating the store, functional implementation, speed optimization, SEO optimization and so on. The vast majority of Shopify merchants end up having to pay someone else to optimize their website, the costs add up to no less than WordPress outsourcing to build a website.
Shopify store operation is also a challenge, just like Taobao. At the very least, how to create images and how to write understandable copy. The vast majority of Shopify sites we've seen are no faster and less SEO effective than WordPress sites. Because Shopify users simply do not know how to optimize, or even think about optimizing.
Once a Shopify seller selling plant lights contacted us to optimize SEO. Under normal circumstances a page size of less than 1M, the volume is so large mainly because the images are not converted to web format, and not compressed.
Many people do not understand how pictures need to be compressed and processed, how big is the right size, how to upload products, how to write copy, how to set up the store to optimize .... It is difficult to do everything by yourself. Appropriately give some work to others, their limited time, energy on the important things, this is the way to get rich.
The biggest advantage of outsourcing the construction of the site is to save time and efficiency. Most things are handled by the company throughout the whole process, what they do not understand can also be consulted at any time to build a website company, they just focus on sales on the line.
5- Risk of store closure
Yes, you read that right, Shopify can also be blocked for opening a store. As long as a platform will have rules, there is regulation. As for what the rules are, they say.Chinese cell phone numbers sometimes don't receive verification codes, just like WhatsApp.
Why was the Shopify store blocked?
Both Shopify and Facebook's blocking policies are opaque and unknowable. The following reasons have been summarized from numerous cases and experiences:
- When registering, use QQ, 163 and other domestic mailboxes, it is easy to be closed store;
- Registration information is not real and valid, such as false telephone numbers and virtual addresses;
- Ladder Tools (VPN) IP addresses are unstable and often jump around, which can easily lead to store closures;
- Pay with a virtual credit card or pay on your behalf;
- Do Dropshipping one piece shipping;
- Use a collection tool to collect products from other websites in bulk;
- Plagiarizing/copying someone else's website privacy policy, articles, material, etc. reported by peers;
- Shopify does not allow image theft, especially branded images. Once found and verified, the store will be closed immediately;
- Selling illegal and sensitive products such as imitation brands or infringement.
There is also a risk of being blocked by a complaint, and the builders group saw someone say that their 2 stores were complained about intellectual copyright infringement.Shopify ended up sealing the deal.
Shopify Outlook
Shopify's July 2022 data showed a slight decline in market share, and it could fall even more later. Despite a 16% year-over-year increase in revenue to $1.3 billion, the net profit loss was severe. The second quarter net loss of $1.2 billion, equivalent to $0.95 per share, was in stark contrast to the $879.1 million profit posted in the same period last year.
Shopify CFO Amy Shapero explained that this year has been "more of a transition year, with e-commerce having largely reset to pre-COVID levels. CEO Tobi Lutke said he overestimated the growth rate of e-commerce and announced that Shopify will lay off 10% (1,000 people).
We are not optimistic about Shopify, because it is expensive and offers few benefits to consumers, there are many alternatives. Social platform e-commerce like Tiktok stores are the future because they capture huge traffic, and traffic is like water to fish.
Shopify store relocation to WordPress?
Shopify stores can be relocated to WordPress with one click through the plugin, which is very convenient. If you come to us to build your site, we will help you relocate your store for free. If you want to relocate yourself you just need to install a plugin, go to Google for details.
Now I say Shopify is a leek pit you have no problem with it? In fact, the essence of Shopify is a website builder, it builds a website to sell to everyone, but also add a variety of restrictions on charges. What is expensive in foreign countries, there is no better choice to run to use Shopify, the wise man is good at viewing the essence of things, make the right choice.
