Launching an ecommerce website is exciting; however, it’s essential to have the right ecommerce platform to provide your site with the functionality customers need and expect.
When it comes to ecommerce platforms, there are a couple that are the most popular. These are WooCommerce and Magento. It’s not easy to choose which platform is best since they both offer many great features.
That’s why we’ve created this article. We’ll take a look at both ecommerce platforms and their respective features and more. Our goal is to help you decide which of these platforms is best for your website.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free ecommerce plugin for WordPress, which is open-source and offers code that can be customised. According to the WooCommerce website, about one-third of all online stores use this CMS.
Many people who choose WordPress go on to choose WooCommerce over the other CMS platforms. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, there are plenty of video tutorials online to help you learn, along with plenty of documentation and user manuals available.
The WooCommerce dashboard is also easy to use. The platform is supported by a large international community of WordPress aficionados, who are happy to create new ideas and work to improve the plugin.
When it comes to ease of use, WooCommerce is often thought to win over Magento in this area. That’s because the WooCommerce platform is geared to users of all levels. It’s perfect for those who are new, as well as users who have more experience.
The Benefits of Using WooCommerce
Here are the main benefits of using WooCommerce:
Sell everything with this platform: the plugin can be used to sell a wide range of products and services, including digital products.
Cross-selling & upselling: these options can help you make more sales with promo campaigns.
Digital marketing: the platform is excellent for blogging and functions well for eCommerce marketing campaigns. It’s not necessary to build the store into your blog. That’s because everything’s already in place for content creation. It’s also possible to integrate the plugin with email and social media campaigns.
Official extensions & themes: the WooCommerce platform offers an extensive range of search tools, payment options, and shipping enhancements. You’ll find there are free and paid extensions available. What’s more, there’s also a theme section in the plugin website that allows you to download the Storefront Theme and its products in order to create a beautiful website for your online store.
Unlimited customization: every part of your website can be modified with WooCommerce. This includes the pages, design elements, and blocks on the site. You can also specify the currency, language, and other settings.
It’s also possible to add as many photos, attributes, and tags to products as desired for the shop. The plugin also works to improve customer loyalty by showing their reviews on the product page.
Analytics: WooCommerce reports have a variety of filters and categories, which offer insights on store performance. The visual analytical tool makes it fast and easy to review the activity for your online store each day. The reports have four different sections, including monitoring customer activity, managing stock, checking taxes, and tracking orders.
Pros of WoCommerce:
- Provides the optimal user experience
- Flexibility & choice
- SEO
- Security & support
Cons of WooCommerce:
- The CMS is free
- It’s tied to WordPress
- Updates may not be compatible with your version of WooCommerce
- The platform is easy to use; however, you may still need a professional programmer who is familiar with WordPress
- Lack of features
Magento for Ecommerce Sites
Magento is a very powerful ecommerce open-source CMS, which has a supportive, active community that continuously works on product development. What’s more, Magento provides flexibility, which allows users to easily expand the functionality of their ecommerce sites. These are some of the reasons Magento has become a popular CMS for ecommerce websites.
This CMS platform is considered to be tech-heavy, meaning it takes someone who has experience with website development to get the most out of the CMS. This may not be the easiest platform for those who are not tech-savvy or for those who are new.
Having said that, there is a free version of Magento called Magento Open Source, which makes it easier for newbies to set up a simple online shop, which is easy to customise and run. This version of Magento offers the following functionalities:
- Built-in checkout
- Offers payment and shipping tools
- Mobile shopping
- Multi-store management
- Product management
- Order management
- Tax management
- Customer and customer group management
It’s also possible for users to further customise their online store’s functionality by using extensions, which are found in the marketplace.
Magento offers another version called Magento Commerce, which is a great solution for those who are looking to upgrade their websites and increase sales. This version of Magento offers more advanced features and tools, which include professional reporting & analytics dashboards, improved search solutions for site users, and more.
Magento Features
You’ll find Magento offers plenty of features for ecommerce sites. These features include:
Works well for all types of businesses: B2B, small businesses, as well as international businesses.
Business analytics & statistics tools: these tools help sellers to get a better idea about their customers and identify products that are the most popular. The platform also makes it easy to share this data with teams and stakeholders.
Smart shipping: Magento includes a built-in shipping solution on Temando and uses the latest API system and microservice tech. Installation is easy, as well as configuration and integration with third-party apps.
Cloud-based hosting: the open-source version of this platform requires users to find a hosting provider; however, the commerce version includes premium cloud hosting services.
Extensions marketplace: it’s easy to add additional features and functionality to the CMS through the use of popular extensions. These are available in the marketplace for a fee.
Magento themes: the platform also provides some ready-made themes for shops, which can be found on the marketplace. The prices for these themes range from free all the way up to $499. However, it’s also easy to find themes on Themeforest or Template Monster, which offer rich designs.
Magento Pros:
- User-friendly dashboard
- CMS provides plenty of customization
- Store owners can differentiate prices and determine discounts for different groups of buyers
- Catalogue management
- Intelligent reporting system
- User interface can be designed according to the latest trends in UX & UI
- Magento provides plenty of scalability
Magento Cons:
- The features can be somewhat cumbersome
- There are few Magento experts
- The Commerce version is expensive, priced at $1988/month
- Not all themes and extensions can be migrated from Magento 1 to the latest version
- Web hosting (or lack of)
How to Choose the Right CMS Platform for Your Ecommerce Site
Now, you’re ready to choose the CMS for your site, right? Well, not so fast. Before you make a decision, it’s best to ask yourself the following questions. These can help determine whether WooCommerce or Magento is right for your online business:
- What is my target market?
- How extensive is my range of products?
- How much traffic will my website get?
- What kind of online store will I start?
- Do I need a simple shop with essential functionality or a complicated custom-made shop?
- Is the security of the platform important to my business?
- What is the budget for my project?
So, which is the better platform for your shop?
WooCommerce is better for startups and it’s less expensive. While it doesn’t have as much functionality as Magento, there’s plenty of functionality for shops that are just starting out.
On the other hand, Magento is best for established online businesses that have a high number of customers. Magento offers a long list of features and functionalities that may be helpful for more complicated online stores. Remember, the paid version of this CMS is expensive; however, there is a free version available that lacks some of the functionality of the paid version.
Remember that neither CMS is perfect. Your choice of platform really comes down to the size of your business, the functionality needed, and your company’s budget.