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A lot has happened in 2020 with the COVID-19 Pandemic accelerating the eCommerce landscape in new stores and the shift from high street to online. Not just commercial shifts but also curbside pickup and online scheduling as key tools in doing business through the pandemic. So what’s the trend looking like for 2021? Let’s see what happened for the past 3 years.
2017-2020 Marketshare trends:
Data sources: BuiltWith 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
It has become clear that the capabilities of WooCommerce and Shopify have enabled businesses to adopt easier platforms over Magento and while Magento is an extremely capable platform, the maintenance and complexity are significantly reduced within WordPress and Shopify Cloud environments. It takes seconds to spin up a server with WordPress and install WooCommerce or start a new trial account with Shopify – low risk, low cost, ease of use is pushing their adoption.
What are we expecting for 2021?
The continued trends of 2020 to 2021 will most likely see Shopify move towards 24% share, and WooCommerce reaches 31% share as Magento will have its trajectory towards 7% share. Basically with the Pandemic still among us, online sales will be a prime focus for the next year as businesses adopt online as a primary method of doing business.
What is Shopify vs. WooCommerce offering?
Shopify offers a cloud-based eCommerce platform that sets up shop with hundreds of inexpensive or Free themes that are mobile responsive, and feature-rich. Shopify has a 14day trial, then turns into a monthly plan, where depending on your business needs (new business, medium traffic, or high volume) your needs might differ to seek the right support and feature/cost plan.
WooCommerce is a plugin installed inside of WordPress to enhance it into an eCommerce store. It is easy to go about setting yourself up with WordPress, select a theme that will work for your business with WooCommerce where the hosting at the entry-level will be very competitive. However, costs can start creeping up since you will then need an SSL and PCI compliance/security as you launch.
With WooCommerce being open source, your ability to customize the store to your precise requirements has no limits especially if development resources are available to you. While Shopify is almost as capable, the restriction is its shared checkout area which can be branded in higher plans, however, restrictions do apply when it comes to the core functionality.
Shopify Ratings Stats:
WooCommerce Rating Stats:
As one can see, both are highly rated, and both are very competitive on features, and ease of use.
Shopify Support and WooCommerce Support both are highly responsive, and both have FAQs, Knowledgebase, and online chats for anyone needing guidance, as well as a massive community to provide best practices and what works best for their store.
Shopify monthly pricing is competitive when it is compared to the hosting and maintenance of a WordPress with WooCommerce installed. If you chose to use a Shopify Expert to develop your store, there is no cost until the store is launched since the developing store is hosted through their partner account, and the charges only take place when it is launched.
Conclusion: When looking at the landscape, 2021 will be seeing two main technologies dominating the eCommerce industry. Both having their unique value in the cloud space, hosted or not, the commercial value of putting your offerings on the net is just as competitive, it really comes down on how you want to manage your store, and where do you feel you need to customize it to suit your business needs. Shopify is strong on many fronts and is scalable through various plans all the way to Shopify Plus, whereas WooCommerce is scaled by the server and hosting capabilities. And while it is a chore to switch eCommerce platforms, it is reasonably straightforward if you feel you need the capabilities of the other technology.
If you would like to consult and have a discussion on the type of eCommerce platform your business would best fit your needs, feel free to reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com
