Shopify vs Wix - a question for the ages. With so many website platforms offering an ecommerce component, whittling down your options to the one that’s the right fit for your business can be overwhelming.
As Brisbane’s leading Shopify Partner agency, we’re obviously a little biased toward Shopify and all the incredible features it brings to your business. In fact, this very website is built using the powerful customiser found within Shopify 2.0!
Ecommerce or service-based business
A lot of comparison posts you see out there will talk about affordability, technical aspects and even the ease of use of both platforms, but the answer of Shopify vs Wix is a little more nuanced than that. We believe that the answer will mostly come down to your specific business needs, and how you plan on growing the ecommerce side.
The long and short of it is: if ecommerce is the primary part of your business, then you need to be on Shopify.
Wix is affordable and easy to use for those with no coding experience, but, like Squarespace, its primary purpose is for informational/service-based businesses that want the option to add a small or basic ecommerce part to their business. If your plans are grander than this, it’s almost just as easy to get a Shopify store online as it is to get a Wix site up and running - but with all the added inventory management and ecommerce-specific apps that go along with it.
Shopify is the ecommerce leader
Shopify is the premiere ecommerce platform for a reason; recent figures suggest Shopify claims 28% of the ecommerce market in the US with its primary competitors Wix, Squarespace and WooCommerce claiming at least 14% each.
Wix offers basic ecommerce functionality that comes at an additional cost to your base website subscription. While on the face of it, it’s the more affordable option, its scalability is very limited. As its primary purpose is for service-based businesses, the ecommerce component isn’t optimised for conversion in the same way as Shopify. Plus, its flexibility as a drag and drop builder is also its downfall. Shopify themes and sections are expertly designed and developed for the most frictionless user experience you can get in ecommerce. A recent study from Shopify showed that Shopify converts up to 36% better when compared to other leading ecommerce platforms (!).
Expanding your store functionality
One of the historically significant limitations of Shopify is that it only managed up to 100 variants per product. However, the big news from Shopify Editions ‘24 is that new Shopify product APIs support up to 2000 variants! Plus, there are plenty of ways our in-house Shopify Expert developers can expand the variant limitations even further using powerful Shopify metafields and custom-developed apps. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
Expanding the functionality of the ecommerce store is of course possible in Wix too. Wix boasts 300+ apps that extend its functionality, but not all of these are ecommerce specific. Unfortunately that just doesn’t compare to the 7000+ (and rapidly growing) free and paid apps found in the Shopify store that are all designed and developed with optimal conversion and customer experience in mind. Our incredible partner platforms like Yotpo, Klaviyo, Gorgias and Loop have changed the way we approach ecommerce, and the best place to find these is on Shopify.
Prioritising user journey over design
One limitation with Shopify is the design options available to you (though we’ve yet to encounter a store we couldn’t whip into shape!). Wix offers more than 800 design templates, and its simple drag and drop website builder makes it easy for anyone to create a website that suits your business needs. Shopify on the other hand has only 10 free design templates, with a large number of premium themes available in the store for a one-off fee. The thing is though, that all of these themes offer feature rich sections that are individually optimised for ecommerce conversion. And with a little bit of custom code magic, your Shopify theme has the power to be just as flexible, without the code-heaviness the average drag and drop builder brings with it (don’t forget that the heavier the code, the clunkier the website!). More than that, having recently implemented the option to have a one-page checkout (previously only a three-page checkout), Shopify now has one of the lowest friction checkouts in ecommerce, maximising the opportunity for conversion.
The final word
As with any website platform, there are pros and cons and limitations and advantages to both Wix and Shopify. Wix appears more affordable and design-flexible than Shopify, but lacks the scalability and ecommerce-focussed integrations that Shopify excels at. Out of the box, Shopify offers a seamless and low-friction checkout experience to consumers that will convert better and more consistently, time and again.
If you’re looking to get your small service-based business online ASAP, with no code customisation, Wix is an affordable option that keeps the power in your hands. However, if ecommerce is important to you and to the future growth of your business, Shopify’s ecommerce expertise is simply unmatched. In the end, there’s actually no comparison! Contact us now for any questions about how we can help you with your Shopify business!