Magento Vs. Shopify: Which One Is More Powerful For eCommerce – Briefly Explained!

Are you confused between Magento and Shopify? Which one to use to showcase your products and services? How can a powerful eCommerce split the table and help you grow? Well, give this article a full read.

A right eCommerce partner can boost your sales and give you more revenue. Whether you are running a startup or an established business one struggling in the market, the solution is to take your products / services online. 

For an online presence of your business, an ecommerce store, website, payment gateway, customer support, product listings and service packages are the prerequisites. So, you need a tool which can fulfill all these requirements. Magento and Shopify are here to assist you. 

Therefore, in this article, you will see the comparison of Magento vs Shopify: which one is more powerful for eCommerce in detail.

Magento – Grow With Adobe Commerce

Magento is an open source platform for an ecommerce business. It comes with 4 simple and easy steps of installation. First set up a host, download it, install it and then in the end verify its installation to activate all the resources for your online shop. Adobe systems own it since 2018.

In simple words, Magento is a CMS for ecommerce businesses just like WordPress is for bloggers and websites.

The company’s motto is to take your business to the next level. It also offers B2B and B2C features, easing the selling equally to both the other businesses and end users. This feature provides your business flexibility as compared to others.

This ecommerce CMS is a cost-effective choice for businesses. It has 51 million online consumers. It provides 30% fast sales growth, and 260,000 merchants are already associated with it.

Shopify – Making Ecommerce Better For Everyone

On the other hand, Shopify is the shop builder for online stores. In addition to online retailing, it also provides point of sale. Shopify POS can be integrated with the accounting system in real time.

Shopify promises to be the most affordable option for eCommerce. It gives a better experience as compared to Magento. You can build your dream business by meeting all the essential requirements for growth.

Moreover, you can start, grow, manage, and succeed under one roof. A simple and affordable platform that is benefitting new and existing businesses.

Shopify Vs. Magento – A Brief Comparison

Both platforms serve different needs. Which one would be better for your store depends on various factors. Such parameters would be initial investment, services or products or digital products, customer base, marketplace etc. Before making a final decision, consider all these factors.

I have written a brief comparison of these ecommerce competitors. So, let’s take a bird’s eye view of  these two platforms..

User-Friendly

An easy-to-use platform is necessary, especially for the newbie. When joining an eCommerce, one should always prefer to understand things; otherwise, one can damage brand image.

Shopify is easy to use. Shopify is a step shop website builder where anyone can customize the shop without worrying about the final look of the shop. It is a fantastic eCommerce solution for the newbies.

On the other hand, Magento is for experienced sellers and large scale businesses and requires hiring professionals to build the display. Hence, it is not recommended for startups.

Themes for ecommerce shop

The first impression is the last one. To increase the business’s credibility, it is essential to showcase your products accordingly. If it’s done right, you may retain a lot of customers. Themes serve this purpose.

Shopify has more comprehensive, easy-on-the-pocket, and customizable themes available. You don’t need to crack a code for the customization and changes. You can use your desired templates according to your brand’s requirements.

Shopify allows users to customize themes by changing the color palette, moving and resizing components, and adding social media feeds, handles and mobile displays. 

Magento also offers ready-made themes that do not allow customization with ease. If you want to customize it, you can hire a web developer to do the job. And that can go up to 25,000 dollars depending upon the requirements of a business.

Sales Strategies And Tools

Shopify has an amazing range of sales strategies and tools as compared to Magento. It also offers a lot of built-in tools, while Magento needs to install expensive extensions for such tools.  So, the former one is more cost effective than the later one.

Cart Recovery

Both platforms send an automated email reminding the customer of an abandoned purchase that has taken place and is awaiting checkout.

Selling Through Multi Channels and Social Media

Shopify has a built-in feature for selling products and services through Facebook, eBay, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. On the other hand, Magento needs addons to broadcast your product through multiple channels.

Products

Both platforms allow you to sell goods and services. ‏Even digital products can be sold using these platforms. Digital products include digital artwork, ebooks, icons, photographs, videos and voice overs etc.  

Checkout customization

You can create custom-made checkouts for your store with Magento. Shopify also supports customized checkouts. But here Magento takes the lead.

Partnership With Courier Companies

Shopify doesn’t stress over building its own courier company and uses third-party courier companies such as USPS, DHL Express, UPS, and Canada Post to avoid hassle. The same case is with Magento. Seller has to arrange his own logistics partner.

Discounts

Magento put forward so many deals and fixed percentages. Whereas, Shopify is not generous towards offering discounts.

Marketing Plans

Marketing strategies help a business reach the right audience at the right time. It is an essential component in the growth of a business. In an era of digital marketing where everyone is on a screen 24/7, it is the smartest opportunity to target the customer. Let’s see where both competitors stand in this aspect.

Shopify gives profound marketing plans and tools. As a built-in feature, it allows you to market and advertise on many social media platforms. 

With Magento, you are supposed to ask your web developer for bespoke marketing extensions. It limits your reach, and installing extensions every time is quite a load. Other than that, both companies have automated marketing features like email campaigns, etc.

Products Checkout

Magento has better checkout, payment processors, and transaction options. Shopify doesn’t offer payment gateway options, forces you to use its own checkout option –  Shopify Payments, and imposes heavy transaction fees, which can be restrictive.

Customer support 

Magento gives customers the required support, making business operations easy. Shopify also has good customer support but needs to improve in a few areas and meet expectations like its competitor.

Additionally, former ecommerce player also publishes excellent user guides and manuals that take you through the online store-building processes. They contain helpful tips and detailed information from other Magento web developers.

The more quickly you can fix issues and set up your online showcase, the sooner you can return to making sales and gaining new customers. That’s why your chosen platform’s help and support options are essential.

Magento Vs. Shopify Pricing

Here is the comparison of pricing of both ecommerce hubs.

Pros and Cons

Now, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Shopify.

Here are the pros and cons of Magento.

Conclusion

A committing partner is the right hand of your business. It showcases your products and services as you dream. Marketing strategies, choosing a suitable theme for your store, and convenient customer checkout are the vital ingredients of an ecommerce business.

In a nutshell, Shopify is for startups, online shops and ecommerce stores. When a store owner wants to scale up business to a large market, then Magento is best for this purpose. It is recommended to begin with the former option while the later one would be costly for a startup and small business. 

This article has provided a roadmap that will help you to decide and make up your mind before choosing any one of both platforms. Do not forget to give your feedback how far it has benefited your business.

Frequently Asked Questions