The world of ecommerce continues to expand at a staggering pace. To keep up, merchants large and small are turning to do-it-yourself website builders like Wix and Shopify to create online stores without needing advanced technical skills. But with two leading options available, how do you determine which builder best fits your ecommerce needs?
This comprehensive guide examines the key distinctions between Wix and Shopify across 10 critical factors to consider when selecting an ecommerce platform. Read on for an in-depth feature comparison, use case examples, and final recommendations to inform your decision between these prominent DIY website builders.
A Brief Background
Before pitting Wix vs Shopify, let’s briefly cover what they are:
Wix – Founded in 2006, Wix is a general-purpose website builder used by over 200 million people worldwide to make websites of all kinds. Along with basic website creation capabilities, Wix provides users with ecommerce functionality through Wix Stores.
Shopify – Shopify, founded in 2006 as well, focuses specifically on ecommerce website building for businesses looking to sell online. The Shopify platform powers over 1.7 million businesses with stores in numerous sizes and categories.
Now let’s explore how they stack up across key factors for your ecommerce website:
#1 Ease of Use
For those without advanced coding and design expertise, an intuitive user interface can make or break your ecommerce site building experience.
Wix makes website creation straightforward for beginners through its drag and drop editor. Building a basic online store only takes clicking through a few menus. However, some more advanced store management and customization features can get tricky.
Shopify guides even total beginners through store setup with its user-friendly wizard. The admin dashboard centralizes store management seamlessly. Shopify also offers a mobile app so merchants can handle orders and products on-the-go.
Winner: Shopify offers slightly simpler product management whereas Wix provides easier initial site building. For most ecommerce use cases, Shopify takes the prize for user-friendliness.
#2 Themes & Templates
Getting a professional looking store up and running quickly depends heavily on an ecommerce platform’s built-in themes and templates.
The Wix template library contains over 800 options spanning all types of websites, though shops specific templates are less than 10% of those available. Customizing layouts is easy with the drag and drop editor.
In comparison, Shopify offers 10 free and numerous premium ecommerce themes focused specifically on storefront design needs. There are also motif packs with multiple styled templates for modification.
Winner: Shopify has far more templates tailored to online retail versus Wix’s handful of store-oriented themes.
#3 Pricing & Costs
Budget is a key practical consideration when selecting any ecommerce platform. Here’s how Wix and Shopify pricing models compare:
Wix’s free plan permits basic store capabilities but limits sales channels to the Wix site alone. Paid ecommerce plans unlock more features starting at $17 per month billed annually. Transaction fees also apply depending on sales.
Shopify offers more flexible plans tiered by number of products and sales volumes. Shopify Lite at $9 per month provides sales channels beyond a site. Paid tiers then scale unlimited products and lower transaction rates for $29+ per month.
Winner: Shopify takes the win due to more ecommerce-tailored package tiers, especially with "Lite" entry-level access to sales channels.
#4 Integrations & Apps
Expanding a store’s features through third-party integrations is key for specialized ecommerce functionality.
Wix maintains an app market with around 200 additions like accounting, email marketing and shipping calculators to enhance stores. However, some users report reliability issues with certain apps.
Shopify offers a vastly larger app store with over 6,000 integrations for fulfilling every merchant need imaginable. Top app producers undergo added verification too.
Winner: Shopify provides unmatched extension capabilities with its expansive app marketplace.
#5 Marketing & SEO Tools
For customer acquisition and traffic generation essential to ecommerce, Wix and Shopify each provide built-in capabilities for SMB marketing.
Wix furnishes users with basic email marketing, social media links, and combinations with CRMs like MailChimp. The optimized site editor readily facilitates search engine indexing as well.
Likewise Shopify enables email campaigns, social channels and integrates with top marketing platforms. Automatic search optimization plus in-depth analytics equip targeted advertising too.
Winner: Shopify reveals a slight advantage here by connecting data-driven merchandising with robust analytics.
#6 Shipping & Order Fulfillment
Key to any ecommerce operation, shipping and fulfillment tools significantly impact the merchant experience.
Wix covers domestic shipping configurations like flat rate or location-based calculations. However, few options exist for international fulfillment or label printing automation.
Shopify automates domestic and international shipping prices. The platform generates shipping labels for packages, produces customs paperwork, provides discount codes and tracks delivery status.
Winner: For scaling order fulfillment globally, Shopify provides far superior shipping functionality.
#7 Payments, Fees & Transaction Management
Of course collecting and managing customer payments comprises the lifeblood of any online retail business.
Wix supports over 70 payment gateway integrations like Stripe, PayPal and Square which facilitate checkout. Payment fees average around 2-3% plus additional transaction charges per store plan.
Like Wix, Shopify connects 100+ payment partners globally. More fixed pricing with rates starting at 2.4%+$0.30 per transaction provides clearer cost structures too.
Winner: Shopify offers transparency with competitive payment processing fees across all packages.
#8 Security & Compliance
Ecommerce systems handle troves of sensitive customer data, making platform security paramount. Compliance capabilities also minimize legal risk.
Wix underwent SOC 2 certification auditing its data safeguards, though merchants own PCI compliance. No commerce-specific protocols like DMARC email authentication come built-in.
Alternatively Shopify is level 1 PCI compliant by default, securing stores against data threats. Added certification includes SOC 1/2, ISO 27001 and Eu-US Privacy Shield for policy adherence.
Winner: Shopify outpaces Wix with top-tier infrastructure and policy protections included.
#9 Scalability & Growth Capacity
Another key decision factor is an ecommerce platform’s ability to expand along with your business.
Wix sites rely on shared servers, constraining resources available to individual stores. Large product catalogs also slow performance. Growth requires upgrading plans for more bandwidth and storage.
Shopify builds on a cloud infrastructure designed for enterprise merchants. Stores readily scale to peak shopping periods without impacting speed. Higher plans mainly add advanced features.
Winner: Optimized architecture guarantees Shopify allows practically unlimited growth versus Wix’s capability constraints.
#10 Customization Flexibility
Though Shopify leads in critical performance metrics, Wix regains ground with its modification flexibility.
Beyond simplistic layout changes, adapting Shopify’s core interface proves complicated requiring Liquid code tweaks. Merchants often resort to hiring programmers for major edits.
Conversely Wix provides more freedom to alter site structure and design with its open drag and drop editor. Creative entrepreneurs appreciate the lack of rigid branding rules too.
Winner: Wix triumphs for entrepreneurs wanting total creative license customizing their brand’s visual touchpoints.
Best Fit Use Cases
Weighing the comparisons above, can we identify ideal user profiles who would benefit most from each platform?
When Wix Works Best
Creative entrepreneurs like artists, musicians or lifestyle bloggers needing integrated online shops benefit from Wix‘s design-focused flexibility to match sites to branding aesthetics.
Smaller merchants early on also take advantage of Wix’s free plans and lower tiers to test concepts before major ecommerce growth.
Those wanting simplified site construction additionally find Wix more intuitive initially verses Shopify’s operation-centric interface.
When To Choose Shopify
Serious ecommerce store owners prioritizing sales capability over creative control do best with Shopify thanks to its performance optimization and scalability.
International merchants shipping worldwide likewise gain from Shopify’s smooth global fulfillment process plus currency conversions.
Technical decision makers also prefer Shopify for its security, compliance standards and truncated development lifecycle through a library of proven ecommerce features.
Conclusion
When choosing between the user-friendly website builder Wix and specialist ecommerce platform Shopify, first consider your goals and priorities.
Wix gives you more overall flexibility for designing fully-customized online shops, but less built-in capability. Shopify limits aesthetic liberties yet provides unmatched functionality to scale sales rapidly.
Just launching a simple shop? Wix provides the faster, cheaper path to getting online even with transaction workarounds.
Aiming for rapid growth to enterprise volumes? Prioritize Shopify’s robust backend and proven blueprint for managing business complexity behind a polished storefront.
Ultimately for small to midsize merchants, no universally “better” option exists between Wix and Shopify — just the platform which aligns closest with your needs. Let your aims guide you, grow without limits and enjoy success!
