New to e-Commerce? Everybody is setting up shop in the cloud nowadays. However, building an e-store is not an easy feat. In fact, website builders have come a long way from the old code-driven ones.

Today, powerful drag-and-drop web builders can take care of every detail for you. They can even manage the SEO. The two top builders are Wix.com and Shopify. In this post, we’ll compare their e-commerce features and see which is better and easier to use. Read on to learn more.

Wix

Pros

• Very user-friendly interface.
• Over 800+ templates with eye-catching designs.
• Highly customizable.
• Cost-effective plans for e-commerce.
• Advanced e-commerce tools, including global shipping payments and abandoned cart emails.
• Strong brand focus.
• Multilingual sites.
• 24/7 support.

Cons

• Best suited for small and medium scale businesses.

Shopify

Pros

• Built-in e-commerce features, such as Abandoned Cart Recovery.
• Wide range of payment options, including e-wallets such as PayPal and Stripe.
• Live chat support.

Cons

• Complex pricing scheme that can easily go beyond your budget.
• Add-ons, apps, and themes only available to premium tiers.

Wix

• Let’s face it, ease of use is the core of Wix’s business model.
• A drag-and-drop interface, making building your online store an intuitive experience. The only thing you need to do is to click on an element and drag it where you want it.
• It’s easy to add products and create new categories.
• The editing interface and dashboard are separate so you can manage your products even when you’re not in your site.

Shopify

• Shopify keeps its editing interface and dashboard separate, which allows you to manage your store outside of your editor.

A clean, good design is essential for an online store. It’s the online equivalent of your shop’s storefront. Since almost half of the online shopping is done via smartphone, having responsive images and layout is critical to the success of the sale.

Wix

Wix has over 800+ templates. While many of them are not specifically designed for e-commerce, a good percentage are. They cover almost every imaginable industry.

You can take a regular template and quickly edit it to transform it into an online store.

Corvid by Wix allows you to customize your site; from web applications to page scrolling. You can access it by selecting “Code” + “Developer Tools” in the Wix Editor.

Shopify

Shopify offers 100 different themes, which are up-to-date and cover a wide range of industries. But, the high price ($180) of some themes can be off-putting for people starting businesses. The themes are easy to edit; just click “Edit HTML/CSS” on the Admin Page.

Now we’re at the core of the issue. Let’s take a deeper look at the differences between these platforms in how you sell your products:

Product Types

Wix

• Supports physical, digital, and service products, like clothing, digital downloads, and spa services.
• Requires an add-on app to sell service products.

Shopify

• Supports physical, digital, and service products.
• Requires the 3rd-party integration to sell digital products.

Product presentation

Wix

• Built-in product video function.
• Easy to add a zoom feature.
• Customizable check-out page, which allows you to promote your brand.

Shopify

• Supports unlimited items with multiple variants.
• Requires installing apps for features such as zooming and videos.

Inventory Management

Wix

• Upload single or multiple products.
• Offers useful add-ons such as visitor analytics and revenue reports.
• You can track orders and manage inventory from desktop or mobile.

Shopify

• Upload single or multiple products.
• Built-in stock management tools.
• Revenue reports.

Abandoned Cart Recovery 

This feature lets you email customers to let them know there are items still in their cart.

Wix

• This feature is available through an easy to install the app, allowing you to offer seasonal discounts and free shipping.

Shopify

• This feature is available on basic Shopify plans including discount code creation.

Wix

• Use Wix Ascend, an all in one marketing solution right from the site dashboard. While it’s available with separate pricing, it’s worth a try, since it centralizes all your marketing campaigns.

Shopify

• Relies on 3rd-party apps for marketing features.

Wix

• Supports all major payment options, including digital wallets such as Paypal, Stripe, and Square, although it does not support Apple Pay and Amazon Pay.
• No transaction fees on any price plan.

Shopify

• Covers over 100 different payment methods. However, it doesn’t support Square.
• Charges transaction fees when using gateways other than Shopify Payments.

Shipping

Wix

• You can track orders and set tax ranges for each product.
• Supports different shipping options, from free shipping to 3rd-party providers.
• Easy to add apps help you manage global shipping payments.

Shopify

• Its shipping process is somewhat complicated, but the platform offers live chat support to help make it easier.
• Shopify allows you to offer free shipping and synchronizing with 3rd-party shipping providers.

Both platforms allow you to:

• Add and edit the headline and text that appears in Google searches.
• Customize the text that comes after your domain, for example, “www.exampledomain.com/comparisonwix-vs-shopify/”.
• Attach alt text to images.
• Support with SEO best practices tips.

Wix

In addition to the features mentioned above, it offers keyword suggestions for both short-tail and long-tail keywords.

Both Shopify and Wix have app stores that offer various features to integrate with your website and help with e-commerce.

Wix

• It features Ecwid as well as other e-commerce specific apps. This powerful application lets you manage your online store in different environments.
• You can sell on a website, social media, marketplaces or mobile site.
• Integrates seamlessly with social media.
• Centralized dashboard for inventory and order management.

Shopify

It offers e-commerce specific apps such as:

• Customer wishlist.
• Dropshipping.
• Product reviews.
• Currency conversion.

Wix

• Features Wix Blog, which lets you create and edit blog posts.
• You can manage comments and share on social media.
• Wix App for mobile allows you to manage your blog on the go.

Shopify

• No built-in analytics.
• No social bookmarking.
• No blog-specific search.

Although Shopify is a known name in e-commerce website builders if you’re looking for a website builder packed with features to build your online store while keeping creative control over your brand and store design, Wix is the solution.

Wix simply offers more features, combining intuitive editing tools with strong e-commerce features. It gives you more flexibility and it’s much easier to use, so even beginners can set up an online store and start selling right away.