It is essential to choose the right platform for your e-commerce store, as that can virtually guarantee its success. Make the wrong choice, and you could end up putting your business’s growth, reach, and success in jeopardy. There are two main platforms that you can choose from Shopify and Magento Enterprise, and the Magento is in the limelight these days with the release of its new version, Magento 2.
This article aims to increase your knowledge regarding both platforms and, hopefully, will help you choose the platform which is best according to your own needs, so you can choose the one you want to use to suit your needs.
Security
In today’s day and age, where hacking has become an extremely common phenomenon, securing your e-commerce store is essential. Magento Enterprise is “self-hosted” platform, and even though both Shopify and Magento ensure you are PCI compliant, with Magento you are responsible for managing the security of your store yourself.
You might need to make an extra investment in order to make your platform more secure if you opt for Magento, meaning that you will be responsible for all security breaches.
Shopify, on the other hand, Level 1 PCI DSS compliant and offers hosting services as well, meaning that they themselves are responsible for ensuring your business’s security. With Shopify, your data will be protected with the same level of security that is present in the bank!
Clearly, Shopify creates a safer environment for you to conduct your business in and takes away all your responsibility regarding security issues.
Marketing
Marketing is key for the success of a business, but few marketers actually have web developing skills. With Shopify, you do not need to worry about that as there are many default features, like the ability to create conversion pixels to track social media campaigns, advanced analytics, a discount code generator and free Google Adwords credits.
While Magento 2 improves on the original Magento by allowing faster loading times and offering a friendlier backend UI, Shopify is still the best platform in terms of marketing as it allows your marketing team to make changes easily while not having to depend upon a web developer.
SEO Optimization
SEO Optimization is also another important factor that can have a bearing on your business’s success as it directly effects how high your business turns up in search results and almost 44% of e-commerce purchases start from an online search. Shopify Plus and Magento EE both allow you to use page titles and independent links along with meta descriptions, image tags, as well as H1 Headings to help increase your engine rankings.
Magento 2 has added certain improvements to SEO, such as allowing you to add rich snippets and organize structured markup data.
However, Shopify takes the crown here as well, because it allows you to use the Traffic Control App, so if you change platforms and migrate to Shopify, you will still have the same SEO ratings you had before. So migrating to Shopify doesn’t damage any previous rating you build up!
Shipping Companies
You need to ensure that companies that provide shipping facilities are integrated well into your engine so that you have no problem shipping ordered goods. With apps like Shipworks, Magento EE integrates shipping providers such as FedEx, USPS, UPS, and DHL while Shopify Plus integrates with USPS, UPS, and FedEx as default options. Shopify clearly provides a wide range of suppliers to choose from, making it a very well rounded e-commerce platform.
Developed System
An important thing that you need to keep in mind when choosing which platform is best, it is also essential to analyze which platform has a more well-established ecosystem. It is true that Magento has a well-developed system of 200,000 merchants, but Shopify has a network of 150,000 merchants too, and Shopify is still growing at a rapid rate! For example, there was a 124% increase in Shopify’s shares from 2013 to 2014 which is proof that its ecosystem and network of merchants is growing at a drastic rate.
Magento is good if you have resources enough money for investing to develop a highly detailed and intricate e-commerce platform, or if your business requires in highly complicated B2B e-commerce transactions.
Shopify is way more user-friendly than Magento, and you do not need to invest a lot or have a web developer at all times to use Shopify as Shopify provides easy to use features, so you need not depend on a web developer.
For those people who wish to launch their business quickly, are ready to make use of third-party applications, and would prefer a more user-friendly interface Shopify is clearly a great way to go.
