Entrepreneurs, are you ready to take your profits to the next level? Dropshipping offers a unique business model that allows you to become a business owner without the need for significant upfront investments. However, the first crucial step is selecting the right selling channel.
Sales channels are places where we can market and sell products. We can choose a customizable eCommerce website for more customization and better brand development. On that note, in this article, we will compare WooCommerce vs. Shopify dropshipping. We’ll look at the pros and cons of each and compare pricing to find which one best fits our business needs.
Creating our own dropshipping website is a wise decision, and a great platform for this is WooCommerce. WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plugin designed for WordPress. To elaborate, WordPress is an open-source web hosting platform.
With WooCommerce, we can customize our website with various plugins, widgets, and themes. It also provides the tools we need to create and personalize our dropshipping store. It has a variety of menu options that can help us efficiently manage and operate our online store. These options include customer service features, payment processing, coupons, and other essential functions.
Considering all these features, WooCommerce is a highly recommended platform to utilize when building our dropshipping store.
Shopify helps dropshippers create and manage their online stores with zero coding. It offers a wide range of features and tools that make it easy for anyone to start dropshipping. With Shopify, users can customize their store’s design and easily manage products and inventory. In addition, we can process payments, and track sales and customer data.
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It also offers a variety of third-party integrations and add-ons that allow users to expand their store’s functionality and reach more customers. In short, this means that Shopify is a hosted eCommerce platform software. Their diverse customization options and themes allow us to manage our store to stand out from the competition. As such, Shopify has become one of the go-to platforms for dropshippers.
In fact, check out how this dropshipper succeeded with his Shopify dropshipping stores.
To properly compare WooCommerce and Shopify, we need to look at the pros and cons of each. With that said, let’s dive into WooCommerce first.
Dropshipping with WooCommerce is a great way to make money with minimal investment. On top of that, WooCommerce has additional benefits that can help us scale and boost our profits.
So, let’s see WooCommerce’s dropshipping pros:
WooCommerce allows us to create a fully customized dropshipping store. Since it’s fully customizable, we can build it in relation to our brand. So, we can brand our store and build recognition. Plus, we can differentiate ourselves from the competition and leverage our recognition to boost sales.
Amazingly, on WooCommerce, we can sell as many products as we want. WooCommerce has no seller limits, so we can list thousands of products and easily manage them. As such, we can scale our business and open the doors to more profits.
We can take advantage of tons of free and paid WooCommerce dropship plugins and themes. By leveraging these numerous plugins, we can improve and manage our store. The plugins also help us to add certain functionalities and optimize our business.
On top of that, there are many different store themes that we can further customize. Ultimately, having these plugins and themes alleviates the process of creating and running a store.
WooCommerce has a content management system that allows us to have full control over our content. The content management system is an application that allows multiple contributors to create, edit and publish. Typically, the content is housed in a set of templates and displayed on our website.
With this system, we can manage and improve the content we want to publish, ultimately boosting our website traffic and optimizing our store. As such, we can easily manage all our content efficiently.
WooCommerce dropshipping has a significant advantage in terms of scalability. Additionally, we have many freedom and resources to scale our business. This means we can effortlessly add thousands of products and manage our store effectively.
With WooCommerce’s powerful SEO integration, we can optimize our store to attract more customers. It also enables us to optimize our product listings, category pages, and other aspects of our store to rank higher in search engine results. As a result, we can increase our visibility on search engines and ultimately boost our sales.
When diving into WooCommerce dropshipping, we need to consider every aspect of the platform. Thus, we must look at some disadvantages we may encounter with WooCommerce.
With that in mind, let’s look at the disadvantages of this platform:
With WooCommerce, there is a learning curve. As a result, we have to set up everything from A-Z, which can be challenging. However, we can rely on guides like the WooCommerce Wizard to navigate the setup process. Plus, there are a lot of resources that can help us with the process.
As with any customizable eCommerce website, there is no organic traffic. So, we won’t be able to tap into an existing customer base. On that note, we can use different marketing methods to drive traffic and target our customers to generate sales.
All in all, WooCommerce proves to be an excellent choice for building a dropshipping store.
By using Shopify for our dropshipping business, we can create a store tailored to our needs. As such, this enables us to stand out from our competitors and establish brand recognition.
However, Shopify offers a myriad of other impressive functionalities:
Shopify’s user-friendly interface has an intuitive design and navigation. This allows users to create and manage an online store without needing extensive technical knowledge. Notably, its built-in tools for managing products, orders, and customers streamline day-to-day operations.
Shopify’s dashboard provides a clear overview of key metrics. We’re able to see sales and traffic, enabling us to make data-driven decisions to improve our business. Overall, Shopify’s easy-to-use interface empowers users to build and manage a successful online store with minimal hassle.
Shopify’s app store offers a wide selection of third-party applications. They can be used to enhance and customize the platform’s functionality. In fact, these apps can help us automate various tasks, improve marketing efforts, and provide an overall better customer experience.
Shopify’s lack of seller limits allows us to list and manage an unlimited number of products. Thus, enabling us to scale our business and increase profits effortlessly. This remarkable feature enables us to expand our product range and manage it with ease. This makes Shopify an ideal platform for dropshippers seeking to grow their eCommerce business.
Shopify also has many ready-made eCommerce templates designed for high conversion rates. This helps us start off with a strong store layout optimized to convert viewers into buyers. Plus, we can also use the drag-and-drop editor to customize the templates to our own vision.
Shopify’s content management dashboard makes it easy for us to create web pages and upload text and media to those pages. It works as a built-in blogging feature since we can create a blog for our store and do search engine optimization (SEO). This is essential if we want to maximize our reach.
Shopify is renowned for its excellent customer support, offering users access to a range of resources. Plus, their customer service is available 24/7. We can reach their support team through email, live chat, or even phone to assist with technical queries and provide guidance on best practices.
Apart from the benefits of dropshipping on Shopify, we need also to consider the cons. So, let’s dive into the cons of Shopify dropshipping:
On Shopify, there’s no organic traffic. Unlike marketplaces, Shopify doesn’t have a readily available customer base already scrolling and looking for products. Because of this, we need to utilize paid online advertising to get traction around our Shopify store. For example, we can utilize pay-per-click ads or influencer marketing to appeal to our target market.
Shopify operates on a subscription-based pricing model. This requires users to pay a monthly fee to access the platform’s features and services. However, it offers a 3-day free trial period, allowing users to test the platform’s capabilities before committing to a subscription. We will dive deeper into the pricing next in the article.
Overall, the monthly subscription fee is a small price to pay for the convenience and functionality that Shopify offers. The benefits we get from using the platform far outweigh the cost.
Both WooCommerce and Shopify are subscription-based platforms. So, both require either a monthly or annual subscription payment. They also offer different pricing plans based on the different functionalities they offer.
So, we now know that WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. Although WordPress is free, we still need to pay to use WooCommerce. First, we need to purchase the ‘Business Plan’ on WordPress to gain access to download and install the WooCommerce plugin. For our WooCommerce plugin, we need to pay $25/month.
Furthermore, there are additional costs associated with dropshipping on WooCommerce. We need to purchase a domain and pay for hosting. We have the option to get a generic domain and hosting through WordPress. However, the platform has limited bandwidth, so the hosting service is relatively slow.
By purchasing our domain from a private company, we can choose a unique domain name, and it will cost roughly $20/year. And, by paying for a hosting service like BlueHost, Siteground, and Hostinger, we’ll have a more cost-effective service.
Ultimately, we need to take into consideration the different expenses that come along with WooCommerce dropshipping. That way, we can set a proper budget.
We can start our Shopify dropshipping business for free with their free 3-day free trial. Then we can take advantage of their $1/month for the first 3 months offer (subject to change).
After that, Shopify charges $39/month for their Basic Plan. In the Basic plan, we have everything we need to create our store, ship products, and process payments. In fact, this plan offers basic reports, up to 1,000 inventory locations, up to 77% shipping discount, and 2 staff accounts. Moreover, credit card fees for this plan are 2.9% + 30¢ USD.
Alternatively, we can opt for the Shopify Plan, which costs $105/month. This plan allows us to level up our business with professional reporting and more staff accounts. It also gives us a 88% shipping discount while the credit card fee goes down to 2.6% + 30¢ USD.
Lastly, we have the option to choose the Advanced Plan, which costs $399/month. With this plan, we get the best of Shopify with custom reporting and the lowest transaction fees. We also get 15 staff accounts and credit card rates at 2.4% + 30¢ USD.
However, regardless of which plan we choose, if we opt for an annual plan, we can save about 25% of the price. All in all, we can start with a lower-tiered plan and move up as we scale our store.
Features WooCommerce Shopify
Unique Features Powerful SEO Integration
Mobile Access
Inventory OptimizationBlogging Tool
Abandoned Cart Recovery
Shopify Analytics
Ease Of Use Beginner- Advanced Beginner
Pricing Plans (Per Month) WooCommerce Plugin $25
+ Unique domain and hosting costs Shopify Basic- $39
Shopify- $105
Shopify Advanced- $399
Monthly Costs Yes Yes
Set Up Fee Free Paid
Website Speed Good Great
We made it! It’s time to figure out which is best in WooCommerce vs. Shopify dropshipping. To do so, we need to compare some key factors and find which best fits our needs.
First, let’s take a look at each platform’s unique features. WooCommerce has a powerful SEO tool that can help us optimize our content and attract more customers. On the other hand, Shopify has a built-in blogging tool. Plus, WooCommerce is an open-source platform, meaning we can modify the code and customize our store to our heart’s content. However, on Shopify, we can buy ready-made store templates optimized for conversions.
Another aspect we should compare is the ease of use. Although both platforms are intuitive, WooCommerce is a bit more technical. WooCommerce requires a bit more work in the setup process. Alternatively, Shopify is a fully hosted platform, so setup is easier. After that, both platforms have user-friendly interfaces that make it easy to build our store.
In terms of pricing, there is a notable difference between the two. Shopify has a consistent subscription plan starting at $39/month that covers what we need to start dropshipping. However, with WooCommerce, we need to consider our domain, hosting, and plugin costs. Apart from the cost of the plugin, the other prices vary depending on our chosen vendor.
Notably, both platforms have tons of apps and plugins that can help us optimize our store. In this case, both Shopify and WooCommerce truly deliver. However, Shopify has better customer service available 24/7.
All in all, both selling channels are great choices for dropshipping. Both WooCommerce and Shopify have great functionalities that will help us run a successful business. Shopify may be a little easier for beginners, but WooCommerce is also a feasible option for dropshippers that are getting started. So, our choice depends on our needs and budget.
Besides the high-profit potential, an excellent aspect of dropshipping is that we can automate our processes. So, we won’t have to spend much time and effort manually doing everything ourselves. On that note, the best dropshipping automation tool we can utilize is AutoDS.
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are supported by AutoDS. This means that regardless of which platform we use, we can automate our entire dropshipping process. In fact, we can optimize our dropshipping business and maximize our sales.
Notably, both platforms are a great choice as a dropshipping selling channel. After getting the hang of our store on one platform, we can open another store on the other platform. And, by utilizing AutoDS’s easy inventory management and other automation tools, we can continue scaling.
As a matter of fact, AutoDS will efficiently automate all necessary tasks using powerful tools such as:
…and more!
WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress that requires self-hosting and offers more customization options but can be more complicated to set up. On the other hand, Shopify is a paid, all-in-one platform that is easier to use and offers more built-in features, but with less flexibility. In terms of dropshipping, both platforms offer similar functionalities and integrations with popular dropshipping apps and suppliers.
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are great options for dropshipping. They allow you to run and optimize a fully customizable store. Your choice will depend on your specific needs and budget.
While WooCommerce offers more customization options and flexibility, it requires more technical knowledge to get started and maintain. However, Shopify also offers great customization options and ease of use.
And there we have it! We’ve looked at WooCommerce vs. Shopify dropshipping and compared notes. All in all, both platforms offer great features and opportunities that can help our dropshipping business grow. After looking at the pros and cons of both platforms, we can see the pros far outweigh the cons.
We can also open a store on both platforms and easily run them with dropshipping automation. And, to better prepare us for dropshipping on either platform, we should take a look at these articles:
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