So, what you need to know first of all is that the top two e-commerce platforms in terms of popularity are Magento and WooCommerce.
Each comes with their strengths and weaknesses so it’s going to come down to what you want out of an e-commerce platform. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress while the Magento platform stands on its own.
Both of the platforms are quite straight forward to set up and use. The start-up costs are minimal and there’s always a developer who can assist you if you experience a problem. They both have a lot of features you can add, or not. The challenging part is to choose between the two as you weigh in the features each platform has against the other.
What Sets Them Apart
WooCommerce is a plugin within the WordPress platform, and provides all the features you need to run an e-commerce platform. It’s also extremely easy to use, much like WordPress itself. Birmingham WooCommerce or WordPress experts can always help you with any problems you have.
Magento was originally tailored to web development professionals, and online stores that are medium to large in size. So Magento developers in Birmingham can create websites with infinite possibilities thanks to the robust features. But keep in mind that it’s not as user friendly for the newbie looking to start their own e-commerce store.
How Are They Alike?
WooCommerce and Magento developers in Birmingham will tell you that there are some similarities between the two platforms. They are both open source systems so anyone can develop within them. And the super thing is that both have lots of extra plugins or add-ons that can boost website functionality. So essentially, you have access to a lot of extras that can really help your online store.
The open source system offers flexibility because with so many developers involved, it’s likely there’s an extension that’s been created. Both Magento and WooCommerce have a big community sitting behind them so you can always get your questions answered. WooCommerce gets their support from WordPress users while Magento gets their support through the community of developers. This dedication results in the two platforms constantly improving.
They Both Make Their Money through Extras
WooCommerce and Magento are both free in a sense but you may require some of the extras as your business sees growth. Look at the costs of these extras before you make a decision on what platform to use. Consider where you want your company to be in a year from now. What extras do you think you’ll need?
Maybe you’ll need to customize your branding. In order to do this, you may need a new plugin or assistance from Magento developers in Birmingham or WooCommerce developers in Birmingham. If you think about it, it’s fair. You can start up your online store for free, giving you the ability to make money. When it’s time to upgrade, you have to pay.
The benefit of both is that you have a world full of options thanks to the extras. You can choose to pay as little or as much as you want. When it comes to customization, both platforms are excellent.
Running Your Business
WooCommerce and Magento both have effective inventory management systems. It’s easy to communicate with your customers and manage the products you’re selling effectively. You can easily upload images of your products.
You can add blogs as well to get your brand voice out there and boost your SEO efforts. You can effectively run your whole business. With Magento, you do need to install an extension for the blog page. WordPress offers it by default on every theme.
So what separates the two? How can you make a better informed decision?
The Initial Set-Up
If the website you have set up is WordPress based and you’re looking to create a store, it wouldn’t really make sense to use Magento. WooCommerce is easy to manage and feels like WordPress so if you’re already familiar with it, it’s good to stick with it. WooCommerce is simple to customize because of the mass amount of plugins at your disposal. There are also plenty of tutorial videos to help you set it up.
The basics of Magento are also fairly easy. It even has a full installation wizard. There is also a lot of support in the way of video tutorials, documents, and wiki sites. The administration area is easy to follow, though Magento can become complicated once you start adding the extensions. This is when it’s worth finding a Magento specialist in Birmingham to help you out.
Costs between Magento and WooCommerce
Weighing out what you really want and how much you are willing to spend is probably one of the biggest defining factors. A Magento or WooCommerce Company in Birmingham can help you decide what will work best for you.
The start-up costs for using Magento and WooCommerce are free. The enterprise version of Magento is quite pricy but it’s really only necessary for large businesses. For the sake of growing your business however, you will want to add plugins and extensions. WooCommerce comes with basic options so purchasing plugins and extensions to get your online store to function the way you want it to can get costly.
Magento will also require additional extensions as your online store begins to grow. One of the downfalls of Magento is that Magento developers in Birmingham are scarcer than WordPress developers. You probably will find yourself needing a Magento developer at one point. If you chose Magento because you were very specific on how you wanted your site, a developer can make all your visions a reality. It just may come at a cost.
The hosting cost is also a consideration you may not have thought about. WooCommerce runs under your WordPress hosting. Magento should be run on dedicated servers or a cloud plan so the website doesn’t run slowly. A slow website has been proven to cause loss of sales so you want to avoid this problem.
Features that Enhance Your Business
An e-commerce platform is expected to handle all your products and feature a virtual shopping cart. Both Magento and WooCommerce are capable of doing that. The thing is, most business owners have ideas of how they want their site to work and look. This is where Magento reigns supreme. Yes, it costs more due to hosting and you might need to get yourself a Magento developer to work with.
Your site will not disappoint thanks to all of its features however. These features equate to three times the sales growth you would expect from WooCommerce. Owners will see up to half of their operating costs reduced as well. So while Magento might cost more, you get more and your business is more likely to experience growth.
You can easily up-sell and cross-sell within the online store. Shoppers can compare between products and narrow down searches easily. WooCommerce developers in Birmingham can focus on creating special deals and coupons within WooCommerce. It isn’t comparable to the versatile search solutions that Magento offers however.
It’s important to consider where you want your company to be long-term. Consider what you really need from an e-commerce platform. Do you need the extra features that the robust Magento provides or will they be wasted on your business needs? If you think you’re going to need all the bells and whistles, talk to a Magento company in Birmingham to get started.
