How Shopify Is Ripping Off Small Businesses

To many small business owners, Shopify appears as a simple, attractive option to begin selling online. However, with their monthly fee starting at £25 for their most basic plan, they make e-commerce needlessly expensive for growing businesses.

Shopify vs WooCommerce

Let’s look at an example of how Shopify will end up costing a small business more than a leading alternative, WooCommerce.

If using Shopify’s basic plan, you will pay £25 per month, plus card processing fees. Whilst that may seem reasonable, you could pay much less by using a WooCommerce shopfront — as WooCommerce is a free e-commerce solution that integrates directly with WordPress, the monthly cost is only that of whichever web hosting provider you choose. Depending on your hosting provider, this can save great amounts compared to Shopify.

For example, my managed web hosting package — available exclusively to new and existing web development clients — costs a mere £10 per month, representing a 60% saving over Shopify’s basic package.

Cost of staff accounts

As your business grows, you are likely to want staff to be able to access your e-commerce system for tasks such as listing products, inventory management, and order fulfilment.

Further stretching small businesses, Shopify restricts the number of staff accounts you can set up before upgrading to more expensive packages — in fact, their basic plan includes zero staff accounts, forcing you to upgrade to their next tier, which gives you up to five, costing £65 per month. If you need more than five staff accounts, the next tier starts at an eye-watering £344 monthly fee.

If using WooCommerce, there is no additional cost for, or limits on, the number of staff accounts that you can create. If you have five or less additional staff accounts, this represents a £55 saving with my hosting package compared to Shopify.

Using WooCommerce

If you have decided to opt for a WooCommerce shopfront, you may be wondering how to get started.

Launching your site

Firstly, WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, so you will need a WordPress installation on your web server. Once you have installed WordPress and WooCommerce, you will need to decide on a visual style for your site. There are thousands of themes available for WordPress, although if you want to make the right impression on customers, a bespoke design is naturally preferable.

Creating a truly bespoke design will require programming experience, so you may wish to hire a web developer to do this for you. I offer affordable web development packages for small businesses, and specialise in building custom WordPress/WooCommerce sites — to discuss your requirements, request a free consultation.

Managing your site

Once you have launched your site, you will be able to manage content — including products, pages, and any blog posts — from your WordPress admin area. There are a multitude of online tutorials to help you with this. Alternatively, you could hire somebody to handle product listings and content management. I provide such services at a professional level — if you would like to discuss options, get in touch today.

Conclusion

To conclude, whilst both Shopify and WooCommerce have their own benefits, it is clear that for small businesses, WooCommerce is the better option, due to its lower cost and flexibility.

If you have questions relating to starting an online shop, why not book a free consultation to discuss your requirements?