Shopify VS WooCommerce for Dropshipping, Which One Is the Best?

Selling your products could never have been easier than now. The emerging and fastest-growing platforms, such as Shopify and WooCommerce, are making things possible even for new retail store holders. You can sell in the remotest areas of the globe without managing the inventory, order, and logistics.

However, one question that often slows down the online selling journey of retail stores is deciding whether to go for WooCommerce or Shopify. The competition between Shopify and WooCommerce is higher than ever, and both eCommerce platforms have high customer interest, according to Google Trends.

But there are things you should do when choosing dropshipping WooCommerce vs. Shopify dropshipping to get ahead of the competition. So, without further ado, let’s begin understanding whether to go with Shopify or WooCommerce.

Shopify or WooCommerce?

WooCommerce and Shopify are the two most excellent e-commerce platforms. Yet both have unique features and limits, making it hard to choose one platform that satisfies all your business prerequisites and gives you better opportunities to grow.

The article compares two e-commerce giants, Shopify and WooCommerce, for dropshipping to determine which platform wins the claim of being the best e-commerce platform on the web. Read further to know more about Shopify and WooCommerce.

What Is Dropshipping?

In this era of the internet, dropshipping is one of the most endorsed business strategies, particularly among business owners who want to avoid making a sizable upfront investment. 

Dropshipping is an order fulfillment strategy where a company doesn’t hold inventory of the goods it sells. Instead, to fulfill orders, online retailers’ contract with a third party, usually a supplier, to obtain, store, and distribute their products.

Retail eCommerce sales were equal to $5.6 trillion in 2021 throughout the globe. This figure is forecast to grow by 56 percent over the next few years, reaching about 8.1 trillion dollars by 2026. ~Statista

For dropshipping companies to avoid creating and managing an internet store on their own, various platforms offer hosting services. These platforms include WooCommerce and Shopify.

Is Dropshipping Still Profitable In 2022? 

Yes, dropshipping is worth the investment, even in 2022, especially for people looking for low-cost business opportunities, as the number of e-commerce stores over the past few years has increased drastically.

The dropshipping eCommerce business had a whopping value of around $128.6 billion in 2020. Over the six years between 2021 and 2026, the value of the market size was forecast to grow to 476.1 billion U.S. dollars. ~Statista

Profits from dropshipping and e-commerce have surpassed $4 billion, a rise of 7% annually over the past ten years. And the key to the success of an e-commerce store is selecting the best products, keeping profit margins high, and choosing reliable suppliers. If you cover these aspects, you may establish a successful, lucrative internet dropshipping business.

Shopify VS Woo-Commerce: An Overview

Know the significance and offerings of each platform to make an educated decision. 

1. Shopify 

Whether a novice or an expert, Shopify offers you every functionality you require to create and manage an online store, including components such as hosting, security, domain, and others, which are covered by the Shopify package.

You may create an online store for yourself using the website hosting service. Shopify is our recommendation if you desire round-the-clock service, want things like security taken care of for you, and want Shopify to deliver all the capabilities.

Pros and Cons of Shopify

Shopify offers several outstanding features as well as a few cons. They are as follows:

Pros

• Excellent site performance
• Selling on multiple channels
• Numerous apps and plug-ins
• Different subscription plans for experts and beginners
• Trusted by more than 1 million e-commerce stores
• Free features
• Amazing customer support
• Well-designed and functional Dashboard

Cons 

• Transactions fee
• It has a different code language
• Expensive monthly subscription

2. WooCommerce

A WordPress-specific open-source eCommerce platform called WooCommerce offers the freedom to modify your store and create unique extensions. Using the WordPress plugin Woo-commerce, you can use the most powerful content management system (CMS) to run your store.

WooCommerce is the way to go if you want to create a humongous online store that sells in many different countries though you might have to put in some extra effort to set up an online store.

If you are wondering if woo-commerce is a trusted E-commerce platform or an excellent alternative to Shopify, the below-given comparison will help you decide better. 

Pros and Cons of Woo-Commerce

WooCommerce offers several notable features as well as a few cons. They are as follows:

Pros 

• Advanced features for larger online stores
• Powerful SEO
• Customization is limitless
• Tons of themes and layout 
• Compatible for large scale-business
• No subscription charges

Cons 

• It can be challenging for beginners to set up a store 
• Less technical support.

Shopify VS WooCommerce Dropshipping: A Comparison

Here’s the comparison of the two e-commerce giants, WooCommerce and Shopify, with rounded-up pros and cons to help you decide. We have briefly described dropshipping Shopify vs. woo-commerce 2022 for better understanding.

1. Shopify VS WooCommerce: Set-up Time

Setting up a Shopify store takes roughly 30–60 minutes. It all depends on your background in the industry, the volume of merchandise you plan to supply, and other factors.

In contrast, setting up a WooCommerce store can be more tiresome and time-consuming. Because there are so many stages involved, such as installing WordPress, and WooCommerce plugins, integrating payment gateways, adjusting delivery policies, and others, the platform offers better customization options. 

2. Shopify VS WooCommerce: Pricing

Shopify is a user-friendly e-commerce platform offering different pricing plans to meet your business’s significant needs. As a beginner, you can sign-up for their basic program at $29 per month, but you can also upgrade to the Shopify plan for $79. While for large-scale businesses, you can subscribe to the Advanced Shopify plan for $299 per month.

WooCommerce is simple and is a free plugin for open-source WordPress, which accounts for its substantial market share in the industry. Currently, it controls around 29% of the market for e-commerce platforms as the scalability of WooCommerce is high. 

If you are wondering if woo-commerce is scalable, let us tell you that even if WooCommerce is free, hosting is still an additional cost. Hosting for WooCommerce costs $21 per year, which is way less than Shopify.

3. Shopify VS WooCommerce: Apps & Plug-ins

A robust API and an App Store are included with Shopify, where you can buy plugins for Shopify’s App marketplace to improve and automate your Shopify store. Shopify has over 1200 apps, most of which have a free trial and are paid for.

WordPress offers more than 75,000 plug-ins that can be utilized as WooCommerce plugins. These free and commercial plug-ins cover all your e-commerce store’s logistical, technical, and marketing needs. You can discover extensions for any function with 592 extensions made exclusively for eCommerce.

4. Shopify VS WooCommerce: Theme 

Shopify website designers have crafted 70 free and paid themes that are sleek and clean yet feature-rich and mobile-friendly; however, they are only available through the store. You technically can access more than 100 different designs or themes because Shopify themes have unique variants.

WooCommerce provides a wide selection of lovely styles and layouts, and typically, any WordPress theme of your choice will work with the WooCommerce store. However, your technical proficiency and the amount of effort you invest will determine how attractive the WooCommerce theme design is.

Final Words 

Comparing Shopify and WooCommerce dropshipping gives you a better understanding of both platforms. And help you make an educated decision regarding which platform satisfies your needs better.

After reading this article, you shouldn’t have a shred of doubt about which platform to choose. So, launch your first dropshipping store using WooCommerce or Shopify, depending on your personal choice and convenience.