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What is DIY Ecommerce?

I need to remind people how easy it is to make a website. Honestly, it will take a competent internet user a weekend at most to create a decent and functional website of their own. The amount of tutorials and templates out there now is just unreal, so there are no excuses.

For those that decide they've got a product idea and want to get it out to the wider world, it's never been easier to whip together an online home for it. If it's only intended to be a small-scale operation that you run from home, you won't need to pay anyone to make the website for you; you're probably more than capable of doing it yourself.

For those that are completely alien to this world and wouldn't know where to look, it might be overwhelming seeing how many website building platforms are out there. Magneto? Wix? WordPress? For ecommerce – a transactional retail site – I would say the most practical option has to be Shopify.

As it's so accessible, WordPress is the best comparison. I've used both for ecommerce sites in the past, so it's worth breaking down why I now always choose one over the other.

 

Shopify Upsides vs WordPress

The first one on the list has to be hosting. When you're working on a DIY ecommerce project, you're just testing the waters and you may not have any long term goals for it. The last thing you want to do is pay for a premium hosting plan – locking yourself in a 12-month contract – for something you may give up on in a couple of months.

Speed ties right in with that. Shoppers are unforgiving if an ecommerce site they're unfamiliar with doesn't load quickly. As standard, Shopify hosts your site and ensures that it's lightning fast, no matter what you upload to it. Uncompressed jpegs and high quality PNG product shots won't bring your Shopify site to a grinding halt, unlike with WordPress.

Shopify is purpose-built for ecommerce. Thousands of successful sites rely upon it as the foundation for their business, and the company wants to make sure they retain their custom. With WordPress, you need plugins to make it function in the most effective way. While they work in the short term, those plugins need to be updated frequently (for security and effectiveness). You can't be as sure that they will on WordPress compared to free, faceless, less accountable plugin solutions.

Shopify has refined every process beyond belief to ensure that you can get a website up and running quickly. They have tons of their own resources (and a great forum) to cover any questions you're likely to have when you put your site together. While you may be able to do the same on WordPress, the learning curve is a bit steeper.

To summarise, the main benefits I see for using Shopify over WordPress are:

  • Strong, reliable, fast hosting
  • Dependable service
  • Ease to get to market

There are absolutely loads more, but from a fundamentals standpoint, this is what you need to know.

 

Shopify Downsides vs WordPress

The first thing that struck me as a downside was URL structure. Shopify forces users to have long, word-heavy URLs which a) don't look great for marketing b) aren't ideal for SEO. It's an imperfection which you have to accept, unlike in WordPress where you have complete control (so would never include /collections/[_]/products/[_] in your URLs).

Although I mentioned plugins as a downside to WordPress, you can say similar things about Shopify's apps. While they aren't nearly as essential to the day-to-day running of an ecommerce website, they provide additional benefits that a basic Shopify site lacks.

As a non-coder, I appreciate how diverse the theme range is at WordPress. I haven't got the skills to make a site from scratch, but I can customise a great theme to match my needs. There's a constant flow of new, enticing layouts to try out and many of the good ones are free. Yes, Shopify has quite a lot themes too (both ones they offer and external ones) but there are relatively few free ones to choose from, and the customisation options are limited if you're not code-literate.

The thing that may swing it for you whether to try Shopify or not is the cost. At it's cheapest, you're looking at $29 a month, so around £21.60 to keep your site live. With WordPress, a domain and hosting for the year won't even cost you two months of your Shopify subscription. For that reason, you have to be a lot more committed.

To summarise, as I see it, the downsides are:

  • Lacking for SEO
  • Relatively restricted customisation
  • Inescapably more expensive

 

Why the Drawbacks Aren't So Bad

In spite of what Shopify lacks, it is so much more rounded as a quick-to-market ecommerce solution. For those that have a solid idea about what they want to sell, and they're certain they'll be able to cover the monthly costs, it's perfect for the job.

Shopify is the ideal DIY enterprise platform for those that don't want to get into the technical aspects; they want to get their products out there quickly. It allows you to create professional-looking websites and offers plenty of room for growth (unlike BigCartel and others out there).

Ready to kick off your Shopify empire? Head over to their website and get started.

Chiino
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