How to Build an eCommerce Website with WordPress and Shopify

by Monika Rizovska

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Prior to launching eCommerce websites or stores, business owners need to decide which online tool or software they will use. Being a business owner used to require a much more significant investment in upstart capital. The rise of online businesses and eCommerce, combined with the accessibility of tools and software such as Shopify, WordPress, and WooCommerce, has eased the entire process. 

Although this eases the process, it doesn’t mean that running a good eCommerce business is simple. You have to do proper research and put in the work required to get your new business off the ground and maintain it successfully. But if you have an excellent base, work ethic, and at least a small investment of money, you can build an eCommerce website with Shopify or WordPress and start selling. 

We’ve explored several scenarios while working with our clients who wanted to sell through an eCommerce website. Before choosing what platform fits better for what you are selling, you might need to do research and see what other companies use when building their eCommerce websites. And what you will discover is that most of them use Shopify and WordPress themes to help their business stand out online. 

Shopify vs. WordPress: A lot of startup owners find themselves asking: What’s better?

We have done quick research on both platforms and the key features they offer and why you should choose one of these over the other when building an eCommerce website.

If you are interested in getting a better answer of which platform will serve your business’ needs best, you will discover the solution by the end of this article. Here is an overview of Shopify and WordPress:

Why Use Shopify to Build Your eCommerce Website?

Shopify is a web application and platform explicitly designed to allow shop owners to build and launch their online store.

It gives a range of templates that can be personalized to fulfill small businesses’ branding needs, and it provides options for both digital and physical goods to be sold on these platforms.

One of Shopify’s key benefits is that users without any technical or design skills can create a store in a few steps with no need for a developer or coding. However, those who want to have more customized themes need to know that Shopify also offers options for editing the HTML and CSS for your eCommerce website. This enables business owners to customize their online stores more extensively, as long as they have the needed coding skills.

Most of the time, the business owners of an online shop or eCommerce website have the following two options:

A. The shop is fully optimized for mobile phones. Everything is clear and easy to navigate. You can easily find what you search for. The drop-down menu works correctly. They have the amount and size of what you are looking for. There is even an option to pick your color! Great. Next, you click the cart button, and because you can save all of your essential information on your mobile phone, you can purchase by the time they bring you a coffee.

Let’s see the next scenario:

B. The website has a bad user experience. It is not fully optimized for mobile phones, and it takes many clicks to end the purchase. The thing you want to buy is in stock, but when you try to add it to your cart, the website crashes. It would help if you zoomed in more to insert your credit card number manually.

What do you think? Which scenario will work better?

These two scenarios happen often, and what is obvious is that scenario A will end with more sales. People want a fast, easy, and time-saving experience when buying something on the internet. The easy way to get to Scenario A is by coupling WordPress with Shopify.

The success formula lies in getting the two platforms working together. Shopify has a design that eases the shopping experience with personalized customizable and responsive themes. Shopify offers themes that help the owner to see the look and feel of the store and website. It provides many possibilities for customization.

The next good thing about Shopify is that it is battle-tested. They are reaching more than half a million users. There are many people already selling articles there. The owner or the seller might be good at designing cool stuff but lacks skills for marketing, payments, and secure checkouts, and Shopify helps a lot with this. And then there is everyone’s favorite platform – WordPress. Shopify has created custom themes for everyone who loves and prefers WordPress. In combination, these two offer a safe shopping hosted and controlled on the shop owner’s terms. Shopify included a built plugin to create pages or blog posts with a similar user experience from WordPress, where everything is managed.

Shopify has partnered with Themezilla, Themify, and Ultralinx and has created three incredible themes specifically for WordPress users. Each item is made to modify the websites for either the hosted or self-hosted versions of WordPress.

Shopify eCommerce Plugin

Once you pick a theme in Shopify, the next step is getting a Shopify Ecommerce Plugin, and you are ready to begin. Since the Plugin, the store and the owner’s leading website are all connected – the owner and seller can drop products and buy buttons for consumers to take any action, anywhere, not just in the store they own. The links work on the eCommerce website’s regular web pages, in a sidebar, or even on a splash page.

But here’s a little hint: the Shopify Ecommerce Plugin works well on every WordPress theme. And even if the store and website are not connected directly, customers can find the store without any trouble. Share your Shopify experience with us or schedule a free consultation here.

Shopify is a service tool – which means that you need to have costs for a monthly fee to use it instead of owning it. Shopify is a web application that runs in the cloud, so as long as you are on the Internet and you have access to a web browser, you will be able to manage your online shop from anywhere in the world.

Why Use WordPress to Build Your eCommerce Website?

WordPress is stand-alone software that business owners need to install on their own and complete step-by-step instructions which take more time. Although WordPress has a lot of useful features, here we are focusing only on the role it has when building an eCommerce website. To discover more about the benefits of WordPress, check out our expert and leader in the WordPress community – Mile Milosheski – and get advice directly from his personal experience. However, let us get back to the usage of WordPress when building an eCommerce website. There are two options when using WordPress:

• Hosted WordPress
• Self-hosted WordPress

Hosted WordPress

The hosted WordPress is available at the WordPress site, and it is similar to Shopify as it is a software as a service tool. You need to pay a monthly fee, and then you get access to a range of features that enable you to create and maintain your website. It is less of an ‘all-in-one’ solution than Shopify; however, users need to use third-party tools like Ecwif and Woocommerce to add features for an eCommerce website.

Self-hosted WordPress

The self-hosted WordPress, which owners need to self-host, is a part of the software that you can get from the leading WordPress site and install on your web server. It is open-source, meaning that the code behind it is available, and it is easily edited.

Websites built with WordPress can be easily customized to many degrees. WordPress is a flexible tool that, in the hands of the right website developer, and with the right installed plugins, can help you adjust your website to meet the requirements of nearly any web design project.

If you still can not decide what is the best video tool for your business or prefer to have professionals to help you, contact us for a free consultation and you can discuss more with our experts here.   

Reach out to our team of professionals if you want to learn more about how you can use Shopify or WordPress, regardless of whether you are building an eCommerce website or a regular one. Schedule a free consultation and start saving your time and money right away.

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Sources:

• stylefactoryproductions.com/blog/shopify-vs-wordpress
• hostgator.com/blog/set-up-ecommerce-site-in-wordpress/
• zapier.com/apps/shopify/integrations/wordpress
• websitesetup.org/shopify-vs-wordpress-ecommerce/