In terms of internet retailing platforms, you can find a plethora of alternatives today. Many features, such as a payment processor, subscription management, and membership management, are at the disposal of business owners that maintain an online store.
There are two companies that appear to be particularly prominent in the digital sales market as of late. Shopify is the best option if you want to start a website from scratch. The e-commerce platform Shopify makes it simple for any business, big or small, to set up an online store and begin accepting credit card and debit card
Another option is to open a storefront on Amazon and begin selling immediately. A vendor on Amazon can reach the millions of customers that use the site on a regular basis.
Shopify and Amazon are two e-commerce behemoths, raking in about $90 billion in total revenue between them. Both provide access to a massive market of potential customers.
Analysis of Shopify
Shopify is a robust e-commerce platform in the cloud, allowing online merchants to quickly and effectively set up and manage their own digital businesses. The platform can be expanded as needed. Companies use it to power their online storefronts, but individuals can use the bare bones of the service as well.
Shopify Payments, an integrated payment processor powered by Stripe, enables users to accept payments online with a choice of over 70 premade themes. Among the many store and customer management tools available, Shopify integrates with several social media platforms, provides discounts and gift card options, and stores all of your customers’ sensitive data safely in the cloud (including Amazon).
A Look at Amazon
If you sell your goods on Amazon, you can reach millions of possible customers all over the world. Because of this, Amazon is a very useful tool for business owners who don’t have enough inventory to open their own online store and build a customer base.
Amazon is useful for online businesses that are already up and running because it can bring in extra money and send new customers back to their main stores.
Setting up your seller profile and listing your products on Amazon is pretty easy, but it can take some time to get the hang of it, and you’ll need to follow Amazon’s rules and regulations.
Amazon and Shopify are not the same in a big way.
It’s important to remember that Shopify is a specialised eCommerce platform and Amazon is an online market. Shopify users can set up their own online stores, and Amazon sellers can sell alongside other online sellers.
Shopify makes it easier to sell dropshipping products online and has powerful dropshipping apps like Dropship Corporation that can help you grow your store.
Selling on Amazon is like having a stand at the busiest intersection. Most of the people who come to your stall aren’t looking for your business in particular, but you still make a lot of sales because everyone walks by and sees you.
You rent a place to run your business through Shopify. You have your own space, and people look for you once they know your brand. Even though it’s harder to get customers, there’s more room to make your brand stand out.
Because of these differences, Shopify and Amazon serve different kinds of online sellers. Shopify is for people, while Amazon is for small and medium-sized businesses.
An in-depth review and comparison of Shopify and Amazon
Prices
Shopify lets you try the service for free for 14 days:
- $29 a month for the basic plan
- Plan for Shopify: $79 per month
- Plan for the future: $299 per month
- Plan Lite: $9 Plan Plus: Starting at $2000
- The cost of a Shopify plan goes up when it has more features. You can also downgrade or move up at any time. Shopify gives you a 10% discount if you pay for an entire year up front, and a 20% discount if you pay for two years up front.
Amazon: Amazon has two ways to charge for things:
- Each item sold by a single seller costs 99 cents. With this plan, you can only add new items to Amazon’s catalogue and, if you want, use Fulfillment by Amazon. Amazon says that it is okay for sellers who test their products.
- Businesses that sell: The fee is $39.99 per month. This plan gives you access to advanced tools like API integration, on-site advertising tools, and user accounts for more than one person.
Support
This hosted solution comes with great customer service. You can ask questions and get answers from other Shopify users and experts, as well as find documents and video tutorials about the platform, in the Shopify community forum. You can also look at Shopify’s Changelog to see what’s new.
Shopify
Shopify’s Help Center can also be reached 24/7 by phone, email, and live chat. The support team will take care of your problem in a few minutes.
Amazon
Like Shopify’s forum, the Amazon forum is a place where users can ask questions and get help from other users. Amazon
The Help Center for this platform also has some answers to questions that are often asked. Amazon does offer customer service by phone, email, and live chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Simple to use
You want to enjoy shopping on your eCommerce platform instead of having to deal with technical problems. Both Shopify and Amazon are easy to use, which is good.
Shopify
You don’t need to know how to code to use Shopify’s drag-and-drop design. First, you need to sign up for a Shopify account. You can change the layout, colours, text, and other things by dragging and dropping media elements anywhere on the page.
An interface with visual cues makes it easy to set up and use your online store. With Shopify’s back-end dashboard, everything you need is on the left sidebar, making it easy to get around.
Amazon
Following the set-up steps is all it takes to make an Amazon store. The next step is to upload information about your products. This includes the product category, product identifier, SKU, offer details (price, shipping options, etc.), product details (name, brand, etc.), and search terms. After that, you can start selling.
Design flexibility
The way your website looks can affect how people think of your brand. Shopify’s design options are much more versatile than Amazon’s, but both let you make your pages stand out to customers.
Shopify
Shopify makes it possible to build a full online store. You can make something from scratch or use one of Shopify’s already-made templates. There are many paid and free themes that can be used for any niche.
With Shopify’s drag-and-drop editor, you can also completely change how each page of your site looks. You can change the layout, add widgets, and add content to your About, Contact, and Home pages.
Amazon
Amazon has a lot less freedom when it comes to branding and customization than Shopify. The product listings look exactly like the ones on Amazon. No themes or templates are available. You can be as flexible as you want with your product listings by adding images, bullet points, and a description.
In simple terms, Shopify is better in terms of design than Amazon. With Shopify’s themes and templates, you can make your store look the way you want it to. Due to Amazon’s limited design options, it’s hard to build a unique brand image there.
Tools for E-commerce
Shopify has a clear advantage because it keeps adding new features and tools.
Amazon is very proud of its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) programme, which reaches customers all over the world. By signing up for FBA, all you have to do is sell the items and Amazon will ship them for you.
Because the platform offers shipping and fulfilment services, sellers no longer have to worry about how to get their goods to buyers. You will have to pay for these services, of course. Even though Amazon has to pay more, almost half of its sales come from third-party sellers, and 60% of its best sellers use FBA.
But if you do dropshipping, you won’t have to worry about this because you won’t need to rent a warehouse for your products. In the dropshipping model, all you have to do is give your suppliers the orders for your store, and they will send the products directly to your customers.
On the other hand, Shopify has a wide range of tools for online shopping. Some of the tools it gives you are:
- Apps like Dropship Corporation Barcode and QR code generators make it easy to drop-ship.
- A plan for writing emails
- Management tools for stores
- How to figure out tax and discount
- Help with custom marketing and branding
How to Get Customers
If you can’t bring people to your website and keep them there, you won’t make any money from your website or online shop.
In this area, Amazon has a big edge over its competitors. Amazon is the most popular marketplace in the world. Every day, millions of people look for things on Amazon.
Amazon
When you put your products on Amazon, you might get customers who are looking for things like yours. This is one of the best things about Amazon and one reason why so many businesses choose to sell on Amazon.
So, you don’t need SEO or marketing to get a lot of views on Amazon and make sales. Amazon is the best search engine, according to Google and other search engines.
In addition to Amazon’s traffic and high ranking, keep in mind that when customers search, your goods will be listed alongside those of your competitors. This means that you need to make your products stand out from those offered by Amazon and other third-party sellers.
Shopify
it doesn’t have a natural search volume, but Amazon does. Shopify users usually make their own online stores with their own domain names and are in charge of optimising their product lists, brands, and stores for search engines and marketing them.
By integrating abandoned cart delivery, multi-channel sales, social media integration, personalised shopping, and more, Shopify has built-in and extra tools for improving your SEO and marketing your items to get more customers and improve your brand’s image.
Pros & Cons of Shopify and Amazon
Shopify
PROS:
- It has powerful E-Commerce tools that will help your store get the promotion and advertising it needs for your business.
- Shopify lets you set up a website for your business, so you can make your own brand identity.
CONS:
- If you add 3rd party apps from the Shopify app store, your monthly budget may go up.
- You are the only one who can decide how to market your business. It’s up to you to get people to know about your brand and build it up.
Amazon
PROS:
- A lot of people buy weaving products from Amazon’s online marketplace. You can get more people to see your product and make more sales if it gets more traffic.
- Amazon also takes care of the whole process, from packing to shipping, including storing your inventory. These extra services make it so much easier for people who sell things online to run their businesses.
CONS:
- There are a lot of sellers on Amazon, which means there is a lot of competition. It can be hard to do better than others.
- When it comes to Amazon, it can be hard to come up with a unique brand image.
Conclusion
Amazon and Shopify are both great places to buy and sell things online. Depending on what you need, you should carefully look at both platforms. Even though these platforms have a lot in common, they are also different in a few ways.
Amazon is a great place for small-scale sellers who don’t want to build a strong brand identity.
Shopify is a great platform for people who want to build brand awareness, but they will need to spend more money on marketing. Shopify can also help a business that will be around for a while. It’s important to note that Shopify makes it easier for dropshippers to sell online in the new way by giving them tools like Dropship Corporation that help with dropshipping.
You do not have to pick one or the other. By connecting Shopify to Amazon, you can sell from your Shopify store on both sites. You should choose this option if you want to get the most out of selling through multiple channels and keep control of your brand.
