Drupal Commerce vs. Shopify: Which Is Better for Your Business?
Whether you’re ready to maximize sales with your online store or build a new one, weighing the pros and cons of popular ecommerce platforms is often a challenge even for seasoned marketing managers. As an ecommerce solution, Shopify has exploded in popularity for beginners, while many businesses enjoy the freedom of Drupal Commerce. And even if you have a Drupal content management system (CMS), modules are available for Drupal Shopify integration. The choice comes down to your business capabilities and brand objectives for your ecommerce site. Explore whether the benefits of Drupal Commerce and Shopify are better for your business.
What Are the Benefits of Drupal Commerce?
Drupal Commerce goes hand-in-hand with Drupal CMS. The free open-source ecommerce software offers multiple core features: product types with custom attributes, checkout flows for multiple types of orders, easy integration with payment gateways, order management and much more.
As with Drupal, the commerce side also needs developers with experience for finer points. However, Commerce Kickstart, which is also free, offers an easier way to get started quickly and make administrative changes more easily.
The far-reaching developer community is robust for those who need assistance getting started or want support along the way. Below are additional benefits of Drupal Commerce to factor into your decision.
Drupal Can Make More Dynamic Pages
With its range of customization options and free plugins, it’s rare to find two Drupal Commerce sites that are exactly the same. This allows businesses to fully customize products and store pages to create a user experience unique to their buyers.
In addition, Drupal Commerce is virtually infinitely scalable. With a strong focus on application programming interfaces, Drupal Commerce can be fully integrated with any other software to help with system automation.
Drupal Is Trusted by Large Companies
Due to its security and scalability, many government agencies and large enterprises trust Drupal for CMS and ecommerce. Drupal Commerce’s core features include not just tax calculation but also VAT for selling globally, as well as multilingual checkout forms and carts. Those capabilities don’t come out of the box with Shopify, and international payments can require extra steps as well.
Larger organizations also appreciate that Drupal can handle large amounts of multiple types of content.
What Are the Benefits of Shopify?
For a monthly subscription fee, Shopify empowers business to launch and sell to customers online as well as in a physical location through Shopify POS (point of sale). The commerce platform’s core features include everything you need to get started: storefront, shipping, marketing, accounting and tax management, and payment processing.
In mid-2020, many small business turned to Shopify to help bring their brick-and-mortar sales online. Positive Shopify reviews are easy to find, with users giving favorable ratings for ease of use and even higher reviews for its sales features.
Shopify Is Easy to Use
Whereas Drupal Commerce can require a bit more technical expertise, Shopify has a much easier learning curve. It’s set up so newcomers can quickly get started selling online. And if you run into problems, Shopify offers customer support for assistance. There are also two programs, Shopify Partners and Shopify Experts, marketers can turn to for extra guidance.
To create a more customized experience in Shopify, both for customers as well as administrative customization on the back end, you’ll need to rely on their various apps, which have varying levels of difficulty. But for many businesses, Shopify provides everything they require for a smooth ecommerce experience.
Sales-Focused Websites Often Use Shopify
According to Yahoo! News, big brands using Shopify websites for ecommerce include Fitbit, Hyatt Hotels and Whole Foods. Companies that prioritize sales over content tend to find that Shopify meets their needs.
Brands can and do share lots of content through their Shopify sites. But because the platform is mainly focused on selling, the native content types are generally simple if you don’t implement third-party apps.
So, Which Is Better: Drupal or Shopify?
In the Drupal vs. Shopify debate, what works for your competitor may not be a great fit for your business. If your business needs an ecommerce platform that’s infinitely customizable for content and global products, secure and low-cost, Drupal Commerce may be the best choice. If ease of use or a focus on sales is more essential for your brand, using Shopify may be worth the trade of hitting a ceiling on customization options.
One final point to keep in mind is that Shopify charges a commission or transaction fee on sales. While Drupal Commerce doesn’t, payment gateways may have their own fees.
Ameex Can Help with Your Ecommerce Site
If you’re ready to maximize digital sales with online store, Ameex can help. Contact us today to discuss your business demands.
Our Drupal web development experts have over 13 years of experience providing clear solutions for complex business problems. Ameex also brings an outcome-driven approach to scaling, adapting and evolving your Shopify store.