As an eCommerce entrepreneur, choosing an eCommerce platform proves to be one of the most difficult decisions when starting or running an eCommerce store or business. Besides, no one solution is effective for every store owner. However, here is a review that covers two of the most popular options – Shopify and Magneto – both ready to represent you in winning over your niche market.
Start the Battle
Let us assume that the different eCommerce platforms are mighty warriors challenging each other to delineate you in your quest for effectively controlling the niche market. Now let Shopify and Magneto enter into the arena and try their guts to reach the coveted position.
As a silent watcher you would be able to see that though they are evenly matched, they prove their worth in different ways. As far as Magneto is concerned, he is a battle-scarred foot soldier armed to the teeth, boasting a fearful arsenal. Also, he is fully reliable, though a bit sluggish in taking immediate steps. Shopify, however, is the greenhorn who dodges fatal attacks by ducking and diving and seems lacking in power, too to win the battle. But he has the agility to strike whenever possible.Now, as a business person, you probably can not afford the time to see the result and would rather ask yourself about the following issues that will help determine the choice for your upcoming online store.
Would You go For Hosted or Self-hosted Option?
Shopify can do the hosting for you, thus making it much easier to get started. Magneto, on the other hand has three adjuncts, one of these being self-hosted. Their Enterprise Edition, though great for big brands, such as ‘Nike’, is much beyond the budget of small eCommerce business owners.
Magneto, meanwhile, also offers a free Open Source Community Edition for developers who are ready to create their store from scratch. However, it may be presumed that you are a startup and so do not belong to the experienced category and that you are keen to make money right away. And for this reason, it is preferable to focus on Magneto Go, Magneto’s self-hosted option for small businesses. There are two reasons behind choosing Magneto Go. Firstly, it will save a good amount of time and energy that would have otherwise been spent to keep your site secure and up to date. Secondly, hosting your own online store could take up a lot of time, not to speak of technical hazards that you had to face.
Time You Wish to Spend for Starting Your Online Store
Since both Shopify and Magneto Go are fully web-based, anyone can have a basic store set up in a couple of hours. As a matter of fact, to sign in and add your initial product on Shopify can take as little as 15 minutes. What is more, a blog is straightaway included, though you may be required to add your own custom URL. Magneto, on the other hand, may prove a bit confusing for those who are not familiar with its interface. For instance, the depiction on the backend looks quite complicated, as compared to Shopify, though the storefront themes are OK.
Also, with Magneto Go, you’ll probably need to get into the tutorials section in order to get yourself started, but once you do, updates wouldn’t take too long either. Moreover, it’s only fair to mention that Magneto Go offers more customization options, whatever way you may look at it. Why, it’s much easier to integrate your Magneto Go store with eBay, perhaps placidly since the eCommerce giant had bought Magneto, lock, stock and barrel way back in 2011.
Conclusion
If you compare side by side, you would probably observe that Magneto Go users have more options built in to their store and the ability to upgrade to another version of Magneto in future, whilst Shopify users will likely need to pay out extra for plugins from the app store to upgrade their site and may become disgusted by the platform’s limits. However, both Shopify and Magneto provide ways to migrate your data should you wish to switch in future.Then there is the option of free trials that both Shopify and MagnetoGo proffer, which gives the opportunity to try them out for a short period of time before choosing the right one.