E-Commerce is a multi-billion dollar behemoth, and trying to get in on the game can be a challenge if you don’t have the proper understanding of what is available to you as a seller. There are numerous online platforms to choose from, and this blog will cover two of the biggest and help you determine which deserves your attention – Shopify or Amazon.

Before getting into the nitty gritty, you need to understand that both offer you a lot of options, although different ones depending on what you want as a seller and in connecting to your consumers. Each has millions of users every day, and offers your business the opportunity to grow like crazy. Each has user interfaces and user experiences that allows even the e-Commerce novice to get set up quickly.

What is Shopify?

Shopify at its heart is an e-Commerce platform and an online shopping cart, where you are setting up your own store online in a similar style as renting a commercial building for a brick and mortar store. That means you have a lot of flexibility in how you want your store to look, but it also may take a bit longer to set up how you like it.

What is Amazon?

Amazon is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world, where thousands of sellers sell their product through one main website or app interface. Amazon would be akin to purchasing a booth inside of a huge shopping mall and fighting for the attention of consumers to purchase your products; a very competitive, closed-in environment.

The Big Differences between Shopify and Amazon

Ease of Use

Amazon in general is easier to set up, as it doesn’t have as many customization options for you to play around with. This means that with Shopify, you have to work a bit harder to get fully set up, but you can have a truly unique online shopping experience if you put the extra effort into it.

Personalization

If you have ever been to Amazon you know that pretty much every listing looks the same in terms of layout: headline, pictures, bullet points, descriptions, product details, questions, reviews. With Shopify however, you have much more freedom to customize the layout of your online store, and with their drag-and-drop What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editors you don’t even need to know web coding.

Search Engine Visibility

Shopify stores fully rely on being able to be found through search engines such as Google, or Bing, and you’ll have to learn some Search Engine Optimization. Amazon product listings require some knowledge in how to find the right keywords and copy for their A9 algorithm.

Marketing

You are on your own when it comes to marketing with Shopify, but with Amazon there is a whole marketing platform built in for sellers to utilize.

Payments

Shopify offers three different plans that determine how your payments are going to be handled, all with monthly fees, and can handle PayPal, credit cards or other payment options. Amazon has professional plans for a monthly fee, or individual plans at $0.99 per transaction. Amazon also has Amazon Pay, accepts most credit cards, and can accept PayPal.

Shipping and Fulfillment

A big boon for Amazon is the fact that they have Fulfilled by Amazon, or FBA, where you can store your goods in their warehouse for a monthly fee and they handle all the packaging, shipping, returns, customer support, etc. Meanwhile, with Shopify everything is up to you to set up shipping rates, fees and handling packaging, or hire a fulfillment service.

Looking through all the above can help you determine which platform is right for you, or you can choose to use both, as Amazon can integrate into Shopify seamlessly. For more tips, advice, classes or tutorials, visit us as https://wizardsofecom.com.