In the big e-commerce world, Shopify is deemed one of the first and most popular platforms for business owners. But nothing can be one-size-fits-all and Shopify is not really for everyone, either. Shopify still has its strengths and weaknesses, which will be discussed below. You may take a thorough look at some of the reasons why you should find yourself Shopify alternatives.
Why not Shopify?
Menu:
1. SEO issues
Even though SEO in Shopify may be of help for many online stores, the SEO system is not perfect. There are some issues with SEO such as inflexible URL structures or some outdated algorithms. Those issues may appear annoying to some people.
2. Transaction fees
The transaction fees of Shopify varies from 0.5% to 3% through different packages such as Advanced Shopify and Standard Shopify. The additional fees for Shopify themes and apps are another problem for merchants on a budget or opening multi-stores.
3. Limited in product variant
It is somehow intriguing that Shopify only allows users to create up to 100 variants and added 3 options for each product. For a business that in the long run, this might be a problem as the more quantity of products your store have the more number of variants you need to create.
4. Hard to customize
Definitely, Shopify is not a friendly-beginner app for new users to try to customize their stores. Therefore, the solution is hiring a theme developer but this could lead to more outside costs for your business.
5. Criteria to choose the best alternatives to Shopify?
If you have decided that Shopify is not the ideal platform for your business, here are some suggestions for what you are aiming for:
- Scalable: Currently the best competitor of Shopify for this category is BigCommerce.
- No coding skill required: Very friendly-beginner, business-oriented merchants without any technical knowledge or coding skill.
- Multiple options of pricing for both tight budgets and potentially high-demand users
- Marketing focused
