Amazon VS Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform Is Best For Your Business

 

Amazon and Shopify are prominent players when it comes to e-commerce platforms. With Shopify development services powering over eighty thousand businesses and Amazon receiving over two billion visitors every month, it is difficult to decide which to choose.  The main difference between Shopify and Amazon is - the former focuses on designing and building an e-store and the latter is a ready-to-use marketplace. Amazon enables sellers to access millions of potential customers, while Shopify provides them with the tools to build a webstore. After looking at the above difference Amazon might seem like the right choice. However, there is a catch. To access the customer base, merchants have to pay a percentage of every sale they make as a fee. They also need to abide by Amazon’s rules and regulations. On the other hand, Shopify development services do not charge any commission on the sales made on the platform because every customer acquired and the sale made is through the merchant's efforts without any assistance from the platform. Therefore, businesses take home most of the profit.  In this article, we’ve compared Shopify and Amazon, from how easy they’re to use to pricing, features, and more to provide in-depth information to our readers. 

Also Read: How Shopify Development Services can boost the Performance of Your E-Business

Shopify VS Amazon 

Customization Flexibility

One of the most pronounced differences between these two is the ability to customize the store. With Shopify, merchants can customize pretty much everything on the website, provided they hire a professional to do so. Shopify has a hosted content management system(CMS), which means merchants have complete control over the content of the website. The themes and plugins offer flexibility, which enables in making the site look exactly how they want.  On the other hand, Amazon product listings have pre-defined templates. Sellers can customize the product copy and images as long as it’s within the platform’s terms. However, with Brand Registry they get access to a few more customizations options such as Amazon Storefronts and Enhanced Brand Content. Still, there is a limit to how much sellers can customize the store and product pages. 

Traffic Generation 

With Shopify development services, there is no marketplace or discovery vehicle for Shopify stores. Store owners are responsible for every customer they get on the site. The burden of marketing and driving traffic to the website falls on them. Amazon attracts millions of shoppers every day. Most of them have an extremely high purchase intent. Businesses can list active products for these customers to find and purchase. The impact and visibility of Amazon are unmatched.  Also Read: Amazon Marketing Services: Run Google Ads to Maximize Your Sales

Built-in fulfillment and shipping channels

Fulfillment is a big part of online business and it can hurt business if it’s not up to par.   Fulfilled by Amazon(FBA) is a great feature offered by the platform. It handles everything related to fulfillment, from storage to packaging and shipping. Amazon can even manage orders on multiple channels. Shopify is currently working on its fulfillment network to rival FBA. However, it will take time to build a shipping network that can challenge Amazon’s. FBA is trusted, reliable, and even offers next day delivery in metro cities, which is a tough task to beat. 

Also Read: FBM or FBA? - The Better Choice For Amazon Marketing Services

Ownership

In Shopify, merchants have all the responsibilities like promoting business, building brand awareness, sales reports, and more. Therefore, they have complete control over the e-store.  With Amazon, sellers are essentially renting a spot on the marketplace. It controls the site and all the customers, therefore retailers have to play by its rules. If not, their selling privileges will be canceled, and will lose access to Amazon’s customer base.

Fee

The fee is a big part of the decision-making process. Profit is critical to the success of an e-commerce business and a seller wants the best value. Amazon charges a certain percent as selling fees per item sold.  Shopify has three broad categories- basic at 29$ per month, Shopify at 79$ per month, and Advanced Shopify at 299$ per month. The basic plan offers everything except for the sales report. Merchants don’t have to pay any selling fee here.  After seeing the vast difference in the fee structure Shopify feels like the right choice. However, zero selling fees only makes sense if you’re making sales. Therefore, the higher selling cost of Amazon needs to be weighed against the traffic it provides. 

Use Amazon with Shopify: The Best of Both Worlds 

Amazon and Shopify complement each other very well. Each offers certain features that the other does not.  Merchants can integrate Amazon with the Shopify store. They can build an e-store and promote their business in the world’s largest marketplace at the same time. It enables them to create Amazon listings and offer straight from Shopify, sync inventory and product details, link products, and more. All they have to do is set up an Amazon seller account and then add the Amazon sales channel to the Shopify Store. 

Final Thoughts

Amazon lures sellers with its massive customer base. FBA enables businesses to focus on marketing and development without worrying about order fulfillment. However, the fees can add up quickly and sellers will have to follow certain restrictions of the platform. Especially, if they want to expand the business. Also, businesses are always at the mercy of feedback and reviews left by buyers, price fluctuations, and competition from other sellers. Therefore, retailers do not have full control over their business.  Merchants have complete ownership of the e-store with Shopify. The fee is also fair. However, they need to put in a lot of effort and time to reap the benefits of the platform. They need to manage the store along with the storage and fulfillment, customer service, marketing, and also research on the competitors to stay ahead in the market.  In a nutshell, businesses that prefer to drive sales through a ready-made platform and are happy to relinquish some control in return for slightly higher fees and restrictions, Amazon is the best option. For those who are looking for greater control, stronger brand identity, and scalable pricing, Shopify development services are the right choice. If you’re still confused, contact us and talk to our experts to find out the best platform for your business. At Oodles, we provide our clients with custom e-commerce solutions to suit their business needs