The blooming of technology in the 21st century has indeed brought about many unprecedented chances for entrepreneurs. However, the mushroom of online business platforms has made a lot of newbies confused and can’t decide what to choose.
In this article, we would like to give some information about the two most well-known platforms at present - Shopify and Amazon. Check it below!
The Overview of Shopify and Amazon
Let’s start with an overview of these two e-commerce platforms first. While Shopify allows you to set up and design a website from scratch, Amazon provides you with an existing warehouse and tons of potential customers from all over the world. It’s like Shopify leases you a separate building to sell products, and Amazon gives users a stall in a very crowded and competitive market.
It’s recommended that Shopify is an ideal choice for businesses, brands and individuals who want to build up their reputation. On the other hand, a person who just wants to sell products should choose the Amazon environment.
Shopify
Advantages
- Free-90 day trial: If you are a newbie, you have an opportunity to try this wonderful platform in 90 days without a fee. You are allowed to get access to several basic designs and set up your store in Shopify within these 90 days - a fairly long time for a trial. Therefore, you could have the clearest view on how Shopify really works, which can help you decide whether to choose this eCommerce platform or not.
- Reasonable Selling Fee: After 90 days, Shopify will expect a transaction fee from sellers like other website services. This, however, is quite reasonable when compared to Amazon. Based on what you want from Shopify, the free will fluctuates between $30 - $300/ month.
- Multi-Function and User-Friendliness: As mentioned above, Shopify is designed so that everyone, even an amateur, can set up their online store in the easiest way. It includes a variety of themes and designs; it assists you to connect with other eCommerce tools and apps; it is friendly to both mobiles and tablets; and it also has supervisor teams who are ready to give you advice and guidance when you are overwhelmed with a large number of business tasks to carry out.
- No Competition: Yes, you own your Shopify store and no sellers can enter it without your permission. Due to that, you don’t need to compete directly with anyone else like in Amazon.
Disadvantages
- A Slow Beginning: The most difficult thing to do in Shopify is seeking your customers. Once your shop is built, you should immediately draw up an effective marketing strategy to attract viewers and boost sales. Bear in mind that the amount of money you need to invest in this might be not as reasonable as the selling fee you pay for Shopify.
- Absence Of Reports: Reports and plans are not available in Shopify, so you had better collect and control them on your own. However, you will not have to worry much about this, because there are some really good report applications that are available on Shopify App Store.
- Riskiness For Your Brand: Once you decide to choose Shopify, it’s you who are liable for the buyer experience. Unlike Amazon - with which some buyers connect their shopping experience, Shopify gives you all responsibility for this problem.
Amazon
Advantages
- Access To Innumerable Audience: The number of users is Amazon’s greatest and attractive advantage. On average, Amazon is visited by millions of people from all over the world per month; so if you haven’t had any reputation yet, this platform will increase the chance of your products being come across by some random users.
- FBA: FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) is a wonderful program created by Amazon. Although FBA takes extra time to ship your products to an Amazon warehouse, it is the package of everything, including not only storage, fulfillment but also customer services, returns and refunds.
- Availability Of Reports: Different from Shopify, this function of Amazon allows you to spend more time on your business without worrying about numbers and statistics.
Disadvantages
- Severe Competition: More and more sellers choosing Amazon leads to market saturation in this website. More sellers mean fewer sales, and this is a red-flag to a person who is completely new to the business.
- Substantial Fee: On average, Amazon charges you 15 - 40% of the sales per month. Besides, registering an FBA costs a lot of money as well. With such a substantial fee, even though you have large data of audience, you should consider carefully this highly saturated website before deciding to use it or not.