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This guide will introduce everything you need to know about shopify vs amazon.
E-commerce is growing on a large scale. That’s indeed good news for new age entrepreneurs. As we see, offline business owners start searching for a platform to present their values and brands on a large, online scale.
What do you need for a successful online presence? It requires a reliable platform that can transform your primary business into a real success story. That may sound easy, but we are living in the 21st century, where others tried to make everything easy for us. Today it’s easy to start a business; it’s easy to build a giant brand, etc.
The Internet gives us too much freedom and weapon of choice for growing our businesses. As we have mentioned above, choosing a platform is inevitable. You may wonder why it’s even needed to have a platform but we’ll explain it shortly.
Why businesses need a reliable platform?
Without a reliable and robust platform, we can’t aim the moon, period. As in offline business, you need a place (either business owners rent an office or buys/builds) where you can offer your services or products. Worldwide web is the same but on a large scale. You need a platform where you’ll be able to list your product/service and offer it to the world.
In offline business, if your office/business place is situated in a crowded area, it’s more valuable. The same thing goes for the online business world. If a platform is already visited by tons of people, then listing a product, there would be a huge success.
Before a company enters into the online world, representatives have to find a reliable platform; it could be Amazon or Shopify. Today we will have a fascinating discussion with pros & cons related to both online shopping systems.
Jeff Bezos – I bet you’ve heard this name for even once in your lifetime. Yes, he is the founder of the business e-commerce brand around the globe. Amazon is worth trillions of US dollars. That’s a huge success, and it shows the real power of online business.
Jeff started with Amazon from scratch, and he was selling books at first. The whole story of Amazon is indeed impressive and inspiring, but let’s talk about the system itself.
Why should you sell on Amazon?
Amazon opened doors to third-parties soon after discovering the real power of online business. Today you can list your products on Amazon and sell it. Price of membership could be interesting for newbies.
Amazon has two main offers. If you want to sell on Amazon, you can either choose “Individual” plan or “Professional” plan. Both have its limits and values.
Individual plan – It’s a basic package. People, who want to sell up to 40 products on Amazon, can start with an Individual plan. It has not fixed price, but Amazon will take 0.99$ from each transaction + referral fees. Keep in mind that Individual plan is not popular, as people who want to sell on Amazon go straight to Professional plan.
If you are a newbie, you can indeed choose an Individual plan. You can test the features, learn more about the interface and get in touch with the system itself.
Amazon Professional Plan
Professional plan – If you want to sell on Amazon more than 40 products, this plan is for you. Keep in mind that most of the sellers also choose professional plan while selling no more than 5 or 10 products. What’s attractive in this plan? You’ve lots of features that Individual plan lacks. You list products easily have massive help from customer support, and you can get better positions. The professional plan has fixed price: 39.99$ + fees of referral stuff and additional costs.
Amazon Individual Plan
Before you head to Amazon game, make up your mind. What do you want from Amazon? What is your primary goal? Do you have a massive list of products to sell on Amazon? Then you can go for the Professional plan. Do you want to test an Amazon seller panel? You can indeed choose Amazon individual plan.
Amazon – a huge pool of customers
Amazon is very popular among internet users. More than 100 million people visit Amazon on a monthly basis. These customers are ready to pay money and buy your product. For all business owners, selling on Amazon is a dream. Amazon as a platform is already full of target consumers who want to buy your product. That’s a difference between Amazon and other shopping platforms.
Amazon & Marketing
When you have an online shop on a separate platform, you need a marketing plan. You need to reach a proper amount of people to get sales and reviews of your product/service. Amazon is not working is not a regular platform. It’s already filled with targeted buyers, so you don’t have to invest thousands of dollars in marketing.
Competition on Amazon
As we have mentioned above, Amazon does not need a huge marketing budget. The only problem business owners may face competition. Every day new businesses start selling on Amazon, and it may be a disappointment for newbie. Various sellers already dominate all the industries (even though Amazon has thousands of niches), but it’s Amazon – online shopping platform with millions of buyers.
As a newbie, be ready for the competition. It may take a separate budget but not as much as you may need while selling on other platforms.
Shopify – the Perfect start of the new businesses
As the experts say, Shopify is a perfect solution for a whole e-commerce package. Its new business-friendly, as you’ll feel ease while working with this platform. Shopify is indeed created for newbie businesses in World Wide Web. If we take a close look on Shopify representative’s statements, the platform can help every business owners to find their name and fame in World Wide Web.
Fourteen days free trial – Shopify is suitable for newbies in WWW. That’s why the company offers a 14 days free trial. No, you don’t need a credit card or Paypal information. The company does not require any business information from you, test a system.
As for the pricing, Shopify comes with various plans. Shopify is offering three different packages, as they are relevant to any business level.
Basic Shopify Package – If you have a small business and want to start to present your business in WWW, then the basic package is ideal. It has a fixed price – 29$/monthly. It’s a basic plan but comes with few features. This plan comes with two staff accounts, so only two people can control it. Although it’s the basic plan, you’ll have 24 hours support every day, without a rest on weekends.
Shopify – It’s a middle plan and very popular among other projects. It costs only 79$/monthly. As the Shopify representatives say, this plan has everything for growing businesses. What’s included in this plan? For example: 24/7 support especially for your account, five staff accounts, unlimited products, etc.
Shopify Advanced Plan – It’s the most expensive package for very successful and big businesses. For just 299$/monthly, you can access every feature. You can list unlimited products on your store, and create 15 staff account so that your team can handle work for you
Shopify as an e-commerce platform
Shopify and Amazon, both are ecommerce platforms, but Amazon is more than that. On Shopify, you can create an online store for your business, but you have to market product. Shopify is not a platform such as Amazon; it’s more like a system where you can create your store.
When it comes to marketing your business, Amazon may be a better than Shopify, but it depends on your goals. If you want a platform with tons of targeted consumers, then Amazon is best. Meanwhile, you’ll face colossal competition on Amazon, so it’s not good for newbie in WWW business world.
As the Shopify users admit, the platform is very friendly, and support is top-notch. The support team is ready to help you for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, regarding support, Shopify beats Amazon.
Shopify – Additional cost
You may need additional money for Shopify as you’ll need to set up shop theme, plugins (that can help you in retargeting customers who abandoned the cart), etc.
How to choose between these two platforms?
Choosing the right platform depends on your business goals. Amazon will give you targeted buyers but colossal competition. If financially you are ready for an enormous race, then choose Amazon.
Shopify will give you freedom. You won’t depend on Amazon’s customers, so you’ll have more freedom. Shopify will provide you with a system to build an online brand.
Prices are different. Shopify gives you a free trial, and the basic plan starts only with 29$/monthly. As for the Amazon, you can begin your plan without a fixed price. You can choose an Individual plan, list up to 40 products and pay only 0.99$ after each sale.
