Windo v/s Shopify

The eCommerce business has been taking a boost for a few years. The majority of the brands are either selling their products on already established eCommerce platforms or have started their own business online. However, if you are the latter, here's a thing — Starting an eCommerce business is challenging. You need to do everything from scratch, i.e., either you are launching your online store/website from or have multiple web stores. 

Through websites like Windo and Shopify, you can create your online store in a few minutes. Let's understand the differences between the two and help you get the best solution. 

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Brief Introduction of Shopify and Windo 

About Shopify 

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce website builders in the industry. Majority of the businesses, from startups to established ones, everyone is using Shopify today. This platform focuses on helping you create an online store from scratch. 

About Windo 

Windo is the best Shopify alternative that allows users to create their online store in 2 minutes and lets you sell your products effectively from one place. The best part about Windo is its zero-commission business model. 

Pros & Cons of Shopify 

Pros: 

1. It allows multi-channel platform integration i.e., Shopify allows you to manage and analyze all your sales across platforms like Instagram, Amazon, and more. 

2. Along with sales, managing inventory and big orders can be a complex process. This is where Shopify comes to the rescue because its tools help in managing the same effectively. 

3. It has numerous tools that can allow you to design an effective and eye catchy online store in a few minutes. 

Cons: 

1. It prevents users from editing robots.txt files. 

2. Another main downfall of Shopify is that its transaction fees keep adding way too fast. 

3. Plus, you would often need developers’ help to build and manage your Shopify store.

Pros & Cons of Windo 

Pros

1. It is one of the most effective and affordable eCommerce platforms in comparison to Shopify.

2. Because of its affordable pricing plans, many small-scale businesses can leverage this platform without any hassle. 

3. Its interface is comparatively simple and easy to use. 

4. You can design and manage your online stores through different devices effectively. 

5. Windo allows you to easily import images from your social media handles to use on your online store. 

Cons of Windo 

1. The free-forever plan does come with certain limitations. 

Pricing 

Windo and Shopify both have different pricing plans for their users that they can use as per their budget and convenience. 

Windo comes with 3 plans — Sprout Plan and Blossom Plan. While the former is the forever-free plan, the latter starts at $12 per month. It includes unlimited products, unlimited orders, online payments, and customer support; plus, you also get features like a custom domain, priority customer support, and a 0% transaction fee along with all the features of a forever free plan.

Shopify has 5 main pricing plans. They are as follows: 

1. Its starter plan starts from $5 per month 

2. The basic plan starts from $29 per month 

3. The third plan Shopify starts from $79 per month 

4. Their advanced plan begins from $299 per month 

5. And their fifth and final plan begins from $2000 per month

All the plans have access to different tools and benefits. The higher the price, the bigger the benefits. 

You can even use their 14-day trial to understand the working of the platform and then choose a plan accordingly. Shopify also offers discounts to users depending on their countries. You can get a discount of anywhere between 10% to 50%.

Payment Integration 

One part of making an online store successful is making the payment process smoother. Because it removes all the hassles making it seamless for both businesses and customers. 

Windo processes customer transactions securely by easily collecting payments through credit and debit cards, bank transfer, Venmo, PayNow, GCash, Cashapp, UPI, and more. This way you can easily and directly collect payments from your customers without any hassle. 

Shopify has multiple integrations to let you effectively collect payments from your customers; however, Shopify can only be used if you are selling your products through a specific country. And the downside of it is that if your country isn’t on the list, you will have to use a third-party payment gateway. For this, you will be charged the % of sales and the plan you have chosen. 

Themes 

Remember, you need to leave a long-lasting impression on your audience to encourage them to stick to your online store. One way to do this is by applying themes according to your brand personality. Themes allow you to give an appealing look to your online store and act as an important element to attract your audience. 

One of the best parts about using the Windo eCommerce platform to design your store is its eye catchy theme options. You can select from their 6 different theme options and easily customize your store colors, layout, and design according to your brand colors. 

It provides a unique and creative experience to the users and even allows them to remove unimportant sections from their website or store. 

Shopify too has different theme options available for businesses. You can choose from a variety of different themes based on your brand colors; however, it’s a bit expensive as its premium and attractive themes can easily cost you between $150 to $350. 

Custom Domain 

A custom domain is a unique domain or label that is attached to your website’s IP address. In simple words, it means allowing your customers to type or search your domain name when they want to visit your site or store. 

Windo allows you to easily and effectively integrate or associate your existing website domain with their custom domain feature. Having a branded custom domain can enhance your brand credibility and differentiate your brand from the competitors by giving you a competitive edge. Leveraging Windo’s feature of a custom domain can even help you in creating a unique brand identity. 

You can buy the custom domain setup through Shopify and it will automatically become your primary domain. Along with it, you can even add unlimited subdomains; however, it is only possible if you are a plus member of Shopify which is not affordable for many businesses. 

Live Chat and WhatsApp Integration 

Through Windo’s integration with WhatsApp, you can easily connect with your sellers. This way you can streamline the entire process to let them have easy access to queries via WhatsApp. The best part about Windo’s WhatsApp Integration is you can customize the chat widget and select the particular parts of the screen you want to be visible. 

Shopify allows users to effectively integrate WhatsApp with the platform to track and manage all orders. This can help you in pushing your customers to leave their abandoned carts and complete the purchase. 

Shipping 

If your products cannot reach your customers at the right time and right place, is it even worth it to design an online store? Probably not. Therefore, you need a shipping plugin to connect with trusted shipping partners as per the delivery location. 

Windo focuses on helping you deliver your products to your customers seamlessly. It has multiple shipping partners based on the countries sellers are selling the product from. Their shipping plugin allows you to automatically calculate shipping rates, communicate with customers, and print shipping levels. 

Like Windo, Shopify allows you to automatically calculate shipping rates, print shipping labels, and get discounted rates for shipping labels. However, their shipping plugin is limited to specific countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, and more. So, if your country isn’t on the list, you need to use third-party shipping platforms to ship your products seamlessly to your customers. 

Windo vs Shopify — Which One to Choose? 

Windo is certainly an ideal option for businesses as it is affordable i.e., it provides similar benefits at a low cost. Shopify is one of the best and most popular platforms in the eCommerce industry that comes with several benefits. But it still has drawbacks that push its users away from the platform. 

Small businesses cannot afford Shopify because of its higher pricing plans. Even if they choose to go for their lower-cost plan, they will miss out on the most important features. Along with it, they are restricted to limited countries. So, businesses have to use third-party platforms to use the features of this platform in order to effectively reach out to their customers. 

Verdict: Go with Windo as it is more affordable with effective features and benefits that can take your business to a new level!