The competition in the digital market is being fueled by eCommerce sales nowadays. Consumers these days now prefer to shop online especially after pandemic. It is believed around 95% of purchasing will be done online by 2040.
The eCommerce industry has created new opportunities for countless entrepreneurs. B2B marketers are also accepting this new business trend and are swiftly shifting to digital platforms to generate more leads and bring in more sales.
United States and China – the superpower countries are currently leading the B2B eCommerce industry. Alibaba and Amazon, these two big brands have already stepped into the B2B marketplace.
If these top-notch brands have already stepped into the market, it’s high-time that you should start thinking about it if you want your B2B business to flourish.
However, to digitize your brick-and-mortar business you need an eCommerce platform to establish your brick-and-mortar store in the digital market.
If you explore the market you’ll find plenty of options. Out of these plenty of options we believe WooCommerce and Shopify are the two most popular and reputable eCommerce platforms.
Now here comes the billion-dollar question, which eCommerce platform is better? WooCommerce or Shopify?
Both the eCommerce platforms are amazing to launch a B2C business. However our main concern is which eCommerce platform is suitable for a B2B store.
In this article, we’ll discuss both the eCommerce platforms Shopify and WooCommerce from a B2B perspective to find out which works better for a B2B eCommerce store.
But before jumping to that, let’s first discuss briefly the features and pricing of both the eCommerce platforms.
So let’s get started.
Brief overview : WooCommerce vs Shopify
WooCommerce
WooCommerce primarily is a plugin of one of the most popular, secure and stable CMS platforms, WordPress. But hold on, it’s not just a plugin, it’s a go-to eCommerce plugin that transforms a simple blogging WordPress site into a full-fledged eCommerce store.
Since it’s a WordPress plugin which is an open-source platform, it’s highly customizable and flexible. WooCommerce is an outstanding eCommerce platform that offers all the essential tools that users can use to build an awe-striking eCommerce store.
However, to use WooCommerce you should have elementary knowledge of handling the technical aspects since it’s you who have to look after the technical parts as well if you choose WooCommerce.
From signing-up for a hosting account, site security, customization, and user role management, you need to manage each and everything from your end.
Shopify
Shopify is an all-in-one dedicated eCommerce platform that is now commonly used to build and design a full-fledged eCommerce store. Surprisingly Shopify offers a massive variety of advanced tools to seamlessly streamline all your digital store processes.
Unlike WooCommerce, Shopify looks after your eCommerce business efficiently. Since it’s a closed-source eCommerce platform it not only helps merchants to build an eCommerce store but also looks after the technical aspects of your digital store by itself.
B2BWoo vs ShopifyPlus: Which works better for a B2B eCommerce store
B2BWoo
If we go back in time, launching a B2B eCommerce store was a challenging task since there wasn’t a dedicated B2B platform available in the market. There was no off-the-shelf option available and merchants usually have to turn to custom software building.
Thanks to WooCommerce, who took this massive issue into consideration and developed a decided B2B setup. Previously you only used to have a set of plugins to support your B2B eCommerce store.
The situation has totally changed now when platforms like B2BWoo entered the market.
B2BWoo is an all-in-one B2B solution brought to you WooCommerce and it’s pretty similar to Shopify Plus.
B2BWoo Comes with an array of advanced and astounding features to improve the wholesale experience.
Some of the startling B2BWoo features are,
Quick Order : This unique B2BWoo feature allows businesses to improve the ordering process by letting their buyers order products from a quick order table rather than ordering each product individually.
Corporate Account Management : B2B buyers are not like B2C customers, instead of a single buyer, there are groups of people usually sales representatives who shop for the company. To improve their experience, B2BWoo offers a roles and permission management feature that allows businesses to create a purchaser hierarchy on their digital store.
Hide or Show Products: With B2BWoo, you get the feature to hide or show your products based on the user’s login status. Moreover, businesses can also hide the price and display products.
Let’s check out some other top-notch B2BWoo features as well,
- Integrates with other enterprise tools and applications like CRM, ERP, and OMS
- Volume-based discounts and dynamic pricing
- Request for quote and email triggers
- Tailored catalogs and personalize browsing
- Bulk reorders and cart sharing
That was all about B2BWoo, let’s explore ShopifyPlus to find out which platform is better.
ShopifyPlus
ShopifyPlus – the flagship product of the popular eCommerce platform Shopify offers it’s users with advanced and plenty B2B-specific solutions. It comprises some top-notch features that help B2B users to build a formidable B2B eCommerce store.
Apart from offering B2B-specific features, it provides plenty of value-laden ground-breaking features including,
Password Protected Shop : traditionally wholesale business owners don’t show the price of their products out in the open. ShopifyPlus allows store owners to lock their eCommerce, that means it doesn’t showcase products until and less users register or log-in to the store account,
Search engine visibility : Even though people work day and night so their website can rank higher on search engines, some B2B sellers don’t want their digitalstore to show on search engines. ShopifyPlus allows you to remove some or all the parts of your eCommerce store from showing up on search engines. Plus you don’t have to tweak any lines of codes for this.
Purchasing Terms : B2B purchasing is done via account. Depending on shoppers, store owners can easily set purchasing terms like Net 60 or Net 30.
Let’s checkout some other features of ShopifyPlus
- Catalog management
- Professional inventory management
- Integrates easily on your existing systems
- Built-in marketing
- No hidden fees
WooCommerce vs Shopify : Which works better for B2B ?
After discussing both eCommerce platforms, it’s the time to give our final verdict, which platform works better for B2B?
Considering the statistics, WooCommerce is the most commonly used eCommerce platform if compared to Shopify for various reasons. However, most enterprise sites prefer Shopify.
But what about B2B? Which platform is better for a B2B eCommerce store?
In terms of functionality and performance, both the eCommerce are pretty similar. The primary objective of both the eCommerce solutions is to improve user experience. Both the eCommerce solutions are highly scalable and integrate seamlessly with your existing systems.
Using any of these will help you in digitizing your brick-and-mortar business painlessly.
Still, the ball is in your hand. It depends on your business needs and requirements and not to forget your personal preferences.
What we can suggest to you is if you’re good at handling technical aspects and familiar with WordPress then you should go for WooCommerce otherwise ShopifyPlus will be a great choice for you. However to customize a woocommerce store you can consider wordpress development services to get this task done.
To repiculate, both the eCommerce solutions are best and outstanding in their own ways. Before making the final decision do check out both the options in detail to make a better choice.