You'll live with your store platform for years. Moving products, descriptions and order history to a new one later can cost more than the original build. So before you commit to Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop or BigCommerce, run an ecommerce platform comparison against hard criteria: how many SKUs you carry, your monthly budget, the shipping and accounting tools you need to connect, and where you plan to be in two or three years.
Free, no obligation. A senior project manager walks you through the analysis.
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Key takeaways
Before you read on
Worth knowing
A store platform is much more than a theme. It rolls hosting, your product database, payment connections, inventory, billing documents and SEO settings into one system. Shopify and BigCommerce are hosted subscriptions. The vendor takes care of updates and security, and you pay a monthly fee plus charges on some features or transactions.
Open-source options flip that around. WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin, and PrestaShop give you full control of the code with no license fees. In exchange, you need your own hosting, you run the updates, and you'll call on technical help more often. Teams already on WordPress often start here, because woocommerce web design builds on the site they already have.
Three things decide which platform fits. First, catalog size. WooCommerce handles up to about 500 SKUs without strain, while past 5,000 SKUs you should look at Shopify Plus or PrestaShop on a server of its own. Second, how fast you expect traffic to grow. Third, the connections you need, like an order hub for multichannel sales, Amazon and other sales channels, carriers like UPS, FedEx and USPS, or your accounting software such as QuickBooks.
Get this wrong and you'll usually pay for it later with three to six months of migration work. Rather than guess, talk to someone who's already launched stores in your industry. Your first consultation with us is free, and it'll tell you whether a given platform even suits the way you sell.
Side by side
Weeks of trial and error with payment and shipping integrations. A matched specialist usually gets the store, payments and delivery running in two to four weeks, on a stage schedule agreed in writing.
Your store often goes to whoever has open hours that week, and you only ever talk to an account manager. We match a specialist to your platform and store size, and we checked their past launches before bringing them on.
Nobody looked at your SKU count or integrations before deciding. A consultation with someone who knows WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify and BigCommerce matches the platform to the size of your business.
With no backup, you're left starting over with a half-built store. With us, a senior manager with 15+ years of experience brings in a replacement who gets the full project history and reviews each stage with you.
Step by step
Step 1
Your specialist looks at product count, sales channels (your own store, Amazon, Walmart or eBay) and budget. Then they recommend Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop or BigCommerce, backed by a 12-month cost estimate.
Step 2
The platform gets installed, a payment gateway like Stripe, PayPal or Shopify Payments gets connected, and carriers like UPS, FedEx or USPS plus an inventory or shipping tool such as ShipStation get linked up. That usually takes 5 to 10 business days, depending on how many connections you need.
Step 3
Product pages are moved over or built with descriptions, photos and structured data. URLs, meta tags and the sitemap are set up so Google can find your store from day one.
Step 4
Checkout gets tested on phones and desktops, returns and email notifications get checked, and your team gets a quick tour of the admin panel. Then you and the project manager approve the final stage.
Worth knowing
$2,500 to $10,000 to set up WooCommerce or Shopify with a theme, payments, shipping and basic SEO. Two to three weeks of work.
$10,000 to $30,000, including an inventory or order management integration, a product import from a spreadsheet or another system, and CRM and newsletter setup. Three to five weeks.
$30,000 to $100,000 or more, covering a separate server, ERP integration, multiple languages and custom price tiers for business buyers. Six to ten weeks, with you and the project manager approving each stage.
Checklist
Run through these before you say yes to an offer. They'll save you from surprise charges and arguments over what was included.
Checklist
Who it's for
What you need from platform selection and rollout depends on where your business is right now.
You need a platform that fits a starter budget and a simple launch, without integrations you won't use for months.
In an ecommerce platform migration, the priority is bringing over customers, order history and search rankings without losing Google traffic.
Your store has to sync with Amazon, Walmart and eBay through one inventory hub, so stock counts never drift apart.
You need a platform that handles price tiers, special pricing for regular buyers and repeat orders.
Visual freedom comes first, which usually means Shopify with a custom theme or PrestaShop.
What you can count on
We've set things up so the whole project doesn't land on your shoulders as the buyer.
An ecommerce specialist chosen for your store is ready to meet you within 24 hours of your request.
Every ecommerce specialist we work with has been through a review of past store launches, reference checks and a conversation about real projects.
Every project has a senior manager with more than 15 years in ecommerce and marketing who resolves disagreements about scope.
We pick someone who knows your kind of products and integrations, not whoever has free time.
In short
24 hours
to match you with an ecommerce specialist
15+ years
of experience for the manager overseeing your rollout
Portfolio
of past launches, reviewed before a specialist joins
Industry
experience your matched ecommerce specialist brings
Before you start
The right platform supports your growth for years. The wrong one leads to migration bills nobody budgeted for. Before you approve a rollout, make sure your specialist understands the size of your business and isn't just selling you a canned package. Want a second opinion first? Order a free marketing analysis and you'll get a PDF within 24 hours, or see how our ecommerce development projects work.
FAQ
Short answers. The free analysis call covers anything specific to your company.
For a store with up to 100 or 200 products, WooCommerce (low startup cost, very flexible) or Shopify (easy upkeep, round-the-clock support) usually does the job. The final call depends on whether you already have a WordPress site and how much you want to edit the code yourself.
Shopify is for owners who want the vendor to handle hosting, security and updates, and who are fine with a monthly fee and less control over the code. WooCommerce is for teams already on WordPress who want full control and can manage hosting and updates. If it's still close, let your catalog size and planned integrations decide.
A simple store with up to 100 products usually takes two to three weeks. A store with inventory integrations and 500 to 1,000 products to import needs three to five weeks. Business projects with ERP and multiple languages can take six to ten weeks.
They can, if 301 redirects from your old URLs aren't set up correctly. An experienced specialist maps every old address to its new one before launch, which keeps any drop in visibility small or avoids it altogether.
We're not an agency. Within 24 hours we match you with one ecommerce specialist who fits your industry, someone whose past launches we checked before bringing them on, and a senior project manager with 15+ years of experience reviews every stage with you. An agency hands the build to whoever has free hours, and you talk to them through an account manager.
Yes. Hosted platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce offer a free trial or a low-cost intro period, and WooCommerce and PrestaShop cost nothing to install on a test server. Use it with a specialist who sets up sample products and integrations, so you're judging the platform under close to real conditions.
Every project has a senior manager with more than 15 years of experience who steps in when things go wrong. No stage closes until you accept the result. If the developer falls short, the manager brings in a replacement and hands over all the rollout documentation.
Not always. On top of the platform fee (Shopify's basic plan runs about $29 to $39 a month, depending on annual or monthly billing), plan for hosting if you're on an open-source system, paid plugins or themes and, on some plans, transaction fees.
Free analysis
Send us your website. Within 24 hours, you'll get a written analysis comparing your channels with your competitors', plus a call with a senior project manager who has run marketing for 15+ years.
Tell us about your business and we'll send a PDF with specific recommendations within 24 hours.Tell us about your business and we'll send a PDF with specific recommendations within 24 hours.