Why we use a bespoke e-commerce platform

E-commerce has never been a more important topic than it is at this very moment. There was a move towards online shopping long before the global Covid-19 pandemic, and the enforced lockdowns due to the pandemic have only accelerated this movement. There are a wide range of e-commerce platforms to choose from and in this article we will aim to give the pros and cons for each.

Before I begin I wanted to make an important point. In this article I will be discussing the various e-commerce shopping cart solutions as opposed to websites that have an element of e-commerce within them. This is an important differentiation as we have built bespoke websites for clients such as SFS Group and The Half Yard Sewing Club which do not use traditional shopping cart software as they have specific e-commerce features, whereas websites like The Secret Cellar or Little Poppets are much more the traditional e-commerce shopping carts we will be discussing in this article.

This article also focusses on e-commerce websites as opposed to bespoke CRM systems and custom web systems which we also build at Studio44. You can find out more about what a web system is here.

We are going to discuss 4 of the main e-commerce platforms in this article – there are many more alternatives but these cover the most widely used e-commerce platforms available.

Shopify

Shopify has changed and evolved a great deal over the years and started life as very much a platform for small businesses looking to sell online quickly and cheaply with a range of themes. The original Shopify platform is still available and is now accompanied by Shopify Plus which is Shopify’s enterprise solution. We will discuss Shopify Plus separately.

Pros

The pros of the Shopify platform are as follows:

• Accessible - Easy to get started as the range of templates available can enable a very quick set-up.
• Features - Lots of built in out of the box e-commerce functionality give the less tech-savvy user a range of features to help get their e-commerce platform moving.
• Support - 24/7 support from Shopify’s dedicated support team, again ideal for the smaller business who needs that extra level of help and support.
• App Store – A huge app store that gives access to a range of additional plugins and apps, enabling you to add a range of features quickly to your shop.

Cons

There are a number of cons to the Shopify platform, and actually some of them are related to the pros!

• Customisation – Shopify websites can be limiting both in terms of visual customisation and bespoke features. Unless you have a very standard e-commerce shop with little in the way of bespoke features required, Shopify is not the platform for you.
• Hosting – Shopify is a fully hosted platform which means you can’t take it elsewhere. There can be advantages to this but after much debate we believe this belongs in the ‘cons’ column as ultimately you do not have complete control over your shop in the same way you would do with a platform you could host and develop yourself.
• Cost – Again a toss up as to whether this is a pro or a con as Shopify can be set-up relatively inexpensively, but there are a number of additional fees to consider and with many of the apps mentioned as a ‘pro’ you will need to pay some form of associated fee to keep them maintained

Conclusion

Shopify is a great platform if you want to get an e-commerce website up and running quickly and do not anticipate it being a website that needs to scale and evolve in lots of different directions. If your requirements are more complex or could evolve into something much larger then Shopify is not the platform for you.

Magento

Magento is a popular open source e-commerce platform that has been around for a number of years. With Magento you can download a free version that you can then host and develop however you like (there is also an option for an ‘enterprise’ Magento solution but this can be extremely expensive so we are going to cover the open source edition here). There are a number of pros and cons with Magento:

Pros

• Integrations – Because of how widely used Magento is, there are a number of different integrations that are readily available, so you will often not struggle to integrate with your chosen payment gateway or EPOS system for example.
• Scalability – Magento is a platform that you can host and develop yourself so is much less limited in terms of scalability than Shopify for example. You can therefore either use the range of plugins available or work with a Magento developer to grow the website as required.
• Community – Magento is a very community driven platform so if you are looking to evolve your Magento website or add a new feature, you can often reach out to the community to help.

Cons

• Ease of use – We have worked on a number of Magento websites over the years and the feedback from clients is that it is a difficult to use and clunky dashboard with an extremely steep learning curve.
• Speed – Magento websites tend to be very feature rich ‘out of the box’ which can often mean a lot of redundant functionality is in place on many Magento websites. This can lead to websites being slower on the Magento platform, a major drawback both from a user experience and SEO perspective.
• Support – Although being ‘community driven’ can have its benefits, it does come with limitations in terms of support as there is not the same central level of support you get with something like Shopify or Cs-Cart. So you really need either an in-house Magento expert or support contract with an agency that specialises in Magento to be able to benefit.
• Security – This is a huge concern on the Magento platform as, unless kept constantly updated, with the range of updates and plugins available on Magento, it can become an extremely difficult to keep a Magento website secure and properly maintained.

Conclusion

We have had a number of poor experiences with Magento in the past which have fundamentally stemmed from the clunky, slow interface and lack of security. If you do decide to go down the Magento route, make sure you are working with a team that have extensive in-house Magento experience and expertise and that you feel confident with the agency you are partnering with as transferring Magento websites from agency to agency is very difficult to do! And only work with Magento if there is a very compelling reason to such as an already built in integration that may be very expensive to develop elsewhere.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free and open source e-commerce platform that plugs into WordPress. Pros and cons of WooCommerce include:

Pros

• Cost – The big draw of WooCommerce is cost. It is relatively cheap to get set-up with a WooCommerce website using functionality that already exists.
• Themes/templates – WooCommerce comes with a wide range of themes and templates which means you can have a stylish looking website up and running using your branding with relatively minimal input your side.
• Speed of set-up – Many WooCommerce features are available out of the box which again means it can be a relatively quick process to get an e-commerce website set-up using WooCommerce.

Cons

• Security – This is a big drawback with WooCommerce and similar to Magento, unless you have an agency you’re working with or very capable team member who is keeping on top of the security of your WooCommerce website, vulnerabilities can appear. Especially when dealing with personal, sensitive data as an e-commerce website often is, this is a significant drawback!
• Speed – WooCommerce websites tend to be relatively heavy especially when they start having additional plugins added to them. This can often mean that WooCommerce websites (much like Magento websites) will be slower to load.
• Plugin quality – There are a number of different plugins available to extend a WooCommerce website. One of the problems with this can be plugin quality. It is not always easy to ascertain the quality of a plugin until you start using it so you may end up with a website that has a lot of plugins that have variable quality.
• Scalability – WooCommerce is a popular platform when an e-commerce website is first needed, but if an online business grows, it can often require a scalable platform that will evolve alongside the growing business. A major issue we have seen with WooCommerce websites is that they cannot facilitate this growth as plugins are often not adequate or compatible with previous plugins which can cause a wide range of problems.

Conclusion

We would put WooCommerce in the same class as Shopify. If you are looking to get a relatively basic e-commerce website up and running very quickly and at low cost then this is a good option. Ultimately however WooCommerce is built on WordPress so was originally created as a blogging platform. You need to be careful with WooCommerce if you are trying to do anything more complex, and especially if you are thinking of using a wide range of plugins. Not only does this come with security risks but you quite often end up shoehorning not fit for purpose plugins to your e-commerce shop.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise solution, and is very different to the original Shopify platform so worthy of its own section!

Pros

• Security – Because it is controlled centrally, Shopify Plus does not have the same kind of vulnerabilities of a platform such as Magento or WooCommerce. You therefore don’t need to spend time maintaining, updating or security patching your Shopify Plus website in the same way.
• Built-in integrations/apps – As with most of these platforms, Shopify Plus comes with a range of built-in integrations and apps which allow you to link your e-commerce website with third party platforms.
• Support – With a constantly available support team on hand, Shopify Plus is great in terms of helping to support a growing e-commerce website.

Cons

• Cost – Although relative, and advantageous that hosting is included within it, there is a significant on-going cost just for having a Shopify website. And not only do you have to pay for the basic license, there can be add-ons you are being charged for as well. This is different to a solution you host where you’re in control, and unless you have someone very capable in-house you will find yourself paying on-going retainer fees to an agency on top of the fees to Shopify Plus.
• Lack of control/customisation – One of the major drawbacks of Shopify Plus is the lack of control and customisation you have, and the expense of hiring developers who are experienced enough to work on the Shopify Platform. With Shopify Plus you don’t have the same level of control over crucial features such as SEO or checkout pages which can be extremely limiting. Also if you are looking to build a specific area of front-end functionality, you can end up being very limited by what you can do with Shopify.
• Platform lock-in – When you sign up to Shopify Plus, you have signed up and you are locked in. There is nothing you can do to move the platform and give yourself any more control. This does leave you completely exposed and tied to Shopify whatever direction they decide to move in.

Conclusion

Although undoubtedly a highly regarded solution, we would suggest if you are considering Shopify to be very careful – we have always preferred our clients to be in control of their own destiny as opposed to being too tied to any individual platform which is why we favour the self-hosted route which is something Shopify Plus does not provide.

Bespoke e-commerce platform

We have been developing our own bespoke e-commerce platform for a number of years and, in our opinion is, in most cases the most appropriate e-commerce platform. However in the interests of being fair and balanced, we wanted to list the pros and cons of our bespoke e-commerce platform as well:

Pros

• Ease of use – One of the biggest advantages to our bespoke e-commerce platform is the easy to use and intuitive admin panel. We have a wide range of clients with an even wider range of technical abilities who use this platform, and the feedback is always extremely positive because of how easy the admin panel is to use.
• Scalability – Our e-commerce solution offers a wide range of e-commerce features out of the box. If, however a required feature (such as integration with an EPOS system) doesn’t exist, the beauty of our platform is we have total control to add bespoke functionality and develop custom features as required, making our platform an extremely scalable solution.
• Speed – Our e-commerce platform is a lightweight solution with the ability to add modules as required which means you can optimise much more readily for speed than platforms like Magento or WooCommerce which will often include many redundant features slowing the website down.
• Support – As we have built the system, we have a deep knowledge and understanding of how it has been built, meaning we can support your website quickly and efficiently as required.

Cons

• Integrations – Because our platform is not as widely used as other e-commerce solutions, it does mean that third party apps don’t always have the same level of built-in integrations as they may with other platforms. This isn’t too much of a problem though as if it’s an important integration this can usually be built as a bespoke feature.
• Knowledge required – Whereas with something like Shopify you don’t need very much technical knowledge at all to set an online shop up, with our e-commerce platform you need to know what you’re doing! It is therefore not the best platform for anyone looking to set-up an e-commerce venture quickly and cheaply themselves so there is a bit of a barrier to entry.

Conclusion

We feel that our e-commerce solution offers the best of both worlds – it is feature rich and already has a wide range of e-commerce functionality which means it can compete with Shopify and WooCommerce, but with the ability to also scale with complete control to add bespoke functionality as required making it a great alternative to something like Magento for larger e-commerce websites.

Studio44 have been developing e-commerce websites for many years and have worked on many successful bespoke e-commerce websites in that time. If you are looking at a new e-commerce website and are not sure about which platform to choose then do get in touch with us – we would love to talk through options with you and see if we can help!