Magento Commerce vs Shopify Plus: The Enterprise Platform for You

The success of your Magento store is critically reliant on your enterprise platform choice. If you choose the right one, it will easily scale and grow with your business whereas if you make a poor decision, your magento website runs the risk of being a poorly-functioning solution, resulting in the heavy loss of customers and sales. With the recent release of Magento 2, it's naturally confusing as to whether Magento Commerce (Enterprise Edition) or Shopify Plus is the best enterprise platform for you. Below is a general breakdown of the two solutions to help you decide which is best for your business.

Basic background

To better understand the difference between the two, it's always best to start off with the foundation facts. Magento Commerce is currently the ecommerce platform leader of the pack, with nearly 8.6% of large ecommerce businesses utilising it. Shopify's market share follows closely behind at 8.4%, however it's important to note that it's experienced a share increase by 124% between 2013 and 2014, with no signs of slowing down.

Security

With over 30,000 sites being hacked everyday , security is one of the most crucial aspects worth being picky with when deciding which platform to trust with your website. While both Magento Commerce and Shopify Plus ensure that you are PCI Compliant, Magento Commerce is more of a "self-hosted" platform, meaning that you are responsible for ensuring the data on your server is secure. This platform also transfers the risk of security breaches entirely onto you, and making sure that this information is secure, since it needs to consume large amounts of time and money. Shopify Plus, on the other hand, has a much better solution since its a hosted platform, allowing it to take care of your information security with the same level of protection as a bank.

Marketing Savvy

Your marketing team is responsible for shepherding customers to your site, but more often than not they don't have a strong technical background. Therefore, it's important that your platform has an easy backend navigation, allowing your team to do tasks such as creating product descriptions, edit website copies and add customer forms with ease.

Shopify Plus takes the lead with this aspect, being at the forefront of marketing-friendliness. The platform gives your marketing team access to key functions directly from the admin panel, making changes a breeze, including the ability to create conversion pixels to track social media campaigns, advanced analytics, free Google Adwords credits and an array of easy to add extensions.

In addition to having a more complex backend, Magento Commerce has none of these default functionalities - you would need to hire a magento development company or hire a magento developer to create each of these features, causing your marketing team to heavily depend on the developer to do simple tasks. That said, it does give marketers the benefit of a faster loading time and a friendlier backend UI, all of which contribute to an enhanced customer experience. It also allows marketers to use referral and affiliate marketing extensions that ultimately drive more traffic to your site which leads to increase in sales and profits.

Shipping Provider Integrations

Your e-commerce platform should seamlessly integrate with your shipping provider so your customer can see up to date shipping rates and purchases are shipped efficiently. Magento Commerce offers partnerships with most major shipping providers, such as Fedex, USPS, UPS and DHL, whereas Shopify Plus does not offer a DHL integration. Whichever the platform, it's imperative that you have clearly outlined the providers you MUST integrate with before choosing a solution. Failure to do so could be both frustrating and a costly oversight. Note: If you are in the process of migrating platforms, it's recommended to sync your new platform to the same shipping provider, so you don't have to relive the hassle of displaying accurate prices on your site.

The Magento Commerce vs Shopify Verdict?

Like any comparison, there is no clear cut answer. Both offer exceptional value to your magento websites, and it's up to you to decide which is a better fit for not only your company, but your budget. Magento Enterprise has definitely been a e-commerce favourite recently, but only for those who have the resources to invest in the development of a highly sophisticated platform and a highly reputable magento company. Shopify plus is a better contender for those looking to launch quickly and effectively with a user-friendly interface without breaking the bank. You decision ultimately depends on your company's unique circumstances and business goals, so if you dedicate time to do your research and punch in the financial numbers, you can't go wrong with your choice.

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acidgreen is an award winning Magento Sydney Company with over 18 years of  e-commerce experience. Our certified magento developers and designers are experts in magento web development and are highly qualified to create aesthetically pleasing magento website design stores that generate the highest amount of conversions and provide the best ROI.   For more information on our magento commerce and enterprise expertise, plus how to get started with acidgreen’s magento development sydney services contact us today.