Shopify is the gorilla within the room in terms of ecommerce web site builders. Shopify controls 32 per cent of the worldwide ecommerce platform market with over 180,000 UK ecommerce shops. However it will not be the most suitable choice for UK small enterprise house owners, who could also be in search of one thing extra specialised or cheaper and even free. However what are one of the best Shopify alternate options for UK companies?
On this piece we are going to make solutions for greatest Shopify alternate options for UK companies based mostly whether or not you’re a dropshipper, in search of one thing UK based mostly or a free Shopify different.
Is Shopify one of the best ecommerce platform?
Shopify
Shopify is touted because the crown jewel of e-commerce web site builders, with many agreeing the title is properly deserved. Shopify is well-known for its intensive vary of options that will help you run a web-based enterprise from anyplace.
Shopify is likely one of the main platforms in terms of ecommerce. It’s not stunning that Shopify is loaded with options, that are all out there within the Fundamental package deal and you may add extra options once you transfer onto the usual Shopify or Superior packages.
Themes
The Shopify Customizer is likely one of the greatest customizers in the marketplace that will help you construct your web site. This implies you’ll be able to go far past simply product data on your private home web page. This may even profit your search engine marketing as your homepage can have extra content material, which Google likes.
Nevertheless, the theme customizer is just out there for the house web page and never different pages, which is disappointing.
Advertising
In terms of advertising, Shopify is de facto robust in terms of selling your small business, together with its personal e mail advertising system, so that you don’t have to make use of a separate e mail service similar to Mailchimp.
Reporting and analytics
Once more, Shopify scores extremely in terms of reporting and analytics, providing product studies, site visitors flows, in addition to integrating with Google Analytics.
App retailer
The shop is stocked with over 3,000 apps that cowl a wide range of ecommerce, advertising and search engine marketing. However not all these apps are free to make use of, which may make Shopify costly to make use of on a month-to-month foundation.
Dashboard
The Shopify dashboard is very easy to make use of and is nearly minimalistic in its format. If even if you’re new to ecommerce, it gained’t take you lengthy to become familiar with its logical workflows.
How a lot does Shopify price?
To start, Shopify gives a free trial for 3 days after which prices simply £1 a month for 3 months.
Past that, Shopify has three primary pricing plans: Fundamental, Shopify, and Superior. You’ve most likely heard of the headline fee of £25 per 30 days.
A month-to-month price beneath £30 positive sounds affordable however once you add in different charges, want paid-for help from a Shopify professional or incur charges from Shopify Funds, that £25 value can rapidly spiral.
Right here’s a take a look at the three major pricing Shopify UK pricing plans:
Shopify Fundamental – £25 p/mo
- Fundamental studies
- As much as 1,000 SKUs
- 2 workers accounts
Bank card charges:
- On-line bank card fee: 2% + 25p on-line
- In-person bank card fee: 1.7% + 0p
- Further Shopify Charges if NOT Utilizing Shopify Funds: 2%
Shopify – £65 p/mo
- Skilled studies
- As much as 1,000 SKUs
- 5 workers accounts
Bank card charges:
- On-line bank card fee: 1.7% + 25p
- In-person bank card fee: 1.6% + 0p in particular person
- Further Shopify Charges if NOT Utilizing Shopify Funds: 1%
Superior – £344 p/mo
- Customized report builder
- As much as 1,000 SKUs
- 15 workers accounts
Bank card charges
- On-line bank card fee: 1.5% + 25p on-line
- In-person bank card fee: 1.5% + 0p in particular person
- Further Shopify Charges if NOT Utilizing Shopify Funds: 0.5%
Transaction charges
Every of Shopify’s plans implies that it’s important to pay an extra transaction price to Shopify (along with the price you pay to your fee gateway) when you’re not utilizing Shopify Funds.
This could tot up.
For instance, when you use PayPal as an alternative of Shopify Funds, a buyer spending £100, Shopify would price you £5.60 to course of the transaction.
Should you use Shopify’s personal fee gateway, you don’t pay this transaction price.
Shopify is exclusive amongst main ecommerce platforms in charging fee transaction charges to its customers – regardless of which fee methodology is used. The idea of an extra transaction price on prime of the processing price {that a} service provider pays to their fee gateway was developed by Shopify to “push” its purchasers in direction of Shopify Funds.
What’s Shopify Funds?
Shopify Funds is Shopify’s personal fee gateway that enables Shopify customers to course of credit score and debit card funds. As a substitute of Shopify retailers utilizing a fee gateway similar to PayPal, they will as an alternative open a Shopify Funds account (from inside their primary Shopify account), that means they don’t need to take care of any third-party service provider account or fee gateway supplier (similar to Stripe or Opayo).
One benefit of utilizing Shopify’s funds system is that every one features of your fee gateway account are accessible from inside the Shopify account in actual time, that means that you simply don’t need to login to a separate Stripe account.
Shopify execs
- Ease of performance
- Big app market
- Capability to challenge refunds inside Shopify
- Constructed-in fraud evaluation instruments
Shopify cons
- Pricy transaction charges
- Not all apps are free
- Fundamental order administration
- Collections system difficult
- Assist will be tough to find
Shopify purchasers: Emma Bridgewater, Gymshark, Decathlon, Pasta Evangelists, Cult Pens
Is Shopify proper on your small enterprise?
Shopify is likely one of the greatest ecommerce platforms out there. It’s simple to make use of and has a great deal of options, a fantastic theme customizer and an easy-to-use dashboard.
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Are there any cheaper Shopify alternate options?
Shopify alternate options fee transaction charges in contrast
| Fundamental | Shopify | Superior | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 2% + 25p | 1.7% + 25p | 1.5% + 25p |
| EKM | 1.4% + 20p | ||
| ShopWired | 0% | ||
| Sq. | 1.4% + 25p per UK card / 2.5% + 25p per non-UK card |
Supply: firm web sites
Greatest UK Shopify different
ShopWired
ShopWired is a UK-focused ecommerce platform, constructed and developed from a UK perspective.
ShopWired features a vary of options and likewise options you can embody within the type of apps, starting from ecommerce to advertising, search engine marketing, studies and analytics. It additionally gives a powerful vary of options for B2B companies. A few of these aps nevertheless must be coded into your web site versus 1-click set up.
In keeping with ShopWired, rising numbers of UK companies are shifting their Shopify e-commerce web sites throughout to ShopWired. Prospects becoming a member of from Shopify complain that they’re bored with all of the completely different apps you’ll want to pay for to realize primary performance, versus ShopWired, the place they’re included in its core platform. Nearly all of ShopWired’s apps retailer apps have been constructed and developed inhouse.
ShopWired gives simple migration from different platforms too, together with BigCommerce and EKM.
In case you are a UK-focused small enterprise, ShopWired has the benefit of being a UK-centric platform with native help crew.
Cost processors
ShopWired works with vary of fee gateways together with Stripe, Amazon Pay, Klarna, Worldpay and SagePay.
Themes
There are 20 ecommerce web site themes to select from. ShopWired launched its model 5 framework in the summertime of 2022 and remains to be porting a few of its older model 4 themes throughout.
Theme customisation was once poor, however it’s now among the finest ecommerce websites out there, enabling you to create customized pages on your web site.
Web site builder
The ShopWired web site builder is superb with a pleasant choice of themes, regardless that the choice of themes is a bit of on the small aspect.
Different options
Out of the field, ShopWired comes with a wide variety of built-in options and over 70 apps that add a variety of various options and integrations to your retailer together with:
- Multichannel promoting with Ebay, Etsy and Google
- Transport with Shipstation and Royal Mail Click on & Go
- Content material advertising instruments similar to a weblog and customized search engine marketing instruments
- Dropshipping with DropWired (AliExpress integration), Printful and Prinitfy
- Electronic mail advertising with MailChimp, Klaviyo and Mailerlite integrations
- Onsite advertising instruments similar to deserted cart restoration and reward Factors
- Accounting software program integrations with Sage, Xero and Clearbooks
- B2B options together with commerce accounts, bulk reductions and min/max order amount
How a lot does ShopWired price?
When it comes to month-to-month pricing, ShopWired is aggressive in comparison with the competitors.
And when you join multiple 12 months, you get a ten per cent low cost for 12 months one, 20 per cent for a two-year settlement and 30 per cent for 3 years.
ShopWired Professional -£34.95pm
For turnover of as much as £75,000 per 12 months
- 0% Transaction Charges
- Free SSL Certificates
- As much as 750 Merchandise
- Limitless 5* ShopWired Assist
- 2 Admin Accounts
- ShopWired Accounting Apps £5 Per Month
- Commerce Accounts £10 Per Month
- Royal Mail Click on & Drop
- eBay App/Integration
ShopWired Superior – £69.95pm
For turnover of as much as £200,000 per 12 months
- 0% Transaction Charges
- Free SSL Certificates
- Limitless Merchandise
- Limitless 5* ShopWired Assist
- 5 Admin Accounts
- ShopWired Accounting Apps Freed from Cost
- Commerce Accounts Freed from Cost
- Royal Mail Click on & Drop
- eBay App/Integration
- Superior Experiences
- Use Zapier
ShopWired Premium – £129.95pm
For turnover of as much as £500,000 per 12 months
- 0% transaction Charges
- Free SSL Certificates
- Unimited Merchandise
- Limitless 5* ShopWired Assist
- 15 Admin Accounts
- ShopWired Accounting Apps Freed from Cost
- Commerce Accounts Freed from Cost
- Royal Mail Click on & Drop
- eBay App/Integration
- Superior Experiences
- Use Zapier
- third Social gathering Assist
- Precedence Assist
- All Apps Freed from Cost
Execs
- All themes supplied freed from cost
- 0% transaction charges
- Optimised for cell commerce
- Works with Royal Mail’s Click on & Drop service
- Syncs with Quickbooks, Clearbooks and Xero
- Superior VAT options for promoting into EU
Cons
- Some apps must be coded into your ecommerce web site
- No buyer help at weekends
- Turnover-based pricing
- Bulk stock administration lacks performance
ShopWired purchasers: The Spectator, Superdrug, Marks & Spencer, Lloyds Financial institution, EDF, Tui
Is ShopWired proper for your small business?
One of many few ecommerce platforms that has no obvious weaknesses, ShopWired is an effective, moderately priced, all-round choice which is straightforward to make use of.
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Greatest Shopify different for UK dropshippers
EKM
Touting itself as one of the best different to Shopify for UK companies, EKM is the biggest UK ecommerce platform with over 80,000 companies promoting within the UK.
Again in 2002, founder Antony Chesworth began constructing an ecommerce platform which might let anybody construct a web-based store from his scholar bed room. In the present day, Lancashire-based EKM has greater than 70 workers servicing 100,000 clients worldwide. EKM says it powers one in 5 on-line retailers in Britain.
Options
Most options are included as normal in EKM, together with a strong order administration system which incorporates printing off sticky labels for mailing and downloading orders in CSV format.
A few of these options can be found out of the field and others will be added by a easy one-click set up, providing you with the pliability to configure your retailer precisely the way you need it:
- Add a free 03 quantity and Fb Messenger to your storefront
- Onsite search engine marketing instruments together with customized meta data, weblog and buyer critiques
- Enhance buyer retention with deserted cart instruments and loyalty factors
- Print on demand integrations with PitchPrint, Snuggle and Printify
- Affiliate community creation with Tapfiliate
- Third-party delivery integrations with ShipStation, Click on & Drop and Parcel2Go
- Integration with Xero and Quickbooks accounting software program
- Integrations with Linnworks and Cloud Commerce Professional for retailer administration
Themes
EKM was once fairly restrictive by way of design however now has a theme customizer, which is a welcome enchancment.
Evolution Mode
Evolution Mode is EKM’s personal time period for its crew of ecommerce specialists who audit your ecommerce retailer, give you an inventory of solutions as how one can enhance, and implement these modifications. This may be as frequent as as soon as every week, relying on which package deal you’re on. It’s like having your individual crew of ecommerce consultants readily available to optimise your web site and comes with the Commonplace, Superior and Professional packages.
Cost gateways
EKM has integrations with 19 fee gateways, together with Stripe, PayPal and WorldPay.
Assist
EKM is extremely rated in terms of help, which is out there by stay chat, e mail, and telephone seven days every week.
How a lot does EKM price?
Regardless of the preliminary 14-day free trial supply, EKM is likely one of the dearer in terms of launching an ecommerce retailer.
Lite – £19.99 + VAT pm
For companies with as much as £15,000 in on-line gross sales per 12 months.
- Dwell chat help
- Limitless merchandise
- All important options
- Store well being studies
- 1 worker account
Bank card price
1.4% + 20p bank card fee
Fundamental – £37.49 + VAT pm
For companies with as much as £50,000 in on-line gross sales per 12 months.
Every thing in Lite plus:
- Free area identify
- Weblog characteristic
- Loyalty factors
- Phone and stay chat help
- Limitless merchandise
- Fundamental Evolution mode
- Subscriptions
Bank card price
1.4% + 20p bank card fee
Commonplace – £76.99 + VAT pm
For companies with as much as £150,000 in on-line gross sales per 12 months
Every thing in Fundamental plus:
- 6 months account supervisor
- Yearly Evolution mode
- Precedence UK help
- Full analytics
- 5 worker accounts
- Loyalty factors
- Product urgency options
- Present playing cards
- 6-month moneyback assure
Bank card price
1.4% + 20p bank card fee
Execs
- UK-based help crew and account managers
- Evolution Mode characteristic
- Massive choice of free themes and options
- Free SSL certificates
Cons
- Admin dashboard clunky to make use of
- Theme customisation could possibly be higher
- Transaction charges
EKM purchasers: Pilot World Store, Cleaning soap Shack, Simply Blinds
Is EKM proper on your small enterprise?
Should you’re in search of Shopify alternate options, then EKM is a platform it’s best to take into account. The platform is straightforward to make use of and performs properly. And, as a result of it’s a UK-based enterprise, it understands the native market.
However the place EKM stands out as one of many alternate options to Shopify is its performance in terms of UK dropshippers.
One of many the reason why folks go for Shopify is as a result of they need to begin a dropshipping enterprise however Shopify is just not one of the best for UK dropshippers. EKM outperforms Shopify in terms of UK dropshipping, providing a variety of integrations with UK-based dropshipping suppliers to take away a few of the complications when coping with suppliers within the Far East.
Greatest free Shopify different
Sq.
Primarily recognized for its POS system, Sq. additionally gives its personal ecommerce web site builder aimed squarely (sorry!) at eating places and retail companies.
Sq. launched in 2009 as a card reader on a pay-as-you-go foundation however then it acquired web site builder Weebly in 2018, giving Sq. POS customers the prospect to arrange their very own on-line ecommerce web sites.
Like Shopify with its Shopify Funds, seamless integration between Sq. On-line and any Sq. POS means you’ll be able to handle on-line and instore gross sales by a single unified system.
Nevertheless, getting began with Sq. On-line is a little bit of a sophisticated course of. As a result of Sq. is primarily a fee system, you could have to enroll in the fee gateway earlier than you get by to the Sq. On-line retailer.
Options
- Fb and Instagram integration
- Full integration with Sq. POS
- Choice of delivery choices, together with native supply and in-store pick-up
- Small choice of apps
- Create reductions and promotions
- Fb and Google advert choices instantly within the dashboard
- Fb Messenger for stay chat in your storefront
Themes
Sq. On-line gives an easy-to-use dashboard that will help you create a easy, enticing web site. There is only one default theme however with loads of customisation choices with Sq.’s glorious easy-to-use customizer.
Nevertheless, Sq. On-line does lack some bulk editors, which isn’t excellent for companies with numerous SKUs.
Funds
Sq. On-line accepts all main bank cards, PayPal (not on Free plan), Google Pay, Apple Pay, Clearpay and Sq. Pay.
Assist
Sq. gives e mail help with a 24-hour response window. Its phone help helpline runs from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
How a lot does Sq. On-line price?
Free
The Free choice is fairly beneficiant in terms of options.
Professional tip: you can not use your individual area identify on the Free package deal and the entrance finish of your web site will embody Sq. branding. This isn’t nice from an search engine marketing perspective
- Web site builder with search engine marketing instruments
- Sync with Sq. POS and extra
- Pickup & supply
- Promote on social
- Settle for a number of fee varieties
Bank card price:
1.4% + 25p per UK card
2.5% + 25p per non-UK card
Plus
£20 p/mo billed yearly
Every thing in Free plus:
- Expanded web site customisation
- Self-serve (QR code) ordering
- Personalised ordering
- Superior merchandise settings
- Settle for PayPal
- Subscriptions
- Free area for one 12 months
Bank card price:
- 1.4% + 25p per UK card
- 2.5% + 25p per non-UK card
Premium
£64 p/mo
Every thing in Plus plus:
- Decrease processing charges
- Actual-time supply charges
Bank card price:
- 1.4% + 25p per UK card
- 2.5% + 25p per non-UK card
Execs
- Limitless product traces
- No turnover restrict
- Free SSL certificates
- No transaction charges
Cons
- Restricted fee choices
- No pre-built themes
- Restricted bulk-editor choices
- No precedence help
Sq. purchasers: Pores and skin Future, Honest Shot, Tender Cow, Wicks Barbershop
Is Sq. proper on your small enterprise?
In case you are in search of a free Shopify different, Sq. is your best choice. Sq. On-line is a reasonably easy-to-use web site builder with a fantastic vary of options. And its paid variations are perfect for small retailers or unbiased eating places. Nevertheless, its on-line retailer is just not excellent for companies with a big product stock.
And when you already a Sq. POS buyer, migrating to Sq. On-line is a no brainer.
Nevertheless, the variety of fee gateways apart from Sq. is restricted, which is hardly stunning given Sq.’s historical past.
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