chapter 3: Shopify vs The Other Guys

The Shopify Competition

Shopify Plus vs. Magento Enterprise

Magento is one of the oldest and best known eCommerce platforms. In May 2018, they were purchased by Adobe for $1.68B, which means they are probably here to stay (although ‘for free’ is still TBD).

Magento’s main product is self-hosted open-source software that is popular among developers and a range of eCommerce stores. Magento also offers Magento Enterprise, which is basically the Magento software deployed on a custom hosting solution with account support all bundled together.

It is priced at $18,000+ per year, which is very much on par with Shopify Plus’ pricing.

Shopify Plus vs. BigCommerce Enterprise

BigCommerce is Shopify’s main competitor in the hosted online store space. While it is a smaller company than Shopify, it is growing rapidly.

The brand differentiates itself from Shopify by putting a core focus on online stores (compared to Shopify’s offline initiatives) and integrating lots of features directly into your dashboard (compared to adding them with apps). BigCommerce’s enterprise pricing also starts at around $1,000 per month, but can increase depending on needs.

Why and When do Shopify Users Need Something More?

‘Shopify Vanilla’ – the term we use for Shopify or Shopify Plus without any add ons – is perfect for brand-new and/or growing eCommerce businesses. It is only when businesses start managing multiple warehouses, pursuing omnichannel capabilities, selling on multiple sales channels, or require sophisticated fulfillment and inventory practices that Shopify starts leaking.

And that is exactly where RetailOps comes in!

In this section we are going to demonstrate how a powerful backend (RetailOps) can complement a strong frontend (Shopify). We will also show the areas where RetailOps isn’t perfect and who it is not meant for (ultimately we know we are not for everybody!).

Note that RetailOps works on any level of Shopify, not only Shopify Plus