When it comes to eCommerce platforms, one of the leading alternatives to Shopify is Shoplazza, which was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Shoplazza is a SaaS company focused on providing DTC eCommerce online store solutions for businesses around the globe.
More specifically, Shoplazza offers a top-notch eCommerce platform that allows businesses to easily design web stores with full functionality, including product management, order and customer management, shipping and tracking, data reporting, email marketing, social media advertising, and blogging features.
Shoplazza is also highly recognized for its innovations, with numerous awards and certifications. Shoplazza was named Best Shopping Cart Partner of 2020 by PayPal and an Overseas Technology Innovator by Google in 2021. It is also one of the few eCommerce SaaS companies named a Meta Business Partner.
Besides a robust, fast, and reliable eCommerce platform, Shoplazza offers some of the most affordable prices in the industry. This can be an essential consideration for many small businesses and startups trying to keep their operating costs low.
While Shoplazza offers very attractive prices for its eCommerce platform, it does not compromise on the value and quality of its services. That’s why it is becoming one of the leading alternatives to Shopify. Despite offering more competitive prices than Shopify, Shoplazza also provides better value in many areas.
When comparing the pricing plans between Shoplazza and Shopify, the first thing you notice is that Shoplazza has five different tiers of pricing plans, while Shopify only has three different tiers. This shows that Shoplazza provides more flexibility to business owners by offering more options at various price points to fit their specific needs.
The five tiers of pricing plans for Shoplazza are Basic ($28), Advanced ($59), Premier ($99), Enterprise ($189), and Pro ($218). Meanwhile. Shopify’s three pricing plan tiers are Basic ($29), Shopify ($79), and Advanced ($299).
When comparing the different plans from both companies, many features are similar, including unlimited product listings, free themes, unlimited free hosting, free SSL certificates, 24/7 customer support, discount codes, multiple sales channels, etc. However, when it comes to the number of staff accounts and transaction fees for the different plans, there are significant differences that need to be discussed.
Regarding the number of staff accounts, there is a major discrepancy between the Shoplazza and Shopify pricing plans. The Basic plan for Shopify only allows for 2 staff accounts, while the Shoplazza Basic plan allows for 6 staff accounts. This can be a significant difference for small businesses with more than two employees who need to have separate access to the online store.
Next, when you get to the mid-tier Shopify ($79) plan, they still only offer 5 staff accounts, while the Shoplazza Basic ($28) and Advanced ($59) plans offer more than that at a lower cost. Finally, the Shopify Advanced ($299) plan offers a mere 15 staff accounts, which is a pittance compared to the 100 staff accounts offered by the Shoplazza Enterprise ($189) and Pro ($218) plans at much lower prices. Even the $99 Shoplazza Premier plan offers the same number of staff accounts as the Shopify Advanced plan at one-third of the cost.
So if you have many employees or virtual assistants who need separate staff accounts, Shoplazza offers more staff accounts at lower prices than Shopify. As a result, these additional staff accounts can allow your business to scale up faster.
When it comes to transaction fees, the difference in value between Shoplazza and Shopify becomes glaringly apparent. Shoplazza’s platform provides an opportunity for significant cost savings in transaction fees over Shopify. These cost savings are significant because they can be reinvested back into the business.
For example, if you have an eCommerce online store making monthly sales of $100,000, which is not uncommon for many eCommerce and dropshipping stores, the transaction fees can be onerous. For the Shoplazza and Shopify Basic plans, the transaction fee rate is identical at 2%, so you would be paying $2,000 in monthly transaction costs if you are not using Shopify Payments.
For the Shoplazza Advanced and the Shopify mid-tier plans, the transaction fee rate is also identical at 1%, so that you would be paying $1,000 in monthly transaction costs. However, the Shoplazza Advanced plan is $20 cheaper.
Finally, when you get to the top-tier plans, that’s when the cost savings with Shoplazza really stand out. With the hypothetical example of $100,000 in monthly sales, the Shopify Advanced plan would charge transaction fees of $500 and a plan fee of $299, for a total cost of $799. The Shoplazza Enterprise plan would charge transaction fees of $300 and a plan fee of $189, for a total cost of $489. Next, the Shoplazza Pro plan would charge transaction fees of $200 and a plan fee of $218, for a total cost of $418.
This means that you would save $310 with the Shoplazza Enterprise plan and $381 with the Shoplazza Pro plan in a single month. This works out to a respective cost savings of $3,720 and $4,572 per year, which is not insignificant.
The cost savings become even more dramatic when the monthly sales volume increases. With monthly sales of $300,000, your respective annual cost savings with Shoplazza Enterprise and Pro plans would be a whopping $8,520 and $11,772!
When it comes to app selection, Shopify has the upper hand, as it has several thousands of apps to choose from. These apps run the gamut and include categories such as sourcing and selling products, store design, merchandising, marketing, conversion, fulfillment, shipping and delivery, customer service, and store management.
Meanwhile, Shoplazza has a little more than a hundred apps on its platform, similar to the apps on Shopify. However, Shoplazza is actively collaborating and partnering with over 500 high-quality developers in various spaces to develop new apps for its platform. It plans to build up its app offerings over time.
When it comes to cost, having a full suite of Shopify can cost you over $1000 per month in app costs alone. On the other hand, Shoplazza has many free native apps available to handle the same functions as paid apps on Shopify. Shoplazza also has free and built-in promotion tools to design and execute campaigns.
Shopify also has over 100 free and paid themes on its platform, while Shoplazza has 33 free themes available. Shopify has a larger selection, but Shoplazza is working to close the gap.
When comparing the features of Shoplazza vs. Shopify, it is apparent that they both share many best-in-class features and tools. However, we have outlined the major advantages and disadvantages of both platforms so that you can choose which platform is a better fit for your business:
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