Jun 18, 2022 10:43:00 AM | Start a Business Why More Business Owners Choose Shoplazza Over Shopify?

Table of Content

1. What is Shoplazza and Shopify 
2. Similarities between Shoplazza and Shopify
3. Shoplazza vs Shopify

4. Pricing plans

5. App costs
6. Scenario analysis
7. Overall winner
8. Conclusion

As we enter a new era of digital ecommerce, there's been a huge increase in the number of entrepreneurs starting online enterprises. With so many platforms offering varied pricing schemes and services, merchants may become overwhelmed when deciding which platform to use.

In this Shoplazza and Shopify comparison, we take an in-depth look at the two most popular store builders and evaluate their setup costs. We will break down all key costs and run the real numbers through a scenario analysis. At the end, recommendations will be provided to help you choose the right platform and start your own online.

What is Shoplazza and Shopify?

Before going into details, Let’s give a quick overview of these two companies to those who are unfamiliar with ecommerce.

Shoplazza

Shoplazza, a software as a service (‘SaaS’) technology company with its mission of "leading customers' global business success with excellent product technology". It empowers merchants with easy-to-use themes and templates to build their own online store. Shoplazza also partnered with developers and influencers to help our clients globalize and scale up their online presence.

Shopify

Shopify is a dedicated heavyweight in the ecommerce world, aiming to give business entrepreneurs an opportunity to build the store they want while also offering support in all the little things that pop up in eCommerce. The Shopify platform provides a range of services to online shops, including payment, marketing, shipping, and customer engagement capabilities.

Similarities

• Because they are both intended to be solutions for running an online store, all of their features have always been centered around selling things.
• Both are aimed at those who are establishing a business without a huge budget for web development — those who wish to construct an online store "do it yourself."
• As both solutions run in a web browser, there is no software to install on your computer, and you can manage your business from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Both provide friendly and helpful communities. Searching for something on their blog posts and help center nearly always returns an answer about it. 

So which platform is best for your website or online store? Let’s drill down in some depth before making a decision.

Shoplazza vs Shopify

Pricing plans

Let’s start with the key pricing comparison - Shoplazza basic vs Shopify basic. Shoplazza is the one-price-for-all platform with prices starting at $28 per month. With this basic plan, you will be able to get full access to all essential built-in tools to quickly build your store. Core features include:

• Ability to sell an unlimited number of products
• 6 Staff accounts (i.e., 6 separate logins or ‘seats’)
• Sales and Marketing tools
• Global shipping with local fulfillment
• Merchant onboarding services

If you are interested in knowing about what you can get from Shoplazza basic plan, please check our previous article for detailed explanation.

Shopify, meanwhile, charges $29 per month for the starter price. If we compare the higher-tier enterprise package, the price $299 offered by Shopify is also brining more financial burdens.

Furthermore, Shopify only provides 8 free templates for store design, though each of those comes with two to three variations for a little more creative flexibility. There are additional 70+ Shopify themes available, but you’ll have to pay a one-time fee ranging from $150 to $350 (or more) to access those premium themes.

That said, Shoplazza pricing model is more budget-friendly for SMEs than Shopify, which will definitely save more cost to help reach break-even and profitability.

App stores

Apps are great resources for scaling up your business. Both Shoplazza and Shopify provide app stores featuring a range of add-ons for your site, allowing you to add or improve both platforms’ functionality considerably. In both stores you’ll find apps that handle key tasks like dropshipping, marketing, product recommendation, tax calculations, etc.

The key difference between Shoplazza and Shopify is that you don’t need to pay any extra money for using apps in Shoplazza, while in Shopify, you have to pay $5 to $250 dollars depending on different apps.  For example, after you join the basic plan in Shoplazza, you can utilize all the dropshipping apps for free, such as Skuower, EPROLO, and KakaClo. However, if you use Ali Dropship in Shopify, it’ll cost you $180 for a subscription.  

Scenario analysis

To give you a clear idea of the overall setup cost in Shoplazza and Shopify, let’s do a scenario analysis. Assume you are new to ecommerce and want to build a clothing dropshipping business online. Following your investigation, you reach the last stage to determine whether to use Shoplazza or Shopify. Because you have a restricted budget, the setup cost is your primary concern. You want to choose a platform that will allow you to develop a fully functional store at the lowest possible cost.

Scenario 1

Here is the cost you will encounter if you start your dropshipping business in Shoplazza.

1. You choose the basic plan and pay for the monthly charge of $28.
2. The domain name is up to your choice, which ranges from $0.99 to $25 per year depending on types of extensions. You choose one based on your need and pay a domain name for $9.99.
3. You create your online store using the free design templates provided by Shoplazza.
4. You find several apps and install them for free to start sourcing products. There are numerous free apps in Shoplazza, like SkuOnwer and EPROLO to allow merchants sourcing products from AliExpress. 

For example, EPROLO is a dropshipping platform that is completely free. It provides services like product sourcing, quality control, warehouse, packing, and shipping to ecommerce business owners.

On top of that, you can also source trending clothes from the app KakaClo, which is an industry-leading apparel supply chain platform that focuses on providing customers with in-stock apparel, customization, production, and dropshipping service.

Now everything is set up, you can start selling your products and harvesting the profit.

During the process, the cost has been sum up as follows:

We can see that the total monthly setup cost of starting an online dropshipping business at Shoplazza is $28.83 per month. With such a low cost, you will be able to break even and make profit quickly.

Scenario 2

Let’s now turn to Shopify and see how much it will cost with the same requirement. 

1. You choose the basic plan in Shopify and pay $29 per month.

2. You purchase the domain name through Shopify and pay $14 per year.

3. As mentioned earlier, there are only 8 free templates for store design in Shopify. You need to pay extra money for premium themes. Let’s assume you are not satisfied with those free templates, so you pay $240 on-time fee for the theme “Vantage” for your store building.

4. In order to dropship from AliExpress, you subscribe to AliDropship and pay $19/month, or $180 per year.

Here is the sum-up of the total monthly setup cost:

Scenario 3

Even if you are satisfied with one of the free templates in Shopify, the cost is still not cheap because of the subscription you paid for AliDropship.

Let’s also calculate the case when you choose the free design for your store in order to save the budget.

We can see that the monthly cost is $47,83, still higher than Shoplazza’s $28.83.

Overall winner

Based on our scenario analysis, we can easily tell that there are several advantages of adopting Shoplazza over Shopify:

• The Shoplazza platform is more affordable than Shopify
• A much wider range of free templates is available in Shoplazza
• Shopify’s dropshipping features are more expensive
• Shopify only permit 2 staff accounts in basic plan, while Shoplazza gives 6 staff accounts

Although Shopify offers impressive sales tools and a huge app store, it’s less ideal if you need to get up and running quickly with a limited capital. Therefore, we recommend Shoplazza for anyone setting up a new, small business who needs a low-cost entry plan without sacrificing features. It’s easy to use and gives you tons of creative freedom, making it perfect for brand-conscious entrepreneurs.

Shoplazza vs Shopify Conclusion

So far, we have compared the setup cost in Shoplazza and Shopify by looking through important and relevant fees and features. Although both Shoplazza and Shopify have various features designed to help you get started in the wonderful world of website building, Shoplazza is more likely to be your first option if you’re a beginner.

If you want to launch your online store to go global immediately, simply go to the Shoplazza website and click the PRICING button on the main menu to sign up for our Basic Plan. If you’re a small business, our Basic Plan is an excellent place to start when it comes to creating and customizing an online store to showcase your products. 

Sign up today to get 15% discount off! Turn dream into actions with Shoplazza!