Options other than Shopify

For anyone coming to this months or years after I write it, please know that this is not an article comparing and contrasting every single ecommerce platform to help you make a choice; it’s me thinking out loud and comparing them based on what works for me. So thank you in advance for not getting mad at me if this post doesn’t match your exact situation!

So, let’s say I wanted to leave Shopify (which I probably won’t, I’m too locked in) because of this POS Go/new tech every three years bullshittery. Who would I go to? What do I absolutely want in an online shop?

Absolutely necessary:

• Runs on my own domain (MyShopNameDotCom rather than SomePlatform/MyShopName/DotCom)
• Categories (Ceramics)
• Subcategories (Ceramics –> Mugs)
• Subscription services (Yarn Club)
• Customer accounts (easy to track what you bought that one time three years ago)
• Something that will easily help (or at least not hinder) the ability to do craft shows
• Hosting company takes care of SSL Certificates/payment gateways/shop code bugs
• Has a robust blogging feature
• Offers weight-based shipping
• Must be able to print (or use an app that will print) a USPS Scan Form
• Offers item variants (right-handed vs left-handed mugs, different base yarns for same colorway)
• Short learning curve
• Doesn’t break the bank

And what is awesome but not a dealbreaker:

• Bundle ability (customer builds own set of coasters and gets discount)
• Integrates social media somewhat (auto posts to Pinterest, Facebook shop, etc)
• Ability for customer to be notified when something they like is back in stock
• Integrated newsletter capabilities

And what I Do Not Want:

• To be responsible for building a site from the ground up
• To be responsible for security patches/site backups/etc
• Only offers fixed rate shipping
• Limits on number of categories or items
• New tech I have to buy every three years
• Shop themes that get discontinued as new code is written, forcing a site-wide theme change
• Links that break if the item is sold out

Previous platforms that I’ve mentioned that are no longer in business are Zibbet and SiftLocal. I’ve already talked extensively about Etsy, so I’m not going to add any more to that (there is a Shopify app to sync with Etsy now so I am selling a few things on there, mostly around the holidays, but I’m not interested in moving my whole shop back to just there). So I’m going to glance over StoreEnvy, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and BigCartel.

BigCartel

It looks like it has an import system from Shopify to them, so that’s a bonus. And a Sales Tax autopilot which let me tell you is pretty tempting. They only have two plans, and I would need the more robust one, which is about $30/month. But in looking at all the apps and integrations it looks like Big Cartel might do pretty much everything I need. I would have to use my phone to make sales at shows, and have a separate card reader. Pro being it would take things out of my inventory, and Con being the same thing I mentioned in my previous post – having to use my phone to do everything at the craft show. Oh, ouch – the blogging system is an app, and it’s $40/month. More than the shop itself! It does look like they do a lot of the same things Shopify does, but when I add up the costs of the apps to do a few of those things, the costs look pretty prohibitive.

StoreEnvy

Seems a lot like Etsy, but smaller. Has inventory caps for each tier, mine would run $25/month. Has both marketplace (a la Etsy or Shop) and custom domains available. It looks like other things like my needs/don’t wants can’t be answered until I actually go through the process of opening a store, so, no thank you. I need to know everything it does, not just “and more!” before I hand over my credit card. Next? (I went back later and google searched “StoreEnvy” and “apps and integrations” and Pro Tip, PEOPLE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO DO THAT TO FIND IT ON YOUR SITE. It looks like they only have about 20 app/integrations and the only one I’d find useful is Shipping Easy, which is what I use on Shopify now.)

Squarespace

Good lord this is getting exhausting. I almost don’t even want to dig into Squarespace, since they talk about their Ai-this and Ai-that on their first page. I’m so tired of Ai getting baked into everything we use. If it were a tool I could choose to use if I needed to I’d like it a lot more than “here, you’re getting it if you like it or not.” Sigh. ANYWAY. So. Squarespace is partnered with Square, and it looks like craft shows would sync seamlessly with online sales — STRIKE THAT, reverse it… it looks like the POS only works on iPhones, and I’m an Android Girly. There’s a store app you can use on Android, but it — WAIT. The store app you can use on Android seems to imply you can sell with it in person. I’m officially too confused now to keep looking at Squarespace.

WooCommerce

Same price range as the others, and has a couple of things baked in that the others offer as paid apps, like a Wishlist and Review curation — wait, that was gong with WooCommerce Hosting, which is where they host your site as well as the ecommerce platform. If you’re not hosting with them, you can get those things as paid apps, but lord, the prices of them! WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, which I’m familiar with because Snarkland runs on WordPress. So I would trust the blogging software would do exactly what I wanted.  And it looks like the other things I need/want (subscriptions, bundles, etc) are available as free or paid extensions. The thing I don’t like about WooCommerce (and I already knew this) is that I’d be responsible for things like SSL certificates and making sure updates get done properly. I barely have time and energy to take care of everything now, I’m not sure I can comfortably add onto that. And it looks like the shop extensions that are native to Shopify, are paid extras for WooCommerce.

Well, this is disappointing. All four of them have dealbreakers for me. It’s looking more and more like sticking with Shopify and figuring out just how to do craft shows differently is where I’m at. Well. This was tiring. Yay. Thanks for coming along for the ride…..? I might have more to say on this topic later, but for now, stick a fork in me, I’m done.