Top 6 Shopify alternatives for online grocery store

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms across the globe and almost 600,000 eCommerce stores are powered by it. Whether you are a small to medium business with limited sources or a big brand that holds multiple channels, Shopify is the most common solution on the internet.

However, Shopify is not a great option for all your eCommerce requirements. Every platform has its own drawbacks, which makes it obsolete in comparison to others. As every eCommerce business is unique in terms of needs like catalog-size, investment, and team-size, etc.

Reasons Why Looking for Shopify Alternatives

To take an extra mile in the eCommerce business, you need to consider some best alternatives that match your goals. Before moving into the eCommerce alternatives, let's discuss the major reasons to look for Shopify alternatives.

1. For Ease of Payments

The main reason why people choose alternatives over Shopify is the complex payment gateways. Shopify charges an additional fee of up to 2% for every transaction. In order to reduce these charges, you need to use their proprietary payments which are powered by Stripe.

2. To Optimize Site SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most essential marketing tool in eCommerce businesses. Shopify can handle only the basic SEO tasks, look for alternatives if you rely on organic search more.

3. To manage complex catalog

In case your eCommerce business has a complex product catalog, Shopify might not be able to provide the required support. As it supports 100 SKUs, which allows adding only three options per product.

Drawbacks of Shopify

Some of the disadvantages that make Shopify limited in eCommerce business aspects:

• This platform doesn't support own customizations
• The source-access is limited
• You need a Shopify app to install or upgrade new features
• You have to pay a monthly recurring fee in Shopify
• You have to pay additional fees for all the Shopify App installed in the store

6 Great Shopify Alternatives

Once you decide to add better features to your eCommerce platform, ensure to evaluate the rivals of Shopify first. Then, choose an ideal eCommerce solution for your business on the market, such as Shopurgrocery, Laravel eCommerce, and WooCommerce, etc. Here we have listed some of the most popular eCommerce platforms on the marketplace.

1. Shopurgrocery

Shopurgrocery is a ready-made grocery eCommerce platform, which is easy to set up and use. This solution is ideal for grocery retailers and online stores that need to manage product catalogs, create campaigns, and check web analytics. You can integrate multi-languages and currencies using this platform. You can choose Shopurgrocery when the following things are necessary as follows:

• If you need fully featured admin accounts.
• Save the extra spent on transaction fees.
• To host your eCommerce store externally.

2. Laravel eCommerce

Laravel eCommerce is an online shopping platform, which is fully customizable and easy to manage your e-commerce store without any coding skills. Laravel eCommerce is loaded with many built-in features, let's discuss a few of the reasons to consider this platform:

• If your eCommerce business model requires end-to-end control and configuration of the entire workflow.
• If you're managing a warehouse with lots of inventory and require advanced shipping processes including inventory management, and dropshipping, etc.
• If you want to run an eCommerce store without any need for third-party systems or subscriptions.

3. Magento

Magento is one of the popular eCommerce platforms that you might have known. This company was sold to eBay in 2011, and then Adobe purchased it in 2018. This popular platform has a wide community base and ideal for established store owners worldwide.

When you see its prices, you can understand the reasons behind Magento's popularity. Also, WooCommerce's pricing is quite similar to Magento that makes it one of the best Shopify alternatives. You can access content management software free of cost, but you need to pay for the hosting, themes, and plugins.

However, Magento is an open-source platform that allows you to sell products through a CMS, which is great for all types of businesses.

Advantages of Magento:

• This solution comes flexible and scalable
• It supports a wide range of additional features
• Excellent community support
• Mobile-friendly

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plug-in that is built for WordPress. This platform allows users to run online stores with the most powerful content management system (CMS). Using this open-source platform, you can easily customize and add extensions to your online store. Before choosing WooCommerce, you can analyze your business needs and take better decisions.

The biggest advantage of WooCommerce is the flexible pricing. They only charge a certain amount for hosting and security, which is really affordable. Moreover, you get full freedom to control and manage your online store without spending any extra amount.

5. Volusion

Volusion is an Austin-based company founded in 1999, which is one of the oldest eCommerce marketplaces. More than 200,000 online stores are powered by Volusion which is a great alternative. Following are the things that make Volusion a better alternative:

• Payment Processing: Volusion supported payment options like Stripe, and PayPal along with their own payments. Unlike Shopify, you can integrate any third-party payments without any transaction fees.
• Features and Expertise: Volusion has almost two decades of experience in eCommerce and offers features like homepage slideshow, recurring payments, rich content editor, secure checkout, shipping options, customer relationship management (CRM), and many more.

6. Wix

Wix comes up with the simple drag-and-drop editors that help retailers to create business websites without any programming knowledge. This platform provides hundreds of templates and tools, which provides a user-friendly solution that supports small online stores to achieve big goals.

Whereas Shopify is applicable for large inventory stores that can manage thousands of products easily. Wix's business plan starts from $23 per month, on the other hand, Shopify starts at $26 per month. Additionally, You can choose Wix for the following business requirements:

• If you have only limited products and own a low-volume business.
• You're looking for an affordable eCommerce platform.

Final Gist!

Choosing the right e-commerce platform can be challenging for a startup online business. Selecting the right platform depends on various factors like business needs, budget, skills, and resources. 

In this blog, we have mentioned a list of top Shopify alternatives, which will reduce your burden and help you to choose the right platform. If you are looking for the best eCommerce platform for your online store, you can rely on an eCommerce development company to select based on needs.