Comparison of e-commerce solutions. Which CMS to choose?

Choosing the right e-commerce solution is fundamental, if the project is to be successful. A good piece of advice to start with is – devote enough time to it, it will pay off manifold in return. There is a huge number of boxed e-shops on the market as well as custom solutions with various degrees of tailor-made customization. To help you navigate better, we took the trouble and compared those that are most frequently mentioned in our region. So then, which one is the best?

12 min read

• Radoslav Kuchar
• 17.9.2024

• Online Shop

Why is it important to choose the right technical solution for an e-shop?

Simply because it is your main online sales tool. We are talking about classic e-shops. Imagine if instead of e-commerce, you were dealing with a brick-and-mortar store. You would certainly be interested in its location, advertising board options, display window decals, warehouse size, car accessibility, distance from the center, selection of suitable staff, and many other details. Online, your virtual store is precisely the e-shop. 

What to consider when choosing an e-shop solution? 

Size of the e-shop

First of all, it is important to know your size. Or at least estimate it. There is a difference in looking for a CMS for an e-shop with ten unique products, a medium-sized e-shop with thousands, and an extensive sales channel with more than 10,000 items, which you also want to manage in multiple countries. For an e-shop solution, features and the ability to add more are important, because it can easily happen that as soon as you start growing, your CMS hits its limits. 

UX, because the user comes first 

If we look at it from the user's perspective, whether on one side or the other of the e-shop (customer and administrator), it is not the same in which interface they will navigate. In the case of the customer, the most important role today is played by user experience – UX (user experience). The page should be clear, intuitive, and the purchasing process without unnecessary hiccups. On the other side of the monitor, we have the admin and the environment in which the e-shop is managed. In this case, too, the better they can navigate and manage the web, the more efficient their work is. And also order processing or customer communication.

Optimization options and website speed 

When choosing a suitable CMS, also check the detail, how much you can intervene in search engine optimization. This means the ability to manage metadata, edit URLs, and many other details that affect SEO and your positions in organic search. A very important piece of information is page speed, because up to 83% of website visitors expect the page to load in less than three seconds. A great advantage is already integrated tools for email marketing or connection to analytics within reports and data.

E-shop security and cookies 

Protection of personal data, website security including regular updates, and options for handling data from website visitors, speak clearly. Regulations regarding cookie consent and their implementation according to standards are mandatory, so it is not at all the same how you have, for example, such a consent mode implemented in the e-shop. 

Support and connections 

“Just an e-shop” by itself is not everything you will need to solve from the perspective of e-commerce business. Inventory management, invoicing, payment gateways and many other add-ons can be part of the solution or will need to be connected. In the case of larger e-shops, it is also ERP system, which comes into play when automation is necessary.

UIČKOVSKÝ TIP: An ERP system can significantly speed up processes within order management, relieve the admin of many tasks, and thus reduce errors in the order process. It is especially important, for example, during expansion. Connecting it with the CMS is not complicated, but it is necessary to follow the correct procedure.

And don't forget that even if you buy a boxed solution, support plays a big role at the moment when a problem arises and orders and reputation slip through your fingers. Therefore, it is appropriate to verify the speed of support and the way it communicates. For example, in reviews or the community of marketers and e-shop owners.

How much does an e-shop cost and what are the costs for additional services and add-ons? 

Most solutions have three, or more levels of type basic, standard, PRO and similar. Additional extensions and plugins have their fixed price, or the solution is an upgrade to a higher version, which may be more worthwhile in a specific case than partial functionalities. Fees for a boxed e-shop solution start in the tens of euros per month and end in thousands. 

Explanation:
* Shoptet applies to the Premium package
** Shopify is available in the Plus package

Comparison of e-shops: Shoptet, Shopify, Woocommerce, BUXUS, and other solutions 

At ui42, we emphasize an individual approach, and therefore we know very well that every online business has its specifics, needs, and also potential for growth. To be able to recommend a solution to our clients that is most suitable from the perspective of their size and character, we decided to compare individual e-shop solutions from an objective perspective.

We compared:

• Shoptet,
• Shopify,
• Woocommerce,
• Magento,
• BUXUS,
• Prestashop,
• Shopsys
• and custom solutions tailored to your needs.

Advantages and disadvantages of an e-shop on Shoptet 

Shoptet attracts with advantageous prices. The individual variants are scaled based on the number of products, with the average PROFI model with 5000 products costing up to 100 € in the base. If there are more than 50,000 products, they have a solution, completely or partially tailored. Shoptet Premium expands the API for connecting other systems, design according to your own ideas, and your own account. Although it is a very popular platform among Slovak and Czech e-shops, for medium to large businesses it becomes interesting only from the premium model. 

The disadvantage of Shoptet is that within one content management system it is not possible to edit multiple countries, which reduces the efficiency of administration. Although it is possible to connect the e-shop on Shoptet to an ERP system, managing domains within it is another story. 

UIČKOVSKÝ TIP: If you consider that Shoptet is the right choice for you, but you would like to improve the e-shop within one of the partner services, such as UX, you can contact us as a Shoptet partner and we will be happy to help you improve your customers' experience with the e-shop. 

Advantages and disadvantages of an e-shop on Shopify 

Shopify is a solution when, unlike the local Shoptet, you think more globally and plan to expand. Shopify has support in more than 170 countries worldwide and is the largest CMS in e-commerce with excellent documentation in open source. Right at the start, an important info – Shopify is more expensive than Shoptet and has less support for various add-ons.

At the highest level is the PLUS package, which launches your e-shop in 50 countries, includes wholesale sales and a B2B section. The price starts at 2300 dollars per month with a three-year commitment. When it comes to contracts, in the case of Shopify, they have more sophisticated SLA than Shoptet, where it depends on the integration. A big advantage of Shopify is also that it can be much more customized (again compared to Shoptet). However, to sum it up, for a complete beginner who is just entering the waters of e-commerce business, it represents a more challenging solution. 

UIČKOVSKÝ TIP: Since it is a solution from across the big pond, it is necessary to pay attention when buying for a company and working with taxes and also details such as rounding cents and invoicing overall.

Advantages and disadvantages of an e-shop on Woocommerce 

Wordpress, in the case of e-shop interfaces Woocommerce, is used by according to the latest figures more than 6.5 million websites worldwide. The reason is mainly affordable price, as it is free. The costs that arise within this CMS appear when choosing paid plugins and also for their implementation, customization, and management. Thanks to them, Woocommerce is quite flexible and easy to use with a clear administration and quite a large community that can help with support in case of problems.

If we look at disadvantages of an e-shop on Wordpress, the most frequently mentioned is security. When choosing plugins or themes, you may come across those that carry security risks. And these are the reason why you need to be cautious and why it is often said that Woocommerce is leaky. In addition, with a larger number of products and traffic on the site, it is important to choose sufficient hosting and thorough optimization for speed. As for scalability of goods, Wordpress simply has its gaps, so it is recommended more for small and medium-sized projects.

Advantages and disadvantages of an e-shop on Magento 

Magento is a really complex system for running and managing an e-shop, suitable even for specific projects. If you have one such project in your pocket, it might be the ideal solution for it. Unlimited number of products, high website traffic and also extensive tools for optimization for search engines and other marketing activities. In the case of Magento, you can manage multiple e-shops from one admin environment and easily connect CMS to ERP or CRM system as needed. A big plus is regular updates and a secure environment.

The biggest disadvantage of Magento is pricing. For all the above-mentioned advantages, you simply pay a higher price than for all the above-mentioned solutions. We are talking specifically about thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per month. Although it is true that if you really like Magento the most, it also has the option of a smaller interface for online business with a turnover of less than 500,000 dollars. 

Advantages and disadvantages of an e-shop on BUXUS 

CMS BUXUS we create, update, supplement, speed up, and tailor at ui42 for more than 25 years. That's enough time to catch even the smallest bug and always implement technological innovations, such as currently artificial intelligence in the e-shop. If you know that your online business requires a custom e-shop or is at least a medium-sized e-shop, here are several reasons why CMS BUXUS might be the best solution:

• the e-shop has a modern and functional design in line with a refined user experience,
  
• it is a powerful and fast solution that won't lose you customers,
• basics like SSL certificate and security of the entire e-shop are on our shoulders,
• if you have multiple e-shops, you can manage them from one admin environment,
• the possibility to create a unique B2B zone for your partners and wholesalers,
• it maximally facilitates marketing activities, exports for third parties, and search engine optimization,
  
• when expanding, it applies that in one single CMS you manage all countries, languages, and currencies,
  
• seamless connection to ERP or any other third-party systems,
  
• extension through production application, which significantly streamlines production processes,
  
• the possibility of infinite customization according to your ideas, because at ui42 we have not known limits for more than 27 years.

The disadvantage of BUXUS, similar to Magento, is a slightly higher price, which corresponds to a complex custom solution.

UIČKOVSKÝ TIP: CMS BUXUS combines all the advantages of the mentioned solutions and is therefore often the most advantageous solution for medium-sized and any larger online business. An example is a stable and profitable e-shop for Kondela, the largest B2B e-shop in the field of hair cosmetics Bezvavlasy, a perfectly managed e-shop for Dedoles  even at the time of greatest success, STYX with its specific B2C and B2B interface or FEEDO, which we accelerated like lightning thanks to BUXUS.

Less known Prestashop and Shopsys 

In our research, we came across several local e-shop solutions. An example is Prestashop, which, although it relied on express fast e-shop launch, compared to the above-mentioned Shoptet and Shopify has its clear limits. We could even say that it will limit you almost from the start. In addition, support is also lacking, so you won't get a quick solution to your problem. 

This is exactly the stumbling block of another option, a slightly less known boxed e-shop, which operates mainly in the Czech market - Shopsys. You won't often encounter it in Slovakia, and it is currently changing its essence and pricing policy.

When is it actually time for a custom solution tailored to your needs? 

At the beginning, we must admit that custom solutions by their very nature are not a solution for those who want to launch their online business tomorrow and we often do not recommend it to completely new, starting businesses.

Although we highlighted several points above where boxed solutions will start to limit you, at the beginning it may be good to try some box. Why?

• faster deployment into operation
• lower initial investment
• ideal for testing a business idea
• the possibility to learn what you need on the web

In case, if you have already deployed your e-shop on a box and your business idea or model works, it is right to think about diversification or expansion. At this moment, it is time to think about what is currently limiting you.

Integrations with ERP?
Complicated expansion abroad?
Custom modifications on the web? 

Yes, now is the time for a custom solution, which will help you solve every obstacle in online business.

So, which e-shop solution is the best?

We leave the answer to your consideration. Just define the approximate size of the e-shop and consider all the above-mentioned parameters that are important for choosing the right solution. And finally, compare them with the individual CMSs that come into consideration. However, if you are still unsure, contact us. At ui42, we will help you not only with choosing the right solution but also with its deployment, development, and management. Thanks to our rich portfolio of services, we have as a one-stop-shop agency all the necessary services for your (not only) e-commerce business under one roof.