I’m frustrated (with XYZ), should I move to Shopify?

Every once in a while we get a client asking about Shopify. In most cases, their WooCommerce store is not growing as fast as they hoped, and they’ve come across some flashy ads for Shopify on Facebook, etc.

While Shopify’s marketing, advertising, and SEO campaigns are surely genius, the truth is that they target “newbies” who are less tech savvy, and hoping to strike it rich with an eCommerce or drop-shipping business, which they heard about from some blog or podcast.

In other words, if you are thinking about moving to Shopify after spending tons of time and money getting your custom WooCommerce shop and running, then its probably because you are just looking to “change for change’s sake” and not because you have a specific reason for doing so.

Most every large and successful online store eventually changes over to self-hosted software like WooCommerce or Magento so that they can “own” their data, and host it and customize their website however they see fit. While Shopify or Wix or SquareSpace can be fantastic options for brand new shops that are doing business validation and testing out the interest in a certain product or niche, there is not much reason in moving “backward” to these platforms if you have put the energy into a custom WooCommerce store already. In fact, doing so can cost double what you think, since down the road you will like need to switch back to WooCommerce anyways, for one reason or another.

By all means, if you have done extensive research into Shopify (or any other platform) and you believe it is a good match for your situation, please try it out. But in 99% of cases the reason our clients begin asking about things like Shopify is because their business is not being very successful. Instead of changing hosting companies or platforms, its best to stick with what you’ve got and stop wasting more time and money on trying out new tools and services. Instead, put your time into growing your “inbound marketing” such as blog posts, social media activity, reaching out to industry contacts, getting mentioned on relevant blogs or forums, and so forth. Often times newbie business owners want to just throw money at a problem because it feels good (the “quick fix”) instead of investing energy were’s its truly needed: building up their brand and traffic in ways that provide long-term and steady growth, rather than short-term feel-good vibes like advertising or Shopify.