The process of building an online business can be simplified using a compatible platform. There are numerous E-Commerce service providers in the market but the biggest name between them is Mailchimp and Shopify. They both offer many unique and desirable features for online stores.
Having an e-commerce store has numerous advantages and it helps broaden the range of products and services and reach more audiences. It allows for more customization and diversification in the sale. It is an ideal way to shift from brick and mortar stores to online stores which are easily accessible to everyone in any corner of the world.
Now let’s discuss our two e-commerce giants.
What are Mailchimp and Shopify?
Mailchimp heavily focuses on marketing and empowering online businesses. It offers numerous e-commerce features for unlimited product catalog, order management, confirmation, sales support, and many more.
On the other hand, The other business giant is Shopify, an e-Commerce service provider. Anyone can easily set up their store here and start selling physical products, digital products, services, etc. Shopify is a paid platform but it offers a 14-day free trial.
Things to know before your get started
Research before you launch
It is often an underrated step but research is the crucial fact behind the success of businesses and the failure of many.
- Always begin your journey with research.
- Look for your target audience and identify your potential competitors.
- Be sure that your products connect with your target audience.
- Use the correct keyword so that you can connect with your target audience.
- Also, go through the demographic and psycho-graphic of your audience. This helps in getting a better perspective on their attitude, opinion, interest, and lifestyle.
Plan and prepare
Once your research process is done make a proper plan and strategy. Never execute an Idea without proper planning. Due to a lack of strategies, more than 70% of startups fail. So invest enough time because it is a long project and you must be prepared for everything.
Open an online store
This is the final step and you should execute your plans and strategies now. Open an online store, create a website blog and do everything that is necessary for the growth of this Store.
Make sure you take the help of a professional such as a freelance Web developer so that you can get the best results and impress your audience at first glance.
Now let’s go through a detailed comparison of two e-commerce giants Shopify and Mailchimp.
Websites
Shopify
- It has three monthly plans which comes with a 14-day free trial.
- The website has numerous advantages like a website builder, platform branded domain, landing pages integration, SSL certificates, SEO tools, and many more.
- More than a hundred premium and free themes that can suit your brand are available here.
- Customization is possible only with HTML or CSS, hiring a freelance Shopify developer is recommended.
Mailchimp
- Mailchimp pricing and plans include $10 per month + 1.5% transaction fee. Stripe processing fees are also charged here.
- You can easily build and publish a website here. It will provide you with unlimited pages, unlimited Bandwidth, and SEO tools.
- Safety and security are also a priority here and they provide free SSL certificates.
- The websites are completely friendly for mobile users and they are optimized for all kinds of devices.
- Site visit analytics is also available here.
E-commerce plans & features
Shopify
- Free domain auction is available or you can connect it to your custom domain and sell unlimited products here.
- Analytics and reports, custom favicon, abandoned cart emails, transactional confirmation mails, customer accounts, advanced reporting, inventory management, cell subscription, advanced shipping capabilities, product labels, commerce API and many more things are available here.
- Manual order creation and gift cards, discounts, and coupons can be easily created here.
- You can also sell your product on Instagram with the help of this platform.
Mailchimp
- It is a Fully-integrated, free Mailchimp branded domain option. You can also connect it to your custom domain.
- You can sell unlimited products here and send Abandoned cart emails, Transactional confirmation emails to the customers.
- E-commerce analytics and reports, Easy-to-use website builder, Social card customization, Platform branding removal are other additional features of the platform.
- SSL certificates are also provided on this platform.
Marketing & growth
Mailchimp heavily focuses on marketing. It has a free website builder, unlimited landing pages, drag, and drop website builder, special posts, custom domains that are sold separately, and many more. It provides more than 250+ integration on its platform.
It is an effective platform for email marketing and Instagram, Facebook, Google ads. You can easily create a marketing calendar and provide a creative assistant to the users. Survey and sign-up forms will help you get to know your customers better.
Shopify also has good ineffective features for marketing channels. You can do effective email marketing from here and built-in blog, social posts.
Effective in Facebook, Instagram, Google ad creation, and a chatbot named Shopify Ping is also provided.
Conclusion
Finding a good Mailchimp and Shopify replacement is very hard. Both platforms are good enough to support an online business and boost its growth. But when it comes to marketing the former surpasses the latter.
But Shopify is an all-rounder. Creating an e-commerce store is also easy here, you can include your banner promotion and offer discount codes. It provides more than 3,529+ integration which is the highest rate compared to any other e-commerce service provider.