Shopify and Volusion are two of the most popular ecommerce platforms currently on the market. These SaaS solutions allow store owners to be closer to web-based platforms that enable them to sell and market their products. Volution offers powerful data analytics and sales functionality that Shopify does not offer.

Volusion or Shopify? Which should you choose?

To give you a detailed comparison of both platforms, we’ve gathered relevant data. Continue reading to learn how Volusion or Shopify can help your business create a beautiful website.

Are you willing to get into the details?

Volusion Introduction

Volusion was founded in 1999 and has processed over 185 million orders. Volusion also has a large customer base, including USA Bride. Peterbilt, Tiny House Coffee Roasters and 3M.

Volusion used its V1 version to serve its customers in the past. It was an efficient platform that offered a variety of e-commerce options. Its developers realized the need for improvement. Volusion 2 was launched in 2017, which was appreciated for its speed and simplicity.

Volusion is a complete e-commerce platform. It also includes a website builder that assists merchants in creating, hosting, managing and developing online stores. Volusion offers a wide range of powerful tools that can be used by small and medium-sized companies.

Shopify Introduction

Shopify was founded in 2004 by a group of Canadian entrepreneurs who wanted a better platform to sell snowboarding equipment online.

The multinational company, headquartered in Ottawa, is one of the largest e-commerce platforms on the market. It powers more than 1,000,000 businesses in 175 different countries. Shopify users include small businesses as well as large corporations. Some of these companies include Bulletproof, Heinz and Penguin Books.

Shopify offers the best set of features and tools for sales and third-party integrations. Shopify will help your business succeed.

Shopify offers a platform to host an online store. It also has a point of sale system and many other services that can be used to support online retailers. These include marketing, shipping and customer engagement tools. It is known for its extensive app store and ease-of-use.

Volusion vs. Shopify: Which option is better for your online store?

Comparing the ease of use

Shopify and Volusion are both powerful and easy-to-use e-commerce platform builders. Both platforms have intuitive user interfaces that make it easy for even novices to set up an online store.

Shopify’s backend is easy to use and packed with modules and segments. The basic features are easy to discover. It is easy to add products, generate discounts, or create new content.

Volusion is also easy to use. V2 places a strong emphasis on usability. The dashboard features simple language and colorful icons to aid novice merchants in their navigation.

Volusion requires a lot of manual handling in its daily operations. You can see a dropdown menu when you add a new product. This will guide you through the process to create a product description. This may be a problem for experienced marketers, but it might be a great help for new merchants.

Volusion does not have subcategories that are nested under every category in its toolbar. You can choose from five subcategories when you click on Customers in Shopify’s admin: All Products (transfers), Inventory, Gift Cards and Gift Cards, as well as Transfers, Inventory and Gift Cards. Alternatively, click on the same tab in Volusion’s admin to access Start Adding Products.

Customization Comparison

Shopify and Volusion both offer many tools to help you design, create, and edit pages on your website. The editor is intuitive and drag-and-drop. It allows you to customize your content blocks without any manual programming. They also have a WYSIWYG tool that allows you to adjust software content in a similar way to how it looks.

Two key factors in customization are templates and themes. These two elements can have a significant impact on the appearance of your online store. Shopify currently offers ten themes for free and 62 themes starting at $140-$180.

Although it might seem costly at first glance, you may find it a great deal when you consider the level of detail. The majority of paid themes are appropriate for dynamic businesses that offer a wide range of products and services.

Once you have chosen the right template for your store’s needs, you can use the theme editor to make it your own. Shopify allows you to change the colors, layout, and content of your store without any programming skills.

Shopify also offers two customization options for those with programming skills. Editing the templates can be done using liquid makeup languages or HTML/ CSS code. You can also modify the layout elements to create a striking final look.

Volusion lets you choose from 45 themes. You have 11 options to choose from if you don’t have the budget for a full website. These themes are affordable and suitable for small online shops. They are not as good as the paid themes. Volusion’s designers can increase the settings for the 34 themes. Prices range from $50 to $180 depending on the responsiveness of the theme, customization options, and features.

Although you have access to only 45 templates, you can use the customization functions to create a customized online store. The downside to this is that it is difficult for beginners to understand how to tweak the templates. You might need to take some time to learn how to use the editing tools.

Volusion’s drag and drop editor makes it easy to create different layouts.

You can also add advanced HTML/ CSS credits if you want a more sophisticated look. Volusion’s editor uses a WYSIWYG format, so even if you don’t have the necessary skills, it’s possible to use advanced HTML/ CSS credits. Each layout change will be immediately mirrored, so you can see exactly what your website looks like.

SEO & Marketing Comparison

It is crucial to increase traffic and convert customers into paying customers after you have opened your store. You can create a marketing plan to help you choose the best marketing strategies for your store, regardless of whether you sell online or offline. Shopify and Volusion both have amazing features that can help improve your website’s SEO and marketing performance.

Volusion offers a wide range of marketing services that can be used to expand companies’ customer base. You can get new visitors to your main page with amazing services such as Professional pay-per click. You can also access millions of customers via Shopping Feeds campaigns, which is a major shopping engine like Google Shopping.

Volusion allows you to explore advanced features that will help your store remain in Google’s search results and allow you to manage all social media accounts through one dashboard. It also provides unique meta titles, custom URLs and descriptions for your pages. You can also edit Robots.txt files to allow you to decide which parts of your store should most be visible to search engines and visitors.

Shopify is a great option. You can use a variety of Shopify SEO Tools. Shopify’s marketing dashboard makes it easy to find marketing ideas and generate marketing activities. It covers important areas such as meta title, meta descriptions, headings, custom URLs and image alt text. This allows for good speed and efficiency.

Comparative Store Management

Volusion allows you to use search term analysis functionality to determine what your target audience searches for on Google. Optimizing your website to attract warm prospects can help you drive steady traffic from the search engine.

Volusion offers a variety of e-commerce tools to help you create a positive shopping experience for customers. One of the most important features is a powerful inventory management software, CSV file import, barcode generator and export functions.

Volusion also excels at lead conversion. Volusion has a few useful features that can improve the shopping experience and get customers to add to their carts. You can use things like product customizations, relevant product offers and product homepage customization.

Volusion also develops functionality to allow offline physical selling through the POS system. You can then sync your physical shop with your online store and complete transactions using card readers, UPC scanners and receipt printers.

Shopify?

Shopify can handle simple, complex, medium, or large-scale projects for any type of business in the ecommerce world.

You can sell almost anything with its endless product list, high-quality images, and flexible variables.

Shopify offers an augmented reality feature that helps you improve the product descriptions. This dynamic visualization window allows customers to analyze the product attributes from multiple angles. This tool can be used effectively to increase sales and reduce product returns.

Shopify also offers important sales optimization functions, such as abandoned cart recovery, product reviews and coupons, discount codes, product management, product data management (retail inventory management), customer segmentation, order management, and so on.

Shopify is the best choice for businesses that want to grow because of its multichannel ecosystem. Shopify supports e-commerce via social networks and third-party platforms. It also facilitates physical in-store transactions.

Comparison of Extensions & Plugins

You will always need extensions to help you grow your ecommerce store, no matter how powerful the website builder.

Shopify allows you to visit the Shopify App Store. This store offers hundreds of apps as well as add-ons. AVADA marketing automation can be used to optimize conversions and decrease cart abandonment. A free app, Shopify Search Engine Suite, can alert and fix problems with search engine optimization to increase traffic to your online shop.

Over 2,000 applications are available from third-party companies. These companies can improve functions like marketing and accounting.

Volusion, on the other hand, allows you to access over 1000 plugins and apps via Zapier. These apps can be purchased and integrated into your store.

MailChimp is a top-rated Zapier app. You can add customer emails to MailChimp from Volusion, send notifications emails, newsletters and other marketing communications to your customers.

Shopify and Volusion both support a variety of plugins and apps. Shopify is likely to outperform Volusion, however, with the Shopify App Store offering tons of solutions. Although Volusion offers fewer extensions users can use Zapier to integrate the proper apps. You should choose the best one from among those thousands of options.

Comparison of Payment Gateways

Each of these e-commerce platforms allows you to integrate with different payment gateways.

Volusion accepts 34 payment processors. However, access to payment apps depends on where you live. For example, you can only access 8 of the 34 payment apps if you are in Europe.

Shopify has its own payment provider network Shopify payments that allows integration directly into the checkout process. Shopify Payments offers many outstanding benefits, including:

• No extra transaction fees
• Available in 11 countries
• Allow customers to pay online without leaving your store. 

Comparison of Customer Service & Support

Shopify offers amazing customer service options. Shopify offers a variety of channels for customer service, including email, phone and live chat support. Online support is also available via a wiki and discussion forum as well as a Youtube Help channel.

Volusion offers 24/7 live chat support via email, phone, or chat. The Personal plan does not offer online support. You can also find articles in the Help Center about running your business, designing your shop, connecting with customers, using analytics, and other topics.

Volusion vs Shopify Pricing Plans Comparison

Shopify Pricing

Shopify’s pricing plans offer reasonable options, extensible options, and key features even for the most basic plan. Shopify’s reliance on aps, and the transaction fees that it charges to third-party payment gateways is a problem.

Shopify offers a range of plans so that you can choose the one that best suits your needs and budget. The three main plans include Basic Shopify and Shopify. Advanced Shopify is the most popular. These plans are essential for building your own online store. All plans offer unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery and multichannel integration.

• Lite plan: $9 per Month – Allows you to sell online via Shopify’s POS App or bring ecommerce to a Facebook Page.

• Basic Shopify plan: $29/month – This is the most affordable plan for growing your store. It includes all the necessary tools to launch an online store. You can list unlimited items, sell on multiple channels such as Amazon and Facebook, get discounts for your customers and use abandoned cart recovery.

• Shopify Plan – $79 per Month – This plan is for new businesses and includes all features of the Basic or Shopify plans. This allows you to create gift cards for your customers and access professional reports.

• Advanced Shopify Plan – $299 per Month – Provides advanced features to help your store grow, such as advanced reports and third-party calculated shipping costs.

• Shopify Plus – Custom pricing is available for large-scale enterprise-level businesses with huge budgets. You will receive a customized quote and not a fixed price.

Shopify allows you to sign up for one year and save 10% or 20% on your subscription. You can also get 20% back if you sign up for two years. This means that you will save $16/month on Shopify Plan and $60/month on Advanced Plan.

Volusion may seem less appealing than Shopify, but it still charges transaction fees. You can avoid transaction fees by signing up for Shopify Payments, the Shopify payment processing service that Shopify offers to US customers. The transaction fees for those who don’t use this functionality will be:

• Lite Plan: 2%
• Basic Shopify Plan: 2 %
• Shopify Plan: 1%
• Advanced Shopify Plan: 0.5%

Volusion Pricing

Volusion offers four pricing options, starting at $14 to $135 per month.

• Personal Plan: $29/month – Supports businesses that have up to $50,000 of online sales each year. This plan includes some essential features such as inventory management, tax calculation, coupon creations and many other items.

• For businesses that have more than $100,000 in annual online sales, the Professional Plan is $79/month. It allows store owners to recover abandoned carts, collect reviews and allow phone orders.

• Business plan: $299 per month – Supports up to $500,000 annually in online sales This plan allows you to contact a dedicated support team.

• Prime Plan: Custom Pricing – This pricing model is for large companies that are looking to make big development strides and create a unique brand experience.

Volusion is similar to Shopify. Volusion has lower monthly rates if you sign a 1-year contract. Volusion allows you to run multiple stores and receive a 10% discount for each one.

Volusion vs. Shopify: Which one should I choose?

Volusion and Shopify are both popular platforms for e-commerce. The final decision comes down to your requirements and how you want to run your online business.

Volusion is for whom?

Volusion Mini plans are a great option if you’re looking to lower your costs. Shopify’s Basic plan will cost you more, but the Volusion Mini plan will provide all the tools necessary to start your business. You won’t need to spend too much on apps with many built-in tools. However, be prepared to pay for an eCommerce SSL certificate.

Volusion is also an excellent choice if you are looking to integrate Google Analytics to gain a better understanding of your customers and boost your sales.

Shopify is for whom?

Shopify plans are for you if you want flexibility in your store design or seamless integration of point-of-sale functionality. Shopify offers more than 100 templates and tons of apps that will help you create a unique store.

Shopify is also a great option for international store owners. Shopify allows you to sell in multiple languages and currencies, as well as using many payment gateways that are not available in the US.

Conclusion

The first step to running an online store is selecting a platform. You can seek the help of ecommerce consultants if you want your ecommerce business to grow and stay on the right track.

Please share your Shopify and Volusion experience if you have. We’d love to hear your feedback.

We appreciate your time! Have a great day.