Today we’re going to talk about the top five worst platforms for e-commerce. Specifically my specialty, which is drop shipping. My name is Asia Abston. I am the CEO of the Luxe Life Academy, where I have taught 2000 students to launch digital income streams. So stick around until the end of this video because not only am I going to tell you the five worst platforms for e-commerce, but of course I’m going share with you my absolute favorite platform for eCommerce. So let’s get into it.
Wix
All right, so these are in no particular order. I don’t like any of these and it’s pretty equal. But I’ll start with one I get asked about all the time, and that is Wix. So why does Wix suck? Number one, Wix is a content based website, period. That’s how they started. That’s what the platform is for. So that’s like blogs or photography or newspapers or online magazines, something like that. The platform began, at its roots, have always been for content based websites and not e-commerce.
Reason number two, why I don’t like Wix for e-commerce is their ads, the ads for Wix itself, will run on your website unless you upgrade your plan. So at the top, or maybe at the bottom of your site, it’ll say something like, “This site is hosted by Wix. And if you want a Wix website, you can get one here.” I am not advertising anybody else’s business on my business. Why would you distract your customers like that? You want them to be focused on making money with you, not somewhere else, building a website for themselves. Also, you cannot sell anything on Wix’s free plan. So again, like I said, Wix is a content based website. It is not built and designed for selling. Which means that when you’re on their free plan, you’re not selling anything. If you want to post pictures or talk about your business, great. Want to make a sale? No, can do. And of course that does not exist on my favorite website, but we’ll get into that later.
What else do I not like about Wix? Oh, this is a massive one. Their site, once you design your site, it is not 100% responsive based on the device that you are looking at the site from. So you would have to physically or manually make sure that your website looks good on a tablet, that it looks good on a cell phone, and that it looks good on a computer. And that makes no sense. So you’re essentially building two to three versions of your website, which makes absolutely no sense. So yeah, Wix is a no for me.
Squarespace
Next up, a website that I get asked about all the time is Squarespace. And again, it’s a no for me when it comes to e-commerce, especially drop shipping. Why? The same reason that Wix is no bueno is the same reason Squarespace is too. And that is because it is built as a content based platform. That is its origins. That is what it’s there for. That’s what the functionality is designed to do. And it was not designed for eCommerce. So why are we using a non eCommerce site for eCommerce businesses? Doesn’t make sense. Also, Squarespace’s basic plan is like $35 a month. Shopify’s $29. And their basic plan on Squarespace, 100% does not compete with the basic plan on Shopify that’s 29 bucks. So what’s even the point? It’s only a few dollars, but these things may add up as a new entrepreneur.
Here’s a big one, because it’s about your money. With Squarespace, you can only take PayPal, Square, and Stripe. That’s it. There are dozens if not hundreds of payment gateways. So you are already leaving on the table, amazon Pay. You’re leaving Apple Pay on the table. So why are we building an e-commerce website that’s supposed to make money on a platform that is keeping your money away from you because some customers will not be able to check out in their preferred method. So that’s a big one. So yeah, Squarespace is no.
BigCommerce
So the third site that I would never use for eCommerce is BigCommerce. So with BigCommerce, my top pain points are its app store. It’s app store only has a thousand apps. And that may seem like a lot. But compared to the Shopify app store, Shopify app store has 6,000 apps. And in case you don’t know, apps are exactly what they sound like. They’re applications just like you would use in your normal life that help your business run processes so that you don’t have to. They expand the seamless functionality of your website more than I could ever even explain to you in this video. But there’s a big difference between having 1000 options and having 6,000 options. So it’s a no, no, no for me.
And shout out to my international students. As you guys know, with drop shipping, you can drop ship from any country to any country in the world. And I have students from, I think, 25 or so countries around the world. So this really matters. With BigCommerce, they only have support available in seven languages. So yeah, that does not really help the international community versus my favorite. Hint, my favorite platform, Shopify, has support 24/7 in 21 different languages. So I think that that is a massive thing to consider if you are not English speaking, or you are in one of those locations that does not cater to those seven support languages.
WordPress
So the third site that I would never use for eCommerce is BigCommerce. So with BigCommerce, my top pain points are its app store. It’s app store only has a thousand apps. And that may seem like a lot. But compared to the Shopify app store, Shopify app store has 6,000 apps. And in case you don’t know, apps are exactly what they sound like. They’re applications just like you would use in your normal life that help your business run processes so that you don’t have to. They expand the seamless functionality of your website more than I could ever even explain to you in this video. But there’s a big difference between having 1000 options and having 6,000 options. So it’s a no, no, no for me.
And shout out to my international students. As you guys know, with drop shipping, you can drop ship from any country to any country in the world. And I have students from, I think, 25 or so countries around the world. So this really matters. With BigCommerce, they only have support available in seven languages. So yeah, that does not really help the international community versus my favorite. Hint, my favorite platform, Shopify, has support 24/7 in 21 different languages. So I think that that is a massive thing to consider if you are not English speaking, or you are in one of those locations that does not cater to those seven support languages.
All right, next up is a massive headache of mine, and that is WordPress. People ask me about WordPress every single day. And the answer is, it’s a no for me personally. Again, WordPress is a content based website. Actually, it was designed for blogging. Like the written word. That’s why WordPress was built. It was not built to sell products. So again, why are we building our dream businesses, our businesses period, our side hustles on platforms not specifically designed for the thing that we want to do. Not only that, WordPress is not user friendly at all. You have to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science to use WordPress, which I don’t have. So it’s no for me.
The other thing about WordPress, it winds up being costly in my experience. Because it’s so non-user friendly, and because WordPress is all built in its own like specialty setup and language, you really have to be a developer, or have a developer on your team, or have the finances to hire a developer because it’s not drag and drop. It’s not simple. And not only that, with WordPress, you are responsible for maintaining your own website. Meaning, things break. Plugins break. Apps break. Things don’t work all the time because that’s just how technology is. And you’re going to get a little message from WordPress that says, “Yeah, this is broken.” They’re not going to fix it for you. They’re not going to tell you how to fix it. They just want you to know that you need to fix it. And unless you’ve got, like I said, basically a bachelor’s in WordPress specifically, or computer something fabulous, you are at the mercy of a developer. So no, for me, for WordPress. I use WordPress for my content and service based website, but I will absolutely never never never use WordPress for eCommerce.
WooCommerce
And last up in my top five sites I would never use for eCommerce, specifically drop shipping, is WooCommerce. So WooCommerce is a little bit different in that it is an open source tool. So what that basically means is that you are not only responsible for actually running your business, but you are responsible for running your website. What do I mean by that? You are responsible for the maintenance of your site. You’re responsible for the hosting. You’re responsible for the site security. You are responsible for every little plugin and component by yourself.
Versus on, again, my favorite platform, on Shopify, for $29 a month it does all of that stuff for you. It’s all included. You will never get an email from Shopify that says xyz, weird backend thing is not working. Why? Because they already fix it for you. They manage it for you. It never even reaches your front door. Unless there’s something weird that you specifically did, it will never happen.
Versus on a site like WooCommerce, that is a whole, you need a full team of developers, excuse me, who know what they’re doing and can help you manage that. And as a small solopreneur or a team of one or a new business venture, doesn’t really work. Ain’t nobody got time for that, honestly. Second reason I don’t do WooCommerce. WooCommerce is basically a WordPress plugin, for lack of a better word. That might even actually be what it is. Saying that to say, if you don’t have WordPress, then you’re screwed when it comes to WooCommerce. They work in conjunction. And I just explained to you why WordPress is not the T. So why even rock with that?
So I hope that broke down for you the top five eCommerce platforms I would never use. And I think that you know which platform I will always use. And I will always be Shopify. It’s just the biggest, baddest, best of everything. Hey Shopify, call me if you’re watching this video. It’s just the best in the game. There’s no other place, specifically if you are a drop shipper.
So my question to you is, now that you have this information, number one, which platform were you going to use or are you using? And secondly, will you be switching over to the really good one, which is Shopify? I’m curious. Let me know. Drop a comment below and tell me.
Now if you enjoyed this video and you want to know more about e-commerce, more about drop shipping, more about passive income, all the good things. Because I have a free beginners masterclass going down, and I want to teach you all the ins and outs about drop shipping. Because I can’t put it all in one YouTube video. But we can go in depth inside the masterclass, so make sure you register and I will see you there.
