If you’re reading this, chances are you are about to set up an online store. Good for you! But I recommend you take your time in this stage because it can be critical to your success (or lack thereof) moving forward.
Choosing the best – and right – ecommerce platform for an ecommerce business is no easy feat. Selecting the right platform for your online store entails weighing several factors.
Shopify vs 3dcart are two of the top ecommerce platforms available for aspiring ecommerce store owners. Each ecommerce platform offers various tools to create, operate, and manage an online store.
But is one better than the other? Which platform between Shopify vs 3dcart is worth your investment?
Read on below to find everything you need to make an informed decision.
Article Overview:
An Overview on 3DCart
Features of Shopify
3dcart vs Shopify Pros & Cons
Summary
An Overview on 3DCart
Before you delve into the 3dcart vs Shopify comparison, let us give you a background on this ecommerce platform. 3dcart offers ‘everything you need to build your online store.’ Therefore, it ranks among the top options for anyone looking for a comprehensive ecommerce solution. But does it get the job done?
While you’ve probably heard about Shopify – especially would-be ecommerce store owners – only a few have heard about 3dcart. 3dcart (also known as Shift4Shop) is a turnkey ecommerce software. Therefore, it makes setting up an ecommerce store easy and quick because you have everything you need in one ecommerce platform.
While Shopify has been around since 2006, 3dcart has been around for much longer (specifically, over two decades). 3dcart is an ecommerce solution that recently changed its name to Shift4Shop in 2020. 3dcart might be slightly less popular, but it is a reliable ecommerce platform with everything you need to operate and manage an ecommerce business.
When 3dcart changed its name, it also introduced a few changes to the platform. And don’t worry, these are positive changes! Now, the platform is poised to be a serious competition for the Shopify ecommerce giant.
Features of 3dcart
To help you better understand the 3dcart vs Shopify comparison and to help you pick the right website builder with ecommerce functionalities, it is best to examine the features of each platform closely. As these two are the most popular ecommerce platforms with sales features suited for online selling, these features will help you determine the most comprehensive solution worth the investment.
Website Builder
The website builder functionality offered by 3dcart makes it stand out from the competition, which includes the Shopify platform. The website builder is simple yet powerful. It has a comprehensive solution to build your ecommerce website from scratch. In the past, technical knowledge and coding skills were required to build a website, now, you can easily do it using any of these two platforms: 3dcart vs Shopify.
As a website builder, 3dcart offers the opportunity to build various websites, such as dropshipping, nonprofit websites, business websites, events and tickets, toys and games, electronics, books, and more. Using the ecommerce website builder feels intuitive. As you will learn more later, you can choose from free and paid themes to build a custom online store design and the Core Theme Editor. It’s also easy to add products to your ecommerce store and edit the store language to suit your preference.
Shopping Cart
The Shopping Cart feature is another one of the top features available with 3dcart. The powerful cart and checkout functionality gives your ecommerce store an advantage over the competition. Most ecommerce platforms experience many bugs and issues with the checkout process, resulting in many abandoned carts. Obviously, you must avoid these issues to generate more sales from online selling.
3dcart allows you to customize what happens after the ‘Add to Cart’ click option. You can send the customers to the View Cart page or direct them to the Checkout page. There are endless customization possibilities with this handy feature available at 3dcart.
Store Design
Store Design is another critical aspect of building an online store with 3dcart. While there is no shortage of website design software available, it can easily overwhelm, especially newbies to the ecommerce business scene. 3dcart easily overcomes this with a powerful and intuitive ecommerce solution. You can set up a fully customizable and responsive website and online store. You can even incorporate a blog page into your website.
From a versatile content management system to its powerful design customization, you have more power to build the store you want with 3dcart. With an easy drag-and-drop builder functionality, creating the best website for your online business has never been easier!
Order Management
The order management functionality is the next factor to consider when choosing between 3dcart vs Shopify. With 3dcart’s order management software, online selling is simplified to ensure you can seamlessly sell your products and make more sales.
Without the right tools, order management can be chaotic – and stressful. And yet, you must get it right because the quality of the customer service experience and the reputation of your ecommerce store largely depend on it. It’s essential to have order management software to streamline the process and make ordering a breeze for your customers.
This feature offers interesting functionalities, such as new order notifications, comprehensive information on each order, and a convenient dashboard. Your customers can also receive timely status updates so they are up to speed with the status of their orders.
Inventory Management
3dcart also boasts a built-in inventory management software ideal for ecommerce businesses. The inventory management feature comes in an intuitive, web-based interface. It makes adding, editing, or managing your inventory or product list easy. You can even use it to upload products in bulk!
You will use the inventory management tool to keep track of product information and stock levels. Hence, you can avoid disappointments from customers wanting to order your products when you’ve run out of stock!
You can enjoy additional features such as unlimited products variants, optimizing your products with images and video, and unlimited categorization. The inventory management system puts you in control of your products and online store.
Hosting
Like 3dcart, Shopify offers a hosted platform for your startup store. One of those features makes these popular ecommerce platforms among the best in the ecommerce business scene for their hosting support.
The ecommerce hosting available with 3dcart is reliable and scalable. Aside from secure web hosting, you can get your own domain name, a free SSL certificate, FTP access to files, and daily backups for your web hosting. These features ensure your ecommerce business is safe and secure. Meanwhile, all 3dcart stores are powered by CloudFare, which ensures fast and efficient content delivery.
Customer Support
Another essential feature when considering 3dcart vs Shopify is customer support. With 3dcart, you can access 24/7 support with a dedicated customer service team. Plus, the website offers several resources, such as articles, help guides, and community forums.
Marketing & SEO
Marketing and SEO are two essential components you must look for in an ecommerce platform. Access to marketing tools and SEO tools ensures that you can get maximum traffic to your website and increase your chances of converting those traffic into sales.
The content management system through the built-in blog feature with a website builder like 3dcart gives you an SEO advantage. You can utilize your blog to optimize your site’s SEO performance, employing the right SEO tools for maximum reach. You can also optimize each web page and product page with SEO tools to reach the top of the search rankings.
Regarding marketing tools, 3dcart offers a targeted email marketing system and is integrated with Google Shopping. The Google Shopping integration is another incentive to capitalize on the available SEO tools since you can put your products in front of millions of shoppers! There are more handy sales features you can explore once you set up your website and manage it.
Features of Shopify
For the sake of the 3dcart vs Shopify comparison, let us dive into the features that Shopify offers. Whether you subscribe to the basic Shopify or Advanced Shopify plan, learning what ecommerce tools are built into this website builder to optimize your Shopify store is crucial.
Create Your Website
The website builder is the main functionality that Shopify offers. Once you sign up for any pricing plans from Shopify, you can access a fully customizable and feature-rich website builder. The beauty of building a startup store with Shopify is there is no code required. However, you can introduce HTML or CSS coding if you want more advanced customization on your ecommerce site.
Employing an easy drag-and-drop WYSIWYG functionality, you can design your website intuitively and create a custom look that stands out!
Hosting
Shopify offers a hosted ecommerce platform, meaning you can get your domain when you set up an online store without buying your hosting plan from a third-party provider. It is convenient and seamless, allowing you to find the right domain to distinguish your website from other online businesses.
When you host your domain with Shopify, the costs are incorporated into your pricing plans (whether for Basic Shopify or Advanced Shopify stores). Therefore, you won’t have to worry about the recurring costs to your domain host provider.
Store Themes
The ability to build stunning and creative websites is a priority for many ecommerce store owners. You want to make a good first impression on potential customers with a professionally designed website theme. The good thing is that the Shopify themes are built for ecommerce, whether you have free and paid themes.
Each theme is professionally designed, so less tweaking is involved, especially if you don’t want to do more work to set up your online store and its design. Each theme has built-in features, which apply to free and paid themes. Each website theme is also mobile friendly, which means you can optimize your sales performance wherever your customers view your website. All Shopify store owners can access free updates on their themes, ensuring you have your website’s latest version.
If you want more options to pick the design of your choice, the Shopify theme store offers 153 themes. Thus, it’s easy to find the best theme for your website, no matter your industry.
Third Party Apps Integration
Access to third party, mobile apps can enrich the functionalities of your ecommerce site. You can use third party apps to capture more customers and scale the ecommerce tools readily available in the Shopify platform.
The Shopify App store offers an extensive selection to suit your business needs. You can choose third party apps to send abandoned cart messages, on-site messaging, a loyalty program app, and shoppable ads! With so many mobile apps, you can find the perfect app to scale your online business.
Multi Channel Selling
In addition to the built-in sales features and ecommerce tools, Shopify offers the ability to expand your reach through multi channel selling. You can promote and sell your products from within the Shopify platform, allowing you to run your business from one place while growing your audience.
For example, you can optimize selling on various social media platforms, such as setting up a Facebook store on top of the Shopify online store. It is a fantastic opportunity to grow your audience and sell where people are on social media!
Checkout Customization
The checkout process is one of the most critical features of an online store manager and website. Employing a high-conversion checkout process ensures that you won’t have any abandoned carts, and you can ensure your customers will complete the checkout process.
The shopping cart Shopify offers makes checking out a breeze for your customers. It is integral to building a positive shopping experience since your customers can follow the process with just one click (or tap).
International Selling
The opportunity to generate international sales is one of the key advantages that Shopify has in the 3dcart vs Shopify comparison. Shopify Markets is a global ecommerce solution that enables store owners to sell to various countries worldwide, allowing you to scale your business globally easily.
This comprehensive solution and ecommerce tool make it easy to localize storefronts and calculate tax duties and international shipping rates. It simplifies the cross-border complexities of international selling while making it cost-effective.
Marketing and SEO
Shopify offers an extensive suite of marketing tools and SEO features, making it easy to start selling and growing your brand.
The integrated marketing approach by Shopify allows businesses to reach their customers with SEO tools, content marketing, social media selling, and targeted ads. It is also easy to connect with customers via the Shopify inbox, where you can chat or message customers to respond to questions and other queries. Meanwhile, the Shopify email marketing campaign makes setting up email campaigns a breeze.
You can also integrate your Shopify store with a third party market research tool. This tool lets you identify what products are trending so you are one step ahead of the competition. Speaking of competition, you can use the tool for competitor analysis and to understand what strategies are working for your competitors so you know what to integrate into your own marketing campaign.
3dcart vs Shopify Pros & Cons
3dcart Pros
- Wide range of sales features and tools
- Reliable support
- Built-in CRM and blogging
- US merchants won’t have to pay transaction fees with their own payment processor
- There is a free plan
- Good array of SEO tools
3dcart Cons
- Limited customization on themes
- The free plan isn’t open to international merchants
- Online forums are not as active and helpful (especially vs Shopify)
- Lacks a mobile app feature
Shopify Pros
- Wide range of store management and sales features
- Various pricing plans are available
- Access to third party apps
- Professionally designed themes
- Easy integration to third party marketing tools
- International and multi-channel sales
- Intuitive website builder with no coding required
- Mobile friendly websites
Shopify Cons
- There is no free plan (but they do have free trial)
- You must pay transaction fees for each sale
- Limited free themes
Summary
It’s plain to see why the debate on 3dcart vs Shopify is going strong – 3dcart offers quite an extensive array of sales features for aspiring ecommerce business owners. But in comparison, Shopify wins because it has more out-of-the-box functionality and integration capabilities.
Therefore, it is easier to scale a Shopify store than with 3dcart. It’s no wonder why Shopify is the leading choice among popular ecommerce platforms because it surely delivers the job!
Want to review our other Shopify comparison articles?
Check out our comparisons of Shopify vs:
- Big Cartel
- BigCommerce
- ecwid
- Magento
- Neto
- OpenCart
- osCommerce
- PrestaShop
- shopify plus
- Squarespace
- Volusion
- Weebly
- Wix
