Shopify

Shopify vs Neto: A Battle Between Old and New

Nahar Geva | August 8th |

Your choice of ecommerce platform for an online store can make or break your business.

It’s a tough decision to make, which is why it’s crucial that you research your options. Ideally, the right platform for an ecommerce store should provide the essential tools you need to serve your goals.

It’s easier said than done. With so many options and varying features and tools across different ecommerce platforms, you could be easily overwhelmed.

The Shopify platform is the most popular ecommerce platform because of its diverse Shopify themes that help you create your online store from scratch within minutes. Plus, the Shopify ecommerce and SEO tools enable ecommerce business owners to scale their businesses easily.

But a newcomer in town is giving Shopify a serious run for its money: Neto. What is the Neto site? How does Shopify vs Neto compare?

Let’s look at these two platforms to help online store owners succeed in the online retail industry.

Article Overview:

Introduction to Neto
A Refresher on Shopify
Shopify vs Neto: Overview
Pricing & Plans
Themes and Design
Payment Gateway Options
Shipping Options
Support
Online Store Functionalities
Ease of Use
Marketing
Final Thoughts: Shopify vs Neto

Introduction to Neto

If you haven’t heard about Neto site before, you’re not alone. It’s a relative newcomer as an ecommerce platform. It is a platform founded in Australia that offers its services to the Australian market or business owners.

Neto is emerging as one serious competition for Shopify as one of the leading ecommerce platforms. Neto is a cloud-based, multi channel ecommerce platform solution. Since its founding, it has produced over 2,400 live websites. Historically, it has helped produce over 5,000 websites.

According to its website, Neto is an all-in-one ecommerce platform allowing businesses like retailers and wholesalers to take on big online brands. It is made by Australians for Australians. It promises a complete suite of advanced features to improve ecommerce performance and multi channel sales.

A Refresher on Shopify

Shopify needs no introduction, but for the sake of comparison, it’s important to review what Shopify is. Shopify has been the world’s most popular ecommerce platform since its launch in 2004. There are over a million stores that use Shopify as their ecommerce platform.

The reason for Shopify’s popularity is due to its beginner-friendly interface. Even without coding or website design experience, you can use Shopify to create your own ecommerce store. Once you pick your Shopify plan, whether it’s the basic Shopify plan or Advanced Shopify, you have access to essential tools to set up your ecommerce store.

Shopify features a drag-and-drop website builder, so you can easily set up your Shopify store in an hour! You can also choose from the various Shopify themes to create an online store design. The Advanced Shopify plan gives you more features and functionalities to maximize the performance and marketing of your online store.

Shopify vs Neto: Overview

Which ecommerce platform is right for online store owners: Shopify vs Neto? The best way to choose the best platform for an ecommerce store and enjoy business growth is to look into the depending factors.

Here is an in-depth look at how to choose the right ecommerce platform for your online business.

Pricing & Plans

Regarding pricing, Shopify vs Neto each have their distinct pricing plans. Therefore, you can choose the best ecommerce platform to suit your budget and where you are in your online business journey.

Shopify offers five pricing plans that differ in the features and functionalities you can access when building your ecommerce store.

Starter ($5 USD per month) – Set up a store in minutes and sell online through social and messaging apps.
Basic Plan ($25 USD per month) – This plan is ideal for individuals and startups. Access all the features and functionalities to set up an online store and process payments for your orders. The basic plan also includes basic reporting and two staff accounts.
Shopify ($65 USD per month) – This plan is ideal for small businesses. You can create up to nine staff accounts and professional reporting for your small business.
Advanced ($399 USD per month) – This plan is ideal for medium to large businesses with up to 15 staff accounts. It offers a custom report builder and the lowest transaction fees.
Shopify Plus ($2,000 USD per month) – This plan offers an all-in-one solution for high-volume sellers and businesses.

On the other hand, Neto offers four basic plans. Here is an overview of the Neto pricing plans:

Essential ($79 USD per month) – It includes all the features you need to start your journey in an online business and to set up a basic online store.
Essential Plus ($199 USD per month) – Aside from the features available to the Essential plan, you can access back-office features to facilitate online business growth. You can set up a maximum of two sales channels.
Professional ($269 USD per month) – This plan features automation to enable you to scale your business, such as low stock alerts and bulk order processing.
Enterprise (custom price) – The Enterprise plan is tailored to meet the unique needs of every ecommerce store. You can enjoy the features and functionalities of an online store depending on the needs of your business. Notable features under this plan include ecommerce analytics, multiple sales channels, and multi-currency purchase orders.

Shopify offers a free version, and Neto does not. However, both platforms have a 14-day free trial. The signup process for both websites is easy and intuitive, which makes setting up your account a breeze.

Themes and Design

Access to various Shopify and Neto themes is crucial if you want to create an online store that visually stands out. Nowadays, it’s not enough that you have good quality products. You must have an online business that can showcase your products in an appealing way.

Having access to customizable themes enables you to choose the right theme to suit your industry and your branding. If you were to hire a professional website designer, it could take several weeks and a lot of money to accomplish. But when you use Shopify or Neto, you can create professional business websites in an hour!

There are over 120 Shopify themes available on the paid plans. You can also access free themes, giving you more options. Once you have chosen a theme, you can use the website editor to customize specific items in that layout. Therefore, you can upgrade your website to achieve the style and branding for your online business.

With Neto themes, you have fewer options than what Shopify themes offer. There are over 40 Neto themes, and you can choose according to the category or industry for your online business. If you go for the paid themes, there will be an additional fee for them (the same goes for Shopify).

Therefore, knowing that you must pay more to enjoy customized themes for your online store is crucial.

On average, Neto’s themes are slightly more expensive than those available through Shopify.

Payment Gateway Options

The availability of payment gateways is a crucial factor to consider when deciding between Shopify and Neto. Working with more payment providers is important to ensure convenience for your customers when shopping from your store.

With Shopify, you have the ability to integrate over 100 payment gateway options, including major credit cards like Visa and American Express. You can also integrate Stripe and other payment processing solutions.

With Neto, they currently offer major payment gateways within the Australian market. You can expect that more payment gateways will be added soon since Neto is still a relative newcomer to the industry.

So, for now, Shopify wins this department.

Shipping Options

As you would expect, Neto offers Australian shipping. Neto is partnered with AusPost to provide shipping options for retailers and online businesses. The Australian shipping services available with Neto websites include eParcel, among other major Australian couriers.

The shipping features on Neto enable businesses to streamline order fulfillment and processing. Many steps are automated, such as the quoting and labeling, especially since they are tied to a multi-carrier shipping system. This shipping method facilitates faster and more efficient shipping.

Meanwhile, Shopify also offers impressive shipping features. Online businesses that utilize Shopify as its platform can access international shipping providers and those that offer Australian shipping.

Neto wins the shipping department due to the complexity and the wide availability of shipping features. But a Shopify store will still get the job done if your shipping needs are basic.

Support

The best ecommerce platform should provide prompt and comprehensive support if you experience trouble setting up or using your ecommerce store.

Shopify offers an 24/7 excellent customer service support team. You can access many helpful resources on the website. In addition, the support team includes a live chat function and email support. Therefore, you can easily reach Shopify support if you need help using your Shopify store.

Neto’s support team is locally managed, with most of the customer support team based in Brisbane. However, some customers complain about the slow response from Neto’s customer support team. You can always refer to the help articles or email the support team if you have any issues.

Since customer management is crucial in finding the best platform for your growing business, Shopify wins in the support department.

Online Store Functionalities

The customer end in using the online store is comparable between Shopify and Neto. Neto and Shopify enable business owners to set up functional and easy-to-navigate stores. But that’s speaking from the front end. There might be a difference between these two platforms from the back end.

Shopify’s online store functionalities are easy to use, even if you’re a beginner. You can easily upload your products to your store, and the processing of orders is just as easy. Shopify wins, from managing orders from multiple warehouses to stock management and app integration.

With Neto, it’s not really as easy or as smooth sailing. Maximizing the online store functionalities can be confusing, especially from a beginner’s standpoint. While Neto offers many automated capabilities, it’s still inferior when you do Shopify comparison.

Ease of Use

If you’re a beginner in building your own ecommerce store, it is important to choose an ecommerce platform that is easy and intuitive to use. A user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate the features on the platform, saving you time and effort.

Shopify reigns supreme in this one as an e commerce platform that stands out for its simple and straightforward layout. In addition, the website builder and editor is easy to use. Even if you do encounter issues with using the website, they have 24/7 support that is available to respond to your queries or help in setting up your online store.

On the other hand, Neto is slightly inferior to Shopify in this regard. Neto’s homepage is still very clear and simple. But it lacks the ease of navigation that Shopify is, which is why it gets the edge in ease of use.

Marketing

SEO and marketing are integral for a growing business, especially in the ecommerce industry. Therefore, it’s not enough that you can find an affordable ecommerce platform or one that is popular. Make sure to consider the marketing and SEO tools the said ecommerce platform offers.

Shopify has a robust marketing and SEO suite of features to optimize your website performance. One example is the introduction of the email marketing tool called Shopify Email. In addition, Shopify’s multi-channel integration also makes it easier for online store owners to cross-promote their products on other platforms, such as social media.

Regarding SEO, Shopify offers various SEO plugins like Plugin SEO and SEO Meta Manager. Take advantage of these tools to optimize the SEO elements of your website.

Neto also offers a comprehensive range of marketing tools for Australian business owners to promote their products online. Among Neto’s third-party integrations are Mailchimp, Review.io, and Instagram Gallery. Business owners can use them to boost store visibility and attract potential buyers for their business.

Aside from taking full advantage of each platform’s marketing tools and SEO capabilities, online store owners must arm themselves with a reliable product research tool. These tools enable you to identify the trending products that customers want to buy!

In addition, you can utilize these tools to perform keyword research to target the terms that customers want. You can also utilize those keywords to optimize your titles and product descriptions on the listing, giving your products more visibility on these platforms.

Final Thoughts: Shopify vs Neto

Now that you know about each platform, which is the winner: Shopify vs Neto?

Neto is a newcomer in the ecommerce industry, and it’s already making a name for itself. However, Shopify remains the superior ecommerce platform in this Neto and Shopify comparison.

However, since every business’s needs are unique, you can choose the best platform that offers the necessary services and tools. This guide (hopefully) has provided you with the information you need to make the right choice.