Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: A Comprehensive Comparison

In this blog, we will delve into a comprehensive comparison of three leading ecommerce platforms: Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon. If you’re an ecommerce business owner, this is a must-read!

Key Takeaways

• Shopify, with customizable options and robust features, is best for those seeking complete control over their online store.
• Etsy is best for creative entrepreneurs looking to showcase and sell unique handmade, vintage, and craft items to a niche market.
• Amazon is best for businesses aiming to tap into a massive customer base and leverage the power of a global online marketplace.

Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: The key difference

Shopify, Etsy and Amazon have different approaches towards ecommerce. 

With a focus on empowering businesses to create their own fully branded online stores, Shopify stands out with its comprehensive set of features for customization and control. It allows businesses to build scalable and unique ecommerce experiences, making it the platform of choice for entrepreneurs who want to establish their own distinctive online presence. 

Meanwhile, Etsy provides a specialized marketplace for artisans, makers, and sellers of unique handmade, vintage, and craft items. Etsy’s market focus sets it apart, attracting customers who actively seek out one-of-a-kind products.

As the world’s largest online marketplace, Amazon takes a different approach by offering an extensive range of products from various sellers. Its emphasis on logistics, reliable delivery, and customer trust enables sellers to reach a broad audience and capitalize on the power of a well-established marketplace.

These core differences between Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon highlight their unique value propositions. While Shopify empowers businesses to build their own branded stores, Etsy caters to a creative niche market, and Amazon offers unparalleled reach and a global customer base. 

Understanding these distinctions is crucial when choosing the platform that aligns best with your business goals and target audience.

Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons of Shopify 

Pros

• Customizability: Shopify’s platform allows businesses to create a unique, branded online store.
• Scalability: With various pricing tiers and infrastructure to handle increasing transactions, Shopify grows with your business.
• App Ecosystem: Shopify’s vast App Store offers numerous integrations for extending your store’s functionality.
• 24/7 Support: Shopify provides round-the-clock customer support, ensuring help is available when you need it.
• Speed and Security: Shopify stores have quick load times and robust security measures in place.

Cons

• Transaction Fees: Unless you’re using Shopify Payments, additional transaction fees apply.

Pros and Cons of Etsy 

Pros

• Niche Audience: Etsy has a built-in audience looking for handmade, unique, and vintage items.
• Ease of Use: Setting up a shop on Etsy is straightforward and doesn’t require technical skills.

Cons

• Limited Customization: Etsy shops have limited customization, making it harder to stand out or create a strong brand presence.
• Competition: Given the nature of the marketplace, sellers can face significant competition on Etsy.
• High transaction fees.

Pros and Cons of Amazon

Pros

• Massive Audience: Amazon has a vast global customer base that few platforms can match.
• Fulfillment by Amazon: Amazon’s FBA service handles storage, packaging, and shipping for sellers.
• Reputation: Customers trust Amazon, which can translate into higher sales conversion rates.

Cons

• High Competition: It can be challenging to stand out among many sellers on Amazon.
• Fees: Amazon charges a referral fee that can be significantly higher than those on other platforms.
• Seller Policies: Amazon has strict seller policies, and failing to meet them can result in penalties or suspension.

Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: In-depth Comparison

Pricing

Shopify

Subscription fees

Shopify offers a range of pricing plans to cater to businesses of all sizes. The subscription fees range from $39 to $399 per month, depending on the plan chosen. 

They also offer a super hot deal, which includes a 3-day free trial and $1 for the first 3 months. You can click here to see more of this deal.

Transaction fees

In addition to the subscription fees, there are transaction fees ranging from 0.5% to 2% per transaction, depending on each plan that you’ve chosen. However, these fees can be removed when using Shopify Payments.

Read more: Shopify Fees (2023): All The Expenses You Need To Know!

Etsy 

Subscription fees

Unlike Shopify, Etsy doesn’t charge a subscription fee for basic seller accounts, but you’ll have to pay $0.20 for each item as listing fees. Besides, they do offer a subscription plan called Etsy Plus for $10 per month, which includes additional features and benefits. 

Transaction fees

Etsy charges a transaction fee of 6.5% on the item’s sale price, excluding shipping and taxes. Compared to Shopify, Etsy’s transaction fees tend to be higher.

Amazon

Subscription fees

Amazon offers two main selling plans: the Individual plan with no monthly subscription fee but $0.99 for each item you sell, and the Professional plan for $39.99 per month. The Individual plan is suitable for sellers with low sales volume, while the Professional plan caters to businesses with higher sales volumes. 

Transaction fees

Amazon’s transaction fees start at 2.4% of order value and $0.30 per transaction with Prime fees. Through Amazon Pay, they can range from 0.59% to 0.7% of the item’s sale price.

Additional fees may apply for services like fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and advertising. Additionally, the referral fees of Amazon fall between 8% to 15% per item.

Table comparison in terms of overall pricing

The Verdict

Shopify emerges as the winner in terms of pricing due to its flexible pricing plans, competitive transaction fees, and customization options. 

Sales Features

Payment Options

Shopify stands out with its extensive payment options, offering its own payment gateway (Shopify Payments) as well as support for over 100 external gateways. This flexibility allows businesses to cater to various customer preferences, ensuring seamless and secure transactions. 

Etsy, while providing Etsy Payments and alternative methods like PayPal, falls slightly behind in terms of payment options. On the other hand, Amazon also offers its own payment system called Amazon Pay and allows integration with other gateways. 

Shopify and Amazon’s diverse range of payment options makes them the top choice for businesses looking to provide convenient payment methods to their customers.

Shipping Options

When it comes to shipping, Shopify excels by offering advanced features such as customizable shipping rates, carrier-calculated shipping, and integration with popular shipping carriers. This allows businesses to tailor shipping options to their specific needs, ensuring efficient and reliable delivery. 

Etsy provides shipping profiles and supports various carriers like USPS, FedEx, and UPS, providing adequate shipping capabilities. Amazon, with its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service and seller-fulfilled shipping options, provides comprehensive solutions. 

Product Options and Variants

Shopify stands out regarding product options and variants, empowering businesses to create highly customizable listings. With Shopify, sellers can define multiple options such as size, color, material, and more, allowing customers to select from a wide range of product variations. Etsy, known for its focus on unique and handmade items, allows sellers to specify multiple variations within a single listing, catering well to its niche market. Amazon supports product variations through parent-child relationships, but its standardized approach doesn’t offer the same level of customization as Shopify and Etsy.

Product import and export

Shopify provides a seamless and efficient process for importing and exporting product data, offering CSV file integration and compatibility with third-party apps. This allows for easy migration or updates of product catalogs. 

Etsy and Amazon also support import and export through CSV files, facilitating bulk uploading and updating of listings as well, with similar capabilities.

Analytics and Reporting 

Shopify offers robust analytics and reporting features, providing businesses with comprehensive insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and conversion rates. Its detailed reports and data-driven metrics enable informed decision-making and optimization of strategies. 

Discover: Top 15 Best Shopify Analytics Apps in 2023

Etsy provides basic analytics tools such as shop stats and revenue breakdowns but falls short in comparison to Shopify’s extensive reporting capabilities. 

Amazon also offers sales reports and performance metrics through its Seller Central dashboard. However, Shopify’s comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities make it the superior platform for businesses seeking in-depth insights.

Dropshipping

Shopify distinguishes itself as a leader in dropshipping by offering built-in integration with various dropshipping apps and platforms. This allows businesses to easily set up and manage dropshipping operations, streamlining order fulfillment and inventory management. 

While Etsy enables dropshipping through approved production partners, it is Shopify’s extensive support for dropshipping integrations that gives it the upper hand. Amazon also offers dropshipping through its FBA service, making it a viable option for businesses leveraging Amazon’s fulfillment capabilities.

The Verdict

Shopify is the overall winner in terms of sales features as all of its sales features are generally good.

SEO & Marketing features

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features

Shopify allows complete control over meta tags, URL slugs, sitemap generation, and image alt texts, which improve search engine rankings and help develop your own website. 

Etsy automatically creates titles and tags, which might not always align with your SEO strategy. Amazon’s SEO mainly relies on its powerful domain authority and accurate product categorization without much room for customization.

Email Marketing

Shopify has its native email marketing tool—Shopify Email. Plus, it also integrates seamlessly with top-tier email marketing services, offering features like customer segmentation, A/B testing, and rich visual templates. 

You can’t barely conduct email marketing on Etsy as it doesn’t disclose the customers’ email. While Amazon does support email marketing, it is not as robust as Shopify. 

Social Media Marketing

Shopify’s integration with all major social media platforms allows for a streamlined social commerce experience, including shoppable posts and checkout features on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. 

Etsy and Amazon do enable social media sharing but do not provide the same level of native integration and marketing features.

Discover: Top 13 Best Shopify Social Media Apps in 2023

Product Reviews

Shopify supports advanced review features through apps like Yotpo, allowing for photo and video reviews, Q&A sections, and more. 

Etsy’s review system is straightforward but lacks these advanced features. 

Amazon’s review system is robust but subject to strict regulations and potential review manipulation.

Blogging features

Shopify offers a built-in blogging platform, supporting SEO-friendly blogs with tags, comments, and multimedia elements. Neither Etsy nor Amazon provides integrated blogging features for your own website.

Apps and Integrations

Shopify 

Shopify boasts an extensive App Store, housing over 8,000 apps that cater to various business needs, from SEO, marketing, to inventory management. It also allows for integration with marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon.

Etsy 

Etsy can integrate with Shopify via apps, also with over 1,000 other applications. It also lacks an app marketplace.

Amazon

Amazon has several APIs and integrations, but its options for third-party apps are limited compared to Shopify. 

The Verdict

Shopify comes out on top again with its extensive range of apps and integrations, providing sellers with more tools to customize their stores and drive growth.

Ease of Use

Shopify 

Shopify is designed with user-friendliness in mind. Its clean, intuitive dashboard, drag-and-drop store builder, and 24/7 support make it easy for sellers at all experience levels.

Etsy 

Etsy is relatively straightforward for setting up a basic shop, but its limited features can create hurdles for more complex business needs.

Amazon

Amazon has a steep learning curve due to its extensive features, strict seller policies, and complex fee structure.

The Verdict

Shopify’s focus on user experience, comprehensive customer support, and a broad feature set tailored to both novice and experienced sellers give it the upper hand in this area.

Scalability

Shopify 

Shopify’s scalability is supported by different pricing tiers ranging from Basic Shopify to Shopify Plus. As businesses grow, they can upgrade their plans to gain access to more features, higher volume capacities, and lower transaction fees. For instance, Shopify Plus is designed for high-growth, high-volume businesses and can handle over 10,000 transactions per minute.

Etsy 

Etsy is primarily suitable for small-scale sellers. While it can handle growth in terms of listings and sales, there’s no tiered structure or additional infrastructure to support substantial growth. Additionally, as sellers don’t have their dedicated servers, potential issues like site crashes during high traffic could affect sales.

Amazon

Amazon can handle significant sales volume and traffic due to its vast infrastructure. However, navigating Amazon’s complex seller system can become more challenging as businesses grow, with increased competition and strict adherence to Amazon’s seller policies.

The Verdict

Shopify is the top contender in scalability due to its flexible pricing plans and infrastructure designed to support business growth at every stage.

Help and Support 

Shopify 

Shopify provides 24/7 multi-channel support via phone, email, and live chat. Shopify’s support system also includes Shopify Help Center, community forums, and free online webinars. Shopify Plus users get additional priority support, including a dedicated Support Advisor.

Etsy 

Etsy’s Help Center and community forums are useful resources, but they lack 24/7 live support. For more complex issues, response times via email can be slow, and resolution can be lengthy.

Amazon

Amazon provides Seller Central, a comprehensive help center, and seller forums. However, sellers often report long response times and standardized responses that don’t always resolve specific issues.

The Verdict

Shopify wins with its round-the-clock multi-channel support, extensive self-help resources, and dedicated support for Shopify Plus users.

Security

Shopify 

In addition to being PCI DSS compliant, Shopify provides automatic fraud analysis on all orders. Shopify Payments also has chargeback protection to safeguard sellers from fraudulent chargebacks.

Etsy 

Etsy ensures secure transactions and also provides a Seller Protection Policy for eligible sellers. However, sellers lack control over security protocols as they can’t customize their storefronts.

Amazon

Amazon has robust fraud protection measures, but its customer-biased A-to-z Guarantee sometimes puts sellers at a disadvantage in disputes.

The Verdict

While all platforms maintain high security, Shopify provides sellers with more control and proactive measures to protect against fraud.

Themes and Designs

Shopify 

Shopify’s Theme Store offers over 120 professionally designed free and premium themes. All themes are mobile-responsive, SEO-friendly, and customizable through a user-friendly interface or direct code editing. Examples of striking themes include “Debut,” perfect for a wide array of businesses, or “Prestige,” ideal for stores with large inventories.

Etsy 

Etsy doesn’t allow storefront customization. All stores have a similar appearance, which can limit brand differentiation. Sellers can customize their banner and logo, but options are significantly limited compared to Shopify.

Amazon

Amazon doesn’t offer any customization for individual sellers. All product listings adhere to Amazon’s standard format, focusing on uniformity over individual branding.

The Verdict

Shopify’s wide range of professional, customizable themes clearly positions it ahead of Etsy and Amazon, allowing sellers to create unique, engaging storefronts.

Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: Table Comparison

Overall Winner: Shopify

Shopify stands tall in the online marketplace as the e-commerce platform that most effectively balances cost, functionality, and accessibility. 

Summing up, Shopify’s extensive features, high performance, scalability, and dedicated support combine to form an e-commerce platform that not only meets a business’s needs today but also is ready to support its growth in the future. Shopify is an all-encompassing e-commerce solution that empowers businesses, from startups to enterprises, to succeed in the online world.

Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: Which ecommerce platform is best for you?

Who should use Shopify? 

Shopify is ideal for:

• Entrepreneurs and Startups: who want to start an online store from scratch. 
• Small to Medium-Sized Businesses: who are looking to expand their digital footprint or transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online.
• Large Enterprises
• Dropshipping Businesses: who want to start a dropshipping business without a significant upfront investment.
• Artists and Creators

And who should use Etsy?

Etsy is ideal for:

• Handmade Crafters: Artists, crafters, and DIY enthusiasts 
• Vintage Sellers: Sellers offering unique, vintage items (at least 20 years old)
• Artisanal Producers: Small-batch producers of items like homemade cosmetics, candles, artisanal food products, etc.
• Digital Product Sellers: Designers and artists selling digital products such as printables, graphic designs, and patterns

And who should use Amazon?

Amazon is ideal for:

• Mass Market Retailers: Businesses selling common products, such as electronics, books, home goods, etc., 
• Brands with Unique Products: who have a unique product with a strong USP
• Publishers and Authors: With Kindle Direct Publishing, authors can self-publish their books and reach a global audience.
• Wholesalers and Manufacturers
• Businesses Leveraging FBA: businesses that prefer to outsource storage, packaging, and shipping logistics.

FAQs

Shopify vs Etsy vs Amazon: Conclusion

In conclusion, each platform – Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon – has its distinct advantages, tailored to different types of sellers. For those seeking a customizable, scalable solution for an independent online store, Shopify is the top contender. 

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