So, you’re selling online! Or looking to start your ecommerce store. Or just curious and reading to stay updated…
Whichever the case is, welcome. Today, we’re going to talk about three big ecommerce platforms that take your selling to the next level.
That’s right, in this post, we’re going to review and compare Dukaan, Shopify and BigCommerce.
Let’s start, shall we?
Dukaan vs Shopify vs BigCommerce
Dukaan
Dukaan is an Indian startup that was launched in 2020 and is now looking to expand worldwide.
The brand emerged in the middle of the pandemic as a way of assisting merchants and entrepreneurs in digitizing their brands. That’s how this ecommerce platform gained the reputation of one of the best Shopify alternatives, especially for businesses in India.
Dukaan guarantees users they can launch their online store in only 30 seconds! You just need to download its app, fill in your store information and have an ecommerce store.
Shopify
Shopify was founded in 2006 in Canada and it’s THE most popular ecommerce tool in the market.
Its simplicity and efficiency have drawn the attention of entrepreneurs worldwide and big companies like the Penguin Publishing Group and Kylie Jenner.
Moreover, due to its popularity, Shopify is constantly bringing new things to the table. Here is, for example, a collection of product updates, Summer 22 Edition.
BigCommerce
What started as a 2-person startup back in 2009 is now a global team of hundreds helping retailers make billions in sales.
Although they have special solutions for enterprises, you don’t have to be a big company to sell with BigCommerce. But trust one thing: they will help you grow and achieve your full potential.
They also have several resources for beginners: a knowledge base, webinars, a podcast, and BigCommerce University, as well as documentation and videos.
Ease of use
While the three tools are aimed at beginners and non-tech-savvies, they have different levels of ease of use. Shopify, for example, doesn’t have a drag-and-drop page builder, but it has tons of pre-built themes that make creating a website something super easy.
BigCommerce, on the other hand, has simple and intuitive characteristics. However, it’s built for scalable businesses, and knowing how to tweak HTML and CSS will help you further customize your store.
Finally, Dukaan also is easy to use thanks to its intuitive interface and its ready-to-use templates for creating custom pages.
Email marketing
While Dukaan only offers email marketing through its Mailchimp integration and BigCommerce connects you to email marketing apps, Shopify has built-in services.
Shopify has Shopify Email in all its plans. With it, you can automate emails, manage campaigns and customize templates, among other things.
Other features
Shopify has a whole set of free tools, going from an invoice generator to a slogan maker.
Dukaan also has an invoice generator but it’s directly integrated with your online store so you can access everything right from one place: your dashboard.
And Dunkaan has a very cool feature for restaurant owners called Restaurant Dining. With this tool, you can create digital menus of your restaurant for each table and accept orders directly from the table.
Another point worth mentioning in this section is Shopify and BigCommerce’s Point of Sale (POS) software. With this system, store owners can sell not only online but in physical locations like back in the old times. You can check more about this on this page.
Plugins
When it comes to app integrations, Shopify is, of course, the king. They count on more than 7,000 free and premium plugins that extend the functionality of your online store. And you can even use the Shopify API and create new apps for your store and share them with other merchants on the App Store.
Dukaan, on the other hand, although it offers plenty of the most popular plugins out there, it currently only has over 50.
Finally, BigCommerce here is at a middle point with more than 3,000 plugins.
Security
When I first landed on Dukaan’s website, it was labeled by Chrome as “not secure”.
The site is, of course, a landing page to advertise Dukaan and not your ecommerce site itself, but still, it didn’t feel reassuring. However, I came back a couple of days later and the padlock was already there. So, it seems Dukaan is constantly making updates!
Needless to say, the three platforms are PCI-Compliant and have top-notch security to ensure your business and your customers’ security.
Apps
One of the things that set Dukaan apart from Shopify and BigCommerce is its mobile-first approach. This approach is directly related to the vision that no seller should require any special skill to go online, whether it be coding or even more rudimentary computer skills such as familiarity with word-processing software.
So, Dukaan is available on iOS and Android. You can take orders, add products, and process payments, all from the ease of your mobile. The Android App is available in English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, and Tamil.
They also help you turn your online store into a white-label Android app in minutes. That means your customers can find your ecommerce store in the Google Play Store!
You can do the same exact thing with Shopify’s integration Appmaker or one of BigCommerce’s plugins, but in both cases, you’ll have to pay an extra amount of money.
Languages and currencies
BigCommerce and Shopify let you change the language of your store using third-party integrations. BigCommerce’s translating plugins are all premium but Shopify has some free options.
These platforms usually offer different payment gateways and integrations with popular digital and mobile wallets. BigCommerce lets customers pay using PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Venmo, and others.
But Shopify exceeds any tool thanks to Shopify Payments. This integration includes hundreds of payment solutions and eliminates the lengthy third-party activation.
As to Dukaan, their payment integrations are a bit more limited, being the main alternatives only PayPal, Stripe, and cash. Also, keep in mind that Dukaan charges transaction fees, while BigCommerce and Shopify don’t.
Support and resources
BigCommerce has 24/7 tech support: phone, chat and ticket. They have a YouTube channel where they advertise themselves and talk about new marketing trends.
Shopify has 24/7 support, a Help Center, podcasts, a Community Forum, and a YouTube channel with new video tutorials weekly. They also reply super quickly on Twitter. I know because I had to reach out to them to let them know Brazil is not in Africa.
Finally, Dukaan’s customer service is also available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via phone, live chat, email, and social media. So, you could say the three platforms always have your back.
Pricing
You can use Dukaan for free thanks to its 7-day free trial. Plans start at $69 per month.
BigCommerce has a 15-day free trial, no credit card required, to build and launch your store.
Finally, Shopify also offers a free trial, this time of 14 days. They’re, however, always offering discounts, so make sure to check out their website and stay updated.
Shopify’s lowest plan costs $29 per month and includes 2 staff accounts and up to 4 inventory locations.
As BigCommerce’s lowest tier in Essentials, it costs $29.95 and includes unlimited staff accounts and file storage. The problem is: They place limits on your annual online sales.
Dukaan Pros and Cons
Pros
- Mobile-first approach.
- Restaurant Dining feature.
Cons
- Limited integrations.
Shopify Pros and Cons
Pros
- Built-in email marketing.
- Thousands of integrations.
Cons
- Doesn’t have a mobile-first approach.
BigCommerce Pros and Cons
Pros
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage.
- Scalable options.
Cons
- Best if you have coding skills.
Verdict
To sum up this post, the three platforms we review today, Dukaan, Shopify and BigCommerce are well-equipped solutions for any seller. We recommend any of the three.
They are easy to use and come with all the amazing features ecommerce stores usually have such as site abandonment, customer list building, quality lead generation, and order auto-verification.
However, when it’s time to decide, it all comes down to your own needs. As we mentioned, BigCommerce is the best option for scalable businesses. Their two solutions aren’t called Essentials and Enterprise for no reason.
But smaller businesses might have a more difficult choice to make: Shopify or Dukaan?
Although we’ve already seen Shopify‘s power and mind-blowing features, you should consider Dukaan if you work mainly from your mobile phone and want to join the mobile-first approach tendency.
So which ecommerce platform do you choose? Have you already heard about Dukaan?
Tell us your opinion in the comments!
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