As mentioned, if you have no experience with web development or web design, Shopify is perfect. With a range of pre-built templates that can be fully customised, you can create a store that reflects your brand perfectly.

Shopify offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and email. If you have any issues at all you can get a response and resolution in no time. Not only this, but since Shopify is so popular, there are plenty of third party websites and forums that offer support for common Shopify issues and questions.

Shopify is great because of their ability to accept and process multiple different payment options, allowing you to open your shop to a variety of different customers using different payment options. Some of these payment options include; Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and more. For a full list, click here

Regardless of whether you have a physical store, you drop ship products, you’re a retailer, wholesaler, or you sell digital products – Shopify is able to accommodate this. However, it is worth noting that certain products are prohibited, which can be found here

SEO and Marketing is extremely important when it comes to owning a website for your eCommerce store. Your SEO and marketing is what helps people find your store and products. Shopify makes it easy to link your marketing campaigns with your store, allowing you to also create coupon codes, store credits, and discounts that help attract customers. Shopify will also allow you to integrate with other SEO and marketing apps.

Shopify may seem a bit pricy. While they do offer 3 different payment plans, they can be a bit expensive in the long term if you aren’t generating enough revenue to cover your costs. Their basic plan, which is £25 a month, is very limited compared to their £65 and £344 plan. So, depending on what you need, you may have to opt for one of their more expensive options. Explore more on pricing here

While Shopify does offer the ability to customise their pre-built templates, the downfall comes with the actual prices of those templates. While they do offer some free templates, these are very ‘basic’ and limited. So, if you don’t have web design or development experience, you may not be able to customise everything exactly how you’d like it without paying for an expensive template (and even then there might be some limitations)

To get the most out of the app, you will need to rely on the use of different third party apps. This is both a con and a pro though, since it is easy to integrate with a variety of apps, but being fully reliant on them is not always great.

Since WooCommerce is hosted through WordPress, it is fully customisable, and you can download and install as many plugins as you want to help you create a website that reflects your brand and products.

As mentioned, WooCommerce is a free platform, meaning you don’t need to worry about the same monthly fees you find with other sites, such as Shopify

Although, as mentioned, you will need to pay for some plugins, which we will discuss later.

Since WooCommerce is such a popular platform, you will find that there are plenty of online communities and chat forums where you can connect with other users, and find solutions and answers to your questions and issues.

Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, you can only use the platform if your website is hosted through WordPress, which limits you of course.

While there are chat forums, communities, and third party developers that you can reach out to, official support from WordPress/WooCommerce developers is not available, hence why there are so many communities and third party developers. However, using these third party developers can be expensive.

WooCommerce can be harder to use if you have little to no experience in website design and development. While you can use plugins, certain ones are expensive and using too many may actually negatively impact the overall health and performance of your website, which damages your user experience.

Magento is one of the most flexible platforms in terms of customisation, so you can get things looking exactly how you want it without any limitations at all since Magento is an open source platform. However, this flexibility does come at a price though, which we will talk about in the cons section. Magento’s integration abilities will also allow you to modify your site and store front however you like, and you can easily improve the overall functionality of your site. Magento also has community and chat forums, making it easy to connect with others, and receive support easily.

Magento is well known for its performance and speed capabilities, making it one of the best platforms for large eCommerce businesses with a lot of different SKUs (products)

With other platforms, such as WooCommerce, you run the risk of damaging your website health, speed, performance, and user experience if you install too many plugins or add too much to your site, but this is not a concern with Magento.

As previously mentioned, SEO and marketing is essential for any eCommerce website since you want to ensure that your website and products are seen by as many people as possible. Magento will allow you to do pretty much anything you want when it comes to managing your SEO and marketing since they have a lot of built in tools, with the ability to add third party tools. For a full list of tools and features, click here.

Omni-channel is becoming more and more essential when it comes to helping your eCommerce brand grow and succeed because omni channel offers customers the ability to find you and interact with you in a variety of ways, which Magento supports. They offer omnichannel support and give you the ability to customise channels however you would like, helping you serve different customer needs by collecting data from different channels.

At minimum, you can expect to pay anywhere around £12,000 just to get started with Magento, and this doesn’t include the cost of upkeep or cost of plugins. So, while it does offer complete flexibility with an abundance of opportunity, this does come at a very steep price. You can explore their pricing here.

It is worth it, however, Magento is a time consuming platform, especially initially.

Not only this, but any customisation you do will also take extra time, and it won’t be as quick as simply using a pre-built template like you would on Shopify or WooCommerce.

At TSP we handle everything, starting with the storage, picking, and packing of your products.

We serve a range of markets so we have experience storing, picking, and packing a variety of different products, so we’ve got you covered regardless of what you sell.

Outsourcing your pick and pack with us will help free up your time, while also improving the entire process due to our highly experienced team of staff.

Regardless of whether you just do B2C or B2B, or a mixture of both, our team have the knowledge and resources required to successfully get your orders picked, packed, and shipped to your customer or chosen retailer.

While we handle your B2B and B2C fulfilment, you can focus on putting more time and money back into other areas of your business, such as your sales, marketing, and product development.

After we pick and pack your orders, we ship them too.

We ensure you get better deals on shipping and packaging by letting you leverage our buying power, meaning you can save money and put it back into growing your business.

We also partner with a range of couriers, ensuring the needs of your business are being met through a diverse choice in reliable couriers.

We are your one stop solution for all Amazon seller services, including FBA, FBM and SFP. With over 20 years of industry experience you can be assured that we are fully equipped to support you..

So regardless of what Amazon service you’re using, or if its a mix of all 3, we’ve got you covered. Check out our Amazon page for more information regarding our Amazon fulfilment services.

Our cloud-based system, MintSoft is easy to navigate and provides you with real time updates so you can always make informed decisions about your stock.

We also run our own in-house system that can provide accurate information for the following;

• Notify you of stock replenishment needs
• Notify you of when and when not to re-order
• Ability to track inventory
• Ability to automate orders
• Respond to trends

Returns are inevitable when it comes to your eCommerce business, but managing them correctly is a critical aspect on 3PL services. Here at TSP, we will handle the entire process from start to finish, helping you to main a high level of customer satisfaction.

So, never worry about handling a return again, because TSP has you covered.

Are you a sustainable business? Looking to become more sustainable? Working with us means you can do your bit for the planet too, since we are a certified carbon neutral 3PL company.

Do you sell custom bundles or kits? We’ve got you covered. Our team is trained in kitting and bundle building, so you can be assured your customers will receive their orders in an accurate, timely manner.

Do you require international shipping, or are you looking to expand into global markets? We’ve got you covered with our extensive network of couriers and global warehouses.

Explore our global fulfilment solutions page to see how we can help you dominate the global market, right from the heart of Newcastle.

Here at TSP we are one of the very few Newcastle based order fulfilment companies with a dry bonded warehouse license.

Our network of freight forwarders means you can easily utilise the power of cross-border selling, allowing you to boost sales and drive growth.