Launching an online store is easy. Building a profitable e-commerce business — fast, well-ranked, with a purchase funnel that converts — is much harder. Exoa builds stores on WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Shopify, choosing the platform to fit your project, not our habits. An honest comparison, real costs and mistakes to avoid: it's all on this page.
Before talking platforms, let's talk fundamentals. These four building blocks make the difference between a store that sells and a store that merely exists.
Card, PayPal, Apple Pay — and depending on your markets, Bancontact or Payconiq. Every missing payment method means lost sales at the decisive moment. Stripe or Mollie setup included, 3D Secure too.
Variants (sizes, colours), synchronised stock, bulk imports, per-country VAT management. A well-structured store from the start saves you months of catching up as the catalogue grows.
Fees calculated in real time, pick-up points, parcel tracking, automatic shipping emails. Shipping is the number one reason for cart abandonment: it must be clear, fair and free of surprises.
Optimised product sheets, Product structured data, well-built categories, feeds Google Shopping : your catalogue must be findable without relying solely on paid advertising.
There is no best platform in absolute terms — only the one that fits your catalogue, your teams and your budget. Our comparison, straight talk included.
| Criterion | WooCommerce | PrestaShop | Shopify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ideal for | Stores with a strong content/SEO dimension, catalogues up to ~5,000 products | Large catalogues, B2B, European multi-store setups | Fast launch, D2C brands, non-technical teams |
| Build cost | 3 000 – 6 000€ | €3,000 – €8,000 | 3 000 – 5 000€ |
| Recurring costs | Hosting €20-60/month + maintenance | Hosting €30-80/month + maintenance | Subscription €27-289/month + fees |
| Ownership and freedom | Total : open code, your data stays with you | Total : open code, your data stays with you | Limited: closed platform, export possible |
| Search Engine Optimization | Excellent (WordPress ecosystem) | Very good, technically demanding | Good, with some rigidity (URL structure) |
| Everyday ease | Good, requires some discipline | Average, more technical interface | Excellent, built for merchants |
Our role: recommending the right platform after analysing your catalogue and your goals — we work with all three every day.
The price depends on the catalogue, the integrations and the level of automation. Three tiers to find your place.
Seen time and again on the stores we take over. Better to avoid them from the start.
You pick Shopify "because everyone does", then discover its limits on your specific case. Specifications first, technology second.
Descriptions copied from the supplier, average photos: guaranteed duplicate content and zero differentiation. Your product sheets are your salespeople — invest in them.
Without SEO, every sale depends on an ad budget. Organic rankings take months: they must start at launch, not when margins run out of breath.
Mandatory account creation, shipping costs revealed at the last step: around 70% of carts are abandoned. Every friction point removed shows up in sales.
More than 60% of e-commerce traffic is mobile. A store designed for desktop then "adapted" to mobile structurally converts worse.
Changing platforms without redirecting the old URLs wipes out years of SEO. Any migration must preserve your SEO history.
From 4 to 8 weeks depending on the catalogue, with a schedule made contractual in the quote.
Analysis of your catalogue, markets and logistics flows. A reasoned recommendation: WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Shopify.
Mockups of the key pages: homepage, category, product page, cart, checkout. Conversion-optimised from the first sketch.
Store integration, product import, VAT setup, payment and shipping. Product SEO included.
Real test orders: payment, emails, stock, refunds, mobile. Nothing goes live without having been purchased in a test.
Go-live, indexing, Shopping feed, training. Then SEO and acquisition support if you wish.
Describe your catalogue and your goals: we recommend the right platform and quote your store within 48h.