4 October 2021

EasyStore VS Shopify: Which Is Better For Your Business?

Searching for an e-commerce platform for your business in Malaysia? In this EasyStore vs Shopify debate, we break it down for you to help you choose the best software.

Benard Kiplangat

Content Writer

Reading time: 6 minutes

Online retail shopping is skyrocketing as people prefer to make purchases online. In 2021, over 2.14 billion people made some purchases online. In fact, a survey showed that 47% of respondents reported that they will continue shopping online because it’s more convenient than visiting a physical store.

This means taking your store online is probably a good move.

E-commerce websites like EasyStore and Shopify are popular platforms in Malaysia that make creating a site easy — even for non-tech savvy people. While they’re both great platforms, which one should you choose? Which is better for your business needs?

To help you sort out exactly what you can expect from both, we will explain everything you need to know in this article. Let’s dive right in!

What is EasyStore?

EasyStore dashboard. — EasyStore is an all-in-one e-commerce solution. Source: entrepreneurcampfire.com

EasyStore is an all-in-one e-commerce solution that allows individuals and businesses to create their online stores and start selling easily. Currently, EasyStore focuses on helping merchants in Southeast Asian markets as the company was founded in Malaysia.

It offers multi-channel sales support where you can manage your business across your online store, Shopee, WhatsApp, Lazada, Facebook, and more without the need to have more technical skills.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that provides solutions to help businesses and individuals create and run an online store. Unlike EasyStore, its focus is on international markets, and it is exceptionally successful within the US and Canada.

It is easy to use and complete with all the tools and services to help you start, grow, and manage your online store.

💡 For a comparison between Shopify and eBay, check out our article here!

EasyStore vs Shopify

Although both EasyStore and Shopify are pretty similar and provide identical features, there are still some differences that set them apart. Here are the factors that we took into consideration when comparing between the two:

Ideal Market: If the platform supports your ideal market location
Ease of Use: If it is easy to use and doesn’t take a long time to set up
Design Versatility: If it has customization options or templates that allow your brand to stand out
Customer Support: If it provides excellent customer support and documentation
Fulfillment and Shipping: If it has good delivery options
Integration options: If it integrates with other products that boost your business processes
Value: If the software delivers greater value for the price paid
Dropshipping: If the software supports your dropshipping activities

Ideal Market

EasyStore and Shopify both excel in different market locations. That is why it is crucial to know where most of your customers are located to decide which is the best choice here.

The origins of these companies have shaped their functionality and adaptation much more than how other factors have contributed. EasyStore is based in Malaysia, while Shopify has headquarters in Canada.

While both have huge capabilities for international support, Shopify has more customers in the United States, Uzbekistan, and Canada, and EasyStore has more customers in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore.

What does this mean?

Well, if you and your customers are from Southeast Asian countries, you’ll definitely benefit from using EasyStore. It is more locally-oriented when compared to Shopify. For example, integrations, shipping, and usage are all tailored to such locations.

Shopify has been in the arena since 2006 and has expanded its reach almost globally. EasyStore only started in 2013, and it is still growing. So, if your customer base mainly consists of international shoppers from around the globe, the choice is then apparent — you will have to choose Shopify.

✏️ Shopify: Global market 🌏

✏️ Easystore: Local market — Southeast Asia

Ease of Use

User-friendliness of any tech platform is always a plus, and many apps are often tailored for the average person. Online applications offer easy-to-use platforms to reduce costs, errors, and time during setup and usage.

Both EasyStore and Shopify are the platforms that made setting up and using an e-commerce store a breeze. Even with little or no coding skills, you can use both platforms with ease.

So if you are looking for an e-commerce online builder that is not complicated and one that you can handle alone, none of these platforms will give you a rough ride.

However, Shopify has an extensive marketplace for tools, plugins, and themes to help you get started easily. If you are not careful, though, you can make your store more complicated than necessary as you try to add more and more functionality and design.

✏️ Shopify: 8/10

✏️ Easystore: 9/10

Design Versatility

The ability to have pre-made components to help you get your store up and running is crucial when investing in an e-commerce builder. Oftentimes, design versatility does not factor in the numbers alone, but all the design capabilities available.

Fortunately, both EasyStore and Shopify have a good number of themes for each platform, making it easy to launch your store quickly. EasyStore has over 50 themes, and Shopify has over 100 themes to choose from.

But, while you can get more advanced themes on Shopify, you’ll still have to pay extra for most of those themes.

Themes from EasyStore are available for all users at no extra cost. But the downside is that there are lesser options compared to Shopify, and the themes are more generic and plain.

✏️ Shopify: 100+ free and paid themes

✏️ Easystore: 50+ free themes

Customer Support

When comparing choices between e-commerce platforms (or any software for that matter), customer support is an essential factor to consider. Invest in a platform that offers a wide range of customer support contact options and one that provides timely, quality support.

When comparing both platforms, EasyStore and Shopify offer top-notch customer support services with almost equal satisfaction rates.

The big difference is the number of contact options and the number of educational materials that each platform offers. EasyStore provides live chat, phone, and email options, while Shopify only offers phone and email support.

But before you celebrate and name the winner, remember that EasyStore does not provide 24/7 phone and email support like Shopify. It is reasonable though because EasyStore is ideal for South East Asia and provides support during normal business hours for the location.

✏️ Shopify: Ideal support for international customers with more learning materials

✏️ Easystore: Ideal for local customers

Fulfillment and Shipping

For an e-commerce store, shipping and order fulfillment is one of the first considerations that you should look at in a store builder platform.

When shipping is a seamless and an integral part of your e-commerce platform, then you are assured of smooth online shopping experiences and high fulfillment rates for your customers.

Both offer multiple shipping options, which are all viable options for your business. The only exception is the number and locations. None will beat EasyStore for shipping within Southeast Asia, just like the shipping across the United States and Canada for Shopify.

The only difference is that Shopify has more partnerships with shipping carriers that can deliver to more international customers than EasyStore. Nonetheless, to pick the right winner means to pick your customers’ locations accurately.

✏️ Shopify: Ideal for shipping with major international shipping couriers

✏️ Easystore: Huge support for local couriers

Integration options

Shopify and Easystore have vast integration options for marketplaces, shipping couriers, and payment gateways. But as you might expect, Shopify has more options that are tailored for global business activities, while Easystore caters to the local markets.

Here are some integration options available on Shopify:

Amazon
Etsy
Walmart
USPS
FedEx
Pinterest

Here are some integration options available on EasyStore:

Lazada
Shopee
EasyParcel
Lalamove
Ninjavan
Presto mall

✏️ Shopify: Ideal integration support for international marketplaces

✏️ Easystore: Ideal integrations for local marketplaces

Value

When it comes to value for money, you should know the yield of your upfront investments to determine if you’re paying for what you get.

Both platforms offer tiered plans that are almost similar. On the surface, the feature-to-cost ratio seems to favor Shopify.

With Shopify, you can enjoy more extensive features and functionality if you will open your wallet more and more for a better outlook and functionality. So, the consideration here is your budget.

The upfront subscription fee for EasyStore is a little lower and has minimal extra costs on other services like themes purchases. The features for EasyStore, however, are quite limited.

If you have a limited budget, EasyStore will give you all the tools and services to get your online store running perfectly. Shopify too can let you get started easily, but as you grow, so do your expenses on the platform.

✏️ Shopify: Expensive, but comes with vast features and wider markets

✏️ EasyStore: An affordable alternative for budding online retailers to bigger enterprises from Southeast Asia

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a popular way to make money in Malaysia. That said, both Shopify and EasyStore are great platforms for drop shipping as they offer many apps to help merchants.

There are several dropshipping apps on Shopify that makes dropshipping from AliExpress to Shopify a smooth journey.

EasyStore integrates with Kumoten Dropship, Malaysia’s largest dropship service provider to help you source for products and speed up your online selling process.

✏️ Shopify: Ideal for dropshipping to international markets

✏️ EasyStore: Ideal for dropshipping to local markets

So which platform is better?

This debate is a challenging discussion given the similarities and differences that the two platforms have. While the differences might be apparent, our unique preferences may not tie exactly with them.

So in this EasyStore vs Shopify debate, which should you pick to run your e-commerce business in Malaysia?

Go with Shopify if you intend to get a vast library of learning materials, scale globally, and enjoy more customizations through limitless apps and themes.

If you’re on a tighter budget and want to do business with more customers in Malaysia or within Southeast Asia then EasyStore will be a superb choice for you.

Whichever platform you choose, you should consider the factors that we mentioned above to help you grow to your fullest potential. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for e-commerce, and your specific needs will determine the best platform for you.