If you had asked me the question a year ago, I would have answered without hesitation: PrestaShop. But since we need to know how to evolve in a web world that is constantly changing, we tested e-commerce on WordPress, with the WooCommerce plugin. Here are our first impressions.
Usability: tie
Catalog management
If you run an e-commerce site, you probably know this: the usability of the interface is essential. You need to be able to enter products quickly and properly, and manage your catalog the same way. On these points, the two solutions are equivalent in the standard version: it is long and tedious. Unless your catalog is small, the same solution is recommended in both cases: buy a good bulk item management module, for example by syncing with an Excel spreadsheet.
Variations
In PrestaShop 1.4 (our reference version), managing “variations” in the basic version is really tedious. For customers who have clothing in 6 sizes and 8 colors, entering these product variations is a real nightmare. The system offered by WooCommerce is a tiny bit better designed. It allows global updates of the attributes of all variations, and choosing the variation image is easier.
Other points
For the rest, it is like everything else: a matter of habit. Since WooCommerce is integrated into WordPress, the management menu is inevitably one level below PrestaShop. Even so, it is very easy to find your way around. One interesting point with WooCommerce: filter management in sidebars is very powerful and makes it possible to create fairly effective category pages without spending too much time on it.
Content management: WooCommerce advantage
On this point, the match is uneven. The fact that WooCommerce is integrated into WordPress makes it THE solution for sites that want to combine an online store with strong editorial and community content. On this point, it would be interesting to compare it with RBS Change, which is the real challenger in this area.
Likewise, contact form management, without a plugin, is much better with WooCommerce, which can prove particularly useful for sites that sell by quote or that want to offer product pre-orders.
Checkout process: WooCommerce advantage
It is always possible to customize the checkout process with both solutions. But “out of the box,” the possibilities offered by WooCommerce are very interesting. You can very easily template the different pages of the process without code using widgets, and create particularly effective pages very quickly. Point to WooCommerce. Another interesting thing: configuration in “e-commerce” mode in Google Analytics (with built-in revenue tracking) works without a plugin on WooCommerce, which is not the case with PrestaShop 1.4.
Payment: PrestaShop advantage
This time, PrestaShop has the edge. WooCommerce does not yet offer SystemPay-type modules (used by many French banks) and the choice of payment platform is very limited for France (we used Ogone, the only one available from WooTheme).
Extension modules: PrestaShop advantage
WooCommerce suffers here from its youth and from the WordPress community being spread across several e-commerce modules. The specific modules needed are not always available. The catalog is much more limited than PrestaShop’s, which can sometimes be restrictive for certain projects (for example, if you need to interface with parcel pickup point delivery modules.)
Design: tie
Both solutions offer thousands of themes at very affordable prices. It is a matter of taste; there is plenty of choice.
Support: tie
The business models differ, which has a major impact on the support offered. Let’s say it right away: if you buy an extension module or a theme directly offered by WooTheme (the company that “runs” WooCommerce), you will get very high-quality support, superior to that offered by the PrestaShop teams. One major downside, however: you absolutely have to speak English!
On the other hand, as with PrestaShop, maintenance of third-party modules depends heavily on the provider who designed the module. Be sure to read the reviews carefully…
Internationalization: PrestaShop advantage
WooCommerce is translated into French. Good. But the translation file has gaps here and there. So you have to go into the code to fix this in the .po files. A bit annoying, especially when the files are overwritten during updates. And I am not even talking about extension modules, which are practically never translated into French. Unfortunately, this is a major limiting factor for those who want to manage on their own and do not feel like a developer.
SEO: WooCommerce advantage
It is not PrestaShop’s fault that WordPress has an absolutely fantastic free SEO module, which benefits WooCommerce de facto. But it must be acknowledged: when properly configured, and by making the most of WordPress’s editorial capabilities, a WooCommerce site ranks much more easily than a PrestaShop site. The same goes for creating ultra-customized landing pages almost on the fly.
Overall cost: PrestaShop advantage
As with PrestaShop, WooCommerce is free in its basic version. The business model therefore relies on the purchase of themes and extension modules. Prices are almost equivalent from one solution to the other. The catch is that the lack of existing modules in WooCommerce for certain essential “local” services such as delivery and payment modules will probably make the final bill a bit higher, since these features will have to be custom-developed individually.
Conclusion
Mathematically, on paper, if we stick to the criteria above, PrestaShop is still an excellent choice for developing an e-commerce site. The solution is widely used, there are many plugins, and France is not considered an uninteresting “sub-market” for which extension modules are not translated. On the other hand, for those who, like me, are not afraid to do the French translations themselves and who do not mind dealing with English-language support, WooCommerce is a very promising solution, especially thanks to the huge benefit of having the world’s best CMS coexist in the same system with a fairly well-designed e-commerce plugin.
