While WIX has certainly made improvements over the past couple of years, it’s not ready to be fighting for titles just yet.

If you’re in the ecommerce space, you will no doubt have seen Wix pop up on your timeline. The ours-is-easier-than-yours platform likes to pick a fight; just ask WordPress…

The question though is: 

Has Wix emerged as a genuine ecommerce contender? Should the big boys like Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce be looking over their shoulders for what’s to come?

Should you, Mr. or Mrs. ecomm-store-owner, be considering Wix as your platform of choice?

Let me give you the obvious, sh*tty, classic marketing caveat before we get into it, because of course, like everything else to do with your marketing — IT DEPENDS. 

Round 1: Wix vs. WordPress

Wix LOVE an ad.

LIke LOVE them. Back in the day, they rivalled the infamous Monday.com on their persistence on YouTube. So much so, during the middle of last year they felt obliged to release this advert, titled “Things you’d rather do than watch another Wix advert”. 

Which, to be fair, is probably the best of the lot. At least it’s honest. 

I’m definitely not a fan of their latest effort though. This years ad trivialises mental health and unleashes a vicious, uncalled for attack on old-timer WordPress – citing hackers and managing bloaty plugins as recents to make the switch. 

Personally, I’ve got no time for this at all.

In business, you should look to build the biggest building by building the biggest building! NOT by tearing your competitors buildings down. It’s just poor form. We actually mentioned this on the podcast:

Let’s give Wix some credit

Credit where it’s due, Wix has come a long, long way. 

Honestly, it used to be objectively garbage. Not too long ago it was still built on flash, which you would probably say was great if you were thinking about it in 1997.

The narrative of today is that it’s never been easier to start a business, meaning it’s never been harder to grow one. Wix has no doubt contributed to that anecdote.

A Wix online store is stupidly easy to start. The WYSIWYG editor is great. And with the plethora of well-made tutorials on YouTube, even a novice can create a pretty sexy website in the matter of a few hours…

If you had no knowledge at all about ecommerce platforms, you’d be forgiven for thinking that today’s Wix is, completely and utterly, the dog’s bollocks. The YouTube channel displays pretty important looking webinars, as well as some slick case studies from folks who now run successful Wix-powered businesses (because it was all about the platform, of course…)

Wix have also paid for the pleasure of (also read: sponsored) being the official website partner of Manchester City FC. 

When you consider that Man City has a worldwide audience of millions, and no doubt swathes of web developers all over the place. Is it reasonable for Wix to say to Sally in her bedroom that she could easily and quickly build a site to rival MCFC’s in a matter of hours?

What could Sally do?!

If Sally was keen enough, she could happily create an adequate website to support her creative side hustle wonderfully.

Let’s say Sally makes candles. That’s a fun hobby, so I’m told. And because candles are easy to make, easy to ship and pretty cheap, Sally’s Candle Company suddenly looks like it could become a distinct possibility with Wix.

It might even suit Sally better. 

Why the f*ck would you buy a candle from Sally versus anyone else?! Always a tough question to ask, and the answer usually comes back in some way to the word “BRANDING”. Sally will have to tell a story enough times – through blogs, videos, and whatever else – to create an emotional connection with her potential customers so that they buy a Sally’s Candle just because it’s a Sally’s Candle.  

Is this much easier to do on Wix vs. any other platform? Probably, slightly. 

The point is, that is Sally just wants to make some pocket money, she could do an awful lot worse than using a WIX website. 

How Far Do You Need To Go?

How far do you need the platform to take you? 

If your ambition is to make some holiday money, go with Wix. You’ll have less headaches and you can do more of the fun things associated with running a side business.

If you want to create the next Gymshark, you’re gonna have issues. 

Have you completed the Wix SEO Wiz? Yeah me too. That doesn’t mean your organic traffic is sorted. Good luck sorting your canonical tags, hrefs, structured data, or any of the other hundreds of technical SEO bits your site will need in the future. (We have guys for this btw, sling us a DM)

Please don’t be so naive as to think something like the Wix SEO Wiz will solve all of your problems and make you millionaire overnight, it won’t. It never does. You’ll only sound like an idiot when you have to get an agency in to fix some issues further down the line, and by then it might be a total horror show. We’ve seen some ugly under the hoods… 

WIx is typically very hard to migrate away from, so much so that you might even have to start your website again. If you think you’re going to outgrow your Wix site, save yourself the time, money and hassle and start yourself off on a Shopify. 

Will Wix continue to grow?

Thanks to the COVID-ecommerce bump, Wix now powers over 600k Ecommerce stores and has seen a 150% uplift in revenue going through the platform.

And yes, Wix will continue to grow, but not necessarily because it’s better than anything else, it will just be capturing it’s share of the growing market for ecommerce platforms. 

Android users from 10 years ago will remember how painful it was waiting for all the good apps to become available. Obviously, the switched on app developers made sure their apps were decent on an iPhone first! 

We’re kinda seeing a similar thing where apps get made for Shopify first, and then will migrate their way to Wix. 

It won’t be such a big deal when Privy announces that it’s launching a Wix version of it’s much loved Shopify App…. A version of Privy 10 years from now, will have to enter the market with both a Shopify and a Wix Solution.

So what are we saying?

Overall, Wix serves a purpose. For content heavy stores, with not too many products to sell, with no real grand ambitions for world domination, Wix may well be for you.

If you’ve got grander plans to become a big deal in your section of retail, you’re probably gonna have to look elsewhere. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how Wix gets on over the next few years…