What Is The Best Content Management System For Your Ecommerce Store?

It’s where every product you sell, every customer interaction and every penny you make is managed. Get it right, and you’re cruising. Get it wrong, and you’ll quickly find yourself stuck with a clunky system that feels more like a pothole than a motorway.

Honestly, we’ve seen it all. Businesses struggling with platforms they’ve outgrown, stores losing sales because their CMS can’t keep up and infuriating interfaces that make the simplest updates feel impossible. Fortunately, choosing the right CMS doesn’t have to be a headache.

In this article, I want to look at what makes a good CMS and, hopefully, you’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of what each platform brings to the table.

What Is a CMS and Why Does It Matter?

Let’s recap the basics. A CMS, or Content Management System, is essentially the control centre for your website. It’s the tool that lets you build, manage and update your site without needing to know a single line of code. For ecommerce businesses, it’s what powers your online store – organising everything from product listings to payment processing.

Now, here’s the thing: choosing a CMS could be one of the most important decisions your business ever makes (seriously). A good CMS makes it easy to showcase your products, manage orders and give your customers a smooth shopping experience. A bad one? Well, that can leave you wrestling with frustrating limitations, slow-loading pages and a checkout process that sends customers running.

More importantly, your CMS needs to grow with your business. Whether that’s handling a spike in traffic during peak sales or adding new features as your business evolves, scalability is key.

Choosing A CMS That Suits Your Business

At the risk of stating the obvious, not all businesses are alike. The same goes for CMS platforms. What works perfectly for one store might be a nightmare for another. So, when it comes to your site, you can afford to be fussy. It’s your business’s digital storefront, after all.

So, before you dive into specific platforms, it’s worth taking a step back and thinking about what you actually need. From our experience, There are five factors that you need to keep in mind when considering a CMS:

Lifetime Cost

Despite the plethora of WordPress and Shopify sites out there, clients have come to us with websites built on all manner of bespoke content management systems. Their choice of CMS sets the limitations for what their websites can do, and how easy or difficult it is for an SEO agency like us to implement changes over time. And of course, any additional effort to make what are often relatively simple changes, all translates into higher costs for the client. 

To put it simply, the more complex or nuanced the CMS, the more expensive it tends to be for a digital marketing agency to make changes.

When choosing a CMS then you have to account for these costs over the course of your website’s lifetime. These costs tend to arise from the following four areas:

• Adding new pages, such as services and products
• On-going technical support and sourcing web developers
• Technical capabilities and functionality
• Integration with tools/plugins (SEO, marketing, ecommerce, development, etc.)

Forward-thinking is crucial, as choosing the cheapest option to start with might end up costing you much more in the long run. For example, you can whip up an ecommerce site quickly with Wix, but marketing becomes expensive because integrating Google Shopping with that CMS requires a third-party app that’s going to cost you the best part of £150 a month before you start selling.

Security

No doubt that you want your CMS to be secure so that your website isn’t vulnerable to cyberattacks, especially if you’re dealing with customer data. Security features such as 2-factor authentication, firewalls, and strict user permissions are important. You’ll also want regular updates from the CMS developers to cover security loopholes, which hackers are always looking to exploit. 

Your search for a secure CMS can lead you toward specialised CMSs or even getting web devs to build you a bespoke platform, loading on a massive overhead that you might not need. While popular CMSes are more likely to be hacked because of the sheer number of people using them, a good developer and host can stop people from trying to brute force their way into your website. 

Portability

Over the course of your website’s life, you may end up needing to move it to a new platform or hosting provider. Choosing an obscure CMS at the start can put you in a bad spot should you ever need to port your website.

People often come to us with, what we call, orphaned websites: they don’t have a developer anymore so the changes that can be made are extremely limited. There’s nobody there looking after them. It gets to a point that if they want anything fundamental done to the site or its functionality, they’re looking at having to get the website redeveloped. And that’s not cheap to do, especially with an obscure CMS.

Usability

All the fancy features of a CMS would be a waste if the people who are actually going to use it don’t know how to take advantage of these features. Ultimately, a CMS needs to be usable by the lowest common denominator, which is somebody with very little website knowledge. 

It’s crucial to how well your staff and your growing workforce can interact with your business and your digital assets. This isn’t a box-ticking exercise, it’s about ensuring you maximise opportunities for growth as this affects how easily you can bring on new services or new product lines and how much outside support you’re going to need to do that.

Think about who is going to be using your website in your company, both now and in the future. Marketing people want an intuitive interface to easily draft and publish content. Sales want an easy way to follow up and close leads. Developers want as much control and customisation as possible, notably access to the code. 

SEO Friendliness

While simplicity is advantageous (especially to smaller businesses that may not have a developer on hand to iron out issues), it is by no means the be-all and end-all of a CMS. Equally important is the ease with which SEO best practices can be implemented on your website. While your products, pricing and customer service all matter, none of that will make a difference if no one can find your website in the first place.

An SEO-friendly CMS should let you:

• Customise URLs, meta titles and descriptions.
• Add alt text to images to improve accessibility and rankings.
• Create fast, mobile-friendly pages that Google loves.
• Generate structured data (like rich snippets) to stand out in search results.

Here’s the bottom line: if a CMS doesn’t make SEO easy, it’s not the right choice for your ecommerce business. After all, what good is a beautiful website if no one ever sees it?

Considering Popular CMSs: WordPress and Shopify 

Make no mistake, there are dozens of CMSs out there, and they all claim to be the best. That said, there are two that I consider to be good choices for building a website, and it’s no coincidence that they also happen to be two of the most popular platforms out there. 

Below, I’ll explain the the pros and cons of WordPress and Shopify, as well as a few notable mentions (and why they may not be the best choice for ecommerce).

Shopify

Powering more than 2.2 million websites worldwide, Shopify is the poster child of ecommerce platforms. It’s an all-in-one CMS designed specifically for online stores, which means it takes care of all the tricky bits like hosting, security and updates.

The Pros of Shopify

• Ease of Use: Shopify’s intuitive dashboard makes it easy to manage products, track orders and customise your store, even if you’re a complete beginner.
• All-in-One Solution: With hosting and security built-in, Shopify takes care of the technical stuff for you.
  Scalable for Growth: Whether you’re just starting out or running a high-traffic store, Shopify can handle your needs.
• Multi-Channel Selling: Sell on social media, marketplaces like Amazon or directly from your website – all through one platform.
• Extensive App Marketplace: From marketing tools to advanced analytics, Shopify offers apps to extend your store’s functionality.

The Cons of Shopify

• Costs Can Add Up: While the base subscription is reasonable, costs can escalate quickly if you rely on premium apps or need advanced customisation.
• Limited Customisation: Shopify’s customisation options are good, but they can’t match the flexibility of open-source platforms like WordPress.
• Transaction Fees: If you don’t use Shopify Payments, you’ll incur additional transaction fees.

Shopify is perfect if you’re looking for a plug-and-play solution that’s designed to take the stress out of running an online store. It’s ideal for small to medium-sized businesses or anyone who values simplicity and scalability over extensive customisation.

If you want a CMS that’s purpose-built for ecommerce and can be fine-tuned for SEO, Shopify is a smart choice.

WordPress (with WooCommerce)

If Shopify is all about simplicity, WordPress with WooCommerce is all about control. As the world’s most popular CMS, WordPress gives you the flexibility to build any website you can imagine – and with the WooCommerce plugin, it transforms into one hell of an ecommerce platform.

The Pros of WordPress with WooCommerce

• Unmatched Flexibility: WordPress is open-source, which means you can customise every aspect of your store, from the design to the functionality.
• Exceptional SEO Capabilities: WordPress is built with SEO in mind, and with plugins like Yoast, you can optimise everything from meta tags to site speed.
• Cost-Effective: The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, and you can choose hosting and add-ons to suit your budget.
• Extensive Plugin Library: With thousands of plugins available, you can add advanced features, integrations and tools to your store.
• Community Support: WordPress has a massive user base, so finding tutorials, forums and support is easy.

The Cons of WordPress with WooCommerce

• Steeper Learning Curve: Compared to Shopify, WordPress requires more technical know-how to set up and manage.
• DIY Maintenance: You’ll need to handle hosting, security, updates and backups yourself (or hire someone to do it).
• Can Be Time-Consuming: Customisation is a double-edged sword – it’s powerful but can take time to get right.
  

WordPress with WooCommerce is ideal for businesses that want full control over their online store. It’s especially well-suited to companies that need a highly customisable platform or are prioritising SEO as a core part of their growth strategy.

However, it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking for a plug-and-play solution or don’t have the time or expertise to manage a more hands-on platform, Shopify might be the better fit.

Squarespace

Squarespace has built its reputation on being a go-to platform for creating beautiful, visually appealing websites. Its drag-and-drop builder is intuitive and its design templates are stunning. For small businesses or creative professionals, it’s often a popular choice. But when it comes to ecommerce, it’s not quite up to the task.

Pros of Squarespace

• Easy to use with no technical skills required.
• Gorgeous templates that work well for brand-focused businesses.
• Affordable plans for smaller stores.

Cons of Squarespace

• Limited scalability for larger or growing ecommerce stores.
  
• Weak SEO tools compared to WordPress and Shopify.
• Fewer ecommerce features, making it less effective for businesses with complex needs.
  

Squarespace might work for you if your store is small, design-focused and doesn’t require advanced features. But if you’re serious about scaling your ecommerce business, you’ll likely outgrow it quickly.

Wix

Like Squarespace, Wix is popular for its drag-and-drop simplicity. It’s a great option for creating a quick, functional website and its ecommerce features have improved over the years. However, when it comes to serious ecommerce functionality, Wix falls short.

Pros of Wix

• Extremely beginner-friendly with a simple interface.
• A good range of templates for small stores.
• Affordable entry-level plans.

Cons of Wix

• Limited SEO tools compared to WordPress.
• Lacks advanced integrations and scalability for growing businesses.
• Can feel restrictive for stores with custom requirements.

Wix is a decent choice for small, straightforward stores with minimal technical demands. However, for businesses with bigger ambitions, platforms like Shopify or WordPress offer far more long-term value.

Adobe Commerce (FKA Magento)

Adobe Commerce, previously named Magento, is a heavyweight in the ecommerce world, often chosen by enterprise-level businesses with complex needs. It’s powerful, customisable and capable of handling huge stores – but it’s also a beast to manage. Unless you’ve got a team of developers ready to react at the drop of a hat, it’s likely to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Pros of Magento

• Extremely powerful and scalable, suitable for large businesses.
• Open-source, offering endless customisation options.
• Advanced functionality for enterprises, including multi-store capabilities.

Cons of Magento

• Requires significant technical expertise to set up and manage.
• Expensive, with high development and hosting costs.
• Overkill for small to medium-sized businesses.

Unless you’re running a large-scale enterprise with a dedicated development team, Magento is probably more than you need. For most ecommerce businesses, Shopify or WordPress with WooCommerce will be a better fit.

Advice From The Experts (Us)

In my opinion, Shopify and WordPress with WooCommerce are the best choices for SMEs. That said, each has its own unique strengths, so choosing comes down to what you want to accomplish as a business. If your focus is solely on ecommerce and you want a simple, scalable solution, Shopify could be the perfect fit. On the other hand, if you’re looking for flexibility and long-term adaptability, WordPress with WooCommerce offers unmatched customisation and SEO potential.

That’s not to say these are your only options. If your business is highly niche with very specific requirements, a more specialised CMS might be the way to go. But you’ll need a reliable developer who’s up to the task.

Still unsure about which CMS is right for you? At Superb Digital, we’ve helped countless businesses like yours choose the best platform for their needs. Whether it’s Shopify, WordPress or something entirely different, we’ll guide you to a solution that works for you, your team and your business.

Ready to get started? Book a free discovery call to find out how we can build an online store that doesn’t just look good, but delivers real results.