Optimizely Commerce Connect is a PaaS e-commerce backend solution coupled with Optimizely's PaaS CMS to help e-commerce organizations, of any type, create highly customized websites and buying experiences with a two-in-one content and commerce solution.
N/A
Shopify Plus
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Shopify Plus is an eCommerce solution built for enterprise-level companies that enables them to sell online and offline across social channels like Facebook , Pinterest, and marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
$2,300
per month
Pricing
Optimizely Commerce Connect
Shopify Plus
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
3-year term
$2300
per month
1-year term
$2500
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Optimizely Commerce Connect
Shopify Plus
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Required
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Optimizely Commerce Connect
Shopify Plus
Features
Optimizely Commerce Connect
Shopify Plus
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.8
Ratings
12% above category average
Shopify Plus
8.6
Ratings
9% above category average
Product catalog & listings
9.10 Ratings
9.50 Ratings
Product management
9.10 Ratings
8.40 Ratings
Bulk product upload
6.40 Ratings
6.50 Ratings
Branding
9.10 Ratings
8.20 Ratings
Mobile storefront
9.10 Ratings
9.60 Ratings
Product variations
9.10 Ratings
9.20 Ratings
Website integration
9.10 Ratings
9.00 Ratings
Visual customization
9.10 Ratings
9.20 Ratings
CMS
9.10 Ratings
8.20 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.2
Ratings
7% above category average
Shopify Plus
8.4
Ratings
9% above category average
Abandoned cart recovery
8.20 Ratings
7.40 Ratings
Checkout user experience
8.20 Ratings
9.40 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.2
Ratings
1% below category average
Shopify Plus
9.6
Ratings
15% above category average
eCommerce security
8.20 Ratings
9.60 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.8
Ratings
13% above category average
Shopify Plus
8.3
Ratings
7% above category average
Promotions & discounts
8.20 Ratings
8.70 Ratings
Personalized recommendations
9.10 Ratings
8.30 Ratings
SEO
9.10 Ratings
7.80 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Very strong fit for mid-sized organizations that need more flexibility and customization as compared to canned or template-based offerings, but also want the efficiency and externalization that comes with a pre-existing, cloud-hosted platform (as compared to a full custom offering). Works well with a PIM and more mature catalog data in order to fully leverage the dynamic data capabilities.
Shopify Plus makes order management simple and less error prone. Connecting our ERP allows us to seamlessly manage our product listings, fulfill orders, and sync customer data. Limitations to the number of product variants requires attention from our staff to make sure our products sync without issue. Other than being arbitrary, there's really no need to limit the number of product variants.
Web content management -- the interface is drag and drop and makes it very easy for business users to create product pages.
In site search with Episerver Find -- it is easy to promote attributes and make quick tweaks to fine-tune results.
Integrate with other systems -- we have integrated with our ERP, our product information management system, our digital asset management system and our marketing automation system to take advantage of investments we have already made in content and customer data.
Scales incredibly well. Forget about hardware concerns, load balancing, downtime, etc. and focus on eCommerce. We've seen merchants go from a few thousand dollars per month to having million dollar days, all on Shopify without having to worry about performance or scaling systems.
Great new features consistently being added, ahead of the curve on almost everything
Solid API to build on and work with, a few annoying quirks here and there for super complex use cases but overall very well documented and works well
Most Merchant Success Managers are good and genuinely want to be helpful
A fantastic user interface, very logical and easy to use
Tons and tons and tons of out of the box integrations. Easily the best integration marketplace of the e-commerce platforms. There's an app for that.
Support. Episerver used to have direct support and access to the tech team to discuss and resolve issues. The new support portal is not enough for developer needs.
Quality Assurance. We find issues in the Episerver code that should have been resolved in QA before release.
Sales. Episervers sells the framework as a solution while showing Alloy. While it helps Episerver sell more, it puts the implementation partner into trouble as the client thinks they bought the solution. Episerver does not provide a solution. It provides a framework that you can build a solution on.
The Account Managers/Reps have become more scripted and seem like they are busier and handling more clients than before. It doesn't seem as personal and special anymore like when we first upgraded to Plus.
Shopify still has missing features in their software that might not have an app in their app marketplace available that fills this void.
The 24/7 support doesn't seem as dedicated as they once were.
Really want to be able to spend more time and resources on rolling out new things with Episerver but at the moment we seem to be fixing alot of issues and pain points with the way our system was setup.
The job functionality is one of the strongest benefits Optimizely offers. It allows a savvy user to quickly go in to a given job, see the job history to find errors and then even take the steps of a job, copy the code and paste it back into your source to diagnose a potential issue.
Shopify Plus is intutive as stated previously. It's easy to find what we want and edit (reports, products, online store theme, etc...) You dont need to have a ton of coding experience to be able to get a website up and running on Shopify Plus. The reason I wont give a 10/10 and gave an 8 is because I do think it is heavily realiant on app and it can open up a can of worms with the amout of apps that are out there, their costs, and which one to chose. There are also some internal limitations as stated previously with discounts and personalized message for different customer groups. But overall, it is a good platform that I recommend.
We had an incredible team at Episerver Supporting us with the go live, reviewing our integration, and pushing our integration partner to deliver a quality product
Fully understand what is OOTB feature of the platform before proceeding to develop. Then implement a customization of key features once you can prove they are working as OOTB to make them more user friendly and productive for the business. Eg pre order and e gift card
Stibo STEP MDM was a powerhouse. It seems we could do anything we could dream up, but we also had an in-house IT dev team to support it. The cost was the reason we went with Optimizely Commerce Connect. We did not explore HubSpot for this project.
Shopify Plus is an all in one service. You are able to keep track of invoices and payments. Shopify Plus also offers options for shipping and connects your tracking number to you order which allows for easy tracking. Your tracking number is also a link which makes it even easier.
Definitely makes selling on multiple platforms easy, saving us time and effort.
Keeps all of our business in one place, saving us money on other apps to manage each aspect.
Automatically flags potential fraudulent orders, preventing us from accidentally shipping to a scam.
During our busiest months, we don't see any slowdowns, which allows us to go full throttle with all ads and marketing without worrying about whether or not the software can handle it.
