Compare Shopit with EKM
How does Shopit compare to EKM?
EKM is a relative success story for the UK eCommerce market, with a hardworking and well intentioned Preston team. A wide range of templates, a marketplace connection offering (that passes you over to ChannelGrabber) and ongoing support make them an attractive option.
Limited
EKM though – formerly branded as EKM Powershop – are yet another provider to follow the tiered pricing/tiered functionality model of so many eCommerce platforms. Yet another company who limits your functionality and toolset based on what you can afford – not good for the ambitious startup wanting to grow, or mid-size seller wanting to scale.
Their website misleads many users with its declaration of “no transaction costs” and “payments included” giving many the idea they only need to pay the £30/£60/£180 to trade. Here ‘no transaction costs’ means no *additional fees* to those that the gateway charge – we simply don’t believe in that anyway. Of course the reality is that sellers always need to pay gateway fees (Paypal, WorldPay, their choice Klarna) so they ought to be clearer in their differentation.
Add-ons Often Required
The range of templates and features are good with some nice integrations into Facebook etc – clearly aimed at startups. No real in-built stock inventory management means customers need to pay extra for third party stock systems.
No multi site options (except the ChannelGrabber marketplace option) means you are again limited, and they are another to penalise you by limiting your staff numbers access according to your budget.
Another big difference to Shopit is hosting. We have no record of EKM server reliability, save to say that we doubt they offer the same fresh technical infrastructure that Google Cloud Hosting offers. Nor the speed, multi-region deliverability and possibly the reliability.
Take a look at our detailed comparison below of the core features included from day one (not plugins). EKM also offer an Advanced package for £549+vat per month, which seems to include a design and consultancy service.
EKM Comparison Chart
| Shopit | EKM Basic | EKM Standard | EKM Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | from£20 | £30 | £65 | £195 |
| Feature Set | Unlimited | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| Free Trial (days) | 30 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Recommended for | Everyone | <50k | 50-150k | 150k-1m |
| Comparison based on core features (functionality may be available via paid/free plugins) | ||||
| Selling Online | ||||
| Online Stores | Unlimited | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Stock Locations | Unlimited | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Staff Accounts | Unlimited | 1 | 5 | 15 |
| Unlimited Products | ✔ | 500 | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free SSL certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Payment Gateways | ||||
| Native gateway (no development needed) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Online Credit Card Rates Compare | 1.0% + 10p | 2.49% | 2.19% | 1.99% |
| Third Party Gateway Surcharges (e.g. Paypal) | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Store Management | ||||
| Custom User Workflows | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Product Prioritisation | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Build an Order | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Discount Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Easy Stock Transfer | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Advanced Reporting | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Fully Editable Templates | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Native Blog | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| B2B Specific Features | ||||
| Estimates/Proforma Invoices | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Approve Customer Accounts | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Volume Discounts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Allow 30 Day 'On Account' Payments | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Supplier Reordering | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Customer Special Pricing | Mar 2020 | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Technical | ||||
| Choice of Hosting Location | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Autoscale Hosting | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| 301 Redirects | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Open API Access | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
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