Introduction
Nearly every NZ retailer we build stores for arrives with the same shortlist: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce. All three can run a profitable New Zealand online store — they optimise for very different situations. This comparison is the one we walk clients through before a dollar is spent, including the NZ-specific angles (payments, shipping, GST) that generic comparisons skip.
The Verdict Up Front
- Most NZ stores: Shopify — fastest to launch, least to maintain
- Content-heavy or custom-product stores: WooCommerce — unmatched flexibility, more responsibility
- Mid-market with complex catalogues: BigCommerce — strong native features without app sprawl
Shopify: The Safe Default
Strengths: Shopify hosts, secures, and scales for you. NZ-specific needs — Windcave, Stripe, Afterpay, NZ Post rates — are all mature integrations. Checkout is battle-tested and converts. Time-to-launch is the fastest of the three, and uptime is somebody else’s problem.
Weaknesses: Monthly fees plus transaction fees (unless using Shopify Payments, which has its own NZ considerations). Deep customisation requires Liquid development. Content/blogging is basic. Advanced logic often means paying for apps — $100–$400/month of app subscriptions is common and adds up fast.
Best for: Retailers who want to sell, not administer servers. First-time ecommerce owners.
WooCommerce: Maximum Control
Strengths: Open source, no platform fees, infinite customisation, and the world’s best content CMS underneath it. If your store is also your content engine — guides, recipes, educational content driving organic traffic — WooCommerce + WordPress is a genuinely strong SEO combination. You own everything: data, code, hosting choice. Our WordPress development team builds these for exactly this profile.
Weaknesses: You are the platform manager — hosting, security, updates, backups, performance. Done well (with proper maintenance) it is excellent. Done cheaply, it becomes the slow, hacked site we get emergency calls about.
Best for: Content-led stores, custom product types, businesses with (or partnered with) real WordPress capability.
BigCommerce: The Power Middle
Strengths: The most generous native feature set — strong product filtering, variants, and B2B pricing without app subscriptions. No transaction fees on any plan. Solid API for headless builds — which matters if you go the high-performance route we describe in our ecommerce architecture guide.
Weaknesses: Smaller NZ ecosystem — fewer local agencies, fewer NZ-specific app integrations, and the Windcave story requires more configuration than on Shopify. The annual sales thresholds on plans can force tier upgrades for fast-growing stores.
Best for: Established retailers with complex catalogues that have outgrown entry-level platforms but do not want app-sprawl overhead.
The NZ-Specific Checklist (Whichever You Choose)
- Payments: Stripe and Windcave both integrate with all three — the differences are in setup effort and fees, which we compare in detail in our Windcave vs Stripe guide
- BNPL: Afterpay and Zip are expectations, not extras, for many categories
- Shipping: NZ Post/CourierPost rate tables, rural delivery surcharges, click-and-collect
- GST: pricing display rules and invoicing configured for NZ from day one
- SEO foundations: clean URLs, schema markup, fast mobile pages — the ecommerce SEO basics that determine whether your store is findable
Total Cost of Ownership (The Honest Maths)
Sticker price lies. Over three years, compare: platform fees + transaction fees + apps/add-ons + hosting (WooCommerce) + developer time + maintenance. Shopify often looks cheapest monthly and loses to a well-run WooCommerce setup at scale; BigCommerce’s zero transaction fees shine at high volume. Model your actual numbers — average order value and monthly orders are the two inputs that matter.
How We Decide With Clients
The platform question is answered last, not first. We start with: your catalogue complexity, your content ambitions, your team’s capability, and your growth plans for 3 years. Only then does a platform recommendation fall out — because the same store on the wrong platform is an expensive Retrofit Project. Our ecommerce services cover all three platforms, so the advice is not pre-sold.
Conclusion
Shopify for speed and simplicity, WooCommerce for control and content, BigCommerce for native power at scale. All three work in New Zealand when payments, shipping, and GST are configured properly — and all three underperform when they are not.
Still torn? Get in touch — tell us what you sell and how you want to grow, and we will give you a straight recommendation with the cost maths to back it.