Shopify and Magento Lead in Half of Global Markets, WooCommerce, VTEX and Others Regionally Centered

Shop software is the building block of eCommerce. Some providers, like Shopify and Magento, tend to be most used across the globe, while others are gaining popularity more quietly.

Shopify powers 14.6% of online stores worldwide, Magento is used by 9.2%. Apart from the percentage of retailers using software, providers tend to dominate certain regions.

When examining the number one shop software provider in each country, Shopify and Magento often come up, but there is room for others as well.

WooCommerce Comes Third After Shopify and Magento

A previous examination of shop software distribution in Europe that centered around Shopify and Magento showed that Magento tends to be more popular in Europe, while Shopify is preferred elsewhere. Despite their high usage, however, other shop software providers rank first in certain parts of the world.

One of these providers is WooCommerce. It ranks as the third most-used shop software by global online stores, with a 6.1% usage rate. The primary regions of usage for WooCommerce are centered around Southeast Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

WooCommerce's appeal lies in its open-source nature and its free-to-use status, and extensibility. WooCommerce ranks first in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Morocco, among other countries.

VTEX Is an All-Round Latin American Favorite

VTEX is a shop software provider with clearer regional distribution. As a Latin American platform, VTEX caters to regional needs. It is built for platforms with a multi-channel focus. Most importantly, VTEX is optimal for marketplace businesses, i.e. for retailers with a 3P model.  

Colombia and Chile are the only exceptions, being the only two Latin American markets that use Shopify as the number one provider. Retailers in other markets across South America, and in part Central America, have a preference for VTEX. They include Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador and Uruguay.

VTEX does not rank among the top 5 shop software providers. Other providers such as Salesforce are used by more online stores; however, they are not as regionally focused as VTEX.

PrestaShop: A French Provider With International Appeal

Lastly, PrestaShop follows with 7 markets in which it ranks as the top shop software – PrestaShop is the fifth most-used provider in the world, but it is not as regionally centered as VTEX.

Rather, PrestaShop’s primary markets are found in Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Lithuania, and Belarus), as well as the occasional market in Africa (Senegal) and Central America (Honduras).

PrestaShop was developed in France, so its popularity in its country of origin and in nearby markets is due to strong localization and high usability, as well as multi-language and multi-currency setups.

Most of these top shop software providers are open source and free to use, which accounts for a large portion of their appeal to businesses. Particularly when it comes to small- to mid-sized businesses, affordability is key in the choice of shop software.