Open source is a competitive advantage for ecommerce brands

Open-source software is software anyone can download, change, and build on. For a merchant, that means your store can work the way your business does, you can control your total cost of ownership, and you can adopt new trends or opportunities as needed without waiting on a platform’s roadmap.

Commerce is moving quickly. AI is increasingly used for product discovery, and your products need to show up in new places. In the near future, it could be common for agents to shop for customers. Nobody can say what things will look like in 2030. But what’s already clear is which brands will be positioned for it: those who can build for whatever comes, without waiting for a vendor.

That’s why the next 5 years of commerce are being built on open source. Here’s how to decide if it’s right for you.

Making source code public means thousands of people can improve it, find problems in it, and build on top of it, instead of only the company that wrote it. For your store, that means access to a global community and the tools you need to change how your store works and runs, whenever you choose. 

Think of open-source platforms à la WooCommerce as owning your own storefront on Main Street. You can customize your space, make your own hours, hire your own vendors, and choose your own card processor. 

Closed platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are akin to renting a concession counter in a department store. You get space in a building with foot traffic, and they cover security, lighting, and cleaning. They offer convenience, but they also limit what you can change, scale, or expand.

Every platform has apps and extensions, but when there isn’t an extension for something you need, open source means you can build the functionality. 

grüum sells shampoo bars, shaving kits, and skincare, formulated and made in their own facility in Stockport. They also sell bundles, where customers choose what goes in the set and can subscribe to one item without subscribing to the rest.

That’s an unusual way to sell. It’s also how their business works.

In 2023, they spent 4 months evaluating whether to move to Shopify Plus or Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento). The bundles were part of why they stayed: they couldn’t do them with Shopify Plus, which meant they’d have to change their product offerings to fit the platform. 

Today, AI agents are part of the shopping process. They compare products, check stock, read prices, and occasionally complete purchases. They don’t respond to photography or brand voice — they read structured data, and they won’t recommend a store whose data they can’t verify. In a report we commissioned from IDC this year, 65% of digital leaders said platform rigidity was their top barrier to adopting AI in commerce.

The standards themselves are open — Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol was published under an open license. But an open standard only helps you if you can act on it. When the next one arrives, you either change what your store exposes with open source or wait for your closed-source platform like Shopify to get around to doing it for you.

Nobody can reach in and change the version you’re using

When Shopify announced that the file merchants used to customize their checkout was being retired, stores had a limited time to update their webpages before their checkout experience broke. This happened again when Shopify Scripts, which handled custom discounts and shipping rules, got cut off.

Shopify had reasonable engineering grounds and gave notice, but it still meant thousands of merchants spent time (and engineering resources) rebuilding checkouts that were working fine, and whatever other plans they had have been disrupted.

That doesn’t happen with a WooCommerce store, because the version you’re running is on your server. Upstream updates happen and are available to you, but they don’t become some hard deadline for your engineers. You still maintain control of your roadmap.

Vancouver skateboard company Landyachtz paid around $45,000 USD a year for Shopify Plus. Launching their US store doubled their app costs and configuration work, and the cross-border fees for international sales started to add up.

“Shopify was taking us to the cleaners.” – Jacob Lambert, Ecommerce and Marketing Specialist at Landyachtz

So they moved to WooCommerce and gained the flexibility to run their store in both countries for under $10,000 a year, with hosting, extensions, and maintenance included.

The numbers changed drastically because they could now negotiate with vendors to control their total cost of ownership. They worked with their hosting, payments, shipping, and analytics vendors to get the best price. 

Payment processing can also be costly. Some platforms charge you a surcharge for picking a processor outside of their “preferred list.” 

For example, grüum discovered that Shopify takes a percentage of subscription revenue, rather than a flat fee like Woo charges.

“When you’re doing £1 million or £10 million through subscriptions… you’re instantly shelling out £100,000 a year.” – Simon Leonard, Cofounder at grüum

Platforms that are quick to start on are rarely the cheapest to grow on, and the cost of a closed choice compounds every quarter.

When considering a switch, ask: What does your platform charge you per dollar of revenue? What would it cost you to leave in 18 months? Is any part of your AI roadmap sitting behind a pricing tier you haven’t bought?

If you want real numbers on what it would cost to run your store on WooCommerce, try our TCO calculator.

About

Christina Bevitori

Christina Bevitori is a seasoned marketer and content strategist with 16 years of experience working for ecommerce, SaaS, and technology companies. She trained as a journalist before moving into marketing, so she's especially well-versed in long-form writing and thought leadership. But she's also an expert in SEO and AEO content strategy.