Arc XP Commerce vs WooCommerce: Building Powerful B2C Online Store

Engaging e-commerce stores tend to have higher conversion rates, which is why many brands continuously innovate and incorporate advanced personalization features to keep their audiences engaged and encourage repeat visits.

Content management systems (CMS) have experienced a surge in demand as eCommerce features have been added to their platforms. For instance, WooCommerce for WordPress and Arc XP Commerce, though fundamentally different, have evolved to meet the needs of similar audiences: large brands seeking to build scalable online stores that deliver personalized experiences to global audiences. WordPress originally started as a blogging platform but has since evolved into a versatile CMS for creating websites of all sizes. Its open source nature and core software are regularly updated and supported by a large community, making it a flexible choice for many.

Choosing the right content management system is crucial for scalability, customization, and meeting specific business needs. Arc XP's origins at the Washington Post highlight its credibility, and Arc XP's infrastructure is tailored for enterprise organizations, but often requires a significant upfront investment.

Introduction to E-commerce Platforms

E-commerce platforms are the backbone of any successful online business, providing the tools needed to create, manage, and grow digital storefronts. As businesses strive to deliver seamless shopping experiences and manage their digital assets efficiently, choosing the right platform becomes crucial. Two leading contenders in this space are Arc XP and WordPress, each offering unique strengths for different business needs.

Arc XP is recognized for its robust digital asset management and advanced content management capabilities, making it a strong choice for organizations with complex content and security requirements. WordPress, on the other hand, powers a vast number of e-commerce stores worldwide, thanks to its flexibility, large and active community, and extensive plugin ecosystem.

When evaluating Arc XP and WordPress, it’s important to consider not only their content management features but also their security considerations, infrastructure, and scalability. In the following sections, we’ll explore how these platforms stack up in these critical areas, helping you determine which solution best fits your business goals.

WooCommerce - Is it a Suitable Content Management System for Building Advanced Commerce Experience?

In simple terms, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that adds robust commerce functionalities to the CMS, such as product management, customer account creation, data storage, integration with payment gateways, and streamlined account creation and ordering for customers.

The core WooCommerce plugin is suited to build lightweight commerce experiences catering to small to mid-size B2C store owners.

For building scalable online stores, WooCommerce can easily be expanded with third party services, extensions and custom code to add the needed functionalities like personalization, connecting with CRMs, adding automation, integration with analytics, AI, social networks and Ad platforms like Google Merchant Center. Allowing users to extensively customize their store through plugins, themes, and flexible architecture choices is central to WooCommerce's flexibility. Adding new features is straightforward thanks to the vast plugin and extension ecosystem.

WordPress is not only used for e-commerce but is also highly versatile, supporting learning management systems and other specialized website types.

WooCommerce’s Popularity Among Large Brands

According to BuiltWith, over 33,358 websites ranked among the top 1 million by traffic use WooCommerce, with more than 3,000 of them listed in the top 100k sites by traffic. This widespread adoption underscores WooCommerce’s popularity among large brands. WordPress websites are widely used for e-commerce, blogs, business sites, and more, demonstrating the flexibility and scalability of a WordPress site.

WooCommerce Usage Statistics (source)

WooCommerce’s scalability is second to none, and its popularity among high-traffic websites is proof that it can be scaled to deliver consistent performance to large audiences. Performance can be further enhanced through database optimization and efficient use of server resources. WooCommerce can also leverage powerful cloud infrastructures for high-traffic stores. Implementing a multi layered security policy using plugins and hosting features is recommended to protect WooCommerce stores.

Arc XP Commerce - Is it Worth Exploring for an Enterprise Ecommerce Store?

Headless CMSs have become a popular choice for enterprise organizations, enabling teams to build engaging content and online shopping experiences while maintaining seamless integrations with third-party tools.

Arc XP introduced eCommerce features into their CMS, even though it was primarily targeted to meet demands of large publication websites, it now also caters to brands looking to add B2C commerce on their websites. Arc XP's specialized features and niche focus make it particularly strong for media and enterprise sectors.

Arc XP Commerce offers scalable, low-code content creation tools, making it easy to embed products within traditional content experiences. Arc XP's AI Editor further enhances editorial workflows for content teams by assisting with story summarization, headline generation, and translation management. This combination of simplified content management and robust eCommerce capabilities makes it a viable option for enterprise stores.

Arc XP Commerce’s Strength in Enterprise Solutions

Arc XP Commerce is built specifically for large-scale websites and is used by several well-known brands. However, its user base is much smaller compared to WooCommerce, making it less widespread in the eCommerce space. As a digital experience platform, XP Arc is tailored for large organizations, offering features and infrastructure designed for enterprise needs.

Brands Uses Arc XP Commerce

With high upfront costs and limited eCommerce capabilities, Arc XP Commerce may not be the most cost-effective choice for brands looking to build an eCommerce store.

Arc XP provides extensive support for enterprise clients, including onboarding, migration assistance, and training resources for XP users. When it comes to integrations, Arc XP enables large organizations to manage content and workflows through interconnected software systems, supporting seamless operations across complex digital environments.

Content Management Capabilities

A powerful content management system (CMS) is essential for any e-commerce platform, as it enables businesses to efficiently create, organize, and publish content across multiple channels. Arc XP stands out with its advanced content management features, offering a proprietary platform that integrates digital asset management and leverages content delivery networks for fast, reliable content distribution. This all-in-one approach streamlines workflows for enterprise organizations, especially those managing large volumes of content.

In contrast, WordPress is celebrated for its open-source nature, which allows users to modify core files, add custom code, and extend functionality through thousands of plugins and themes. Supported by a large and active community, WordPress empowers businesses to tailor their content management system to their exact needs, whether that means building custom solutions or integrating with third-party tools.

While Arc XP’s closed-source platform may require more technical expertise for customization, it offers a unified, enterprise-grade experience. WordPress, meanwhile, thrives on flexibility and community-driven innovation, making it a top choice for businesses seeking maximum control over their content management.

Security Considerations

Security is a top concern for any e-commerce operation, given the sensitive nature of customer data and financial transactions. Both Arc XP and WordPress address these needs with robust security features, but their approaches differ.

Arc XP, as a proprietary platform, offers built-in security measures such as login attempt monitoring tools, customizable security policies, and a multi-layered security approach. Its architecture supports automatic scaling and rapid response and mitigation efforts in the event of a security breach, providing peace of mind for enterprise organizations.

WordPress, with its open-source foundation, relies on a combination of core security features and a vast library of security plugins developed by its active community. While this allows for highly customizable security measures, it also places the responsibility for regular updates and security patches on site owners. However, the large WordPress community ensures that vulnerabilities are quickly identified and addressed, and the availability of login attempt monitoring tools and other plugins adds an extra layer of protection.

Ultimately, both Arc XP and WordPress can deliver robust security, but the choice may depend on your preference for a managed, proprietary solution versus a community-driven, customizable platform.

Infrastructure and Scalability

When it comes to infrastructure and scalability, both Arc XP and WordPress offer compelling solutions tailored to different business needs. Arc XP is built on a powerful cloud infrastructure, providing automatic scaling and seamless integration with existing systems. This makes it an ideal choice for enterprise solutions, large media organizations, and businesses that require enterprise-level digital publishing capabilities. Arc XP Commerce further enhances this by supporting full site editing and offering a comprehensive suite of features designed for high-traffic, content-rich environments.

WordPress, on the other hand, offers unmatched flexibility in hosting options. With many WordPress hosting providers available, businesses can choose the hosting environment that best fits their needs and budget. WordPress supports content delivery networks, full site editing, and a wide range of plugins to optimize performance and scalability. Whether you’re running a single store or managing multiple sites, WordPress’s open architecture allows for building custom solutions and integrating with existing systems. While Arc XP excels in providing a seamless, enterprise-grade experience with automatic scaling, WordPress stands out for its adaptability, extensive plugin ecosystem, and suitability for custom development.

The right choice between Arc XP and WordPress will depend on your organization’s technical expertise, scalability requirements, and desire for either a turnkey enterprise platform or a highly customizable e-commerce solution.

WooCommerce vs Arc XP Commerce: Comparison

Let’s take a closer look at WooCommerce and Arc XP Commerce and how they stack against each other in terms of some of the key areas where large scale ecommerce stores focus. This section will compare Arc XP to WooCommerce across key features and use cases, including content management, digital asset management, workflow tools, and how each platform serves media brands within a unified ecosystem.

1. Personalization and Customer Engagement

Personalization has become a cornerstone of successful e-commerce, allowing businesses to create tailored experiences that resonate with their customers. WooCommerce and Arc XP Commerce offer tools and capabilities to enhance personalization and customer engagement, but their approaches differ significantly.

WooCommerce's Personalization Options

WooCommerce's strength lies in its vast ecosystem of plugins, and integrations which provide many personalization options.:

• Create personalized product recommendations: Suggest products based on customers' browsing history, purchase history, or demographic information.
• Implement targeted email marketing: Send personalized email campaigns based on customer preferences, behavior, or lifecycle stage.
• Offer personalized product pages: Dynamically customize product pages based on individual customer preferences or attributes.
• Leverage customer segmentation: Divide customers into segments based on various criteria and tailor experiences to each segment.
• Run retargeting ad campaigns: Many social media platforms integrate with WooCommerce, and you can build your custom audiences to run targeted ad campaigns to improve sales and get repeat customers.

Arc XP Commerce's Headless Approach to Personalization

As a headless CMS, Arc XP Commerce offers a more flexible and scalable approach to personalization.

• Deliver personalized experiences across multiple channels: Create personalized content for websites, mobile apps, and other digital channels.
• Integrate with advanced personalization engines: Connect Arc XP Commerce with third-party personalization platforms for more sophisticated capabilities.
• Real-time personalization: Use real-time data to deliver personalized experiences as customers interact with the website or app.
• A/B testing and optimization: Experiment with different personalization strategies to identify the most effective approaches.
• Display relevant products: Based on customer data like location, gender, and previous viewing habits, display the right products to your site readers. 

WINNER: WooCommerce!

Both WooCommerce and Arc XP Commerce, in terms of personalization, can be customized in any way to meet your needs; however, applying advanced rules and implementing personalization on WooCommerce is much easier as businesses have full access to the code and files making the addition of custom code easier. 

2. Scalability and Performance

Scalability and performance are critical factors for any online store, especially as it grows and attracts more traffic. Both WooCommerce and Arc XP Commerce offer different approaches to scalability and performance, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

WooCommerce's Scalability

WooCommerce is a highly scalable platform capable of handling a wide range of traffic and product volumes. Its scalability is primarily driven by:

• Cloud hosting: WooCommerce can be hosted on various cloud platforms, such as WP Cloud, AWS, and Google Cloud, which provide flexibility and scalability.
• Optimized Code: WooCommerce is lightweight and has seen major improvements to its overall performance. For example, High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) was introduced in WooCommerce.   
• Custom development: For businesses with specific scalability requirements, custom code can be added to optimize WooCommerce's performance.
• Performance Plugins: There are many performance plugins and scripts available that greatly enhance WooCommerce’s performance by adding caching rules on various layers, as well as by minifying and compressing files, images, videos, and more. 

Additional Considerations for Performance of WooCommerce

WooCommerce can deliver excellent performance when configured and optimized correctly. However, there are some factors to consider:

• Hosting: The choice of hosting provider and server configuration can significantly impact performance.
• Content optimization: Optimizing images, videos, and other content can improve page load times.
• Add Multi-layer Caching: Implementing caching mechanisms can reduce server load and improve performance.

Arc XP Commerce's Scalability

As a headless CMS, Arc XP Commerce is designed for scalability from the ground up. Its key scalability features include:

• Decoupled architecture: The separation of the front-end and back-end allows for independent scaling of each component.
• Microservices architecture: Arc XP can be deployed as a microservices-based architecture, enabling granular scaling and fault tolerance.
• Content delivery networks (CDNs): Arc XP can leverage CDNs to deliver content closer to users, improving performance and reducing latency.

WINNER: Arc XP Commerce!

With WooCommerce, you need to understand how each line of code performs and the best ways to optimize it. As an open-source platform, WooCommerce offers a significant advantage over its competitors by allowing full code customization.

In contrast, Arc XP Commerce, as a headless CMS, handles performance optimization for you. Businesses pay for this hands-off approach, freeing them from the need for manual performance tuning.

3. Ease of Use

Ease of use is a crucial factor when selecting an eCommerce platform. Simplicity and collaboration tools are essential for effectively managing a large-scale online store.

WooCommerce's User-Friendly Interface

WooCommerce is renowned for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible to users with minimal technical knowledge. Key features that contribute to its ease of use include: 

• Simple yet intuitive dashboard: The WooCommerce dashboard provides a clear and organized overview of your store's key metrics and functionalities and makes adding, editing products, and viewing orders easy.
• Drag-and-drop editor: The default Gutenberg editor and WordPress themes have embraced the Block architecture; the templates can easily be customized by simply dragging and dropping blocks.
• Extensive community support: WooCommerce benefits from a large and active community, and you can find help from experts on various social platforms and forums.

Arc XP Commerce's Learning Curve

While Arc XP Commerce offers powerful features, it can have a steeper learning curve compared to WooCommerce. Its headless architecture and advanced customization options require a higher level of technical expertise. 

• Detailed documentation: Comprehensive documentation and tutorials to guide users through the platform.
• Developer-friendly tools: A suite of tools and APIs for developers to build customized solutions.
• Professional services: Access to professional services for assistance with implementation and customization.

WINNER: WooCommerce!

WooCommerce has a distinct advantage over Arc XP Commerce, thanks to the support of thousands of global contributors dedicated to making it user-friendly, even for eCommerce businesses.

4. Integrations and Customization

Both WooCommerce and Arc XP Commerce offer different approaches to integrations and customization, and both CMSs are impressive in this regard.

WooCommerce's Full Access To Customization

WooCommerce enables developers to customize any aspect of the CMS. In addition to hundreds of available plugins, third-party APIs can be integrated to enhance functionality. The possibilities for building a tailored and integrated eCommerce store with WooCommerce are virtually limitless.

• Plugin marketplace: Access to thousands of plugins for various functionalities, such as payment gateways, shipping carriers, marketing tools, and more on WooCommerce.com.
• Custom development: Flexibility to customize WooCommerce using custom code to meet specific requirements.
• REST API: Easily add integrations between WooCommerce stores and third-party platforms.

Arc XP Commerce's Headless Flexibility

As a headless CMS, Arc XP Commerce offers greater flexibility for integrations, but it is limited when it comes to customization since it is a closed CMS platform.

• API-first approach: A robust API allows for seamless integration with various third-party services.
• Custom development: Limited and requires a high level of technical expertise. 

WINNER: WooCommerce!

With the REST API and access to all files, the possibilities for building custom solutions within a WooCommerce store are truly endless for skilled developers. Even without a developer, many platforms readily integrate with WooCommerce, enhancing its feature set.

5. Marketing and SEO 

A CMS that simplifies content campaign management is ideal for businesses looking to boost conversions and sales. WooCommerce is recognized for its SEO-friendliness and strong integration with various email marketing and analytics platforms, making it a popular choice. In contrast, Arc XP Commerce focuses on simplifying large-scale content publication and personalization, making it well-suited for busy media sites.

WooCommerce's Marketing and SEO Tools

WooCommerce provides a solid foundation for marketing and SEO, with features and integrations such as:

• SEO plugins: Optimize your store for search engines using popular plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack.
• Google Analytics integration: Track website traffic and user behavior using Google Analytics.
• Email marketing integrations: Connect with popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp and Constant Contact.
• Social media integrations: Easily share products and promotions on social media platforms.
• Connect with Google Shopping: WooCommerce products can be linked to the Google Ads platform to appear in Google Shopping results.

Arc XP Commerce's Marketing and SEO Capabilities

Arc XP's headless architecture and API-first approach offer flexibility for marketing and SEO, with features such as:

• Content optimization: Create SEO-friendly content using Arc XP's content management tools.
• API integrations: Integrate with various marketing and SEO tools through the platform's API.
• Personalization: Deliver personalized marketing experiences based on customer data.
• A/B testing: Experiment with different marketing strategies to optimize results.

WINNER: Draw!

Both Arc XP Commerce and WooCommerce offer significant advantages for running marketing campaigns. For large-scale media operations, Arc XP Commerce provides robust features, while WooCommerce excels in supporting traditional eCommerce stores with comprehensive tools for website managers and online shoppers.

6. Pricing and Cost Considerations

Pricing and cost considerations are essential factors to evaluate when choosing an e-commerce platform. Both WooCommerce and Arc XP Commerce have different pricing models and associated costs.

WooCommerce's Affordable Pricing

WooCommerce itself is a free plugin, making it an attractive option for businesses starting on a budget and wanting the flexibility to scale the budget as their needs grow.

• Hosting: You'll need to purchase a web hosting plan to host your WooCommerce store. Costs can vary depending on the hosting provider and your website's requirements.
• Plugins and themes: While many plugins and themes are free, premium options may incur additional costs.
• Custom development: If you need custom development to meet your specific requirements, there will be associated costs.

Arc XP Commerce's Enterprise Pricing

Arc XP Commerce typically has a subscription-based pricing model, with costs varying depending on the features and scale of your online store. Factors that can influence pricing include:

• Number of users: The number of users who will access the platform.
• Content volume: The amount of content you plan to create and manage.
• Integrations: The number and complexity of integrations required.
• Custom development: Any custom development needed to meet your specific requirements.

WINNER: WooCommerce

E-commerce remains a lucrative business model if you conduct thorough research and have the right products and marketing plan. For mid to large businesses, managing operating costs is a priority. WooCommerce allows businesses to start small and scale with demand, avoiding the subscription model required by Arc XP Commerce.

Final Thoughts

For a more traditional approach to eCommerce, WooCommerce is an excellent choice. Its customization, personalization, marketing capabilities, and scalability are only limited by the developer's knowledge.

At Multidots, we support numerous successful large and enterprise-level eCommerce stores in maintaining and scaling their operations on WooCommerce. Contact our team today for a personalized consultation.