A business selling online and comparing Odoo with Shopify is, again, comparing two different kinds of thing. Understanding the difference makes the decision clear.
What each one is
Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce platform. Its purpose is to let a business build and run an online store, and it is one of the most established and polished platforms for doing exactly that.
Odoo is a full business suite. eCommerce is one of its applications, an online store built into Odoo, but Odoo also runs inventory, accounting, purchasing, manufacturing, CRM, and more.
Where Shopify is stronger
Shopify is focused, and focus has real benefits. As a dedicated eCommerce platform, it is highly polished for the specific job of running an online store: the store-building experience, the breadth of its eCommerce-specific ecosystem, and the maturity of its online-selling features are considerable. For a business whose primary activity is selling online, and whose other operations are light, Shopify's focused excellence is a genuine strength.
Where Odoo is stronger
Odoo's strength is that the store is part of the whole business. With Shopify, the online store is one system, and the inventory, the accounting, the purchasing, the manufacturing live in other systems, which then have to be integrated with Shopify. With Odoo, the store, the stock, the accounting, the purchasing, and any production are one system. The store's products and stock are the business's products and stock. An online order flows into the same inventory, accounting, and operations as any other order, with no integration to build and maintain. For a business that does more than sell online, especially one that also holds significant inventory, manufactures, or sells through other channels too, Odoo's unified design removes a whole layer of integration work.
The honest trade-off
The trade-off is focused eCommerce excellence against unified business integration. Shopify gives the more polished, more eCommerce-specialised storefront, but as a system separate from whatever runs the rest of the business. Odoo gives a store that is genuinely part of one connected operation, at the cost of being a store within a broad suite rather than a dedicated, eCommerce-only specialist. Which matters more depends on how much of the business is the online store and how much is everything else.
Which suits which business
Shopify suits a business whose core activity is selling online, whose other operations are light, and which values a focused, highly polished, eCommerce-specialised platform, and is content to integrate other tools around it.
Odoo suits a business for which the online store is one channel within a larger operation, especially one that also manages real inventory, manufactures, sells through other channels, or wants the store joined seamlessly to its accounting and operations. For such a business, having the store be part of one connected system is worth more than a more specialised standalone storefront.
The honest verdict
Odoo and Shopify answer different questions. If your business essentially is an online store, Shopify's focused excellence is compelling. If your online store is one part of a wider operation you want connected, inventory, accounting, manufacturing, other channels, Odoo's unified design is the stronger fit, because the store stops being another system to integrate. Decide on how much of the business the store actually is. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.