Are you the owner of an SME(small and medium enterprises) or a big company searching for the best eCommerce platform for your business needs? Even though the question might sound easy, finding an answer is daunting, considering the bazillion eCommerce platforms.
When looking for an all-inclusive eCommerce platform, remember that not all are made the same. So it’s better to clearly understand your requirements and then search for a solution that can cater to those. Here, we are providing you with a list of the best ecommerce platforms for your consideration.
Let’s take a look.
1) Shopify
As a cloud-based e-commerce platform, Shopify enables companies to open virtual stores from anywhere in the world.
Features:
- Shopify offers users various choices for designing a polished and unique online store.
- The platform’s product management features make it simple for sellers to list and update their inventory, supporting multiple product types, photos, and customization options like size and color.
- Shopify makes it simple for businesses to process orders and accept payments from clients worldwide since it works with several different payment gateways and supports many currencies.
- With Shopify’s support for several carriers, including USPS, UPS, and DHL, fulfillment and shipping are easy. It also allows you to track your orders and generate shipping labels mechanically.
- Shopify also has good marketing automation features that you could use in favor of your store.
Cons:
- Shopify may apply a transaction fee to all sales depending on the chosen subscription.
- However, while Shopify provides a wide variety of themes and design possibilities, some customers may find the amount of personalization lacking compared to other eCommerce systems.
- Some of Shopify’s more complex features and integrations may require the purchase of third-party apps or subscriptions, which can add up.
Pricing:
- Shopify Basic costs $29 per month and includes 2.9% + 30c per online sale.
- With Shopify’s intermediate plan, you’ll pay $79 monthly plus 2.6% + 30 cents per transaction.
- Shopify Plus costs $299 per month plus 2.4% plus 30 cents per transaction.
2) Weebly
Weebly is an online shop builder and management system for commercial enterprises. The platform has several valuable features, including:
Features:
- Order management module of Weebly is very good and easy to handle.
- To help companies accept online payments from clients, Weebly works with several payment gateway providers.
- Weebly offers tools for figuring out your shipping charges and managing taxes for online purchases.
- The customer account management module of Weebly is impeccable.
- Weebly provides various marketing options, such as email marketing, social network integration, and search engine optimization, to help companies advertise their goods and find new clients.
- Weebly’s eCommerce platform is designed to work well on mobile devices, allowing users to explore and buy things from their smartphones or tablets easily.
- Email marketing tools, accounting software, and CRM systems are just a few of the systems and technologies with which Weebly’s eCommerce platform can be linked.
Cons:
- Weebly’s lack of scalability means that it may not be a good fit for organizations with many visitors or a wide variety of products available for sale.
- As an e-commerce platform, Weebly may need more than competing solutions regarding the number and type of connectors it provides.
- Weebly, a hosted platform, maintains and controls all data connected to an organization’s online store. Companies might need help to control their data to the same extent as they might on a self-hosted platform.
- Weebly’s product management features work well for simple product listings, but it’s possible that the platform can’t handle more complicated items or sales procedures.
Pricing:
- Weebly has a free plan with a primary online store with a few features and the Weebly logo on the site.
- Starter: This plan has several eCommerce features and removes the Weebly logo, but there is a fee for each sale. Prices start at $6 per month.
- Pro: This plan lets you sell products on social media and has advanced eCommerce features like recovering items from carts that have been left behind and more shipping options. Prices start at $12 per month.
- Business: This plan includes all features of the Pro plan, as well as the ability to sell subscriptions and offer appointment booking. Prices start at $25 per month.
3) Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce (formerly known as Magento) is a robust e-commerce platform. Companies of all sizes use it to build and maintain eCommerce websites and keep track of their sales and customer information.
As it is based on an open-source design, Adobe Commerce may be tailored to any individual company’s requirements. The platform can easily handle massive volumes of traffic and data.
Features:
- Management of catalogs that is malleable and adaptable.
- Product filtering and searching with more sophistication.
- Mobile-friendly layout.
- Option for utilizing a wide variety of both payment methods and currency types.
- Processing orders and delivering goods.
- Segmenting and focusing on specific groups of customers.
- Automation and individualization in marketing.
- Superior Reporting and Analytics.
Cons:
Setting up and managing Adobe Commerce may be complex for people who have never done web programming. You might have to put in a lot of time and work to get the most out of what it can do.
Pricing
The pricing of Adobe Commerce is solely based on requirements and sales. Even though they have not put the price on their website, it can be found by giving the requested information.
4) Prestashop
PrestaShop is a free, open-source e-commerce solution for setting up and running an online shop.
Features:
- Excellent features for product management and categorization
- Large selection of payment options and the power to define geological delivery zones
- A user-friendly content management system that makes navigating simple and effective.
- Various modifications to the one-page checkout functionality are available to lower cart abandonment.
- Easy to comply with standards, laws, and norms.
- PrestaShop provides a variety of marketing instruments to assist companies in promoting their goods.
- Highly favorable to SEO
- Get in-depth information about sales, goods, and marketing effectiveness.
Pricing:
Even though PrestaShop doesn’t cost anything upfront, stores must plan for hosting and any plugins or extensions they might need.
To put a price tag on it, PrestaShop is 100% free to use and install. However, companies will have to pay for hosting and any necessary plug-ins or extensions. Some premium themes and templates can be useful to change the look of the online shop even more.
5) Wix
Wix makes it simple for customers to set up online shops to sell goods and services.
Features:
- An intuitive interface for creating unique online shops.
- Multiple, adaptable, pre-made layouts for use in a variety of markets.
- Accepting payments through unified gateways for online transactions.
- Software for keeping tabs on stock and taking orders.
- Tools for advertising online shops and driving more customers to them, such as search engine optimization and marketing.
Cons:
- Wix may need more advanced features in competing for eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento. On the contrary, it is a viable choice for startups and solopreneurs needing a lightweight, flexible eCommerce platform.
- Wix’s eCommerce platform is hosted on the company’s servers, which means that businesses depend on these servers’ reliability and performance.
- If you are a business that handles a high volume of sales, particular payment gateway integration costs can add up.
Pricing:
For eCommerce sites, pricing ranges from $16–45 per month. These packages come with everything you need to run a successful online store, such as an online store that can be changed to fit the needs of the business, marketing, payment gateway integration, etc.
6) BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an online retail cloud-based software solution for business owners. Because of its adaptability and scalability, it may be used by companies of any size.
Features:
- No coding is necessary when using a drag-and-drop visual editor to launch and edit site pages quickly.
- With a server-to-server checkout API and software development kit, you may personalize every facet of the purchasing process.
- A huge collection of responsive themes.
- BigCommerce has been integrated with WordPress. Because of that, you get a fully functional back-end framework to let you construct your site on WordPress.
- Your merchandise can be displayed uniquely by utilizing drag-and-drop features, personalized product suggestions, and headless commerce APIs.
- Your business can benefit from centralizing your brand management, client segment sales, and geographical construction under one roof.
- Your online store can be integrated with eBay, Amazon, and Google Shopping.
- Exemplary marketing and SEO Features.
Cons:
BigCommerce is more challenging to use than other e-commerce platforms, especially for people who are just starting. Depending on your store’s setup specifics, you may need some technical expertise.
Pricing:
BigCommerce’s Standard plan, the most basic one, costs $29.95 per month. This package comes with everything you need to run a successful online store, such as a storefront that can be changed to fit the needs of the business, tools for marketing, and payment gateway integration.
The Plus and Pro subscriptions, which are more advanced, have more features and customer service for businesses of a specific size. Costs for the first month beginning at $79.95 and $299.90, respectively.
7) WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a popular WordPress-based e-commerce platform (CMS). It simplifies online sales for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Features:
- Sell tangible, digital, and downloadable items.
- Order and inventory tools.
- PayPal and Stripe payment processing integration.
- Shipping tax calculators.
- Multi-currency/language support.
- Coupon support.
- Customized product pages and checkout.
- WordPress theme/plugin integration.
- Analytical tools.
- Multiple product versions and qualities.
- Manage product categories and tags.
- Enable customer feedback and ratings.
- Pre-publishing products.
- Social media integration to promote products.
Cons:
- Merchants must host and maintain a self-hosted WordPress website.
- Coding complexities
- Not ideal for large, complicated e-commerce enterprises.
- Customization or problem-solving may need technical expertise.
- Hosting, plugins, and extensions can be pricey for sophisticated features or larger shops.
Domain registration, like hosting, often starts cheap and gets more expensive over time. Buying for more than one year can save you money, though.
Pricing:
WooCommerce is a free WordPress-based e-commerce platform (CMS). The hosting costs $3.95–$5,000 per month. Most hosts provide a free or low-cost trial with savings for two-year contracts. Domain registration is the next expense. Domains cost $15 per year.
Next, come themes; WordPress and WooCommerce themes cost $20–100 annually.
Also, shop management tools, shipping management, and a payment gateway cost extra. The cost in this matter will be based on your requirements.
8) Squarespace
Squarespace is a hosted website builder, blog, and e-commerce platform. It works with several payment processors and shipping companies and comes with a wide range of ready-made.
Features:
- It’s a drag-and-drop website builder, so it’s simple for users to make changes to the look and feel of their site.
- Squarespace’s responsive design guarantees that your website will look great across all mobile devices.
- E-commerce features include the capacity to set up an online shop, handle inventory and orders, and conduct financial transactions.
- Blogging platform: A system that lets users write and publish blog posts. It often has features like post templates that can be resized and built-in social network sharing.
- Search engine optimization (SEO) tools let users tweak their website’s presentation for better results in search results by altering elements like page names and meta descriptions.
Cons:
- Squarespace offers many designs and design tools, but some users may need help to control how their site looks and feels full.
- Squarespace provides fewer integrations with third-party apps and services than other e-commerce platforms.
- For consumers that want advanced functionality or a significant number of items, Squarespace might be more expensive than other e-commerce platforms.
Pricing:
For those who wish to set up an online store, Squarespace has four distinct price tiers: personal, business, and two types of eCommerce plans.
With the personal plan, you can start selling online for as little as $16 a month with limited features like mobile-optimized websites, templates to fit every need, and a Free custom domain.
With the business plan, you will get:
- Mobile optimized websites
- Templates to fit every need
- Free custom domain
- Advanced website analytics
- Fully integrated e-commerce
- 3% transaction fee
For $23, another 2 plans that Shopify offers are Commerce plans, which cost $27 and $49, respectively.
9) Big Cartel
BigCartel is one of the best eCommerce platforms, created with the needs of small companies and individual artists in mind. Users can set it up and run their online shops with it because it is simple and easy to use.
Features:
- Users may personalize their shops by selecting from various templates and design tools.
- Users can quickly add and manage products, and the stock count updates automatically. This works for both digital and physical goods.
- BigCartel makes it simple to handle payments by connecting to several different gateways, such as Stripe and PayPal.
- BigCartel shops are mobile-friendly, meaning customers can use their phones to shop without problems.
- Email marketing and integrating with social media platforms are the two ways that BigCartel subscribers can use to market their products.
Cons of BigCartel might include the following:
- Because BigCartel is simple and easy to use, it may have fewer features than other e-commerce platforms.
- BigCartel has fewer third-party app and service connections than other e-commerce platforms.
- BigCartel may not be a good fit for fast-expanding enterprises due to its limited scalability, as it was built with tiny shops and solo artists in mind.
Pricing:
The Big Cartel pricing model has three various models. It starts with a freemium model where you could sell five different products, and there are other options with the names “platinum” and “diamond,” through which you could sell 50 and 500 products, respectively.
10) GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a widely used e-commerce platform because it is simple to set up and run an online business with their help. It also connects to major shipping and payment processors and has a number of layouts and editing tools.
Features:
- You can add up to 5000 products with 10 images per product and the most important aspect is that all of the products can be managed easily.
- Fully customisable shipping module.
- Multiple payment options.
- GoDaddy Website Builder makes it simple to launch an online store, which you can then manage from any device and scale as needed.
- Develop visually stunning product promotion and customer-wowing material with relative ease.
- GoDaddy website Builder improves your ranking on Google, Yahoo, and Bing by selecting keywords and phrases with high value.
- Furthermore, a website builder makes use of your site’s design to create aesthetically pleasing and effective emails.
Cons:
- While GoDaddy provides various templates and design tools, some users may need more say over their site’s final look and feel.
- GoDaddy’s integration options are limited compared to competing e-commerce platforms.
Pricing:
GoDaddy’s price structure for online retailers consists of three tiers: basic, standard, and premium. Features like limitless goods, a branded storefront, and payment gateway integration are all part of the Basic plan, starting at $29.99 monthly.
Abandoned cart recovery and sophisticated analytics are just two extras you’ll get with the Standard program, which starts at $49.99 per month. The Premium plan costs only $79.99 monthly and includes amenities like a gift card system and a report generator.
Final Note…
In conclusion, there are a lot of good e-commerce platforms to choose from, but your needs do matter. Picking one that doesn’t fit can do more harm than good.
This is the situation where we can help you!
Consult with Performatix, if you’re still pondering which eCommerce platform would be best for your company. We know what it takes to make custom eCommerce solutions and can help you choose the best eCommerce platform for your business so that you can use their offerings without delay and launch your online store.
