Building a platform from scratch can be feasible for big and successful companies, but often turns out to be expensive to build and costly to run.
Here we present the top 10 ecommerce platforms with their exhaustive features, pros, cons and pricing details. We will also guide you as to which platform is best and why, so that you can choose the best as per your business requirements.
Let’s start!
Table of Contents
· What is the importance of Ecommerce Platforms?
· The 10 Best E-commerce Platforms
o Shopify
o Wix
o Bluehost
o Zyro
o Weebly
o Nexcess
· Which platform is recommended?
· FAQs
Why Ecommerce Platforms Are Important?
In today’s time, people have started spending more time in the virtual world than in the actual environment. And this percentage is increasing every year. The lack of time and a busy life, along with the convenience of shopping from anywhere, is what makes online shopping a boom.
Companies have to sell their products or services at the right price to increase their sales. The right place is where they find more customers, and that is online.
Ecommerce provides a strong foundation for business growth.
· It provides sellers with a global reach.
· Sellers can customize product information as per their business needs.
· Reduces a certain fixed cost, thus enabling sellers to provide discounts to their customers.
· It eliminates middlemen and helps sellers directly interact with buyers.
· It helps in the promotion of products.
· Better customer service can be provided, which is beneficial for both sellers and buyers to establish long-term relations.
Read about the 10 best e-commerce platforms in detail below.
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the all-around ecommerce platforms even a person with no technical know-how can easily launch online store.
Features
· Shopify provides a lot of free tools to start your business.
· The ‘drag and drop’ website builder helps in building an online store easily and in less time.
· Shopify helps in selling internationally from one store.
· Supports 100+ payment gateways with no transaction fee.
· Sell on social media and marketplaces
· Its POS system helps you to sell in person and in your physical store.
· Shopify provides fast shipping and up to 88% discount rates from DHL, UPS, and USPS.
· No storage fees if products are sold within six months.
· Get paid much faster and receive cash back while you spend it on growing your business.
Pricing
You can join 14-day free trial (no credit card info required). And it enables you to explore all the features of a paid subscription so that you can decide whether it suits your business needs or not.
With their starter plan at $5 per month, you are able to sell through existing websites, social media platforms, and messaging applications. Their Shopify Plus-the enterprise plan-is about $2000 per month, giving you unlimited features and options to grow your business.
Pros
· Simple to use and quick to load
· Excellent for dropshipping
· 1-click selling apps are available
Cons
· Weaknesses in SEO/Content Marketing
· Checkout is not customizable
· Apps are expensive
2. Wix
It is one of the easiest to use ecommerce platforms with a lot of options to build a website with server-less computing.
Features
· Its affordable pricing makes it a good choice for any new business brand to start an online business.
· It gives you a lot of freedom to customize your website and make it appear the way you want.
· 72 free themes are made available
· Switch to the mobile editor to personalize the mobile version of your store.
· Answer a few questions regarding your website, location, and keywords to receive a custom-made search engine optimization plan.
Pricing
They offer three plans:
· Basic business for $27 per month
· Unlimited business for $32 per month
· Business VIP for $59 per month
It’s very affordable as compared to other platforms, thus making it a good choice for new businesses to start an online store.
Pros
· They provide a lot of amazing free themes
· It’s very simple to use and easy to set up a website
· It includes marketing automation
Cons
· Weak SEO performance
· Weak integration with Amazon
· Inadequate upselling abilities
3. BigCommerce
It is the most commonly used e-commerce platform for businesses that have a large inventory of merchandise.
Features
· The pro plan gives you 60000 API calls per hour.
· The enterprise plan includes unlimited API calls and has the capability of handling 400 API calls per second
· The platform provides you with so many in-built features that you don’t have to depend on plugins and third-party-apps
· Handle big, and complex catalogs
· Add up to 600 SKUs/variants per product
· No transaction fee is charged
· It offers professional reporting on all plans
Pricing
BigCommerce offers a15-day free trial. and then offer you four different plans to choose from. There are three types of BigCommerce Essentials: Standard, Plus, and Pro, ranging from $29.95/month to 299.95/month).
Pros
· Amazing theme designs
· Strong SEO performance
· Scalable and adaptable
· excellent multi-channel selling
Cons
· Gets expensive for higher volume stores
· No 1-click selling
· Inconsistent speed
· It is difficult to make design changes
4. Squarespace
This platform is suitable for those who want to build a brand and are very much into style and substance rather than typical commercial ecommerce platforms.
Features
· It integrates with ShipStation and ShipBob
· SEO tools that work
· The drag and drop tool help you frame the website as per your choice
· The vast number of features and user-friendly interface make it easy to develop a website with a minimum or no coding knowledge
· A lot of built-in themes are available
Pricing
Offer 4 different pricing alternatives.
· Personal for $14 per month (savings of 25% annually)
· Business for $23 per month (savings of 30% annually)
· Basic Commerce for $27 per month (savings of 25% annually)
· Advanced Commerce for $49 per month (savings of 25% annually)
Pros
· User-friendly
· Fantastic template designs
· Low maintenance
· Unlimited storage
Cons
· There is no phone support
· Payment gateways are limited
· Limited extensions
· Scaling is difficult
5. Bluehost
It’s a good choice for those who want to run WordPres and want to sell online. Bluehost presents a wide range of hosting plans like VPS, shared, dedicated, and managed hosting.
Features
· It’s easy to create online stores as it’s powered by woocommerce
· One of the best plugins is available at no cost
· All plans include unlimited products
· Guidance is provided that makes the site and store building easy
Pricing
Bluehost has two plans.
· Standard at $12.95/month (discounted for 12 months)
· Premium at $24.95/month (discounted for 12 months)
Pros
· Copious themes and plugins are available
· Affordable prices
Cons
· Designing tools are limited
· It lacks in resolving the users’ problems
· Needs ongoing maintenance to keep the site fast and secure
6. Zyro
It’s a SaaS platform mainly suitable for small businesses. With the help of its tremendous Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool enterprises can add value to their products and services.
Features
· It is backed by Hostinger, which makes it very fast and almost zero website downtime.
· It has a guided set-up process with amazing templates and designs, making it a very user-friendly platform.
· It provides a variety of AI tools, like you can create a logo, create a business name and slogan, and can even write blogs.
Pricing
Zyro has three different plans to offer.
· The business plan is for $4.41/mo
· The online store plan is for $8.01/mo
· The Advance store plan is for $14.31/mo
· The website plan is for $2.61/mo (this does not allow ecommerce)
· Zero transaction fee
Pros
· Inexpensive
· Easy for beginners
· Quick website speed
· AI tools to handle many tasks
Cons
· only suitable for small businesses
· SEO needs improvement
· Product limits
· a small number of integrations
7. WooCommerce
It is a costless WordPress plugin that empowers merchants to convert their WordPress site into an online store. Easier to navigate the features or options than ever.
Features
· Good SEO is provided due to WordPress support.
· Approval for 1-Click Selling
· As it’s a WordPress plugin, a lot of expertise is available.
· Plenty of integrations options are available
Pricing
It’s a free WordPress plugin.
Pros
· The most effective SEO platform
· One-click selling app
· There are numerous service providers.
Cons
· Hosting can be expensive
· Difficult to troubleshoot
· It needs lots of extensions
8. Weebly
Counted in one of the most workable ecommerce platforms, Weebly has all the tools that are enough to take your startup from idea to launch to growth.
Features
· Has a drag-drop editor
· Beginner-friendly templates
· Responsive themes
· You can add a video background to an element of your site.
· Good SEO is provided
Pricing
You can initially start with a free plan, but to upscale, you will have to upgrade in the future. Weebly provides three plans:
· Connect for $6/month
· Pro for $12 per month
· $26 per month for business
Pros
· user-friendly and easy to use
· Affordable pricing
· Structured drag-drop editor
· can install many apps to extend website services
Cons
· The support system is not very good
· Limited templates are available
· Mobile optimization
9. Godaddy Website Creator
In terms of publishing tools and online edition, Godaddy Website Creator rocks. It aids you to build a responsive website without using any coding language.
Features
· Allows for a great deal of customization
· Godaddy InSight provides tailored action plans
· 9% uptime with a very solid support team
· Built-in marketing tools
Pricing
They have four plans to offer.
· Basic for Rs. 249 per month
· 499 RS/month standard
· Premium for 699 RSD per month
· Ecommerce costs 999 RS per month
Pros
· An intuitive interface and helpful tools
· Over 300 themes and templates
· Step-by-step tutorials include
· 24/7 customer support.
Cons
· Clunky e-commerce tools
· very basic design
· can’t switch between themes
· No password protection
10. Nexcess
Nexcess, an American company allow you to do your business your way. Nexcess has been serving and supporting small to large enterprises, agencies, and developers for the last 23+ years.
Features
· Built-in-server level caching
· integrated content delivery network
· Built-in image compression
· Auto-scaling to handle high traffic solutions
· Access to iThemes Security Pro for free
· A free SSL Certificate
· One-click staging sites
Pricing
· WordPress Hosting costs between $19-$999
· Magento hosting ranges from $49 to $849 per month
· Woocommerce hosting costs between $19-$999
· Cloud hosting costs between $49 and $849
Pros
· Specializing in managed web hosting
· Platinum member of the Magento Association
· Native Content Delivery Network
· Excellent customer and technical support
· Exceptional uptime and reliability
Cons
· No unmanaged hosting options
· Slow to answer phone support
· much more expensive than standard hosting
Which Platform Is The Best And Why Should You Choose It?
There are the innumerable ecommerce platforms available in the market. Each has its own unique features. Compare them on the basis of their features, design, user-friendly interface, and price, and decide which is most required for your business productivity.
To save you from the hassle and confusion, we have come up with the 3 proven platforms that suit most of your business needs.
Shopify: The most trusted platform provides an all-in-one business solution.
· Shopify supports a wide range of businesses, thus making it the number one and most popular platform.
· User-friendly, fast, and secure.
· Provides a comprehensive business solution and is specifically designed for ecommerce.
· Ideal for drop-shopping, print-on-demand, and retail businesses.
BigCommerce provides everything required to scale and grow your business.
· Solid SEO performance
· Excellent management tools
· Amazing built-in features
· Scalable and adaptable
· Suitable for rapidly expanding businesses and enterprises
Magento is endlessly flexible, scalable, and extensible.
· Suitable for both small and large businesses
· A bit complicated for beginners
· Highly flexible (advanced coding knowledge is required)
· Manage multiple sales channels, B2B and B2C, in one place.
FAQs
What are the 3 biggest online shopping sites?
Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart are the 3 biggest shopping sites. Millions of people shop at these sites every year. These sites also provide a marketplace, so you can also sell your products conveniently.
What is the fastest ecommerce platform?
So far, after all the analysis, feedback, comparisons, and performance data, Shopify is the fastest ecommerce platform, which makes it the best choice for many businesses, especially drop shopping stores.
Which is the most user-friendly, easy-to-use, easy-to-use ecommerce platform?
Shopify, BigCommerce, and Zyro are all very user-friendly and easy to use with a lot of built-in features to simplify the process. Zyro’s guided set-up process with amazing templates makes the task easy, and your online store is ready within minutes.
Can I start an online store for free?
Yes, you can but you have to deal with ads and an extra payment processing fee. So eventually, you have to upgrade your plan if you want to really upscale your business and see some progress.
