In the contemporary digital landscape, establishing a robust online presence for your business is paramount for achieving success. The advent of the internet and the evolution of consumer behavior have underscored the importance of having a virtual storefront. The abundance of eCommerce platforms in the market presents businesses with a diverse array of options. Choosing the right platform is a pivotal decision that can have a profound impact on the growth trajectory of your business. The selected eCommerce platform serves as the foundation for your online operations, influencing everything from user experience to transaction security. As businesses navigate the digital age, the strategic choice of an eCommerce platform emerges as a critical factor in shaping their online success and market competitiveness.
In this blog post, we will explore 11 of the best eCommerce platforms to choose from in 2024.
What are eCommerce Platforms?
eCommerce platforms are digital frameworks or software applications that enable businesses to conduct online transactions, manage their online presence, and facilitate the sale of goods and services over the internet. These platforms serve as the virtual infrastructure for businesses to establish and run their online stores, providing a range of tools and features to streamline various aspects of eCommerce operations. Key functionalities typically include product catalogue management, secure payment processing, order fulfillment, and inventory tracking. eCommerce platforms are designed to create a seamless and user-friendly shopping experience for customers while offering businesses the tools they need to efficiently manage their online sales. They play a pivotal role in connecting buyers and sellers in the digital marketplace, fostering a dynamic environment for online commerce to thrive.
11 Best eCommerce Platforms
- Adobe Commerce: Adobe Commerce caters to developers seeking a non-hosted eCommerce platform, providing extensive flexibility for brands desiring a tailored website setup. While it empowers businesses with customizable options, leveraging its full potential often requires an in-house developer for site maintenance.
However, Adobe Commerce faces limitations in terms of out-of-the-box tools for crafting a seamless multichannel strategy. Activating features like social commerce or expanding into marketplace selling can be challenging, and the platform lacks straightforward mechanisms for managing international transactions.
An illustrative example is the experience of Character.com, an eCommerce business specializing in children’s apparel. Wrestling with the intricacies of an elaborate Adobe Commerce site, Character.com found the content management process overwhelming. Upon transitioning to Shopify, the company witnessed a remarkable 40% increase in conversions. This case study sheds light on how Adobe Commerce compares to Shopify, emphasizing the importance of assessing platforms based on specific business needs.
Pros of Adobe Commerce include support for custom store designs, allowing businesses to create a unique online presence. However, it falls short in certain aspects, such as lacking hosting services, demanding technical expertise, and not providing out-of-the-box tools for comprehensive eCommerce strategies.
For businesses contemplating Adobe Commerce, it’s crucial to note that the platform comes with custom pricing, and integrated sales channels are limited, primarily supporting Amazon. Additionally, Adobe Commerce does not offer dedicated mobile app features, but third-party extensions are available for point-of-sale functionalities.
- BigCommerce: BigCommerce serves as an enterprise-level eCommerce platform utilized by larger companies. Much like Shopify and Wix, it provides web hosting and customization features for eCommerce stores, along with tools facilitating international selling, SEO optimization, and product listing on various marketplaces.
However, given its focus on catering to bigger businesses, some merchants find BigCommerce to be lacking in terms of simplicity and flexibility. Recognizing the importance of an intuitive and flexible interface, the clothing brand Grace & Lace opted to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify Plus, Shopify’s enterprise solution, capitalizing on a merchant-centric ecosystem. The comparison between BigCommerce and Shopify offers insights into these platforms’ suitability for diverse business needs.
BigCommerce boasts fully hosted solutions and management tools tailored to the needs of larger enterprises. Nevertheless, it has some drawbacks, including the absence of a native point-of-sale (POS) system, the expense associated with themes, and certain merchants expressing concerns about the user-friendliness of design tools.
Pricing for BigCommerce starts at $29 per month when paid annually. The platform integrates seamlessly with various sales channels, including Google Shopping, Facebook, price comparison engines, eBay, Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, and Instagram. The mobile app features allow users to view analytics, update orders, manage inventory and products, and search for customers, with some features exclusive to the Android platform. BigCommerce also supports point-of-sale transactions for added convenience.
- Shopify: Shopify stands out as a premier eCommerce platform, offering self-hosted software designed to facilitate selling across various customer touchpoints. From website design to efficient shipping, Shopify provides a comprehensive solution to manage all aspects of retail seamlessly.
Shopify empowers merchants with a centralized back office, offering a holistic view of activities. This enables businesses to focus on optimizing their online stores, expanding reach through social media sales, and experimenting with popular models like dropshipping. As your brand grows, Shopify ensures the maximization of your selling potential. It boasts the best-converting checkout on the internet, and the Shopify POS simplifies serving customers in person while seamlessly syncing orders back to your dashboard.
For those exploring new business ideas, Shopify’s free trial serves as an excellent starting point. With over 100 themes to choose from and a user-friendly interface, building your store comes with minimal learning curves. Target your first sale with three months of Shopify available for just $1 per month.
Beyond these features, Shopify offers a range of helpful eCommerce functionalities, including inventory management through Shopify Fulfillment, AI-assisted product descriptions and shopper interactions, global sales tools for handling international aspects like currencies, taxes, and shipping, as well as tools like abandoned cart recovery and email marketing campaigns.
Shopify’s mobile app facilitates on-the-go order fulfillment, and the platform supports continuous store evolution through thousands of third-party apps available on the Shopify App Store. Whether starting an eCommerce website from your couch or growing into an international brand with a brick-and-mortar storefront, Shopify provides a flexible and scalable solution.
Pricing for Shopify starts at $29 per month when paid annually. Integrated sales channels include Facebook, Instagram, Google, Walmart Marketplace, eBay, and Amazon. The mobile app features a suite of tools to fully manage your online business, and Shopify also supports point-of-sale transactions for added versatility.
- Square Online: Square Online, formerly known as Weebly, is a straightforward eCommerce platform tailored for small businesses. This platform facilitates the seamless connection of online and in-store sales by leveraging Square’s payment processing solutions.
With Square Online, you have the option to build a store for free, albeit with certain limitations. The free version does not allow the use of a custom domain name, and in-app ads cannot be removed until upgrading to a paid eCommerce plan.
Pros of Square Online include mobile-first store designs, catering to the growing trend of mobile commerce. The platform also offers an extensive free version, providing businesses with a cost-effective entry point into eCommerce. However, Square Online has some drawbacks, such as the absence of advanced eCommerce features and a primary focus on users of Square Payments.
The pricing structure for Square Online includes a free option, and paid plans start at $29 per month when paid annually. While it lacks integrated sales channels, the mobile app features a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, order fulfillment capabilities, inventory management tools, payment processing, and analytics functionalities.
For businesses utilizing Square Online, the integrated Square Point of Sale (POS) system adds convenience by synchronizing online and in-store transactions. Despite its simplicity, Square Online provides essential features for small businesses looking to establish an online presence and streamline their eCommerce operations.
- Wix: Wix stands out as a user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder, offering customizable templates, web hosting, and domain name registration. While you can create a basic website for free, unlocking the eCommerce features requires an upgrade to a paid plan.
For eCommerce merchants, Wix facilitates online payment acceptance, order tracking, and order management across various channels. However, it falls short for product-based businesses due to the absence of crucial features, such as built-in low-stock alerts and comprehensive inventory management. To access these features and enable social media selling, users need to integrate third-party apps. A comparative analysis of Wix and Shopify can provide insights into their respective strengths.
Wix’s advantages include being fully hosted and offering a free basic plan. However, some drawbacks include the requirement of a paid plan for tracking and analytics, the non-transferability of sites, and a lack of built-in inventory management features.
The pricing structure for Wix begins with the Business Basic plan, starting at $27 per month when paid annually. While integrated sales channels include Facebook and Instagram, they necessitate the use of a third-party app called Ecwid.
The mobile app features provided by Wix allow users to manage their websites, but it lacks key business tools like comprehensive inventory management. For those requiring a mobile point-of-sale (POS), a separate app is needed. Despite these limitations, Wix offers a convenient platform for website building, catering to a range of users with varying needs.
- WooCommerce: WooCommerce differentiates itself from standalone eCommerce platforms by functioning as a free, open-source plug-in designed for the WordPress blogging platform. Serving as integration, WooCommerce transforms a content-driven WordPress website into a fully-fledged online store, complete with product listings, a shopping cart, and a checkout system, catering to users aiming to venture into online selling.
With the incorporation of additional paid extensions, WooCommerce expands its capabilities, allowing users to create advanced eCommerce websites featuring customizable themes, shipping options, security measures, and other standard eCommerce features. The platform provides a mix of native WooCommerce extensions and third-party options for enhanced functionality.
While some merchants appreciate the flexibility to choose specific features, others find the add-on structure of WooCommerce to be a potential disadvantage. The reliance on various plugins and extensions can lead to complexities in tracking costs, alongside the expenses related to hosting and maintaining a WordPress website. A comparative analysis of WooCommerce and Shopify can shed light on their respective strengths and weaknesses.
WooCommerce boasts over 6,000 integrations and benefits from an active expert community. However, it is exclusively designed for WordPress websites, requires self-hosting, and necessitates merchants to manage multiple costs and plugins. The pricing model includes a free basic plug-in, with additional charges for commerce features and website hosting.
Integrated sales channels for WooCommerce encompass Google Shopping, Etsy, eBay, Facebook, Amazon, Pinterest, and Walmart, although some integrations may be disjointed. The mobile app features of WooCommerce allow users to add products, manage orders, and view analytics, offering a degree of flexibility for on-the-go management. Additionally, WooCommerce provides a native point-of-sale (POS) system for businesses with physical retail components.
- Squarespace: Similar to Wix, Squarespace operates as a drag-and-drop website builder that unlocks eCommerce features with an upgrade to a higher-priced plan.
Upon upgrading, Squarespace allows users to seamlessly convert their websites into online stores, incorporating a checkout system that accepts payments through various channels such as Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Afterpay. The platform also provides robust inventory tracking and management features, including the capability to print shipping labels, and the option to sell subscription products.
For Squarespace users hesitant to upgrade to the commerce plan, an alternative is to integrate a Shopify Buy Button into their site for just $5 per month. This solution offers an embeddable code for the button, enabling the sale of an unlimited number of products through Shopify’s secure checkout, compatible with over 100 payment gateways. A comparative analysis of Squarespace and Shopify can provide valuable insights into their respective capabilities.
Squarespace’s strengths lie in its professionally designed templates and the absence of transaction fees. However, it’s important to note that Squarespace is not primarily an eCommerce-focused platform, and it has limited support for multichannel sales. Additionally, some users may find it challenging to override theme CSS and HTML, limiting customization options.
The pricing structure for Squarespace starts with the Basic Commerce plan, priced at $27 per month when paid annually. Integrated sales channels include the Shopping Feed extension, allowing users to sell an unlimited number of products on platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Google Actions.
Squarespace’s mobile app features encompass website editing, shipping label scanning, order management, inventory management, and customer communication. Moreover, a point-of-sale (POS) system is available through the mobile app, providing added convenience for businesses with physical retail components.
- Volusion: Volusion stands as one of the longest-standing eCommerce platforms, originating in 1999 to assist small businesses in establishing their online presence without unnecessary complexities. This platform enables the creation of a homepage and product pages, along with seamless integration with over 30 payment gateways.
Notably, Volusion does not offer a free plan, and it does not support the sale of digital products. This means that if you intend to sell items such as ebooks or music, you would need to explore alternative eCommerce solutions.
Pros of Volusion include 24/7 customer support and a user-friendly website builder. However, drawbacks include restricted features within the basic plan, which is still relatively expensive. Additionally, the plans impose limitations on sales volume and the number of product listings. Notably, Volusion does not provide free SSL security, and there is no support for digital product listings.
Pricing for Volusion starts at $31.50 per month when paid annually. Unlike some other platforms, Volusion does not integrate with additional sales channels or offer mobile app features. However, a point-of-sale functionality is available as an add-on for businesses requiring in-person transactions. Despite its limitations, Volusion remains a viable option for small businesses seeking a straightforward eCommerce solution.
- Big Cartel: Big Cartel serves as a fully hosted eCommerce platform and website builder tailored specifically for makers and artists. It offers a basic free plan featuring a customizable theme, payment processing capabilities, and real-time sales tracking functionalities.
While Big Cartel’s free plan provides more features compared to other free options available, its paid plans have limitations. Merchants are restricted to adding only five images per product listing, and the platform supports only a few payment gateways.
The pricing structure of Big Cartel is based on the number of products listed, meaning that expenses increase as businesses scale, unlike Shopify where costs are fixed.
The advantages of Big Cartel include the ability to set up and start selling for free, catering to the needs of artists and creatives. However, the platform has limitations in terms of customization options and lacks advanced eCommerce features. Additionally, there may be additional costs associated with larger inventory sizes.
Big Cartel offers a free option allowing users to list and sell up to five products, with paid plans starting at $9.99 per month. While it does not integrate with additional sales channels, the mobile app features include store analytics, product management, order shipping tracking, discount management, and printing of packing slips. For point-of-sale functionalities, third-party integration is required.
- OpenCart: OpenCart stands out as a straightforward and free, open-source eCommerce platform designed for ease of setup. This platform empowers users to establish and manage multiple stores, providing a dashboard that offers crucial metrics such as sales and customer retention.
With an extensive repository of over 13,000 modules and free themes, OpenCart offers a foundation for users to build their own websites. Additionally, it supports a multitude of integrations, facilitating the seamless connection of various tools to enhance website functionality.
The advantages of OpenCart include its cost-free and open-source nature. However, it has limitations in terms of marketing and sales features, and being self-hosted, it requires users to manage their hosting solutions.
OpenCart comes at no cost, making it an accessible option for businesses of varying sizes. However, it does not integrate with additional sales channels. The mobile app features vary, providing flexibility for users. For those seeking point-of-sale functionalities, OpenCart offers a solution, enhancing its versatility for businesses with physical retail components.
- Shift4Shop: Shift4Shop provides a straightforward solution for creating an online store. While it may not be packed with an abundance of features, its user-friendly setup and mobile-friendly design make it a practical choice. The platform also facilitates integration with other applications through its API.
Users who process a minimum of $500 monthly using Shift4Shop’s payment system can access the eCommerce platform without additional charges. However, for those with lower earnings or those opting to use PayPal for payment handling, plans start at $29 per month.
Shift4Shop boasts an extensive shopping cart solution, and the eCommerce builder is free for existing Shift4Shop checkout users. However, customization options may be more limited compared to platforms like Shopify, and there is a lack of advanced commerce features.
Pricing for Shift4Shop starts at $29 per month for paid plans. The platform integrates with sales channels such as eBay, Amazon, and Facebook. While Shift4Shop does not offer mobile app features, a point-of-sale option is available for purchase, enhancing its versatility for businesses with physical retail components.
Wrapping Up,
The eCommerce platform you choose plays a pivotal role in your online business’s success. Whether you prioritize user-friendliness, scalability, or design, these 11 platforms, including Adobe Commerce, Bigcommerce, and Shopify, offer a diverse range of options to meet your unique business needs. Take the time to assess your requirements and find the platform that aligns perfectly with your vision for a thriving online store.
If you are looking for the best eCommerce platform to meet your business needs, get in touch with us at 18th DigiTech today! Our experts will provide you with personalized assistance regarding choosing the right eCommerce platform.
