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Finest Ecommerce Platforms In 2021

Our lives are being quietly and conveniently taken over by ecommerce platforms. Amazon has reached 100 million Amazon Prime members, according to Jeff Bezos. The standard is free shipping. Two-day shipping is giving way to one-day or two-hour delivery.

If you want to open an e-commerce store, deciding on the finest ecommerce platforms can be difficult because there are over 477 possibilities.

I'd want to make this decision easy for you by showing the top e-commerce software available so you can pick the greatest fit for your online store. Let's face it, with so many options on the market, there will only be a few winners, in the end, so make sure you choose wisely.

Why should you believe these testimonials?

I've worked in the e-commerce industry for over ten years:

I've led marketing teams for e-commerce companies with annual sales of more than $100 million.

I used to work in warehouses, where I was in charge of wholesale shipments.

I've overseen e-commerce marketing expenditures in excess of $8 million each year.

In the e-commerce arena, I've worked for SaaS startups.

I've also created internet stores on about every platform imaginable.

Price, dependability, technical support, features, scalability, product alternatives, shipping, fulfillment, control panel experience, and more are all factors considered in these rankings.

We'll also look at and compare items like:

Let's get this party started.

Disclaimer: Some of the links below earn me affiliate commissions at no cost to you. However, these are the greatest tools I've tried and believe are the most useful for starting and running an internet company. Our privacy policy has a complete affiliate disclosure.

Ecommerce Platforms

 

Table of Contents

Which Ecommerce Platforms Are the Best?

Ecommerce platforms are powerful, feature-rich software solutions for selling goods over the internet. There are numerous factors to consider while selecting the finest solutions, and each e-commerce website builder offers unique capabilities.

If you're selling three things versus 100, your requirements will be different. Alternatively, if you'd rather perform drop shipping than handle your own shipping and fulfillment.

Finally, e-commerce software should allow you to rapidly add products, issue coupons, and discounts, and track inventory automatically. They should also assist with shipping and fulfillment so you can concentrate on running your company.

Here are my recommendations for the finest e-commerce systems to check out this year:

Wix

Small Business's Best Ecommerce Platform ($23/month)

Wix is a popular website builder that charges $20 per month to upgrade to full e-commerce capability. Hundreds of designer-made layouts, promotions and gift cards, stunning product galleries, and simple order administration and delivery are just a few of the features they provide.

They optimize your online store for mobile, including iPhones and Android devices, automatically (Apple and Google). With their online store building tool, you can easily modify the look of your mobile e-commerce site. To make a beautiful website using Wix, you don't need to know HTML or CSS.

They have a great selection of product galleries to help you present your products in a visually appealing (and conversion-optimized) manner.

Wix Product Galleries for Ecommerce

These product galleries work well on mobile devices as well, adapting to a stacked structure.

Wix is also regarded for being one of the most user-friendly website builders and e-commerce platforms.

To create an online store, you only need to follow seven simple steps:

Finally, Wix provides a secure checkout, round-the-clock customer service, a variety of payment choices and solutions, international tax and shipping, and coupons and promotions to help you sell more.

Start selling your things online for free with Wix.

Wix can help you get started.

Big Commerce

Built-to-Scale Ecommerce Platform for Large Businesses ($29.95/mo).

My second e-commerce platform proposal is Big Commerce. They feature SEO Marketing capabilities, 40+ payment methods, advanced product selections, and 24/7 support, and can evolve with your online store up to over $100 million in annual revenue.

This is how it usually goes.

A small business owner wishes to enter the e-commerce market and chooses Shopify as their platform of choice due to their brand awareness. They start increasing sales and paying extra for applications and add-ons to help their e-commerce business expand after 6-12 months.

They eventually reached a growth limit. These consumers may discover that they are paying hundreds of dollars per month for apps, that their SEO is inadequate, or that they have outgrown their platform.

This is where Big Commerce comes in:

Home Page of Big Commerce

They're the most open SaaS e-commerce platform on the market, with open APIs, no transaction fees, and a wide range of partners.

Big Commerce has two product lines: Big Commerce (their enterprise offering) and Big Commerce Essentials (their entry-level offering) (built for small businesses). All are set to function with you.

On the one hand, their features and built-in capabilities make them an accessible platform for small business owners. However, compared to a simpler program like Wix, there is a little longer learning curve.

They're also ideal for businesses trying to shift away from costly on-premise solutions like Magento and instead use the software as a service (SaaS). Big Commerce is used by Fortune 1000 companies such as Ford, Toyota, Skullcandy, and others to quickly bring in over $100 million in annual sales.

They released Big Commerce for WordPress in December 2018, a “headless commerce” platform that allows users to handle their front-end content on WordPress while also managing their backend e-commerce with Big Commerce.

This use of APIs enables for a faster WordPress site speed than other WordPress e-commerce choices, such as Woo Commerce, which requires many plugins to function and slows down performance.

Starting at $29.95 a month, you get a customized online store and domain name, as well as the opportunity to sell on Amazon, eBay, and social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

They feature a straightforward user interface for setting up your online store, including areas for orders, products, marketing, analytics, taxes, and your storefront:

Dashboard for Big Commerce

With Big Commerce's recently announced shipping services, you can access discounted carrier rates as well as print mailing labels and handle fulfillment from your dashboard.

Their themes are entirely responsive and have been tuned for conversions. They also provide free SSL certificates, a transparent price structure, and no transaction costs.

Big Commerce gets my top rating for medium to big organizations, and a 15-day free trial is available.

Give Big Commerce a shot.

Shopify is an e-commerce platform.

Great Drop shipping Ecommerce Software ($29/month).

Shopify is a global e-commerce giant with over 400,000 businesses. When you think about e-commerce, Shopify might be the first thing that comes to mind. They're a Canadian company that started in 2004 and swiftly rose to become one of North America's fastest-growing SaaS startups.

Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake constructed their open-source web application with Ruby on Rails and published it after two months, dissatisfied with existing mobile apps and e-commerce solutions on the market.

Shopify was born from that program.

The appeal to the audience of “dreamers” – new users who desire to strike it rich in e-commerce – was one of the reasons Shopify earned tremendous brand awareness.

Even the most inexperienced users may set up a dropshipping store with reasonable simplicity thanks to their integrations. I put it to the test. After choosing my inventory, I used Shopify to integrate a few dropshipping vendors and test-launched a store.

What Is Dropshipping and How Does It Work?

It was simple to create a stylish website and add products. However, just because you have an internet store does not guarantee it is profitable; you must market your company.

Shopify's SEO regulations are one of its few flaws. Their format is locked into your URL structure. Shopify, for example, requires you to use their format of campingsite.com/collections/tents instead of category pages at campingsite.com/tents. This layout isn't optimal for SEO, especially as “category” is a higher-level subfolder than the more important term “tents.”

Second, compared to BigCommerce, they provide fewer product selections. If you're selling t-shirts and have a variety of colors, materials, and sizes, your SKUs will rapidly pile up. Only 100 product variants are available with Shopify, which is insufficient if you have a large number of various product combinations.

Aside from the limitations, Shopify is a solid e-commerce platform for small enterprises.

Shopify offers three different pricing options, ranging from $29 to $299. Additionally, Shopify Plus, the company's enterprise platform, has its own set of prices.

Unlimited products, free SSL, discount codes, inventory management, multilingual support, easy buy buttons, abandoned cart recovery, marketing capabilities, and 24/7 support are all included in all subscriptions.

They provide a 14-day free trial to try them out for yourself.

You may also check out my comprehensive Shopify review or my comparisons of BigCommerce vs. Shopify and Wix vs. Shopify posts.

Try out Shopify.

Excessiveness.

Managed Magento and WooCommerce Hosting ($19 per month) is the best option.

E-commerce Hosting by Nexcess

Nexcess is a flexible hosting service provider that offers fully managed WordPress, Magento, and WooCommerce hosting, among other services. They also offer e-commerce platform hostings, such as Drupal and BigCommerce.

PHP efficiency, PHP7 compatibility, 24/7 surveillance response, closer asset caching, docker add-ons, and even more functions are included. You also receive one-click auto-scaling to deal with a sudden increase in traffic.

Not only do they provide hosting, but their StoreBuilder tool also assists you in creating a storefront for your WooCommerce business. Simply answer a few pertinent questions, and the program will create a one-of-a-kind storefront based on your responses.

Ecommerce Platforms

E-commerce graphic by Nexcess

When it comes to client service, they don't cut any shortcuts either. You can anticipate skilled support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, proactive service monitoring, and free white-glove site migrations.

You'll get help from a Magento Master on staff if you choose fully managed Magento Hosting.

Abandoned card plugin, page builder plugin, image compression, AffiliateWP, and interaction with Glew.io for advanced analytics are all included with WooCommerce hosting.

Other notable characteristics include:

One of my favorite elements of Nexcess is that any plan, even the most basic, has all of its features. The price is determined by elements such as storage and bandwidth.

Plans for Cost:

Six different options are available for WooCommerce Hosting, including:

When you join up for the annual plan, you'll get four months free.

Furthermore, Managed Magento Hosting options range from $49 to $849 per month.

For 14 days, you may try Nexcess for free.

Nexcess is an excellent choice.

Online at Square

For online retailers and small businesses (free – $72/month)

Square, the popular point-of-sale system, has launched Square Online as an e-commerce service to assist shops in taking their operations online.

It's a powerful e-commerce platform on its own, but it also includes useful features for local businesses, such as curbside pickup and local delivery.

Here's how you can use Square Online to get started:

Square Online also offers a variety of unique services for small business websites, including:

Pricing on Square.com

Square Online offers a free plan with unlimited products, in-house, and on-demand delivery, gift cards and coupons, SEO tools, an SSL certificate, Instagram connection, inventory sync with Square POS, and more.

You only have to pay the 2.9 percent transaction fee plus $0.30 per delivery. The fact that you can't use your own domain name is a disadvantage of this plan.

If you upgrade to one of their paid programs, you'll gain access to additional benefits, including:

Professional ($12/month): Includes a custom domain name (which is free for the first year) and does not include any Square branding.

Abandoned cart emails, on-site customer evaluations, and cheap shipping labels are all included in the Performance ($26/month) package.

Premium ($72/month) includes lower transaction fees, the best shipping discounts, and a real-time shipping rate estimator.

This is advantageous since your plan may be scaled as your internet business expands. Unless you're just getting underway selling online, I consider trying with their Professionals Plan and thereafter scaling up as company orders grow.

Unless you're a traditional merchant or small business wishing to expand online, Square Online is a terrific option.

Square Online is a great option.

Zyro 

New Online Store ($14.99/month) is Perfect for Cross Sales.

Zyro is a well-known WordPress plugin that recently launched its long-awaited Zyro e-commerce site.

Their new online store builder, which will debut in early 2020, combines all of the fantastic features they've created as a website builder with a full suite of e-commerce functionality.

Zyro Ecommerce is a company that specializes in e-commerce.

In a few crucial areas, this platform shines. For starters, they let their merchants sell things on several platforms, such as Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram.

Second, it is easy to operate. They claim that you can start selling in less than an hour, similar to Shopify. And it's correct. It's a simple code-free approach with their drag and drops website features and rapid setup guide.

Zyro comes with everything you'll need to start and maintain an online store, including:

Management of orders and inventory

However, there are a few minor flaws.

Advanced features are currently being developed and may be missing because it is such a new platform. There are now 68 e-commerce themes available on Zyro. I also chatted with their team, who stated that they will have around 150 new themes available soon. That's not terrible for a brand-new platform!

One thing to keep in mind is that any Zyro template may be turned into an online store by going to the elements area of the editor and selecting “add e-shop functionality.”

Let us now turn our attention to pricing.

Pricing for Zyro Ecommerce

Zyro has released two new e-commerce plans: Ecommerce (most popular) and Ecommerce Plus, in addition to its free plan.

Their E-commerce package costs $14.99 per month (or $8.99 per month if you sign up for three years).

The Ecommerce Plus plan is $21.99 per month (or $10.99 per month if you sign up for three years). Abandoned cart recovery, multi-channel sales, and multi-lingual storefronts are all included in this design.

Overall, Zyro is a good choice if you want a simple-to-use, multi-channel e-commerce platform. You can start with a free plan to get a feel for the platform's functionality before upgrading to an e-commerce plan when you're ready.

Take a look at Zyro eCommerce.

Ecwid

Best Online Store Builder ($35/month) for Existing Websites

Ecwid is an online store platform.

Ecwid is an excellent and one of the most popular eCommerce platforms accessible, with 1.6 million small company customers. G2 Crowd also named it the “fastest e-commerce installation platform.”

If you currently have a website and want to add a new store or shopping features to it, this is the best option. The good news is that the site is easy to navigate and use.

Furthermore, it is completely adaptable, allowing users to sell on a variety of platforms, including:

From a single dashboard, you may reach out to a large number of buyers all around the world on several platforms.

Ecwid is also a breeze to get started with. And, thanks to Ecwid's built-in connectivity with systems like Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress Business, things get even easier.

It also offers a completely customizable storefront that ensures that your products are visible no matter what device the customer is using. To attract your target audience, prominently showcase brand features such as logos, colors, and slogans.

You can now create, manage, and track all of your adverts directly from the Ecwid dashboard. It's also simple to create the ideal Facebook or Google adverts.

Ecwid's smooth connection with over 50 payment gateways, including First Data, PayPal, Square, Stripe, WePay, and others, via an in-built feature with leading POS systems, makes the payment process simple.

Ecwid is also a PCI DSS-approved Level 1 Service Provider, ensuring end-to-end data encryption and safe client and merchant payment information.

Ecwid also has the following unique features:

All of these qualities (among others) distinguish Ecwid from its competitors. It does, however, have some restrictions. For starters, it does not provide services in any other language except English. They also don't offer any kind of phone help.

The feature-rich and diversified pricing options, on the other hand, compensate for the constraints. The good news is that Ecwid offers a free plan that includes all of the essential features and allows you to sell up to ten physical items per month.

ecommerec

Ecwid's cost

Then there are three premium options to choose from.

Ecwid could be a good fit if you already have an e-commerce site and want to move it to an easy-to-use, cost-effective platform that allows you to sell across various channels.

You can use a completely free plan to test them out.

Take a look at Ecwid.

3Dcart 

Small Business Ecommerce Platform ($19/month).

3dcart is a fast-growing e-commerce platform with sophisticated SEO tools, 50 free themes, and more than 100 payment processors.

Their monthly services ranging from $19 for such a Beginning Store to $114.50 for such a ProMarket. Domain registration, no transaction costs, unlimited bandwidth, a Facebook store, a built-in blog, API access, and 24/7 tech support are all included in all options.

Features of 3dcart

They have updated their promotional tools and included additional shipping options. Instead of showing only one shipping carrier and rate at a time, you can show all of your order's shipping providers and rates on your checkout page.

When a buyer checks out with a credit card or PayPal, the rates are automatically loaded.

You can choose many Customer Groups to provide a promotion to at once with their Advanced Promotion Manager, rather than just one like in the past. This is a great alternative for B2B companies who want an online shopping cart that caters to both consumers and retailers.

Their SEO capabilities are impressive, and they've been dubbed “the best e-commerce platform for SEO.” Custom URLs, dynamic meta-tags, link titles, and more are all possible.

They also take security seriously and are PCI compliant to the letter. With 3dcart's built-in Facebook store, you can sell outside of your e-commerce platform. eCommerce on mobile devices also allows you to reach out to customers on the go.

Finally, 3dcart is a good alternative if you're a small firm that needs excellent SEO, marketing tools, and e-commerce capability without the requirement for extensive enterprise features.

A 15-day free trial is available to try them out.

3dcart is a good option.

WooCommerce 

WordPress Ecommerce Platform (Free + Paid Add-Ons).

WooCommerce is used by over a quarter of all online retailers in the world, with over 74 million downloads. This straightforward open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress debuted in 2011 and has since evolved to become one of the most popular e-commerce solutions available.

WooCommerce is really a free WordPress plugin that allows you to sell products online. However, expensive extensions are required for more extensive features seen in other e-commerce systems on this list.

Scalability is another disadvantage. When I originally installed the plugin on my site, I observed that it installed four plugins in total, which caused my site to slow down.

Aside from the drawbacks, there are other reasons why so many people utilize WooCommerce. It is, first and foremost, a highly customizable solution. Due to the open-source nature of the plugin, there is a significant community of WooCommerce developers that add new functionality.

Second, WordPress is one of the most SEO-friendly platforms available. WooCommerce is a natural extension of the WordPress platform, with infinite SEO tweaks and the potential to have more control over your search results.

However, it isn't the only choice; I use the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin to sell digital things on my WordPress site. Because it's a “headless commerce” solution that works through an API, I found it significantly faster.

Overall, WooCommerce is a good option if you have a WordPress site and want to add e-commerce capabilities for free.

Consider using WooCommerce.

Sellfy 

Bloggers and creators will benefit the most ($19/month).

Ecommerce platform Sellfy

Sellfy is a straightforward but effective e-commerce platform that lets you offer digital goods, physical goods, and subscriptions all in one location.

Their platform was designed to sell digital things (such as eBooks, movies, music, and courses), but they now offer a fully working platform with all of the capabilities needed to sell physical products as well.

Sellfy includes built-in marketing tools and analytics, as well as Zapier integrations with over 1,000 third-party apps.

Sellfy is perfect for bloggers, creators, and small businesses wishing to sell digital products, subscriptions, and physical things on their website, via buy buttons, and on their social media profiles. It has a user-friendly dashboard and the ability to have your site up and running in minutes.

With buy now buttons, it can quickly combine your website and product pages with your YouTube channel, Instagram page, or Soundcloud account.

Sellfy also eliminates the need to install several programs for your e-commerce site because it includes capabilities for email marketing, discount coupons, upselling features, and more.

You may use it from a variety of platforms, including PCs, mobile devices, tablets, and laptops because it is cloud-based.

The following are some of its other significant features:

All of the plans include the ability to sell your products online, as well as the ability to include “buy now” buttons, create shopping carts, interface with different payment methods, and access advanced analytics.

There are no additional transaction costs to pay. Email credits and upselling features are included in the Business and Premium Plans, as well as priority customer assistance.

Their Premium Plan also includes migration services for customers who want to migrate from another provider.

With a 14-day free trial, you may give Sellfy a shot.

Consider using Sellfy.

ShopBase

White-Label, Cross-Border Commerce, and Print-on-Demand Platform ($19/month).

ShopBase is a fresh new platform that launched in June of this year. They're recognized for being a useful tool for dropshippers who want to white-label their products.

ShopBase's main page

A recognized design company creates fully customizable, mobile-optimized storefronts for ShopBase. Every page has its own set of options, and you may alter the HTML and CSS for each one.

You have complete control over every aspect of your checkout page, which is critical for e-commerce conversion rates. They also send abandoned cart recovery emails to visitors to encourage them to finish their purchases.

The following are some of its other significant features:

Importing your products and moving your store from another platform to ShopBase is simple. It's easy to switch from Shopify or WooCommerce to ShopBase with the Migrate to ShopBase tool.

For dropshipping merchants, provide superior product sourcing and fulfillment services.

To maximize conversions, ShopBase optimizes everything on your product pages and checkout page automatically.

Apart from that, there are only a few drawbacks to ShopBase.In comparison to other platforms, there aren't as many apps to interface within their app store. ShopBase is also not for you if you don't want to dropship, print-on-demand, or start a white-label company.

Their Basic Base plan, which starts at $19 per month, includes everything you'll need to get up and running and make your first sale.

Pricing at ShopBase

ShopBase is the perfect solution for you whether you want to launch a white-label, print-on-demand, or dropshipping business.

With a 14-day free trial, you may give ShopBase a shot.

Check out ShopBase.

Volusion 

eCommerce Platform with the Most User-Friendly Interface ($26/month).

Volusion was founded in 1999 and debuted in 2002 by Kevin Sproles, who was 16 at the time. In early 2019, I met him in person, and he told me a remarkable story.

Ecommerce Platform by Volusion

Volusion is a reliable all-around e-commerce platform with a lot of features and a new Content Builder that almost matches the simplicity of use of the Elementor WordPress plugin.

Their Personal plan costs $26 a month and includes unlimited items, online support, and no transaction fees.

Their $161/month Business Plan, on the other hand, includes greater in-house assistance. One of the advantages of a Volusion site is that it has an in-house SEO and marketing team that can assist with digital marketing and search engine presence.

Higher-tier plans include a monthly bonus of “$100 in rapid wins.” This could be a simple web design fix, SEO adjustments, or other assistance to boost website speed if you're a store owner.

Start with a 14-day free trial to see if Volusion is right for you.

Take a look at Volusion.

Nop Commerce 

The Best ASP.NET Ecommerce Platform Open Source (free).

nopCommerce is a well-known free e-commerce platform that is built on Microsoft technologies. They've been operational for 11 years and now have over 150 partners and 60,000 live internet shops.

nopCommerce is a free and open-source e-commerce platform.

ASP.NET is a Microsoft open-source web platform for creating online programs using.NET technology.

When designing complicated programs, this technology reduces the amount of code required. Large websites benefit from its caching technologies, native optimization, and just-in-time compilation.

To create a responsive and high-quality e-commerce site, unlike the other website builders on our list, you'll need a developer that knows HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

Learning this technology isn't difficult in and of itself, but it's more difficult for small business owners who want a rapid site up and running.

There are no transaction fees or monthly fees on their site.

The nopCommerce admin interface enables you to upload an unlimited number of products, manage numerous stores and vendors from a single location, calculate shipping costs, and leverage marketing tools included in the platform.

They also provide a free mobile version of your website right out of the box, requiring no further coding.

Developers, small businesses, and organizations with complicated business needs can benefit the most from their platform. Microsoft, The North Face, and BMW Group are among their main clients.

Give nopCommerce a shot if you're looking for a superb free platform that allows you to create a fully customizable website.

Give nopCommerce a shot.

PinnacleCart

And An all Strength and thermal Solution ($44.99/month) is an all-in-one biographies solution.

PinnacleCart is a conversion rate optimization and user experience-focused e-commerce platform.

Home Page of PinnacleCart

They also have powerful SEO tools, such as the ability to index your site on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Syndicating your items and services to shopping sites like Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and others can also help you enhance product visibility. Furthermore, Buy Buttons enable you to place your products on other websites or blogs, where users can purchase them.

platforms

Their improved product options, in addition to Buy Buttons, allow you to construct dynamic product listings. These listings produce tags, manage inventory, display various photos, and construct an unlimited number of categories and product parameters dynamically. Both physical and digital products and services can benefit from these features.

They have a lot of connectors with other software applications as well. The control panel allows you to manage every part of your e-commerce business in one spot, and its Programs Center allows you to instantly connect to apps like as Avalara, Quickbooks, Shipwire, and more.

PinnacleCart offers three different subscription levels, ranging from $44.99 to $199.99 each month.

Zero transaction costs, unlimited items, and unlimited admin accounts are all included in the $44.99 Startup Plan. One more purchase, actual shipping quotes, Internet Shopping, intelligent search, brand syndication, as well as a sharing SSL are also available.

A dedicated SSL, unlimited storage space and bandwidth, and priority support are included in the $199.99/month Advanced Plan.

Those who want to host their e-commerce site on their own server will find one fascinating feature. They can purchase a PinnacleCart perpetual license for $1,495 per domain. This contains all of the advanced plan's features, as well as one year of technical assistance, one year of upgrade access, and a 20% discount on further license sales.

PinnacleCart is an all-around good eCommerce platform that prioritizes user experience and conversion rate optimization.

PinnacleCart is a wonderful solution if you want to dynamically produce goods and simply sync your product catalog with other platforms like Facebook, Amazon, and eBay.

A free trial of PinnacleCart is available.

Take a look at PinnacleCart.

Squarespace 

Ecommerce Website Builder with Drag-and-Drop ($26/month).

Squarespace has marketing features built-in.

Squarespace is a popular website builder that offers rudimentary eCommerce functionality on its third most expensive plan.

They have four primary pricing plans: two monthly website building plans and two monthly online store plans:

I started with the Squarespace Personal Plan before switching to WordPress. Drag and drop content into my site and change their pre-designed layouts was a breeze. Squarespace, on the other hand, wasn't the ideal option for SEO, site speed, or modifications.

Squarespace makes it simple for anyone with no technical skills to construct a website, but you lose out on functionality and SEO benefits in exchange. When I first employed them, I had a simple XML sitemap issue that was affecting my SEO and couldn't be fixed.

In my sitemap, some URLs featured a trailing slash (/), while others didn't, giving the impression that every page was duplicate material. To cut a long tale short, it was affecting my SEO, so I immediately switched to WordPress.

Have you ever heard someone claim, “I run my profitable online business on Squarespace” when it comes to e-commerce solutions? Most likely not. However, there are certain advantages if you're currently utilizing this platform and want to add a small e-commerce site.

It's simple to set up and includes mobile-friendly templates, product management, and connectivity with shipping providers like ShipBob and ShipStation. Third-party logistics (3PLs) and order fulfillment firms, as well as other logistics software solutions, give real-time shipping costs from major carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS and handle your delivery for you.

Finally, Squarespace provides help 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a 14-day free trial to try out its features.

Consider Squarespace.

PrestaShop 

Developer Community and a Great Open-Source Platform (Free).

PrestaShop is a PHP-based freemium e-commerce platform that supports MySQL databases. It is used by approximately 300,000 retailers and is available in 75 dialects.

PrestaShop's main page

To utilize PrestaShop, you must first download their software, after which IONOS will pre-install and host your site. This includes simple installation, a coding environment, daily backups, and technical assistance available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The PrestaShop ecosystem includes over 1 million community members, 1,000 contributors, and 250+ agencies.

Members of the community can post inquiries in forums and meet up with others at meetups. PrestaShop's open-source code is maintained and optimized by contributors in collaboration with the PrestaShop team. Additionally, 250+ agency partners are available to assist with the development of e-commerce sites.

PrestaShop, like the other tools on this list, allows you to:

This includes PrestaShop-developed add-ons such as SEO tools, wishlists, and newsletter sign-ups, among others.

Check through their marketplace for the specific features you require to get a sense of how much you'll need to pay.

If you wish to sell on Amazon, for example, you'll need to pay $229.99 for the Amazon Marketplace add-on. You simply have to pay a one-time charge to cover assistance for a set number of months with these add-ons.

There are presently 33 free add-ons available for basic connections like PayPal checkout, Mailchimp email marketing, Google Ads, and review add-ons, among others.

Overall, PrestaShop is a wonderful option to consider if you're a developer who wants complete control over creating a bespoke, one-of-a-kind e-commerce site.

Weebly 

Simple Small Businesses (Free – $25/month) are the best fit.

Weebly is just a new website that was launched in 2006 and today has over 500,000 sites and a sales growth of 12% in the site builder field. Thirty is great for startup websites that don't require a sophisticated web presence.

Ecommerce on Weebly

 Weebly provides built-in marketing automation solutions, which is a plus. You may spend an extra $10-20 each month if you bought another website builder and an email marketing provider separately.

Another advantage is their product selection. You can manage hundreds of products, track inventory, automate out-of-stock items, and encourage customers to buy by showing them how many products are left (Only 3 Left!).

Other platforms, such as Shopify or 3dcart, are far more powerful than Weebly. Weebly, on the other hand, can suffice if you're a small business with a simple website under 10 pages and want to add e-commerce features.

The $25/month Business Plan, which includes a free domain, kicks off their e-commerce feature.

Weebly for Ecommerce is a great place to start.

Take a look at Weebly.

YoKart 

Review of YoKart

Best Platform for Creating Multivendor B2B and B2C Marketplaces ($1,299).

The Yo! Kart marketplace platform is a market leader when it comes to end-to-end high-quality e-commerce platforms. Yo! Kart has the advantage of being able to create a multi-vendor marketplace for any business size (small, medium, and large enterprise).

The framework's basic script files are partially encrypted, making them less vulnerable to security vulnerabilities. Yo! Kart provides a User-Centered Design and a consistent experience across all devices. Another benefit of Yo! Kart is the ease with which you can manage your product or inventory catalog.

When it comes to UX and design functionality, Yo! Kart is regarded as one of the top options. It comes with a lifetime license and is totally customizable and scalable. It also provides 12-months of free technical assistance if the website is not customized by a third party.

Yo! Kart, on the other hand, has a significant drawback in that it does not provide free themes or plugins. Because it's a license-based system, you'll need to purchase separate licenses for each domain.

Yo! Kart offers three different pricing plans, each with a different payment option:

The $2016 GoQuick option provides a true license, no money transfer fees, peer, and a preset design.

Additional perks, such as partly custom design, are included in the $3,999 (GoCustom Lite) package.

The custom package, which costs roughly $6,999, includes additional features including post-launch marketing and fully customized design.

Yo! Kart also provides reasonably priced smartphone apps for buyers and dealers.

Overall, Yo! Kart is a reasonable alternative if you need to rapidly build up an e-commerce multi-vendor marketplace with a strong set of features.

Yo! Kart is a fun game to play.

Selz

($26/month) One Simple Place to Sell Anywhere

Homepage of Selz

Selz is a fully-featured online store builder that makes selling across all sales channels, including existing websites, a breeze. For example, you can effortlessly sell on Facebook, Instagram, and Google Shopping from a single dashboard by embedding your products into any website or blog.

Selz thrives in this area as the e-commerce industry grows increasingly multichannel and shoppers want to be able to purchase from anywhere (no rhyme intended).

They come with a slew of useful features out of the box, like unlimited storage, bandwidth, and customers, as well as for analytics, discount codes, and a slew of third-party integrations. Users can obtain secure digital file delivery, global tax settings, and abandoned cart recovery capabilities for $26 per month on their base plan.

The fact that you can use Selz's backend e-commerce hosting to sell things on any existing website is very unique.

If you already have a successful website, for example, Selz allows you to add products, buy buttons, and many widgets to it. You don't have to start from scratch. Simply integrate Selz with your existing website, enter your product information, and begin selling.

platform ecommerce

One disadvantage is that real-time shipping prices are only available on the $179/month advanced plan, so things could get complicated if you're selling products of various weights and sizes. If you're selling for a set fee, though, this won't be an issue.

Finally, Selz offers email and chat support, as well as a dedicated account manager for each user. This is a one-of-a-kind resource for fledgling businesses seeking assistance with their setup.

Selz is available for a 14-day free trial.

Selz is a good option.

OpenCart and Big Cartel are two other notable mentions that have yet to be featured.

What Are Ecommerce Platforms and How Do They Work?

Ecommerce platforms are software solutions that aid in the sale of goods and services over the internet. To manage their e-commerce, firms used to have to buy pricey on-premise e-commerce software with an IT infrastructure and in-house hosting. Users can now create storefronts (front-facing sales channels) online using SaaS software technology.

Everything from web design and product listings to shipping, taxes, and marketing is handled by these e-commerce systems. You can add your own products, manage inventory and orders, communicate with customers, sync with other apps, and more using these web-based software solutions.

What is the most SEO-friendly e-commerce platform?

There are many essential ranking variables in e-commerce SEO, including site speed, URL structure, page titles/content, and sitewide HTTPS.

Wix 

To increase interest in their items, most online store owners struggle with SEO and rely on paid Facebook and Google ads.

Wix SEO Wiz is a free SEO tool provided by Wix. Wiz evaluates your e-commerce site and generates a personalized SEO plan for you, along with a checklist, to help you boost your Google results.

To help your pages rank faster, optimize your SEO titles and meta descriptions, add alt text, and use indexing tools. This function was developed in collaboration with Google, and Wix users can immediately see their sites in search results after using it.

BigCommerce 

BigCommerce is my second choice for the greatest SEO. This is why:

When it comes to site speed, you want to be sure your e-commerce server can swiftly load your content on mobile and desktop. A load time delay of even 100 milliseconds can reduce your conversion rate by 7%.

Regularly test the speed of your e-commerce site using tools like GTMetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights.

Second, image compression is an important component of site speed. Page load times are affected by images that take a long time to load, which has an influence on user experience and SEO.

BigCommerce is the only e-commerce platform that allows merchants to use Google AMP on product and category pages, as well as Akamai Image Manager for automatic image compression.

BigCommerce has the greatest default URL format when it comes to URL structure.

For example, as previously said, the optimal format to follow in terms of domain, category, and product is www.rebelpeak.com/camping/blue-tent. They let you do this, however, Shopify requires you to stick to their structure, which includes the static “/collections/,” “/pages/,” and “/products/.”

Because this URL structure isn't perfect for SEO, BigCommerce comes out on top and is a terrific choice.

Which Free Ecommerce Platforms Are the Best

If you're looking for a free or open-source e-commerce platform, there are several to choose from. When looking into different e-commerce frameworks, it's important to ask oneself a few questions:

Do you want to host your own website?

How much experience do you have in web development?

What level of creative control do you desire?

Would you prefer to pay a little monthly cost to obtain everything in one package?

Personally, I would choose a paid system over an open-source system because the tiny investment would save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

There are several restrictions to open source platforms. You forgo simplicity in hosting, maintenance, and security, as well as dedicated support, for what you get in flexibility.

What Are the Best Small Business Ecommerce Platforms?

Uptime assurances, security, PCI compliance, usability, and performance are all requirements for small businesses operating online. If your company relies on internet sales, your standards will be more strict than if you were a single person selling online.

There are a number of dependencies on your platform's user access levels, shipping methods, tax calculations, and invoicing software when it comes to B2B e-commerce platforms. You require a system that can be easily controlled by several users and reduces the time it takes to process orders.

After all, the less time you spend on compliance, shipping, and fulfillment, the more time you have to promote your company online.

Here are my top suggestions for the finest small company e-commerce platforms:

Wix 

Because of its attractive templates and simple software, Wix is ideal for businesses selling online. Everything is managed from a single dashboard, making it ideal for non-technical users.

3dcart 

Because of its ease of use and SEO features, 3dcart is an excellent solution for small enterprises. The simple URL structure and easy access to selling things online will benefit local small enterprises. They also have a fantastic support team that is available by chat, phone, and email.

Shopify

For similar reasons, Shopify is another good e-commerce platform for small enterprises. They are extremely user-friendly and intuitive; practically any small business owner should be able to create and administer a Shopify site. They save time for business owners by automating shipping and tax rates.

Shopify is also a good option if you need to learn how to use POS systems. They work with a variety of popular point-of-sale systems for omnichannel retailers who have both physical and online stores.

What Are the Best Dropshipping Ecommerce Platforms?

Dropshipping software must be simple to use and interface with wholesalers, as well as connect your inventory across several platforms and manage to ship.

The first thing you should check when connecting your online business to a wholesale provider is that inventory levels automatically sync between platforms. The last thing you want is for someone to order a product from your website that isn't available from your wholesaler.

Here are my top picks for the finest dropshipping platforms:

What Are the Advantages of an Ecommerce Platform?

‘If you don't have an internet presence, you'll go out of business.'

Bill Gates' prediction proved to be prescient since the e-commerce market has grown enormously and continues to do so.

Over half of Americans prefer to purchase online, according to a new study. Ecommerce isn't going away, and a basic website can help you acquire a piece of the pie.

If you want to attract customers, you'll need an appealing and interesting website.

So, let's take a look at all of the advantages of creating an e-commerce store and how it may help you grow your business.

Easy Scalability.

When you run a typical brick-and-mortar retail shop, it’s difficult to cater to an audience that is geographically extremely far away.

Unless you become really successful, and operate like Walmart and other industry giants, putting up several locations in different areas becomes prohibitively expensive.

Obviously, not really that difficult to implement those for a smallish retailer, as it's cost.

However, using e-commerce platforms, small and medium businesses may now target and reach out to a worldwide audience, and scale up to many times their initial size.

Some systems let users establish up e-commerce by between $15 and $50 per week, with its most frequent fee being about $30.

Being online effectively makes the whole globe your oyster, and you don’t need to target a certain neighborhood and restrict yourself to a specific area. With a greater reach, your sales will get a lift, and profitability will rise in the long run.

Ecommerce solutions let businesses achieve scalability by delivering fast-performance and compelling shopping experiences anywhere.

Excellent Customer Support.

Customer experience plays a huge impact on the annual income of any organization. In fact, it is one of the most telling yardsticks of a competitive organization.

Even if you’re utilizing a pre-designed template to develop your website, you could run into an issue every now and again.

It might be anything – you might battle with slow website speed or confront difficulties with a webpage.

However, every single e-commerce platform offers customer assistance to aid you with these challenges.

Bigcommerce, for example, offers technical assistance by chat, email, and phone in the United States 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Customer Service at BigCommerce

They also have a premium services staff dedicated to helping you grow your business and address any technical issues you may encounter. And this can be the difference between success and failure.

Your firm will not be slowed down by technical troubles if you have this kind of support and flexibility.

Incorporate social media.

More than 3 billion individuals use social media around the world, making it a vast market to tap into.

Statistics on Social Media Users

Furthermore, purchasing habits are evolving, and more people are willing to buy things through social media.

Ecommerce platforms interface seamlessly with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, allowing you to sell your products wherever your target audience is.

As a result, it's critical to pay attention to social media activity.

Take a look at BigCommerce, for example.

Integration with social media in BigCommerce

Their software interfaces with social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest directly from the BigCommerce control panel, automatically syncing your inventory and processing backend sales with minimal effort.

Ecommerce marketing tools built-in.

While social media integration will help you find your target audience, it isn't the only marketing strategy you should employ.

After your website is up and running, you'll need to use the correct marketing tools to figure out what your customers want to buy.

Ecommerce systems assist you to achieve this by providing several marketing options built-in. These solutions give you all of the necessary data and insights to help you create a sales strategy for the future.

shopping platform

Take, for example, Squarespace:

Squarespace has marketing features built-in.

It uses sophisticated marketing techniques to attract traffic to your website and uses smart data analytics tools to quantify your success quantitatively.

Built-in newsletters, exit-intent pop-ups, coupon coupons, and promos are just some of the marketing tools available to you.

Search engine optimization.

Almost every e-commerce platform has SEO options ranging from basic to complex. These tools improve your search engine visibility and help you handle anything from sitemaps to meta titles, descriptions, and keywords.

If you're familiar with WordPress, you can use WooCommerce to get good SEO results.

WooCommerce, for example, is connected with some of the top SEO-related WordPress plugins to help you optimize your website and rank higher in search engines.

The following are some of the SEO tools:

Furthermore, platforms such as BigCommerce and 3dcart come with excellent SEO help out of the box.

Using Ecommerce Platforms: Tips and Strategies

With all of the benefits that e-commerce has over traditional retail, it's a terrific way for buyers to save money while also allowing sellers to expand their reach at a low cost.

In 2017, internet buyers in the United States spent $5 billion during the Black Friday discounts.

Buyer Statistics On The Internet

At least once in their lives, 96 percent of all Americans have made an internet transaction.

It is, however, more difficult to stand out in a crowded market due to increased competition.

It's not enough to have excellent software. From the beginning, you must have a full-funnel e-commerce marketing strategy in place.

Here are a few pointers to help you with your marketing approach this year.

Pay special attention to mobile users.

We all know that mobile phones have surpassed personal computers in popularity.

Indeed, Google stated in July 2019 that the mobile-first index was a new ranking feature that was here to stay.

This means that when it comes to ranking and indexing, Google favors the mobile version of your site.

According to statistics, over 63 percent of online users prefer to surf on their phones rather than their computers.

Web visits vs. desktop visitors

Naturally, concentrating on your mobile site has become critical.

As a result, make sure you're leveraging your e-commerce platform to optimize both your mobile and desktop websites.

When it comes to mobile optimization and theme design, Shopify is one of the industry leaders.

Mobile Optimization for Shopify

Many other e-commerce platforms provide comparable features that might help you give your customers a better mobile browsing experience. First, ensure that your software's homepage, category pages, and product pages are all mobile-friendly.

It's also critical to optimize your mobile checkout experience and make sure your purchasing procedure is user-friendly.

Create a visually appealing e-commerce website.

According to studies, it takes a person 0.05 seconds to decide whether or not they like your website. They're likely to leave right away if they don't find it visually appealing or grasp what it's about.

As a result, you have a startlingly short amount of time to pique the visitor's interest.

You must make certain that the website theme you select is not only related to your niche but also appealing to the eye.

Furthermore, selecting a logo and graphics to offer your visitors an impression of your brand from the time they approach your site is critical.

The goal is to be as creative as possible while providing your guests with a pleasant browsing experience.

Take a look at the following website:

The user interface of a website

It's a great example of a visually appealing page that makes you want to keep scrolling. It's also simple to navigate, with essential call-to-actions strategically placed to capture the audience's attention.

Make navigation simple.

It's critical that your e-commerce site is well-organized and simple to use.

With the help of your e-commerce platform, you can add a variety of plugins to make things easier for your website visitors.

For example, WooCommerce allows you to add a plugin that allows your users to return to things they've recently browsed.

Easy navigation with the WooCommerce plugin

You give a great user experience and are more likely to produce sales when you integrate your website with these technologies that make navigation easier.

Product navigation with recently viewed and suggested products can also help to boost e-commerce conversion rates.

Analytics and data.

Those who argue that “data is the new oil” are becoming increasingly vocal.

There are currently roughly 18 zettabytes of data on the planet. There's no reason why you shouldn't take advantage of this opportunity.

Your plan to grow your business using the e-commerce platform should include a strategy for utilizing the visitor data that your website creates on a daily basis.

The majority of e-commerce platforms provide an analytics feature that can be used to track your demographics.

Take, for example, Wix:

Wix Visitor Analytics is a service that allows you to track how many people come to

Visitor Analytics, an in-built visitor data analytics tool from Wix, can help you track the number of visitors, their frequency, visualize the data gathered, track by country and IP address, generate conversion statistics, and make smarter, more informed decisions in the future.

This allows you to focus on an efficient marketing strategy and streamline the marketing process.

The majority of e-commerce platforms provide analytics capabilities, and you should take advantage of them.

Offer excellent customer service as well as live-chat options. 

In 2017, 64% of Americans contacted customer service in some way.

According to Zendesk, the #1 defining criteria a customer considers while doing business is good customer service.

Furthermore, a website with features like live chat options and quick customer service, according to the Kano model, is a delighter, and it can improve your business, generate income, and greatly increase customer happiness.

Customer Support Kano Model

Integration of an effective live chat and customer care system – preferably 24/7 – should be part of your e-commerce strategy.

Let's look at Squarespace as an example.

ecommerce tools

It offers a simple and effective approach to integrate Pure Chat, a live chat software, onto your website in just a few minutes.

Pure Chat on Squarespace

You could use the contact form to:

Develop an Omnichannel Strategy.

In order to sell their products, more and more companies are opting for the omnichannel approach.

A strong e-commerce platform can also help you execute a flawless omnichannel strategy. It can assist businesses' online and offline counterparts in working together toward a common aim of selling.

Magento, for example, has a system called “Magento Order Management” that allows organizations to do just that.

Magento's multi-channel marketing approach

Choosing the appropriate e-commerce platform can make or break your ability to meet your omnichannel sales targets.

Finally, make a list of each particular sales channel and your objectives for each.

Ecommerce Platforms Frequently Asked Questions

Is it simple to do business online?

Ecommerce is simple to get started with, but it is difficult to be extremely successful with. You don't need a lot of money to get started; all you need is a website and a product list. You can also outsource your inventory and shipping procedure to dropshipping vendors.

However, being extremely successful can be difficult, as one of the most significant components is marketing your e-commerce company. To create sales, you must focus on SEO, PPC, social media marketing, email marketing, and other strategies in addition to presenting your goods online and handling customer care.

What is the most straightforward e-commerce platform?

Ecommerce website builders are user-friendly and make it simple to create a website, add products, and promote your business online. However, some are more user-friendly than others. Here are the most user-friendly and straightforward e-commerce platforms:

Is it possible to sell on Facebook without having a website?

Yes, you may sell things on Facebook Marketplace without having a website. You'll need a Facebook Page and things to advertise if you want to sell products on Facebook. You can add product information to your Facebook profile, such as product names, descriptions, prices, and photographs, among other things.

What is Amazon's e-commerce platform?

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform was built by Amazon. Allowing others to utilize their AWS service earns them a lot of money. AWS is also used by other large corporations and websites, such as Netflix.

Is selling on Amazon or Shopify better?

Shopify is a better solution for small online businesses than Amazon, which is simple to use. Shopify's lower-cost plans are less expensive than Amazon's Professional Plan and offer more scalability. It's critical to establish a brand online, and the best way to do it is to have your own website.

Is Shopify more user-friendly than WordPress?

The Shopify website builder is more user-friendly than WordPress, which has a steeper learning curve. Shopify includes a number of built-in e-commerce features that WordPress does not have without the use of plugins. WordPress, on the other hand, has a number of advantages, like better SEO, more customization choices, improved blogging, and etc. In the conclusion, it depends on the person.

How can I make money selling on the internet for free?

There are some alternatives to sell online for free if you don't have the funds to employ an e-commerce platform. Here are a few examples:

Summary of the report

That concludes my ranking of the greatest e-commerce platforms.

Go with Wix if you want to use the greatest overall platform that is easy to use and best for small businesses.

I recommend starting with Big Commerce if you want the best software for scaling your large business.

Shopify is the greatest option if you're a drop shipper who needs solid integrations.

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