7 Best E-Commerce Platforms To Build An Online Store
E-commerce platforms are the backbone of any online store. They are the ones that help you to build your online store and offer you a host of features to grow your business.
If you want to start an online business but don’t have much experience in coding, then e-commerce platforms are the best option for you. These platforms will help you create a website for your business with ease.
Here are some of the best e-commerce platforms;
1. Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to build an online store. The platform includes a variety of features such as customizable checkout, inventory management and sales analytics. Shopify also provides a mobile app for shop owners to manage their stores on the go.
Shopify is great for small businesses that sell physical products or services because it allows you to create multiple pages for each item and can be integrated with third-party apps like Google Analytics or MailChimp. The app also has its analytics tool that tracks where visitors come from and what they searched for, which can help you improve SEO and conversion rates down the road.
Shopify offers three plans: Basic Shopify, Shopify and Shopify Plus. The Basic Shopify plan is free and allows you to create an unlimited number of stores with up to 500 products each. However, there are some restrictions on what you can do with this platform.
Main features
a) Simple interface
Shopify has a clean, intuitive design that makes it easy for beginners to get started. You can set up your store in minutes and manage it from any device.
b) Shipping tools
Shopify offers free shipping labels as well as integrations with third-party services like UPS and USPS that let you automate shipping rates and tracking numbers.
c) Analytics and reporting
Shopify provides all the data you need to track sales trends and understand how customers are using your store. You can also use Google Analytics to monitor traffic on your website and make changes based on data collected.
d) Marketing tools
With Shopify’s built-in marketing tools, you can launch newsletters, promote products via email campaigns, or run Facebook ads without having to hire an outside agency or developer.
2. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a leading e-commerce platform that caters to small and medium businesses. The company was founded in 2009 and has since grown tremendously in its customer base, with over 125,000 merchants across the globe.
BigCommerce is an all-in-one solution that allows you to create a beautiful online store without the need for any coding knowledge or expensive design skills. The platform includes everything you need to manage your business – from inventory management to shipping.
BigCommerce offers a range of plans at different price points depending on your specific needs. BigCommerce also offers a few extra features for premium plans such as loyalty programs and abandoned cart recovery tools, among others.
Main Features
The platform offers a wide range of features, including:
a) Customizable design
BigCommerce’s theme editor makes it easy to build your unique look. You can also choose from more than 1,000 professionally designed themes.
b) Easy-to-use product creation tools
Product creation is made simple with simple step-by-step guides, preloaded product attributes and custom fields that allow you to create any type of product you want.
c) Testing capabilities
The features allows you to test different variations of your website or emails to see which perform best with real visitors, not just analytics data.
d) Social media integration
Enables you to integrate social networks into your store so customers can easily share products on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
3. Magento Commerce
Magento Commerce is a free open source e-commerce platform built on the Magento Open Source platform. It’s an enterprise-class e-commerce solution that provides merchants with the ability to sell products and services to customers globally.
Main Features
a) A flexible architecture
Magento Commerce is built on the open-source Magento Community Edition (CE), which means it can be customized to meet your business needs. It’s also based on industry standards such as Zend Framework (MVC) and Symfony Components (REST). This makes it easy to integrate with third-party applications.
b) Rich product catalogs
Magento Commerce supports both traditional drop-down menus and category trees as well as search engines, product viewers, wish lists, configurable options, cross-sells/upsells, bundles/packages and other features that help customers browse through your inventory quickly and easily- no matter where they’re located or how they prefer to shop online.
c) Multi-store support
Support multiple stores on one installation (e.g. physical store, online store, wholesale store).
d) Multilingual capabilities
Support multiple languages and currencies for your customers.
e) Payment methods
Accept credit cards, PayPal and other payment methods from anywhere in the world.
f) Shipping Management
Manage your shipping costs automatically with integration to third-party providers like UPS or FedEx.
4. WooCommerce
WooCommerce allows you to sell physical products, digital downloads and subscriptions through a WordPress website. You can also use it to build an online store for your business or organization.
WooCommerce is an open-source, e-commerce platform that was released in 2011. It has quickly become one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the web.
WooCommerce is used by over 3 million businesses worldwide and is the most popular e-commerce platform used by small businesses.
The platform is built on WordPress, which means it is easy to install, update and manage. You can add new features or remove them as needed — it is completely customizable and you have full control over your website.
Main Features
The following are some of the features of the WooCommerce platform:
a) Ease of Use
Anyone can install and set up an online store quickly with the help of this plugin. It also helps you manage different types of products such as physical and digital goods, services, subscriptions and variable products. The best part about this platform is that it offers a wide range of payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.net, etc.
b) SEO Friendly
This platform is SEO friendly as it offers search engine-friendly URLs which makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index your website easily. In addition, its great flexibility allows you to adjust content according to your needs so that your visitors find it easy to use while using different devices such as desktops or mobile phones etc.
c) Powerful Extensions
There are many extensions available for this platform which makes it one of the most powerful e-commerce platforms out there today. These extensions include Woocommerce, my Account split testing tool, etc.
d) Ecommerce functionality
Sell physical or digital products; manage inventory and pricing; process orders; calculate taxes automatically; offer discounts and promotions; integrate with PayPal and other gateways; set up shipping rules based on zones or product weight, etc.
e) Catalog management
Add new products quickly via CSV import/export; create variations of products (size, color etc.); manage stock levels of individual items, etc.
f) Payment Gateways
WooCommerce supports numerous payment gateways out of the box, including PayPal, Stripe and Bank Transfer Payment methods.
Payment Gateway API – The Payment Gateway API allows developers to create plugins that extend your existing gateway account
5. Squarespace Commerce
Squarespace Commerce is a powerful e-commerce platform that helps you sell anything online. Whether it is a small business or a large corporation, it can help you create a beautiful online store that fits your brand and serves your customers.
Main Features
a) Simple to set up
You can set up your store in just a few minutes with its simple interface. All you need is a name for your store and some products to sell. They also include helpful tips along the way to help you get started quickly.
b) Full control
If you want more control over how your store looks, feel free to customize all aspects from fonts and colors to layouts and templates. Its drag-and-drop builder makes it easy even if you have no design experience at all.
c) Secure payment processing
The platform accepts all major credit cards through Stripe, which processes payments securely and efficiently so there are no transaction fees for merchants or customers.
d) Responsive design
Your site will look great on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
e) Customizable storefront
Choose from over 100 customizable themes to create the perfect look for your site.
f) Flexible checkout experience
Accept payments from anywhere in the world with secure payment gateway integration.
6. Volusion
Volusion is a uniquely powerful e-commerce platform that can be used to launch an online store in a few minutes. The platform has been designed to make it easy for anyone to get started selling online, with zero programming required.
The platform is self-service and does not require any coding knowledge. It offers a full suite of design tools so you can create beautiful, professional-looking online stores without having to hire expensive designers or developers.
Main Features
a) Customizable themes
Volusion offers more than 40 customizable themes in its catalog, and you can create your custom theme if you are not satisfied with the existing options.
b) A/B testing
With Volusion, you can easily test different versions of your website and see which performs better by tracking conversions and traffic sources for each variation.
c) Advanced SEO tools
Volusion makes it easy for you to take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that will help improve your site’s ranking in search engines like Google and Bing. You can also use built-in web analytics data to see how visitors are interacting with your site so that you can optimize it based on their behavior patterns.
d) Mobile-friendly design
Volusion store is mobile-friendly and responsive, so it will look great on any smartphone or tablet.
e) Unlimited products
You can sell as many products as you want with Volusion’s unlimited product feature. You don’t have to worry about buying additional licenses either because there are no limits on the number of products or SKUs your store can handle.
7. Wix e-commerce
Wix Ecommerce is an e-commerce platform that allows you to sell online with a simple, beautiful and mobile-ready website. With Wix e-commerce, you can create an online store featuring products, blog posts and galleries.
Main Features
a) Easy to use
Wix e-commerce comes with an easy-to-use interface, which ensures that even people who are not tech savvy can easily create their online store using this platform.
b) Advanced product management system
With this feature, you can create unlimited products and price them based on different options such as color, size, or quantity. You can also add additional information about each product such as its description, weight, shipping costs and more. This feature also allows you to set up discount codes that can be used anywhere on your site.
c) Visual merchandising
This feature gives customers the ability to view their favorite items by category or brand to make it easier for them to find what they are looking for. You can also choose from a variety of themes that display products in different ways such as grid view or list view so that customers can easily see what is available in each category without having to search for it manually.
d) Integration with other apps
It allows you to integrate third-party apps with your websites such as shipping providers, payment gateways, and social media apps like Facebook and Twitter so that you can easily manage all aspects of your business from one platform only.
Conclusion
While there are several e-commerce options that you can choose from, you need to determine which one will work best for your specific business needs. We have looked at some of the leading e-commerce platforms and reviewed the best-in-class e-commerce solutions to help you with your online store.
While there are pros and cons of each platform, ultimately it will come down to understanding your needs as it relates to your business goals.
