How do you choose the best ecomerce platform to launch your online store and sell products online?
According to Insider Intelligence, US retail eCommerce sales will grow 16.1%, reaching $1.06 trillion in 2022. So, how do you get in now?
Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix eCommerce, and WooCommerce are popular online store builders, but are they the most reliable?
I wrote this complete guide to the best ecommerce platforms of 2023 to help you choose the best online store platform.
This guide will show you:
- What the best ecommerce platforms are
- What an ecommerce platform really is
- What to look for in an ecommerce software platform
- How to avoid the next ‘fancy’ tool and use what works (don’t waste money)
- And lots more…
So if you want to sell products online (as a beginner or experienced seller), here are the best ecommerce platforms that will help you launch your online store this year.
What Are The Best Ecommerce Platforms?
Here are my top picks for the best ecommerce platforms for 2023:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
- Wix eCommerce
- Squarespace Commerce
- Sellfy
- Zyro
- Volusion
- Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento)
- Shift4Shop
- Ecwid
- Weebly Ecommerce
- Square Online
- Yo!Kart
- Selz
- Big Cartel
- PrestaShop
Alright, let’s dive right in. Let’s break down each of the 17 best ecommerce platforms to launch your online store in 2023:
1. Shopify
The best all-around ecommerce platform
Shopify is arguably one of the most powerful eommerce platforms. The drag-and-drop store builder on Shopify makes it easy for anyone to create a professional-looking online store.
It supports many popular payment methods, including PayPal and digital currencies such as Bitcoin. It also supports gift vouchers, reward points, and coupon codes.
The platform has a built-in calculator and can easily handle taxes for you.
And if you’re a non-coder or a complete beginner, Shopify has simplified the entire process of creating, marketing, and making money from your online store.
Key Features
- A collection of 70+ professional themes
- Customize your online store with a drag-and-drop editor
- A built-in mobile online store to reach mobile users
- Host your complete website on Shopify
- Full blogging platform: publish articles easily
- A rich analytics reporting
Pros
- Easily pick a template and customize it your way
- Visually customize your online store
- You can add unlimited products to your store
- Create a mobile storefront to reach buyers on the go
- It’s easy to recover customers who abandoned their carts
- Easy integrations with most apps
Cons
- Not all features are available in every country
- You’ll always need an add-on that increases the cost
Pricing
Here’s a summarized version of Shopify’s pricing:
- Basic ($29/month): If you’re new to eCommerce, start with the Basic plan and scale later.
- Shopify ($79/month): Growing businesses will benefit from the additional features in this plan. It’s a great plan for selling online or in-store.
- Advanced ($299/month): Ready to scale your eCommerce business and access advanced marketing tools with rich reporting? this is the ideal plan.
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that powers over 500,000 businesses in 175 countries and generates over $23.7 million in monthly recurring revenue.
2. BigCommerce
The best ecommerce platform for large business
BigCommerce is a complete ecommerce software platform for startups and large organizations. It’s easy to set up and offers a wide range of ecommerce tools.
The platform provides both DIY and professional development options to help you build and maintain your store.
However, while some people prefer to learn how to code themselves, others prefer to hire a developer to create their online store.
Either way, you’ll have to invest time and money to get things done right. If you’re using the BigCommerce platform, you can simply spend your time running your store and not worrying about the technicalities.
Key Features
- Launch & Edit your site pages with a drag-and-drop solution.
- Fully-customization themes
- BigCommerce for WordPress: Build your site on WordPress
- Mobile storefront.
- The online store supports digital wallets (e..g, Apple Pay)
- Sell products on Instagram, Amazon, with one platform.
Pros
- A user-friendly online store builder
- Easy access to multiple currencies and payment options
- Excellent tech support
- It’s easy to add custom keywords to products
- The premade templates are easy to customize
Cons
- Additional payment options for local vendors
- No shipping options to aid package insurance
- More control over the homepage design will be appreciated
Pricing
How much does BigCommerce cost per month? Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Standard ($29.95/month): Start selling online with your one store, plus basic features.
- Plus ($79.95/month): Take advantage of marketing tools to grow and increase conversions.
- Pro ($299.95/month): This plan gives you the chance to scale your growing business with feature-rich tools.
- Enterprise: Contact sales for custom pricing.
Note: You can save 10% if you opt for the annual plan.
BigCommerce is a complete ecommerce platform for startups and large organizations. It’s easy to set up and offers a wide range of ecommerce tools.
3. WooCommerce
The best online store option for WordPress users
WooCommerce is your #1 customizable and open source eCommerce platform for WordPress. WooCommerce managed hosting by Nexcess.
If you’re looking to set up a store on WordPress, you should use WooCommerce software. It enables you to sell products and services from your own WordPress blog or site.
It also allows you to collect payments and set shipping options. You can choose whether to allow in-store pickup or offer free shipping for purchases.
To set up payments, you should enable WooCommerce payment extensions. Once you’ve installed the plugin, you can activate it to begin accepting payments.
Key Features
- Set up your online store in minutes
- Offer secure and flexible payments on your site
- Manage orders on the go
- 100s of extensions to add extra features to your store
- Add Jetpack to secure your online store and get backups
Pros
- Quickly add an online store to your WordPress site
- Easily manage your product inventory
- Make decisions with rich sales reporting
- WooCommerce is open-source and free to use
- A user-friendly SEO tools to rank your store on Google
Cons
- WooCommerce isn’t very customizable out of the box
- You need to purchase additional extensions, which increase the cost
- The mobile UI can be improved
Pricing
WooCommerce is completely free if you want to host it with your WordPress site (you only need to pay for your web hosting service of choice).
For example, you can choose to use Nexcess to power it. Here’s the cost of Nexcess managed hosting:
- Starter ($13.30/month): 1 online store, 30 GB storage, 500 orders per hour.
- Creator ($55.30/month): 3 online stores, 60 GB storage, 1,000 orders per hour
- Merchant ($104.30/month): 5 online stores, 100 GB storage, 2,500 orders per hour.
- Standard ($209.30/month): Create 10 stores, 300 GB storage, 3,000 orders per hour.
4. Wix eCommerce
The best ecommerce platform for beginners and startups
Wix eCommerce makes it easy to set up your online shop. You can track your products automatically and keep track of their prices.
The software also allows you to manage inventory and add product videos.
Its built-in e-commerce features are more integrated than those of other platforms, and you can even use them for marketing your products.
Key Features
- Create a professional online store
- Scale your store with the Wix eCommerce builder
- Get access to 500+ professional templates
- Add up to 50,000 products to your store
- Set up online subscriptions to build recurring revenue
- Source & Dropship products
Pros
- Quickly add an online store to your WordPress site
- Wix eCommerce is easy to use, just as the website builder
- You can sell both physical & digital products
- Zero sales fees
- Wix eCommerce is cheap compared to the competitors
- Access to royalty-free images for your store
- Wix online stores are fast and intuitive
Cons
- You can’t transfer your online store to another platform
- Free plan displays Wix branding on your store
- You need a paid plan to use tracking & analytics
Pricing
- Connect Domain ($4.50/month): This is the most basic plan to get you started with creating a simple website. This plan will show Wix ads.
- Combo ($8.50/month): The Combo plan is perfect for personal use. It doesn’t display Wix ads.
- Unlimited ($12.50/month): A plan for entrepreneurs & freelancers. Get unlimited bandwidth, and more.
- VIP ($24.50/month): Enjoy all the features in ‘Unlimited’ and First Priority Support.
5. Squarespace Commerce
The best ecommerce platform for creatives
Squarespace Commerce is a trusted ecommerce platform with many features and a drag-and-drop website builder.
This flexible software allows businesses to scale as their business grows. This makes it a great choice for growing online sales.
It also lets you showcase your products in a visually appealing, artistic way, making it easy for potential customers to buy them.
You can also integrate your point-of-sale system with your website to provide a more comprehensive shopping experience.
Key Features
- Create online stores that stand out
- 100s of easy-to-customize templates
- Showcase your products beautifully
- Sell services on your website
- Sell digital content and subscriptions
Pros
- A simple and intuitive online store builder
- It allows flexible product variants to be added
- Add unlimited products to your store
- Access to a rich analytics reporting dashboard
- Sell anywhere with Point of Sale (POS)
Cons
- You can’t use Squarespace eCommerce extensions in the Personal plan
- You must upgrade to “Commerce” to access the analytics dashboard
Pricing
Here’s how much Squarespace Commerce costs each month to use:
- Personal ($16/month): With this basic plan, you get a free custom domain, SSSL security, 30 minutes video storage, etc.
- Business ($26/month): Get unlimited bandwidth, unlimited contributors, premium templates, etc.
- Basic Commerce ($35/month): Get SSL security, free domain, video storage, templates, etc.
- Advanced Commerce ($54/month): Everything included in ‘Basic Commerce’ and more.
Note: Save 30% (on Business Plan) of the monthly cost and 25% on every other plan when you pay annually.
Squarespace offers you everything you need to power your ideas: websites, online stores, domains, and more.
6. Sellfy
The best ecommerce store builder for creatives
Selfy is an eCommerce platform that allows you to create a store online and sell your products hassle-free.
It allows you to sell both physical and digital products.
It lets you add videos and images to your products, and you can easily upsell your customers. It also offers comprehensive analytics, which can be useful for increasing sales.
However, there are some drawbacks to the Selfy eCommerce platform, such as limited integration with analytics tools.
Key Features
- Build and launch an online store in minutes
- Sell digital goods, PoD products, or accept subscriptions
- Create a highly-customizable storefront
- Use your own domain name for your store
- Built-in marketing features (e.g., discount codes, tracking pixels)
Pros
- Zero transaction fees
- Sell products instantly on YouTube, Facebook, and other social networks
- Get up to 50,000 email credits each month
- Upsell products to generate additional revenue
- Free site migration
Cons
- The Starter plan displays Sellfy branding
- It offers limited email credits
Pricing
See the pricing breakdown of Sellfy:
- Free ($0/month): Add 10 products, Print on Demand products, and Physical products.
- Starter ($19/month): 2,000 email credits, subscription products, connect your domain, plus everything in the free plan.
- Business ($49/month): Remove ‘Sellfy’branding, cart abandonment recovery, 10,000 email credits, and more.
- Premium ($99/month): Every feature in Business, plus product migration, and more.
Sellfy is a full-featured ecommerce tool built for bloggers and creators who want to sell digital products, subscriptions, and physical goods.
7. Zyro
A better online store builder for non-coders and beginners
Zyro (by Hostinger) is an intuitive website builder and an ecommerce platform, which lets you build and launch a mobile-friendly online store with a few clicks.
You can also integrate Google Maps into your website for a map-based shopping experience.
And because you can add as many products as you want to your store, it will automatically update the inventory on your site.
You don’t have to worry about web design or coding, either. It’s very easy to use the templates that are included in your Zyro plan.
Key Features
- An intuitive website builder. No coding experience is required.
- A wide collection of 100+ eCommerce templates to launch your start with
- Use the drag-and-drop editor to quickly build your website
- Get a free domain and web hosting for 12 months
- Create a professional-looking website in minutes
Pros
- Zyro is quite easy to use, especially for beginners.
- The drag and drop website editor has a clean UI
- Quickly use the AI website builder to get design inspirations
Cons
- No free forever plan like some online store builders (and no free trial)
- Limited products in the online store
- It can get more pricy when you opt for new add ons
Pricing
How much does Zyro cost? Let’s see:
- Website ($2.90/month): Get started with a professional website or blog. Free domain for 1 year, marketing integrations, etc.
- Business: ($4.90/month): Sell products and services online with eCommerce essentials, up to 100 products, free email for 3 months, etc.
- Online store ($8.90/month): Launch an online store with advanced eCommerce tools, marketing integrations, 24/7 support, 70+ payment gateways, etc.
- Advanced Store ($15.90/month): All the features you can imagine, including some powerful marketing tools so you can reach international buyers, recover abandoned carts, etc.
Zyro comes with 30-day money-back guarantee. And all plans include free hosting.
8. Volusion
The best ecommerce platform to create stunning online stores
Volusion is an ecommerce store builder for businesses.
If you want to create a stunning online store, Volusion is a good choice. Whether you’re selling electronics, apparel, or anything in between, Volusion is sure to meet your needs.
This multi-channel platform offers more than 35 payment gateways and is fully integrated with Amazon and eBay.
You can also easily translate your store into other languages. It is easy to customize the Volusion site to match your business’s style, but it’s not intuitive for beginners.
Key Features
- Create a stunning online store in half the time (no coding required)
- Grow your sales with built-in SEO tools
- Integrate with powerful apps to scale your business
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Bulk product upload & easy management
Pros
- Volusion is ideal for small businesses that want to launch their online stores quickly.
- Easy to take orders
- The storefront works great on smartphones and tablets
- Easily accept multiple payments
- Customer and tech supports are great
Cons
- It’s hard to create item-by-item discounts for certain customers
- The user interface requires a learning curve
- Not as many integration options as most competitors
Pricing
Here’s what Volusion will cost you each month to design a website:
- Personal ($29/month): Zero transaction fees, 1 staff admin, 100 products etc.
- Professional ($79/month): Unlimited bandwidth, online & phone support, plus all the features in ‘Personal.’
- Business ($299/month): 500,000 GMV Per Year, 15 staff accounts, and more.
- Prime: You should contact sales for custom quotes.
Note: These are monthly plans billed monthly. You can save 10% when you pay yearly.
9. Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento)
A beetter ecommerce software to build multi-channel experiences
Adobe Commerce is an online retail platform that offers unrivaled control and flexibility for managing and growing online stores.
Powered by the latest web technology, Adobe Commerce Admin allows you to create, manage, and sell products with ease.
Its advanced search engine optimization, marketing, and product management tools can help you create an online store that will appeal to the widest audience.
While it is important to choose the right edition for your business, there are different ways to set up and use the various features.
Key Features
- Use drag-and-drop tools to quickly create an online store
- Add content with the easy to use interface
- Easily personalize your store for specific customer segments
- Native integrations with Adobe range of products
- Manage your eCommerce business from a single platform
Pros
- It’s affordable compared to some eCommerce platforms
- Out-of-the-box integrations with Adobe products
- Easy to customize online store templates
Cons
- The analytics reporting can be improved
- It’s a bit hard to customize the email templates
Pricing
To get Adobe Commerce pricing, you need to fill out a form to demo the software, then you can get a custom quote from the sales.
10. Shift4Shop (formerly 3DCart)
The best Turnkey eCommerce solution for beginners
Shift4Shop is an ecommerce platform that provides a host of features and functionality. The software provides a fully customizable dashboard and an abundance of top-notch features.
The interface is straightforward and easy to use, and it offers features that make the shopping experience easier for users.
Whether you’re selling clothing, electronic gadgets, or services, the Shift4Shop eCommerce platform has the features and flexibility to meet your unique business needs.
With over 200 pre-built add-ons, it’s easy to find an app to suit your need.
Key Features
- Launch a website quickly with the Website Builder (no coding needed)
- Powerful shopping cart and checkout for your online store
- Customize your online store like a pro
- Take and manage orders on the go
- Marketing & SEO tools enabled
Pros
- It’s easy to customize our online store
- Easy to integrate with backend systems
- You can optimize your product pages to rank on Google
- Access real-time shipping and reduced fees
Cons
- The user interface could use some improvement
- It’s not a true WYSIWYG. Not ideal for non-coders
Pricing
Here’s a breakdown of Shift4Shop’s pricing and plans:
- Basic Store ($29/month): Get started with the basic features for your online store.
- Plus Store ($79/month): Everything in the Basic Store plan, and more.
- Pro Store ($229/month): All the advanced features and more.
Note: You save 10% when you yearly.
11. Ecwid
The best ecommerce platform to sell on Instagram and Facebook
Ecwid by Lightspeed lets you create an online store to sell on social media or through your website.
With an intuitive interface and easy-to-use tools, you can set up a shopping cart and start selling right away.
You can even combine your shopping cart with your existing website and sell on social media like Facebook.
Plus, you can easily run ads on your site from the Ecwid dashboard. If you’re interested in adding social media features, this platform has you covered.
Key Features
- Create your own storefront with visual customization
- Sell digital & physical products
- Automate your marketing with growth tools
- Create your own mobile app to sell more products
- Access to 50+ payment options
Pros
- A clean user interface
- Gain access to many customization options for your products
- It easily integrates with most apps and platforms
- Easily collect orders and process payments
Cons
- A basic custom styling
- More formatting options could be added
- The Free Forever plan has limited features
Pricing
Let’s breakdown the cost of using the Ecwid eCommerce platform:
- Venture plan ($12.50/month): It allows you to sell 100 physical or digital items in your store.
- Business ($29.17/month): You can sell 2,500 items.
- Unlimited plan ($82.50/month): Every feature included in the Business plan, plus all sales channels
Note: These monthly prices are billed annually. You’re saving 17% of the cost.
12. Weebly eCommerce
The best ecommerce website builder for easy of use
Weebly eCcommerce can make it easier to sell products online.
The platform includes tools that allow you to accept payments from PayPal and Google Checkout, as well as a shopping cart.
You can also add unlimited items to your store and use basic inventory management.
The platform also offers features for managing your online store globally. Other features include order management, shipment tracking, and real-time reporting.
Key Features
- A complete eCommerce website builder
- Modern eCommerce templates to pick from
- Fully integrated Shopping Cart
- Manage hundreds of products with ease
- Sell anything: digital, physical, or services
Pros
- Easy online store migration
- Weebly editor is easy to use
- Enhance online store speed with helpful tools
- Pick and customize a theme as you want to
Cons
- Limited eCommerce and blogging tools
- Customer support isn’t very responsive
Pricing
A summary of what Weebly Commerce costs:
- PRO ($12/month): For groups that need their own online store.
- Business ($25/month): Kick off your online store with more features, suitable for small businesses. It’s an annual billing plan.
- Business Plus (38/month): For large sales volume, go with this plan. This is the plan for you. It’s billed annually.
Weebly provides a drag-and-drop website builder to help you create a beautiful website with ease.
13. Square Online
The best agile multivendor ecommerce platform
The Square Online ecommerce platform is a good choice for smaller businesses.
This ecommerce software offers many features that many smaller business owners don’t need.
However, the basic platform is limited and is not ideal for larger operations. The website is easy to set up, but it does not support advanced features like multiple currencies.
The Square Online ecommerce platform includes inventory management tools.
In addition, you can integrate the platform with the Square POS system. With this integration, you can manage your inventory from a single dashboard.
Key Features
- Launch online store with an easy to use site builder
- Accept all major credit cards on your site
- Zero fees for refunds or chargebacks
- A huge library of designer-ready templates
Pros
- Pick a template from a huge library, customize, and launch your online store
- Publish your online store quickly (no need to write codes)
- Easy to keep track of product sales
- Great features for the money
- A ton of professional templates to use
- An easy to use interface
Cons
- The transaction fees are high, except you use the Square payment system
- You have customization limits with the platform
Pricing
Square offers a ton of products and features. Here’s the pricing and fees illustrated:
The Square Online ecommerce platform is a good choice for smaller businesses. It’s a great agile multivendor ecommerce software.
14. Yo!Kart
The best agile multivendor ecommerce software
Yo!Kart is a multi-seller ecommerce platform.
It’s suitable for businesses that are looking to launch a multi-vendor marketplace.
It offers an impressively designed, user-friendly interface with standard features and low pricing. If you’re on a budget, the platform is ideal for small businesses.
It features a multi-vendor marketplace that can handle up to 500k products, which is a substantial amount of product inventory.
As an added bonus, Yo!Kart has an easy-to-use CMS, which allows administrators to control the content on the website and mobile apps. This ensures that all content is updated and relevant to the user’s needs.
Key Features
- Modern eCommerce features: Multi-currency, multi-lingual, etc.
- A Responsive Design layout to serve customers on all devices
- Simple product management dashboard
- Personalized marketing features: affiliate module, PPC ads, etc.
Pros
- Easily customizable, easy to use for admins
- Yo!Kart provides good after-sales support
- It’s great for starting an eCommerce marketplace
- Start blogging with the blog integration tools
Cons
- The customization costs can add up quickly
- It’s hard to find basic functions and tools
- There’s a steep learning curve for beginners
Pricing
When you’re ready to try Yo!Kart eCommerce platform, here are the pricing plans:
- GoQuick: Thepricing begins at $999 (lifetime plan) and it includes a fully-owned license, zero payment processing charges, self-hosting, and white label solutions.
- GoQuick Boost: It’s a $ 2,499-lifetime license, every feature in GoQuick, and more.
- GoCustom: $7,499 lifetime licsense, including custom design, flexible payment options, etc.
Note: You can Save 30% when you choose the annual term for each plan.
Here are a few other notable ecomemrce platforms to consider:
What Are Ecommerce Platforms?
An ecommerce platform is a software application or tool that makes it easier for you to create and manage an online store — from marketing to sales to operations — to scaling your business.
Platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce give you powerful and easy-to-use ecommerce tools while helping you integrate with your favorite business tools — so that you can run your online business your way.
What Types of Ecommerce Platforms Are There?
Here’s a crash course on the different types of ecommerce platforms you’ll often come across:
1. Hosted Ecommerce Platform
A hosted eCommerce platform is a type of Software as a Service (SaaS) that allows businesses to host and manage their online stores in the host’s service.
A few great examples are Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.
2. Self-Hosted Ecommerce Platform
In a self-hosted eCommerce platform, the store owner is responsible for hosting and managing every aspect of the site.
So you’ll typically set up a server (in the cloud typically) and maintain all your store’s files and data on that online server.
A a few great examples are WooCommerce (which is best for WordPress users), and Prestashop, a freemium open-source ecommerce platform.
You can download it for free and install it on your hosting account. This will allow you to set product management system, use customizable checkouts, and more.
3. PaaS
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a distributed computing model in which you get support from a third party with respect to software and hardware equipment.
If you’re a developer, you can focus on writing codes and running your business, while another company takes care of the equipment, server, and other capital-intensive logistics.
4. License
In a licensed eccmmerce platform, you’ll buy a one-time permit to set up and launch your online store with a preferred host, while handling the equipment or letting a third-party handle it. The permit defines what you can and cannot do with the product.
What to Look for in Ecommerce Platforms?
The quicker you get a slice of the ecommerce revenue share, the better for you. According to this data, global ecommerce revenue is expected to increase to $4.2 trillion by 2025.
You can’t begin to imagine how many ecommerce platforms are out there. As a result, some of these software platforms will offer better and more useful features for the money.
Here are some factors to look for in an ecommerce store builder:
1. Feature set
An all-important factor to consider is the features you’ll be getting with an ecommerce online store builder.
Key features such as product management, checkout page, multiple payment gateways, and the option to sell both physical and digital products are important.
The eCommerce tool should also offer advanced marketing tools, for upselling, offering discount codes, etc.
2. Easy to use
The goal of choosing an ecommerce platform is to quickly create and launch your online store. So, choose an ecommerce software based on how easy the features are easy to use.
3. Design
How do you design your online store? It’s hard if you have to do everything from scratch.
So pick an ecommerce platform that offers a wide collection of ready-to-use templates, which are easy to customize and align to your branding.
As an example, an open-source ecommerce platform like WooCommerce may require a hands-on learning curve — since you’re expected to do everything yourself.
A hosted online store platform will be easier because you can use the drag and drop builder.
4. Pricing
The price of an online store builder is an important factor to consider as well. “You’ll definitely get what you paid for.” This is true with eCommerce and running an online business. So consider the pricing, in comparison to other similar tools.
5. Marketing
Your online store will not promote itself. That’s why it’s important to choose a platform that offers marketing features and tools.
Your product pages should be well-optimized for search. That way, you can increase your chances of getting organic traffic and sales from Google.
What Are The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Business?
As a small business owner, it’s important to pick an online store platform that will give you flexibility and speed.
In other words, you should be able to design, launch, and edit your product pages quickly, without having to write codes unending.
With a plethora of software tools competing as the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses, from my experience, you should consider using Shopify, Wix eCommerce for design flexibility, and Shift4Shop for affordable pricing options.
What Are The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Large Business?
The feature set needed by a large business to successfully launch and manage an ecommerce website may be different from what a small business would need.
To start a large ecommerce store, pick from these popular ecommerce platforms:
- Shopify Plus: Enterprise-grade features for processing high-volume orders.
- BigCommerce or BigCommerce Enterprise: Extended functionality for your large online stores.
- Adobe Commerce: Build multi-channel commerce experiences
- WooCommerce Enterprise: Giving you control to sell anything
- Squarespace Enterprise: Best-in-class design for your online store
What Are The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Startups & Beginners?
Ready to launch your own small business ecommerce website?
These ecommerce platforms are best for sartups and will give you the essential features to launch your online store with ease:
- Shopify: A drag-and-drop online store builder.
- WooCommerce: Sell products online through WordPress
- BigCommerce: Start small, but be open to scale your online store
- Wix eCommerce: Lots of designer-ready templates to pick from and customize
- Squarespace Commerce: Create a stunning online store with a simple editor
What is the Best Ecommerce Platform for SEO?
You can increase your chances of ranking your online store in Google search. Get started with these ecommerce platforms:
- Squarespace Commerce: A set of SEO tools to rank on Google
- BigCommerce: Control your product title, meta description, etc.
- WooCommerce: WordPress sites are designed to rank on Google
- Adobe Commerce: Fix technical issues on your store
- Shift4Shop: Optimize your product pages for Google.
What Are The Best Free Ecommerce Platforms?
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly and the best free eommerce platforms, you can get started with these two:
- Square Online: Build a free online store with the Free Forever plan.
- Big Cartel: Start an online store for creatives and freelancers. Sell up to 5 products in the Free plan.
What Are the Best Ecommerce Platforms for Dropshipping?
When you’re ready to launch a dropshipping business, you need an ecommerce software that’s designed for that.
Here are my recommendations:
- Shopify: A huge library of dropshipping store templates to use
- BigCommerce: Dropship products globally with BigCommerce
- Wix eCommerce: All the tools you’ll ever need to start and manage a dropshipping business.
Benefits of Using an Ecommerce Platform
Here are some of the top benefits of using a a great ecommerce platform to launch your own online store this year.
What does an ecommerce platform really do?
Why should you even bother using it? In this section, let’s dive into the core benefits — and why it’s a game-changer selling products online.
1. Easy to Scale
How do you cater to a group of customers who are outside of your geographical location when you’re not selling online? It can be done, but why waste time and resources?
With an online store builder, you can be up and running quickly. Your eCommerce website will be accessible to everyone — regardless of their location.
You can now target a global audience and grow your business exponentially.
2. Responsive Customer Support
Shopify and Wix provide some of the most reliable customer support you can ever imagine.
The team will reply to your emails, take your phone calls, and listen to you.
If you create an online store from scratch, without using an intuitive eCommerce builder, you’ll have to deal with both customer and tech issues.
3. Built-in Drag-and-Drop Store Builder
Today, it’s a lot easier to launch your online store without having to learn coding skills. This means you can start taking orders online and growing your business.
The drag-and-drop store builders are handy, and almost every eCommerce platform offers this feature. If you don’t find this feature, you might as well look elsewhere.
4. Built-in Ecommerce Marketing Tools
While it’s easy to create an online store these days, it’s equally important to know how to reach your ideal customers.
That’s why eCommerce marketing tools are important.
Some essential features of these include built-in newsletters to enable you to send targeted emails to your customers.
Social media integration — so that you can sell products on Facebook, etc. After all, 78% of consumers are willing to purchase from a brand with a social media presence
5. Drive Organic Customers
The best eCommerce platforms are used by millions of online sellers because they give them the options to drive customers from Google organic search.
Ecommerce platforms offer both basic and advanced SEO tools and capabilities to help you increase your search visibility.
WooCommerce, in particular, is the most powerful online store builder, integrated into WordPress, which can provide you with measurable SEO results.
FAQs About Ecommerce Platforms
Here are some frequently asked questions about ecommerce platforms.
Best Ecommerce Platforms – Summary
My goal with this ultimate comparison review of the best ecommerce platforms is to help you choose the right ecommerce software for your business.
Once you know your price point and what features are important to you, it becomes easier to choose an online store platform to sell your products.
Here are my final recommendations:
- Shopify – Best all-around option ecommerce platform.
- BigCommerce – Best for startups and large business.
- WooCommerce – Best option for WordPress stores and SEO (host your WooCommerce store using Nexcess managed hosting).
- Wix eCommerce – Best ecommerce website builder for dropshipping.
- Squarespace Commerce – Best ecommerce platform for creatives.
I appreciate your time. Now, it’s your turn.
What is your preferred ecommerce platform?
Did I cover an ecommerce platform you’re already using (or didn’t cover) in this guide?
I’d love to know your experience with it. Feel free to leave your comment below.
Further reading on navidm.com: To take your website to the next level, be sure to check out my complete guide to the best website builders. You can also check out my guide to the best landing page software and best shopping cart software, and even more in-depth online software reviews here.