With the rise in demand for online shopping, choosing the right e-commerce platform is necessary for the rapid success of businesses. Since its modern era, companies should seek the best eCommerce platform that offers innovative features and seamless integration. Thus, whether you desire to run a small business or expand your online store, we’ve compiled a list of top-notch platforms to build online stores.
What is an E-Commerce Platform?
While defining an e-commerce platform, we can say it is a content manager system that allows businesses to create and operate online stores to buy or sell products. It offers tools like listing, shopping cart functionality, and order management to sell services or products effectively. Not just that, from showcasing your products to handling the entire sale process, a smart e-commerce platform handles all.
Other than sales and listing, these websites leverage marketing and analytics tools that help enterprises boost their online presence. These websites can either be self-hosted, hosted in the cloud, or hosted by one host to streamline operations and customer experience.
How to Choose the Best eCommerce Platform?
When it comes to choosing the best e-commerce website, the process can be time-consuming. Hence, to help you in managing your online store, we’ve shared some expert ways to choose the right option.
- Identify Your Business Needs: Before you explore the e-commerce platforms, start by defining the purpose of your business. While doing so, determine at what scale you want to expand your business to choose a website that meets your objectives.
- Evaluate the Platform’s Features: After exploring the needs of the business, make a list of all the features and functionalities you want to incorporate in the store. For that, decide if the website should offer options like shipping methods, marketing tools, or discount codes for users’ ease.
- Consider Ease of Use: If you are non-tech savvy, consider a platform that offers an intuitive interface and straightforward navigation. This will help you easily set up and manage the store without requiring any learning curve.
- Security and Compliance: Look for PCI-DSS in the e-commerce platforms to safeguard customer information from misuse. Also, features like SSL certificates and data encryption tools make it easy to maintain privacy while shopping.
- Pricing and Total Cost of Ownership: Finally, verify whether the platform you are considering meets your budget needs or not. Many e-commerce platforms require monthly subscriptions and additional costs for plugins.
Top 10 Best eCommerce Platforms
Once you consider the above-mentioned considerations, selecting the best wholesale e-commerce platform will be child’s play. Still, for your assistance, we’ve covered some of the best options, which have a wide range of features and tools. Review the following details to choose which eCommerce platform meets your sales and marketing needs.
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the best eCommerce platforms that gives you the capability to create online stores with a global reach. Based on preferences, this platform offers you built-in templates and themes through which you can easily personalize storefronts and messages. Moreover, through its sales channels, enterprises can promote and sell products either on social media or through online marketplaces.
In terms of marketing, it enables you to accommodate unlimited contacts to Shopify accounts so that you can easily filter with customer segmentation tools. For customer support, it features abandoned check recovery to notify users in case they leave the website without checking out.
Pros
- This e-commerce platform supports third-party integration to manage the business through assimilation with compatible apps.
- To break the language barrier among users, you will get automated translations to enhance customer experience.
Con
- Its basic and advanced plan lacks expansion stores, limiting the enterprises to set up new stores under the same brand.
Pricing Plans
- Basic: $25 per month
- Shopify: $65 per month
- Advanced: $399 per month
- Plus: $2,300 per month
2. Weebly
Being one of the best e-commerce platforms for small businesses, Weebly offers an advanced drag-and-drop editor tool for building online stores. Through this, you can insert text, video, and photos anywhere on your store page to customize the interface. Not just that, Weebly’s shopping cart is set up automatically, removing the effort of integrating the shopping cart from scratch.
Furthermore, with its inventory tracker, you can keep a record of supplies and inform the customers of the number of remaining items. Plus, its free e-commerce cloud hosting ensures to operate online store smoothly, no matter the amount of traffic you receive.
Pros
- Regardless of the plan you opt for, you can add an unlimited number of items to your store to boost the sales potential of your products.
- Having innovative SEO tools, Weebly also ensures you improve your search ranking to increase your sales.
Con
- With its basic plan, you won’t get a free domain option to set up an online store.
Pricing Plans
- Personal: $13 per month
- Professional: $16 per month
- Performance: $29 per month
3. Wix
Among the e-commerce platforms listed, Wix is another one that can build an online store through its intuitive website builder with custom domains. By considering any extension, avail yourself of its 1-year free domain voucher where you can remove Wix branding. Through this, you can add features like custom reports to get valuable insights into your store.
To cater to your marketing needs, there is a lead capture form tool that encourages visitors to share details in exchange for vouchers and discounts. Moreover, by adding site chats to websites, you can resolve customers’ queries directly from the website.
Pros
- Users can insert site analytics tools in their online store to review site traffic and revenue reports.
- In addition, one can connect external calendars to keep track of upcoming events in one place.
Con
- Users of the basic version won’t be able to utilize a site analytic tool to track the store’s performance.
Pricing Plans
- Light: $17 per month
- Core: $29 per month
- Business: $36 per month
- Business Elite: $159 per month
4. Square Online
Square is a revolutionary e-commerce platform that features built-in website themes to let users customize them according to their brand preferences. Furthermore, its user-oriented layout and design controls allow you to edit each section’s alignment to professionally display products. Having robust SEO tools, one can easily enhance their search engine ranking to drive traffic on the website.
With its order and fulfillment tools, users can set limits on the number of items that will be added to a single order. Apart from that, to keep track of your products, you can also make use of its inventory tracker to notify buyers of available items.
Pros
- Compared to other best e-commerce websites, Square Online features an innovative risk manager that enables you to safeguard stores from potential risks.
- With its versatile item catalog tool, one can add and sell an unlimited number of products.
Con
- If you seek a free domain for 1 year, you have to go for plus or premium options to avail of them.
Pricing Plans
- Plus: $29 per month
- Premium: $79 per month
5. Big Cartel
From online to in-person selling, this best wholesale e-commerce platform supports advanced template customization tools to personalize stores. While tailoring their stores, users can insert a real-time sales dashboard to track the performance of the store. In addition, you will be able to insert various payment methods like cards, PayPal, or Afterpay to boost customer convenience on your platform.
To manage payments, utilize its sales tax autopilot to automate tax calculations and compliance to reduce the risk of errors during transactions. Fortunately, its premium version offers bulk editing to efficiently manage product listing at once. You can also insert ads to target heavy-traffic platforms if you want to boost the ranking of your website.
Pros
- This eCommerce platform enables users to insert one or more images per product to showcase items effectively.
- Besides, one can import products from Etsy, Shopify, or any other platform to streamline inventory management.
Con
- However, its free plan lacks custom domain options, limiting branding options for users.
Pricing Plans
- Platinum: $15 per month
- Diamond: $30 per month
6. Ecwid
While talking about the best e-commerce platforms, Ecwid comes to mind due to its ability to set up online stores easily. Using this eCommerce platform, users will be able to customize the stores to match their brand identity with its different themes. Moreover, this platform supports multiple payment gateways, which ensure secure transactions for every customer.
Alongside that, its automated email campaign feature is designed to help businesses engage customers effortlessly. Additionally, you can schedule and personalize emails based on specific triggers such as abandoned carts or new orders. It also provides advanced reporting tools that give businesses valuable insight into customer behavior.
Pros
- Ecwid stands out as the best e-commerce platform for small businesses because of its free and affordable pricing option.
- This platform automatically translates your store into various languages and helps you connect with customers worldwide.
Con
- While Ecwid provides customizable storefronts, the design options are somewhat limited compared to other platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce.
Pricing Plans
- Venture: $25 per month
- Business: $45 per month
- Unlimited: $105 per month
7. CoreCommerce
As a comprehensive e-commerce platform, this website builder offers seamless integration for product purchases within your website. It supports various payment gateways and customizable options to enhance customer experience. Besides, this platform offers recurring payments, which is ideal for businesses offering subscription-based services or products.
Another amazing feature of this eCommerce platform is that it provides users with in-depth insights into sales and customer behavior. So, this will help business owners track performance metrics and make data-driven decisions. Hence, CoreCommerce stands out as the scalable solution for users looking for the best e-commerce websites.
Pros
- This platform offers a custom SSL feature to its users to ensure that the data between web servers and browsers is protected.
- Users will be able to integrate payments with their customers by using its secure Developer API feature.
Con
- While functional, some users may find the available design templates less modern or flexible.
Pricing Plans
- Pioneer: $35 per month
- Pro: $85 per month
- Pro Plus Unlimited: $235 per month
8. OpenCart
OpenCart stands out as an open-source eCommerce platform that allows businesses to create and manage online stores with thousands of plugins to enhance store functionality. Its built-in SEO features improve search engine visibility, while the admin dashboard provides detailed insight into sales and orders. Moreover, users can manage multiple stores from one admin dashboard, which makes it ideal for expanding businesses globally.
When talking about this best website for e-commerce, it lets you set up your backups and restorations. Besides, one standout feature of OpenCart is the ability to upload modules with just a few clicks using Extension Installer.
Pros
- OpenCart is free to download and use website builder, which makes it a cost-effective solution for businesses on a budget.
- This e-commerce platform also features hundreds of themes that can help users grow and expand their businesses.
Con
- Open-source nature may require regular updates and customizations for optimal security.
Pricing Plans
- Contact the Sales Team
9. WooCommerce
WooCommerce allows businesses to turn their websites into fully functioning online shops with advanced features. It lets you make highly customizable sites with thousands of free and paid extensions available. Additionally, this eCommerce platform offers enhanced functionality like payment gateways and marketing tools. The platform supports unlimited products and categories with built-in inventory management.
With its user-friendly interface, even those with minimal technical skills can effectively manage products and customer information. It also provides detailed analytics and reporting features, helping store owners monitor sales and performance.
Pros
- As a WordPress plugin, it benefits from the platform’s powerful features and large community support.
- Plus, WooCommerce offers excellent SEO features to help improve search engine visibility.
Con
- With numerous plugins, site speed can be affected, which requires optimization for better performance.
Pricing Plans
- Hosting costs: $2.95 – 13.95 per month
- Theme cost: $0 to 129 per year
10. Adobe Commerce
As the best B2B e-commerce platform, Adobe Commerce offers seamless integration with various tools to enhance customer experience. It supports headless commerce, which separates the front-end and back-end of the e-commerce platform. This eCommerce platform allows businesses to create unique customer experiences across various touchpoints, such as websites and social media.
Alongside that, its multi-channel solution simplifies your workflow and delivers flawless customer experience. Besides, its robust framework also ensures high performance and reliability, critical for businesses aiming to provide absolute shopping experiences.
Pros
- Adobe Commerce is designed to handle large product catalogs and high traffic which makes it suitable for both small and large enterprises.
- Moreover, users can personalize any customer touchpoint based on immediate context and previously observed behavior.
Con
- The platform has many advanced features that can be hard to learn, especially for people who aren’t very tech-savvy.
Pricing Plans
- Contact the Customer Support
Boost E-commerce with ZEGOCLOUD: Enhance Real-Time Customer Engagement
If you want to create your own e-commerce platform, ZEGOCLOUD is there to assist you in building the best e-commerce website. This platform features predesigned UI components to insert a fully customized display while offering APIs and SDKs to embed communication features in the website. Furthermore, make your platform competitive among all by using live-streaming SDKs that will facilitate live-selling features.
Through this platform, you can use a watermark branding feature to display your logo in live streams and improve trademark recognition. Plus, with real-time messaging, you can let customers interact with you to resolve their queries. Other than streaming, it facilitates a co-shopping experience for users by embedding video or audio call options.
To do that, consider adding direct or group call features to generate a personalized shopping environment. Furthermore, you can embed its AI noise reduction tool to remove all noise except human voice and remove distractions while carrying out calls for shopping. Considering all these options, we can consider ZEGOCLOUD as the best option for brands looking to connect with their potential customers.
Conclusion
To wrap up, there are thousands of best websites for e-commerce out there, but choosing the right one matters to streamline the online business. Therefore, this article has covered renowned e-commerce platforms that you can consider selling or buying products. Besides, if you want to generate your own website, get assistance from ZEGOCLOUD and integrate customer engagement features through its APIs and SDKs.
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FAQ
Q1: What is the best ecommerce platform for small businesses?
Popular ecommerce platforms for small businesses include Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Shopify is known for its ease of use and scalability, while WooCommerce offers flexibility for WordPress users, and BigCommerce provides powerful built-in tools for growing businesses.
Q2: How do I choose the right ecommerce platform for my business?
Consider factors like your business size, budget, required features (such as SEO tools, payment gateways, and shipping options), ease of use, and whether you need customizability or built-in solutions. For developers, it’s also important to evaluate the platform’s API support and extensibility.
Q3: Can I customize my ecommerce platform to meet my specific needs?
Yes, many ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento allow for extensive customization through themes, plugins, and APIs. For developers, platforms with robust API access and open-source options, like WooCommerce and Magento, provide greater flexibility for custom features.
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