The e-commerce industry is growing fast, which means people are still choosing the option of buying things online to walking directly to stores.
But before setting up an online store, you need to choose the right eCommerce platform to use.
An e-commerce platform is software that allows you to build and manage an online store, it helps you manage your site, products, sales, transaction, and everything related to an online store.
Choosing the right platform isn’t easy because the market is flooded with various eCommerce software but today, we shall talk about the top-rated among users.
It doesn’t matter if you starting a new website, this guide will help you choose the best eCommerce software that fits you.
What are the best e-commerce platform for both startups and small bussiness?
With the world’s billionaire being jeff Beroz, founder of Amazon, we are more confident than ever that the e-commerce industry is still booming.
A good eCommerce software should be easy to use and easy to add products, it shouldn’t be complicated.
It should offer coupons, discounts and it should track inventory automatically.
Here are my best e-commerce plate forms to try this year.
- Wix
- Shopify
- Bigcommerce
- 3Dcart
- Zyro
- Ecwid
- Woo-commerce
- sellfy
- Volusion
- Magento
- Easy Digital Downloads
1. Wix
Wix is best known as a drag and drops site builder, it’s also known as the best eCommerce platform for both small businesses and startups.
The best part about Wix is its simplicity, Your eCommerce site will get the drag and drop functionalities like the traditional Wix site, which makes it very easy for beginners to start an online store.
At 20$ a month, you can upgrade your site to full e-commerce functionality, Your Wix online store makes it very easy to manage orders, inventory, and communicate with your customers.
You can optimize your online store on your android or iPhone, you can also customize the best look for mobile users.
Wix has more than 400 eCommerce templates to choose from and you have a beautiful array of product galleries for you to showcase your products.
Wix doesn’t take transaction commissions, so you incur fees from only the payment processor.
As of now, Wix doesn’t support drop shipping but hopefully next year.
Wix offers 4 different plans of which all plans accept online payments. The first plan starts at 20$ but in most cases, there are always huge discounts. you might even get a paid plan for just 12$.
All plans come with unlimited bandwidth but storage varies according to different price tiers.
How to start your online store on Wix(step-by-step guide)
- Login into Wix or signup for free, you don’t need a credit card.
- choose a template for an online store.
- Edit everything in the template by adding your bussiness name.
- Click, my store, and manage your store.
- Go to your store and add products.
- Go to bussiness setup to add your store, shipping, and payment setting.
- Now publish your site, connect your domain, and start making money.
Try Wix and start selling products online with the easiest and beginner-friendly eCommerce platform this year. Get started with Wix for Free
2. Shopify
Shopify is the most known eCommerce software in the world, hosting over 1 million eCommerce websites.
The good thing about Shopify is, it doesn’t matter if you starting a small or large business, it has all the tools you need to build any type of store, Multimillioneir kylie Jenner started her lipstick business using Shopify.
It is easy to use and beginner-friendly for anyone who just wants to jump straight to eCommerce. it’s great for stores that don’t require a lot of technical support.
Shopify gained massive support from the dropshipping world, The presence of various integrations makes starting a dropshipping store on Shopify easy to manage and grow.
It integrates with over 3200 apps in the Shopify app store, all these apps will help your business grow while simplifying tasks.
It also has a 24/7 hour customer, You will have access to their customer support before you even sign up for a paid plan.
If you want a beautiful-looking and optimized online store. Shopify is the best way to go but you will have to market it well to have success.
Shopify has its own payment processor making it easy for all beginners.
Even though Shopify is widely used, it can be hard to design those templates, especially for beginners.
It can also be more expensive as you scale compared to Wix.
There are 3 paid plans offered by Shopify:
- Basic Shopify 29$
- Shopify 79$
- Advanced Shopify 299$
Get access to a 14 day trial with Shopify.( your credit card isn’t needed)Try a 14-day trial with Shopify
3. BigCommerce
Big-commerce has been providing e-commerce solutions for the last decade processing over 17billions in merchant sales.
Similar to Shopify, Bigcomerce is an all in all eCommerce software providing everything you need to start selling online.
BigCommerce is my number one recommendation for large businesses.
BigCommerce has the best SEO features with over 40+ advanced payment gateways, 24/7 customer support and you can grow your online business to over a 100million dollars per year.
In most cases, when someone thinks about opening an online store, they run to Shopify but as their business grows, their expenses become bigger making it hard to scale their business and that is when they run to big commerce.
Bigcommerce offers free SSL certificates and their themes are fully optimized and responsive. It also provides extra features to grow your business.
Even though the extra features can be a bit overwhelming, For people planning to use these features, it’s a little piece of cake for them.
The platform has positive reviews on having excellent uptime, fast loading speed, good security, and other performance metrics.
They offer unique solutions to WordPress users, wholesale shops, and B2B stores. In 2018, they launched Bigcommerce for WordPress a tool that makes it easy to manage your front end content on WordPress and their backend on Bigcommerce
Whether you are starting a small business or a large business, Bigcommerce has got you covered with awesome features to grow your business. It has three plans which are:
- Standard — $29.95 per month
- Plus — $79.95 per month
- Pro — $249.95 per month
Each tier comes with various features but what is unique about BigCommerce is your store will be upgraded if it reaches certain sales milestones each year.
- Standard — Up to $50,000
- Plus — Up to $150,000
- Pro — Up to $400,000
For example, you will be upgraded from standard to pro if, in the last 12months, you exceed 50000$ in sales.
Get started with a 15-day trial with Bigcomerce. Try Bigcommerce
4. 3Dcart
3Dcard has been in the e-commerce business for more than 20 years with over 20000 merchants using this platform, although it is not at the same level as Wix, big commerce, and Shopify, it’s actually a great option to consider for advanced eCommerce users.
It has over 100 payment gateways, 50themes, and robust SEO features, 3Dcart is one of the best e-commerce platforms with the best SEO features.
Their plans start at 19$ for a start-up store up to 114$ for pro stores, all plans come with:
- unlimited products.
- no transactional fees.
- 24/7 customer support.
- Domain registration.
- unlimited bandwidth.
- Facebook store.
- Built-in blog.
One drawback is the admin dashboard isn’t user-friendly and many themes are outdated and limited.
They don’t offer a drag and drop builder, you will have to do coding to customize themes the way you want.
3Dcart offers a 15-day trial which is backed with a 30 day back money guarantee. Try 3Dcart
5. Zyro
Zyro is a popular website builder that just launched its awaited zero eCommerce software in 2020.
They took all the awesome experience and knowledge from their website builder and developed the e-commerce platform.
With zyro, merchants have the option to sell everywhere for example on Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon.
The drag and drop builder makes it beginner-friendly, You will design a beautiful-looking website without coding.
Zyro provides everything you need to run an online store for example:
- shipping and tax management.
- Free hosting
- messenger live chat
- Discount coupons
- multiple payment options.
- inventory management
- order tracking
All zyro templates can be used for an online store, you just have to go to the element section and add a shop.
One drawback is since it’s new software, it’s still being developed for more features and capabilities, it has 65 e-commerce themes to choose from but we are expecting more in the feature.
About pricing, their eCommerce plans start at 14.99$ a month and 21$ for a bigger plan. You are also given a 30 day back money guarantee.Try Zyro
6.Ecwid
Ecwid is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms with a customer base of 1.6 million small businesses. It is the best alternative to WordPress.
If you are a WordPress user who just wants to add a store to your site, then Ecwid is the best option if you are not interested in WooCommerce.
Ecwid can help you sell to other platforms like eBay, Facebook, Amazon, and Instagram which gives you wider access to potential clients.
Unlike Woocommerce, Ecwid integrates well with other platforms like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Blogger, Squarespace, Tumblr, and Joomla.
Ecwid allows you to create, manage, and track all your advertisements in your dashboard, which means you create perfect Instagram and Facebook advertisements from your dashboard.
With Ecwid mobile app, you can create a website, add products, manage your store just from your mobile phone. you don’t have to worry about carrying a laptop everywhere.
Other unique features of Ecwid are:
- inventory tracking.
- Advanced SEO tools.
- Abandoned cart emails.
- Scheduled order pick up.
- Automatic updates.
- Customer address book.
- Managing product options.
Ecwid has a free plan forever but it’s only limited to 10 products and you won’t be able to get a Facebook store, amazon store, Instagram, and eBay store.
The paid plans start at 15$for the venture plan, 35$ for the business plan, and 99$ for unlimited.
You can have a free plan with them forever.Try Ecwid
7. WooCommerce
Woocomerce is different from the other eCommerce platforms we have seen so far, It is a WordPress plugin with nearly 80 million downloads making it the world’s most popular e-commerce software.
Over 30% of the online stores are powered by Woocomerce, with this plugin, any website running on WordPress can be turned into an eCommerce store.
Woocommerce is a free plugin, all you have to do is download it, install it and activate it, then your store is set but you need to have a complete running website fast, Here is a guide to help you start your website.
You can customize your store by adding up the Woocommerce extension, some are free but others require you to pay.
One drawback is Woocomerce is only a plugin for WordPress developers, if you are using other site builders like Wix, square space, or any other, it is impossible for you to use Woocommerce.
Having a plugin alone isn’t enough, you will need to buy other paid extensions to have the full functionality of your website. That’s why for WordPress users, you can use Ecwid or BigCommerce as an alternative for setting up an online store.Try Woo-commerce for free
8. Sellfy
Sellfy is a simple but very powerful eCommerce for bloggers because it allows you to sell physical products, subscriptions, and digital products.
Their platform was originally created to sell digital products like ebooks and songs but now, they developed it to sell physical products.
With an easy dashboard to use and you can set up your store in just minutes, I recommend this to bloggers, creators, and small businesses who want to sell both digital products and physical products.
Some of the best features of Sellfy include:
- Tracking and analytic tools.
- Built-in marketing features.
- You can embed buy buttons anywhere.
- pay pal and stripe as payment buttons.
- integrations with other apps.
- Secure transactions and anti-fraud protection.
There is no free plan like Ecwid, but there are paid plans to start at 19$ for the starter plan, 39$ for business, and 89$ for premium.
Overall, for bloggers who want to sell digital products and physical products, Sellfy fits you well. Try Sellfy
9. Volusion
For around 20 years, volution has helped merchants start online stores, More than a 28billions have been processed by volution.
With Volusion, it’s very easy to create your store, add products, complete orders, and scale your business.
This eCommerce software is only for selling physical products, for those thinking of selling digital products, this platform isn’t for you.
Volusion is for those who are planning to sell unlimited products because with Volusion, there is no limit to the number of products you can sell.
Their plans start at 29$ a month and there are no transactional fees involved.
You can start with a 14-day trial which doesn’t require you a credit card. Try Volusion
10. Magento
Magento is an eCommerce platform designed for enterprise-level e-commerce stores, it is used by Nike, Canon, Hp, and jack daniels.
It has specific features for businesses that operate B2B, B2C, or both, it has strong capabilities for any type of online store across the industry.
This eCommerce software is for big business, Do not consider it if you are a small business because it’s not worth it.
It has drag and drops capabilities which makes designing your online store easy and simple.
There are over 1000 extensions you can choose from to have a well-functioning website.
The pricing for Magento starts at 20000$ for a year on an enterprise plan however there are lower prices for sal business.Try Magento
11. Easy Digital Downloads
As the name sounds, it is specifically made for selling digital products, for only WordPress users. If you are not a WordPress user, Try sellfy.
It is the best plugin for selling digital items like ebooks, courses, and any other from WordPress.
EDD has over 2million downloads and over 100 themes and extensions.
It has a complete shopping cart that enables customers to buy multiple products at the same time. You can also add discount codes and unlimited downloads, which means your customers can download the same product unlimited times.
You can track how customers are downloading your products and have a full data report on how your business is doing.
Here is the pricing overview of easy digital downloads.
- Personal pass 99$.
- extended pass 199$
- Professional pass 299$
- All-access pass 499$
EDD is quite affordable compared to its exclusive capabilities.Try Easy Digital Downloads
How to find the best eCommerce platform for your business
Choosing the best eCommerce platform can be challenging but you have to pay attention to features like.
Ease to set up a store.
An online store should be easy to set up, one of the best capabilities should be drag and drag options because even a beginner can set up an online store easily and quickly.
You shouldn’t hire a developer to help you launch your online store. Before you choose an eCommerce platform, make sure it is very easy to start a store.
Pricing and affordabilty
A good eCommerce platform should offer a price range between 20-30$ at least for a starter plan.
It shouldn’t be very expensive to launch a store.
Nature of your website
Before you choose an eCommerce platform, take a look at the nature of the website you have or the one you want. Not all e-commerce platforms operate on all websites for example WooCommerce is only for WordPress users.
If you are not a WordPress user, you will have to select another e-commerce platform like ecwid.
If you have an existing WordPress blog and all you want is to sell digital products, using easy digital downloads will be the best option.
Before you choose an e-commerce platform, always look at the nature of the website you have or want.
Here is a quick review of the best e-commerce platforms that have reviews in this guide.
Wix – The best drag and drop website builder with ease setup.
Shopify-Best eCommerce platform for startups, beginners, and drop-shippers.
BigCommerce- Best for small businesses growing into large businesses.
3Dcart- best eCommerce platform for small business
woocommerce- Best WordPress plugin for eCommerce functionality.
Ecwid- Best eCommerce software to sell on various platforms.
Sellfy- Best to sell both physical and digital products.
Volusion- best for selling unlimited products
Magneto- Best e-commerce solution for enterprise stores.
Easy digital downloads- Best for selling digital products on WordPress.Save
