Content Index
- Introduction
- Why Use an Ecommerce Platform for your business?
- How does a business struggle to decide the right platform?
- Points To Consider While You Make A Decision
- List Of The Best Ecommerce Platforms With Pro And Cons:
- Best Ecommerce Platform For Small Business
- Key Takeaways while choosing the best ecommerce platform
Introduction
Certain question you need to ask yourself before you choose any ecommerce platform:
- What could be a great eCommerce platform for your businesses?
- What is the Best eCommerce platform for getting up and running quickly?
- Which platform can help you be the Best eCommerce platform for selling in-person or online?
- What is the Best eCommerce platform for getting started for free?
- What is the Best eCommerce platform for large volume sellers?
- What is the Best eCommerce platform for adding a shopping cart to an existing WordPress site?
- What is the Best eCommerce platform for simultaneously creating a store and business website?
The process of finding answers to these questions can not only help you get the best ecommerce platform for your business but also help you have a planned future of your business.
The time when you make this decision is very important. Are you just starting the business and have decided to explore the platforms and know the best one for you. Then you are simply SMARTEST of all. As and when your business grows, a well-thought of platform helps scalability and managing the business in an easier manner.
Why Use an Ecommerce Platform for your business?
Ecommerce platform comparison is not just helpful in choosing the best ecommerce platform for your business but also it helps in scalability and profitability. You can go with the top ecommerce platforms and they can help in many ways.
You can either build it from scratch and support your business in the most suitable manner. Or in case you plan to have the best online store platform later during the course of your business, you can choose to use some plugins or even design a new website with the best platform for ecommerce websites.
How does a business struggle to decide the right platform?
- For Businesses choosing the best ecommerce platform could be a very crucial step but they struggle doing it because of many reasons. They might be lacking the technical knowledge which is required to make the ecommerce platform comparison.
- They might not be ready to invest proper time and effort in making the ecommerce platform comparison. Perhaps they lack proper business vision for the coming up future and might affect the selection process for the top ecommerce platforms.
- Picking some unacceptable innovation for your website or business activities can be an overwhelming blow, and the most exceedingly awful part is numerous entrepreneurs don't realize they have picked some unacceptable choice.
- Explicit research might be a good method which can help in choosing the best platform for an ecommerce website, regardless of whether it be another CMS, SEO, programming, or some other sort of web innovation is basic for settling on the correct choice. Basically, some unacceptable innovation could be the contrast between an effective or bombed site or promoting activity.
Points To Consider While You Make A Decision
1. Scalability
Do you have Scalability planned?
Have you planned for the next 10 years?
Make sure you have answered these questions, when it comes to picking up the best online store platform. Always focus on the scale of the platform right now and how it will be in the next few years.
You might not wish to spend extra efforts and money years later, when you go wrong now. Hence, plan accordingly. You might have to pay for additional features at one platform which might be available at other platforms for free.
When your business grows, you would surely not love to go into the hassle of re-fixing your online store, rather you would be needed to focus on the core business activities, hence make sure you make the right choice well in advance.
2. Load of the product data or orders
E Commerce is one of the most competitive businesses, and hassle-free order management is very important. You can not afford an order management system which takes years for your orders to reach and is poorly managed.
Tracking orders, email notifications, shipping service API etc. are needed and make sure you choose the right platform in case your business needs the same. The communication between Order Management System OMS and Inventory Management needs to be good. You need advanced eCommerce product management with cutting-edge features out-of-the-box.
Bulk product upload through CSV and Excel files
Ability to create different categories and Map products to them
Ability to map different shipping options with individual products
High-quality product image upload in bulk
Advanced product listing based on Wish list, Product Comparison, and Recently Viewed.
Dynamic catalog filters like sorting, price range, color, size, location, specifications, etc.
3. Performance & process of business
Understand your Business type and make a choice based on the same. You can even look for the industry leaders and make a choice according to your similarities and differences.
Customer support is needed or not can also be a point which can make a difference in your choice. In order to help you as to which platform is good for you when you need certain features or not, we have listed all the best ecommerce platforms with the pros and cons. You can make an ecommerce platform comparison to choose the most suitable for your business.
Your industry type, might find one platform more suitable while others might not be as user friendly. Hence, you are advised to choose based on the industry type as well.
4. Resources
The person who is developing the website for your business is also important to consider. It can be an agency or an individual and depending on their expertise, availability you can make the right choice.
At times, you might need some long term resources and then in case you can not have the same resources for a longer period, you might have to go with another platform.
You can also choose the easiest ecommerce platform when it comes to customization, designing and developing.
5. Technical aspects
The technical aspects of the business might make a huge difference and you can or cannot choose a platform owing to that.
You can either explore these aspects, their usability and sync with your business or even go on and consult some experts.
Every technical aspect might not be useful for your business, hence go with something which is useful for the business and do not miss out on the aspects which are must-haves for your business.
6. Budget and pricing
Whether you’re a small business just getting started or an already established brick & mortar business moving online, you need to know exactly what you’ll be paying. Consider the price and budget for following:
The resources
Products or add ons
Plugins and themes. etc.
Most of the platforms will have a monthly fee. The cost might however vary on various factors and you might have to make a choice based on the same. Do not forget to weigh the pros and cons of each option such that do not compromise with features or your reuqiremnets just for the budget. The vice-versa is also true, you should not end up with something expensive which has features which are useless for your business.
7. Security
Nobody will enter their card details on any unsecure or a problematic site, which is the reason security is getting perhaps the greatest worry among purchasers.
While most programming today will have powerful security as standard, consistently check to ensure your chosen ecommerce platform comes with HTTPS/SSL for a secure or danger-free checkout for your clients.
Additionally, ensure that any platform which you pick is PCI (Payment Card Industry) complaint.
8. Maintenance and customization
To get the best results customization is needed in order to integrate or tweak some features in your ecommerce platform. Make sure you either have resources for customization or you are good to go with the basic themes available.
Customization might seem to be very easy initially however, even the easiest ecommerce platform might cause hassles for you later. Hence, you need to know what is available, what can be done and what exactly is required by you.
Along with that, you might also have similar lifelong requirements for maintaining your website. Do consider that feature and issues with all the platforms such that you make a choice which is not just manageable but also comes with options to help your business.
9. Multi-channel Integration
Integration and plugins need to be considered when you choose the best ecommerce platform. Most platforms, such as Shopify, will have plenty of tools for you to run your business. You can decide the best integration platforms needed for your business and hence make a choice accordingly.
Not only that, the process and ease of integration is also needed to be considered.
Here are some of the most popular types of plugins that you should look out for:
Accounting plugins to help with sales, taxes, revenues, and profits
Email marketing tools to help you keep in contact with your customers
A platform that helps you reward your customers for using your products
Apps to help with shipping your products
10. Mobile and SEO friendliness
When most of the world has already moved to mobile, Google too has made it a point to value Mobile friendliness of any website. Post-pandemic world has added to this need extensively. Every store be it groceries to household goods, medicine, and other staples, is now available on our mobile phone.
Hence it is important to have a b2b and b2c ecommerce platform or the best platform to build an ecommerce website which comes handy for mobile friendliness. The platform should support an intuitive, smooth customer journey. From design to navigation, layout, and general user experience, a well-designed mobile experience from beginning to end is critical.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is quite possibly the most basic factor in
guaranteeing your store's prosperity. Organic SEO sets aside effort to assemble, and the errand is a lot simpler when the platform you pick has best practices worked in — and makes staying aware of changes in Google's Algorithm is a priority.
Not all eCommerce Platforms are made equivalent with regards to SEO, so it's significant you verify what SEO abilities are incorporated, from straightforward alternatives like refreshing metadata (tags, descriptions) and captioning, describing images to further developed highlights like adding canonical tags and pagination in product search results.
List Of The Best Ecommerce Platforms With Pro And Cons:
1. Big-commerce
Positive
Flexible and scalable
Excels with multi-channel selling
Strong SEO Performance
Fantastic Theme Designs
Comprehensive abandoned cart feature
Negative
Shows Inconsistent speeds in many studies
Might be expensive for high volume stores
Cart abandonment isn’t there on the entry plan
No. 1-click Selling as well as Upsells
2. Shopify
Positive
Lighting fast load time
Extremely easy to set up
Many certified partners to help you
1-Click selling available
Allows multiple channel & social selling
Negative
Rated poorly in SEO in many studies.
Unable to customize for the checkout process
Apps can add up and might turn out to be costly
Need a developer for advanced features
3. Wix
Positive
Hundreds of free themes available
Simpler to use and set-up compared to others.
On-page Support available for many requirements
Negative
Has a bad SEO reputation, however the platform is trying to improve the features.
Many websites were not secured earlier
Lacks upselling features and advanced automation
Difficult when it comes to fully customize template
4. 3dcart
Positive
Come with a Better blog feature
Supports all the multi-channel integration
Great business user management tools for email, QuickBook and inventory.
Negative
Templates are in sync with the trends, however not very unique
Not really very supportive for customer support feature
Potential issues while upgrading
Not recommended for beginners
5. WooCommerce
Positive
WordPress is considered to be the best platform for SEO
1-Click selling app is available
Many WordPress experts are available
It is Highly customizable
Lots of marketing options available
Multi-channel integrations possible
Negative
Good hosting could be expensive
Troubleshooting could be troublesome.
No Virtual support is given
Extensions might be needed even for simple tasks
6. Volusion
Positive
Onboarding and help centers are great
Great flexibility come with Sitemaps
Built-in subscription or recurring payments can be done
SMB friendly
Dashboard is Well laid out
Clear inventory & Marketing System
Negative
Lacks up or cross selling features
Lots of websites had poor URL structure
Considered to be slower than other platforms
Lots of the sites look out-dates
No built-in blogging functionality
7. Prestashop
Positive
Hundreds of apps are available
Recommended for SEO
It is Open source & highly flexible
Large community which is ready-to-help
Easy Integrations possible
Negative
Slower than the other builders
You might need to have Add-ons as add ups.
Limited third-party marketing integrations possible
Developer skills are needed when required to tweak
No multichannel functionalities are there on the hosted version
8. Weebly
Positive
It has good value overall ecommerce marketing automation is not very expensive here
Stunning low cost and free designs
Powerful email tools
Simple dashboard that’s very easy to use
Mobile app available
Negative
Expensive as might have to pay an additional transaction fee
Extremely poor with SEO
Amazon doesn’t seem to be on their radar
Inventory management is still very basic
9. Squarespace
Positive
Easy To Set Up
Great For Simple Stores
Comes with Stunning Designs
Extremely good SEO tools
Integrates well with ShipStation and ShipBob
Negative
No drop shipping available
No marketing automation integration possible
No Amazon integration available
Could be more faster for the price
No app store for more features and functionalities
10. Magento
Positive
Feature rich and very Robust
Highly recommended for SEO
1-Click selling available
Many users and community is there
Scalable and highly customizable
Flexible to choose where you want to host the software
Negative
Themes are expensive to use
Could be easily Slowed Down
Requires Development Skills
Virtually no support is needed
Huge Space and lots of memory is needed to perform well
The analysis of the features here is based on many surveys online and hence might not be used as a thumb rule for all the business types. You are advised to consider this before you choose something apt for your business.
Best Ecommerce Platform For Small Business
Key Takeaways while choosing the best ecommerce platform
Spend a good amount of time and effort to research for all the options available, and do not forget to consult the right people. Such that you can make a decision which counts and makes a difference in your business.
In this process of ecommerce platform comparison you might find us useful. As we have the expertise in working with all the types of best online store platform. We would be happy to assist you with free consultancy.
Nice comparison of all the platforms. Made it easy and quick for me. Thanks Team.
I would say do not go with Shopify if you need to focus on SEO. I am facing many issues in it. Not sure if it can work for you.
Can I get some free consultation on the services you mentioned in the end? please let me know
I would agree with all the points mentioned above in the Magento section as i am using it and I can totally understand & relate well with each of the points.
I think it all depends on the person who is doing development for you. He can be the best person to help you.
You need to have a clear understanding of your business model and how it is going to look in the next couple of years. And then you can choose the right models.
Hi Team! Can someone connect with me? I need consultation as I have decided to go with shopify but not really sure. Also, is it free?
Nice Article. Can you guys give me a comparison on Magento and WooCommerce too? It will be very helpful.
Do you guys help with magento website designing? I need a long term association as I understand It is hard to find developers these days who know the platform well. Connect with me please.
You can go with Magento or Shopify with my expertise, but then it depends on other factors too! But make a wise choice guys, it will impact you alot.