Best Ecommerce Platforms And Software – 12 Best Ecommerce Platforms And Software For Your Online Store

An eCommerce platform is a piece of software that assists companies in selling goods and services online. Businesses can manage their websites, marketing, sales, and other operations with ecommerce platforms.

The ability of your company to reach a larger customer base and access markets outside of your immediate area is the first immediately noticeable benefit. Along with expanding your audience, you’ll cut costs without adding more physical locations or hiring more staff.

With an e-commerce store, you can increase branding and information about your business, help customers find your products more quickly, compete with the competition on price and unique selling points, offer discounts and coupons to customers, better engage with customers through increased website and social media activity, and of course, sell all the time!

Selecting an eCommerce platform is necessary to increase your online presence. eCommerce platforms are simply website builders that assist in building your online store from the ground up, handling both the front and back ends of your site’s operations.

These platforms support the development of your online business, whether it involves B2B or B2C transactions, web marketing, or even the creation of a custom website that combines several of these.

Ecommerce Software Options For Small Business

When choosing eCommerce software for your online store, you’ll look at various features. You may look for eCommerce platforms with drag-and-drop tools and a payment gateway for credit card payments.

You also want something with a free trial period so you can determine whether your new eCommerce store is right for you. Here are 10 best eCommerce options to help you decide the right platform.

1. Shopify

Shopify is a user-friendly eCommerce platform allowing users to create online stores without coding or design skills. It provides access to HTML and CSS and has its own servers, making adding products and customising the store’s look easy. It offers a $29 monthly subscription and a free 14-day trial with no credit card required.

2. Wix

Wix is a popular eCommerce builder that helps businesses create, design, and manage their eCommerce website and online store. It has a drag-and-drop builder that lets users add and remove features to suit their online business.

It also offers over 500 free mobile-optimized eCommerce themes and free business tools such as Wix’s logo maker and a business name generator. Wix’s features include abandoned cart recovery, multi-channel integration, ‘buy now’ and ‘add to cart’ buttons, printable shipping labels, store card details, dropshipping integrations with ShipStation, and more.

Plans for Wix start at $17 a month with features such as secure online payments, a free domain name, customer accounts, a custom domain, a free domain for a year, 20GB of storage and videos of up to five hours.

3. Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop’s eCommerce software makes building a website easy and growing your business, offering professionally designed templates, product and order management, SEO tools, email and social media marketing, and more.

It also offers a free plan with no limits on products, storage, and bandwidth. Paid plans start at $29 a month and integrate with Square, PayPal, Klarna, Stripe, MailChimp, AWeber, Google, Facebook, Houzz, and digital wallets.

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free open-source eCommerce platform built for WordPress that offers users extensive customization options from the look of their online store to tailoring customers’ experiences, the checkout process, and more.

It comes with an intuitive plugin that helps configure your store’s page with store contact information, product content, payment details, shipping information, extras like automated taxes and more, and hundreds of free and paid extensions.

It is scalable and can integrate with virtually any service, making it one of the few eCommerce platforms that allow people to start for free and grow their store as their business grows.

5. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an open SaaS platform offering extensive e-commerce tools to help boost your eCommerce efforts. It includes a drag-and-drop solution with no coding required, customizable themes, email marketing and customer service, integration with other marketplaces, scaling up your store, and push from an external system.

Paid plans come with a monthly subscription of $29.95, and a free trial is also available. You can also design personalized shopping experiences with customer groups and choose from leading shipping and payment providers.

6. Magento

Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform with out-of-the-box features, customizable layouts and blocks, and seamless third-party integrations.

It offers personalized content, product recommendations, customer segmentation and personalization, content staging and preview, an instant purchase option, merchandising and other features.

It also allows customers to buy online or pick up in-store, help ship inventory to the right store at the right time, and fulfil orders through a PC, Point of Sale (PoS), or tablet.

7. Zoho Commerce

Zoho Commerce is an eCommerce platform that helps businesses build their own online stores. It includes CRM, email marketing, marketplace integration, mobile commerce, product search, basic coupons, shipping integration, cash on delivery, newsletter subscription, SSL certificate, auto-publish social posts, customer reports, sales reports and others.

It also provides real-time reports and detailed analytics based on your online store’s performance. Zoho Commerce integrates all the relevant sales, marketing, and finance apps within the Zoho suite.

8. Big Cartel

Big Cartel is an eCommerce website builder designed for small businesses that sell t-shirts, art, clothing, merchandise, prints, jewellery, and other products. It comes with pre-made themes, customizable themes, an option to sell online and in-person, real-time stats, a custom domain, the ability to offer discounts and run promotions, shipment tracking, and sales tax autopilot, and a monthly subscription of $9.99 for up to 50 products.

9. OpenCart

OpenCart is an open-source, downloadable eCommerce solution that is free to own, upgrade, and use with no monthly fees. It allows users to manage multiple stores from one admin interface, add extra product variables, and integrate with multiple payment gateways. It also offers discounts, coupons, and specials to encourage sales and make conversions.

10. WordPress

WordPress is an open-source eCommerce platform offering users many eCommerce options to build and run online stores. It offers an easy-to-use site builder and a good selection of extensions, themes, and plugins. It is easy to navigate and has a clean, minimalist look. It is specifically designed for publishing, making posting content easier and even mobile responsive.

The WordPress small business package starts at a monthly subscription of $25. It includes hosting, payment collection, unlimited email support, live chat support, access to premium themes, upload videos, Google Analytics integration, advanced SEO tools, and more.