Choosing the best e-commerce platform for scalable, long-term growth is one of the most critical decisions you’ll make when starting your online business. This decision, understandably, has far-reaching consequences:
Assisting clients who are interacting with your brand in reducing friction while receiving the product they require. Protecting your bottom line, both in terms of sales growth and maintenance and installation costs. What will you think while choosing an e-commerce platform and some popular solutions?
Before we move ahead, let’s understand what an E-commerce Platform is and why we use this platform. Let’s begin;
What is an E-commerce Platform & Why do we use them?
E-commerce is a platform that allows users for online businesses to manage their website, sales and marketing through this platform.
Your ecommerce software has a significant impact on the profitability and stability of your business, whether you’re expanding a brick-and-mortar store, seeking an enterprise-level solution, or even establishing a business from scratch.
The following are the only alternatives to an ecommerce platform:
- Building one from the ground up is unthinkable for most organizations – and only justifiable for multimillion (or multibillion) dollar enterprises.
- Using a plugin isn’t ideal if you’re trying to start and grow a legitimate company, even if it’s a little one.
Now, let’s have a look at some of the best E-commerce development platforms available in the market;
Best E-commerce platform in the market.
Every e-commerce platform has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Businesses must assess the various platforms based on their unique requirements and use cases.
The most popular e-commerce platforms are;
- Woocommerce: WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform that includes a shopping cart in addition to a brand’s WordPress content. It’s most commonly utilized by small businesses and amateurs, bloggers who want to branch out into ecommerce, and brands who want to hire developers familiar with the WordPress platform.
- Shopify: Shopify is a well-funded, publicly-traded SaaS ecommerce company. They’re popular with small businesses, amateurs, and brands with fewer than 100 SKUs. Shopify Plus is an enterprise product. Check out Cart Consultants’ Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce comparison for more information on the benefits and drawbacks of each platform.
- BigCommerce: Because of its low total cost of ownership and highly configurable APIs, BigCommerce is regarded as an Open SaaS platform provider and a developing headless commerce provider. Small company and startup options are also available, with built-in features and SEO control. The platform’s integration options, such as our headless WordPress plugin, make it a forerunner in the field of headless commerce solutions.
- Squarespace: Squarespace is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) website platform. Their work with the creative community has made them famous. Their ecommerce platform was inspired by the necessity for a lightweight cart (with cart recovery) to sell things among the creative community. The creative community primarily utilizes it for low-volume SKUs.
- Wix: It is recognized for its straightforward website setup and keeping things simple with a drag-and-drop interface, affordable pricing, and modern paid and free templates. Entrepreneurs and other small company creatives are the most common users of Wix.
- Big Cartel: It is an ecommerce platform specifically for smaller merchants who do not need a sophisticated platform. Typical Big Cartel merchants are bands, clothing designers, jewellery makers, crafters, and other artists. The platform is straightforward to use but has a limited feature set. Big Cartel may not fill your needs if you have an extensive product catalogue.
- Episerver: Content and personalization are at the heart of Episerver’s platform. Another headless commerce solution, the platform aims to merge digital marketing, content management, and digital commerce into a single solution. For mid-market and enterprise-level merchants, the solution is a popular alternative. Other Episerver solutions, such as Episerver Find and Episerver Campaign, are designed to work well with the platform.
Conclusion
Choosing an ecommerce platform might be difficult because there are so many different options available.
Fortunately, you can narrow down your options using the criteria I’ve outlined above.
On this list, there is something for everyone. We believe this guide will help you locate what you need, whether you’re a newbie looking for an ecommerce website builder or an experienced developer looking for advanced software for B2B sales.
Here’s a rundown of the most excellent ecommerce platforms I’ve looked at in this article.
- WooCommerce — Best WordPress plugin for ecommerce business startups.
- Shopify — Most desirable for beginners and boutique ecommerce shops.
- BigCommerce — One of the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses.
- Squarespace — Best free ecommerce platform plan.
- Wix — One of the best ecommerce site builders with easy setup.
- Big Cartel — Best website builder with built-in ecommerce capabilities.
- Episerver — Best free and open-source ecommerce platform.