Customers are now getting used to buying products, services, and memberships online than ever before. E-commerce platforms are software and websites that enable businesses to trade online. They take care of sales, marketing, operations, and payment details.
With hundreds of e-commerce platforms available in the market, you will have to choose the one which is perfect for your business. We have compiled a list of proven platforms that will you scale your business.
1) Shopify
Shopify is one of the most popular web applications that enables you to open your store. Not only it offers customized themes, but it also lets you build an online store yourself without any knowledge of coding and designing. As long as you have access to the internet, you can manage your Shopify store from anywhere. The platform is a complete package that offers online businesses templates, blogs, and marketing tools. And you can even use apps or custom code to customize your store to your liking.
Shopify currently has around 2.3 million stores with over 7,000 staff. The business combined has generated over $314 billion in sales. These numbers are impressive and matter a lot as you will be placing a large amount of trust when opening a store. Shopify’s massive market share means that any misfortune is very unlikely to happen.
There are three paid plans for selling on Shopify. They include Basic, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. You can know about these plans in detail from here.
Shopify is commonly used for dropshipping and selling one product online. Overall, it is easy to use and has a significant user base.
2) BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a paid e-e-commerce platform that allows businesses to sell their products on the web. It works similarly to Shopify as it does not require any additional installations. You would only need internet access, and you can run business operations from anywhere.
The platforms offer numerous templates to design your stores and allow you to sell digital and physical products. It also has tools that you can use to market your products.
Although the platform is aimed at people who are not familiar with web0designing and coding, tech-savvy people can design it with the help of CSS and HTML.
As for the pricing plans, it offers four different options. They include standard, plus, pro and enterprise. You can follow further details about pricing here.
The overall features of BigCommerce are easy to use and understand. It offers advanced features at significantly lower rates than its competitors. Moreover, the platform makes it easier to sell with multiple currencies.
One thing that bothers sellers is limits placed on annual sales. If any seller exceeds them, they will have to upgrade the monthly plan.
3) OpenCart
OpenCart is an open-source platform that is known for its high customizability. With over 13,000 modules and themes, you can make the website according to your liking. The platform also offers a multi-store feature to manage more different stores from the same interface.
OpenCart is free-to-use software that you can download from their official website. After downloading, you can easily install it on your webserver.
The platform offers a simple, easy-to-use interface that enables you to learn quickly and get started with selling your products.
Although it is free to use, installing new features can be expensive. New modules and themes can cost you over $300. That is why OpenCart is recommended for startups and small businesses.
4) WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an extension for converting your WordPress website to a compelling online store. This plugin is free for personal and commercial use and can easily be downloaded.
Although WooCommerce has its payment processor, it also offers Paypal, Square, Amazon Pay, and stripe to its users. It contains plenty of themes for the users, both online and paid. With WooCommerce, you will never run out of options to choose a theme and make your store sales-worthy.
It makes an excellent option for small or medium-sized businesses as it does not require any operational cost. The only cost would be the paid themes which can cost over $300 at times.
Compared to other platforms, it is more challenging to optimize and sot SEO-ready. Moreover, the user usually experiences a lot of loading time when accessing larger stores.
Final thoughts
There are many free and paid platforms out there, but the key is to choose the one that works the best for you. If free platforms can do the job for you, then go for them, but paid options are the best if you want more features and scalability.