If you don’t know how to create a website, specifically a webshop, using an e-commerce platform is a big help. It saves you tons of money, time, and is much more manageable to maintain than a standard website. Over the years, webshops have become a staple for every entrepreneur and business. Because of this, there has been an increase in the need for ECommerce platforms.
What Is An ECommerce Platform?
BigCommerce defines it as, “An e-commerce platform is a software application that allows online businesses to manage their website, sales, and operations.” By having or using an e-commerce platform, it eliminates the need to actually create your shop from scratch (which you can do but may not be practical for small businesses.) Most platforms also add a layer of protection for your data and more depending on its features.
Choosing The Best Ecommerce Platform
There are a lot of e-commerce platforms available in the market which can make it hard to settle on one. But, don’t worry! We had a look at the eight best and commonly used platforms right now. Read on and see which one fits your business model.
Squarespace
Squarespace has to be one of the favorite and the go-to e-commerce website for entrepreneurs, artists, and people alike. It has a very flexible product arrangement and offers a variety of beautiful themes/templates you can use for your website or shop. Squarespace offers free 14 day-trial, their pricing ranges from $12-$18 for a website and $26-$40 for online stores.
Shopify
For small entrepreneurs, Shopify is one of the best platforms. It is a full-featured tool that powers a lot of small websites. You can also choose from its wide selection of themes and apps for your shop. Not to mention, it can be easily integrated with Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter which will enable you to sell directly from these sites. You can try Shopify for 14 days for FREE. Pricing ranges from $13 to $107 depending on the plan. FYI: Shopify is also the platform we use for Reserved Stock.
WooCommerce
Now if you want to build a store from Wordpress, WooCommerce is one of the top choices. It is a plugin that turns your site or blog into a fully customizable store. If you’re used to Wordpress, WooCommerce will be easier for you to navigate. Each extension costs about $49.
BigCommerce
If you are selling your products/services on an online marketplace and want to have your own e-commerce site, BigCommerce got you. Have your product listings in a few minutes on your BigCommerce site. You can also cross-list your products from BigCommerce to a marketplace like Amazon, eBay and others. Pricing starts from $29.95/month Standard plan to $50k/year in sales.
Big Cartel
Low on budget? Worry no more, Big Cartel is one of the most affordable sites to start your store. It is specially designed for smaller stores because of its pricing and its limited listings. But, even though it has limited features, it is still a good platform. Pricing starts from $9.99 to $29.99.
Wix
If you’re more into the drag-and-drop option, you can opt for Wix. Wix lets you design your shop Photoshop-style, it has a lot of elements similar to Photoshop such as grid, text, and more. You can also add animations to each element. If you need more tools, you can just go to App Market. Pricing starts from $17 a month.
Weebly
Weebly is a lot like Wix. It also has the drag and drops feature. You can choose a stand-alone website and add a blog or store. With its new feature, you can calculate tax and shipping rates for orders automatically. Weebly costs from $8 + 3%/sale and above.
Magento
If you’re planning to scale for a bigger business in the future, Magento is the way to go. Furthermore, it’s more flexible than other platforms and is also open-source. Therefore, adding features is easier. While it is a fantastic e-commerce platform it may be intimidating for starters. However, if you’re willing to learn or have the resource to hire people then it’s a good choice. Pricing starts at $1,999/month to $3,399/month.
I hope after reading this, you feel better informed about which platform is the best for your business. What e-commerce platform are you using? Share them below.
