All eCommerce platforms constantly claim they are the best. Each of them always states they have the best pricing policy, more payment gateways, the best customer support, the finest tools within the platform, etc. And among this multitude of excellent offerings, how to choose a really worthy platform?
It’s a complicated task because the success of your project, your profits, and your business future depends on the platform you choose. When the success of your business is at stake, it is very important not to make mistakes.
That’s why we created this article and collected the best options of eCommerce platforms, evaluated them, and are ready to tell you to what conclusions we came. Make sure to create a policy and procedure page before implementing your online store to comply with regulatory compliances.
We can’t give universal advice because every business is unique. We’ll just tell you all the advantages of different platforms so you can evaluate which one will best meet the needs of your business.
Let’s take a closer look at what information we were able to compile!
1. Shopify
Advantages:
Shopify has been in operation for more than 15 years, with over two million stores established on its platform, and it’s hard to find a better choice for most small companies looking to rapidly set up an internet store.
Because Shopify is so popular, you can also select over 1,300 themes on ThemeForest or hire a professional designer who is already familiar with the platform to create a bespoke one for you. In today’s world, this MA in design management teaches us, design is a pivotal strategic tool when it comes to innovation and change, owing to its potential to offer co-creative solutions that simultaneously meet the needs of the brand, the market, and the company by studying users and their needs.
It’s the same with practically any other feature you could think of. If it isn’t integrated into Shopify, you can discover an extension, plug-in, or service in the app store that does it (such as SEO apps, marketing tools, Store design apps,…). Simply navigate to apps.shopify.com, pick the app you want, and click Add App. Return to your Shopify dashboard and select Apps from the sidebar to manage all of the apps you’ve installed. It has
Disadvantages:
Unfortunately, Shopify isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. The platform does have a few drawbacks. None of the eCommerce marketplace platforms are perfect; it’s up to you to determine the severity and weigh the advantages and negatives. The fact that Shopify is not a free platform is the source of the majority of its flaws.
Price
Let’s get one thing straight: Shopify is not a free platform to use. A monthly membership fee is charged. Some themes need payment. In their App Store, there are feeds to utilize various apps. Furthermore, unless you utilize Shopify Payments on your site, there is a transaction charge when selling online. Their Shopify free trial is the only free plan available.
However, having to pay for a venue to sell your wares is not a novel notion. Even with the expenses connected with this platform, it is far less expensive than a physical store.
Consider how many free items you have in your life that are worthwhile to use. You get what you pay for, and in this situation, Shopify provides a plethora of useful services.
Customization Limitations
Despite the fact that the platform is very flexible, it does have certain limits. There are several features that cannot be accessed due to the way the code is put up. Some of Shopify’s rivals provide more customization at the cost of many hours spent on extensive coding on their platform.
2. Elementor
Elementor now powers more than 7% of all the world’s websites. With its intuitive drag and drop editor, you can leverage Elementor to create dynamic WooCommerce websites, code-free.
Offering more than 20 widgets uniquely suited for eCommerce, Elementor’s WooCommerce website builder can be used by just about anyone to create the WordPress-based online store they’ve always dreamed of.
It gets better, though.
You can now rely on Elementor to host your website as well!
With Elementor Cloud Website, web creators can craft stunning, comprehensive online stores that will be hosted using best-in-class WordPress cloud hosting starting at $99 per year.
Offering more than 20 widgets uniquely suited for eCommerce, Elementor’s WooCommerce website builder can be used by just about anyone to create the WordPress-based online store they’ve always dreamed of.
Advantages
WooCommerce is a hugely popular platform for SMBs. Yet, if you can’t code, it’s virtually impossible to create one yourself. Elementor provides just about anyone with simple yet powerful tools to create WordPress-based stores without having to write a single line of code.
If You Have Your Heart Set on a WordPress-Based Online Store, You’d Be Hard-Pressed to Find a Better Option Than Elementor.
As stated above, Elementor can be relied on for website hosting, as well.
Essentially, you’ll be getting all the good WordPress has to offer, without having to deal with the time-consuming, confusing process of finding a third-party host.
Disadvantages
If you’re not interested in a WordPress site, Elementor won’t be of much use to you.
2.3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is one of the greatest offerings on the market. It is popular literally all over the world.
We would like to stipulate right away that this platform is a real helping hand for businesses that plan to scale. Otherwise, for small businesses, this platform may seem expensive and too overloaded with functions.
Advantages
BigCommerce has an excellent Channel Manager feature. It allows users to have multiple sales channels at the same time by automatically synchronizing orders from different marketplaces. You can also use BigCommerce to become an Amazon seller. In addition to the convenience of Channel Manager, this feature sets BigCommerce apart from many other platforms that try to keep users committed only to them.
It has convenient and diverse SEO tools. Such tools are simply indispensable for business promotion. After all, without marketing, it is difficult or even impossible to achieve a high level of sales. SEO tools on this platform are so diverse and presented in such a quantity that can meet the needs of many professionals and business owners.
Once you start working with BigCommerce, you’ll discover many features available, from setting up payment gateways to minimizing load times.
Disadvantages
The more you earn on the platform, the more you pay for it. Moreover, paid themes are additional costs. It can be disadvantageous for some startups that don’t plan to scale.
This platform is difficult to use for beginners. You need to have the skills and experience to make the BigCommerce process easy for you.
3. Magento
Magento is owned by Adobe, which is known for its quality products. Although the platform itself is not the most popular, many well-known brands use it.
Magento has two platform offers for users:
- Opensource,
The second option has significantly more features.
Advantages
If the startup is expected to develop and scale, then Magento will definitely not disappoint the owners. Many items and features can be easily customized, which will help create exactly what you need.
This platform can approve hundreds of transactions per minute. That really is a huge advantage of this platform.
Magento frequently releases new extensions. So the constant development of the platform and the introduction of new features is a consequence of this fact. And it can not but please those who work with this platform.
Disadvantages
Magento is difficult to set up for beginners or non-professionals. To create a really good and working store, you need to have considerable experience with this platform.
Most likely, you will have to choose your own hosting because Magento will provide it only if you pay for the premium version. We have long considered whether to include this point to the disadvantages because some users consider it a great option to find hosting for their needs.
You will have to invest at least $20,000 to get started with this platform. There are also a lot of additional paid features that aren’t mentioned at the beginning. So If you don’t want to invest that kind of money, it is worth choosing another platform.
4. Wix
Wix used to be just a website builder, but now, it’s also an e-commerce platform. It is a very popular platform because its creators have conducted an extensive marketing campaign to increase its visibility. Stars, opinion leaders, and celebs have promoted the platform, which has allowed it to establish itself today as one of the good, easy-to-use, and inexpensive platforms.
Advantages
You can create a free account on the platform to learn more about the available functionality. But in order to make your first sale, you will need to go to a business account anyway.
This platform is suitable for beginners. It is really very easy to use and you have lots of options to customize your ecommerce website design. Also, you can pick up a template and edit it to suit your needs. It’s very convenient, and you shouldn’t have a great experience with the platform to set up a store.
Few Wix competitors offer so many different payment gateways. You can even specify payment by check as an option.
Wix has no commission on orders. It’s a heavenly feature for startups. This will allow you to save even more.
Disadvantages
Unfortunately, on the platform, we have noticed not-so-fast loading. The more items in your store, the longer it will take to load.
To make your store mobile-friendly, you have to spend a lot of time and effort adapting the template to mobile devices. Initially, the templates look very nice for the desktop version, but when you go to the mobile version, they are very questionable. You’ll have to work on the customization yourself.
There are certain elements in templates that cannot be changed. For a startup or small business, this may not be a problem.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve reviewed worthy eCommerce platforms that differ from each other quite dramatically in cost, the set of features, and the complexity of working with them.
To make your choice, assess your financial capabilities and determine an option that fits your budget. Also, decide if you plan to scale the business in the future. And finally, consider whether you are ready to hire a team of experienced professionals such as eCommerce virtual assistants to work with the platform.
The choice is always yours because no one but you knows the needs of your business better.
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