Are you planning to take your business online? For that, first, you need to build an online store with the help of the best eCommerce software. With a top e-commerce platform, you can easily create a successful online store at affordable prices. But choosing the right platform can be a difficult task with so many options available out there.
To help you find the perfect platform for building an online e-commerce store we have curated a list of top e-commerce platforms. This list compiles detailed information on each platform that includes features, offerings, prices, and pros & cons. But before moving to the list, let’s understand what is an eCommerce platform and its benefits. This will help you to select the right one.
What are eCommerce Platforms?
E-commerce platforms are the software that helps entrepreneurs to host and manage their online businesses. Every e-commerce platform works as a content management system (CMS) that helps you manage product catalogues, register purchases, customer experience, inventory, and relations with online retailers.
No matter what your business size or whether it’s B2B or B2C, being online has become the need of the ever-growing market. Customers nowadays look for an online store to fulfil their shopping needs. Recent reports say that more than 80% of stores in America are available online. This shows the need to be online.
Nowadays most e-commerce platforms are SaaS (software as a service) that offer amazing features and can easily integrate seamlessly into the workflow.
There are basically three types of platforms to choose from:
- SaaS (software as a service)
- CaaS (Content as a service) / Headless eCommerce
- Open Source
Benefits Of Using An E-Commerce Software
The primary purpose of the software for e-commerce is to manage and grow your online business to earn maximum profit. E-commerce software helps you to quickly start your online store. With online store builder, you build your online store as per your need and requirement. Building a user-friendly platform helps you sell anything and anywhere 24/7 to satisfy your customers.
By going online, you can sell your product in the global market which brings more revenue to your business. The eCommerce platform provides an easy-to-use interface, helps you to attract more customers, improves ROI, and increases sales. The additional benefit of using an E-commerce platform is that customers can get a multi-channel shopping experience.
What are the Components of eCommerce Software?
Here we have listed down some components of eCommerce software
- Website Builder
- Inventory management
- Multiple payment methods
- Return, refund and store credit
- Marketing tools
- Customer management
- Relationship management
List Of The Top 10 Best E-commerce Software
1. Shopify
Shopify is the best e-commerce platform for building your online store. With the easy drag and drop option one can easily build an online store in a quick time. The software makes it so easy that with no extra effort, you can import and list products on the Shopify store. It allows you to market your products with its marketing tools, social integration, and multiple sales channels.
No doubt Shopify is an all-in-one SaaS e-commerce platform that powers millions of businesses worldwide. The Platform comes with multiple benefits that help you sell anything from tangible items to services or digital products. This makes Shopify a perfect solution for those who are looking for the best e-commerce software for building their online store.
Features and Offerings:
- Web hosting
- Marketing and SEO tools
- Store management
- Analytics
- Mobile friendly designs
- Pre-made design templates
Shopify Pricing:
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the best E-commerce software for building an eCommerce website exactly like you want. It is the best Plugin for those whose sites run on WordPress. WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress. It offers amazing features that help entrepreneurs manage their online stores effectively. It also, provides additional Plugins and extensions for marketing, designing, payment, shipping, inventory management, and store management.
The only drawback that WooCommerce carries is that it doesn’t include hosting. Also, WooCommerce users need to install multiple extensions that may increase the load on your website.
Features and Offerings:
- Easily setup your store
- Easy integration of various Extensions
- Offer Flexible, secure payments
- User-friendly dashboard
- Mobile App
WooCommerce Pricing:
WooCommerce Payments has no setup charge and no monthly fees. You have to pay 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is the perfect eCommerce solution for any business to build its website. The platform provides tools and essential features to manage your store and earn money by maximizing your sales. BigCommerce is a SaaS Commerce website builder that integrates with multi-social channels for effective sales. Also, Google Analytics and hundreds of other apps can be easily integrated with BigCommerce. If you look at the features and offering you can find that BigCommerce is one of the best E-commerce software.
Features and Offerings:
- Drag and Drop builder
- Easy customization for storefront Design
- API-driven Commerce
- Cross Channel E-commerce
- Abandoned Cart Saver
- Inventory management tools
- DDoS protection and fraud alerts
BigCommerce Pricing:
4. Adobe Commerce (Magento)
Adobe Commerce or Magento Commerce is a powerful, customizable, and scalable e-commerce platform. You can quickly set up your home page and landing pages by using easily available templates and drag and drop builder. You can even add on some additional tools like others for marketing, payments, customer supports, site optimization, etc. It has the same drawback as WooCommerce that it does not include hosting. This made add extra cost to your online store.
The Benefits of using Adobe commerce/Magento are:
- Future-proof Scale and extensibility
- Multi-channel commerce for both B2B and B2C in a single place
- Intelligent Commerce
- Operational confidence to grow your business.
Features and Offerings:
- Business Intelligence
- Automated Data Backup
- Support growth and expansion
- Page Builder
- Product Recommendations
- Store fulfilment
- Payment services
- Integrated B2B functionality
Magento Pricing:
Magento pricing or Adobe Commerce pricing have various monthly or one-time costs, such as
Webhosting : $15 To $40 per month
SSL Certification: 50$ to $600 per year
Domain: $10 to $20 per month
transaction fees: 2% to 4% per transaction
5. Zoho Commerce
Zoho Commerce is another best e-commerce software as it provides all the tools that are needed for building a website. You can find tools for orders & inventory tracking, process management, marketing, managing shipping, and for analyzing your data. With an easy drag-and-drop builder and templates, you build your own website like a professional. Even you can easily integrate other relevant apps for empowering your business operation.
Features and Offerings:
- Product, Order, and Customer Management
- Site Builder with a visual editor
- Pre-built Templates
- Multi-Currency View
- Product Filters
- Categories and Collections
Zoho Pricing:
6. Wix
Wix is an easy-to-use software for e-commerce to create a website without limits. The platform is a beginner-friendly website builder and ideal for individual sellers. It provides a powerful infrastructure with tons of high-quality online templates to build an online store with confidence. The best part is that its all-in-one pricing includes full hosting, a domain, and an SSL certificate. So, make your website with Wix and take your business where it needs to go.
Features and Offerings:
- Wix Editor – Stunning templates, Advanced SEO Tools, Total Design Freedom, Mobile optimized, App market, Unlimited Fonts, Scroll Effects, Media galleries.
- Wix ADI – Tailor-Made content, Original design, Mobile Friendly, Smart tips, Built-in-SEO tools, Customize Colors and Fonts
- Velo by Wix – Open Platform, Business and marketing tools, Rapid Visual front-end design, unified database management.
- Custom Domain Name
- Professional Mailbox
- Free Hosting
- Analytics
- Content Management
Wix Stores Pricing:
7. Squarespace
Squarespace is an easy-to-use eCommerce platform that helps you to grow your business online. Many businesses have seen growth in their sales after using Squarespace. With its built-in sales features, you can sell anything and scale your e-commerce business. If you compare Squarespace with Shopify then you can find that to sell a digital product at Shopify you need to install a separate app.
You can find some amazing features that make it easy to run an e-commerce business. The only drawback of Squarespace is that you get less integration than Shopify and BigCommerce. But still, it is one of the best eCommerce software.
Features and Offerings:
- Robust Hosting
- Website Builder
- Customizable Templates
- Inventory Management
- Social Integrations
- Design Tools
- Built-in Mobile Website
- Reviews
Squarespace Pricing:
8. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a flexible and scalable e-commerce platform to start your online business. With its professional-looking themes, you can create your own design for your online store. It offers everything you need to sell products online and grow your business. Also, it allows you to share your content on social networks to attract more customers.
Features and Offerings:
- Customize your store
- Market your store
- Inventory Management
- Get Insights
- CRM
- Activity Dashboard.
- Cataloguing/Categorization.
- Customer Management.
- Multi-store Management.
Presta Pricing:
PrestaShop is freemium.
9. Square Online
Square Online is another software for eCommerce. It helps you to host your online business for free. With its easily available templates and builder, you can quickly make your own online store. You can find a wide range of features through which you can sell unlimited products. The Square Online platform is free, you only need to pay when you make a sale.
Features and Offerings:
- Website builder with SEO tools
- Automatic Inventory
- Stock Management
- Tax Calculator
- Coupons
- Social Integration
- Accept multiple payment types
Square Online Pricing:
OpenCart
OpenCart is an open-source and free eCommerce platform. It offers everything you need to create, scale, and run your online business. With its 13000 plus modules and themes, you can create your own design as per your business need. It is one of the popular platforms among entrepreneurs. You can find service integrations, payment providers, social media, shipping methods, marketing, accounting, and reporting for any sector from its marketplace.
Features and Offerings:
- Administrator Dashboard
- User Management
- Multi-Store
- inbuilt Affiliate system
- Shipping, Payment, and Reports
- Mobile & SEO Friendly
- OpenChart Extensions
OpenCart Pricing:
OpenCart is freemium.
Conclusion:
You can use any of these top 10 best eCommerce software for building your online store. Before selecting the Ecommerce software/platform, you need to identify your need and budget. We have seen in this article that Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento (Adobe Commerce) are rich in features and have the best offerings for their users.
You can even find that many of the above eCommerce platforms offer a FREE trial. This will help you to try and test the software before going for paid subscription. And if you are budget concerned then you can go for Square online or OpenCart
