Top E-Commerce Platforms to Start an Online Store

A successful e-commerce website should include various aspects and features that work together to deliver an excellent user experience. An experience that takes your consumers from discovery to evaluation to purchase without interruptions.

For example, if you’re a fashion company, you’d want your website to be visually appealing to your target demographic and reflect the brand’s personality. Your homepage should be eye-catching and engaging. You can either attract customers with compelling visuals of your products or entice the viewer to learn more about your store’s products.  

You can persuade users to continue browsing for extended periods by providing quick and easy navigation. They may even buy additional items. Remember to add more color, videos, or imagery to your store’s layout. In addition, your store must feature reviews and testimonials. Over 90% of customers reveal that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions.

You want to provide an experience that keeps your customers returning for more or recommending you to their friends and family.

How to Build an Online Store

A myriad of e-commerce platforms is available to create an online store without any hassle. Yet, managing your online studio can be challenging if you don’t choose the right e-commerce platform.

So here is our rundown of the top e-commerce platforms that provide the best e-commerce solutions.

WooCommerce

•   Best for: All businesses types      
•   SaaS/ Open source: Open-source             
•   Pricing: Free, premium extensions available
•   Transaction fees: Depends on the payment gateway

A popular open-source e-commerce solution, Woo Commerce is available as a WordPress plugin. With more than 12% of all online stores utilizing it, it is the world’s most widely used eCommerce platform. You can easily use the plugin to add crucial online store capabilities to your WordPress website.

You can manage your online store right from the WordPress dashboard after installing and activating it. With an impressive number of themes, choosing the right one becomes easier. Easy customization capabilities help you build your store quickly and easily.

From payment processing to inventory control, WooCommerce provides a variety of eCommerce capabilities. Additionally, you may add hundreds of extensions to it, such as marketing, shipping, and store management tools. It allows users to add a security plugin that regularly scans the website for malware, which protects it from hacking attempts.

Pros and Cons

Pros

•  Additional eCommerce features
•  A wide variety of WordPress themes
•  Large online community
•  Flexible and 100% customizable

Cons

• The learning curve is quite steep

Shopify

•   Best For: Small Businesses
•    SaaS/Open source: SaaS
•    Pricing: $29-299/month
•    Transaction fees: For third-party payment gateway

Thanks to its user-friendly drag-and-drop builder and onboarding wizard, Shopify is a well-known eCommerce website builder that allows users to build their online store within minutes.

If you want to start a drop shipping business, this software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce solution is a fantastic option.

Customers don’t have to create a website from scratch because Shopify provides various templates.

Included with all Shopify plans, the abandoned cart recovery tool is one of the most useful built-in features. It enables business owners to email clients to invite them t to finish their purchases or remind them about pending orders.

Thanks to its user-friendly drag-and-drop builder and onboarding wizard, Shopify is a well-known e-commerce website builder that enables users to construct their online store in minutes. If you want to start a drop shipping business, this software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce solution is a fantastic option.

You won’t have to create a website from scratch because Shopify provides pre-made themes.

Included with all Shopify plans, the abandoned cart recovery tool is one of the most useful built-in features. It allows business owners to email clients to invite them to finish their purchases or remind them about pending orders.

Pros and Cons

Pros

•  Built-in abandoned cart recovery
•  Excellent customer support
• Fraud analysis

Cons

• Few free templates
• Additional transaction fees

BigCommerce

•  Best for: Medium to large businesses
•  SaaS/Open source: SaaS
•  Pricing: $29.95-299.95/month 
•  Transaction Fees: None, but there’s an annual sale threshold

For medium-sized to large businesses, including wholesalers and B2B companies, BigCommerce is a reliable SaaS eCommerce website builder.

It offers a terrific way to create an online presence for a physical store and accommodates businesses in every industry and niche. The Channel Manager feature for multi-channel selling is one of its highlights.

Online store owners can use this service to link their shops to other marketplaces while maintaining inventory management tasks in one location.

Users can increase their audience reach by listing their products on Google Shopping, Facebook, and Amazon. BigCommerce will immediately import the data and reflect changes across all associated channels.

Since BigCommerce primarily targets large businesses, its features are advanced. These include shipping settings and automated sales tax.

Pros and Cons

Pros

•   Headless commerce support
•   Multi-channel selling
•   No transaction fees
•  Personalized shopping experience
•  Unlimited staff accounts

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Annual sales limit

Magento

•  Best For: Large businesses and enterprises
•  SaaS/Open source: SaaS
•  Pricing: Custom rate (Adobe Commerce), Free (Magento Open Source)
•  Transaction Fees: Contact for a quote
•  SaaS/Open source: Open-source, SaaS

Magento is one of the best choices when building medium-to large-scale online stores if you want a CMS with an eCommerce focus.

Two options are available on this e-commerce platform: Magento Open Source, an open-source solution, and Adobe Commerce, a hosted program. It provides a wide selection of templates through third-party websites like ThemeForest and its marketplace.

Since Magento is an open-source platform, tech-savvy users can modify or tweak it. Given this, it is among the best eCommerce platforms for clients looking to launch a solid and flexible online business.

Magento offers an extensive community comprising various developers for assistance with technical issues. Remember that some people may charge a price for their service.

On the other hand, Adobe Commerce offers a page builder in addition to tools for consumer data reporting and segmentation. Its features evaluate consumer behavior using sophisticated algorithms and AI technologies to provide them with individualized shopping experiences and product recommendations.

Pros and Cons

Pros

•  Customer personalization
•  Staging environment
•  Wide range of payment processors

Cons

•  Steep learning curve
•  Limited customer support

Sellfy

•  Best for Businesses focusing on digital goods
•   SaaS/Open source: SaaS
•   Pricing: Free, paid plans between $29-159/month
•   Transaction Fee: No, but there’s an annual sales threshold

Selling physical goods and digital goods is super-easy with the popular Sellfy eCommerce platform. Online business operators can allow users to download and purchase files directly from the website. It will also enable you to publish product links and include buy buttons on your social networking accounts, including Facebook and YouTube.

Its automatic store translation, customized according to each visitor’s location and desired language, is another fantastic feature. It applies to buttons and checkout pages. Additionally, the store’s other elements, like email layouts and product categories, can be translated by hand.

Sellfy has anti-fraud features like capped download attempts, special download links, and PDF stamping to protect digital products. Currently, it only offers Stripe and PayPal as payment processing options.

Pros and Cons

Pros

•  Advanced built-in features
•  Anti-fraud features

Cons

• Supports various types of products
• Limited payment gateways

How to Choose the Best eCommerce Platform for Your Needs

Here are some key e-commerce features that the platform should offer to help you set up and manage your online store:

Product Variations: When your store sells items in different colors or sizes, the platform should allow you to add and manage all variations.

Categorization and Product Filtering: makes it easier for customers to find specific products, primarily if the store sells a vast range of products.

Coupon Codes, Discounts, And Promotions: Offering these can help you produce more revenue, especially during Christmas. So look for platforms that let you add these promotions easily.

Shipping: You should be able to add a variety of delivery ways so that your clients can choose their preferred option, lowering cart abandonment rates.

Abandoned Cart Recovery: The platform should provide an automated solution for sending emails to clients to remind them about their carts so that you may recover lost purchases.

Inventory management: It allows you to track product availability in real-time to meet demand.

Consider Customizability and Design Features

No user will stay on your online store unless you offer easy navigation and easy to locate product listings.

Web design is vital in improving customers’ shopping experiences, encouraging them to spend more time browsing online businesses and making purchases. Design is so critical that nearly 38% of people will abandon an online store if they don’t find the content or web design appealing. This reason alone is enough to consider hiring the best team for building an online store, using the most appropriate platform.

A robust e-commerce platform should provide aesthetic and configurable website templates or themes, eliminating users needing to develop the site from scratch. To ensure your website’s mobile friendliness, we highly recommend picking a platform that offers responsive, current designs.

Many e-commerce platforms also include easy drag-and-drop functionality. It’s a fantastic feature for individuals new to web programming and design.

Look for Appropriate Payment Methods and Third-Party Integrations

One of the most important aspects is how the platform handles online transactions. Giving your clients various payment choices will enhance their purchasing experience, thus increasing the conversions of your e-commerce store.

A diverse set of third-party payment providers is critical because it can make or break a sale.

Check to determine any transaction costs to consider when developing your pricing plan. It’s also worth checking whether the platform takes a cut of your money if you exceed your plan’s sales threshold.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to the latest e-commerce solutions, setting up and managing an e-commerce business is not as complicated as before. Some online store owners prefer outsourcing e commerce business, so they can focus on other parts of their business strategy. At Intelvue, we provide App Development Service and Web development Services. Contact us today if you want to get hold of the latest e-commerce development services available on the market. Our team of expert online store builders will help you build an impressive and fully functional online store.

FAQs

What are The Best E-Commerce Platforms to Consider When Starting An Online Store?

The best e-commerce platforms to consider when starting an online store include Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, etc.

What Makes Shopify a Popular Choice for E-Commerce?  

Shopify provides a complete package for creating an e-commerce website, allowing users to design and create multiple pages with a built-in online editor. You can sell in practically any app v place by integrating local languages and providing customization and assistance in online stores.

How Does WooCommerce Differ from Other E-Commerce Platforms?

WooCommerce is a world-famous e-commerce platform that allows customers to sell products via an app or a website. WooCommerce differs from typical e-commerce platforms because it guarantees a more user-friendly design, quicker checkout processes, and shorter delivery periods than traditional shopping platforms.

What are the Advantages of Using BigCommerce?

BigCommerce offers a comprehensive and user-friendly set of tools that simplify setting up an online business. BigCommerce provides a one-stop shop for aspiring entrepreneurs and enterprises with customizable templates, extensive reporting features, different sales channels, and secure payment processing.

Why is Magento Considered a Powerful E-Commerce Platform?

Magento is an open-source platform for creating an online store. Furthermore, Magento has many unique extensions, offering one of the best customer support services. It also provides several essential tools, such as Powerful Marketing Tool.

What are the Critical Features of Wix for E-Commerce?

The e-commerce platform provides a plethora of handy features to help you in creating a beautiful and professional-looking online store. You can sell it on multiple sales channels. The easy drag-and-drop feature allows users to create a Wix website within minutes.

How do I Choose the Right E-Commerce Platform for My Online Store?

Investigate and evaluate the various e-commerce platforms on the market. WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento, are some prominent solutions. Don’t forget to add the available features, payment getaways, and usability.