Top 7 Best eCommerce Platforms

Worldwide digitalization makes entrepreneurs launch online stores. But how to do that? If you wish to save your money and time, you had better pay attention to the list of the best online selling platforms that would help you create your own website. It’s a cheaper and faster option than developing from scratch. We hope you’ll find an appropriate solution.

What Is an eCommerce Website Builder?

This concept means special software, which allows companies to develop commercial web resources, usually without coding. Such systems often contain the necessary marketing and sales features. Moreover, third-party tools may be integrated to expand the functionality of your online store and, thus, simplify the employees’ work.

There are several types of store builders:

• SaaS eCommerce platforms (a cloud solution, which requires minimum skills to launch a website. They cannot be significantly modified);

• Open-source developments (you have to hire a specialist who would be able to work with the chosen CMS (content management system). Open-source solutions allow changing most of the things on the site).

To learn more about these software types, please, follow the link “Development from Scratch vs Ready-made & Out-of-the-Box Solutions”.

A small remark: in this article, we have considered launching your own web resource, not a marketplace where you compete with other market players on the same platform.

Choose Your Platform Wisely

An inconvenient platform causes significant problems related to keeping the user on the site. As a result, sales fail. However, if a specific solution offers a wonderful user interface and provides clients with a great user experience, it’s not a guarantee of your success. Another important thing is the functionality of the admin panel: you won’t be able to work effectively if the chosen solution doesn’t have the features you need or they cost a lot.

Main Features of eCommerce Platforms

Most popular eCommerce platforms have a similar list of features related to marketing, sales, and technical maintenance of your website.

Thus, a good eCommerce platform must have the following business tools:

• Pricing (the opportunity to set product variations by color/size and different discounts to them);

• Merchandising (receiving payments online);

• Search and filtering capabilities;

• A product management suite;

• Promotions (integrations with ad systems, SEO tools, and so on);

• Interacting with clients to personalize sales and offer new goods/services;

Top 7 eCommerce Platforms

Below, we have reviewed ones of the best platforms to sell online. In our list, you’ll find free and paid solutions for small and large businesses.

Magento

In 2020, this market player was recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce report. The reasons were flexibility, scalability, and robust features.

The main pros are:

• Two versions (Magento Open Source, which you are able to download, and Magento Commerce. The second solution has much more features and is suitable for middle companies. They can use their own hosting or choose a cloud-hosted edition of Magento Commerce);

• Limitless customization. It doesn’t matter what you sell: you are able to completely modify your site by using templates and integrating third-party services;

• Intuitive admin panel with all the necessary features (multi-language, multi-currency, powerful SEO, one-page checkout, and so on);

• Large community;

• Mobile-friendliness.

Cons are as follows:

• The high cost (the prices on the cloud-based version start from $40 000 per year);

• The need to hire a developer if you plan to use the open-source system.

3Dcart

It’s a fully hosted platform, which allows you to create an effective online store by the drag-and-drop method. Mainly, 3Dcart is used by small and middle businesses. The solution can be scaled depending on your company’s growth.

Pros of the SaaS eCommerce platform:

• Feature-rich and scalable digital product with an intuitive dashboard, checkout process, built-in blog, API access, and 24/7 support;

• Great marketing tools (a useful thing if you don’t have a marketing team);

• Free, responsive, and mobile-friendly platform (there are free templates and wonderful paid ones);

• Unlimited storage;

• No transaction fees;

• Cheap subscription (from $19.99/month).

The main cons are:

• Limitations on sales volume and bandwidth usage;

• Disappointing free themes.

Thus, we can include 3Dcart in the list of the best platforms for online stores. It will take some time to learn all its features.

Shopware

It’s a popular solution that is scalable enough to be used by different market players (from small to large). Shopware contains all the necessary features to make your online project successful.

The features and particularities that users love:

• Robust set of tools. Shopware is a modular solution, so it’s extended by downloading and installing plugins;

• Strong product management. Create variants along with their different prices and images. Add certain rules according to some criteria;

• Customer stream. It’s a feature, which allows you to filter your customers by age, the amount spent, and other things;

• Shopping world. It’s an innovative solution for promoting products. You can create landing pages using the drag-and-drop function.

• Scalability and flexibility. Shopware has been proven to be efficient in handling heavy loads of traffic.

Shopware is deservedly among the top eCommerce platforms. However, some users may not like the interface or the work of certain features. An example is the inventory system. There are entrepreneurs who strongly dislike it due to the lack of division into internal and external inventory.

Shopify Plus

It doesn’t matter how big your company is: Shopify Plus is a perfect solution even if you own a whole enterprise.

The main advantages are:

• Scalability. You can count on unlimited bandwidth and sales capabilities;

• Affordable pricing. The SaaS eCommerce platform costs from $2,000 a month. And the price stays constant from the moment you sign up;

• Built-in tools. Shopify Plus has tons of pre-packed features to customize your website. Also, it offers APIs for plenty of external apps;

• Smooth and fast work in order to avoid losing money due to technical troubles.

The disadvantages are as follows:

• Limited backend customization. You have to work with APIs that pose some risks and difficulties;

• Content management limitation. If you are moving from WordPress or another CMS for blogs, don’t expect the same functionality in Shopify Plus;

• Payment gateways. Embedded Shopify payments aren’t available in every country.

Oracle

It’s also one of the best software-as-a-service platforms to sell online. Its main pros are:

• User-friendly interface with great-working features such as search tools, customizable dashboard, and so on;

• International capabilities. The platform supports multilanguage and multicurrency;

• Marketing tools. Conduct A/B tests and learn customers’ behavior;

• Easy transition. Move to Oracle easily and fast.

Cons we would like to highlight:

• No IDE (integrated development environment). Changes made in your IDE don’t save in the cloud. It means you have to duplicate them manually;

• Insufficient performance. Big businesses can sometimes encounter standard problems when the cloud doesn’t cope with all requests due to inadequate memory, the slow Internet, or something else;

• Pricing. Small companies would be able to pay for Oracle’s solution despite the availability of flexible subscription models.

Prestashop

This is an extremely popular CMS, which allows you to develop a site and customize it the way you want.

Pros:

• Unlimited opportunities. PrestaShop is an open-source platform, so you are able to change its code freely;

• Plenty of modules (ready-made ones or you can develop your own plugins);

• Easy interaction and development process if, of course, you aren’t planning to launch a complicated website;

• Convenient admin panel.

Cons:   

• Some important modules have to be purchased, certain ones require a subscription;

• You need the training to work with PrestaShop or hire a developer;

• Your own hosting is mandatory.  

OpenCart

It’s another free eCommerce website builder, which is an open-source CMS as well. It means your site will belong to you, not to the SaaS provider.

Pros:

• All the necessary reports and metrics are included;

• Free themes and modules. Also, there are piles of payable solutions to cover all your needs;

• Big community, which would help to sort out plugins;

• Numerous video tutorials.

Cons:

• As in PrestaShop, you need a developer and hosting;

We can’t say Opentcart is the best eCommerce CMS: you should choose an appropriate solution by yourself because the choice is highly dependent on your requirements and purposes.

Conclusion

There are different types of eCommerce platforms. Spear some time to find an ideal one with excellent usability and a great set of features. If the ready-made solutions aren’t good for your business, please, fill out the form below. Our team will implement all your ideas by developing a wonderful online store from scratch.