Choosing the best eCommerce platform for your business necessitates extensive research. The best e-commerce platforms will help you achieve your goals, from simple business administration to secure payment processing. This article will help you narrow down your options if you want to start an online store.
We researched and reviewed numerous eCommerce platforms before recommending our top picks. Online shopping’s convenience and speed are quickly becoming the norm. According to Jeff Bezos, there are more than 100 million paid Amazon Prime subscribers worldwide.
It’s usual to offer free shipping these days. Delivery times that used to take two days are now down to one or even two hours. Although 94% of internet users have made an online purchase at some point, choosing the right eCommerce platform from the more than 477 available can be a daunting task.
We all know that out of the many choices available, only a handful will survive. Thus it’s crucial to make the right call.
To what extent can we rely on these testimonials?
- As marketing managers, we have overseen departments for companies that generate over $100 million annually from online sales.
- Once upon a time, We oversaw wholesale shipments and worked in warehouses.
- For several years, We were in charge of an eight-figure annual e-commerce marketing budget.
- In the past, We’ve held positions with SaaS firms specializing in the e-commerce sector.
- In addition, We have opened virtual shops on pretty much every major platform.
- Reviewers ranked vendors on a wide range of criteria, including cost, dependability, quality of technical support, features, scalability, variety of products offered, speed of delivery, ease of use of administrative interface, and more.
In addition to that, we’ll contrast and analyze things like the following:
- The top options for startups and small companies.
- Best low-cost, no-cost, and open-source alternatives.
- Platforms with the most attractive themes and interfaces.
- Software designed for huge companies and their brands.
- Successful search engine optimization (SEO) on many e-commerce platforms.
Where can You find the most reliable online storefronts?
- Ecommerce platforms are powerful, full-featured software tools you can use to sell things online.
- There are several factors to consider while selecting the finest eCommerce website builder, and each has its own set of benefits.
- If you plan on selling three items as opposed to one hundred, or if you choose to have your products drop shipped instead of being responsible for their shipping and fulfillment, your requirements will differ.
- If you deal primarily with other businesses as customers, or if your product catalog and order processes are exceptionally intricate, look into a business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce platform.
- The best e-commerce platforms help you swiftly add products, promote them with discounts and coupons, and keep track of stock without your intervention.
- To free up your time to concentrate on managing your firm, they should assist with shipping and fulfillment.
Our picks for the top e-commerce platforms of 2018 are as follows:
1. Wix
If you’re a small business, save money on any other eCommerce Platform ($17/month). If you want to build a website the way you want it, Wix is the best platform to use.
Wix is an excellent option if you’re somewhat unconstrained and want to show off your individuality by creating a website you’re pleased with.

As a rapidly expanding website builder, Wix allows users to add complete eCommerce capability for just $20 per month.
They have a plethora of professionally-designed templates, discounts, gift certificates, aesthetically pleasing product galleries, and straightforward order administration and delivery processes.
They’ll automatically optimize your online shop for mobile devices like iPhones and Androids (Apple and Google).
Using their online store builder, you can also change how your mobile e-commerce site looks. If you want a beautiful website but need to learn HTML or CSS, Wix is the way to go.
They have a great selection of product galleries that can help you set up your products in a way that looks good and gets people to buy.
The mobile-friendly, stacking design of these product galleries is also a boon for viewing on smaller screens.
Wix is well-known for being one of the most user-friendly options for creating websites and selling products online.
Seven simple steps are all it takes to launch an internet store:
- Go ahead and sign up for an account, or log in if you already have one.
- Select a theme that caters to your online storefront.
- Modify the text to include your company’s name.
- To edit your store’s settings, visit “My Store” and “Manage Your Store.”
- Put things in your store.
- To configure your business’s payment methods, shipping options, and store settings, go to the “SetupSetup” menu.
- Put your website live and start using your URL.
As a final touch, Wix provides a secure shopping cart, round-the-clock assistance from a knowledgeable staff, various payment methods, international shipping and tax calculations, and promotional codes to boost sales.
Main Features:
- With the help of these stunning templates, you can design a magnificent eCommerce website that is tailored to your exact specifications.
- Complete design autonomy implies that you can decide on every aspect of the website’s visual style.
- You can ensure your website is easily accessible to potential clients using advanced SEO tools.
- You can customize the design of your website to your liking with an unlimited number of fonts to select from.
- Use product galleries to exhibit your goods with ease on your website.
- If your website is mobile-optimized, it will display beautifully across all mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets.
User Interface:
There is a great app market on the Wix platforms from which you can integrate Wix-made functionalities into your website. Wix also features a simple interface that lets you change your site’s look and feel without needing to learn any complicated code. Drag and drop pieces to reorganize their placement on your website without worrying about the underlying coding.
Pricing:
The pricing plans offered by Wix are as follows:
- $14/month for the bundle
- $18 per month for everything
- Pro: $23 a month
- VIP: $39 per month
Fors:
- An effortless website constructor, perfect for the spur-of-the-moment website creation scenario.
- Cost-cutting annual packages that provide savings
- There are a lot of templates to choose from, which gives you a lot of design freedom.
Drawbacks:
- Some Wix-built sites take longer to load than their counterparts built on other platforms.
- The absence of a built-in reviews app also hinders your ability to attract and retain customers by letting them know what others think of your offerings before they decide to buy.
The Latest on the Product:
- You can now add tickets to your items and choose particular seating locations for each ticket, making selling tickets easier and increasing your revenue. This is a terrific option if you’re hosting an event like a concert or play and want to guarantee everyone a specific seat.
- Wix Proposals allows you to create and send high-quality proposals to prospective clients easily. Using this brand-new function, you can make expertly prepared suggestions for your company.
- Facebook and Instagram now support video ads, so you can start reaching potential customers through both platforms. Using videos in commercials is a fantastic strategy for attracting customers and generating buzz about your business.
2. Nexcess
If you’re looking for a reliable, fully managed eCommerce host, Nexcess is an excellent option. Our ideal e-commerce platform would prioritize quick page loads, robust security measures, and the ability to accommodate growth.
Nexcess is a flexible hosting service provider that offers various hosting alternatives to meet all your requirements. In fact, these hosting options include fully managed versions of WordPress, Magento, and WooCommerce Hosting, amongst others. They also offer to host various e-commerce systems, including Drupal and BigCommerce.
You will have access to multiple capabilities. Including PHP optimization, support for PHP7, round-the-clock monitoring and alarm response, asset caching that is almost instantaneous, container add-ons, and more.
To deal with a sudden increase in traffic, you can activate auto-scaling with only one click. In addition to providing hosting, they also offer the StoreBuilder tool, which can be used to create a front end for your WooCommerce shop.
Respond to a few questions about your business; the app will use the information you provide to create a customized storefront. They take their time with giving help to their customers, too.
You can count on expert support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and free “white-glove” site migrations. There is a Magento Master available to help you if you choose fully managed Magento Hosting.
Main Features:
Features like the Abandoned Cart Plugin for WooCommerce, Page Builder Plugin for WooCommerce, Image Compression Plugin for WooCommerce, AffiliateWP, and Glew.io Integration for Advanced Analytics are all included with WooCommerce Other key markers are:
- A content delivery network is already installed, with 22 nodes worldwide.
- Complying with PCI standards.
- Accelerator that runs in the cloud and decreases wait times.
- Adaptable technology stack.
- A staging area for developing and testing production-ready sites.
- What we like best about Nexcess is that even the cheapest subscription has access to all of its features. Storage space and transfer rates are just two variables affecting the overall price tag.
User Interface:
The Nexcess theme makes it simple to alter the appearance of your store without delving too far into the theme’s code, thanks to a well-organized menu on the left. Logging into the admin area also displays vital information. Informations like number of open tickets, overdue invoices, available credits, and more for your store. Readers can peruse your site’s most recent entries if your place supports blogs.
Pricing:
Nexcess offers several different plans. Each one is tailored to the specific needs of your website and the platform it runs on. These things are:
- WordPress hosting that is fully managed costs $13.30 per month.
- Full-service WooCommerce hosting costs $13.30 per month.
- Full-Service Magento Hosting: $34.30 per month
Fors:
- Accommodating staff is always at your disposal, making setup a breeze.
- Hundreds of high-quality plugins, available at no cost, simplify integrating new features and capabilities.
- Easy-to-navigate interface with just the right amount of frills
Drawbacks:
It was once possible to filter through old tickets, but this feature has been removed, making it more challenging to locate a history of past issues.
The Latest on the Product:
- Enhanced support for mobile devices during the checkout process. It’s what we mean when we talk about a better mobile experience on the eCommerce platform.
- Improvements to the portal’s user interface make it simpler for online shoppers to locate the products they need.
- Improvements to the support ticket system ensure that you may get answers to your queries or assistance with any issues you’re having with the e-commerce platform at any time of day or night.
3. Zyro
Are you a newcomer to the world of e-commerce or a business owner wanting to get your feet wet? If that’s the case, you’ve probably only begun to master the fundamentals of website creation and internet advertising. In fact, Zyro lets you make a beautiful, fully-functional store without learning to code or pay for web development services.
The powerful eCommerce builder from Zyro has everything you need to do well. With their simple drag-and-drop interface, you can begin creating your store immediately and have it up and running in a matter of minutes.
Your products will reach more people if you list them on social media and other online marketplaces in addition to your e-commerce platforms.
You can better serve your customers and ensure their satisfaction with your eCommerce store if you offer them a variety of secure payment methods.
Zyro delivers the tools and capabilities that any business needs to thrive, no matter how big or little.
Main Features:
- If you choose Zyro to develop your online store, you will have access to many different design options. Zyro provides the ideal design template for you, whether you’re searching for something straightforward or intricate.
- Zyro’s eCommerce builder provides several promotional resources to help you expand your customer base and sell more wares. Using these tools, you can make stunning advertisements, email campaigns, and more.
- You may increase your store’s visibility in search results and attract new consumers using Zyro’s eCommerce builder.
- Zyro makes it simple to run your online store. Their eCommerce platform has a simple interface that makes it easy to keep track of your products, stock, and orders.
- Zyro’s e-commerce creator can expand alongside your company as it expands. The ability to recapture clients who have abandoned their carts and upsell them on additional items allows you to focus on increasing your business without fear of losing customers.
- Managing orders and inventories helps businesses keep tabs on their customers, products, and orders.
- More than 70 payment methods are available to help you make money in the best way for your company.
- Taking care of shipping and taxes so that your purchases arrive on time and the correct amounts are charged.
- Promo codes and freebies can help you spread the word about your wares and attract new customers.
- Send your customers regular email updates about their orders to let them know how things are going.
User Interface:
If you’re starting e-commerce and have a limited amount of experience with website development, you’ll appreciate how simple it is to change your e-commerce products with the click of a button. In fact, It’s a good idea to include shots from different perspectives to give customers a better feel for the goods they buy. We had no problems at all when using it, and the experience was generally very user-friendly. Here are the plans for prices:
- $2.61 per month for a site
- $4.41 per month for business
- The Advanced Store costs $14.31 a month.
There are two packages available, both of which are geared toward providing you with the best possible experience setting up an online business.
Fors:
- Those with little knowledge of web design will appreciate how easily the components can be arranged.
- As a bonus, customer support quickly responds and provides valuable information.
- This is a terrific e-commerce site, and We appreciate how quickly We can browse and make a purchase.
Drawbacks:
Some planned integrations are still in development and cannot be used now.
The Latest on the Product:
- Set up a centralized dashboard to keep track of everything related to your online store’s inventory. This allows you to easily manage your stock and make any necessary adjustments to your listings.
- An excellent new function, text resizing lets you adjust the font size of your text without switching between separate menus.
- You can now customize the look of your site even further by selecting from a wider variety of fonts.
4. Shopify
Shopify is the best option if you want to open an online store because millions of other online retailers trust it. In fact, if you’re searching for a unified platform to sell across several channels, look into Shopify for its robust tools to attract customers to your store.
Shopify is a powerful eCommerce platform that over 400,000 merchants worldwide use. Some people automatically think of Shopify when they consider online stores.
They are a Canadian startup that has snowballed to become one of the leading SaaS providers in the Americas. Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake spent two months developing a Ruby on Rails-based open-source web app because they were unsatisfied with state of the art in mobile apps and e-commerce.
Shopify grew out of that program. Shopify’s success can be attributed partly to the fact that it speaks directly to “dreamers” or first-time users eager to make money through online sales. With their plugins, a beginner can quickly and easily establish a functional dropshipping shop.
Even if you have an internet store, that doesn’t guarantee you’ll be successful without some form of promotion. Shopify’s strict regulations for search engine optimization are one of the platform’s few downsides.
If you don’t change your URL structure to match theirs, you’ll be forced to use it. As an illustration, Shopify requires you to use their structure of campingsite.com/collections/tents rather than the standard format of category pages accessible at campingsite.com/tents.
Having “category” as a higher-level subdirectory than the more critical “tents” is problematic for search engine results. Also, unlike BigCommerce, they don’t provide as many products to choose from. In the case of selling t-shirts, for instance, the number of SKUs can quickly grow due to the variety of available colors, fabrics, and sizes.
Shopify only allows for 100 unique product variations, which isn’t very many if you have many options for each product. Though it has some drawbacks, Shopify is a solid e-commerce platform that many startups have found successful.
Main Features:
- With so many options, you’re sure to find the perfect design for your website among the 70+ professional themes available.
- The simplest way to get a website to look how you want is to learn how to edit HTML and CSS.
- Get help from a pro if you want your website to shine.
- A specific company domain name allows you to establish an online identity.
- Full support for blogging means you can tell your story and engage with your audience in a meaningful way.
- With automatic taxes, you won’t have to worry about how much to add to each item’s price.
- Also, You will have an easier time managing your inventory and completing orders when you use the services provided by fulfillment centers.
User Interface:
When you first enter Shopify, you’ll be greeted by a dashboard that provides a bird’s-eye view of your store and its vital statistics. All new and old customers are included in this figure, as well as the number of times they have shopped with you this month. Using a visual theme editor, you can change the overall look of your shop’s theme without touching any of the code.
Pricing:
Shopify offers three different plans ranging in price from $29 to $299. Shopify also provides separate, company-specific pricing for its enterprise-level Shopify Plus platform. In addition, each subscription comes with limitless products. Products like free SSL, discount codes, inventory management, translations into many languages. Some essential tools like buy buttons, abandoned cart recovery tools, marketing tools, and technical support available around the clock. They provide a free 14-day trial to see if they work for you.
Fors:
- Google Merchant Center integration makes it simple for shoppers to purchase from your website.
- Capable of altering the appearance of e-commerce websites to conform to your brand’s guidelines
Drawbacks:
- The app store is helpful, but the cost might add up quickly if you want to utilize several different programs.
- Finding your way around various elements can be a time-consuming and frustrating process at first.
The Latest on the Product:
- If you’re a Shopify partner, you now have more options than ever for getting rewarded for your efforts.
- You can put your best foot forward by advertising your wares with Online Store 2.0 and the aforementioned ‘Dawn.’
5. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a one-stop shop for all your e-commerce needs. Adopting BigCommerce if you want to scale with easy-to-implement solutions, beginning with product listing and ending with order fulfillment over a hundred channels.
BigCommerce is a robust e-commerce platform that can grow with your business from zero to over $100 million in annual revenue, thanks to its top-tier search engine optimization (SEO) tools, 40+ payment methods, comprehensive product selections, and round-the-clock support.
Here’s how things usually go. An owner of a small business decides to enter the e-commerce market and selects a platform with a well-known brand name, such as Shopify.
After 6-12 months, they increase sales and invest in supplementary apps and add-ons to expand their online store’s potential. After a while, they stopped growing.
These people may come to terms with the fact that they are spending hundreds of dollars every month on apps, that their SEO may need some work, or that they have just outgrown their current platform.
The openness of BigCommerce’s APIs, lack of transaction fees, and transparency of its partner ecosystem make it the most accessible SaaS eCommerce platform available.
Two of BigCommerce’s products are available: BigCommerce, their enterprise offering, and BigCommerce Essentials, a simpler platform version. In fact, both may quickly expand alongside your company. On the one hand, their user-friendliness and abundance of useful features make them an ideal platform for startups. But it takes a little more time to learn than a tool like Wix.
They’re also great for large companies that want to shift away from pricey on-premise systems like Magento in favor of SaaS. (SaaS). BigCommerce is used by numerous Fortune 1000 companies, including automotive giants Ford and Toyota and audio accessory makers Skullcandy and others, and can process transactions totaling over $100 million annually with little to no downtime.
BigCommerce for WordPress was released in December 2018 as a “headless commerce” platform, allowing customers to run their online stores using BigCommerce while keeping their front-end content in WordPress.
By making use of APIs, WordPress sites can load much more quickly than they do when using other eCommerce solutions provided by WordPress, such as WooCommerce, which require the installation of several plugins to function correctly and therefore slow down site performance.
Main Features:
- Multi-storefront e-commerce allows you to advertise and sell your wares on several websites.
- Utilize the most recent and cutting-edge technologies available to achieve superior performance compared to your rivals.
- With a malleable foundation, you can add functionality to your site.
- Having no restrictions on who you may sell to because of the elimination of borders is a major boon to business.
- Both accurate and detailed statistics can aid in monitoring sales and learning more about your clientele.
- A presence in numerous online marketplaces is a great way to increase exposure and sales.
- Do better than the competitors by employing cutting-edge technologies.
- With a malleable foundation, you can add the functionality of any kind to your site.
- Having no restrictions on who you may sell to because of the elimination of borders is a significant boon to business.
- Both accurate and detailed statistics can aid in monitoring sales and learning more about your clientele.
User Interface:
If you’re starting with online retail, BigCommerce’s dashboard will walk you through every process step, from stocking your shelves to establishing shipping policies. Detailed instructions for performing actions like accepting orders are also a nice touch. In fact, this makes learning much more accessible and lets people who have never done eCommerce before get started quickly.
Pricing:
Their lowest monthly package costs $29.95 and includes a custom domain name and online shop that you can use to sell on sites like Amazon and eBay and social networking platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. In fact, you can set up your online store quickly and easily using their user-friendly interface, divided into distinct areas for orders, items, promotions, analytics, taxes, and your storefront. With the new BigCommerce Shipping features, you can print shipping labels and track fulfillment from your dashboard. You also get discounts on carrier rates. Their themes are entirely responsive and are set up to increase conversion rates. They also have transparent pricing and don’t charge any transaction fees.
Fors:
- The service’s technical support team is extremely well-versed in the product and is ready to assist you with any questions or issues you may be having.
- A user-friendly layout that’s a breeze to get the hang of.
Drawbacks:
- Setting up full integration is a time-consuming process.
- For people who aren’t tech-savvy, templates might be hard to understand.
The Latest on the Product:
- Openpay is a brand-new gateway that lets buyers make installments on their purchases.
- Thanks to Multi-Storefront, a brand-new functionality, you can now sell your wares on several channels.
- Also, customers can now pay for their orders more quickly and easily using Apple Pay, thanks to its integration with the checkout process.
6. Square Online
To assist brick-and-mortar stores in transitioning to online sales, the famous POS system Square has introduced Square Online. It’s lovely as a stand-alone e-commerce solution. It improves upon that by including useful features for local companies, such as curbside pickup and local delivery. Here is how to start using Square Online:
- Build your online storefront with one of their pre-made web page designs, pages, and editors.
- Complement your shop with some new items.
- Get your store up and running at no cost — only 2.9% plus $0.30 for every transaction. You can either go with the basic plan, which is unrestricted or upgrade to the paid plan, which has access to more options.
Main Features:
- It makes it simple to design a website that is aesthetically pleasing and professionally presented for your company. There are several pre-made layouts and styles to pick from, or you can create your own from scratch.
- Promote your business to a broader audience and increase site visits using search engine optimization (SEO) features, social media plugins, and advertising campaigns.
- Build a professional and user-friendly website with a layout that works well across all devices. You may make your site seem precisely how you want it to with the available customization options, like fonts, colors, and layouts.
- Site planning and financial transactions are priced competitively. You can start and stop using the service anytime, with no additional costs or commitments required.
The setup is simple, and the options are adaptable, making them ideal for small enterprises that want to go online without a lot of hassle.
Instagram is a great place to start selling your wares, and when you’re ready, you can always build yourself a full e-commerce website.
Another thing going for them is that they have a safe online payment system. It accepts both Apple Pay and Google Pay. Several features are exclusive to Square Online, making it an excellent choice for small business websites:
- Sites where you can purchase food online from a restaurant.
- Tools for both in-person and online shopping.
- Square appointments let you make online reservations.
- Websites that help charities should be able to accept donations.
User Interface:
With the Square Online Editor, you can easily preview your work before publishing it to the live site. The user interface is well-designed and straightforward to browse, thanks to several different fonts, colors, and layout possibilities.
Pricing:
With Square Online’s free plan, you can sell an unlimited number of products. Also offer in-store and on-demand shipping, accept gift cards and coupons, optimize your website with SEO tools, protect sensitive data with an SSL certificate, connect with Instagram, sync your inventory with Square POS, and more. Delivery fees are an additional $0.50 on top of the 2.9% transaction cost. Unfortunately, your domain name is not included in this package. In case you’re interested in upgrading to a paid plan, these are some of the benefits you’ll gain:
- The Professional plan is $12 per month and includes a custom domain name (with free hosting for the first year). There is also no Square branding included.
- With the Performance plan, you can upgrade for just $26 a month to receive abandoned cart emails, site reviews, and cheaper shipping labels.
- Lower transaction fees, the most incredible delivery discounts, and a live shipping rate calculator are included in the premium ($72/month) plan.
- Scalability is a huge plus if you run an eCommerce enterprise. The Professional Plan is great for those just starting online sales, and you can always upgrade to a more robust plan as your business grows.
Fors:
- It is simple to get started, and you can have your website up and operate in a short amount of time.
- The way Square handles payments is reliable and always works.
- It is simple to create a website and integrate eCommerce features.
Drawbacks:
- The ability to personalize a store’s look is limited compared to the other features available.
- Templates are easy to change if you need to learn how to code.
The Latest on the Product:
- With the new location-switching feature, Square has made it easier for mobile customers to move around to other stores. This is an excellent solution for companies with many locations, as it streamlines the process of monitoring stock and reporting on sales.
- Products can now be sold by unit rather than weight and stock can be converted between multiple units of measurement. Thanks to this streamlined inventory management system, having the right products on hand at all times will now be a breeze.
- The calendar used for Square Appointments has been updated, making it much simpler to view and make appointments. More details, such as the client’s name and contact information, are now displayed for each scheduled session.
- Said Square Online is the way to go if you’re a brick-and-mortar store or a small, locally-owned business wishing to expand into the digital realm.
7. WooCommerce
WooCommerce, with more than 74 million downloads, is the engine that drives over 25 percent of all online shops. In the years after its 2011 debut, this free, open-source WordPress plugin has become one of the most widely adopted e-commerce platforms available.
The WooCommerce plugin for WordPress is available at no cost. Some of the more advanced features found in the other e-commerce systems on this list require an additional fee-based expansion to be purchased. Another problem is that it needs to be made more prominent.
Despite its flaws, there are a lot of people who choose to use WooCommerce. For starters, it has a lot of room for personalization.
Due to its open-source nature, WooCommerce has attracted a big community of developers who regularly update the plugin with new features. When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), WordPress is among the most fantastic options available.
WooCommerce is an integral part of the WordPress ecosystem, thanks to its seamless integration and a plethora of SEO settings that give you a greater say over your site’s visibility in search engine results. In conclusion, WooCommerce is worth a go if you own a WordPress site and want to sell things online without spending a dime.
8. Shift4shop
Among the most popular e-commerce solutions, Shift4shop stands out for its extensive search engine optimization (SEO) tools, fifty free templates, and one hundred or more accepted payment methods. One of their programs, Startup Store, costs $19 per month, while Pro Store costs $114.50.
Domain registration, zero transaction costs, unmetered bandwidth, a Facebook store, an integrated blog, API access, and round-the-clock tech assistance are all standard features across all tiers. They just put out new shipping options and updated their advertising tools.
Rather than showing one shipping provider and its associated costs at a time, the entire list is displayed on the checkout page. When a customer pays using a credit card or PayPal, the applicable rates are added mechanically.
You may now select numerous Customer Groups to provide a promotion to all at once with their state-of-the-art Promotion Manager. This is an excellent choice for business-to-business (B2B) firms that want to offer an e-commerce platform to their customers and wholesale partners.
They have been called “the greatest eCommerce platform for SEO” due to their robust SEO tools. You can make your own URLs, meta tags, link titles, and more. They also care about security and meet all PCI standards. Thanks to Shift4shop’s integrated Facebook store, you may sell products independently of your e-commerce platform. With mCommerce optimized for mobile devices, you may also target shoppers out and about. In the end, Shift4shop is an excellent option for small businesses that require powerful search engine optimization (SEO), marketing tools, and e-commerce capability but don’t require elaborate enterprise-level extras. A free trial period of 15 days lets you try them out.
9. Ecwid
Ecwid is a top-notch e-commerce solution used by over 1.6 million enterprises worldwide. G2 Crowd also named it the “fastest eCommerce implementation platform” for this reason.
Ideally, it would be used by those who already have a website and wish to incorporate store or shopping features into their existing site. Thankfully, the interface is intuitive and easy to use. It is also very flexible and lets users sell on many sites, such as:
- Amazon
- eBay
This allows you to connect with a global audience of potential purchasers across several channels with just one set of data.
Ecwid’s onboarding process is similarly straightforward. Further simplifying matters is Ecwid’s native compatibility with popular content management systems like Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress Business. It also has a storefront that can be changed in a lot of ways, making it easy for customers to see all of your products no matter what device they are using.
Branding components such as logos, colors, and messaging can be shown front and center to attract customers. You can make ads, control them, and see how they perform with Ecwid’s built-in dashboard tools. Putting together the best ads for Facebook or Google is also easy.
Ecwid’s built-in capability with leading POS systems and compatibility with more than 50 payment gateways, including First Data, PayPal, Square, Stripe, WePay, and more, make accepting payments a breeze.
Ecwid has been verified as a “PCI DSS certified Level 1 Service Provider to assure the safety of its users and their businesses financial information.” Besides these main features, Ecwid also has the following:
- Keeping track of stock
- Putting away favorite things
- A complete list of customers’ addresses
- Taking care of product choices
- Constant and immediate upgrades
- Cost-effective shipping calculations
- A simple way to check out
- Ecwid is distinguished from its competitors by these and other aspects. Still, it has some problems as well. One major drawback is that only English is supported for customer service.
- They also don’t offer any phone assistance. Though there are certain restrictions, they are outweighed by the extensive set of features and flexible price options. The free plan of Ecwid includes all the essential features and allows you to offer ten physical things per month. Then they give you three options for paying.
- If you’re looking to sell 100 goods, digital or physical, per month, the Venture plan is your best bet at $12.50.
- The Business plan costs $29.17 a month, and you can sell up to 2,500 items.
- All sales channels are part of the $82.50 per month Unlimited plan.
Those who currently have an online store but would like to switch to a more flexible and user-friendly platform may find what they’re looking for in Ecwid. You may test them out by signing up for one of their free plans.
10. Sellfy
Sellfy is an easy-to-use e-commerce platform that supports selling digital products, physical commodities, and subscriptions. While the tool was initially developed to sell digital things (such as eBooks, movies, music, and courses), it is now a fully-featured platform that includes everything required for selling physical products.
Sellfy provides analytics and marketing capabilities built in, and it can be integrated with over a thousand other apps via Zapier. Sellfy is ideal for bloggers, creators, and small businesses who want to sell digital products, subscriptions, and material things online through their websites, buy buttons, and social media accounts because of its intuitive interface and quick setup time.
It’s simple to add “purchase now” buttons to your videos and other product pages on your website and your Instagram and SoundCloud profiles. Because it offers capabilities for email marketing, special offers, and upselling features to enhance your sales, among other things, Sellfy eliminates the need for you to install several apps on your eCommerce site, so that’s another plus. And because it’s in the cloud, you can use it on many different devices, like PCs, mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. The following is a list of some of its further key traits:
- It’s simple to include your brand’s colors and logo, thanks to the design’s high adaptability.
- It gives you the option to replace the current domain with one of your own
- Your shop’s language options are entirely up to you.
- It provides a user-friendly, intuitive interface that is tailored to mobile devices.
- Supports major payment processors, including PayPal and Stripe
- Offer in-depth data for monitoring top-selling items, examining traffic sources, ranking locations, and more.
- Multiple connections to over a thousand applications
- Adherence to PCI-DSS Standards
- Includes a free 14-day trial period
Pricing:
You can choose from one of three different Sellfy pricing tiers. Price points range from $19 for the Starter Plan to $49 for the Business Plan to $99 for the Premium Plan. Online product sales, complete with embedded “buy now” buttons and shopping carts, support for numerous payment gateways, and in-depth analytics, are available on all levels. There will be no extra costs associated with this exchange on your part. In addition, you will receive email credits, features for upselling, and priority customer service if you subscribe to the Business or Premium plan. In addition, if you are switching from another provider, their Premium Plan comes with migration services. You can test out Sellfy without any risk for 14 days.
11. nopCommerce
Microsoft’s open-source nopCommerce framework powers many online stores at no cost to their customers.
They have been in business for eleven years and claim to have one hundred fifty or more partners and sixty thousand active web stores. Microsoft’s open-source ASP.NET framework is a popular choice for creating. NET-based online applications.
Using this technology, developers of sophisticated programs can reduce the volume of code they need to write. Its caching tech, native optimization, and just-in-time assembly improve load times for massive websites.
Unlike the other website builders, a fluent developer in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS is required to create a dynamic and high-quality eCommerce site. Although the technology is simple to pick up, it can be frustrating for busy entrepreneurs to wait for a simple site to be built.
They don’t charge any membership or transaction fees for using their platform. The nopCommerce control panel has in-built marketing capabilities, allows the upload of an unlimited number of products, and manages many stores and suppliers from a single location.
They also allow you to have a smartphone version of the website for no extra cost and with no coding necessary. Their platform meets the needs of both developers and small and large businesses with detailed requirements. Microsoft, The North Face, and the BMW Group are just a few of the prestigious companies that regularly use their services. Consider nopCommerce if you need a flexible, feature-rich website but can’t afford a paid solution.
12. ShopBase
ShopBase is an up-and-coming system that just launched in June of this year. They are often regarded as an excellent resource for those who engage in dropshipping and wish to white-label their goods.
The professional designers at ShopBase have made it possible to have a storefront that can be tailored entirely to your needs and is also suited for mobile use.
Each page has different options, and the HTML and CSS are also fully editable. It’s crucial to your e-commerce site’s success that you can tweak any aspects of the checkout process. They also send emails to people whose shopping carts were left behind to get them to finish their purchases. Other essential features include:
- Unmetered data transfer for your website.
- Every package has an SSL certificate with a 256-bit encryption key.
- There’s monitoring for downtime 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 99.98% uptime.
- A vital tool for creating an online shop. There are no cost but high-quality store templates available.
- Quick loading times. It brags that it is three times as fast as competing platforms.
- More than two-hundred-fifty distinct product iterations (2.5x more than Shopify).
It is simple to move your store to ShopBase and import your products from your previous platform. Migrating your store from another platform, such as Shopify or WooCommerce, to ShopBase is free when you use the tool “Migrate to ShopBase.”
Help online stores that rely on drop shipping by providing high-quality product sourcing and order fulfillment services. When you use ShopBase, the product pages and checkout will automatically optimize for maximum conversions.
Aside from this, ShopBase has a few drawbacks that users should be aware of. For instance, compared to other platforms, their app store has fewer apps that can be integrated. Further, ShopBase is unsuitable if you have no plans to drop ship, print on demand, or turn your company into a white label.
The company’s $19/month Basic Base package includes all the features necessary to launch an e-commerce business and make your first sale.
ShopBase is your superb option if you intend to establish a white-label, print-on-demand, or dropshipping enterprise, as it provides all three services. You can try ShopBase for free for 14 days.
13. Volusion
Kevin Sproles, only 16 years old, started Volusion in 1999 and got it off the ground in 2002. Volusion is a reliable all-purpose e-commerce platform with a lot of features and a new Content Builder that is almost as user-friendly as the Elementor WordPress plugin. For $29 per month, you get access to their products, 24/7 online assistance, and no additional fees for making purchases. The next tier up is the Professional plan at $79/month, and at the top of the food chain is the Business Plan at $299/month with additional in-house assistance.
Volusion’s in-house marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) team is an excellent asset for expanding your online presence and attracting new customers. Some premium plans include “$100 of quick wins” per month. As a business owner, you may need help with anything from a minor tweak to the site’s layout to major search engine optimization. To see if Volusion is right for you, a free 14-day trial is available.
14. PinnacleCart
PinnacleCart is an e-commerce platform that maximizes both customer satisfaction and returns visits. They also include powerful search engines optimization tools, such as the potential to get indexed on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Distributing your goods and services throughout many marketplaces, including social media sites like Facebook, eBay, and more, will further expand your product reach. With Buy Buttons, you may promote your wares on other websites and blogs and have customers buy directly from those pages.
Their improved product features allow you to make interactive product listings, including Buy Buttons. Tags, stock levels, featured photos, and listing categories and attributes can all be generated on the fly in these catalogs.
You can use these functions with real-world items or with virtual ones online. They also work well with various other programs because of their extensive list of integrations.
You can connect to third-party programs such as Avalara, Quickbooks, Shipwire, and more with a few clicks in their Apps Center. The control panel makes it easy to manage every facet of your e-commerce business from one location.
There are three premium plans for PinnacleCart, ranging from $44.99 to $199.99 per month. The Startup Plan, at $44.99 per month, lets you sell unlimited products and create a total number of administrator accounts with no additional transaction fees.
A unified SSL is provided, and there is a single-page checkout, live shipping quotes, Google Shopping, intelligent search, product dissemination, and more. For an extra $199.99 a month, you can upgrade to the more robust Advanced Plan with features like dedicated SSL encryption, limitless storage and data transfer, and top-tier customer service. If you want to host your e-commerce site on your server, there is one exciting thing you can do.
A one-time payment of $1495 per domain will provide them with a permanent PinnacleCart license. Buying this package grants access to all premium features, one year of technical assistance, access to premium upgrades, and a discount of 20% off any additional license purchases.
To sum up, PinnacleCart is a reliable all-around e-commerce platform developed with UX and CRO in mind. PinnacleCart is an attractive option if you want to generate items dynamically and synchronize your product catalog with other platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and eBay. There is a free trial available for PinnacleCart.
15. Weebly
Weebly was started in 2006 and has since amassed over half a million domains and a 12% share of the website builder market. This service is ideal for startups and small businesses that still need to gain the resources to maintain a sophisticated online presence.
Weebly’s built-in marketing automation functions are one of the platform’s many advantages. Your monthly expenses could go up by an additional $10 to $20 if you were to pay for a separate website builder and email marketing service. Another plus is that they have a lot of products to choose from.
You can easily keep tabs on hundreds of products, monitor stock levels, eliminate out-of-stock items temporarily with automation, and encourage more purchases by revealing the exact quantity of a thing still available to buyers.
Compared to competitors like Shopify and 3dcart, Weebly can’t hold a candle to its strength. Weebly isn’t the best option if you’re trying to build a complex site with dozens of features, but it’s great for small businesses with one to ten pages of content that need to sell their products online.
The Business Plan, which starts at $26 a month and includes a free domain, is where you’ll see their e-commerce features for the first time.
16. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a PHP-based e-commerce platform that is free to use and can connect to MySQL databases. It is available in 75 different tongues and is used by over 300,000 stores.
PrestaShop is an e-commerce platform where you can build and manage your online store with little setup time, thanks to IONOS’s pre-installed and managed platform. This consists of a simple setup process, a place to write code, regular backups, and round-the-clock access to technical help.
The PrestaShop ecosystem consists of over a million users, one thousand developers, and two hundred and fifty or more service providers. Members of the community can connect during in-person meetups and online discussion forums.
Many hands make light work, and the PrestaShop team relies on the efforts of contributors to keep the open-source software running smoothly. Over two hundred fifty different agencies are willing to assist with the creation of online stores. PrestaShop, like the other applications above, allows you to do these things:
- Choosing a name for a website.
- Changing the way your store looks.
- Putting items in your catalog.
- Setting up your methods of payment.
- Setting up your store.
In addition, they offer a Marketplace for Add-ons with over 5,000 different modules, themes, and additional services that can be purchased or downloaded for free. Extensions like PrestaShop’s search engine optimization instruments, wish lists, newsletter subscription forms, and more fall under this category. To get a feel for how much you’ll need to pay, look up the specific characteristics you require on their market.
So, for $229.99, you can get their Amazon Marketplace add-on, which is needed if you want to sell on Amazon. In exchange for this one-time payment, you’ll receive support for a predetermined number of months, which is included in the price of these add-ons.
There are presently 33 available free add-ons for commonplace integrations, including payment processing through PayPal, email marketing via MailChimp or Google Ads, customer reviews, and more. The bottom line is that PrestaShop is worth looking at if you’re a developer who values autonomy in creating a one-of-a-kind online shop.
17. Squarespace
One of the most popular options for creating a website, Squarespace’s third-most-expensive plan includes some simple e-commerce tools.
Squarespace makes it simple for people who need more technical expertise to launch a website, but the platform’s simplicity comes at the expense of functionality and search engine optimization.
There are advantages to using this platform if you currently use it for something else and want to add an online store. You can get your store up and running in no time, and it integrates with popular shipping platforms like ShipBob and ShipStation and provides you with beautiful mobile-friendly layouts.
Suppliers like UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service offer real-time shipping prices, while third-party logistics (3PL) and order fulfillment services can handle everything else. There are four primary plans to choose from, two monthly website builder plans and two monthly online store plans:
- Plan for me: $14 per month
- Plan for business: $23 a month
- Basic: $27 per month (Online Store)
- Advanced: $49 per month (Online Store)
Last but not least, Squarespace provides round-the-clock customer service and a 14-day trial period during which you can evaluate its functionality without risk.
18. Yo!Kart
Yo!Kart, an online marketplace platform, is among the best of its kind because it covers every aspect of an online store.
Yo!Kart’s strength is its ability to accommodate businesses of varying sizes by adjusting various vendors. The core script files of the framework are given in a partially encrypted format. This makes the framework less likely to have security problems.
Yo!Kart has a User-Centered Design and a smooth experience no matter what device you use. Yo!Kart is a simple product catalog management system that has several benefits. In terms of user experience (UX) and design (D), Yo!Kart is widely regarded as a top option.
You get a lifetime license to a platform that is both flexible and expandable. It also has free technical support for 12 months, as long as a third party doesn’t change the site.
However, Yo!Kart’s lack of ad-supported, no-cost themes and plugins was the platform’s biggest drawback. Because it is a licensing-based service, you will need to purchase a separate license for each domain you manage. Yo!Kart has three main price plans with different ways to pay:
- Full ownership of the software, free hosting, and default design are all part of the $999 GoQuick package.
- The following plan is the GoQuick Boost, which can be purchased for 2499 dollars.
- The GoCustom Lite plan, which costs $74,999, comes with extra benefits like a partial custom design.
- You can get the GoCustom Prime if you ask for it.
As a bonus, Yo!Kart provides reasonably priced smartphone apps for both buyers and sellers. In conclusion, Yo!Kart is a beautiful alternative if you need a fast, feature-rich solution for your online multi-vendor marketplace.
19. Selz
If you want to sell your products across multiple channels, including your current website, then you need to check out Selz.
You can manage your online sales channels from a single control panel, including Facebook, Instagram, and Google Shopping. Since customers nowadays expect to make purchases regardless of where they happen to be, Selz has become an industry leader in this respect (no rhyme intended).
They offer a plethora of valuable functions right out of the box, like limitless storage, bandwidth, users, analytics, special offers, and several integrations with other services.
Their most basic subscription costs $26 per month and includes options like global tax settings and abandoned cart recovery. Selz stands out because you may use its e-commerce hosting in the background of any website you already have. If you have a popular website and want to sell more of your wares through it, Selz can help you do that.
There is no need to start a brand new website. To start selling with Selz, you must add your products and integrate them with your existing site. However, if you sell items of varying weights and dimensions, you may find the $179/month premium plan necessary to access real-time shipping costs.
However, this is fine if you’re charging a set charge for your services. One last thing to know is that Selz offers email and chat assistance and that each user is assigned a dedicated account manager. This is a first-of-its-kind resource for startups and will be handy as they establish their operations. Selz is free to try for 14 days.
How Do Ecommerce Platforms Work?
E-commerce platforms are software applications that facilitate the buying and selling goods and services over the internet.
A company’s ability to operate its online storefront has traditionally depended on acquiring costly on-premise eCommerce software, a dedicated IT infrastructure, and a server farm. Users can now set up virtual shops (or front ends for other online sales channels) with the help of software as a service (SaaS) platforms.
When you use an e-commerce platform, you don’t have to worry about anything beyond adding products to your online store and getting them to your customers. These cloud-based platforms allow you to customize your storefront by adding your products, managing stock and orders, corresponding with customers, and syncing with other programs.
Which e-commerce platform is the most effective for SEO?
Several criteria, such as page load time, URL structure, page titles, content, and site-wide HTTPS, contribute to a website’s search engine rankings, especially in the competitive world of e-commerce SEO.
BigCommerce
Your e-commerce site’s page loading time should be optimized for mobile and desktop users. You may expect a 7% decrease in conversion rate for every 100 milliseconds it takes your page to load. Keep an eye on your online store’s loading times with the help of tools like GTMetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights.
Secondly, the compression of images is an essential factor in the loading time of a website. Slow-loading images harm both user experience and search engine optimization. In addition to providing automated image reduction with Akamai Image Manager, BigCommerce is the first e-commerce platform to offer Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) on product and category pages.
In terms of URL construction, BigCommerce has the most optimal defaults. As was said before, a good domain, category, and product order might look something like www.rebelpeak.com/camping/blue-tent. Unlike platforms like Shopify, which require you to stick with their rigid structure, you can modify their URLs for things like “/collections/,” “/pages/,” and “/products/.” BigCommerce is superior to Shopify because of its prominent URL structure, which is better optimized for search engines.
Wix
Most people who run online stores have trouble with SEO and have to pay for ads on Facebook and Google to get people interested in their products. Wix SEO Wiz is a free search engine optimization (SEO) tool available on the Wix platform. Wiz performs an in-depth review of your online store and generates a customized SEO strategy and audit checklist to raise your site’s position in search engine results. Methods for boosting a website’s search engine rankings include tweaking its titles and meta descriptions for enhanced clickability, including relevant alt text, and using indexing tools. Users of Wix will instantly view their websites in Google search results thanks to the collaboration between Wix and Google on this functionality.
What Are the Top Free Online Shopping Platforms?
There is an abundance of options for e-commerce platforms that are free to use or open-source software. It’s important to ask yourself a variety of questions when evaluating potential eCommerce frameworks, such as the following:
- Do you want to host your own site?
- How long have you been building websites?
- How much artistic freedom do you want?
- Would you like to fork over a little monthly charge to get everything bundled together?
There are restrictions on open-source software. The simplicity of hosting, the safety of your data, and the availability of specialized assistance you get in flexibility you lose in other areas.
Which Ecommerce Platforms Are Perfect for Small Firms?
Online businesses of any size require PCI compliance, usability, performance, and promises of 100% uptime. If you run a firm that relies on internet purchases, your standards will be higher than those of a private person selling to a small audience. Many factors must be considered when deciding on a B2B eCommerce platform, including the security of your user’s data, your tax calculations’ accuracy, and your invoicing system’s efficiency. You must find a way to reduce order processing times while facilitating the management of multiple users. Ultimately, the less time you spend on administrative tasks like compliance, shipping, and fulfillment, the more time you’ll have to devote to digital marketing.
3dcart
Since it is simple to use and includes built-in SEO optimizations, 3dcart is a fantastic option for startups and small companies. Their streamlined online storefront and user-friendly URLs will be a boon to local mom-and-pop shops. Plus, they offer a helpful staff that can be reached via multiple channels (email, phone, and live chat).
Wix
Wix’s attractive layouts and user-friendly tools make it the finest option for online retailers. It’s ideal for people who aren’t too tech-savvy because everything can be handled from a single, straightforward interface.
Shopify
For similar reasons, Shopify is another e-commerce platform from which small businesses can benefit. Their user-friendliness and simplicity mean that just about any firm can create and maintain a Shopify site.
They are time-savers for business owners because calculations for shipping and taxes are performed automatically. Shopify is also an excellent option for those needing experience with point-of-sale systems. They work with various popular point-of-sale platforms, making them ideal for businesses selling across several channels.
Which Ecommerce Platforms Are Preferred for Dropshipping?
The most effective dropshipping software will streamline your interactions with wholesalers, link your inventory across channels, and streamline your shipping processes. The first thing to verify when integrating your web store with a wholesaler is that stock levels are updated in real-time on both ends. There’s nothing worse than getting an online order for a product that’s currently out of stock at your wholesaler.
What Benefits Do Ecommerce Platforms Offer?
Bill Gates’ prediction was spot on since the e-commerce industry has grown tremendously and is expected to continue doing so. According to new research, north of half of all U.S. consumers now favors shopping online. The growth of online commerce is here to stay; all it takes to cash in is a basic website and some marketing savvy. But if you want to attract customers, you need a website that looks good and keeps people interested. So, let’s examine why setting up an online store is a good idea and how it might propel your company forward:
Scalability with Little Effort
It’s challenging to reach customers located in faraway places when you own a brick-and-mortar store. Opening several locations quickly becomes prohibitive unless your business is booming and you can model your operations after Walmart and other market giants.
Given this process’s prohibitively expensive, it’s evident that smaller and medium-sized stores would need help implementing it. However, with the help of e-commerce platforms, even medium-sized firms may expand their reach internationally and become much larger than before.
The typical monthly fee for using a platform to host your online shop is roughly $30, with the lowest and highest tiers often costing $15 and $50, respectively.
The internet allows you to reach people worldwide without focusing on a single area or limiting your marketing efforts to just one neighborhood. An increase in sales and, thus, a rise in profits can be expected from expanding your business’s reach.
Scalability can be attained with an eCommerce platform, making it possible to provide customers with a convenient, high-quality purchasing experience regardless of location.
Superior Assistance to Customers
The annual income of any business is heavily influenced by the overall customer satisfaction with the service they receive. It is, in point of fact, one of the most suggestive yardsticks of a company’s ability to compete in its industry.
There will still be times when you need help with developing a website, even if you do it by starting with a pre-made template. It might be anything, from slow website loading times to page problems. But no matter what e-commerce platform you use, you can always count on helpful customer service. For example, Bigcommerce offers round-the-clock technical help via chat, email, and toll-free phone in the United States.
Additionally, they offer a premium services group that is committed to your company’s success and is available to assist you with any technical issues you may encounter. And that’s a big deal because it can mean the world. Technical difficulties will not hinder the efficiency of your company if you have access to such assistance and adaptability.
Incorporation of Social Media
There is a massive potential customer base among over 3 billion people who use social media worldwide. More people are prepared to make purchases on social media sites, and there has been a shift in how people traditionally shop.
E-commerce platforms typically have streamlined integrations with social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, allowing you to sell your wares directly to your target market no matter where they may be hanging out online.
Therefore, it is crucial to pay some attention to participation in social media. They sync your inventory for you and handle the back-end sales right from the BigCommerce dashboard while integrating with social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Built-in tools for marketing online stores
Using social media effectively can help you reach your target audience, but other promotion methods should exist. Once you have a functional website, you can use analytical and promotional tools to learn more about your clients’ product preferences.
This is made more accessible with the support of e-commerce platforms, which typically include useful advertising features. You may map out your future sales success with the help of the insights and data provided by these tools.
Using its robust advertising features, you can increase website visitors and then use its sophisticated data analytics capabilities to see your strategies’ effectiveness.
Among the many available advertising, tools are newsletter subscription forms, exit intent pop-ups, discount vouchers, and special offers.
SEO
Almost every e-commerce platform has search engine optimization tools, even if they vary in complexity. These tools improve your website’s exposure in search engines and control various aspects of your website, including sitemaps, meta titles and descriptions, keywords, and more.
WooCommerce is a great e-commerce plugin for WordPress users familiar with SEO best practices. WooCommerce, for instance, works with some of the most popular WordPress plugins for search engine optimization, increasing the likelihood that your store will be found in relevant online searches. Plus, e-commerce systems like BigCommerce and 3dcart have excellent built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features.
How to Use Ecommerce Platforms: Tips and Strategies
Online shopping is beneficial for consumers who can save money and business owners who can expand their customer base with little investment. In 2017, consumers in the United States spent $5 billion on Black Friday sales made available online.
Over ninety-six percent of U.S. adults have made an internet transaction at least once. However, in today’s industry, where competition is higher than ever, it might take a lot of work to make a name for yourself. More than just having top-notch software is required. Establishing a full-funnel approach to e-commerce marketing from the get-go is essential. If you want to improve your marketing plan this year, consider the following:
Focus on mobile customers
The widespread use of mobile phones has surpassed that of personal computers. According to a July 2019 Google announcement, the mobile-first index is a new ranking element that will be sticking around for a long.
This implies the mobile version of any site is the primary one Google considers when determining its search engine rankings and indexing. More than two-thirds of internet users access the web via mobile devices rather than desktop computers.
There is no denying that you now need to prioritize your mobile site. As such, your e-commerce platform must permit you to tailor your site for use on both desktop computers and mobile devices. Shopify is one of the market leaders in terms of mobile-friendliness and the quality of its themes.
There are plenty of options if you’re looking for an e-commerce platform that can enable your customers to shop from their phones. First, check that your software’s primary landing page, categories, and individual products are all optimized for mobile use.
In addition, you need to guarantee the smooth operation of your mobile checkout and the simplicity of your purchasing procedure.
Enhance the aesthetics of your online store.
According to the data, it just takes 0.05 seconds for a user to form an opinion about your website. Most people will quickly abandon the page if they can’t tell what it’s about or it doesn’t look appealing. You have a startlingly brief window of opportunity to capture your visitor’s attention.
You should pick a visually appealing and appropriate theme for your target audience. In addition, your website’s logo and accompanying pictures should convey, at a glance, your brand’s values and mission. The goal is to make your site as user-friendly as possible without sacrificing originality.
It’s a model of an engaging page design that compels the reader to keep going. Additionally, it is simple to navigate and strategically inserts calls to action.
Create a convenient layout for getting around
Your online store’s layout and navigation must be simple and intuitive. You may make your site more user-friendly and increase conversions by installing various plugins, which your eCommerce platform will let you set up with ease. For instance, using WooCommerce, you can set it up such that customers can easily return to the products they were viewing.
Providing a better experience for visitors and increasing conversions can be achieved by implementing these navigational aids on your website. Conversion rates in online stores can be improved by including products that users have recently viewed and those that the system suggests.
Data and mathematical use
Data storage capacity has reached over 18 zettabytes. You should investigate this further. If you want your e-commerce business to expand, you need a strategy for using the data you collect daily on your site’s users.
To maintain tabs on your target audience, you can use the built-in analytics feature of most e-commerce systems. For instance, Wix’s in-built Visitor Analytics tool may help you keep tabs on site visitors, their frequency of visits, where they’re coming from geographically and IP-wise, how many times they converted, and other valuable data that can lead to improved decision-making.
This streamlines your marketing efforts and helps you zero in on a solid strategy. You should make use of the analytics features offered by your e-commerce platform.
Offer live chat and other customer care tools that are top-notch
Sixty-four percent of U.S. residents contacted customer support in 2017. Providing excellent customer service is the top priority for any company, according to Zendesk.
According to the Kano model, customer satisfaction, revenue, and retention can increase thanks to “delighters” such as live chat and responsive support staff on a company’s website.
It is essential to have a well-functioning, around-the-clock live chat and customer care system as part of your eCommerce plan. Consider the website builder Squarespace. Pure chat, a popular live chat program, can be integrated with minimal effort. You can do the following things in real time via chat:
- Respond quickly to the inquiries of your site visitors.
- Make contact with prospects and leads.
- Raise the number of sales you make and the percentage of people that buy from you
A Comprehensive Approach to Marketing Through All Channels
There is a growing trend of companies offering multiple product distribution options. With the right e-commerce platform, an omnichannel approach may be fully realized. It has the potential to unite a company’s online and offline efforts in pursuit of the same sales targets.
For example, the “Magento Order Management” system from the e-commerce platform Magento aids companies in carrying out this task. Selecting the right eCommerce platform can have a significant impact on whether or not you achieve your omnichannel sales targets. Last but not least, you should document your sales channel objectives.
I must say this is the best article i’ve read regarding ecommerce platforms, very expertly reviewed