eCommerce The Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses In 2024 By Riddhiman Roy eCommerce No comments Last Reviewed: October 31, 2024 Are you a small business owner looking to take your online sales to the next level? If you’re feeling limited by common marketplaces like Etsy or eBay, it might be time to consider building a personalized website to improve brand awareness and visibility. However, choosing the best eCommerce platform for small businesses can be overwhelming due to the sea of options available. Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders Compare the Best eCommerce Software for Small Businesses Select up to 5 Products from the list below to compare Product Analyst ScoreUser Sentiment ScoreStart PriceFree TrialShopify 100 89%Great $29Monthly YesBigCommerce 97 86%Great $29.95Monthly YesEcwid 92 92%Excellent $19Monthly, Freemium NoWix 90 87%Great $16Monthly YesSquareSpace 88 91%Excellent $16Monthly Yes Compare Compare But worry not, brave ones, we’re here to make your journey simpler and smoother. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the best platforms that facilitate eCommerce for small businesses and equip you with comprehensive comparison strategies to identify the perfect solution. Let’s dive in! Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses According to reports, there are nearly 33.2 million small businesses in America, which is 99.9% of all U.S. firms. On top of that, one out of every four small businesses doesn’t own a website or online storefront. Are you one of them? Then this is your opportunity to take the next step. Our analysts dive deep into the market to identify the top eCommerce solutions that can help you design, launch and manage visually appealing and robust websites from start to finish. We picked our winners based on the three most important factors small businesses need in an eCommerce platform: Value for money Intuitive usability Efficient vendor support programs If you’re looking for the top eCommerce platforms or the best eCommerce website builder for small businesses, here’s your list: Shopify Shopify offers the most straightforward way to design and launch an online store. It’s a fully hosted solution that lets you create your website with drag-and-drop tools and manage inventory, orders, customers and shipping from a single platform. This means you don’t need to: Buy a domain Host eCommerce tools and websites Get SSL certification Learn to code It lets you play around with a range of free customizable themes and templates and offers prompt instructions to get your website up and running in a few hours. You can even use the mobile app to design and customize your website remotely. All websites are mobile-optimized and offer built-in SEO optimization tools. You can connect the platform to Sell On Amazon, Amazon, Etsy and eBay to get a centralized view of your catalogs and orders across websites and marketplaces. It helps grow your business by unifying the online and offline customer experience with Shopify POS and supports unique fulfillment and business models like curbside pickups, buy online and pickup in-store (BOPIS), dropshipping and more. You can access the marketplace to choose from over 3,000 third-party integrations to add features like social commerce, email marketing tools, analytics and chatbots. It also lets you design automated workflows and sequences using triggers and call-to-actions. Set up automated journeys to touch base with your customers throughout the sales funnel. Track every store operation from a centralized dashboard. Source Top Benefits Better Branding: You can personalize your storefront with unique product pages and use the blogging tool to market your content. The platform offers suggestions for logos, slogans, QR codes, domain names, terms and conditions, and even business names! Easy Checkouts: Allow your customers to checkout as guests or create profiles to save their shopping and payment habits and offer smart suggestions to streamline their journeys. Simple Payment Processing: You can either connect the platform to your preferred payment gateway or use its native Shopify Pay, which offers competitive transaction fees, cryptocurrency payments and EMIs. Customers can also tap to pay with their iPhones on Shopify POS. Efficient Inventory Management: Add multiple attributes and characteristics to your products and create detailed bundles and catalogs. The system sends alerts before out-of-stock situations and allows you to define procurement and sourcing rules. Improved Security: Every website gets an SSL certification. On top of that, Shopify Protect guards against fraudulent chargebacks and helps you fight disputes. It also analyzes historical data to identify and catch suspicious activities. Primary Features Website Builder: Build attractive websites with free templates and drag-and-drop tools. Or, use Liquid, HTML, CSS and Java Script for advanced customizations. The websites support videos, 3D models and augmented reality. You can also build your custom themes and templates with the Shopify Plus plan. Content Management: Use the content editing platform to create blogs, pictures, videos and social media posts. Track each multimedia asset and its engagement from a dashboard. You can also schedule and preview publications with content staging tools. International Commerce: Define rules to show localized content for different locations and countries. Accept multiple currencies and define pricing strategies based on exchange rates. Customers can also pay with local payment methods. Sales Channels: Sync your product catalog and create shoppable posts for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google Shopping and YouTube. Sell products on other websites by sharing embeddable buy buttons. You can also create a separate storefront to sell products wholesale or launch multiple brands. Order Fulfillment: Create custom dashboards to track orders across channels and define routing rules in warehouses and fulfillment centers. Shopify fulfillment allows you to print labels, create USPS SCAN forms, arrange pickups and fulfill orders in bulk. It also offers competitive and pre-negotiated shipping rates with up to 88% discount on USPS, UPS and DHL. Limitations No email hosting features. The platform doesn’t allow access to its system code and requires you to hire a Shopify developer for in-depth customizations. It charges a 1-2% transaction fee for external payment processors. Pricing Basic: Supports two staff accounts Monthly: $39 Yearly: $348 ($29/month, billed yearly) Shopify: Supports five staff accounts Monthly: $105 Yearly: $948 ($79/month, billed yearly) Advanced: Supports 15 staff accounts Monthly: $399 Yearly: $3,588 ($299/month, billed yearly) Shopify Plus: Supports unlimited staff accounts Custom pricing starts at $2,000/month Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders Wix Wix is one of the best options for starting a small online store. It’s an intuitive SaaS website builder that lets you design and launch a site for free. But you need to upgrade to a paid plan if you want to add eCommerce features and start selling. Each of its eCommerce plans includes free hosting, unlimited bandwidth and a minimum of 20GB of storage space. You get a wide range of customizable templates and intuitive tools to design personalized storefronts, product pages and checkouts. It also offers a reservation management module that allows you to accept bookings and appointments directly through your website. This feature is useful for hotels, spas, gyms and other service-based businesses as they can bypass third-party booking commissions and fees. The platform also offers a mobile app. But unlike Shopify, Wix’s app doesn’t support website building and only lets you track operations and respond to customer queries. However, you should note that every website built on Wix is mobile-optimized. It offers an open API, and you can use Velo by Wix to design custom integrations with third-party software like ERP tools, order fulfillment systems and more. Use intuitive tools to edit and customize every section of your website. Source Top Benefits Easily Design Websites: You can use artificial design intelligence (ADI) to create stunning websites in seconds. AI takes your suggestions and generates robust storefronts based on rules. It also helps you build branded mobile apps. You can edit the website, and the system reflects changes in the mobile app. Minimize Costs: Wix doesn’t charge any transaction fee. You can use the chargeback dispute tool to track chargebacks and identify fraudulent activities. Reach a Wider Audience: A built-in connection with Google Shopping lets you showcase and sell your catalog across channels. You can also connect with AdScale to enable cross-channel marketing. Build a Community: The platform lets you build membership programs. Customers can subscribe and buy digital assets like videos, photography and music. You can also create custom forms to collect feedback and other customer information. Primary Features Website Designer: Use customizable and mobile-friendly templates to create storefronts, checkout pages, product pages, landing pages, and terms and conditions. It lets you build custom domains and email IDs to match your brand. You can edit each website section using drag-and-drop tools and create blogs. Add effects to the site like parallax, reveal, zoom-in or fade-in scrolling. You can also translate your website into more than 150 languages. Marketing and SEO: Built-in SEO tools and actionable plans help index your site on Google. You can also create your SEO logic and apply it to web pages. It offers marketing tools to create promos, discounts and automated ad campaigns across channels and social media. Add a customer review section to each product page to capture user-generated content. Product Information Management: Add multiple attributes to products and create catalogs before publishing. The system allows you to add images, videos and other multimedia elements to each product page. Keep track of your inventory and get out-of-stock alerts on the app. Inventory and Ecommerce Order Management: Import and export CSV inventory files to add or remove products and update pricing. You can define rules to automate order routing based on customer locations and nearest fulfillment centers. Your customers get a profile to track orders and request refunds. Analytics: Access a library of templates to generate reports on engagement, revenue, profitability and other KPIs. You can create personalized dashboards and visualizations. The platform sends events to Google, allowing you to track product clicks, add to cart, abandoned carts, payments and purchases through Google Analytics. Limitations You can’t change a design template after launching a website. Minor tweaks are possible, but no overhauls. You can’t manage large inventory and product catalogs without third-party integrations. Pricing Free websites have a pre-assigned domain and offer up to 500MB of storage space and bandwidth each. But the website will have Wix’s branding on its favicon and URL. You’ll also have Wix ads on every webpage. Each user with a paid plan can create a new domain or connect an existing one, remove ads and personalize the site’s branding. Website Plans VIP: $45/month Pro: $27/month Unlimited: $22/month Combo: $16/month Business and Ecommerce Plans Business VIP: $59/month Business Unlimited: $32/month Business Basic: $27/month Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders BigCommerce BigCommerce is ideal for established SMEs looking to grow rapidly. You can use the intuitive website builder to design and launch your website. Or, build the site on WordPress and install the plugin for eCommerce features. You can transfer your domain to BigCommerce and allow developers to access the platform’s stencil framework for advanced customizations while scaling. It’s a fully hosted and robust eCommerce platform that offers free templates, basic SEO tools, and unlimited user accounts and files storage with each plan. Also, BigCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees, and you only need to take care of the processing fee. It’s great for omnichannel selling because, unlike Shopify, BigCommerce doesn’t rely on external apps and offers built-in connections with every major channel, including Facebook, Amazon, Google Shopping, Instagram, eBay, TikTok and Walmart. The platform also offers a wide range of external integrations and a mobile app to track store performance and edit catalogs. Track your site and product engagements using unique visualizations. Source Top Benefits Streamline Customer Journeys: Customers can quickly view product details without visiting product pages. They can add items to their carts directly from the quick-view pop-up. However, this feature is only available on the native platform, not the WordPress plugin. Enhance B2B Experience: Customize and define pricing lists and bulk pricing rules for different SKUs and customer groups. You can offer your clients a personalized profile to submit quotes, track credit authorization and complete payments. Improve SEO Optimization: You can learn the trade by buying one of their courses on basic SEO optimization, SEO auditing or enterprise SEO auditing. Add Revenue Streams: Integrate with BitPay to avail of more than 100 cryptocurrency wallets that support Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Shiba Inu. Know Your Audience: The system lets you create unique guest profiles to track their history and provides insights to improve conversion. Primary Features Storefront Designing: Use the drag-and-drop store builder or customize themes with HTML, Javascript and CSS. It supports server-to-server checkout API and SDK, allowing customers to make payments without redirecting to external sites. All themes are mobile-responsive, and you can upgrade to a headless architecture to create unique storefronts for different web-browsing devices. Marketing: You can track abandoned carts and send personalized emails to recover them. A built-in blog helps boost your site’s SEO ranking. You can customize every URL, title, header, tag and metadata to improve branding. Create shoppable ads for social media and preview them before publishing. It also lets you create unique storefronts and catalogs for different customer segments and locations. Inventory Management: Track your inventory using filters across warehouses and fulfillment centers. The system sends warning emails when a stock reaches predetermined low levels. You can also configure the system to display stock levels on product pages in low-stock situations and entice customers to complete the purchase quickly. Order Fulfillment: Centralize every order from every channel on a dashboard and use filters to track their origin, status and destination. You can define automation for printing invoices and labels and order routing. Get real-time carrier quotes, flat-rate, weight-based or value-based shipping rates and labels for USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL and Canada Post. Reporting and Analysis: The system centralizes your business data from every disparate source and lets you analyze online customer behavior and track market trends. You can use a template library to automate reporting at the end of each week or month. It allows you to export every report in Excel spreadsheets. Limitations The built-in blog doesn’t support RSS feeds without custom development. Limited number and design of free website themes. The platform puts a cap on annual sales revenue. Pricing BigCommerce has a unique pricing strategy based on your annual sales. Each pricing plan has a threshold for annual sales revenue, and if your business crosses that, you must upgrade to a higher plan. The starting fees and details of its plans are as follows: Standard Monthly: $39 Annual: $359.4 ($29.95/month, billed yearly) Online sales allowed per year: Up to $50k Number of storefronts: 4 Price per additional storefront: $30 Plus Monthly: $105 Annual: $948 ($79/month, billed yearly) Online sales allowed per year: Up to $180k Online storefronts: 5 Price per additional storefront: $50 Pro Monthly: $399 Annual: $3,588 ($299/month, billed yearly) Online sales allowed per year: Less than $400k. Over that, $150/month for each additional $200k in online sales. Online storefronts: 8 Price per additional storefront: $100 Enterprise: Custom pricing Online sales allowed (per year): Custom Online storefronts: Unlimited Price per additional storefront: $100 SEO Add-on Service The solution offers an SEO coaching package as an add-on service. SEO Optimization: $600 SEO Audit: $750 Enterprise SEO Audit: $1,499 Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders Squarespace Squarespace is the best solution for selling digital assets and subscriptions. It offers the most artistic and aesthetic website templates out of every pick on this list. It’s ideal for artists, musicians and content creators to showcase and sell their art. You don’t need coding or technical experience to design a website on Squarespace. It has a drag-and-drop page builder, and most of its templates are ready to go out of the box. It also offers robust CMS tool that stores all your business media in a centralized library and allows you to edit and preview before publishing. A reservation management module lets you accept direct bookings through your site. Hotels and vacation rentals can also embed a map to the site to help customers reach their location. You can schedule appointments, avoid double bookings and send reminders to customers with integrated calendars like Google, Outlook, iCloud and Office 365. Every website is mobile-optimized, and Squarespace includes a free customizable domain and SSL certification with each plan. It also offers excellent social media integrations that allow you to design, preview and launch shoppable ads from a dashboard. The system offers various integrations with third-party apps and provides access to its backend for designing custom integrations. You can also sell NFTs with the mobile app, Unfold, and create a members’ lounge to sell gated content. Use stunning templates to give your website that extra edge over competitors. Top Benefits Make In-Depth Customizations: You can apply custom CSS to any webpage. Store font, image and other CSS assets in a centralized location. Add your unique CSS code in the built-in editor to personalize your website’s style and tone. Enhance Blog Posts: Automatically embed RSS in every blog page. You can add a subscribe button to your blogs and automatically send newsletters and site updates to a customer’s RSS reader or newsreader. Add New Revenue Sources: Accept donations from your visitors by adding a donation block and suggesting contribution amounts. You can customize the donation button’s text and design. Add a form to every button and collect specific information. Streamline Administrative Tasks: You can add your business’s social profiles to the platform and automatically post content and promotions. It tags and optimizes every post and image to ensure accurate descriptions and titles. You can also automatically calculate shipping rates and taxes during a checkout based on custom rules and customers’ locations. Improve Conversion: The system captures customers’ navigation and purchase history in unique profiles. You can use these profiles to improve lead conversion, re-engage first-time buyers and reward loyal customers. Segment your customers into groups to showcase personalized content and promotions. Primary Features Product Information Management: You can add multimedia descriptions and attributes to each product. Use filters and drag-and-drop tools to sort, organize and manage catalogs. You can also add related products, customer reviews and quick-view pop-ups to each product page. Inventory and Order Management: Add product SKUs and variants and use filters to sort and edit your inventory in multiple locations. Define store manager permissions to regulate who controls inventories and orders. Upon order confirmation, the system automatically updates inventory levels, routes order per custom rules and sends order tracking details to customers. Cart and Checkout: Set up shipping methods, add labels and set flat rates depending on weight, carrier calculation and customers’ location. You can also enable express checkout, which allows customers to checkout as guests. The solution can connect with Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay and other popular processors. Analytics: The commerce analytics module helps track sales and revenue based on products, purchase funnel and customer profiles. You can manage your website’s engagement and identify shortcomings using the site analytics module. Acquisition analytics offers insights into traffic sources and high-performing keywords. Marketing: You can create discounts, coupon codes, gift certificates and newsletters. Use templates to launch email campaigns and connect with social media to sync your catalog across channels. Built-in SEO tools help generate SEO-friendly pages with static URLs, robots.txt files, sitemaps and consistent page structures. Create online listings for your business’s physical locations and integrate with Google My Business to sync information automatically across offline and online channels. Limitations There are limited options to recover content once deleted. The platform doesn’t offer direct integration with Amazon and Google Shopping. Pricing Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth and storage space with each of its plans. Personal Monthly: $23 Annual: $192 ($16/month, billed yearly) Business Monthly: $33 Annual: $276 ($23/month, billed yearly) Basic Commerce Monthly: $36 Annual: $324 ($27/month, billed yearly) Advanced Commerce Monthly: $65 Annual: $588 ($49/month, billed yearly) Squarespace Enterprise: Custom pricing Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders Ecwid Ecwid is one of the best free eCommerce platforms on our list. It lets you design a single-page website with a shopping cart and payment gateway connections to sell up to five products. Or, you can add the Ecwid plugin to sites built on WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and Tumblr to sell your products. The best part? It lets you keep the site indefinitely; it’s not a free trial. Also, it doesn’t show ads on free sites, has no transaction fee and offers a free FedEx, USPS and UPS shipping calculator. However, you shouldn’t mistake Ecwid for being a platform only for businesses with small inventories or hobbyists. Its paid plans pack a serious punch. It can centralize and help you manage your entire online store, from marketing and SEO to inventory tracking, sales channel connections and POS integrations. Its standout feature is a robust mobile app that lets you: Design sites Track payments Receive order notifications Connect with customers Manage inventory Launch marketing campaigns Communicate with staff Manage your store on the go with a mobile-friendly platform. Source Top Benefits Tap Into Mobile Commerce: Design branded mobile apps and tap into a market that accounts for nearly two-thirds of global eCommerce retail sales. Design Plug and Play Storefront: Ecwid, short for eCommerce widget, can connect to any existing website to add a shopping cart, shipping calculator and payment gateway. You can store your preferences like buy buttons, product cards and payment processors in the widget to connect it to multiple websites and sell different product categories. Simplify Inventory Tracking: Assign unique barcodes to each product and its variations. The mobile app helps scan barcodes to add new products and search and organize the inventory. You can also scan shipping barcodes to track and manage orders. Streamline Tax Calculations: You can apply a standard tax rate throughout your store or define custom rates for specific products and locations. Improve Visibility: The system creates static HTML copies of each product and category to help index the site on search engines quickly. Whenever you share your store on social media, it generates an open graph meta tag that allows customers to see a site preview with titles, images and descriptions. Primary Features Instant Site: Use a native website builder to create simple one-page websites with mobile-friendly themes. You can customize the theme, layout, font, colors, images and blocks using drag-and-drop tools. For advanced websites, you can use an external website builder and install the Ecwid plugin. Catalog Management: You can add, update, delete or bulk edit products. Customers can search and filter catalogs by prices, categories, availability, special offers, brands, colors and sizes. Marketing: Use templates to automate email marketing like abandoned cart recovery, order confirmations, related products and feedback requests. Connect with Zapier to design targeted email campaigns and newsletters. You can manage Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest ads from a centralized dashboard. You can also market and sell on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Inventory Management: Add sold-out labels to product cards and define conditions to receive alerts on the mobile app whenever stocks run low. After each order confirmation, the system automatically adjusts inventory levels and displays the number of items left on product pages for low-stock SKUs. Shipping: The system offers three fulfillment options — shipping, local delivery and self-pickups. It integrates with major shipping carriers worldwide and displays accurate quotes during checkout based on a customer’s location. You can also buy and print shipping labels from the admin panel. Limitations You can only design single-page websites. You can’t create 301 URL redirects. Pricing Venture Monthly: $19 Annual: $168.96 ($14.08/month, billed yearly) Business Monthly: $39 Annual: $348.96 ($29.08/month, billed yearly) Unlimited Monthly: $99 Annual: $990 ($82.5/month, billed yearly) Ecwid also offers two specialized pricing plans: Suspension: This plan is for seasonal business owners and costs $5 monthly. It allows you to put the site on hold during off seasons and prevent customers from placing orders. NGO: Ecwid offers the Venture pricing plan for free for the first six months for nonprofit organizations. Price: $$$$$ Deployment: Platform: Company Size Suitability: S M L Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders How We Choose Products Our team of writers and analysts at SelectHub is committed to giving you the best recommendations based on our data. To make our list, products had to meet two criteria: Closely match the topic Earn a top-5 analyst score in our selection platform Our analyst scores are based on an in-depth research process using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals, and technical documentation. Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes the research and computes the analyst score. The score also factors in platform settings such as industry and company size. Learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards Product Comparisons Shopify vs. Wix Wix vs. BigCommerce BigCommerce vs. Squarespace Squarespace vs. Ecwid Ecwid vs. Shopify You can also check out other comparisons and variations using our free comparison report. Factors To Consider There you have our list of best eCommerce platforms for small businesses. But before you choose one, we recommend preparing a checklist of your company’s eCommerce requirements. Here are a few factors to keep in mind while devising the checklist. Security: The most important function of an eCommerce platform is to create a safe environment that makes customers feel comfortable reaching for their wallets or purse. You must ensure the system of your choice offers SSL certifications, encrypted data transfers and two-factor authentication for staff logins. Ease of Use: Running an eCommerce store can be a lot of work. You want a system that makes it as easy as possible for you to manage your store. Look for solutions with user-friendly interfaces and intuitive navigation. Customization Options: Your eCommerce store should reflect your brand and unique style. Find platforms that offer customizable templates and design options so you can create a store that stands out from the crowd. Payment Processing: Choose systems that offer a range of payment options and integrations with popular payment gateways. Sales Channels: Look for platforms that can market, manage and sell your products on every sales channel, including marketplaces, third-party websites and social media networks. Integration: Make sure the system of your choice connects to every third-party software your business uses. A few useful connections include cloud CRM apps, BI tools, ERP, enterprise accounting systems, marketing automation software, AI chatbots and online HR platforms. Pricing: As a small business, you want to keep your expenses low. Select solutions with pricing plans that fit your budget, and make sure to factor in any additional fees for adding new sales channels, external integrations and advanced features. Support: It’s important to have access to reliable support when you need it. Find platforms that offer customer support through multiple channels and have a good reputation for responsiveness and helpfulness. Remember, choosing the right system to support eCommerce for small businesses is a crucial decision. Take your time to research your options and consider going through customer reviews and past user experiences to get a holistic view of a product and vendor. Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders Key Questions To Ask Jumping into an eCommerce platform before proper consideration is never a good idea. Ask yourself these questions to identify your business needs from the new platform. What are our goals? Outline your business goals, expected ROI, and long- and short-term targets. Where do we deploy? You can go for open-source and on-premise software or fully hosted solutions on the cloud. Do we need a website or eCommerce plugins and add-ons? Determine whether you want to turn an existing website or blog into a storefront or start from scratch. Who’ll need access to the system? Make a list of all suppliers, warehouses, staff and team members in your supply chain. What’s our budget? Include the cost of advanced features, payment processing and future plans. What’s our future plan? Make a list of every sales channel and third-party integration your business might venture into within the next five to ten years. Software Comparison Strategy The global eCommerce platform market is predicted to grow from $5.51 billion in 2022 to $10.04 billion by 2027. The market has various products for different types and sizes of businesses. Choosing an ideal solution from multiple options requires in-depth assessment. Our Lean Selection methodology helps streamline the evaluation process with nine easy steps. Here’s a brief rundown: Establish: Determine why you want an eCommerce platform. To reduce costs per transaction or expand to new countries? Or something else? Collaborate: Form a software selection committee with your business’s stakeholders, department heads and decision-makers. Define: Make an eCommerce platform requirements checklist and define what you want from the new system. Distribute: Send the requirements checklist to vendors that catch your eye. Shortlist the ones that can meet them. Justify: Based on your shortlisted vendors, decide if you want to continue looking for eCommerce platforms or shift your search to smaller disparate add-ons and extensions. If it’s an eCommerce platform, move on to the next step or restart the process from scratch. Prove: Ask shortlisted vendors for proofs-of-concept (POCs), demos and use cases. Rank: Create a scoring system to rank vendors based on their demo scores and TCO. Negotiate: Contact the top-ranked vendor and review their contracts. We recommend seeking legal advice to identify sketchy clauses. Repeat this process with the next-best vendor if you can’t find a solution with the first one. Sign: Review and sign the contract of the vendor that meets your requirements and offers a good deal. Establish an implementation plan. For further info, you can check out our book on lean selection. Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders FAQs What’s the difference between open-source and hosted eCommerce platforms? Open-source eCommerce platforms allow you to freely access, modify and share the system code. Many are free eCommerce platforms ideal for small businesses looking to build their digital brand from the ground up. However, these solutions require hosting the software architecture and its content on on-premise servers. Plus, it demands advanced coding expertise to shape the front and back end according to your needs. On the other hand, hosted eCommerce solutions or SaaS platforms require you to install and run the software on vendor servers for cloud access. You don’t need to pay for running or maintaining the platform and its runtime. Vendors have years of expertise in launching online stores, and they update platforms and features to keep up with the latest eCommerce trends. So you don’t have to worry about the technical aspect of eCommerce and focus on building your online empire. What’s the best eCommerce platform for startups? Each of our top picks on our list can serve both small businesses and startups. Here’s a recap of the best eCommerce platforms for startups: Shopify Wix BigCommerce Squarespace Ecwid What’s the best option for beginners? Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Ecwid are all great options for beginners. They offer intuitive website builders with beautiful templates and drag-and-drop tools. Wix and Squarespace even offer AI assistance, and none of them need any technical knowledge or expertise. BigCommerce, due to its long list of features, can get dizzying for absolute beginners. But it’s perfect for established SMEs looking to grow their operations rapidly. What’s the best free eCommerce platform for small businesses? There are three options when you’re looking for free eCommerce platforms for small businesses and startups: Open-Source Platforms Magento is the open-source version of Adobe Commerce and is a great free option. It lets you design branded customer experiences across every web-browsing device. You just need to know how to code and mold the platform to your needs. Website Plugins Ecwid is one of the best options for entrepreneurs without coding expertise. It’s a fully hosted solution, and you can add it to a WordPress site or design attractive landing pages to sell your products. WooCommerce is also a popular option for beginners without coding know-how. It’s a free, open-source WordPress plugin that lets you sell a handful of products. You can buy a decent theme on WordPress and start your online store within the $40-50 range. Free Trials Free trials are a great option to kickstart your website-building process. However, you should note that you can’t sell or add eCommerce functionalities during a trial period. That said, some of the best solutions are: Shopify: Use the website builder to get a feel of the interface and start designing your pages for free for the first 90 days. BigCommerce: You can try the platform for free for 15 days. Wix: More than just a free trial, Wix allows you to design a website and keep it indefinitely at no cost. (But you can’t sell without a paid plan or third-party eCommerce plugins.) Squarespace: You can subscribe to the 14-day free trial without disclosing credit card information. Compare Top eCommerce Platform Leaders Next Steps Armed with our list of best eCommerce platforms for small businesses and a shrewd comparison strategy, you’re now ready to navigate the choppy waters of online commerce and identify the perfect solution that can reflect your brand’s unique personality. So what are you waiting for? Find a platform that speaks to your heart and your bottom line today! Use our free comparison report to analyze eCommerce tools side-by-side based on pricing, features and other custom criteria. Which solution do you think suits your business best, and how? Can you think of any other product worthy enough to be on the list? Let us know in the comment box below. Happy selecting! Analyst-Picked Related Content Comparison Report: An interactive analyst report with comparison ratings, reviews and pricing for eCommerce Platform Riddhiman RoyThe Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses In 202407.25.2024