eCommerce (also known as electronic commerce) is the process of buying and selling products or services, making money transfers, and transferring data over an electronic medium (Internet). This network allows people to do business without the constraint of distance and time. An ecommerce platforms software application that allows online businesses to manage their website, marketing, sales, and operations. There are many vendors in the market who offer different ecommerce platforms that suit their business. Every platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, people choose one according to their requirements.
It is expected that by 2040, 95% of all purchases will be via e-commerce.
By using shopping carts and eCommerce platforms, retailers build online stores where they showcase their products and services. Having an online storefront is one of the most straightforward ways to conduct e-commerce. There’s a great number of e-commerce solutions and choosing the right fit for your business depends on your budget, preferences and company needs
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is considered an Open SaaS platform provider and a growing headless commerce provider based on low total cost of ownership and highly flexible APIs.
The platform offers small business and start-up plans as well, with built-in features and SEO control. The integration options, like our headless WordPress plugin, make the platform a frontrunner across headless commerce solutions.
| Features | Mobile-friendly themes Advanced SEO features More than 40 Pre-integrated payment methods Various design options (themes, point-and-click tools, customizable CSS/HTML) Product reviews |
| Pros | High scalability Less Maintenance Sell across Multiple Channels No transaction charges |
| Cons | Limited Integrations Yearly Sales Threshold |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | $29.95/ month |
| Best For | Growing businesses that want to grip on multi-channel selling |
Shopify
Shopify is one of the best ecommerce platforms for beginners and small=to-medium size businesses that need their hands held when setting up their store. Everything you need is already integrated into the platform: from storefront design to content marketing to performance analytics. Once you have the basics set up, it’s a simple matter to upgrade your store with third-party extensions–or even change the shop’s code itself. The platform makes it very easy to build an online store from scratch and it especially caters to beginners with limited or no coding skill.
| Features | Abandoned cart recovery. Sell on advanced selling channels like Facebook, Amazon, and Pinterest. Marketing and SEO. Multiple payment gateways are available. The Shopify app store has unlimited useful add-ons. |
| Pros | Robust platform with a high level of functionality and customizability Large number of marketplace extensions available Highly active community for assistance with tutorials and troubleshooting options It is highly-scalable – no need would arise to upgrade to another platform while scaling up in future Easy Integration with emailing platforms such as Mailchimp so that you can stay in touch with your customers |
| Cons | It requires sufficient server space to operate efficiently at high speeds. Smaller servers may cause speed and other related issues Might be too complex for businesses that are too small It has not been growing as a platform, and over time developers and plugin creators will reduce their focus on it |
| Free Trial | Available 14-day free trial |
| Premium Starting Price | $29/ month |
| Best For | Small businesses looking for the all-in-one eCommerce solution |
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a flexible e-commerce solution for all sorts of business organizations, especially for startups and mid-level businesses. If you want to efficiently meet your success with a minimum budget and in a short period of time, Woocommerce can be the best solution for you. Woocommerce is free as a platform, and also has unlimited free plugins and themes to customize it. But integrating some unique features to make it more user-friendly and competitive may require additional investment.
| Features | Woocommerce is cost-effective WooCommerce is open-source free software and a WordPress plugin. It needs a web server and WordPress installed on the server to run. You have complete control over your website data, design and functionalities. The website space depends on your hosting plan. |
| Pros | WooCommerce is a highly organized platform that incorporates a sense of professionalism. Offer Customization Options It is regularly updated to remove all bugs and issues. |
| Cons | Frequency of updates Hard to implement multi-currency Wishlist functionality, which is hard to use in WooCommerce |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | Customizable costs |
| Best For | Small businesses that have websites powered by WordPress |
Prestashop
PrestaShop is a free eCommerce platform facilitating e-businesses in developing and running their online stores successfully.there are 2,000 templates available for you to choose. PrestaShop has the intuitive admin panel. Users can easily install an e-commerce website. With this platform, you can determine the level of technical control.
| Features | It is easy to both install and customize the software. Share your content on the social networks and your blog and attract more visitors Customize your store Drive your business |
| Pros | Easy to install. This open-source shopping cart is free of cost. User-friendly.It is easy to customize a shopping site using Prestashop. Secure payment. |
| Cons | Limited scalability is a significant drawback of PrestaShop The designs of PrestaShop’s lack a professional touch even though it has essential functions. For large-scale stores, the plan is not suitable. |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | N/A |
| Best For | Large online store |
Magento
Magento is one of the most trusted ecommerce platforms and shopping carts available for individuals and enterprises alike. The ecommerce system is based on a PHP based framework that lets you build scalable online businesses with ease. It comes with multiple extensions allowing easy integration of relevant third party apps with the ecommerce store. Magento is initially developed for developers so they don’t have to start from scratch, building an ecommerce store on this platform would require a certain level of expertise in PHP programming.
| Features | Related products, up-sells and cross-sells. 100% search engine friendly. Control multiple websites and stores from one Administration Panel with the ability to share as much or as little information as needed. Customer personalized products – ability to upload images and text (i.e. for embroidery, monogramming, etc.) |
| Pros | This platform allows you to start selling quickly from a very simple shop. But as it grows, its design becomes more ambitious. It has a simple interface, with multiple customization options. Supported by a larger number of developers and design professionals |
| Cons | The slowness of loading during the customization process stands out, quite complex when compared to Shopify. For very small stores the costs of running a Magento store is simply too high. This platform provides the basic software but is not responsible for these technical details. |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | Customised Plans available |
| Best For | Best solution for startups |
Volusion
Volusion is a fully hosted, all-in-one shopping cart software that’s designed to help you build, manage and grow a successful online ecommerce platforms business from scratch. It has an easy to use website builder with features like in-page editing, drag and drop, site search, and more. There are also plenty of responsive themes to choose from.
| Features | Built-in loyalty program (MyRewards) Built-in Deal of the Day option eBay and Amazon integration Secure Checkout Easily set up your warehouse locations and calculate shipping rates Social and mobile commerce included. Hosting and security included.Unlimited customer support. |
| Pros | Friendly and informative user interface Easy access to aggregate data and exports Great for small businesses who need a few more tools than most basic e-commerce platforms offer |
| Cons | Certain features are only available to higher-paying customers Saving chats for review or printing is not possible Downtime happens too often |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | $15/ month |
Drupal Commerce
Drupal Commerce was built by the Commerce Guys and offers multilingual, multicurrency, global functionality – making it the perfect fit for sits like Open Sesame, an e-learning language course provider. Drupal readily integrates with numerous third-party applications. It’s currently one of the only ecommerce platforms built on a CMS (Drupal Content Management System), making it innately compatible with a strong content marketing strategy.
| Features | You can import multiple currencies. Drupal Commerce can adapt with your business as it grows or explores new models. Easily integrate your Drupal Commerce site with major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others. The core systems offer a complete product administration system, shopping cart, and checkout form. |
| Pros | Build Complex Site Rapidly. Better Scalability Serve the API Start with Blank Slate Large Supportive Community. |
| Cons | Difficult to Learn Trouble in Upgrading Can Consume many of the Resources Not a Good Platform for Custom Install Module Compatibility can be Bad |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | $99/month |
| Best For | For large ecommerce stores |
CS-Cart
CS-Cart is a powerful and flexible eCommerce shopping cart application. CS-Cart includes all the functionality you need to build a full-featured online store, including multi-store support that can be set up and maintained in a single administration panel. Because CS-Cart is developed using open source technologies, such as PHP, MySQL, and Smarty, its functionality can be easily updated and extended to meet your specific needs. The CS-Cart storefront and administration panel are web-based, so all you need to manage your store is a web browser and internet connection. CS-Cart is also available with a Multi-Vendor option. Multi-Vendor is an enhanced eCommerce platform that supports multiple independent sellers in an online marketplace.
| Features | It has a drag-and-drop user interface It provides the possibility to use it’s multilingual and multi-currency functionality. It provides detailed API documentation available for experienced developers |
| Pros | Great modular solutions for customers as well as business Very powerful software for a reasonable price Intuitive Admin Panel No Programming Knowledge Required for Setup Easy Addition of New Languages Unlimited Category Nesting |
| Cons | Add-ons are very costly Tech Support Expensive Once Credits Run Out Smarty Features can Slow Down Server |
| Free Trial | N/A |
| Premium Starting Price | $385/ month |
| Best For | Building online store |
OpenCart
OpenCart is especially popular with small businesses that don’t have anyone on staff with a lot of programming experience. It’s fairly simple, without a lot of the other functionalities found in other shopping cart software. This, of course, is a double-edged sword, as less complexity means it’s easier to use, but you might not get as much out of it in the end.
| Features | Allows merchants to manage multiple stores from a single admin panel Sell unlimited products from 1 to 1,000,000 Allows customers to select any of the 36 payment option methods that come integrated with OpenCart Easy on the server, means it will run quickly Loaded with lots of themes, allowing retailers to customize their eCommerce store Simple to download, install and run this platform |
| Pros | OpenCart makes it easy to incorporate multiple languages into your storefront. It offers a complete set of reports and metrics. It makes it easier to manage your store. You can use your preferred shipping method. Many of the add-ons for OpenCart are also free. |
| Cons | When you start building your platform with OpenCart, you will find that one of its biggest problems is the creation of several duplicate pages. The different installations do not always work with each other. It can be difficult to import your inventory list.It offers a slow checkout experience. |
| Free Trial | Available |
| Premium Starting Price | $50/ month |
| Best For | Shop owners who want flexibility and control with a clean and fast loading website |
3dcart
This hosted ecommerce platform is “the best ecommerce platform for SEO” and is used by thousands of online stores. It provides an all-inclusive ecommerce solutions, ranging from store and shopping cart design to product and order management to secure hosting and mobile ecommerce.
| Features | 3dcart has plenty of built-in blogging tools, helping users increase their ranks on SERPs by sharing helpful articles 3dcart’s team is helpful and ready to assist you through live chat, email, phone, or social media. 3dcart offers over 160 payment gateways |
| Pros | Supports more than 160 third-party payment gateways Splendid customer support Hundreds of built-in features and tools |
| Cons | Customizing your website’s design requires HTML or CSS knowledge No mobile app support |
| Free Trial | Available 15-day trial |
| Premium Starting Price | $29/ month |
| Best For | Those who have started their business at a lower price |
Final Verdict
ECommerce platforms have all the components you need to operate and grow your online business without complicating your day-to-day operations. Every business has its own combination of needs, budget, and manpower that dictates which online retail application works best for them. You have to think hard about your business, your budget before choosing an ecommerce platforms shopping cart. Shopify is the best option for larger stores selling a range of products, BigCommerce is ideal for fast-growing stores.
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Vijay Sood is a seasoned digital marketer with a passion for driving online growth and innovation. With a robust background in developing and executing comprehensive digital strategies, Vijay excels in leveraging SEO, content marketing, and social media to boost brand visibility and engagement. His expertise lies in transforming data-driven insights into actionable marketing campaigns, helping businesses achieve their digital objectives.