Svitlana Rakova
СОО
13.07.2023
Best E-commerce Platforms
Analyzing market changes, trends, and predictions over the past few years, we can safely say that e-commerce is not one of those temporary trends that will fade in a few years but a genuine long-term strategy. Experts estimate the market share of e-commerce at more than $8 trillion by 2026. So what does this mean for your business? If you miss the chance to digitize your sales, you will lose the opportunity to make a lot of money, and you will stay behind your competitors. The first thing a retailer looking to move their business online needs to do is decide on an e-commerce platform. The choice of your platform will determine how your business runs, its marketing capabilities, integration options, scaling potential and more. In this article, we will highlight the best e-commerce platform list so that you can choose the solution that suits your unique needs.
What is an e-commerce platform?
No matter what size or type of business you are in, you must serve your customers in the right place if you sell tangible goods or services online. An adequately set up e-commerce website allows you to increase sales, simplify management and streamline every process in commerce. Many depend on e-commerce platforms, from what features you as a website owner will have to what you will be limited in. So what is e-commerce platforms?
This term relates to the software based on which you can build your e-commerce website. It is a centralized system for managing content, multichannel marketing, digital assets, user-to-web store relationships, and more.
E-commerce software platforms fall into three following types:
- Open Source
This platform allows you to control and change all processes in every possible way. This option is excellent for your company if you are tech-savvy enough and have the proper knowledge and experience to work with an open-source eCommerce platform and customize it according to your needs. Or if you have a professional technical team / partner to rely on in those matters.
- SaaS platform
SaaS is another popular choice for eCommerce owners as it lets you quickly set up and run a website. With this type of platform, you are not responsible for the technical side of the website since you are renting it from an e-commerce provider. Nevertheless, it still offers some flexibility in its settings for you. You can integrate existing tools to work with such a site as well as modify the UX builds. However, it is the platform that will decide what you can do and how much you should spend – not you.
- Headless e-commerce platforms
It’s one of the growing trends in e-commerce. They allow you to separate the shopping cart from the CMS, so you aren’t tied to one monolithic system and will have more flexibility for external and internal site modifications. Nevertheless, this is rather a trend than a long-sighted investment. Technical flaws, limitations, and lack of perspective make it a nice thing to test but not a wise solution to technically rely your business on.
Why is choosing a platform so crucial to your business?
E-commerce platform serve as the backbone of your online store or marketplace; their capabilities determine how effectively you can manage your business. It is worth noting that all available solutions have some unique features, and if they fall short somewhere, they overlap this disadvantage in total with some big plus. However, this is not always the case, and it turns out that some offers from providers are more favorable than others. That’s why the choice of an e-commerce platform has a direct impact on your business activities. Below you will learn what factors to consider when choosing an online store platform to increase the progress and success of your business.
Your unique business needs
Before you know what you’re looking for, you need to be clear about who you are and your plans for the future. For example, you are a small online retailer of athletic shoes, so you are looking for a platform that meets these uncomplicated needs. Suddenly, in the future, you also want to launch your line of sports apparel and equipment, which means your business has grown substantially. Will the provider you pick be able to help you scale smoothly? And if not will the investments of moving to another platform be worth it? Better consider the following factors for now, for 1 and 3-year period after the launch of the project:
- The ability to grow and scale
- The size of your business
- The budget you’re counting on
- The features you’d like to have
The cost of the service
Maybe for some people, it is not a secret that an e-commerce platform is only a starting point for all costs. Later, you will also need to pay for maintenance, hosting, and additional add-ons, and you may also have transaction/commission costs; this should be specified. The point is to choose an even balance of price and quality; you should not give up some opportunities to reduce the price, and do not waste your budget on features you may not need.
Integrations
Does the platform you selected offer integrations? Not everyone has this option, but it is a convenient feature that simplifies business management. The most popular solutions for integration are inventory management systems, e-marketing software, accounting software, and customer loyalty programs.
Scalability and speed
Your platform needs to be flexible enough to evolve and grow with you, have high-speed performance, and withstand a high influx of customer traffic. If users are confronted with constant errors, slow loading and malfunctions, they won’t stay on your site a second longer. A good practice would be to analyze the typical site speed, its weaknesses, and its horizontal and vertical scalability capabilities to know the scalability and performance capabilities. If you cannot do it yourself, you can contact Centum D’s team of specialists for free advice on how to find the best platform for e-commerce website just for your business.
Functionality and simplicity of the platform
An intuitive interface and a simple dashboard are essential to the success of your store. In addition to increasing the likelihood of customer retention on your page, it also allows you to expand your e-commerce product management and create an engaging user experience. Be sure to clarify if your chosen platform provides features such as categorization, bulk file/product downloads, multiple shipping options, detailed filters (sorting by price, size, color, etc.), and advanced features (recently viewed, popular list or product comparison). The more functionality your CMS provider offers, the better and more dynamic your site will be.
Payment methods and security
The security problem in the online environment is one of the most pressing. As an online store owner dealing with tons of sensitive customer data daily, you must comply with laws protecting consumer privacy and use reliable security methods. TOP CMS providers offer basic security features, but even better if they offer additional security measures such as fraud protection, two-factor authentication and password manager. You must also meet PCI and SSL requirements and use only secure payment gateways (multiple payment gateway options are recommended) that are compatible with the PCI payment card industry. Remember that your customers’ trust is your most valuable business asset.
An Overview of the best e-commerce Platforms
There are hundreds of offerings from e-commerce platform providers today, but highlighting the truly quality offerings narrows them down noticeably. Below we look at the list of top e-commerce platforms and their main characteristics.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an open-source SaaS platform that provides a wide range of flexible tools and features, making it suitable for business of all size. You can make use of SEO tools, international and multichannel sales, integrations with multiple social networks and software among its offerings.
Pros and cons
+ Customer support is available 24/7
+ Comprehensive business management
+ Over 65 payment methods with no fees
– Expensive themes
– Binding to a platform leads to further migration and export costs
Pricing: The provider offers four monthly packages starting at $39. The Enterprise package is individual to each customer; therefore, the price will vary depending on your preferences.
Magento (Adobe Commerce)
To work with this platform, your company must have advanced IT coding skills that would allow you to fully build your site infrastructure and further monitor and manage it. So, if you are not experienced in this field, you will have to rely heavily on an e-commerce solution company. Make sure the choosing agency is officially partnered with Magento, like Centum-D to get a reliable IT partner. With this CMS you can develop a unique design and functionality.
Pros and cons
+ Non-hosting
+ Offers thousands of extensions in its market
+ Integration with Adobe software
– Requires deep technical expertise
– Quite costly
Pricing: You can start free, then all prices are individual
WordPress
WordPress is one of the most privately used CMSs because it allows users to customize the themes and designs of their sites themselves. It is initially free, but you must pay for your domain name, hosting, themes and plugins (if you wish). The platform is suitable for any size business and offers adaptability to mobile devices, hundreds of unique design themes, built-in social sharing and statistics tools.
Pros and cons
+ Optimized for search engines
+ Flexible customization of the site appearance
+ About 60 000 free plugins
– Steep learning curve
– Requires technical skills
– Weak customer support
Pricing: If you do not need any additional features, you can use WordPress for free, but as for e-commerce, if it is not possible, then you will pay depending on the theme you choose (from 20 to 200 dollars) and additional functions.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source solution. You can use various SEO features, payment gateway options, and multichannel marketing here.
Pros and cons:
+ Full integration with WordPress
+ Actively developing offers and expert community
+ More customization options
– High maintenance costs
– Dependent on WordPress
– You are responsible for compliance with PSI
Pricing: the main costs will be for web hosting, which can reach up to $5,000 per month
OpenCart
OpenCart is considered the best platform for online store because it has many customizations, is easy to use and offers many plugins. You can even manage multiple online stores from one centralized location.
Pros and cons:
+ Broad integration options
+ Low development costs
+ More than 13,000 modules
– Scarce marketing and sales functions
– Has speed issues
– You are responsible for hosting
Pricing: it is a free solution The solutions presented in the list of best online store platforms have their strengths and weaknesses; however, only you can decide which is more profitable. Centum-D experts are always ready to help you choose the right e-commerce platform based on your desires and the uniqueness of your business.
Comments