10 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses
Selecting an ecommerce platform requires carefully considering both your business requirements and features offered by each tool, such as how quickly your store can go live, the inventory management tools available and whether or not multiple payment gateways are supported.
Squarespace provides essential product sales features like low stock notifications, shipping label printing and in-store order pickup but does not support direct integrations with marketplaces such as Amazon or Instagram. Third-party apps may help facilitate such integrations.
1. Shopify
Shopify is an innovative ecommerce platform with a full set of selling tools for merchants to leverage, from various themes and customization features, without the need for coding knowledge, all the way to robust marketing tools that help drive traffic and expand sales.
Shopify POS is an integrated system that connects online and offline inventory and orders seamlessly, giving businesses the power to sell in person anywhere from brick-and-mortar stores, food trucks, pop-up shops or local markets.
Shopify offers support for over 70 payment gateways and features built-in marketing tools like Abandoned Cart Recovery and email newsletters, allowing merchants to offer discount coupons through the platform and create custom email confirmations for each order. It also assists business owners in managing social media and search engine optimization while supporting multiple languages - providing for rapid expansion on a scalable platform.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace provides a comprehensive set of features for creating websites. These features include ecommerce, point of sale, analytics and connected services - as well as SEO features so you can manage your site without the need for third-party plugins.
The platform also boasts robust email marketing functionality, making it ideal for sending newsletters and automated emails - ideal for increasing conversion rates and driving more traffic to your site.
The platform also allows you to add multiple product variants and options, which are helpful when displaying different colours, sizes or other variations of products. Furthermore, payment providers such as Stripe can be utilized on this store; however, it lacks a point-of-sale solution (only available within the United States), which may present problems for businesses that sell globally.
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers small businesses an assortment of tools and features to assist them with designing the interface of their online storefront, listing products for sale, managing orders and reviewing customer accounts, wish lists and order history.
Built-in features of this platform include an SEO optimization engine, drag-and-drop page builder and mobile-first design tools. Furthermore, it can support various sales channels - eBay, Amazon and Google Shopping as well as social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok - providing maximum flexibility in sales channel management.
This tool supports a range of payment methods, from credit cards and digital wallets to bank deposits and ACH payments - as well as offering buy now/pay later services for businesses. Furthermore, there are integrations with hundreds of third-party apps, such as Mailchimp, ShipStation, and QuickBooks Online - giving businesses full control of payment acceptance processes.
4. Magento
Magento is one of the premier ecommerce platforms for small businesses and offers many features to assist in business expansion, including SEO tools, catalogue management tools and marketing capabilities. In addition, the platform supports multichannel sales as well as easy customization.
Magento also features advanced search features to make it easier for customers to locate what they're searching for while providing users with tools for upselling and cross-selling to increase average order value.
The Magento platform can handle large volumes of data easily and flexibly, making it ideal for stores with thousands of products. Plus, many different payment methods, including PayPal, can be integrated seamlessly.
5. Ecwid
Ecwid is an ideal option for small businesses that already have websites or social media presence and want to add an online store. Ecwid integrates seamlessly with platforms like Amazon and eBay sales channels while providing shipping rates, accepting credit card payments, and inventory management capabilities all from one dashboard.
Ecwid is a free software as a service (SaaS) solution featuring tools, support, and step-by-step guides that make getting started easy. In minutes, you can build your online store using no-code themes and widgets available in Ecwid; multiple languages and payment gateways can also be easily integrated; it even integrates with popular website builders like WordPress, Wix and Weebly for a seamless selling experience on platforms like Facebook or Instagram!
6. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an impressive e-commerce platform that helps businesses quickly build an online store. It is user-friendly, offering numerous features designed to assist smaller enterprises grow.
WooCommerce allows businesses to easily accommodate different product types and categories, making it easier for customers to locate what they are searching for. In addition, WooCommerce enables customers to rate and review products, helping to drive sales even further.
WooCommerce's biggest advantage is its compatibility with third-party marketing tools and platforms, such as Google Analytics, Facebook Ads Manager and MailChimp. Mobile-friendly features allow for easier management from a phone as well as customization features with an active community supporting it.
7. BigCommerce Essentials
BigCommerce provides e-merchants with an extensive array of tools and applications to support their e-commerce needs and is one of the industry's most flexible platforms; for instance, unlike Shopify and some of its competitors, BigCommerce allows merchants to generate detailed reports regardless of which plan they choose.
BigCommerce also makes it easier for sellers to promote their products online by providing SEO features, bulk product listing editing capabilities and point-of-sale (POS) sales via third-party integrations such as Square, Hike, PayPal Zettle and Heartland Retail POS selling platforms, supporting multiple payment methods including digital wallets, bank transfers and ACH payments as well as cash on delivery payments, checks or money orders for offline payments accepted offline payments such as cash on delivery checks or money orders can make for seamless operation and smooth sales experience!
8. Shopify Lite
Shopify Lite offers businesses an affordable option to explore e-commerce. It provides various options for taking sales both online and in-person without needing a website - like adding Buy Buttons directly onto existing social media pages like Facebook or Instagram; additionally, it includes an mPOS app to accept credit card payments at fairs, bazaars, pop-up events and other live venues.
Shopify Lite provides users with an invoice generator and sender that helps them invoice customers quickly and efficiently, helping to expedite payment. Furthermore, its comprehensive sales and inventory management dashboard enables businesses to track their performance easily - ideal for cottage industry businesses that sell handmade crafts like stone carvings and weavings at fairs or other live events.
9. Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level ecommerce platform, offering the greatest design flexibility and feature options among other alternatives. While this investment may cost more, its payback could prove well worthwhile to businesses looking to maximize their online presence.
Perfect for brands selling through social media, online marketplaces and mobile interfaces. Plus, this platform offers unthrottled bandwidth and a doubled API call limit, so customers don't experience delays while shopping on your site.
Gymshark, a seven-figure brand, migrated to Shopify Plus after outgrowing their basic plan on Shopify. Shopify Plus provides advanced tools such as advanced apps and an established app store to assist businesses that have reached multimillion annual revenues, easy integration with third-party platforms and 24/7 customer support - the ideal combination for growing ecommerce businesses like Gymshark's.
10. Magento Enterprise Edition
Magento is one of the world's premier e-commerce solutions, used by well-known brands to shape their omnichannel platforms. There are two versions - Magento Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE).
EE is designed to support businesses with higher traffic volumes by providing advanced scalability & performance capabilities as well as more sophisticated marketing capabilities, including a visual merchandizer tool to increase conversions, the intelligent search engine that takes into account misspellings, synonyms and attribute weighting considerations, visual merchandiser tool to boost conversion and visual merchandiser tool to help boost conversions.
Furthermore, it offers B2B functionality with requisition lists, quotes, negotiated pricing and corporate accounts; it's powerful cross-sells & up-sells feature helps business customers increase their average order value; its paid version works quickly on websites with large amounts of data while performance can be further enhanced via third-party extensions; finally, it includes an app framework fully integrated with its platform.
