Looking for the best e-commerce platforms and plugins?
Here are the best e-commerce platforms that cover all the functionality needed to run a business
What are e-commerce platforms and plugins?
An e-commerce platform is a software application that enables e-commerce businesses to run, manage, maintain and improve smoothly. It has different plugins based on different functionality that we need to install separately as per the requirements.
Types of E-commerce Platforms?
Self-Hosted Open Source: A Self-Hosted website development is a method where highly professional coding & programming language experts are required because you need to edit the code manually to make any change to your website. Here the website owner chooses the host platform by his will while not accepting any host services. The website owner is responsible for the security of the website, PCI system and rest of the business management.
SaaS (Software as a Service) E-commerce Platform: In SaaS, you have access to different tools to build and manage the e-commerce website without any prior requirement for coding language.
Headless commerce platform: It is a rising e-commerce platform that separates the front-end (it is the elements that are displayed in front of users like web design, call-to-action button, subscription form, etc) and back-end (does all the work shown on the front-end like the data infrastructure of the website) functionality so that we can change the front-end functionality without disturbing the back-end functionality.
What are the different things one must research before buying any e-commerce platform?
- Web Designs and Templates
- Enabling the Security of the website with an SSL certificate
- Customization according to business requirements
- Strong Website hosting with unlimited bandwidth
- SEO Optimisation Tools
- Omnichannel Marketing Platform
- Confidential PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) System to store private data of customers.
- API (Application Programming Interface) System
- CDN (Content Delivery Network) to reduce the load on the server and improve your website speed
- Customer Relation Management (CRM)
- Inventory Management
- Shipment
- Enabling Multiple Currency
- POS (Point-of-Sale)
- Analytics to track the performance
Now that we know what features we should look for before considering e-commerce platforms and plugins let’s take a glance at different e-commerce
1. Store Hippo (SaaS)
Suitable for big-size enterprises with advanced requirements StoreHippo has omnichannel e-commerce solutions that give a high range of flexibility.
Features
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. 300+ features suitable for large businesses 2. Payment Gateway and Shipment Solution 3. Enables mobile-friendly features 4. No need to install additional plugins 5. Wide varieties of marketing platforms | 1. Customer support needs to be improved. |
2. Woocommerce (open source):
Woocommerce is the most popular WordPress Plugin launched in 2011, that offers various e-commerce features for free which can be upgraded with advanced add-ons. It is best suitable for small and medium businesses as it doesn’t have additional features required for large-volume Businesses.
Features
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. Flexible with physical, digital and membership types of products. 2. Customizable 3. Uncomplicated to use 4. Has in-built website themes 5. Adding a shopping cart 6. CMS integration with WordPress 7. Integration with Google Analytics, CRM System | 1. Though its basic plan is free you need to pay for the premium add-ons to get advanced features. |
3. Shopify (SaaS)
Shopify has proven its dominance in e-commerce platforms by spreading its business to more than 100 countries.
| Things needed to be improved | Perks you will benefit |
| 1. Provide a hosting platform and security 2. Mobile-friendly website designs 3. Customizable check-out 4. In 2014, Shopify launched Shopify Plus for enterprise businesses 5. Multiple currencies and payment platforms 6. The in-built app store with more than 1200 plugins | 1. Limited scalability 2. Limited customization for product and content pages. 3. The lock-in feature makes it difficult to exit 4. Doesn’t have email hosting |
4. Big Commerce (Open Source)
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. All-in-one e-commerce business solutions software 2. No transaction cost 3. Unlimited Bandwidth 4. Multiple currency acceptance with 65+ payment system 5. 24/7 customer care service | 1. Fewer numbers of free themes with similar designs. 2. Cart Abandoned Saving is only available with premium plans. 3. The Drag & Drop editor is not good enough. |
5. Adobe Commerce
Just as StoreHippo and Bigcommerce, Adobe Commerce is suitable the large businesses with high volume.
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. It is principally an on-premise e-commerce platform but can update to cloud-based platforms. 2. Provides Multi-Store solutions 3. Enable to fix the bugs | 1. Difficult to use 2. Need to upgrade every few years. |
6. Wix (Website Builder)
With more than 3 million + e-commerce businesses developed at Wix it is one of the most popular and used e-commerce platforms. Wix is a cloud-based platform which means no other software or add-on plugins are required for extra features.
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. More than 800 free templates with visually appealing designs. 2. Has Drag and drop interface with more than 300 app integrations 3. Multilingual features 4. In-built email marketing 5. Customer service is available at any time | 1. Multiple currency checkout is not available 2. Can’t able to switch between the different templates. 3. Not able to export the Blog Post |
7. Weebly (Website Builder)
For new e-commerce business owners with less budget and with basic not more requirements Weebly is perfect to begin with. But if your business requirements need highly advanced features then you need to consider other platforms.
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. No limitation on the product listing 2. Notifying cart abandoned emails 3. Low-cost plans | 1. Limited marketing tools 2. Poor Customization and old-fashioned design templates |
8. Optin monster
- Optin Monster is a WordPress premium plugin that gives lead and conversion generation tools
- Enable us to make live event
- Removes fake emails and shows genuine customer emails for successful email marketing
- Enables to show limited-time offers with countdown
- Decreases cart abandoned rate
- A/B testing
- Increase conversion of the site
9. Prestashop (Open Source)
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. Being a self-hosted platform Prestashop is a cloud-based WordPress open source plugin. 2. Onboarding Experience to the new e-commerce business owners with less experience and need guidance. 3. It allows you to run multiple stores from one dashboard. 4. Able to create many staff accounts The multilingual feature has more than 70+ languages. 5. One of the good features of Prestashop is it enables one to handle orders and interact with buyers. | 1. As it is an open-source platform it doesn’t provide customer support, you need to handle it all by yourself or you can upgrade to its support plan which can be expensive. 2. Limited features available in the free plan |
10. Square space
Squarespace is a website builder that provides all-in-one e-commerce business solutions
| Perks you will benefit | Things needed to be improved |
| 1. Can make Gift cards 2. In-build analytics tools for tracking performance, also you can integrate with Google Analytics. 3. Dropshipping 4. Good integration with a social media platform 5. enables e-commerce SEO functionality | 1. Charges additional transaction cost 2. Features required for large enterprises are missing, it is suited for small and mid-sized enterprises. |
Conclusion
We hope this is a helpful guide for you, please do remember every business’s requirements are unique and it might be the case that the features needed for your business might not be available in the platform or might be available only in the premium plans. Find the best e-commerce platform that suits your needs to grow your business and maintain its management of it.
