Every business can get up to speed to sell its products online when equipped with the right tools. One of the crucial tools you must have is an ecommerce platform.
The best ecommerce platforms make building and managing an online store easy. These tools also make the buying process seamless, thus providing an excellent experience that retains customers.
Keep reading to learn the features you must look for in an ecommerce website, the best ecommerce platforms available today, and how to choose the best one for your business.
An ecommerce platform is a software solution that helps businesses build and manage their online stores.
Online store platforms typically have built-in features that businesses need—from hosting, payment processing, mobile-friendly website design, analytics, and integrations with other extensions and apps.
The best ecommerce websites are user-friendly, empowering business owners to quickly set up and manage online stores.
7 features to look for in ecommerce platforms
Regardless of your business size and needs, an ecommerce platform must have the following essential features:
User-friendly interface: A key feature you need in ecommerce platforms is ease of use. You may start your search by looking for the most user-friendly and robust platform. Make sure your team can navigate the platform’s interface to make the most of it!
Payment processing: Your ecommerce website must be able to accept online payments for frictionless transactions with your customers. Ensure the ecommerce platform offers the payment options that your customers prefer and the currencies you accept.
Shipping: An essential feature of ecommerce websites, shipping integration ensures a seamless delivery of your product to your customers. When shortlisting ecommerce platforms, consider your product’s shipping requirements.
Store management: The best ecommerce platforms offer management systems for your business or offer integrations for these systems:
Product management: The ecommerce platform must enable you to upload and manage your product listings.
Inventory management: Another critical feature of ecommerce platforms is inventory management, which ensures you don’t oversell or offer products that are out of stock.
Order management: An excellent ecommerce platform must help you efficiently process customers’ orders with features like order tracking and notifications.
Return management: This system makes placing, processing, and approving returns a breeze for your customers and team.
Security: Protecting your transactions and customer data is crucial to gaining and retaining customers’ trust. The best ecommerce platforms meet all of the necessary security standards, including Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards.
Analytics: Analytics gives you insights into how your business performs and how you can improve. The best platforms for ecommerce let you track important metrics like conversion rate and customer lifetime value. These tools also offer integration options to track and analyze site visitor activities.
Marketing: Shortlist ecommerce platforms that offer marketing tools or support integrations with marketing tools. These features enable you to do things like send abandoned cart emails and nurture prospects to conversion.
6 best ecommerce platforms for businesses
If you’re looking for the top ecommerce platforms that tick all the boxes, we’ve created a list for you and highlighted their best features:
1. Shopify
Price: Starts at $29 per month (3-day free trial available)
Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms on this list. Launched in 2006, this ecommerce website giant has solutions for various businesses—from small businesses and brands just starting to sell on social media to businesses that sell items globally.
You can connect your domain to Shopify or set one up through it. Creating an ecommerce website is a breeze with its drag-and-drop tools and free customizable templates.
Shopify comes with tools to manage orders and sales. It also has analytics and reporting features so you can monitor and improve your shop’s performance.
It is PCI-compliant and features 3D secure checkouts, ensuring your customers that their transactions are safe.
Need more apps as you grow your business? Explore thousands of apps in the Shopify App store—from social selling apps to website popup customization apps.
2. WooCommerce
Price: Starts at $25 per month (14-day free trial available)
WooCommerce is an ecommerce plugin for WordPress. You can use it in two ways. Use the all-in-one version, Woo Express, which has hosting. Or download the plugin and install it on your host!
This ecommerce platform enables you to build your online shop with customizable design themes and secure hosting from WordPress. It also features an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can help you write product descriptions.
WooCommerce contains built-in payment and shipping tracking systems, so you can easily manage your online shop. You can also manage your store on the go with the Woo Mobile App.
Want more apps integrated into your ecommerce website? You can integrate WooCommerce with other apps and tools, including Nutshell.
Nutshell is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with built-in email automation features to nurture your relationships with prospects efficiently. With Nutshell, your customer data also gets automatically updated and synchronized across Nutshell and WooCommerce, so you have a holistic view of your customers.
3. Square Online
Price: Starts free with a fee of 2.9% and 30 cents per transaction
If you’re selling products online and in-person through pop-up stores and fairs, Square Online is an online store platform that you can consider.
You can sign up for free and pay only 2.9% plus 30 cents for every transaction, with unlimited products. The onboarding process lets you choose a single shopping page or a full, informational selling website.
In your dashboard, your online and offline orders are organized, so you only need a single view for tracking all transactions. Square Online has built-in marketing tools to promote your business.
It also has SEO tools to improve your ranking in search. Are you also selling through social media? Square Online has built-in integrations with Meta, so you can seamlessly build an Instagram store.
4. BigCommerce
Price: Contact for pricing
BigCommerce is an enterprise ecommerce platform that has payment solutions, order management, and inventory management features fit for larger brands.
You can manage multiple stores and brands from a single dashboard. You can also sell across different regions, as BigCommerce supports various currencies.
Launch your website using customizable themes. You can also use its drag-and-drop editor to build pages and customize your checkout experience.
5. Wix
Price: Starts at $16 per month
Are you building a company website that must have a selling capability? Consider Wix, a website and landing page builder with ecommerce features.
Wix has handy ecommerce features such as order tracking, multichannel sales management, and inventory management. Creating your ecommerce website is a breeze with over 500 templates.
Want to improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs)? Wix has built-in site analytics so you can measure your website’s performance. It also comes with built-in SEO tools to boost your rankings in search.
6. Big Cartel
Price: Starts at $9.99 per month (free limited plan available)
Big Cartel is an affordable ecommerce platform designed for creatives. Its free limited plan lets you connect your domain name and sell up to five products.
It has free customizable themes on which you can build your website. It offers various payment options and lets you set your tax rates.
Want to know how your website is performing? Big Cartel has a user-friendly dashboard that tells you the following at your set period:
Number of site visitors
Number of orders
Conversion rate
Revenue
How to choose the best ecommerce platform for your business
Shortlisting the best ecommerce platforms for your business can be overwhelming because there are so many of them! Here are the top things you must consider when choosing the best platform for your ecommerce website:
Price: Consider your budget when selecting an ecommerce platform for your business. If you’re just starting, you can shortlist platforms with fewer features that still have the necessary capabilities for opening your business. You can also opt to use the lower-tier plan and upgrade later.
Features and capabilities: What features are most important to your business? Shortlist ecommerce platforms that have the capabilities your business needs. If you offer services your customers can purchase through subscriptions, consider an ecommerce platform with this capability.
Ease of use: Look for platforms that make building and managing an online store a breeze. Customizable templates, drag-and-drop editors, and intuitive integrations are some features you’ll want.
Integrations: If you have existing tools like CRMs or marketing software, ensure there are ways to seamlessly integrate your ecommerce platform with them. That way, you can sync your data and efficiently use all systems.
Support: How will you troubleshoot issues when you come across them? Consider the customer support that the platform provides. Do they have an FAQ you’re comfortable following on your own? Do they offer live customer support? Think about the level of support you need to get the most value from the platform.
Analytics: What gets measured gets improved. Shortlist ecommerce platforms that have built-in analytics or have integrations with analytics tools. That way, you can make data-driven decisions and grow your online business confidently!
Ready to build your ecommerce website?
The best ecommerce platforms are tools that suit your needs, grow your business, and enable you to scale. Once you’ve chosen the best ecommerce platform for your business, you’ll need tools to help you manage your customer data, customer relationships, and sales process.
Consider using Nutshell, a user-friendly CRM that allows you to nurture your prospects and customers and seamlessly integrates with ecommerce platforms. Nutshell can help you capture customer data from your ecommerce website so you can turn more visitors into customers.
