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Best Ecommerce Platforms

In this section, we are going to review  the best ecommerce platforms. introduce them, the present the features, pros/cons, and pricing.

#1 – Sellfy

Sellfy is the most user-friendly e-commerce platform available for small internet retailers. Small business owners and content creators are particularly fond of it. Worldwide, more than 270,000 creators use it.

Some other platforms on this list also support sales of digital goods, but none of them are as good at it as Sellfy.

While a few other sites on this list facilitate digital products sales as well, none are as proficient in this area as Sellfy.

Sellfy was created expressly to satisfy the needs of photographers, musicians, and other artists who wish to sell their products online, in contrast to other e-commerce platforms.

You can use it to sell subscriptions, ebooks, audio files, films, pictures, PSD files, and any other digital file type you can think of. You may even provide clients with on-demand access to exclusive videos by using Sellfy’s video streaming capabilities.

Furthermore, you are not restricted to selling only through your internet business. Using Selfie, you can add buy now buttons to any webpage on the internet or social network. You can make money from your blog or YouTube channel if you already have a following by including Sellfy “product cards” in your posts, YouTube cards, and end screens.

Sellfy is excellent for selling print-on-demand (POD) goods like t-shirts, hoodies, and mugs in addition to digital downloads. Print-on-demand functionality is integrated into the site; just make your designs, start selling, and Sellfy will take care of the rest, printing and fulfilling orders as they come in.

Pros	Cons
Ideal for selling digital goods & subscriptions	Less flexible than other platforms
Built-in POD sales tools
Sell video on demand content
Email marketing functionality included

Pricing:

Paid plans that allow you to connect your own domain start at $19/month (billed bi-annually).

Sellfy offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

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#2 – Shopify

Shopify is  undoubtedly the most well-known ecommerce platform on the market. It’s a fully hosted, all-in-one platform that distinguishes itself with an enormous array of third-party tool integrations.

One of the first businesses to offer a way for non-web engineers to create their own stores was Shopify, which was founded in 2006. Like BigCom/merce, it’s meant to give everything you need to run your internet business in one spot.

Thanks to the user-friendly site builder and superior theme selection, creating a completely responsive Shopify store and getting everything up and running simply takes a few minutes.

However, Shopify’s vast array of connectors is what sets it apart. In terms of the quantity of third-party integrations, it is surpassed only by WordPress/WooCommerce.

However, Shopify’s vast array of connectors is what sets it apart. It is second only to WordPress/WooCommerce in terms of the quantity of installable third-party plugins and apps.

These apps, which you can get from the Shopify App Store, can add more features to your Shopify store, giving it even more versatility as an e-commerce platform. Installing a third-party program, for instance, can help you quickly set up a dropshipping business, or you can use the Facebook Channel app to instantly post your product catalog on Facebook and Instagram.

Additionally, Shopify provides some other cutting-edge services that we enjoy, such:

• Post-purchase sales tools and one-click upsells.
• A mobile app for on-the-go store management
• Live chat integration so you can speak in real-time to your customers and website visitors. Support for 3D product models and videos
• Store speed report
• In-depth analytics and user tracking
• Discount and coupon engine
• Integrated email marketing tools

The biggest downside to Shopify is that they seem to fall short when it comes to SEO compared to BigCommerce.

Pros	Cons
Tons of integrations	Weak SEO
Mobile app for on-the-go management
Highly flexible and powerful

Pricing:

Shopify plans start at $5/month. Get started with a 3-day free trial, then $1/month after for 3 months. Yearly discounts available.

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#3 – BigCommerce

BigCommerce is  yet another well-liked e-commerce site. A comprehensive content management system with many features, it powers some of the most well-known brands, such as Superdry, Skullcandy, and Ben & Jerry’s.

Everything you require to manage your online store is offered by BigCommerce. Without any coding or design experience, creating a stunning online storefront is a breeze with the drag-and-drop website builder.

Choose a theme or template first (there are a ton of amazing free and paid alternatives available, all of which are entirely customisable) and proceed accordingly. You can also adjust the HTML and CSS if you want greater control over the design and want to play around with the coding.

Numerous integrated marketing and sales tools are available to assist you in increasing sales. These include of automated shopping cart recovery tools, simplified one-page checkout processes, image optimization (which speeds up page loading), and more.

From a marketing perspective, BigCommerce comes with built-in SEO capabilities like robot.txt access, customized URLs, and blog support, which you can use to publish posts that drive organic search traffic as part of your SEO plan. To reach more clients, you may also integrate BigCommerce with online marketplaces like as Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

BigCommerce also offers all the necessary tools for managing your online business, such as systems for shipping, payments, and inventory control. There are more than 55 supported payment providers, so you can select one that best fits your needs. If you also run an offline store, you can integrate BigCommerce with your retail POS systems like Square or Vend.

Pros	Cons
Easy-to-use	More expensive than some other platforms
Easily integrates with Amazon and Facebook
Support for a blog

Pricing:

Plans start from $39/month (save 25% with an annual subscription). 15-day free trial available.

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#4 – Squarespace

Squarespace isn’t just an ecommerce platform. Rather, it’s an all-in-one content management system designed for any kind of website, including ecommerce stores.

What makes Squarespace great is its curated list of industry-leading website templates. They’re the most well-designed templates we’ve seen on any platform, with well-chosen color palettes, cutting-edge designs, and awesome fonts. This makes it the perfect platform for showcasing visual products (e.g. photographs, art prints, etc).

All templates are included for free with your Squarespace plan (they’re at least as good as the paid templates on other platforms) and there’s something to fit every type of business.

Once you’ve chosen a template, store setup is a breeze. You just add your products, setup payment processing, customize your categories and content using the website builder, and then start driving traffic and making sales. Squarespace also comes with various email marketing and SEO tools to help with that last part.

Despite being a multi-purpose site builder, Squarespace offers plenty of advanced ecommerce-specific features, including:

• Support for subscription sales and digital goods
• Built-in tax tools
• Flexible fulfillment options
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Integration with popular payment processors and shipping services (e.g. Apple Pay, PayPal, UPS, FedEx, etc.)
• Offline and online sales channel synchronization
• A Squarespace app for mobile inventory tracking and customer communication
• POS on iOS

The biggest downside of Squarespace is it isn’t very flexible. It offers very limited integration with third-party apps compared to Shopify. There are only a couple of dozen Squarespace apps to choose from, compared to 6000+ on the Shopify app store.

Pros	Cons
Industry-leading website templates	Limited integrations
Built-in tax tools
Built-in email marketing and SEO tools

Pricing:

Squarespace plans start at $12 per month + 3% transaction fees on sales, or $18 per month with no transaction fees.

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#5 – Weebly

Weebly is another multi-purpose ecommerce website builder with an ecommerce platform built-in. It’s very affordable and ideal for entrepreneurs and small businesses that want a low-cost platform that can scale with them.

Weebly might not offer as sophisticated a feature set as some of the other platforms on this list, but it does simple really well. It offers some of the cheapest paid plans on this list, and even a limited free plan.

Weebly offers all the essential tools you need to start selling, including an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder, smart marketing tools (including customizable ecommerce welcome and abandoned cart email templates), basic analytics, real-time shipping rates, and inventory management tools (bulk product imports and exports).

On top of that, it also offers some advanced tools like a coupon and gift card builder, product search, and support for product badges (e.g. ‘low stock badges’) to help make products on your site stand out.

The downside of Weebly is that it isn’t as flexible as some of the other platforms on this list, and is very limited in terms of integrations. It only supports a few payment processors including Square, Stripe, and PayPal.

Pros	Cons
Very affordable	Less advanced features than some other platforms
Built-in coupon engine	No ecommerce features on cheapest plans
Easy to use

Pricing:

Weebly offers a free plan, but it’s very limited and only includes a Weebly subdomain (e.g. yourdomain.weebly.com), which isn’t appropriate for serious businesses. It also doesn’t include any ecommerce features.

Paid plans that are suitable for online stores start at $12 (Pro plan). Cheaper plans are available but they don’t include ecommerce features.

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#6 – Wix

Wix is another popular, multi-purpose website builder with built-in ecommerce functionality.

It’s one of the most beginner-friendly platforms on this list and offers a simple, affordable, hassle-free solution for solopreneurs and SMBs that want to get started quickly.

The two things we like most about Wix are its website builder, the ‘Wix Editor’, and its powerful built-in automation features. Let’s start with the Wix Editor.

Of all the page builders I’ve used, Wix comes out on top. It’s super beginner-friendly, powerful, and flexible, with an easy drag-and-drop interface. You start by choosing your theme from 500 high-converting store templates and then can customize it with total design freedom.

You’re not limited to boring backgrounds and static images – you can make your site stand out with cool video backgrounds, parallax scrolling effects, and nifty animations.

And if you don’t want the hassle of customizing it all yourself, you can let the Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) system take care of it for you. All you have to do is answer a few questions and Wix will build a personalized ecommerce website specifically for your business, complete with custom images and text.

That’s not the only automation tool Wix has to offer, either. You can even run automated Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns to promote your online store on social media.

Once you’ve set up the initial campaign, Wix’s powerful machine-learning algorithm will continually monetize your ad performance and optimize them through improved audience targeting to maximize your return on investment.

And of course, Wix also offers all the usual features you’d expect from an ecommerce platform, including plenty of payment processing options, abandoned cart recovery, streamlined checkouts, and even dropshipping and print-on-demand capabilities.

Pros	Cons
Very beginner friendly	Not a dedicated ecommerce platform
Powerful automation
Good range of templates

Pricing:

Wix’s business and ecommerce plans start at $23/month. They also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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#7 – Volusion

Volusion is an all-in-one ecommerce solution that powers over 180,000 online stores. It’s not as well known as some of the other platforms on this list – like Shopify and BigCommerce – but it has some of the most powerful in-built marketing and analytics features we’ve seen.

It comes with all the usual features you’d expect from an all-in-one ecommerce platform: a website builder, shopping cart software, etc. However, its marketing and analytics tools are where it really shines.

It enables you to manage your campaigns across multiple marketing channels (SEO, Email, and Social) from one place.

State-of-the-art SEO features give you the best chance of ranking in the results pages and driving organic search traffic. Pages load super fast, and you can manage all your metadata (title tags, URLs, etc) to make sure your product and category pages are SEO-friendly.

Admin social management allows you to link up your Facebook, Twitter, and other social accounts to your online store. You can manage your Facebook, eBay, and Amazon stores from your Volusion dashboard and even publish social posts.

You can also up email newsletters, automated abandoned cart emails, and take advantage of the built-in CRM tools to manage your sales tickets.

Volusion provides robust analytics to give you insights into every aspect of your campaign, website, and sales performance. You can drill down into the data about purchases, abandoned and live carts, CRM tickets, RMAs, etc., or utilize the comprehensive ROI tracking to see which of your marketing efforts are generating the best results.

Pros	Cons
Best-in-class analytics	Not as customizable as some other platforms
Awesome social media and SEO marketing tools
Built-in CRM

Pricing:

Volusion’s paid plans start at $29/month. A 14-day free trial is also available (no credit card required)

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#8 – WooCommerce

If you want full flexibility and control over your ecommerce store, we’d recommend WooCommerce hosted by Liquid Web. WooCommerce is a flexible, self-hosted ecommerce solution that runs on WordPress.

WooCommerce is different from the other options in this list in that it isn’t a complete platform, per se. Rather, it’s a plugin that you can install and activate on your WordPress website to turn it into an ecommerce store.

The advantage of this is that it’s totally flexible. WordPress is open-source, with a near-infinite library of third-party plugins that you can install alongside WooCommerce to endlessly extend the functionality of your online store. You have complete control over every aspect.

Another advantage is that the core WooCommerce plugin is totally free. This makes it a low-cost ecommerce solution – especially if you already have your own WordPress website.

The downside is that WooCommerce is self-hosted, which means you’ll need to purchase web hosting services separately before you can publish your site to the internet. For that, we’d recommend Liquid Web – a specialist ecommerce web host that offers managed WooCommerce hosting.

Liquid Web provides the servers you need to power your ecommerce website, plus a whole host of tools and services to help you run your ecommerce store.

Once you sign up, Liquid Web will automatically keep the core WordPress and WooCommerce software up to date for you. It’ll also run daily backups, plugin updates, and malware scans to keep your site safe and secure.

Their powerful cloud infrastructure ensures minimum downtime and rapid page loading speeds. Plus, you’ll even get access to a bunch of other premium plugins and themes at no extra cost, like Astra Pro, AffiliateWP, ConvertPro, Glew.io (for advanced analytics).

Pros	Cons
Complete control and flexibility	More of a learning curve
Complete ownership
Hugely extendable with 3rd party plugins
Best for SEO

Pricing:

Liquid Web managed WooCommerce hosting plans start at $21/month with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Annual discounts available.

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#9 – Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop is another great turnkey ecommerce solution that offers a feature-rich website builder, marketing tools, order management, and more.

It comes with all the usual features we’ve come to expect from end-to-end ecommerce solutions. But the difference between Shift4Shop and other platforms is that it offers all of that stuff for free!

I’m not kidding, either. Shift4Shop has ‘reimagined the ecommerce business model’ and offers an enterprise-level solution (that’d typically cost $100+ with other providers) for $0 per month. And unlike other free plans, they won’t even limit you to a branded subdomain – you get your own free domain name, SSL certificate, the works!

But I know what you’re thinking – what’s the catch? After all, nothing in life is ever truly free, right?

Well, the catch is that you only get all that for free if you use Shift4 Payments – their own in-house payment processor. This is where they make their money back.

Pros	Cons
Enterprise-level features	Templates feel a little dated
Completely free plan available	Only free with Shift4 Payments
Tons of integrations

Pricing:

Shift4Shop is totally free if you use Shift4 Payments. If you’d rather use a different processor, you’ll have to sign up for one of their paid plans, which start at $29/month.

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#10 – Big Cartel

Big Cartel is an ecommerce solution built for artists, by artists. It’s been around since 2005 and is used by over a million creators. If you’ve never heard of it before, that’s because they want to keep it that way. Big Cartel is ‘built to stay small and independent’.

Big Cartel understood that independent creators aren’t usually looking for the same features in their ecommerce stores as SMBs. They wanted to build something specifically to meet the needs of creators, so they prioritized ease of use, design flexibility, and straightforward pricing.

It offers a nice selection of free themes built for artists. All of them are fully customizable – you can tweak the look and feel on the front-end or dive into the code.

It’s also super affordable with a clear, scalable pricing structure. You can sign up for free and upgrade your plan based on the number of products you want to offer in your online store.

Big Cartel also has good ethics policies in place. They’re committed to anti-racism and have a long history of charitable donations to pro-equality causes

In addition to their website builder and checkout solution, you’ll also get access to shipment and inventory tracking, real-time analytics, automated sales tax, support for discounts and promotions, and more.

While the platform is ideal for artists and musicians, it’s not the only one. There are plenty of alternatives.

Pros	Cons
Flexible front-end site builder	Not many advanced features
Clear pricing structure
Ideal for artists

Pricing:

Free for 5 products, paid plans start from $9.99/month.

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#11 – Gumroad

Last but not least, we have Gumroad, a useful, free ecommerce platform built for creators who want to sell various types of digital products such as audio files and ebooks.

You can sell pretty much anything with Gumroad: physical products, digital downloads, or even software (Gumroad can generate license keys for you).

Like many of the other platforms on this list, it comes with an intuitive front-end website builder. You can start with a landing page template and customize it until it looks and feels exactly the way you want it to.

You’ll also get access to powerful universal analytics data to help you uncover what’s working and what isn’t, simple automatic workflows, checkout tools, flexible product pricing, support for multiple currencies, and more.

The biggest downsides are that Gumroad features are fairly limited compared to other platforms, and they also take a cut of each sale you make.

Pros	Cons
Powerful analytics	Fees per sale
Great for digital products	Limited features
Easy to use

Pricing:

Gumroad is free to use. However, a transaction fee of 10% applies per sale + processing fees.

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Specialized Ecommerce Platforms

While general-purpose ecommerce platforms dominate the market, specialized solutions cater to specific business sizes and industries, offering tailored features and optimizations.

A. For small businesses

Small businesses have unique needs and constraints:

• 47% of small businesses spend less than $10,000 on ecommerce solutions annually (Digital.com, 2023)
• 68% of small business owners manage their ecommerce operations themselves (Clutch, 2023)

Platforms catering to small businesses prioritize ease of use, affordability, and essential features:

1. Squarespace Commerce:
   • Used by over 2 million websites (BuiltWith, 2024)
   • Offers all-in-one solutions starting at $23/month
   • Example: “Lunya,” a sleepwear brand, grew from a small startup to a multimillion-dollar business using Squarespace
2. Wix eCommerce:
   • Powers over 700,000 online stores (Wix, 2024)
   • Provides AI-driven website creation tools
   • Case study: “Amour Vert,” an eco-friendly fashion brand, increased mobile conversions by 23% after switching to Wix

B. For large enterprises

Enterprise-level businesses require robust, scalable solutions:

• 67% of enterprise businesses prioritize customization and integration capabilities (Forrester, 2023)
• Enterprise ecommerce platforms can handle over 10,000 transactions per minute during peak times

Key players in this space include:

1. Salesforce Commerce Cloud:
   • Used by 19% of Fortune 500 companies for ecommerce (Salesforce, 2024)
   • Supports omnichannel selling across 54 countries
   • Example: Adidas saw a 35% increase in mobile conversions after adopting Salesforce Commerce Cloud
2. Adobe Commerce (Magento):
   • Powers 12% of the top 1 million ecommerce sites (BuiltWith, 2024)
   • Offers headless commerce capabilities
   • Case study: Coca-Cola reported a 20% increase in online sales after migrating to Magento Enterprise

C. For specific industries

Some platforms cater to niche markets with industry-specific features:

1. Volusion: Focuses on small to medium-sized businesses
   • Used by over 30,000 merchants (Volusion, 2024)
   • Offers built-in dropshipping integrations
   • Example: “Botanic Choice,” a natural health product retailer, increased conversions by 15% using Volusion’s optimized checkout
2. PrestaShop: Popular in Europe, especially for fashion and luxury goods
   • Powers over 300,000 active online stores (PrestaShop, 2024)
   • Provides multi-language and multi-currency support out of the box
   • Case study: “Le Slip Français,” a French underwear brand, achieved 40% year-over-year growth using PrestaShop
3. Oro Commerce: Specializes in B2B ecommerce
   • Supports complex B2B workflows and pricing structures
   • Example: “Berlin Packaging,” a hybrid packaging supplier, streamlined operations and increased online sales by 25% after adopting Oro Commerce

These specialized platforms demonstrate how the ecommerce ecosystem has evolved to meet the diverse needs of businesses across various sectors and scales.