E-commerce platforms highlighted: what's the best option for 2020?
Are you looking to start selling products online? If so, then you will start by selecting the best e-commerce platform that is best suited for your online business. However, choosing the right platform for your business can be a daunting task as there are many e-commerce platforms available in the market today. Choosing the right e-commerce platform for your online store is a big decision as it is a long-term investment that requires careful consideration. Therefore, an important decision that needs to be made is which e-commerce platform to select that is right for your business. Each platform has its pros and cons and each has different features, some more advanced than others. Questions like which platform is best for my brand? Should I choose the trendiest platform? Should I choose the most used platform or perhaps a less used platform, but more beneficial for my business? Below are 8 e-commerce packages described. The pros and cons are briefly explained. There is also a conclusion at the bottom of the article that will help you choose one of the platforms.
Ecommerce Platform – # 1 WordPress /Woocommerce
If you want full control over your E-commerce business, Woocommerce is the perfect E-commerce platform for you. Woocommerce is one of the most popular open-source platforms worldwide. Woocommerce is specifically designed in combination with CMS system WordPress. Woocommerce is a WordPress plugin that will enable your website to quickly place products online without any knowledge of HTML. This powerful tool for online sales allows you to get a webshop online very quickly, provided it is set up correctly. For this, knowledge of Woocommerce is desirable.
Advantages
• Best platform for SEO
• 1-click sales apps available
• Many service providers
• Full control over your e-commerce website
• Easily customizable
Disadvantages
• Hosting can be expensive
• Difficult to solve
• Needs a lot of expansions
• The extensions are often paid
Ecommerce Platform – # 2 Shopify
Shopify is one of the first e-commerce platforms to gain widespread popularity. This cloud-based e-commerce solution is the perfect choice for people starting an e-commerce business. With over 250,000 online stores currently running on an e-commerce platform, Shopify is a proven way to sell your goods online. If you expect to make a large number of sales, Shopify is the best platform for your business. But why? It’s because Shopify allows you to upload an unlimited number of products, including variations for colors and sizes. There are no additional transaction fees for this.
Advantages
• Fastest loading time
• Super easy to set up
• 1-click sales apps available
Disadvantages
• Weak SEO
• Checkout not adjustable
• Apps can become expensive
E-commerce platform – # 3 Bigcommerce
Since its development, BigCommerce has come a long way and currently more than 55,000 online stores are running on Bigcommerce. That is why it has become one of the most popular Ecommerce platforms worldwide. It is not only perfect for businesses of all sizes but also for those who do not know about extensive programming. Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce is a SaaS product that is hosted and paid for a solution that allows anyone to set up a store and sell products online.
Advantages
• There are no transaction fees even if you use a third-party payment gateway.
• They provide many analysis tools for creating reports.
• It includes the functionality for product reviews.
• Their SEO options are advanced.
• It includes a feature of discounts and coupon codes.
Disadvantages
• Inconsistent loading speed
• High volume stores pay more
• No 1-click sales
Ecommerce platform – # 4 Magento
If you are planning to scale your business quickly, Magento is a great E-commerce platform. This platform is especially scalable thanks to its flexibility. With Magento, you can design a basic webshop with only a few necessary features. If you are looking for an E-commerce platform to set up a store and never switch, choosing Magento is recommended.
Advantages
• Highly scalable
• Strong SEO
• Robust and feature-rich
• 1-click sales apps available
Disadvantages
• Expensive themes
• Easily delayed
• Requires development skills
Ecommerce platform- # 5 PrestaShop
If you want to launch your online store quickly, PrestaShop might be the right ecommerce platform for you. It powers and supports over 270,000 stores, making it a popular platform that rivals platforms like Shopify. Best of all, it offers 310 different features, including 18 built-in payment integration solutions.
Advantages
• It is open source
• Friendly control panel
• Numerous apps available
• Strong SEO
• Flexible and free
Disadvantages
• Slower loading times
• Apps can become expensive
• Limited third-party automation integration
Ecommerce platform – # 6 Weebly
Weebly is an easy to use eCommerce platform because it provides the essential tools you need to run a functional store without any coding knowledge required. The dashboard is simple, and you can even upload products in bulk to this platform. The mobile app is another feature worth mentioning; this means you can easily manage your business and print shipping labels with ease.
Advantages
• Excellent value
• Lowest price for E-Commerce marketing automation
• Stunning cheap and free designs
• Powerful email tools
• A simple dashboard that is easy to use
Disadvantages
• Additional transaction costs
• Inventory management is still disastrous
Ecommerce platform – # 7 Opencart
Simplicity, functionality and speed make Opencart a popular E-commerce platform in the market. This platform aims to make life easy for both the user and the store owner of Opencart by making the interface very user-friendly. It is a PHP based platform that uses MySQL database and HTML components with a simple and easy to understand interface.
Advantages
• Useful for creating a reasonable scale multinational e-commerce presence
• Compatible with almost all current payment gateways
• Adding many features available through the 13,000+ modules and themes available
Disadvantages
• It creates canonization problems for SEO
• It offers a slow checkout experience
• It is not perfect for large and medium sized companies
Ecommerce platform – # 8 Wix
Wix is a small business friendly website hosting and ecommerce platform with a ton of features for developing a smooth online store. With the Wix editor and drag and drop tool, you can build the entire website, including selecting and customizing different elements of your site. Moreover, with WIX, you also have the option to select templates and stock images to make the process easier. Finally, Wix offers free and reliable hosting, so you don’t have to worry about server maintenance.
Advantages
• 72 Free Themes
• User-friendly
• Accept multiple payment methods without commission
Disadvantages
• Design options can be overwhelming
• Does not focus solely on e-commerce
• No native POS features
Which platform suits your company?
Looking for a user-friendly, reliable online store with a highly flexible design? Then Shopify the right platform for you! BigCommerce is an excellent choice for you whether you want to start an e-commerce store or have a physical store and expand online. You can choose the Weebly platform if you are a starting entrepreneur and SEO is essential for the growth of your business. If you want to run a simple online store, Wix an excellent solution for you. This platform does not require you to hire a developer as it is easy to design and set up an online store. If you want an affordable and fast scalable tool, Magento a solid choice for you. PrestaShop is a better option for those who don't have technical skills and want a good and easy to implement SEO option. If you have some web experience and know basic website setup, OpenCart the right tool for your business.
Rickid web design E-commerce platform recommendation
That leaves only Woocommerce.WooCommerce now supports over 22% of all online stores – making it the most popular eCommerce platform on the web. WooCommerce is a free, open-source WordPress plugin that can be easily customized via its various themes. WooCommerce has many features and a large number of official extensions. The entire WooCommerce platform is SEO friendly and makes optimizing your products very easy. Moreover, there are excellent third-party plugins available such as Yoast SEO. These can help you optimize products, posts and pages even better for your website. Most importantly, WooCommerce allows you to have full control over your eCommerce webshop that you can fully customize according to your needs. WooCommerce is suitable for anyone who wants to sell their products online. Whether you are a small business owner with a few products as an extension of your existing WordPress site, or you need a platform to run both eCommerce and an affiliate website under one roof, WooCommerce is the right option. WooCommerce is also recommended if you want to start a marketplace or a multi-vendor site with multiple brands.
Want to learn more about WooCommerce platform?
Rickid webdesign is a web designer who builds webshops with various e-commerce platforms. Rickid is specialized in building webshops in WordPress in combination with Woocommerce. Do you want to start an E-commerce business but you don't know how to start? Contact Rickid webdesign! Rickid gives you hands-on information on how to best start your E-commerce business and can provide you with a complete inventory of tools you need for this. Rickid can also give you a quote and time estimate for building your new webshop. Do you want Rickid to build your new Woocommerce webshop? Contact Rickid today!
