Best eCommerce store development platforms reviewed
August 21, 2017
3 min read
With the growing number of eCommerce platforms, now is a good time to take a look at the best in the market to decide which best suits your company. In this article, we'll compare the top six best eCommerce store development platforms, in no particular order, that you can use for your business.
Please Note:
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One of the most popular eCommerce platforms is BigCommerce. They offer a variety of services for small or large online stores and boast up to 28% growth for their merchants at 1/4 of the cost of some of its larger competitors.
Starting cost $29.95/month, with premium memberships from $79.95/month
Advantages
Pricing is competitive, starting at $29.95 month, and BigCommerce offers some great features features with your subscription including gift cards, 24/7 support and accurate shipping quotes. To take advantage of premium features such as cart recovery, you'll need to choose one of the higher plans, starting at $79.95 per month. But, with the higher membership you get unlimited storage, products, and bandwidth which are worth the extra money for growing businesses.
Shopify
Shopify is another highly popular online eCommerce platform and is popular among smaller businesses. It offers its own payment system, 24/7 support, unlimited products and discount codes.
Features
Smartphone application for maintaining your store and accepting payments
Integration with most major fulfilment centres and shipping carriers
Exclusive POS system to help you manage transactions
Support when setting up your store
Starting cost is only $29/month, however, they also offer a limited plan at $9/month
Advantages
Shopify’s popularity continues to grow due to its built-in app store at can benefit your online store. Not only do they offer more variety of apps than their competitors, but they also offer an array of themes for you to choose from. Reviews.io has a Shopify app available to you, letting you collect and show reviews directly in your Shopify store easily.
Additionally, Shopify also includes cart recovery, gift cards and improved reporting, but these features are only available to customers who choose a $79 per month membership.
Shopify has a number of payment options, and the amount your business is charged per transaction is directly related to which package you are on. As your business grows, you have the option to upgrade to higher packages and pay a lower amount per transaction. You also have the option to choose Shopify's own Payment Processing, which may or may not work out cheaper than using an alternative such as Stripe.
Magento
Established in March 2008, Magento describe themselves as the "World's #1 Commerce Platform", perhaps with good reason. It gained popularity among few major brands and grabbed a few awards for itself as well within a shorter period of time. It is considered to be the most flexible platform built on open source code.
Features
Cloud Based flexible operations
An on-site Business Analyst helps craft functional and system integration requirements for complex Magento deployments
Code audit, Performance review and Technical Account Manager
Available for International Expansions, Small Businesses & Omnichannel
Advantages
Known for its flexibility, Magento adapts to changing economic patterns and consumer buying patterns. Magento has a whopping 150,000 developers and a large network of solution partners (agencies) to help implement your store. It also has more than 250,000 merchants across the globe. If you're looking for a large scale, fully supported platform with developer access, then Magento is for you. You'll need to contact them directly for pricing details.
Volusion
Volusion is a highly-used eCommerce platform that serves over 10,000 online sites across the web.
Features
Drag and Drop store creator
Free Responsive themes
Secure Payments
Inventory Management
SEO tools
24/7 Support
Benefits
Volusion is definitely one of the cheaper options for an eCommerce platform and offers a variety of features starting at only $15 per month. There are some limitations however, for that price you'll only get 1GB of data and 100 products to display. It's great to get you started as a smaller store though. Their pricing scales by product number and monthly bandwidth.They don't charge transactional fees, unlike Shopify, but do charge for SSL certificates (quick tip - look at letsencrypt.org for free SSL certificates). You'll get ebay and Amazon integration on the Pro ($75) and above package.
Wix
Although Wix is a free website builder, it offers eCommerce as a feature in their membership.
Features
Low price from £10/mo
Easy setup
Website builder
Benefits
Wix’s eCommerce may not be as impressive as their competitors, but they offer enough features to help you get your online store running as quickly and cheaply as possible. Plus, most small businesses can’t say no to an eCommerce platform/ website builder combo. If you’re into a colourful store with plenty of options and tools to choose from, Wix may be the best choice for you. Just don't expect the advanced features of its rivals at this price point.
Squarespace
Created in 2004, Squarespace started life as an easy website builder. Nowadays, the platform has grown to over one million users. Though you can use Squarespace to build traditional websites, it eCommerce module is also now available.
Features
Easy to use for those with no web design or coding experience
Offers a Basic ($26/month) and an Advanced ($40/month) plan
Both plans provide unlimited products, pages, and galleries
No transactional fees
Advantages
Squarespace makes it easy to build beautiful and customer-pleasing websites. This platform focuses a lot on visuals, which is great for eCommerce. No matter how large your business grows, this platform will be able to support you with its unlimited products. The one downside of Squarespace is that you will have a limited option for payment gateways. They only support the use of Stripe to accept payments which, unfortunately, is not available in all countries.
Etsy
Etsy is one of the most popular eCommerce websites out there today for handmade and crafty goods, and has carved out a real niche for itself.
Features
30 million users and shoppers already on the network
Fees include 3.5% per transaction and $0.20 per listing
Opportunity to build your brand
Professional-looking UI
Integrated social interaction features
Advantages
When you sign up for Etsy, you can immediately gain access to their high-traffic market. Though the site may have a small market feel, there is plenty of opportunity for business growth and profit. The site also makes it easy to create a name for your business, thanks to the numerous methods you can present your business and products. It also makes it easy to market your items to a specific customer. Buyers can then favorite a product, ask you questions about it, or make a purchase. Though they do not provide the same flexibility as other platforms, Etsy provides you with the opportunity to make a name for yourself and the products you make. It also offers a little more security for new business owners.
Summary
Whatever the size of your business, there is a platform available for you. And whatever you're selling and however you sell it, you should consider collecting reviews on your chosen platform. Luckily, Reviews.io integrates with every eCommerce platform to let you collect customer feedback, and being a Google-licensed Reviews Partner we're also in a position to send your reviews to Google. This means you'll get
Google Seller Ratings
and see stars under your organic and paid search results throughout the web.The knock on effect of Google Seller Ratings of course, is more clicks and traffic to your site, and ultimately, more sales.
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