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9 Best Ecommerce Platforms 2021: Which Should You Use?

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The online retail industry is rapidly growing and highly competitive, including the ecommerce platforms. According to EWDC, there are about 370 eCommerce platforms for businesses available.

This article can help you to find the right solution among hundreds of options. We have listed the top 9 most popular ecommerce platforms to help your business grow exponentially.

1. Shopify 

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Shopify, since 2004 is the leading ecommerce solution with one million businesses (across 175 countries) worldwide. Shopify’s retailers cover almost every industry in the market. 

Best for:

  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Consumer Electronics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Food & Beverage
  • Home Furnishing

Price:

  • Basic Shopify ($29/month)
  • Shopify ($79)
  • Advanced Shopify ($299)

You can avail a 14-day free trial and a credit card is not required. 

International options:

  • Canada
  • UK
  • Ireland

Site building features:

  • Unlimited product listings
  • Custom domains
  • Real-time sales statistics
  • Inventory tracking
  • AI/Personalization
  • Over 70 themes/templates available

Level of support:

  • 24-hour chat support
  • Phone support
  • Community forums
  • Online help center

Is analytics available? Yes

  • Dashboard
  • Product Reports
  • Export Reports
  • Google Analytics
  • Traffic/Referral Reports

2. BigCommerce

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BigCommerce started in 2009, now headquartered in Austin, Texas with over 750 employees and they have offices all over the world.

Best for:

  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Health & Beauty
  • Sporting Goods
  • Food & Beverage
  • Home Furnishing
  • Automotive
  • B2B (wholesale & distribution)
  • CBD

Pricing for BigCommerce: 

  • BigCommerce Standard ($29.95/month)
  • BigCommerce Plus ($79.95)
  • BigCommerce Pro ($299.95)
  • BigCommerce Enterprise (available upon request)

BigCommerce Standard plan:

  • Custom domains
  • Unlimited product listings
  • Unlimited bandwidth & file storage
  • Multi-currency sales
  • Reporting
  • Ratings and reviews
  • Gift cards
  • 12 free themes and 160+ paid themes
  • Integrations with shipping and POS software
  • Page builder

Level of support:

  • BigCommerce has plenty of support resources available.
  • 24-hour live chat (for all plan types, including trials)
  • Phone support (for all plan types, including trials)
  • Email support (for all plan types, including trials)
  • Community forums
  • Online help center

Is analytics available? Yes

  • Dashboard
  • Product Reports
  • Export Reports
  • Google Analytics
  • Traffic/Referral Reports
  • Additional app integration customizations available

3. Magento

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Magento is an open-source ecommerce platform and most popular in the world. The first version got released in 2009, and Magento 2.0 got launched in 2015 with improved usability, stability, and features. Magento has two versions including, Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. 

Best for: 

  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Consumer Electronics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Food & Beverage
  • Home Furnishing
  • Sporting goods

Prices in Magento:

  • Magento Open Source is free to download and pay for hosting, themes, development, add-ons, etc. 
  • Magento Commerce  (enterprise-level solution) costs $15,000 to $50,000annually. 

Level of support:

  • Integrated checkout, payment, and shipping
  • Mobile-optimized shopping
  • Global selling
  • Catalog management
  • Extended Functionality via App marketplace
  • Instant purchase
  • Site search
  • Customization options available

Is analytics Available? Yes.

4. WooCommerce

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WooCommerce is an open-source (WordPress shopping cart plugin) created by WordPress.

It is one of the most popular eCommerce with almost 30% of the stores on the internet now. 

Best for:

  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Consumer Electronics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Food & Beverage
  • Home Furnishing

WooCommerce features:

  • Mobile-optimized shopping
  • Geo-location support
  • Catalog management
  • Inventory management
  • Shipping options and calculator
  • Search engine optimization
  • Coupons and discounts
  • Product reviews

Level of support:

  • Live chat
  • Online help guides
  • Community forums

Is analytics available? Yes

  • Google Analytics integration
  • Third-party plugins 

5. Squarespace

Squarespace provides website and ecommerce store building solutions and hosting for the customers. Customers can use the drag-and-drop option and templates available to create their website. 

Best for: 

  • Arts & Design
  • Food & Beverage
  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Toys & Games

Price of Squarespace:

  • Personal ($16/month)
  • Business ($26)
  • Basic Commerce ($30)
  • Advanced Commerce ($46)

Squarespace provides the following options: 

  • Abandon cart auto-recovery
  • Digital products
  • Personalized products
  • Product import/export
  • Real-time shipping rates and tracking
  • SEO tools
  • Upselling and cross-selling
  • Gift cards
  • Automatic discounts
  • Limited integration options

Level of support:

  • 24/7 Twitter support
  • 24/7 email support
  • Live chat support (Monday to Friday)
  • Online help center
  • Community forums

Is analytics available? Yes

6. Wix

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Wix.com is a cloud-based website builder that has a wide range of templates and drag-drop tools. It’s easy for newbies and business websites.

Best for: 

  • Arts & Design
  • Food & Beverage
  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Sporting Goods
  • Toys & Games

Price:

  • eCommerce ($17/month)
  • VIP  ($25)
  • Business Basic ($23)
  • Business Unlimited ($27)
  • Business VIP ($35)
  • Enterprise ($500)

Wix.com offers the following options:

  • Digital products
  • Product galleries
  • Shipping options
  • Discount codes
  • Inventory management
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Mobile-optimized
  • Payment options
  • Other functionalities available via extensions

Level of support:

  • Phone support
  • Social media support
  • Email support
  • Community forums
  • Online help center

Is analytics available? Yes

  • Google Analytics integration
  • In-app analytics

7. Big Cartel

Big Cartel is an excellent platform with a SaaS site builder helping creators to sell artwork, clothing, jewelry, and photo prints. 

Best for:

  • Arts & Design
  • Clothing & Apparel
  • Makers
  • Photographers

Big Cartel price options:

  • Gold (Free)
  • Platinum ($9.99)
  • Diamond ($19.99)
  • Titanium ($29.99)

Big Cartel’s site-building features include:

  • Dashboard
  • Product options with different price points
  • Multiple selling channels
  • Online checkout
  • Limited tax calculation
  • Inventory management
  • Discount codes
  • SEO tools
  • Plugins available

Level of support:

  • Email support
  • Social media support
  • Online help center
  • Recorded webinar

Is analytics available? Yes

Google Analytics integration

8. Salesforce Commerce Cloud 

Salesforce Commerce is an enterprise ecommerce platform that has a wide range of features to fit multinational companies handling multi-million orders.

Best for: 

  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Sporting Goods
  • Toys & Games
  • Food & Beverage
  • Cars & Automotive
  • Parts & Manufacturing
  • Chemicals
  • Other B2B applications

Price:

  • Salesforce B2C Commerce (contact vendor)
  • Salesforce B2B Commerce (contact vendor)

The features are as follows:

  • Product and catalog management
  • Marketing and advertising tools
  • Customer segmentation
  • Site search
  • Guided navigation
  • AI personalization
  • Social media integration
  • Global scale
  • Responsive design
  • One-touch mobile payments
  • Multiple channels and retail locations
  • Customer targeting
  • A/B split testing
  • Commerce Cloud Endless Aisle
  • Full development platform including API support

Level of support 

  • Salesforce Implementation partner
  • online ticket system
  • Community forums
  • Online help center

Is analytics available? Yes

9. Volusion

Volusion, founded in 1999 is the oldest ecommerce platform but is still in the market. It’s popular and stable, still competing with Shopify and Wix, has 30,000 stores, and $28 billion in sales. 

Best for:

  • Beauty & Cosmetics
  • Consumer Electronics
  • Fashion & Apparel
  • Food & Beverage
  • Home Furnishing
  • Sporting goods

Volusion price:

  • Personal ($29)
  • Professional ($79)
  • Business ($299)
  • Custom (contact vendor)

Volusion has the following features:

  • Secure checkout
  • Drag and drop builder
  • Free and paid themes
  • Secure payments
  • Inventory management
  • Discounts and coupons
  • Automatic tax calculator
  • SEO tools
  • Social media integrations
  • Ratings and reviews
  • SKU import/export
  • Abandoned cart reporting

Level of support 

  • Phone support

Social media support:

  • Live chat
  • Community forums
  • Online help center

Is analytics available? Yes

In conclusion

As you can see there’s no best ecommerce platform, all these top platforms have their own unique features. According to every business needs, budget and manpower, we have to choose the best option for us. Examine all the features closely and select the best e-commerce platform for your e-commerce store. 

Are you confused still? Contact EWDC today. We have expertise in providing end-to-end ecommerce solutions for businesses.

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