E-commerce Platforms – Do you want to start an E-commerce store like Amazon? If yes, you are at the right place. Today I will share information about building an e-commerce store using E-Commerce Platform.
The first thing you need to do before staring your E-commerce store is deciding what you are going to sell. You can sell digital and physical products. You also need to decide you will be holding inventory or doing drop-shipping. Identify target audience or country for sale.
Once you are done with the above steps, next is to create your website. Next is selection of Best WordPress E-commerce Platform. There are many E-commerce Platforms available online. I have shortlisted 5 Best WordPress E-commerce Platforms. Here is a list.
5 E-commerce Platforms to build your store
#1 WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most powerful and popular WordPress E-commerce Plugin. It is free to use and easy to configure. Key Features of WooCommerce are given below.
Flexible
WooCommerce plugin can be used for both physical and digital products. You can integrate WooCommerce plugin with most of the payment providers. You can customize the store with themes and extensions.
Scalable
WooCommerce is scalable it can scale rapidly with your business. It works well whether you are selling 10 items or 10000.
Multiple CMS support
WooCommerce plugin provide multiple CMS support. You can install this plugin to WordPress as well as Jhoomla.
Products & Stock Control
This plugin provide rich features of adding and managing multiple products. You can do stock control, tax rate calculation, and order management.
Reports
You can generate various reports about your e-commerce site. This includes sales by product, sales by date, sales by category etc. You can export these reports in the CSV format and do further analysis.
Pros
- Best Platform & SEO Friendly
- Full flexibility with reports and dashboards
- Supporting lot of service providers
- Plugins available for multiple CMS platforms
Cons
- Hosting independent platform could be expensive
- It is very difficult to troubleshoot the issue
#2 BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a popular e-commerce builder. BigCommerce allows you to create an online store, add products, and make money. Key features of BigCommerce are given below.
Product Types
BigCommerce is the only plugin that allows you to sell digital, physical as well as service-based products. This means you need not to use third-party apps along with BigCommerce.
Fully Customizable Design
BigCommerce offers the facility of fully customizable design. You can use your customized theme or design your theme using HTML, CSS, and javascript.
Mobile Responsive
The entire website can be made mobile responsive. You can use a media query or theme for doing that. Readymade mobile responsive themes are also available for usage.
Digital Wallet Support
The BigCommerce also supports integration with multiple digital wallets. Your customer can pay using Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, PayPal, and many other digital wallets.
Multi-Currency Support
BigCommerce provides support for multiple currencies. You can make use of 100+ currencies and offer local payment methods via the gateway of your choice. It also supports multiple languages.
Pros
- Flexible and scalable platform
- SEO Friendly and mobile responsive
- Very good performance and Integration support
Cons
- You need to pay high with increase in volume
#3 Shopify
Shopify is one of the best e-commerce platforms. It is a popular and widely used e-commerce plugin. It is very easy to install and use Shopify. It offers the facility to use drag and drop for building stores. You just need to register on the site to make use of this plugin. The key features of Shopify are given below.
Easy to use
Shopify is easy to use plugin. You just need to do drag and drop and you can create your own e-commerce store. Shopify also provides very good documentation and guide for the beginner.
SEO Features
Shopify comes with all SEO features that is required by the online stores. You just need to configure and make use of it. However, few extra terms get added in the URL while installing and configuring.
Scalable
Shopify is powerful, user friendly and scalable. You can make use of this tool for scaling up for small as well as big online stores. You can purchase bigger package when your business grows.
Add-Ons
Shopify comes with App store. You can make use of Add Ons available along with Shopify. You can use both free and paid add-ons.
Payment Options
Shopify allows you to configure multiple payment options. You can configure 100+ payment gateway options with Shopify. This includes payment methods such as credit card, pay pal, manual payment etc. It also offers multiple currency and tax options.
Pros
- Easy to setup and configure
- Multiple Add-ons available
- Muliple payment option and one click selling apps
Cons
- Checkout not customizable
- Somewhat costly
#4 Magento Commerce
Magento Commerce is flexible and extensible open source e-commerce platform. Magento helps you to create unique and engaging shopping experiences. Magento provide eCommerce framework. You need to setup your own server and build your own environment. Key Features of Magento Commerce are given below.
Easy to design
It is very easy to design e-commerce store using Magento. It comes with page builder, product recommendations, customer segmentation, instant purchase facility for configuration.
Manageability
You can easily manage your products on Magento Commerce. It provides business intelligence, Inventory management, Order management and services facility. You can do customization and operate with confidence.
SEO
Magento Commerce is SEO friendly. It offers very good SEO options for configuration. If you are selling few products, you need not to aware about technical knowledge to use Magento.
OpenSource
Magento Commerce is Open source and available with both online as well On-Premises option. There are multiple technology and solutions partners involved in development of Magento. However, Magento Commerce is weak in the support.
Pros
- Robust with lot of features
- Opensource customization is possible
Cons
- Support is very weak
- Requires development efforts
- Themes are costly
#5 3dcart
3dcart is one of the best e-commerce platform. 3dcart is trusted by thousands of ecommerce stores online. 3dcart is available with all popular third party integrations. 3dcart help you to grow your business and increase conversion rates. Key features of 3dcart are given below.
Customization & Design
3dcart offers facility to customize and build online store with your own design. You can create store for selling physical as well as digital products. You can add product information, images and create personalization. You can get access to themes which can be customized as per your requirement.
Scalability
3dcart platform is fully scalable. 3dcart support unlimited traffic and sales. You can make use of 3dcart for small startup as well as large enterprise. It comes with built-in CRM to connect with retail management tools.
Payment Gateway Support
3dcart offers integration with 100+ payment processors. You can accept credit card, echecks, digital wallet and many more with your website. Almost every countries payment gateway with multiple currencies are supported with 3dcart.
Integration
3dcart offers integration with multiple third parties. You can integrate 3dcart online store with MailChimp, AWeber, Google, Facebook, amazon, ebay etc.
Pros
- Feature rich & easy to configure
- Multiple Integration options
- Management and report facility
Cons
- Does not provide enough templates
- Dashboard is not user-friendly
- Somewhat costly
Final Words
From practical experience, I would recommend using WooCommerce for building your E-commerce store online.
If you need any help in making your online store or growing it, you can contact me via comment section or via sending an e-mail.
