Article

James Wilson
James Wilson 27 October 2021
Categories Content, Ecommerce

Top 5 Platforms for Ecommerce Website Development

Ecommerce website development is one of the most popular business strategies nowadays. Especially after Covid, even the small business owners are getting their business digitally aligned with popular ecommerce merchants like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. In this blog, we mention the top 10 best ecommerce websites based on their features and requirements.

Long gone are the days when merchants and sellers lined the roads, from city walls to the palaces, and made an earning from their trade. The grandeur of trading and business has shifted since then to a more open world - one that thrives digitally.

The opportunities of Commerce are now available to any and every person - in every nook and crevice of this connected world. You only need an internet connection and a robust ecommerce platform to participate in the online shopping trends - a space that garnered B2C sales amounting to nearly 3.53 trillion in 2019 and is expected to nearly double by 2023.

Events like the pandemic just helped further the reach of ecommerce, in 2020 injecting almost $107 billion in ecommerce sales in the US alone. Your choice of ecommerce platform can ignite or burn down your ecommerce business, so to save you some headaches, we did some research. Here are the top 5 best platforms for ecommerce websites.

Best Ecommerce Platforms for Website Development

1. Wix

This platform aims to provide businesses with all the professional tools and services to sell online and beyond. Wix has become a considerable force in the ecommerce space in a very short span of time. With a very user-friendly website builder offering 500+ themes (some are free and others are paid), you can truly create a bespoke website for you and your brand.

Another plus point of Wix is that it does not charge any transaction commissions. So that is a strong plus for independent retailers and small businesses.

Per their website, Wix offers:

  • Mobile-optimized storefront
  • Wix point-of-sale (POS)
  • Multi-channel sales
  • Global reach with multilingual support
  • Hassle-free fulfillment and frictionless refund
  • Store analytics
  • Streamlined and secured cart and checkout process
  • Strong marketing & SEO tools
  • Wix owner app
  • 50+ payment gateways and competitive processing rates
  • Ecommerce apps

2. Shopify

With over a million stores and 2 million monthly active users, Shopify is one of the most popular choices when it comes to ecommerce platforms. Shopify will provide you with the tools to manage every part of your business.

One of the most feature-rich and trusted names in the ecommerce space, Shopify is one of the safest choices for your ecommerce platform. It also stands firm in case of a heavy influx of traffic and has high website uptime.

What makes Shopify easier to start with is because it allows you to import your products from an existing store.

  • Shopify proudly boasts:
  • 70+ professional themes
  • Mobile Commerce support
  • Complete blogging platform
  • Global reach with support for multiple languages
  • 100 payment gateways
  • Secure and seamless shopping experience
  • SEO optimized
  • Inventory Management
  • Point-of-Sale (POS)
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Level-1 PCI compliant

3. Squarespace

Squarespace puts in the effort from the get-go to customize and personalize the store you would want. It begins tailoring your experience by asking your store's niche, followed by other questions to support your goals and needs. The visual drag-and-drop editor helps you put together a beautiful and engaging website.

Squarespace powers your online store with these features:

  • Customizable templates
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom site search
  • Great blogging support
  • Podcast support
  • Point-of-sale(POS)
  • Customer accounts
  • PCI compliant
  • Multiple payment methods
  • Google workspace integration
  • Robust security and privacy
  • Built-in SEO tools

The downside of Squarespace is that it integrates very few third-party tools.

4. Magento Commerce

Previously known as Magento Enterprise Edition, Magento Commerce provides ecommerce solutions at the enterprise level. The platform is robust with features and functionalities, helping online retailers keep up with increasing demands. Magento Commerce has two variations- Commerce cloud and On-Premise Solutions. Commerce Cloud is offered as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution.

Magento will help you create engaging shoppable experiences, offer robust support and innumerous integrations through its marketplace. The online shopping trends highlight deep personalization, so Magento can be a smart choice that can help boost conversations.

Magento is an ecommerce leader because it offers:

  • Drag & drop page builder
  • Store fulfillment of orders
  • Integrated B2B options
  • Data insights through business intelligence (BI)
  • Robust marketplace for endless add-ons
  • Progressive web apps
  • PCI compliance

Magento Commerce is pricey and requires development knowledge, which makes adoption challenging.

5. BigCommerce

Go big or go home. As the name itself suggests, BigCommerce offers a bear-sized ecommerce experience. Robust features straight out of the box are a sigh of relief for those who want to take advantage of the breadth of features without paying extra for functionalities.

One thing that stands out for BigCommerce is its robust product search engine, which makes managing catalogs a breeze. For the tech-savvy, it also supports HTML and CSS tweaking. There are only a limited number of themes available, but it is not so much of an issue due to a supportive community of designers and developers.

Explore the results of a global survey from BigCommerce and PayPal to learn how you can optimize your store for the latest consumer spending trends in 2021 and beyond.

BigCommerce offers the following features:

  • Visual editor for page building
  • Theme customizations
  • Mobile-optimized stores
  • SEO friendly
  • Cross-channel support
  • Multi-storefront
  • B2B offerings
  • 100+ currencies support
  • Cross-border fulfillment

Caution should be paid to the fact that BigCommerce lacks a custom SSL or abandoned cart saver, which can be crucial for big retailers.

Wrapping it Up

There are countless ecommerce websites out there, but not all platforms are alike. Stores that do not have high uptime, cannot garner consumer trust, are not keeping an out for features that align with the online shopping trends, and are not optimizing across customer experience touchpoints are setting themselves up for failure.

For the above-mentioned platforms, the core offerings are more or less the same across each one, so the choice will come down to corporate goals, values your store should represent, and the growth strategy for your ecommerce store.

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