
Electronic commerce, shortened as e-commerce, is the online buying and selling of goods and services. Recount your recent experience visiting an online store. Was the store 100% online or as an extension of the physical store?
Reports suggest startups and small businesses may be satisfied with having an online address. In contrast, retail giants add ecommerce to their business strategy to fulfill online demands and build brand image by accommodating growing customer needs.
Obvious ecommerce benefits for small businesses
Estimates suggest the number of ecommerce businesses is between 22-26 million. Cost reduction, product listing, budgetary marketing opportunities, unlimited reach, payment options, and efficient customer services are the significant benefits of having an ecommerce business.
Small businesses can never match retail giant's marketing strategy and spending capacity. It can leverage ecommerce social media marketing to boost sales and create a niche market for their products. There are no prizes for guessing; people shop online because they can do it anytime. This is the biggest benefit an online store offers to customers.
Just one of the many successful stories
The ecommerce business generates revenue by connecting buyers and sellers through different online channels. It can be a single website or add other channels such as social media, emails, and messaging services that combine to deliver goods and services. You could sell anything, from software services and grocery items to art.
Take the example of Curt Nicholas, the founder of Glade optics. It builds premium goggles and helmets for recreational skiers and snowboarders. He started his journey with $5000 and has grown into a brand with nearly $1M in annual sales. There are many such examples from all over the globe.
What’s an ecommerce platform?
When I mention the word Amazon, you would probably say it's the most popular ecommerce platform. And you could add some of the biggest ecommerce companies, such as eBay, Quikr, and Flipkart, to the list. That's correct in the general sense.
But, digging deeper, technically, a platform is the software over which an ecommerce business is built. It is a settled fact that setting up an ecommerce business means a host of daunting tasks; piecing together elements such as a website that allows prospective buyers to browse product listings and purchase items, a robust payment system that processes payments of different kinds, selecting a shopping cart software, and a smooth inventory management system.
Key advantages of an ecommerce platform
An ecommerce platform offers a centralized solution to seamlessly connect these disparate components, streamlining operations, securing other digital assets, and omnichannel marketing and sales.
In the context of providing an easy-to-use and affordable ecommerce solution, dedicated ecommerce platforms are often the preferred choice. These platforms, such as Shopify, offer various services, including SaaS (Software as a Service), which provides ecommerce solutions in the form of software, and PaaS (Platform as a Service), which combines software with the necessary hardware elements.
By selecting such platforms, businesses can simplify their ecommerce process and focus on achieving their objectives without getting bogged down by technical details.
Before we get into the details of some of the biggest ecommerce platforms commanding market position in 2023, let's see why taking an ecommerce route scores over traditional approaches. A choice dictates and determines how a business scales in the future.
Building an ecommerce business from scratch –good or bad ?
An Ecommerce infrastructure can be built from zero level. But how good a choice is it? Usually, big businesses with a large footprint and wherewithal want a unique platform with many customizations.
Either an in-house team handles it, or companies hire a professional ecommerce development agency that guarantees the highest expertise required for such a complex undertaking. No doubt it's a costly affair. It also requires a dedicated team for maintenance and upkeep. A dedicated DevOps team keeps the platform running, integrating, and upgrading to accommodate technology changes.
If you are wondering which platform powers Amazon, the example fits in this context. Amazon's mindboggling retail operations are managed by its ecommerce platform, the Amazon Marketplace. It's the meeting ground for third-party sellers and customers.
The sellers list their products and can sell them directly to customers. Besides this, it provides a host of cloud-based services known as Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS ecommerce provides a first-in-class public cloud that enables an ecommerce web development company to create their ecommerce platforms by customizing them.
E-commerce business inclinations of small and medium-sized enterprises
When starting an ecommerce business, many small companies or those just entering the ecommerce space often turn to SaaS and PaaS options, among the most popular ecommerce platforms available today. These options offer professional setup and support, making them an excellent choice. However, it's worth noting that most platforms charge monthly and a transaction fee on every purchase, which can add up over time.
Factors to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform
When selecting an ecommerce platform, companies must consider several factors that align with their long-term and short-term objectives. The chosen platform should have features that address the business's concerns and requirements, enabling them to meet its overall goals.
Some critical factors in evaluating when making a decision include the design and aesthetics of the website, development, and integration of the platform, creation of customized applications, security measures for protection against cyber threats, hosting fees charged every month, and regular maintenance and support services.
Choosing the right platform can be challenging without expert guidance from a reliable e-commerce development agency. However, by carefully evaluating these factors and ensuring that the platform's features align with their needs, businesses can select the best ecommerce platform for their specific requirements.
The ecommerce platforms of choice in 2023
In 2023, if you're looking for the best ecommerce solutions, you need to know the top ecommerce platforms. Our thorough research has helped us gain valuable insights into the options that are particularly well-suited for small businesses.
By selecting one of these, you can make an informed decision and start quickly. These platforms provide all the necessary features for a fast website launch, traffic growth, and increased sales conversions, ensuring you have everything you need to succeed in ecommerce.
We have included five of them here. Let's take them piecemeal.
1. Woocommerce
It commands a market share of 39% and emerges as the leading ecommerce software platform. It is a customizable, open-source ecommerce platform built on WordPress, a hugely popular website builder.
With its rapid growth, WooCommerce has become one of the leading ecommerce communities, renowned for its supportive community and abundant online resource, ensuring quick help for creation and maintenance.
If you have an existing WordPress site using a plugin, it can be converted into an online store.
It offers many available customizable design themes to meet the specific requirements of enterprises. WooCommerce's official Storefront theme is a popular choice for many new ecommerce businesses due to its sleek design and user-friendly interface.
Usually, going by cost considerations, the average theme cost can be anywhere between 0 – 100$ per year.
The platform offers numerous ways to manage payments. The adds-ons or extensions enable the website to receive credit cards, bank transfers, checks, and cash.
These extensions provide further customization like online bookings, merchandising, shipping delivery and fulfillment, sale of subscriptions, marketing, customer service, deposits, and accommodating recurring payments.
The best part is it has expanded to include some 140 region-specific gateways to accept payments such as Stripe, PayPal, mollie, and Amazon Pay through its secure payment processor.
This platform is suited for small and medium-sized businesses. But how to go about it? Your initial step would be to select a hosting service for your store and purchase a plan.
Woocommerce and WordPress recommend hosts like- Siteground, Bluehost, and Pressable. The cost of hosting can range from as low as $3.95 per month to as high as $5,000. Add to it other charges for shipping, payment gateways, security, SSL certification SEO services, etc.
By making some adjustments, most store owners could likely commence their operations with a modest budget of $1,000.
Establishing an online business using WooCommerce can be challenging, as it necessitates proficiency in WordPress, and the process of making customizations may require the assistance of a skilled developer.
If you are thinking of launching your ecommerce store, it may be beneficial to engage an ecommerce web development company.
Recommended for
WooCommerce's vast selection of customizations empowers businesses to create a distinctive and flexible online presence that is cost-effective and tailored to their needs which is especially valuable for small businesses—no wonder this has contributed significantly to WooCommerce's sustained popularity.
Pros :
- Free with paid extensions and huge customization options
- Market goods and services, take bookings and regular payments
- Option of multiple gateways
- Wide range of extensions
- Sell items on a pre-order basis
- Interactive community support
Cons:
- As plugins, themes, and customizations add up, they can get heavier and slows down
- Requires good knowledge of WordPress.
- Performance impacted as traffic and sales volumes increase.
Examples of ecommerce businesses using Woocommerce:
- Porter and York
- Barefoot buttons
- Root science
- Marché du Pre
2. Squarespace
The second on the list is Squarespace- an easy-to-use website that doesn't require you to have prior coding experience. Accommodates the requirements of both new businesses and established brands.
Offers a variety of flexible, customizable website templates, designer fonts, and color palettes to allow uniqueness and personal touch. Tools like booking services, favorite third-party extensions can be easily added.
On-brand email campaigns and social tools complement. Also offers complimentary and unrestricted web hosting, decent security, and reliable resources to assist with business goals.
You can rely on customized assistance anytime through email, live chat, or participation in a live webinar. By subscribing just once, you can create a website, host your content, register a personalized domain name, sell your products, and track your site's performance analytics.
Businesses can choose from their personal ($16/month), business($23/month),commerce-basic($27/month), and commerce-advance($49/month) plans.
All the plan choices offer Professional email from google and complete customization with CSS and Javascript except its personal plan.
Recommended for
Best ecommerce solution for retailers without much coding experience who can easily use drag-and-drop templates. Also, if the business requires building a creative website. Good choice to go for small and medium-sized businesses
Pros:
- All-in-one platform
- Simple and easy to use.
- Aesthetics
- All plans offer multichannel selling
Cons:
- Limited template customization options
- Custom domains missing from the free plan
- Abandoned cart features require a paid plan.
- Fewer plugins and extensions compared with other website builders.
Examples of ecommerce businesses using Squarespace:
- Harper's Bazaar
- Etsy
- DoorDash
3. Shopify
Designed specifically for online sales, it is considered one of the top ecommerce platforms due to its advanced features. More than 4 million ecommerce sites use it. It's a highly versatile platform that supports both B2B and B2C.
This platform offers a complete range of tools and features that address all aspects of running a business, including setting up an online store, multichannel selling, order management, shipping and fulfillment, discounted prices on carrier services, advanced analytics, marketing automation, and payment processing.
One of its promising features is the wide choice of dropshipping integrations, which simplifies selling products online without maintaining an inventory.
Also, the payment system, which supports multiple currencies and accepts payments through various channels such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Google Pay, and Apple Pay, is equipped with both PCI compliance and 3D Secure checkouts to ensure the protection of user data.
With Shopify, you can get a 3-day free trial without a credit card. Once your trial period ends, select an appropriate plan based on business requirements.
Shopify platform offers three pricing options for businesses; starting with the basic option, one can choose from three plans, starting from the basic plan ($29 per month) to the advanced option at $299 per month and a discount of 25% on yearly plans.
Recommended for
Shopify is the right choice for businesses operating across multiple channels and requiring an easy-to-use platform. Its broad set of integrations makes it ideal for setting up a dropshipping enterprise.
Pros:
- User-friendly
- Multichannel sales, including popular social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
- Secure and Reliable
- Shopify App Store offers close to 8000 apps for store customization.
- Support 100+ payment gateways with no transaction fees
- 24*7 customer support and a strong community for resolutions
Cons:
- Pricing, the basic plan has minimal features
- Absence of a free plan
- Limited customization as it used Liquid setup (not PHP)
- Challenging to migrate to other platforms
Examples of ecommerce businesses using Shopify:
- Fitbit
- Decathlon
- Hyatt Hotels Corp
- Penguin books
4. Wix
Fourth on our recommended list, its foremost impression is that of an easy site-builder. It is fast emerging as the platform of choice for business owners fussing over coding or hosting, as it comes with an easy drag-and-drop feature and a customizable template.
Being a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) website builder; you know beforehand what it will look like when it's operational. Wix is multilingual; you can replicate your pages in different languages.
Wix Stores provides over 80+ payment options, comprising credit and debit cards, Wix Payments, and the platform automatically determines the most suitable choice for your area.
You also have access to order and shipping management tools and a tax management feature. It also enables businesses to sell their products via multiple channels, including Facebook and Instagram.
The features of the platform can be utilized to capture leads, foster customer relationships, and receive payments directly on your website. Moreover, it allows a 14-day free-trial period.
Basically, it offers three types of plans and an additional one. Business VIP (59$ per month), business unlimited ($32 per month), business Basic ($27 per month). For large businesses and it offers Enterprise plans.
Recommended for
Suited for small businesses due to its comprehensiveness. As an overall performing ecommerce builder, small businesses aiming to sell and create a brand would find it good.
Pros:
- Ease of use due to the drag-and-drop interface
- It does not require coding experience
- 500+ customizable templates.
- In-built SEO tools
Cons:
- Customization limitations of templates
- Storage constraints with plans
- Analytics are not available for free plans
- Customer support
Examples of ecommerce businesses using Wix
- NorthShore Nine
- Aus Labs
- Bensimon Boutique
5.BigCommerce:
Last on our list is Bigcommerce- an ecommerce platform better suited for more prominent brands and brick-and-mortar stores seeking to process orders online. It was adjudged the most trusted commerce solution provider by The Forrester Wave [Q2,2022].
With a built-in array of marketing solutions, such as top-quality SEO services, blog creation, an abandoned cart saver, email marketing capabilities, and others, it clubs most features required to boost leads and drive sales.
It has earned recognition as the foremost open SaaS ecommerce platform globally due to its flexible APIs and low total cost of ownership.
Another striking feature is you can run multiple stores to serve different segments of your business through a single account. The order management system with inventory management tools merits attention.
Based on customer profiling, a customized shopping experience can be delivered. It brings the best of open source platforms while being a Saas application.
Two remarkable features that make it stand out are that it provides professional reporting (analytical tools) on all of its plans, and transactions are not charged. As it is high on features, businesses have reduced dependency on plugins and third-party apps.
It offers four plans – BigCommerce Standard ($39 per month), BigCommerce Plus ($105 per month, BigCommerce Pro ($399 per month), and BigCommerce Enterprise, which is a customized pricing model depending on business requirements.
Recommended for
As a SaaS ecommerce platform, it caters to businesses of various sizes, with many small enterprises able to leverage its features to their advantage.
Pros:
- API-driven and headless ready
- Serves B2C and B2B
- Good performance
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Secure [ISO/IEC 27001:2013 & PCI DSS 3.2, Level 1 certified]
Cons:
- It can be costly when availing of abandoned cart functionality.
- Many free themes look similar
- Limits on annual online sales, need plan upgrade
- No shipping discounts
Examples of ecommerce businesses using Bigcommerce
- Black diamond
- Natori
- Johnnie Walker
- Gorewear
Making a business-centric selection
As we wind up, we hope this detailed blog post will help to clear the confusion around ecommerce platforms.
Comparing different platforms on several metrics that map to specific business needs and picking up a platform that at least satisfies most requirements is the way forward. After all, expecting a platform to accommodate every requirement is too much because such an ideal platform doesn't exist.
If you take the case of large enterprises, ramping up profit margins and boosting brand image might be a major influencer. Still, for a startup or small businesses, it may only be about gaining actionable insights to structure their customer journey, not vexing about huge revenue targets.
How can Proquantic do its part?
Also, admittedly, it can be exhaustive, weaving together elements to construct a decently performing ecommerce business, even if you have free plans to choose from or DIY stuff.
Ensure you seek expert ecommerce website development services from a reputed web development company.
Proquantic has been at the forefront of technology, leveraging its talent pool to erect robust ecommerce infrastructures for businesses.
Reach out to us. We know the value of a novel idea whose time has come.
If you wish to know how to build an e-commerce website, you can read it here Essential guide to building an e-commerce website