Over the years, there has been a significant rise in the number of eCommerce platform users. The main reason behind this is to expand the business and reach out to more people situated in different regions.
An eCommerce platform helps the businessman or seller to create an online store, list his products and its prices and let people give orders directly without having direct communication with the seller.
Other than selling the product online, eCommerce stores help in understanding customer behavior through analytics, tracking, and other methods.
It also gives customers ease of paying through different media such as credit cards, cash on delivery, or net banking.
There are various ecommerce platforms on the internet, to find out that is best for your business and requirements, dive into our list of 10 best eCommerce platforms in 2020.
10 best eCommerce platforms in 2020
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the most used eCommerce platforms and is the first choice of every professional dropshipping expert or eCommerce business owner. Shopify is used by many big businesses and small businesses too.
You can set up your first store on Shopify without any advanced technical knowledge as you don’t have to code anything or design the front end.
The set up is simple and straightforward, you need to focus on adding the product and pricing, that’s it.
Moreover, there are dozens of add-ons and plugins that are essential for an eCommerce business. The analytic tool helps in finding out the statistics of the entire day, the revenue generated, units sold, and the main source of traffic.
Features:
- Fully customizable
- Unlimited monthly bandwidth
- Supports various payment gateways
- Reliable customer support
Pricing:
The pricing of Shopify is justified in my opinion. The basic plan starts as low as $29 and you can update the plan as your business keeps growing. The image below gives you the details of all the plans available.
You can also try Shopify free for 14 days and there’s no need to enter the card details too.
Visit Shopify
2. BigCommerce
Another leading eCommerce platform for you to set up your first online store. It was founded by Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper and is situated in Austin. BigCommerce is a reliable platform for small businesses but is quite pricey than the other eCommerce sites in this list.
It comes with extra features such as an abandoned cart and allows you to connect your shipping account with the store for convenience. The way BigCommerce charges is quite different, you can only do a limited sale on the basis of the plan you have opted in.
Features:
- Create and customize your online store
- Fulfill orders faster by integrating your shipping account
- Accept payments through various medias
- Analyze customer behaviour
Pricing
Just like Shopify, Bigcommerce also provides you with a 15 days trial plan so that you can try out the interface, tools, create a dummy store, check payment methods, and more. The pricing is similar to that of Shopify, you can check out the price chart below.
3. Magento
If you require an open-source and widely used eCommerce software, Magento is a perfect choice. The updates are making it a more stable and reliable eCommerce platform for small or big businesses.
It was acquired by Adobe in 2018 and was then split into two versions:
- Magento Open source
- Magento Ecommerce
You can set up your clothing store, cosmetic store, book store, and various other small scale businesses on Magento. You can choose from over 5000 extensions on the basis of your store’s requirements.
The level of service isn’t good for the open-source version as compared to the Magento Commerce version. The pricing isn’t published on the site, you need to contact the sales team and get a quote.
4. Woocommerce
Woocommerce is the first and foremost choice of every WordPress user as it is more like a shopping cart plugin than an independent platform and helps over 30 percent of the small businesses to establish their eCommerce store.
It is suitable for those who already have an established blog and are looking forward to opening a side-store for regular visitors. Woocommerce comes with various integrations and payment methods and pretty much does everything you would want to be done.
The plugin is available to download for free on WordPress, all you have to do is install the plugin on your WordPress site and set up your online store. If you feel like you are stuck up somewhere, contact the support, or read the documentation on the site.
Features:
- Flexible and secure payment gateway
- Order management system
- Android and iOS app to manage the store on a smartphone
- Lots of add on available
5. Wix.com
You might have had seen Wix’s ad on youtube a lot of time, they spend a lot on marketing and also to make their platform a better place for small businesses. Wix is almost similar to WordPress in many aspects and is typically a cloud-based website builder.
If hiring a web designer is out of your budget, you can use the front end builder of Wix to design your store or blog. With additional plugins, adding new features to the site will become easier for you.
Features:
- Small business-friendly
- Optimized for smartphones
- Amazing customer support
- Drag n’ Drop Website Editor
- Analytics tools
Pricing
Wix is quite cheaper than the above-listed e-commerce sites and has plans starting as low as $13 if you choose to pay yearly. Here’s a table that shows the pricing of Wix’s plans.
Wix plans Monthly Yearly
Free $0 $0
Combo $17/month $13/month
Unlimited $22/month $17/month
Business Basic $28/month $23/month
6. 3DCart
3DCart is one of the oldest horse in the race of eCommerce platforms and is used by more than 22,000 merchants for online trading. Even though it is in the market for so long, 3Dcart isn’t as popular as Shopify or Woocommerce.
Using 3DCart would be a great choice if you have built online stores before and have experience in the eCommerce business. The e-commerce software has various tools and resources that you can take advantage of.
Moreover, you need to hire a front end developer for the UI as you cannot drag and drop to create your own user interface.
Features:
E-commerce store tools such as inventory management, analytics & more
- Search engined optimized
- Higher conversion rates
- 200+ supported payment providers
- Integrate with Facebook, Amazon and other online stores
Pricing
The pricing of 3Dcart, in my opinion, is better than the other eCommerce platforms in this list. You receive a small discount if you choose to pay on a yearly basis and every plan comes with some fixed features.
Basic Features:
- No transaction fees
- Domain Registration
- Shopping Cart
- Unlimited Orders
- 24×7 Customer Support
- Facebook Store integration
- Secure & fast Web Hosting
- 50+ Mobile-Ready Themes, in case you couldn’t find a UI designer
- Blog feature
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 200+ Payment Providers
- API Access for developers
7. OpenCart
OpenCart is one of the most used eCommerce software used by 342,000 eCommerce websites as of now. Unlike Wix and woo-commerce, OpenCart is an open-source eCommerce software which can be installed in a site for enabling eCommerce functions.
With OpenCart, managing an ecom store becomes easier as it is not complicated at all, especially the admin dashboard with a straightforward user interface and simple navigations.
Another major advantage of OpenCart is its marketplace. It has more than 13,000 modules, themes, and extensions. So if you want to integrate something with your eCommerce store, there’s a good chance it’s available on the OpenCart marketplace.
Furthermore, it has more than 14,000 modules, themes, and extensions that can powerup your ecomm store with more functions and integrations.
Features:
- Free to use
- No monthly or yearly subscriptions
- 14,000 modules
- User Management
- Multi-store feature
Pricing
As said above, there are no charges to use the software, you just have to pay for the technical support. The prices for tech support are as follow:
- $99 for fixing an error
- $99 monthly subscription for advance tech support
8. EcWid
The next eCommerce platform in this list is EcWid which is also an alternative to WooCommerce for WordPress users. Although it is not as famous as WooCommerce but does the job effectively.
Not only WordPress, but Ecwid can also be used with other CMS too, some of the are Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Tumblr, and blogger. If you have around 10 products in your catalogue, you can use the free forever plan but you won’t be able to integrate your Ecwid store with any website or marketplace.
Pricing
There are three plans of EcWid namely,
- Venture — $15 per month
- Business — $35 per month
- Unlimited — $99 per month
9. Volusion
Volusion is another amazing eCommerce platform that has been helping the eCommerce experts for over 20 years and is being used by 180,000 websites generating over $28 billion dollars in sales.
Creating, managing, and selling products with Volusion is simple. It is best for selling physical products as there is no support for digital downloads.
Furthermore, the support service is top-notch but depends upon the plan you have chosen, a higher plan means quick support.
Features:
- Content editor
- Beautiful and responsive themes
- Various payment gateways
- Secure checkouts
- Barcode generator
- Stock management
Pricing
The image above gives an idea of the pricing, you can check out the pricing page to know more about the additional features.
10. Squarespace
Squarespace is similar to Wix, a website builder with an integrated eCommerce platform. You can create an attractive and responsive store on your own by using templates or starting from scratch.
It is suitable for new ecomm stores that are not yet popular and have very few sales a month. You can kickstart your ecom store with Squarespace and move it to a different eCommerce site or platform when you start receiving more orders.
Features:
- Add as many products you want
- Manage subscriptions
- Sell both physical and digital products
- Abandon cart recovery feature
Wrap Up
With a significant rise in online shoppers and online stores, it is necessary to know about the eCommerce platforms. If you are planning to start your own online store, consider using any one of the above-listed eCommerce platforms.
In this article, we have penned down detailed information of the 10 best eCommerce platforms in 2020. This will help you to decide which ecom platform is suitable for your business.