Ecommerce has become a necessity rather than just a trend today. Internet is flooded with thousands of products on various online stores. People find it hard to choose which product and site to trust as well as why they should buy from a particular store. Apart from this, people also want to get lucrative deals, offers and discounts while purchasing products online. For e-sellers, online selling has become one of the top ways to earn good money from their product sales on the internet. Thus, growing competition among e-businesses and pressure to develop attractive and profitable selling strategies have led many e-tailers towards digital products selling. Digital products include information goods such as ebooks, audio books, videos, information systems and software.
To be honest, there are many e-commerce platforms you can use to sell your digital products. However, not all of them are built for your convenience. There are ecommerce platform that is expensive, don’t have an option to optional branding and some don’t provide a search tool in order to make it easier for users to find the product they are looking for. Sorry to say this, but you won’t find these kind of features in Shopify one of the best ecommerce platforms out there.
We’re proud to be the Ecommerce platform trusted by some of the world’s most creative and entrepreneurial-driven businesses. Whether you’re building a business, side project or blog – your website is probably a cornerstone of your marketing efforts.
Sell digital products, physical goods and subscriptions all from one place. Collect payments from anyone with an email address, convert orders into revenue faster with automated processing, use flexible templates to build your own design and generate revenue with products not just sales.
What is the best platform to sell digital products?
It all depends on what your online business needs. But if you don’t have an existing site, you’d want to find an all-in-one ecommerce platform that has little to no transaction fees and has readily available templates that you could use to jumpstart your website.
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
Well, if you haven’t read our CS-Cart review yet, here’s the gist of it- CS-Cart is a renowned Russian software company that has served ecommerce merchants since 2005.
Now, I’ve purposely left out the “Multi-Vendor” part because the company happens to distribute two different CS-Cart ecommerce applications.
For starters, there’s the “CS-Cart” platform, which is basically a shopping cart software with the essential features for getting a typical online store up and running.
Then secondly, we have the CS-Cart Multi-Vendor platform, which is also an ecommerce software, but a little bit different compared to its CS-Cart sibling.
You see, CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is not for online merchants seeking to set up ecommerce stores. Rather, it targets the big players (mostly enterprises) that would like to build marketplaces. I’m talking about creating websites like eBay or Etsy, which usually host numerous merchants under one roof.
So, in short, CS-Cart Multi-Vendor can help you build your own marketplace, complete with the corresponding features that small merchants might need to create their storefronts on your website.
The solution itself is self-hosted and comes with an open-source framework, which features over 500 ecommerce functionalities, as well as themes, and extra integrations.
The problem is, however, that CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is not entirely free. In fact, there’s nothing much you’ll be getting for free. The far CS-Cart Multi-Vendor goes is offering you a 15-day free trial, followed by a 30-day risk-free purchase period. That means they’ll refund all your money if you don’t like their software product.
Now, on the bright side, you won’t be paying for the service on a monthly basis. CS-Cart Mult-Vendor is provided at a one-off cost of either $1,450, $3,500, or $7,500. What you pay, in the end, depends on the features you’re looking for.
But, if you ask me, it’s totally worth the price since it offers everything you can think of. It even comes with its own layout editor, along with great SEO and marketing tools, an in-built content management system, a user-friendly admin panel, a responsive mobile-friendly structure, plus integrations for more than 80 payment and shipping services.
Then considering it’s an open-source application, you can, of course, build your own custom functionalities and integrations. The possibilities here are limitless.
Ultimately, you, as the purchaser, become the head of the marketplace. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor allows you to host vendors, all of whom you’ll coordinate from the primary admin panel.
In other words, the admin panel gives you the power to control everything about the marketplace – from its vendors and their accompanying payouts, to the overall marketplace architecture and design. It’s just like building an online mall from the ground up, and subsequently managing its merchants.
Well, the vendors, on the other hand, are required to register like they would on any other marketplace platform. Then once you approve their details, they can proceed to set up their own marketplace storefronts.
The storefronts themselves can sell different types of products and services. Both physical and digital products are allowed here. So, in the end, it all depends on what you choose to have your vendors dealing in.
That said, CS-Cart Multi-Vendors will give your vendors their own admin panels for managing their stores, as well as configuring features such as product categories, filters, search, shipping options, etc. Then in the meantime, you can have them pay via a monthly subscription schedule, sales commissions, or possibly both. The choice is yours, so be wise about it.
Benefits of CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
- CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is as comprehensive as marketplace ecommerce platforms come. It offers you all the features you might need to set up and manage a virtual online mall. Plus, your vendors get the essential storefront functionalities and integrations. They even have the privilege of choosing customizable themes for their online stores.
- CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is a self-hosted ecommerce platform that you acquire and install into your server of choice. Then from that, you get to run and manage all the resultant tools. This translates to unlimited flexibility, especially considering it’s also an open-source system.
- Although CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is not a completely free open-source ecommerce platform, it’s sold for a one-off price. So, there are no monthly subscription headaches.
- The CS-Cart Multi-Vendor application is accompanied by comprehensive documentation and video tutorials. You should be able to troubleshoot any issues that develop along the way, as well as understand how the whole system works.
- CS-Cart Multi-Vendor has seemingly prioritized online marketing. It features a wide range of SEO and digital promotion tools that vendors can capitalize on to grow their businesses.
- Another thing that the platform prioritizes is security. It continues to release multiple updates every year, which come as feature upgrades or patches for resolving vulnerabilities. So, you’re guaranteed up-to-date security capabilities.
- The primary admin panel is elegantly designed to give you seamless user experience. The navigation is straightforward and the menu options are neatly organized for convenient access. Therefore, it doesn’t take much to learn the ropes here.
Downsides of CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
- CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is not an entirely free open-source ecommerce platform. After a 15-day free trial period, you’re required to purchase the software for at least $1,450. The other two packages cost $3,500 and $7,500.
- Since it’s self-hosted, you need to invest in a third-party hosting solution, as well as a developer for setup and subsequent maintenance.
- While we appreciate the gesture, the money-back guarantee period only lasts for 30 days. Such a period might not be enough for a deep analysis of the CS-Cart Multi-Vendor features and capabilities.
- Although the principal admin panel is intuitive and easy-to-use, it’s a different story altogether when we shift to the vendors’ side. Their interface might not be as simple, as say eBay’s or Amazon’s. Hence, they may need some time to get used to the tools and functions.
Wix Ecommerce
I bet you’ve heard about it already. Wix is undoubtedly one of the most renowned cloud-based online store builders. You can check out our detailed Wix review.
Although the bulk its packages are premium, it turns out Wix also offers an extra option that you can take advantage of to set up an attractive free website.
The best thing about this specific platform is this- even free users can take advantage of its intuitive drag-and-drop website builder to design an entire site without coding. As a matter of fact, you should be able to complete a basic free website within a couple of minutes.
The free plan is particularly ideal for beginners who need powerful tools for building and hosting a standard business website. It grants access to a wide array of customizable predesigned templates plus supplementary icons, clip arts, and images.
Then you know what? You also get to promote your free business site, thanks to the simple SEO and email marketing capabilities that Wix offers at no charge. You can combine that with many other free applications from the Wix App Market to form a dynamic marketing framework.
And in case you’re worried about space, you should rest easy because it’ll probably take you quite some time to exhaust 500MBs of free site storage. The corresponding bandwidth, on the other hand, extends to 1GB on a domain that rides on the Wix platform. In other words, your free domain name will be something like username.wixsite.com/site address.
But, here’s the thing. You still get secure web hosting, 24/7 unlimited support, plus automatic mobile optimization. So, of course, your visitors will be able to surf conveniently from any device.
Unfortunately, Wix will bombard your free website with ads. The only way you can avoid that is upgrading to one of the premium plans, which start at $4.50 a month. And that comes with a host of advanced features like form builder, custom favicons, email campaigns, etc.
That said, real ecommerce website tools are not accessible until you subscribe to the Wix eCommerce plan for $16.50 a month. And if you need superior online selling functionalities, you can scale further and settle for the VIP plan at $24.50 a month. This specific one is essentially optimized for growing ecommerce sites.
Benefits of Wix Ecommerce
- It provides an extremely simple plus straightforward drag-and-drop website builder. You can design then customize a full free site without any coding skills.
- Although online store features come at a price, let’s be honest and admit that the packages provide great value. You only get to pay at least $16.50 for powerful ecommerce site functionalities.
- Wix comes with an extensive collection of elegant site themes and templates. They are all designed by professionals for extra responsiveness and mobile optimization.
- You can leverage numerous apps from the extensive Wix App Market if you intend to add functionalities to your premium site. Some of the supplementary ecommerce website capabilities available at this level include abandoned cart recovery, payment processors, global shipping providers, and much more.
- Wix does not take a cut from your payments when you sell online from your ecommerce website. Only payment processors will deduct their fair share of transaction fees.
Downsides of Wix Ecommerce
- It’s impossible to set up a fully-provisioned free ecommerce website. You only start selling after you’ve upgraded to, at least, the eCommerce package at $16.50.
- The free plan comes with ads that may tamper with your site’s overall layout. The web pages will subsequently look busy and cluttered.
- Wix doesn’t provide access to its underlying code. So, of course, you cannot customize your website extensively. You’re basically limited to what the themes and templates allow.
- Once you start working on a specific website theme, you cannot shift to a different one halfway through the editing process. You have start over again.
Shopify: Best for sales-specific features
14-day free trial
4.6out of 5
- Website features4.2
- Sales features4.5
- Design functionalities3.9
- Value for money3.0
- Help and support3.8
- Ease of use3.5
Shopify has been built from the ground up to help you find customers, drive sales, and manage the day-to-day admin of running a busy, growing online store.
You don’t need credit card details to sign up for Shopify’s 14-day free trial, which begins the moment your account is active, not when you start building your store. Your account will be frozen at the end of the trial, unless you’ve selected a premium plan.
During the free trial, you can sample nearly all of the features offered by whichever pricing plan you choose other than taking payments – and those features are top of the range.
As an ecommerce platform first and foremost, Shopify’s sales features are second to none. You have the freedom to sell as many (and as many types of) products as you want, and it’s easy to manage in the backend, with excellent stock management, monitoring, and analytics tools.
You can integrate with a multitude of sales channels, giving you the ability to sell on everything from Facebook to Pinterest, and Shopify supports more payment options than you could ever need.
Shopify’s accounting offering is also top of the range, with automatic tax calculation and invoice generation. The only areas our testers marked it down for were its SEO support and marketing tools, which are both limited.
Shopify pricing
Shopify pros
- Top quality sales features designed to help with every aspect of creating, running, and scaling a successful online shop
- Can check out nearly all the premium features during the free trial
Shopify cons
- Quite pricey when you do upgrade to a paid plan
- Its SEO and marketing tools leave something to be desired
Square Online
Most generous free ecommerce plan
Square Online
Most generous free ecommerce planVERY GOOD
4.2out of 5
- Quick setup
- Easy to use
- Not very scalable
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $16 – $79 / monthSEE PROS & CONS
Overview of Square Online
As far as free online stores go, you can’t beat Square. It’s easy to manage inventory and design a professional site. Square templates aren’t super customizable, but that means you can get online quickly with a template that’s guaranteed to look good. Plus, Square offers a remarkable amount of features on its free plan. We recommend Square if you want to grow your business as much as possible before you start paying for a website.
What digital products can you sell online?
Here are a few product ideas that you’ll have little trouble selling online:
- Ebooks (fiction/non-fiction)
- Recipes
- Email templates
- Magazines
- Podcast episodes
- Songs
- Beats
- Sound effects
- Stock photos
- Sheet music
- Tracks
- Movies (that you have rights to)
- Stock video
- Documentaries
- Wallpapers
- Fonts
- Logo designs
- Infographics
- Animations
- Lightroom presets
- Photoshop brushes
- LUTs (Lookup Tables)
- Apps
- Games
- Browser extensions
- WordPress themes
- Guides
- Online courses
- Tutorials
- Certifications
Conclusion
Ecommerce is a very complex and challenging path to success. The founders need constant focus and dedication to the brand. Moving a product from the idea phase to development is only the start of a journey for those who are taking their first steps into the world of business.
This is a growing market and more and more people are considering creating their own online store to make money. When you have ecommerce business, you don’t have to worry about high prices and long lead times that often apply to wholesalers, so there’s plenty of opportunity for making some cash. Free platform to sell digital products