When starting your ecommerce website, it can be challenging to think of which ecommerce platform will work best for you. There are many options such as Woocommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce. Although they each offer different features, each is effective in helping you sell products online. Bellow you will find my top 3 list of the best ecommerce platforms to sell products online.
While there are a lot of ecommerce platforms to choose from, with Magento being the most popular and Shopify as the closest competitor, there is another one which has been gaining lot’s of traction among online sellers lately. It’s called WooCommerce and it’s quickly becoming the best ecommerce platform for people who want to make money by selling products online.
Our comparison chart below will reveal all seven of our best ecommerce platforms, so read on for the chance to compare your favorite against its competitors, and check out what each website builder has to offer.
Best Ecommerce Platforms
- Wix – best for small online stores.
- Shopify – best for larger businesses.
- Squarespace – best value for money.
- Square Online – best way to sell for free.
- BigCommerce – best for a purely online business.
- Volusion – okay all-around, but best at nothing.
- Big Cartel – best for independent artists.
Compare the 7 Best Ecommerce Platforms
We know how tricky it can be deciding between ecommerce platforms – that’s why we put the top choices side by side in this handy comparison chart! Use the arrows at the top of the chart to scroll through the seven best online store platforms, and compare features, pricing, and star ratings. You can read full reviews of each below! 3 out of 7
| Starting price | Number of products on cheapest plan | Transaction fees | Multichannel integration | Abandoned cart recovery | Key payment options | Free plan or free trial | Blogging tools | Sales features | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BEST IN TEST  | PEOPLE’S CHOICE  |  | |||||||||
| Wix | Shopify | Squarespace | Square Online | BigCommerce | Volusion | Big Cartel | |||||
| $23 | $29 | $18 | $12 | $29.95 | $29 | $9.99 | |||||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimmited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 5 | |||||
| None | 0% – 2% | 0% – 3% | None | None | None | None | |||||
| Square, Stripe, PayPal, Wix Payments | Stripe, PayPal, Apple, Amazon, Shopify Payments | Square, Stripe, PayPal | Square, Stripe, PayPal | Square, Stripe, PayPal, Amazon | PayPal, Amazon, Volusion Payments | Stripe, PayPal | |||||
| Free plan | 14-day free trial | 14-day free trial | Free plan | 15-day free trial | 14-day free trial | Free plan | |||||
| 4.4 | 4.5 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 4.6 | 3.7 | 2.3 | |||||
| Visit Site | Visit Site | Visit Site | Visit Site | Visit Site | Visit Site | Visit Site |
We conducted hundreds of hours of research and testing to bring you this list, so you can sit back and enjoy our breakdown of the seven best ecommerce platforms. We’ll also reveal which platforms are best by industry, to give you a detailed low-down and help you get started with the right one.
Would you prefer instant, personalized answers? No problem, take our 4-question quiz and find your perfect builder! Unsure which to use?
What are the Best Online Store Builders?
What about more advanced ecommerce tools?
In this article, we’ll look at easy-to-use website builders that let you create and run an online store. Advanced users may be interested in ecommerce solutions like WordPress, which you can use to code an online store from scratch. To find out more, read our article on the best ecommerce software.
Best Ecommerce Platform Reviews
#1. Wix
Best for small online stores.
Start selling from $23 a month.
Best for small online stores
4.7 out of 5 Top Choice Ease Of Use
4 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
4 out of 5 stars Website Features
4.4 out of 5 stars Sales Features
4.4 out of 5 stars Help and Support
3.8 out of 5 stars Value For Money
4.4 out of 5 stars Customer Score
4 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
Wix is a hugely popular drag-and-drop website builder and ecommerce platform, with over 110 million users worldwide. Wix knows a thing or two about creating websites and online stores!
Wix came third in our sales features research, and took the top position in the website features category. Need we say much more?
There are three Wix plans which are totally dedicated to ecommerce. The cheapest Wix ecommerce plan is the Business Basic at $23 a month, granting you access to a superb range of ecommerce features.
Some of our favourite ecommerce features include:
- Abandoned cart recovery – send automatic emails and regain lost sales by encouraging customers to finalize purchases
- Multi-channel integration – sell on Instagram without installing any apps
- ‘Buy now’ and ‘Add to cart’ buttons – create an easier shopping experience and increase sales
- Printable shipping labels – develop your brand image by personalizing your packaging
- Store card details – customers can pay-on-the-go using their stored card details in the ‘wallet’ area of the checkout
- Dropshipping – use a third party company and save the hassle of packaging and shipping yourself
- Integrations with Shipstation – provide a seamless shipping experience for your customers using apps like Shipstation
Better still, all Wix websites automatically come with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates. This is really important as it means customers can safely submit their details through your website.
In our research, Wix also ranks highly in our categories for value for money and customer support.
Even on the Basic plan, you’ll get support via phone, email, and social media, as well as access to a forum and an in-depth knowledge base. It’s also the only builder to give you helpful on-page support while you’re creating your store.
You can create a really strong brand for your online store by creating a highly customized storefront. Because of Wix’s drag-and-drop editor, it’s super easy to add product videos and other cool features to create the ultimate shopping experience. With Wix, you also know exactly how your online store will look to customers while you’re editing, making customization really easy.
Another way to add ecommerce features to your Wix online store is to use apps like Wix Stores and Ecwid.
While Ecwid lets you sell on Facebook, Wix Stores unlocks tons of great ecommerce features for your website, such as the ability to send automated confirmation emails to customers, and creating discounts.
And you don’t have to stay at home to run your business. The Wix Mobile App lets you manage your store on the go. This is a fantastic feature as it gives you more flexibility in managing your brand.
On the downside, Wix does have pretty basic inventory features and lacks a stock level management alert system.
Overall, though, Wix does a great job of combining the ease and design of the traditional website builder with a range of excellent ecommerce features.
Wix is ideal for users of all tech abilities, offering amazing value for money along with the best help and support of any ecommerce builder. So, you can start flexing your ecommerce muscles without worrying!
| Wix Pros | Wix Cons |
|---|---|
| Abandoned cart recovery emailsWix’s easy drag-and-drop editor shows you exactly how your storefront will lookBuilt-in ability to sell on InstagramCreates a strong brand for your businessAdd product videos for better engagement with customers | Only has basic inventory and analytics systems – not ideal for growth |
Further Information
- Read our Wix eCommerce Review for an in-depth look at this top ecommerce platform
- Read our Wix Pricing Review to find out which premium plan is best for you
- Torn between Wix and Shopify? In our Wix vs Shopify article, we break down which one you should choose
Wix Gallery
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#2. Shopify
Best for larger businesses.
Start selling from $29.99 a month.
Best for larger businesses
4.6 out of 5 Ease Of Use
4 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
3.7 out of 5 stars Website Features
4.1 out of 5 stars Sales Features
4.7 out of 5 stars Help and Support
4.1 out of 5 stars Value For Money
3.5 out of 5 stars Customer Score
4.65 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for large stores, selling over 10 products. It powers over 600,000 online stores and has over 1 million active users worldwide. More than $100 billion has been sold on Shopify – so it must be doing something right!
Our research confirmed this. Shopify came second in sales features, with lots of high quality tools to support your store. Here’s a few of the main sales features:
- Sell physical and digital goods and services
- Abandoned cart recovery is built-in, helping catch incomplete sales
- Online invoice generator makes billing and collecting money easier
- Sync with 10 other sales platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon
- Over 100 different payment gateways to choose from (including Shopify Payments and Google Pay)
- Sell unlimited products
- Stay on track on the go with Shopify’s mobile app
- Easily customize your checkout with your own logo, brand colors and fonts
You can see why Shopify scored so highly in this area. Features like these don’t just make running your online store possible – they make it easy and enjoyable too. Put simply, Shopify was designed to help people build an online store. That’s why it’s packed with these high quality sales features, which were specially created to support your ecommerce business.
Despite its impressive features, however, Shopify isn’t the easiest to use. It came fifth in our ease of use testing, with many users finding its front and backend interfaces tricky to navigate.
Still, that wasn’t enough to reduce its user popularity. It received the highest customer score of all the builders we tested, and an impressive 93% of Shopify customers told our researchers they were satisfied with the ecommerce platform.
Shopify is perfect for, well, everyone! Whether you’re just starting out or have a large business that’s scaling fast, Shopify covers all selling bases. With a 14 day free trial (no credit card details required) and over 100 themes to choose from, there’s nothing to lose!
| Shopify Pros | Shopify Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent sales features and customer scoreSell across multiple channels like Facebook, Instagram, and PinterestEasily manage your store with a brilliant inventory system | Needs third party apps to support multiple currencies – not ideal for international growthShopify transaction fee on most payment gatewaysSwitching template means reformatting your website |
Further Information
- Read our Shopify Review for a full look at the features, pros and cons of this top ecommerce platform
- See how Shopify ranks in our Online Store Builders Comparison Chart
- This could be you! See our list of Shopify Success Stories
- Want to know about SEO? Our Shopify SEO Review tells you all you need to know
- Not sure how to start? Read our guide on how to build an online store and get started today!
Shopify Gallery
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#3. Squarespace
Best value for money.
Start selling from $18 a month.
Best value for money
4.5 out of 5 Ease Of Use
4.2 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
4 out of 5 stars Website Features
4.2 out of 5 stars Sales Features
3.4 out of 5 stars Help and Support
3.5 out of 5 stars Value For Money
4.4 out of 5 stars Customer Score
4.3 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
Squarespace is a dream for creatives. If you’re looking to make your online store as visually effective as possible, this is the choice for you! Stunning templates, combined with a strong inventory system and lots of quality features, make Squarespace an attractive choice for thousands of online stores.
It shone for design flexibility in our research, coming joint first, alongside Wix and BigCommerce. Squarespace has a smaller but comprehensive selection of online store templates, covering an impressive range of industries from fashion to food & drink.
It also came first in our ease of use testing, meaning that it’s the easiest builder to get to grips with. It is worth knowing that there’s a slight learning curve, to begin with, but once you’ve got the basics down, building a store with Squarespace is easy peasy!
But what about the business side? Squarespace is a really strong all-round choice for combining a stylish storefront with classic ecommerce features, such as creating discounts and promotional pop-ups.
Promotional tools is an area where Squarespace really stands out. You can add different types of discounts to the products in your store, from individual products to entire orders. Other great sales tools and features include Squarespace’s inventory system.
Squarespace also allows you to sell unlimited products on any of its ecommerce price plans. Plus, you have the option of either uploading them in bulk or one at a time.
By combining this with in-house stock management, revenue reports, and email alerts about stock levels, Squarespace is more on the level of ecommerce specialist Shopify than its fellow ecommerce website builders.
This means your store won’t just look good with Squarespace: it’ll pack a punch too! But if you want speedy growth on a large scale, you might find Squarespace too small too soon – shipping and payment options are limited when compared to Shopify and BigCommerce.
With its professional templates, Squarespace will really show off your products and let your storefront shine. It’s a solid choice for your online store, as long as you don’t outgrow its range of ecommerce features.
| Squarespace Pros | Squarespace Cons |
|---|---|
| Best design of any ecommerce builderGreat depth and quality of website features – social media integrationInventory system and analytics tools are really effective | Editor can be a little too manual – not a lot of autosave optionsHarder to scale your storeLacks multiple payment and shipping options |
Further Information
- Read our Squarespace Ecommerce Review to find out more about this stylish store builder
- Our Squarespace Pricing Review gives you a full breakdown of the builder’s premium plans and what they offer
- Get 10% off any Squarespace plan with our exclusive Squarespace Offer Code
- Read our Shopify vs Squarespace Review to compare these leading brands
- See how Squarespace compares with other leading brands in our Ecommerce Comparison Chart
Squarespace Gallery
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#4. Square Online
Best way to sell for free.
Start selling from $12 a month.
Best way to sell for free
4.2 out of 5 Ease Of Use
3.9 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
2.7 out of 5 stars Website Features
3.5 out of 5 stars Sales Features
3.5 out of 5 stars Help and Support
4 out of 5 stars Value For Money
4.5 out of 5 stars Customer Score
3.6 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
In 2018, the payment processing giant Square bought Weebly (one of our highest-rated website builders). The result is Square Online, which combines powerful payment processing with an easy website building platform.
Unsurprisingly, Square Online’s interface is very similar to Weebly’s. That being said, you’ll enjoy Square Online’s fresh features, and you can even take advantage of its free ecommerce plan to see if it’s really such a great fit.
When we tested Square Online ourselves, we were particularly impressed by its quick and simple editing process. You can have a functioning ecommerce site set up after just a few clicks around your user dashboard.
Sales features like mutlichannel integration, plus quick access to insights about revenue and traffic, are what give Square Online such great value for money. That, and the speed with which Square Online can help you get online and start selling.
Adding products and product variations is extremely easy, and Square Online’s paid plans let you include small labels like “on sale” or “only a few left!” to create a sense of urgency around special deals.
The tradeoff for Square Online’s speed and ease of use is its lack of design customization. It’s true that you’ll have everything you need to create a simple store that emphasizes your products, but if you want to create a layout with your own personal creative flair, you may be better off with a design-oriented builder like Squarespace.
| Square Online Pros | Square Online Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable, with great marketing featuresEasy-to-use site dashboard keeps track of product sales, customer journeys, and abandoned cart recoveriesEasy design process | Limited opportunities for customizationLimited payment gateway optionsSmall learning curve when you first get started with the platform |
Further Information
- Check out our Square Online Review for a detailed look at this ecommerce builder
Square Online Gallery
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#5. BigCommerce
Best for a purely online business.
Start selling from $29.95 a month. (Get 2 months free when you sign up for a free trial by January 31st)Heads Up: Savings Alert! Get 2 Months Free
New stores can get two months free on BigCommerce if you sign up for your free trial before January 31st. Get two months free when you choose your BigCommerce premium plan. Simply start your free BigCommerce trial today to claim this limited time offer!
Best for a purely online business
4.1 out of 5 Ease Of Use
3.3 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
3.2 out of 5 stars Website Features
3.6 out of 5 stars Sales Features
4.6 out of 5 stars Help and Support
3.4 out of 5 stars Value For Money
3 out of 5 stars Customer Score
3.1 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
BigCommerce is a well-known ecommerce platform which boasts some well-known names – including Clarks and Ben & Jerry’s – as clients. And it’s no wonder! Online stores backed by BigCommerce have been recorded as growing at almost double the industry average.
In our research, BigCommerce came top for website features. This is because of the range of high-quality inhouse features it offers, such as customer reviews, email marketing, and search filters. BigCommerce also scored highly in sales features, allowing for international payments and multi-channel selling.
In fact, BigCommerce has more features than any of its competitors. Everything you need is already built into its library of themes and ready to make your online store succeed. This makes it the best choice if you’re looking to really grow your online store into a large and successful business.
The main drawback of BigCommerce is its ease of use, or lack thereof. It uses a lot of complex terminology in its descriptions, which won’t appear user friendly to anyone who doesn’t have good knowledge of such specialist terms.
Add this to a confusing editing interface and BigCommerce becomes a less than ideal choice, particularly if you’re looking for an easy to use ecommerce platform. Indeed, it received low customer scores in our research because of its lack of user-friendly language and difficult editor.
On the other hand, if you’re confident and tech-savvy, BigCommerce is an excellent choice. You can automatically sell physical and digital goods as well as services. And you don’t need apps to enable these – you can just start selling!
BigCommerce wants to see your store grow and succeed. You can upload products in bulk to save you time, and there’s no limit on the number of products you can sell. You can keep track of your products and customers using BigCommerce’s analytics reports. This is an important strength of the platform, with these reports available:
- Store overview
- Real time reports
- Customer reports
- Abandoned cart reports
- Merchandising reports
Abandoned cart recovery is already built in, plus you can customize the email that gets sent out to customers. You can even combine this with coupon codes to entice your customers back to your store.BigCommerce Named a “Strong Performer” in the Ecommerce Space
Forrester Research named BigCommerce a strong performer in two recently released reports, one on B2B commerce suites and one on B2C commerce suites. These reports evaluate the most significant commerce software providers, to help businesses select the best technology for their needs.
The reports also cite feedback from BigCommerce customers, which found that they “like the culture and responsiveness of the support experience” when using the platform.
BigCommerce should be used by anyone wanting to rapidly and remarkably grow their online store. Don’t use it if you are a beginner, either in business or in tech! It’s not the easiest to use, and its prices reflect the number of tools and features you get.
You will only get great value for your money if you’re using those features! After all, you wouldn’t buy a whole toolkit, then only use it to prop the door open. BigCommerce has every tool in the box, and is the perfect choice if your business is ready for a boom.
| BigCommerce Pros | BigCommerce Cons |
|---|---|
| Range of in-built features makes it the best builder for growing and scaling your online storeSell across multiple channels like Facebook, Instagram, and PinterestFantastic SEO | Not suitable for beginners because of tricky editing interfaceExpensive beyond the standard plan |
Further Information
- Read our BigCommerce Review for more detail on this ecommerce platform
- Find out about what you get for your money in our BigCommerce Pricing Review
- Can’t decide? Read BigCommerce vs Shopify or Wix vs Bigcommerce and find out which ecommerce platform is right for you
BigCommerce Gallery
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#6. Volusion
Okay all-around, but best at nothing.
Start selling from $29 a month.
Not worth it
3.3 out of 5 Ease Of Use
3.2 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
3.4 out of 5 stars Website Features
2.5 out of 5 stars Sales Features
3.7 out of 5 stars Help and Support
1.7 out of 5 stars Value For Money
2.5 out of 5 stars Customer Score
1.9 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
Volusion is a specialized ecommerce platform in the mold of Shopify and BigCommerce. It’s not quite at the same level as these competitors, but it could still appeal to the right user. With that in mind, it’s worth taking a look at!
Volusion came a solid fourth overall in our research for its sales features. You can create customer accounts, which means customers can safely store their details for a faster and easier shopping experience through your store.
You can link a Facebook Store to your Volusion site, which also supports marketplaces like Ebay and Amazon. This multi-channel integration is a super effective way of creating a more personal connection with your customers and maximizing your online presence.
Payment options include Paypal and Stripe, as well as Amazon and Apple Pay. You can use a third party app like Zapier to use Square. This choice means it’s easier to receive payments and better for appealing to your customers.
Despite its range of features, Volusion can’t compete with leading ecommerce platforms like Shopify. Where other platforms either have more powerful features or fill a niche in the market, Volusion lacks some of this refinement.
It scored poorly in ease of use, and doesn’t have those extra little features to make running your store as smooth as possible. For example, you can’t sell digital products, or add extra features like blogging which could add an extra dimension to your store.
A big issue with Volusion is the extra cost of $99 to install an SSL certificate to your site. This is a hefty price to pay for an essential feature, which allows customers to safely submit their details to your store. Considering other ecommerce platforms automatically include this for free, it’s a big drawback of Volusion.
In contrast, some of Volusion’s best features are its analytics and insight reports.These let you keep track of all your stock in one place. This is super useful, especially if you’re making the most of multi-channel selling over Facebook. This takes a lot of stress off your shoulders – with Volusion, you can sit back, relax, and easily keep your store organized.
Volusion is great if you’re super keen on tracking your inventory and the success of your store. It’s hard to narrow down who this ecommerce platform is really best for, but if you’re looking for an easy and smooth builder, this isn’t the choice for you.
| Volusion Pros | Volusion Cons |
|---|---|
| Payment gateways include PayPal, Apple Pay, and StripeClear inventory system with great promptsProvides lots of data and insight so you can grow your store | No option to sell digital productsCan’t match competitors like Shopify which perform better or cater to specific needsLacks extra useful features like blogging tools |
Further Information
- Read our Volusion Review to see a full breakdown of its features, pricing, and more
- Not too sure? Our Volusion vs Shopify comparison explores these two ecommerce platforms so you can choose the best for your store
Volusion Gallery
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#7. Big Cartel
Best for independent artists.
Start selling for free.
Best for independent artists
3.1 out of 5 Ease Of Use
3.7 out of 5 stars Design Flexibility
2.2 out of 5 stars Website Features
1 out of 5 stars Sales Features
2.3 out of 5 stars Help and Support
1.1 out of 5 stars Value For Money
2.4 out of 5 stars Customer Score
3.7 out of 5 stars Read Full Review
Big Cartel is a simple ecommerce platform that lets you sell up to five products for free, up to 50 products for $9.99 per month, and up to 500 products for $19.99 per month. As you might be able to tell by these caps, Big Cartel is not as scalable as Shopify or BigCommerce. But it’s a great option if you’re only looking to sell a few products online.
Big Cartel is also good for enthusiastic beginners and total technophobes, because its user-friendly onboarding process does a great job of showing you what’s what – there are plenty of prompts and reminders to help you set up your store. If you don’t intend to grow your business much in the near future, then Big Cartel’s simple sales features are more than enough to get you started.
But if you do want to expand your store, you’ll have to either switch to a more scalable platform (Wix is scalable but still beginner-friendly), or learn a few things about code to get more out of your Big Cartel experience.
We recommend Big Cartel for artists in particular. Being able to sell for free is great for anyone sticking to a budget, and its clean and professional templates are minimalist enough to let your work speak for itself. You’ll also be able to tag your Big Cartel products on Instagram, which is a handy feature if you like to show off your work on social media.
Big Cartel has enough sales features to get you off the ground, like payment processing integrations with PayPal and Stripe, and no in-house transaction fees (you’ll still have to pay the fee imposed by the payment processor, which is usually 2.9% + $0.30 for each sale, but this is pretty standard).
That said, Big Cartel is lacking in website features. You can’t sell in more than one language, and you can’t set up customer accounts or password-protected members areas on your site. However, for smaller sellers who aren’t looking for a ton of growth, these features probably won’t be missed very much.
Big Cartel’s ease of use and free selling option make it a great, budget-friendly choice. Just be sure to save your work as you go, because this platform doesn’t have an autosave feature, and you can only reach the support team via email!
| Big Cartel Pros | Big Cartel Cons |
|---|---|
| Lets you sell up to five product for freeHelpful prompts to guide you as you goAccepts payments via Stripe, PayPal and Square | Not a lot of design freedomFeatures aren’t as powerful as Wix’s or Shopify’sNot very scalable unless you know how to code |
Further Information
- Read our Big Cartel Review for a more detailed look at this platform
- Check out our Big Cartel vs Shopify comparison to see each builder’s strengths and weaknesses
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Big Cartel Gallery
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Best Ecommerce Platform by Product, Service and Industry
Use the expandable sections below to choose your product, service or industry and to see which ecommerce platform comes out on top.
An ecommerce website is a great starting base for any startup. Selling online with a cost-effective and easy-to-use platform presents the ideal solution for businesses looking to establish themselves without spending too much money.
Top three platforms for Startups:
Had success selling locally? Why not take your products to a national, or even global market? An online store gives you worldwide access, taking your business to the next level. Make use of social media and marketplaces, and turn your budding business into an ecommerce empire.
Top three platforms for Small Business:
At this stage, you probably already have a website. If you’re thinking about switching, though, you’ll need a robust platform that can: handle bulk orders, manage your shipping options and marketing campaigns, and has advanced analytics.
Top three platforms for Large Business:
Think of your online store like a shop window. You want it to look as enticing as possible. Combine your mannequin displays with stunning product imagery, sale racks with discount codes. You’ll need a platform that comes with stunning themes to really show your products off.
Top three platforms for Clothing:
When it comes to art, your website needs to capture the essence of your craft. Selling digital copies of your work is a vital feature, as is having a variety of shipping options. You may not need the power of a ‘big gun’ ecommerce platform, but it’s important to have a manageable online store you can be creative with.
Top three platforms for Art:
Dropshipping is becoming an ever more popular way to sell products. Not all platforms allow dropshipping, but, lucky for you, some of the best ones on the market do. Powerful features and tools like multi-channel selling, shipping and invoice management, and analytics are all important here.
Top three platforms for Dropshipping:
For credibility and authority as much as anything, your own online store for digital products is essential. It can be complex to build a site for digital downloads (and eye-wateringly expensive to pay a developer to do so!) but the platforms below make it a simple process, with everything you need under one roof.
Top three platforms for Digital:
To make your website a real page-turner, you’ll need a platform with some ‘best seller’ features. Things like digital downloads, preview snippets, and amendable shipping rates are all features that will make your online store far more than just a pretty cover.
Top three platforms for Books:
If you want to take online payments for your services, there’s some great choices out there. Whether you need a fully-fledged ecommerce solution, or just a bookings and payments system, all bases are covered.
Top three platforms for Services:
Selling toys or tech? Phones or gadgets? An online store can help pull all your products together. Manage everything with one controller – an ecommerce website builder. In order to supercharge your sales, build a site with any of the below platforms.
Top three platforms for Electronics:
Best Ecommerce Platform by Features
We’re extremely proud of our research. It’s what makes us stand out from the competition when rating and reviewing website builders and ecommerce platforms.
To keep reading about the areas we’ve investigated, to find out why they matter and which platforms were victorious in each category, click on the expandable links below:
Why it matters
As helpful as it would be, we’re not all computer experts. If you don’t see the Matrix running across your eyeline every time your laptop boots up, you’ll want a website builder that’s easy to use. Simple to navigate, simple to edit, and simple to manage.
How we test this
Testing ease of use isn’t straightforward. What’s easy for you may not be for someone else. That’s why we tested this by getting regular folk to build their own online stores on each ecommerce website builder.
To make it fair, we used a wide range of people. Some with a decent level of computer knowledge, who had used different ecommerce website builders before. And others who had limited computer skills, who’d never even heard of a website builder before, let alone used one!
Everyone was asked to fill in a task sheet while they created their online store and score how easy, or difficult, they found certain tasks. These scores were then combined and averaged out for each platform, giving us a final ‘ease of use’ score.
Category winner: Squarespace
Squarespace’s section-based template blocks and sleek dashboard make editing and managing your store a really simple process.
Read our detailed review of Squarespace.
Why it matters
Let’s start by explaining why features has been separated into two areas:
Website features refers to things like image galleries, contact forms and calendars. They’re things you may need on your website, but they don’t literally help you sell products.
Sales features are things like abandoned cart recovery or the amount of payment gateways that are provided – things that have a direct impact on your revenue.
Sales features can ultimately be the difference between a customer completing a transaction, or leaving your site. They’re vital to your success in the world of ecommerce.
How we test this
More than just checking if the platform did or didn’t have each feature, we wanted to know how good that feature was.
Let’s use multi-channel integration as an example. Multi-channel integration is a feature that lets you sell away from your website. In other words, can you sell directly on marketplaces and social media, like Facebook and Amazon.
First we checked if the platform had a multi-channel feature, then, if so, how many different websites you could sell on. We also took into consideration if the feature came at an added cost, if it was in-built, or if you had to add it through an app.
Category winner: BigCommerce
BigCommerce is one of the most powerful ecommerce platforms on the market today. Its focus is to help you grow your business, and from what we’ve seen, there’s no denying that. It has tons of scalable sales features that don’t require any coding.
Best For Multi-Currency: BigCommerce
BigCommerce’s ‘Bold Multi-Currency’ app lets you show and sell your products in over 100 different currencies. On top of that, BigCommerce also supports 12 different languages and will automatically translate any text pre-embed on its themes.
Best For Multi-Channel Selling: Shopify
With Shopify, you can connect your online store to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon, eBay and many more. It allows you to sell directly through these social platforms and marketplaces, meaning your customers don’t have to leave the site or app they’re on to buy your products.
Read our detailed BigCommerce review.
Or, check out our Shopify review.
Why it matters
It’s all well and good being set up to sell, but what about the extras? Things like blogging, email marketing and SEO can help, not only take your online store to the next level, but transform it from a house to a home.
How we test this
Much like sales features, we wanted to see what was offered and the quality of each feature. This time let’s use domains as the example:
First we wanted to know whether you could buy a domain directly from the platform. After that, we looked at the cost and if a 1-year free domain was provided. We also made note of how many variations you could have (i.e. .com, .co.uk, .org etc.) and if you could transfer an existing domain to the platform.
All of this gave us an overall domain score, which formed just one part of the total website feature score. Still with us? Great.
Category Winner: Wix
Whether you’re running a small boutique or international brand, you’ll find that most of the website features you need are already built-in. We’d say that if Wix doesn’t have it, you probably don’t need it.
Joint Best For SEO: Wix and BigCommerce
Both BigCommerce and Wix give you total control over your ecommerce store’s SEO. On each platform, you can edit meta titles and descriptions, URL slugs, header code, image alt text and more. They also offer keyword support, best practice prompts, and SEO specific apps. We also love Wix’s SEO Wiz, which suggests personalized SEO optimizations for your online store.
Head over to our BigCommerce review for further details.
Or check out our article on BigCommerce pricing to find the perfect plan for you.
Read our full Wix Ecommerce review for more information.
Dive into our Wix Pricing review to see more about Wix’s plans.
Why it matters
People use ecommerce website builders so they can be in control. That doesn’t mean they want to sacrifice aesthetics, though. Design looks at the themes offered by each platform and how customizable they are. Don’t be fooled, looks matter!
How we test this
This was an area that posed a lot of questions. Obviously, we wanted to know which website builder had the best-looking themes, but also how functional they were. We spoke to branding, design and UX (user experience) experts to get a feel of what they thought was vital to great web design.
From there, we drew up a list of criteria each platform’s themes had to meet. This helped us determine who had the ‘best’ themes, but we wanted to know more.
We also investigated how many industries the themes covered, whether or not they are mobile/tablet responsive, and if you can switch themes after you’ve published your site.
Category Winner: Squarespace
Squarespace oozes class. Its sophisticated and elegant templates will make your products pop and jaws drop. If you work in a creative field – like an artist who sells their paintings – Squarespace is the obvious choice.
See our in-depth Squarespace ecommerce review.
Why it matters
Cheap quality is something everyone wants. It’s not that easy to come by, but we were determined to find the best deals. Pricing plans across platforms ranged from free to in the hundreds, so what makes an ecommerce website builder worth the money?
How we test this
Price is obviously important, so it was the first thing we researched: how much the average cost was across each platform’s pricing plans. Next up we checked for freebies – a free trial, a free plan? It’s always nice to try before you buy.
Finally, we brought the value aspect into our testing. We looked at the scores taken from our features testing and worked out how much you had to pay to get certain key features. These scores were then all calculated to give us a final value for money rating.
Category Winner(s): Squarespace, Wix, and Square Online
We have a three-way tie! Squarespace, Wix, and Square Online all scored identical marks. They all offer free plans, low average pricing, and a healthy amount of features at affordable rates to boot. Choose one of these three, and you’ll get great bang for your buck.
See what we think of Squarespace ecommerce.
See our expert analysis of Wix eCommerce.
Read our Square Online review.
Or, have a look at our article on the best free ecommerce platforms.
Why it matters
Few things are more frustrating than getting stuck when no one’s around to help. Having support is important, whether it comes from reading helpful guides, or picking up the phone and talking over your problem with someone.
How we test this
We started by exploring how many different types of support were available (phone, email, live chat etc.). Then if you could contact these services 24/7 or not – you never know when you might have a 2am crisis!
To avoid crashing websites and smashed keyboards, we also checked for restore options and if there was an autosave feature. To round off, we looked for the minimum price you can get at least three types of support, and tested how good the help center was at answering common queries.
Category Winner: Square Online
Square provides phone, live chat, forum, email, and social media support. Its guides are detailed and clear. Combine that with being really easy to use in the first place, and you can be sure that Square is pretty great for beginners.
See our expert opinion on Square Online.
Conclusion
In this guide, we’ve introduced you to the seven best ecommerce platforms. You won’t waste any time on inferior platforms – instead, you’re now ready to pick a first-class platform to build your online store and start selling online.
When it comes to selling products, there are many different platforms that you can consider using. Many people turn to Etsy because they want to sell their handmade goods. However, selling on Etsy can be more difficult than selling on other platforms. Whether you want to create an ecommerce storefront or market your business on the internet, there are many different platforms that you can choose from.