Many online store business owners are looking for best ecommerce platform that’s reliable, premium and easy to use. While there are a lot of platforms available on the internet, it’s not easy to choose one which meets all your requirements. If you are planning to start an online store and confused about choosing an ecommerce platform for your business, then we have handpicked some of the best ecommerce software for you.
Ecommerce software is essential for any online business. They make it much easier to get your website up and running and significantly reduce time on tasks that would otherwise have to be done manually. As a matter of fact even big companies use ecommerce software to maximize their efforts.
The online ecommerce industry boomed over the past years, giving rise to an entire range of tools and software that can help business owners build and run their online store. Unlike a physical store, where you need to create a hardline structure that includes payment system, shipping method, perfect integration with warehouse and so on, an online store wouldn’t also require complex procedures. That’s why there are so many stores created and operated by small businesses (or even individuals) who have problem with handling all these tool. To make it easier for them (and provide a helping hand) I’ve prepared this list of best ecommerce software that cover all or most of functionalities they might need in the future if they grow their client base. These are not only my favorites but also stand as best ecommerce platform templates for a wide range of features and functionalities.
The best ecommerce platforms for you to use should be based on your specific needs as an ecommerce site’s owner as well as your business requirements. A fully featured ecommerce platform is capable of delivering a comprehensive set of features which can assist owners in running and managing their online store in a much easier way.
Key Parameters To Help You Choose The Right eCommerce Software For Your Business
All eCommerce software mentioned in this blog are popular and offer nifty eCommerce tools. However, they do vary on some parameters and each of them has its own strong points. Discussed hereunder are factors that can be a part of the research process to arrive at the decision of selecting the right eCommerce software for one’s needs.
- Front-End Features: Intuitive user journey
The look and feel of your e-store come under the front-end features. These are the features that determine the UI and UX of your website. The customer experience will impact the buyer’s journey and decide the sales conversion of the e-store. Features like navigation, search results, and many more come under this category. Squarespace and Magento offer the best design and theme options.
- Back-end features: Seamless business operations
Scalability, security, integrations, store management features, marketing and reporting are some of the essential back-end features of an eCommerce store. These help market, manage and plan the business.
One of the most important factors that determine the back-end usability of an eCommerce software is the technology stack the software is built on. Woocommerce offers the best eCommerce functionalities while Tribe has most features out of the box.
- Pricing: Affordability
Pricing can be a hindrance that can result in hesitation from the business to set up their very own eCommerce store. A software price is an expenditure even before the business has started. This is the reason why businesses need software that is free. They can launch their own e-store to test the waters, without spending on the software itself. Once the business is up and running, they can spend on customizations if they find it necessary. Tribe is the most affordable option among eCommerce software. It’s free to start, with no hidden costs, and is backed by affordable services.
- Technical support: To assist a smooth eCommerce transition
The idea of turnkey eCommerce software is to let you start your e-Store without the need to code a website from scratch. This enables anyone and everyone to start their own e-store, regardless of their technical acumen.
That is why technical support is a critical component in the eCommerce software package.
Among free solutions, Tribe offers 3-month tech support and has an Agile team for any kind of customization or enhancements.
- Customizability – An integral Feature of an eCommerce Store Software
The customizability of the online website is key to offering a tailored shopping experience. A buyer-focused online business with niche and business model-specific functionalities can drive eCommerce success.
– Front-end customizability changes the design elements, look, and feel of the e-store via themes.
– Back-end customizability adds functionalities to the e-store
Different e-stores need to have distinct functionalities that cater to that specific industry and product category. Also, businesses can be flexible to adopt a suitable business model.
There are more reasons why only a customizable eCommerce solution can provide the right answers to an e-business’ needs. It allows a business to be creative with their online store and offer a unique experience to the buyer.
Oberlo
Oberlo offers a smooth and user-friendly interface that makes it one of the best ecommerce tools out there. It makes the entire process of adding, customizing, and tracking your products extremely simple. In addition, it offers advanced features such as tracking sales, finding alternate suppliers, etc.
Image via Oberlo
Pricing
Oberlo is free to use for stores with up to 500 products and 50 orders per month. Their most advanced plan costs $79.90 per month.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is yet another free ecommerce tool that allows you to build your ecommerce website with ease. What makes it one of the best tools for ecommerce is the fact that it can compete with Shopify and WooCommerce in terms of the features offered. The only drawback of this tool is that it can be quite challenging to scale your store through it.
Image via PrestaShop
Pricing
PrestaShop is completely free to use.
Big Cartel
Big Cartel makes it simple for you to build your own store and run your business online. It’s built especially for artists and creative individuals who want to sell their creations through their ecommerce stores. It’s this personalized approach to designing the tool that makes it one of the best e-commerce business tools for you.
Image via Big Cartel
Pricing
The pricing for Big Cartel starts from $9.99 per month and goes all the way up to $29.99 per month.
OpenCart
If you’re looking for a free ecommerce tool, OpenCart is the answer. This is one of the best ecommerce tools that lets you operate your store without any charges. It also comes with many free downloads and updates. If you want to upgrade your store’s functionality, you can download many paid extensions as well.
Image via OpenCart
Pricing
OpenCart is free and open source. This makes it a great option for budding ecommerce businesses.
Asana
Available to businesses and individuals, Asana is a task management SaaS platform that allows task assignment, scheduling, and tracking. Files can be imported or linked to from within the platform and team members receive reminders for upcoming and recently missed deadlines. Discussion boards and team conversations allow for clear communication and collaboration from anywhere in the world. Many freelancers are already using Asana, making this a natural choice for managing your outsourced tasks, including content marketing and content creation. Most small teams can get by with the free membership, but Asana Premium is also affordably priced, ranging from $6.25-11.99/month based on payment options and number of users.
Inventory Source
Available as a fully-automated SaaS ($199/month) or solely for inventory management ($50/month), Inventory Source automatically syncs your inventory, updates your website, and integrates ordering and tracking functionality. You can buy additional features like Push to eBay and a Turnkey Shopify website.
Inventory Source can save you the embarrassment of “out of stock” messages on popular products on your site. Over 100 drop shipping companies are integrated with Inventory Source, but if your preferred vendor is not on the list, you can add them. Inventory Source has more than 20 integrations, including Shopify, WooCommerce, 3D Cart, BigCommerce, Walmart, Amazon, Jet, Magento, X-Cart, and Ordoro. Custom integrations are also available.
Shipwire
Using a network of third-party warehouses and Ingram Micro’s fulfillment centers, Shipwire keeps your inventory securely stored and close to your customers. The idea behind this SaaS inventory management, tracking, and shipping business is solid. Just one catch: Shipwire is facing numerous customer service complaints due to unclear billing practices and faulty shipping practices. Pricing information is available for download on their site, but be aware that a minimum $500/month shipping fee is charged by Shipwire to all customers, regardless of the number and value of orders shipped.
TradeGecko
Founded by a former clothing retailer, TradeGecko is designed to make the backend of retail easy. The company offers four monthly plans: Basic ($99/mo), Business ($249/mo), Business Premium ($449/month, $359/month if paid annually), and Enterprise ($999/month, $799/month if paid annually).
Tackling tasks like inventory management, order syncing, product bundling, and running reports, TradeGecko helps you avoid oversells and stay on top of inventory without the need for spreadsheets and headaches. The startup is still ironing out some bugs, but is quickly gaining recognition as a vital part of many small and medium ecommerce stores. It’s compatible with Magento, Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, and several top tools.
OmniSend
Source: Omnisend
OmniSend is an email marketing software program that automates your emails and newsletters.
But it doesn’t just stop at emails. The program works equally well with social media marketing, SMS marketing, and various other channels, all of which it brings together on a singular platform.
Omnisend allows you to optimize and track the efficiency of each different marketing campaign. The program also allows you to create engaging lead forms that will help you capture traffic.
Additionally, you can create multiple lead magnets with OmniSend and then track their efficiency over time. It also has a Content Editor and an A/B testing plugin/tool to analyze the content on your website. You can use it to view reports about the success of your marketing campaigns for analysis as well, making it one of the best ecommerce tools for marketing purposes.
MailChimp
Source: Google Workspace
In the ecommerce email marketing category, you will be hard-pressed to find a better tool than Mailchimp. Priced on a freemium model, the program has been consistently ranked as one of the best tools out there. It’s an all-inclusive marketing automation platform that is incredibly easy to use as well.
Mailchimp originally started as an email marketing tool, but quickly evolved into a marketing platform that allows you to integrate with other tools, like the HubSpot Marketing Hub and Facebook.
There’s a dedicated Campaigns tab where you can create dedicated campaigns and then track their success. You can set campaign benchmarks and track them using Highrise, Google Analytics, or even your Salesforce accounts.
With 14 layouts and 90 themes to choose from, you have lots of email templates to choose from. There’s also a dedicated HTML editor that you can use to create a custom template for your ecommerce store.
It’s an excellent ecommerce tool that you can use to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
Campaign Monitor
Source: Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is an ecommerce software for email marketing that is ideal for small to medium ecommerce businesses. It has an array of tools for ecommerce that allows you to automate various marketing processes and also offers lots of flexibility. It’s incredibly easy to use, especially when compared with other ecommerce tools out there.
When you sign up, Campaign Monitor creates a custom URL for your business based on the company’s name. It integrates very well with programs like Salesforce and WordPress.
You can upload contact files or create dedicated contact lists to this ecommerce tool as well. You can then create custom campaigns and track their progress through the program with ease. From templates to designs, you can customize every aspect of your email marketing campaign with this ecommerce tool!
Bulk.ly
Source: Bulk.ly
Bulk.ly is all about social media automation. This ecommerce tool integrates seamlessly with Buffer, helping you top up all of your queues with ease, which could save you an hour or so each week. Not only that, but it also allows you to automate the content that you post on social media.
Bulk.ly requires you to create a spreadsheet with all of your content and then categorize it accordingly. Once done, you can upload your content to the ecommerce tool.
You can then set up unique settings for each group, ranging from Recycling to Drip scheduling. This way, the content on your social media platforms will never seem boring.
You can also add UTM parameters and set up old-school RSS feeds (though nobody uses those anymore). If you use Buffer, this is an excellent ecommerce tool to integrate with.
Magento
Magento helps you create unique ecommerce experiences for your customers through their next-generation technology. Not only does it allow you to build your store, but it also lets you manage it and track your orders. You even get access to detailed analytics so that you can accordingly optimize your store as well. (This makes it one of the best ecommerce tool out there.)
Image via Magento
Pricing
Want to try it first before investing in it?
The Magento community edition is free and open-source. However, it has several paid options that go into thousands of dollars. For instance, its Enterprise edition costs about $15,550 per year.
Best Ecommerce Platform for Dropshipping
If you want to succeed with dropshipping, you need ecommerce software that easily integrates with wholesalers. You have to connect your inventory across platforms, and automate shipping.
For this reason, Shopify is the clear winner here, as it is perfect for dropshipping almost any product. If you have a little more experience in dropshipping or development, you could also try BigCommerce.
Conclusion
Manage your orders and customers, keep track of your inventory, and accept payments all in one place with the world’s best online ecommerce software. The best eCommerce platform can make or break your small business. However, choosing the right software provider may seem overwhelming.
The best ecommerce software will depend on what you need it for. For example, if you just want a platform to showcase your products, then basic features could be enough. However, if you are looking to manage inventory, give your customers many payment options, and much more, then premium ecommerce software might be right for you.