Ecommerce tools are a necessity for any ecommerce business. In fact, you can’t expect to have a successful online store without any tools – free or otherwise – at your disposal. The good news is that there are a ton of great, free ecommerce tools awaiting you – all you need to do is find them.
What are the best ecommerce tools on the market today? eCommerce is booming bigger than ever before and new platforms and solutions continue to emerge to support store owners, operators and manufacturers. While free online stores such as Amazon and eBay have built out massive audiences, more and more entrepreneurs are looking for their own brand or store online presence.
BigCommerce
When you want off-site hosting and enjoy the flexibility of a drag-and-drop editor, options like BigCommerce or a similar SaaS ecommerce platform are ideal. Hosted ecommerce stores are faster at resolving technical issues (like a rush in ecommerce sales or server problem) that could cause your page to crash and costing sales. Easy to set up without tech expertise, feature-loaded, and readily scalable. The only drawback is that the monthly fees can be steep for this type of ecommerce tool.
Wix eCommerce
An extension of Wix itself, Wix eCommerce throws its hat in the ring as a user-friendly, solidly built e-commerce platform.
Wix eCommerce is an easy to use, easy to navigate store builder. It does an excellent job for small businesses, as it is streamlined, intuitively customizable, and pretty much foolproof. That said, it’s probably not the best option for larger enterprises, as large stores of inventory can cause back end load lags.
The simple fact is, Wix eCommerce is not designed for a massive conversion funnel or a super high inventory turnover ratio, but is instead developed for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Ecwid
Ecwid is the small business ecommerce platform you’ve been dreaming of. Easily embedded in any website or perfectly responsive as a standalone platform, Ecwid lets you sell online, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Amazon, on Google Shopping and any other marketplace from a single dashboard. Everything from checkout to inventory management, customer marketing to online sales, Ecwid integrates with all the leading payment gateways, POS and gives you ecommerce superpowers. Get started for free.
Shopify
It’s almost impossible to talk about ecommerce and online sales these days without mentioning Shopify. The Shopify site offers some of the best sales features on the market, with a range of powerful industry-leading tools and a huge app market, packed full of plugins.
If you’re serious about selling online, Shopify’s dedicated ecommerce platform is sure to be one of the best options available. Shopify is a software that you pay for using the SaaS model, and is designed specifically to help people who want to build the ultimate online store. It offers a lot of advanced sales tools combined to alternatives like Wix and Squarespace and comes with a free SSL certificate for security too. You’ll have access to discount codes, 24/7 customer support, and an integrated payment processor. You can also sync your inventory and orders across sales channels like eBay and Amazon. There’s also the option to access new sales strategies, like dropshipping with plugins.
Pricing: 14 day free trial followed by $29 per month for the basic Shopify experience. Advanced Shopify is available for $299 per month.
Pros
- Free trial available to help you get started
- Large range of themes available
- Huge amount of plugins to choose from
- Unlimited products on all plans
- Integrated payment options
- Fantastic for all kinds of business plan
Cons
- Fees can quickly add up
- Blogging platform is very limited
Squarespace
Every e-commerce platform on this list is pretty mobile-friendly, but Squarespace takes extra care to ensure that the user experience on a mobile device is top-notch.
Each template design has a unique mobile experience matching the overall style of the store. This feature is automatically built-in but can be disabled in the Website Manager.
Images can often take a long time to load, but Squarespace uses a “Responsive Image Loader” that generates multiple scaled versions of each photo uploaded.
The site can detect the type of device being used and loads the appropriate image for optimal viewing. It even works for Apple devices with Retina Displays.
And the responsiveness doesn’t stop with imagery. The site’s general layout, charts, and graphics are all optimized for mobile devices. Even emails are optimized, so marketing campaigns read well on smartphones and tablets.
Weebly eCommerce
A Weebly store is designed to be user-friendly in both build and management. For that reason, it is an excellent choice for solopreneurs, small businesses, or for people who simply don’t have a lot of web development experience.
Because of this ease of use, users of all abilities should feel comfortable building a reliable store.
Where it may not be the best fit, though, is for larger companies, as it lacks some e-commerce capabilities and integrations. For example, the lack of big data insights into certain things like inventory turnover ratio, or the lack of social media selling integrations that will be a pain point at a large scale.
When you get started with Weebly, you have the option to create either a regular site or one with e-commerce capabilities, so you have access to the same content-building features from the start.
Omnisend
Omnisend provides enterprise-level solutions at small-business prices. Our all-in-one ecommerce platform is consciously designed for increasing revenue, not the workload, so small and nimble teams can stay focused on the big-picture marketing strategies. Featuring an intuitive, drag-and-drop builder, pre-built templates, revenue-driving automations and omnichannel functionality, Omnisend has everything you need to quickly grow your small business.
Square Online
Are you looking for an ecommerce builder that will allow you to combine your online selling strategy with your offline sales? If so, then it’s definitely worth checking out Square Online, the site-building technology available from Square. If you already have a Square Point of Sale System, Square will allow you to build a website for free. The store builder is powered by Weebly, however, which means that you’re going to get the same customization limitations that you had with your Weebly store.
On the plus side, like Weebly’s store building solution, the Square Online system comes with all the ease of use that you could ask for as a beginner trying to launch your shop online. You can immediately begin building highly professional looking stores in no time. Additionally, because everything integrates with your Square point of sale system, you get access to advanced inventory management too. When something sells online, it updates your inventory in your back-end.
Square also uses artificial design intelligence with its store builder. This means that you get a more advanced experience, without having to spend a fortune. Adding products and features to your store is easy, and with the free plan to get you started, there’s nothing to lose.
Pricing: Free to get started with the option to upgrade to a more advanced store experience.
Pros
- Excellent if you’re already using features of the Square ecosystem
- Easy to use for beginners
- Combines online and offline selling
- Fantastic inventory management tools
- Great for AI design
Cons
- Limitations in customization options, particularly with the checkout
- Limits to your payment processing options
Magento
Magento is the best e-commerce platform for established retailers that are ready to take their sales online. A glance at the company’s website will show you that some of the world’s biggest brands use Magento.
The software is free to download, but it will take a developer to make something awe-inspiring. Magento has relationships with several partners who can help you create an online store that works seamlessly with your brick-and-mortar location.
Magento is very selective about the developers that they allow you to add tools to its open-source platform. The company provides enterprise-level solutions so you can develop a seamless omnichannel approach.
Your customers can plan orders online and pick it up in your store, and inventory control happens in real-time.
Your online store comes with one free theme and the rest range from $29 up to $500. You can also add on extensions which will help you navigate the following aspects of your business:
- Accounting
- Content management
- Customer support
- Marketing
- Payments
- Security
- Reporting
Conclusion:
When it comes to ecommerce, there are always new tools popping up on a daily basis. Whether they’re new payment gateways, shopping cart tools, affiliate programs or other apps, some of these you’ll want to try out while some of them you probably won’t use at all. It can definitely be a bit overwhelming at times.