For the longest time, software has been used to make businesses and startups more productive. This is especially true in the ecommerce space. After all, retail involves billions of dollars in sales every year. And that only continues to increase as buyers are starting to rely more on online shopping more than ever before. If you’re an ecommerce entrepreneur or an online retailer who is looking for relevant tools to help improve productivity and your overall sales, this article should be of interest to you.
So, you’ve done your research on specific e-commerce tools & choose what you think is the best shopping cart software. But then again it would be a good idea to choose a partner that has worked with the best e-commerce platforms before. If you want to get a high successful rate about e-commerce app development and build websites for your customers in a good manner, read on!
The use of eCommerce tools has been on the rise in recent years because of the fact that they help online store owners service and manage their online store better. Of course, this is not to say that there aren’t other advantages to these tools, but when it comes down to it, they prove themselves useful because they make it easier to maintain an online storefront. Ultimately, with all the available eCommerce software out there, you want to be able to find tools that fit your needs while also being cost-effective.
Are you curious about e-commerce tools? Is there an ecommerce solutions comparison set of solutions that you could use effectively? Are you trying to find a comparison of e-commerce solutions? Have you been searching for a technology stack for your online business which you don’t want to end up regretting years from now? Have you found yourself asking questions on the best shopping cart software, point-of-sale systems, and inventory management tools?
How Easy Is It to Launch a Store on Shopify and WooCommerce?
New business owners without technical backgrounds often prioritize finding an ecommerce platform that is simple to use and quick to set up.
Let’s see how Shopify vs. WooCommerce compare in terms of ease of use:
Launching a Store on Shopify
Shopify is a fully-hosted ecommerce platform, so users don’t have to worry about website performance, security, and maintenance. When users sign up for an account, they can open their online store in a few minutes.
As soon as users sign up, they can choose a website design from Shopify’s existing library of templates and themes. Shopify uses a drag-and-drop interface to make modifying your website more straightforward.
However, in exchange for this convenience, you are only limited to the assets available on Shopify. Luckily, Shopify has an ample selection of themes and extensions to run your online store.
Launching a Store on WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a plugin designed to work with WordPress websites. It’s not a hosted solution like Shopify, so website owners handle everything from installing WordPress and WooCommerce to website maintenance, security, and backups.
Some technical know-how is advantageous for new users, but the learning curve isn’t too steep. It’s a small price to pay for the flexibility WooCommerce offers.
With over 50,000 plugins that add functionality, you have complete control of your ecommerce website.
Ease of Use: Shopify vs. WooCommerce Verdict
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are easy to use, but Shopify is more straightforward for beginners. It streamlines the process of opening an ecommerce store and is accessible to the everyday person.
What Payment Methods Are Offered on Each?
Selling online opens you up to a global market. But every country has its own set of preferred payment methods. So it’s important to find a platform that offers various options for customers who want to make a purchase.
Take a look at how Shopify vs. WooCommerce compare in terms of the payment methods available.
Shopify Payment Methods
Shopify supports multiple payment methods, including major third-party gateways such as PayPal and Stripe.
However, Shopify charges an additional 2% in transaction fees to use these third-party gateways — likely to encourage users to patronize their in-house payment solution called Shopify Payments.
Shopify Payments makes it easy for shop owners to receive payments without installing a third-party provider. Credit card transaction fees vary depending on which Shopify plan you choose, but the difference is not significant.
WooCommerce Payment Methods
WooCommerce accepts payments through plugin extensions. Like Shopify, it also supports major third-party payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe.
In May 2020, WooCommerce introduced its new payment solution called WooCommerce Payments. This option lets you accept payments directly from WooCommerce and makes the checkout process easier for shoppers.
WooCommerce Payments also empowers WooCommerce to handle any payment disputes, which can take a great deal of stress off your plate.
Support for Multiple Payment Options: Shopify vs. WooCommerce Verdict
Shopify and WooCommerce support multiple payment methods. Unless you’re particular, there’s not much difference between the two. Note that Shopify does charge an extra 2% for using an external payment gateway.
Sellfy
Sellfy was founded in 2011 as an ecommerce platform exclusively for digital products. Over the years, they’ve expanded the platform so that no matter what business model you use, you can build your own online store in a matter of minutes. It’s an easy to use website builder that requires no technical knowledge to start using.
If you want to start selling online with Sellfy, you have three options:
- Connect your Sellfy store to your existing website
- Attach your store to a custom domain
- Use “Buy Now “and other embed options to make sales from other platforms.
The free plan allows users to sell up to 10 physical products, but doesn’t include a custom domain.
Premium starts at $29/month, with the highest tier plan coming in at $159/month before annual discounts. Compared to other ecommerce platforms, Sellfy is one of the most affordable options. Considering the features and ecommerce functionality you get standard, you can save a lot of money compared to Shopify. You’ll have to invest in some expensive third-party apps to take advantage of things like recurring subscription billing.
Sellfy’s claim to fame is that you can get your store up and running within five minutes. While there are limits on the number of and types of products you can sell on the Free plan, upgrading to a paid plan means you can sell unlimited products, digital products, and subscription products, too.
Sellfy includes its own print-on-demand platform, so you can sell a variety of POD products without relying on a service like Printful or Printify.
Pros
- Free forever plan – All plans come with a 4-day free trial, no credit card required
- Has a Wix integration
- Multiple options for online selling
- No transaction fees
- Email marketing included in all paid plans
Cons
- Poor ratings for SEO traffic
- Limited options for payment gateways
- Must use Zapier to facilitate most third-party integrations
- Missing key marketing tools like 1-click upsells
Product Summary Ratings 
Sellfy Try For FreeReviewFree forever planDigital product sales Built in print on demandLimited integrationsLimited SEO CapabilityPoor Google PageSpeed ScoresValue 4.0Features 2.8Performance 3.1Ease of Use 3.5Design & Themes 5.0Integrations 2.03.3Overall Score
Squarespace
Squarespace is another one of those platforms that offers drag-and-drop. Founded in 2003, they have sleek templates and design capabilities.
If you don’t need a lot of features, try them out. It’s also great for print on demand ecommerce business.
The prices are quite low. To start selling, you need to at least be on the Business website plan that’s $18/month when billed annually. Note that you’ll have to pay 3% on transaction fees.
You can escape that with any one of the ecommerce plans at $26 and $40. The top plan allows you to get abandoned cart auto recovery, sell subscriptions and gift cards, and give flexible discounts.
The package comes with all the basic features you’d expect from an ecommerce platform all arranged on the side menu.
The website design part is not that easy though. Their drag and drop editor is not as great as Weebly’s. You might have to try your hands on it a few times before you get the hang of it. When you have gotten past the website design phase, you’ll enjoy the access to marketing, inventory, social selling, SEO, and analytics features.
Squarespace integrates ShipStation and allows you to install Printul and ShipBob from the app section. Real-time calculation of shipping rates from major providers (UPS, FedEx, USPS) is also available.
The biggest downsides are payment processors and third-party applications. They only support Stripe and Paypal. As for the apps, they only integrate with very few third-party tools.
Pros
- Easy To Set Up
- Great For Simple Stores
- Stunning Designs
- Solid SEO tools
- Integrates with ShipStation and ShipBob
Cons
- No dropshipping
- No marketing automation integration
- No Amazon integration
- Could be faster for the price
- No app store for more features and functionalities
Product Summary Ratings 
SquareSpace Try For FreeReviewEasy To Set UpGreat For Simple StoresStunning Template DesignsLimited Ecommerce IntegrationsLimited Payment GatewaysNo Phone SupportValue 3Features 3.0Performance 3.5Ease of Use 3.8Design & Themes 4.3Integrations 2.53.4Overall Score User Rating 3.3 7 reviews
Magento
The large brands like Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Cisco trust Magento. Coding is an integral part of the package. So, if you have a developer or the budget for one – and want something truly customizable and powerful – Magento is a solid choice. You can do and undo till you get the feature-rich online store you want.
A big part of Magento is the community. It’s large with developers willing to work on your store for a fee or answer some of your questions free. There’s also a marketplace where you can get extensions and themes to increase the functionality of your platform.
Magento’s most used free, but there’s a paid level for enterprise solutions for large ecommerce businesses. It is expensive; the annual licensing fee runs in tens of thousands of dollars. That’s huge, but it’s on the cloud, faster, and comes with additional features including automatic trigger-based email campaigns and automatic cross /upsell.
Whichever you pick, you’ll enjoy the long list of features that you can extend. Things like discounts, recurring payments, ability to grind SEO, adjust content per user, membership subscriptions, unlimited products, and more.
Pros
- Robust and feature rich
- Strong SEO
- 1-Click selling
- Lots of users and community
- Scalable and highly customizable
- Flexible to choose where you want to host the software
Cons
- Pricey themes.
- Easily Slowed Down
- Requires Development Skills
- Virtually no support.
- Requires ample space and memory to perform well
Product Summary Ratings 
Magento Try For FreeReviewRobust and Feature RichStrong SEO1-Click Selling Apps AvailablePricey ThemesEasily Slowed DownRequires Development SkillsValue 3.5Features 4.4Performance 2.8Ease of Use 2.2Design & Themes 3.7Integrations 3.63.4Overall Score User Rating 3.8 10 reviews
Best eCommerce Platform for Most Stores
If you have no idea where to start, Shopify is the overall best place for most people to launch an eCommerce store.
If the average person came to us and asked us the best place to launch a store without providing any other details, we would tell them Shopify.
Why Shopify? Because it does everything pretty well. There are specific areas where other platforms surpass Shopify, but as an all-around eCommerce platform that does the things most people need, it’s tough to beat.
Basically, unless you fit into one of the more narrow scenarios below, you should probably choose Shopify for your store.
Conclusion
Best ecommerce platform for startup business, which is the best website platform for ecommerce website builder tool, how to make an online shop, what are the best ecommerce platforms to build a website, and also which is the best free platform for ecommerce website. All these questions that you have been asked yourself in the past while you were trying to establish your first store. You’ve probably read dozens of articles trying to find out what’s the best platform or tool, but they didn’t all help you.
Given a choice, the best website platform for ecommerce must be robust and integrate easily with the best ecommerce store script. Though there are other features that need to be taken into account before choosing the ideal ecommerce solution for your business.