Best eCommerce Platforms 2022 | How to Evaluate them?

Free Design consultation.

We can help you design an outstanding product.

Contact us

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

You have more work than ever as an eCommerce business owner in today’s business atmosphere. Customers now have higher expectations, resulting in a more competitive market. Simultaneously, along with having good products, it’s important to have an eCommerce presence. The thing is your customers always look for you online. In fact, they wanna know how your website looks and whether they can connect with your brand online. Indeed everything begins with choosing an eCommerce platform for your business. 

Also, consumers use many channels so that they can make purchases. They shop offline and online. Also, they use their mobile devices for shopping. So, you must have the right eCommerce platforms that can sell the right goods. Also, they offer great shopping experiences and complete orders without difficulty.

But, it is important that you understand what is an eCommerce platform. So, what are they? An eCommerce platform is a system that allows buyers and suppliers to carry out their respective functions. 

To be specific, a consumer should be able to do the following:

  • Browse products
  • Add them to their basket
  • Check out

They must be able to do these tasks with less effort. And for you, as a business owner, the platform must act in a unified manner to show and sell your products. But, there are many platforms available. So, how do you choose the one that best suits your needs? Don’t worry because we will help you.

Top 10 eCommerce Platform 2022

The following are some of the popular eCommerce platforms for your business that can help you choose the best eCommerce platform.   

1. Shopify 

One of the best eCommerce platforms for selling is Shopify. Especially when you want to dropship and depend on Facebook Ads or Instagram marketing. 

Shopify’s drag and drop interface makes it easy to start an online business. So, people new to eCommerce website creation can learn it in less time.

Key Features

  • POS tools
  • SEO tools
  • Analytics

Benefits

  • Fast loading & easy to use
  • Excellent for dropshipping
  • 1-click selling apps 

Drawbacks

  • Weak SEO/content marketing
  • Checkout not customizable
  • Costly apps

Pricing

Shopify offers the following three pricing plans: 

  • Basic: $29 per month, with 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction
  • Main: $79 per month, with 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction
  • Advanced: $299 per month, with 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction

2. Wix 

Wix is a leading player in the eCommerce industry that offers small and solo eCommerce businesses great value. Also, it has eCommerce tools that have improved a lot in the past few years. Now, it has dropshipping, print-on-demand, abandoned cart recovery, and multi-channel integration.

Key Features

  • Drag and drop website builder
  • Open development platform for advanced web application
  • Advanced design features 

Benefits

  • Many free, unique themes
  • Simple to use and set up
  • Marketing automation

Drawbacks

  • Poor SEO performance
  • Weak upselling features
  • Weak integration with Amazon

Pricing

Wix offers the following pricing plans: 

  • Ranges from $16 per month to $500+ per month 
  • Combo plan: $16 per month
  • Unlimited plan: $22 per month

3. BigCommerce 

Among the most helpful eCommerce platforms is BigCommerce. It has a robust product search engine. So, it is good for well-known retail businesses. 

Also, it is a good decision for those who want to start an online store. Besides, it is useful for brick-and-mortar businesses that want online orders.

Key Features

  • Payment and inventory management
  • Website customization
  • Analytics optimization 

Benefits

  • Flexible and scalable
  • Excels with multi-channel selling
  • Strong SEO performance

Drawbacks

  • Inconsistent loading speed
  • High-volume stores need to pay more
  • Lacks 1-click selling

Pricing

BigCommerce’s pricing plan options include the following: 

  • Standard Plan: $29.95/month
  • Plus Plan: $79.95/month
  • Pro Plan: $299.95/month
  • Enterprise plan: Based on a customer’s online sales

4. Magento 

Magento is yet another one of the most popular eCommerce platforms worldwide. This platform has many benefits. But, it is also known for being difficult to use. 

Thus, Magento is a good option that you can use if you want something adaptable and powerful. But, it is a difficult platform that needs a developer to work on.

Key Features

  • Catalog management
  • Order management
  • Analytics and Reporting 

Benefits

  • Robust and feature-rich
  • Strong SEO
  • 1-click selling apps 

Drawbacks

  • Costly themes
  • Can slow down
  • Needs eCommerce development skills

Pricing

Magento offers the following pricing plans: 

  • Enterprise: $22,000
  • Commerce Cloud: $40,000

5. WooCommerce 

WooCommerce is one of the best eCommerce platforms. It is a platform that mostly affiliate and eCommerce website owners use. Besides, WooCommerce can change any website into a functional eCommerce store.

Also, it has extensions that work for social networking and email marketing. Besides, it has extensions for 1-click purchasing, shipping, and more.

Key Features

  • Familiar tools
  • Built-in blogging
  • Unrestricted customization 

Benefits

  • Best platform For SEO
  • 1-click selling apps 
  • Many service providers

Drawbacks

  • Costly hosting
  • Difficult to troubleshoot
  • Many extensions

Pricing

WooCommerce offers the following pricing plans: 

  • Basic site: $110/year
  • Mid-range site: $300+
  • Advanced site: $1,500+

6. PrestaShop 

Prestashop is among the most cost-effective open-source, cloud-hosted eCommerce platforms. But, some features are there that would need you to pay. For example, web hosting, an SSL certificate, and others. Then, you can finish your work with the free version that you have downloaded. 

Key Features

  • Simple export and import of data
  • Discount modes
  • Inventory management 

Benefits

  • Many apps
  • Strong SEO
  • Flexible and free

Drawbacks

  • Long load times
  • Costly apps
  • Less 3rd party automation integration

Pricing

PrestaShop offers the following pricing plans: 

  • Software: $0
  • Hosting: $3-60 a month
  • Themes & modules: $50-500 a month

7. Squarespace 

Another platform that supports drag-and-drop is Squarespace. Also, it has design tools and templates that are advanced. Thus, it is useful for print-on-demand eCommerce businesses.

Key Features

  • Free high-quality images
  • Flexible layouts and color palettes
  • Built-in photo editing features 

Benefits

  • Easy to set up
  • Great for simple stores
  • Amazing template designs

Drawbacks

  • Fewer eCommerce integrations
  • Fewer payment gateways
  • No phone support

Pricing

Squarespace offers the following pricing plans: 

  • Personal: $16/year
  • Business: $23/year
  • Basic Commerce: $27/year
  • Advanced Commerce: $49/year

8. Big Cartel 

Big Cartel is the best eCommerce platform for businesses. But, it is the best eCommerce platform for small businesses. Rather than the businesses that are looking for growth. Also, it has a user-centric onboarding procedure. 

So, it has useful features that help you set up your online business. For example, prompts, reminders, and suggestions.

Key Features

  • Inventory tracking
  • Store customization
  • Product option group creation based on size, color, and others 

Benefits

  • Seamless website and mobile app integration
  • Affordable paid tiers
  • Easy to learn, quick setup

Drawbacks

  • No advanced features
  • No flexibility for customization
  • Limited integrations 

Pricing

Big Cartel offers the following pricing plans: 

  • Gold plan: Free
  • Platinum plan: $9.99/year
  • Diamond Plan: $19.99/year

9. Ecwid 

Ecwid is also one of the popular eCommerce platforms. You can add an online store that can help you expand an existing website or online presence. 

Also, it lets you make “catalogs” of products and add details for each product. For example, price, weight, and others.

Key Features

  • Sales channel access from the control panel
  • POS tools
  • Promotional discounts 

Benefits

  • Easy & fast to start
  • Affordable solution
  • Many payment options

Drawbacks

  • Phone support only for iOS devices on the more costly plans
  • Fewer SEO features
  • Fewer apps/integrations

Pricing

The pricing plans for Ecwid are as following:

  • Free: $0/year
  • Venture: $150/year
  • Business: $350/year
  • Unlimited: $990/year

10. Weebly

Weebly is a simple store that has built-in marketing automation. This makes it a good choice among all eCommerce platforms. Especially for new businesses. Or, businesses that don’t want to hire a developer.

Key Features

  • Drag and drop editor
  • Content element
  • Video backgrounds

Benefits

  • Excellent value for basic store
  • Amazing template designs
  • Powerful email tools

Drawbacks

  • Transaction fees on lower plans
  • Weak SEO
  • No Amazon integration

Pricing

Weebly has the following pricing plans:  

  • Free: $0/year
  • Connect: $5/month
  • Pro: $12/month
  • Business: $25/month

How to Evaluate eCommerce Platforms?

The best eCommerce platforms are good at framing and communicating what they offer. But, when you choose the best eCommerce platform for your company, it can be tough. 

You must think about many aspects from the business point of view. Also, you must check your customer’s preferences and choices. So, to make sure that you choose the eCommerce platform, test them on the following factors:

Cost

Many eCommerce platforms offer many features that are available at different prices. For example, there is only one affordable flat charge on specific platforms that is without extra transaction fees. But, some have a base rate and then per transaction rates. After that, they want you to subscribe to other apps. This can build up in no time. So, your final price might be much more than other eCommerce websites.

So, think of each eCommerce platform’s features at a fixed price. Some of the eCommerce platforms might have extra features. But, their competitors might not offer these features at their base price. In short, it is important that you understand the features you need before choosing the platform according to your budget.

Good Fit for Business Model

Check each element of your company. This way, find out your business needs. This will lead to a successful eCommerce store. So, make sure that you have a good knowledge of your company’s needs and your customer’s needs. 

Also, find out the consumer group that you want to target. Make sure that it is the B2B or B2C segment. So, focus on your business model and consumer group. In other words, choose a platform that best suits the following:

  • Your business model
  • Target audience
  • Business requirements

Safe & Reliable Checkout & Payment gateway

Your platform will manage sensitive data. So, make sure that the security credentials are proper. Also, check your current demands and future development plans. 

All eCommerce platforms give some level of safety by default. But, many eCommerce platforms also offer more security features. For instance, fraud protection and DDoS monitoring. Also, make sure that there are SSL and safe data backups. Then, make sure that the platform you choose follows PCI standards. The best eCommerce platform makes sure that there is a safe setting for business processes for credit card information. 

Scalability

Think about performance indicators to find out the gaps so that you can check the scalability of eCommerce platforms. For example, frozen sites, 404 errors, and poor load times. Then, find out the number of users that the platform can fit at once in a high-demand period.

A cloud-hosted, scalable platform with pre-built features could be a solution. It can meet the needs of your growing company. Also, think about some more features. For instance, advanced caching methods could be one feature. Also, you can think of the ability to delete content when product descriptions need updates. In short, make sure that your users get good technical and customer support.

Customization

You must give your online customers a customized eCommerce experience. This is a feature that helps to put your website beyond all others. Thus, it is wise to include machine learning and AI. 

The best eCommerce platforms have a recommendation engine. It suggests products to customers based on the following:

  • Demographics: Age, sex, location, etc.
  • Psychographics: Interest, personality, lifestyle
  • Context: Type of device, time of day, weather, location, etc.
  • Behavior: Recently viewed items, current searches, products in abandoned carts
  • History: Previous purchases, old email interactions, loyalty program member

These are useful suggestions that can improve your users’ eCommerce experience. They also increase the chances of their return to your online store.

Support & Development Community

It does not matter how well you follow directions. You may still face problems with the eCommerce platforms during your online store setup. Thus, the quality of customer care and support matters. 

A strong support team that can solve your eCommerce functionality issues is important. Also, it can help you with concerns related to eCommerce development. Through on-call support, email, or chat, you can contact a real team to help you with the problem. Thus, make sure that they have a customer support team that can give favorable responses.

Third-Party Integration

Not all eCommerce solutions offer every integration. Besides payment gateways, you could need more applications as per your business needs. For example, you might need email marketing, register a trademark, or use a chat app. 

Third-party digital eCommerce solutions enable simple interfaces with some tools. For instance, CRMs, ERPs, and marketing automation systems. 

Besides, they allow flexibility. So, check that the third-party features are available on eCommerce platforms. Also, make sure that you are aware of your company’s needs. So, look for eCommerce platforms that can work with third-party applications.

Design & Development

Think about eCommerce platforms’ design and development features so that you can choose the best one. It is an important process. The following are some of them: 

  • Bulk product upload
  • Categorization
  • Advanced features
  • Shipping options
  • Dynamic filters 

This will give the admin more control over making a powerful online store. So, they will have more chances to increase revenue.

Also, make sure that you can make many categories and map products. Besides, you must be able to add many shipping choices with certain products. 

Then, check that you can make product variations and combinations. Such as based on color, size, etc. Also, you can upload high-res product images in bulk.

Conclusion

This is an era of advanced technology and competition. So, having good products is not enough. Besides good products, you must be able to make consumers happy. Also, you should complete orders in the shortest time in the most profitable way. 

So, business owners must be able to give a fantastic customer experience. Also, they should have the best eCommerce platforms that can help them stay competitive. 

Thus, check many eCommerce platforms. Then, set up the best eCommerce website through the best eCommerce platform. In other words, think about costs, safety, scalability, customization, support, integration, and design. Thus, an effective website will help you stand out in the competitive eCommerce marketplace.

Stay up to date with news on business & technology

Similar Blogs