Going by the trend it is clear that people want to shop online. They look forward to online shopping because of which businesses have taken online selling quite earnestly. Technology has enabled the virtual stores to look highly attractive and have made them customer friendly for shopping. This said the option to select an eCommerce platform today has become quite difficult. Each one of them looks promising and seems to deliver top-notch features. Depending on the selection of features that you would like for your website you can narrow down your search if you go through the list of below eCommerce platforms.
- WooCommerce:
When there is talk of eCommerce platform WooCommerce is the first one to pop-up. It is one of the oldest and most reliable eCommerce platforms that has been operating. More than 28% of the world’s online stores are running on this platform – over 30 million downloads. It is a free plugin which offers both free and premium extensions. Here is a list of pros and cons of the eCommerce platform.
Pros:
- Free plugin which can be availed through WordPress. User friendly and setting it up takes just a few seconds.
- It is a great option for seasonal online retailers as WooCommerce and WordPress both can be downloaded for free.
- Built-in payments through Stripe and PayPal, Cash on Delivery options and bank transfers
- WordPress is SEO friendly hence your e-store also gets a chance to come up on the top of Search Engine Result Page.
- Reports can be easily generated as sale of every product is tracked and stored. Monitoring inventory is very simple.
- Rate of tax to be charged can be calculated based on the location of the customer. Price of the goods can be shown with or without taxes
- A community of thousands of users help in getting ready advice in case one is facing issues while using it.
Cons:
- Impossible to use WooCommerce without WordPress for CMS
- Web-hosting and security is entirely the responsibility of the owner of the website. One would have to pay for hosting separately, domain and SSL certificate.
- All the plugins that are free are quite basic and the premium ones loaded with features are pretty expensive.
- Adding features gets expensive and is also a hassle in the long run
- Shopify:
There are about 500,000 businesses that are being run with Shopify. It is a paid platform and there are several interesting features that the platform has to offer. It offers great potential to the online retailers to grow and expand their online business with ease. Here is what Shopify has to offer to its users:
Pros:
- The plans offered by the company are competitive and one has the opportunity to upload unlimited number of products for sale
- You have free hosting with it
- Working around with Shopify is extremely easy and newbies without excessive technical knowledge can also handle it.
- It is fully responsive and works flawlessly on smartphones and tablets
- Offers round the clock customer support through phone, email and chat
- Sage and Stripe payment providers enable safe and fast check-out
Cons:
- Multi-languages option is absent
- The base plan of this eCommerce platform offers very less features
- There is an additional transaction fee for every sale if Shopify Payment is not used
- They use liquid mark-up language which makes it possible to have system customizations but for extra charges
- You just get 20 templates free the rest are all chargeable.
- Magento:
Magento like WooCommerce is an eCommerce platform which has been built with open source technology that offers businesses to set up online shopping websites with full control to customize and manage the tools.
Pros:
- It offers three different languages – French, English and German and under a single domain one could set up separate stores.
- It easily integrates with different CMS platforms such as SAP or Oracle
- Unlimited product upload is allowed
- Free to download and no fees on transactions
- Over 100 free themes and free social extension to publicize your products along with many other free extensions and applications
Cons:
- One would have to find and pay for domain and hosting separately
- Transition from another eCommerce platform to Magento is not easy. Data importing is quite slow.
- The platform may turn out to be quite complex for those who are just starting their business. The platform would well for those who have a well-established business.
- Volusion:
Volusion is also a powerful, reliable and paid eCommerce platform which has been in existence since 1999. Offering round the clock support, the company has a dedicated team of employees who look forward to serving the retailers in the best possible way.
Pros:
- Monthly plans are quite economical
- Unlimited products upload option in one of the plans along with payment collection and inventory management
- All their partnered apps are certified and help in providing exceptional features and integrations to your online store
- Built-in SEO management system, CRM system and newsletters can be sent to the customers so you can grow and expand your business
- They also offer a free trial of 14 days
- You have the offer to integrate and sell on eBay and Amazon
- Customer support is available 24*7
- Simple and intuitive interface with a responsive design
- Options to set up customer loyalty program
- No transaction fees
Cons:
- Fixed 28 themes which are free and the remaining 88 are paid
- Add-ons are limited
- Bandwidth is restricted and applies extra charges for over use. Depending on plan that you have subscribed for you get bandwidth of (1GB to 35GB)
- Out of the four plans they offer just one of them has unlimited products
- Coding knowledge is a must if the layout or design of the website pages need to be changed
Although there are a few more eCommerce platforms which are available for online businesses, the ones mentioned above happen to be the best among them in terms of features, popularity and operation.
Once you go through the pros and cons of the above mentioned eCommerce platforms and match them with your business needs you would be able to funnel down your choice to one of them.