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Home » Blogs » The Best Ecommerce App Platforms for Small Businesses
By Gaurav Parvadiya | Last Updated On February 15th, 2024
Ecommerce is a resounding success in the ever-changing business landscape, reshaping industries and economies. Convenience and accessibility have driven a persistent increase in online shopping, making it a dominant economic force.
You need a platform that helps you host your store and connect with your customers.
Selecting an Ecommerce platform becomes crucial to succeed in this digital arena—a choice that could determine your market dominance.
We bring you a light to guide you on this journey of strategic selection. The top 15 Ecommerce platforms revealed in this carefully curated blog serve as opportunities. Each platform has the potential to serve as your launchpad for success, but the trick is to match the best possible solution with your particular business objectives.
Hope you discover the tools that align with your vision as you delve into these insights and lead you to a prosperous future in the world of e-commerce.
In recent years, there has been a remarkable expansion in the field of e-commerce, and the advent of the pandemic only served to fuel its growth further, as people turned to online shopping during lockdowns.
E-commerce has undergone significant transformations due to the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies and the continuous refinements that have taken place within the industry.
According to a recent survey, an astounding 76% of online shoppers have made purchases on websites based in countries other than their own. This finding points to the exponential growth of e-commerce businesses operating globally.
According to projections, the revenue generated by the e-commerce market is expected to reach an astounding $6.43 trillion by the year 2026. On the other hand, the rapidly expanding e-commerce sector’s landscape is undergoing rapid change. Given the consistent flow of new ideas and products into this sector, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the e-commerce landscape of the future will look quite different from the one we see today.
Even though different industries interact with the e-commerce behemoth in various ways, e-commerce continues to be a lucrative and necessary component of the emerging economy. You can position yourself and your company for prosperous futures within the Ecommerce domain if you have a firm grasp on the currents of today’s trends and can anticipate the trajectory of their progression.
The list below will help you choose the best platform for your startup or small business.
Shopify is the best platform for small business e-commerce, for many reasons. Its best ecommerce website builder makes it simple to sell on the web, in real-world stores, on social media, and through different marketplaces. Whether you are tech-savvy or not, choose from more than 100 themes.
Shopify excels at more than just e-commerce. Its collection of tools is the main hub for your company’s operations. You can access free email marketing, abandoned cart recovery, SEO, and more.
The effective mobile app for order fulfillment, product addition, real-time updates on sales and inventory, and more makes even management while on the go effortless. Small businesses in 2023 can succeed online with the help of Shopify.
WooCommerce serves as WordPress’s solution for online selling. Originally a blogging platform, WordPress offers a website builder that can include WooCommerce for online sales capabilities.
WooCommerce, the best free platform is open source, allows customization through coding skills. Like Shopify, it provides over 6,000 third-party integrations for enhancing store functions, offering considerable flexibility.
The WooCommerce plugin is free, though premium tools might be necessary for additional integrations and plugins as you expand your store’s functionality.
Because it offers plans tailored to the needs of companies of varying sizes, BigCommerce is a flexible option to consider whether you are starting a new business or reorganizing an existing one.
The pricing is comparable to other e-commerce platforms, making it a good deal considering the features on offer. Using its free plan for 15 days, you can investigate its services without making any commitments.
BigCommerce places an emphasis, right from the beginning, on making your life easier. To start the site creation process, you must answer some basic questions. This will allow the system to direct you in creating your ideal website in a smooth and effective way.
Magento, an e-commerce solution by Adobe caters to large-scale operations, albeit with a correspondingly substantial price tag. While it might be excessive for small business owners in terms of cost and complexity, if your resources align, Magento offers the best value.
Magento’s customization potential is nearly limitless, allowing you to create a uniquely polished end product. While abundant options can be a lot to navigate, the platform simplifies product setup and page editing with drag-and-drop features and user-friendly editors.
Beyond the basics, Magento surprises with features like foresight into your site’s future state and adaptable gateways for B2C, B2B sales and dropshipping. B2B clients can negotiate and submit bids, with multi-user permissions customizable to minute details.
nopCommerce is a free multi-feature platform for growing medium and small businesses. Fully customizable and used worldwide. The website lets you run multiple stores from a single noCommerce installation, letting you manage multiple domains from one panel. The website has a large web developer community and integrates SEO with Google Analytics. The terminology is complex, so new users may need help.
nopCommerce suits experienced web developers and beginners. It is open-source, free, and SEO-ready. The website has a multi-store feature with integrations, unlimited product listings, and modifications.
Initially recognized for its rapid site speed in blogging, WP Engine has expanded its offerings with the Genesis pro subscription plan, now including an impressive website builder with integrated marketing features.
This Gutenberg-ready site builder empowers you to create reusable modules and finely customize every aspect of your ecommerce site, maintaining your design aesthetics. The open-source developer community continually enhances security features and assesses the framework’s reliability.
Utilizing the sample child theme atop the framework allows you to redesign your site while preserving the core code. The community also delivers numerous integrations, plugins, add-ons, and extensions, seamlessly connecting with WooCommerce and other major ecommerce apps.
With WP Engine’s hosting, your site loads exceptionally swiftly, potentially bolstering its visibility on Google.
PrestaShop is a free, open-source ecommerce platform that lets users build and manage online stores. It offers product management, payment gateway integration, shipping and tax setup, design templates, and modules.
Small and medium-sized businesses and startups like the platform’s adaptability. Plugins and integrations from its developer and user community customize it for business needs.
PrestaShop offers flexibility, affordability, and feature variety. Thanks to its modularity, users can customize the platform for unique or complex ecommerce needs. Users like the variety of free plans and paid modules, seamless payment gateway and shipping provider integration, and responsive customer support with extensive resources and professional options.
PrestaShop integrates with QuickBooks, eBay, Amazon, USPS, and ICEcat. As an open-source project, it allows custom integrations with programming skills.
The management and construction of a Weebly store are intended to be user-friendly. Because of this, it is a great option for entrepreneurs working alone, for small companies, or for those with little web development experience.
Users of all skill levels should feel comfortable creating a trustworthy store because of its easy to use nature.
However, larger businesses may not find it the best fit because it needs some e-commerce capabilities and integrations. For instance, it lacks social media platforms selling integrations that will be a problem on a large scale and big data insights into certain things like inventory turnover ratio.
With Weebly, you can start by building either a standard website or one with e-commerce features, immediately giving you access to the same content-building tools.
Wix eCommerce is an intuitive and powerful ecommerce platform that integrates without a hitch with the Wix website builder.
Because the Wix E-commerce store builder is so simple, it is an excellent option for companies with fewer than 100 employees. Its user-friendly interface enables intuitive customization, virtually eliminating the possibility of making mistakes. Nevertheless, due to the possibility of backend load delays when dealing with substantial inventory, there may be better choices for businesses with a greater product offering.
In its most basic form, Wix eCommerce is designed to fulfill the requirements of business owners, as opposed to large-scale conversion funnels or high inventory turnover ratios.
Squarespace presents a user-friendly option for small businesses. Its intuitive interface and overall UI experience allow you to create & customize an online store effortlessly using templates and drag-and-drop tools that ensure reliable functionality.
Initially designed as a website builder, Squarespace has expanded to cater to online sellers. While many users offer services, it accommodates product-based businesses as well.
Its features encompass scheduling and calendar integration, email marketing, social media linkage, and embeddable maps to aid physical location discovery. Additionally, Squarespace facilitates recurring billing, ideal for subscription-based enterprises.
Square Online, powered by Weebly, simplifies online payment processing for online sellers.
Your customers can have a modern, unmatched ecommerce shopping experience without being limited to a certain number of items or payment types no one will use.
Square Online integrates with any Square POS to streamline in-store and online sales. It allows free site creation, but transaction fees apply to sales. If you deliver orders to customers, in-house or on-demand delivery fees apply per order. Other website builders may not disclose their processing fees despite offering a “free” ecommerce store.
After signing in to Square Online, choose what to sell online and what kind of site to build. The builder provides a basic layout and walkthrough to customize your site with text, images, and other elements.
Lightspeed’s eCom, an extension of Lightspeed HQ’s cloud-based retail POS system, simplifies ecommerce. Seamlessly import stock from your physical store to your online platform through a convenient one-click process. Shoppers stay informed with real-time quantity updates.
Streamline inventory management with mass updates via spreadsheet imports and exports. Gain insights from the analytics dashboard, presenting daily, weekly, and monthly performance data. A dedicated conversion report identifies optimization areas for boosting sales.
Responsive support, available via phone and email, caters to different time zones. Plus, Lightspeed integrates smoothly with apps like Mailchimp for enhanced functionality. It’s a comprehensive solution for efficient and effective ecommerce management.
GoDaddy makes setting up an eCommerce store remarkably simple, especially when launching your online business. This platform is particularly suitable for small businesses or individual sellers aiming to swiftly list a few items without delving into extensive branding considerations.
GoDaddy eCommerce provides a rapid setup process, intuitive navigation, and robust features. However, keep in mind that these features come with certain limitations. There might be better fits than this if you’re a larger company or have plasterer signing fits.
With GoDaddy eCommerce, there’s no need to engage in theme coding. Just like other effective online store builders, it offers multiple templates to choose from. Once you’ve selected a template, personalizing it is a breeze – you can easily replace images and edit text to make it your own.
To position itself as an all-in-one e-commerce suite with an intuitive dashboard and selling features, Volusion, one of the industry’s most established ecommerce software solutions, has worked hard since its 1999 launch. It is an excellent e-commerce service provider for medium-sized businesses because it simplifies setup while still allowing customization.
Both paid and free themes are available, giving you plenty of flexibility to express your creativity without becoming overburdened. There are also built-in SEO options, giving you a head start on ranking immediately.
The back end of Volusion is similarly user-friendly to the front end in terms of website design and navigation. Support is offered around the clock and at different levels, from online at the entry-level to having a dedicated account manager at the level with the highest monthly fee.
Ecwid is a shopping cart widget that you can embed on your website. In addition, it provides a website builder that can be used to create a straightforward eCommerce website consisting of a single page, and it comes with over seventy different themes.
In addition, an app market offers more than 200 different integration possibilities. You can find apps for payment, shipping automation, and various other third-party services.
When it comes to adding an eCommerce platform, Ecwid is an excellent choice. It allows you to use only your mobile device to set up and run a fully functional store. There are more than 200 integrations and over 80 payment gateways available. In addition, it offer a free plan with the purchase of 5 items.
With the above options, you can choose the best one and get your ecommerce store developed.
Even after the pandemic, 72% of US consumers prefer to shop online. Choosing the best ecommerce platform is essential whether you’re starting an online business or expanding your physical store’s online presence. Let’s explore the key attributes you should look for to ensure your online store launches successfully.
Your online store must efficiently process payments. Thanks to the integrated payment solutions offered by many e-commerce platforms, you can accept different payment methods. Be aware of any additional costs these platforms may impose on top of processing payments.
For instance, Shopify charges a transaction fee if you don’t use the platform’s integrated payment gateway. Deciding to use integrated payment processors can initially make things simpler by preventing you from having to apply for separate merchant accounts.
Gaining the trust of customers requires a focus on security. Fully hosted ecommerce platforms frequently offer PCI compliance and SSL certificates. If not, you should get them separately and install them.
Your online store must function flawlessly on mobile devices to capture the 40% of US e-commerce sales predicted for mobile by 2024. Look for platforms that offer website templates that are mobile-responsive or mobile-first.
Tools for marketing that work well are crucial. Look for platforms that include features like product reviews, coupons, discounts, and abandoned cart recovery by default. Platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify go above and beyond by providing lead generation and email marketing tools.
Your store will stay organized and avoid stockouts with good product and inventory management. Look for platforms that have options for tracking inventory and product variations. Choose a platform based on your unique needs as different platforms offer different levels of these features.
Most platforms have connections to significant US couriers like USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Give top priority to platforms with native label printing, shipping discounts, and live shipping calculators.
Tools for managing customers well are essential. It helps with marketing strategies and enhances the customer experience to have the ability to create and review customer accounts, wish lists, and order histories.
Consider the features and facilities you want in your store, and if these aren’t available, then analyze the platform’s capabilities about whether you can add features using one of the apps or integrations. Compare the price of these investments to the potential profit.
Choosing the best ecommerce platform can have a big impact on how successful your company is. To ensure a successful launch for your online store, compare each platform based on these features and you will surely find the best platform.
Given below are the points that ensure your choice for ecommerce platform is wise and appropriate, so make sure to consider them:
Ecommerce is a thriving force in today’s changing business landscape, constantly broadening its horizons. The explosive growth of recent years, which was hastened by world events, emphasizes the enormous potential of this field. Selecting the best Ecommerce platform is crucial as businesses embrace the digital era because it could determine your path to market success.
If you want to sell online and are concerned about huge investments in creating an online store, turn to Twinr. Our app builder offers a cutting-edge solution that fits your budget. It offers cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and a better way to harness the power of e-commerce, regardless of whether you want to turn your current website into a feature-rich app or start from scratch with your store.
The road to a successful online business is more obvious than ever, and it starts with making the right decision—the decision that will put you on a course for market dominance.
Absolutely, Ecommerce platforms offer a remarkable avenue for small businesses to sell products to customers that might have been financially challenging through traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
Ecommerce proves itself as a highly effective means of delivering your products to customers due to its minimal operational expenses, stemming from its entirely digital nature.
Moreover, the Ecommerce realm has fostered many communities, resulting in the emergence of numerous Ecommerce platforms and fulfillment services. This vibrant ecosystem not only ensures competitive pricing but also enhances overall efficiency. Consequently, Ecommerce presents an advantageous scenario for small businesses, benefiting sellers and buyers alike.
The cost of developing/creating an ecommerce app depends on many factors. What mobile app features do you envision? Are you hiring an agency or developers? In which location will your app developers work? Do you prefer custom app development or a no-code app builder?
All these factors affect retail app development costs. Depending on features and platform, custom app development costs between $30,000 and $50,000.
Costs can drop significantly with a no-code platform. Multiple affordable subscription plans are available on Twinr. Choose a plan that meets your needs and start quickly.
Your business type and goals will determine the best ecommerce platform for you. Think about the platforms you plan to sell products and customers’ expectations. Choosing a platform that seamlessly integrating your sales channels is the most important consideration.
Consider your needs for inventory tracking, third-party integration, features, and maintenance involved.
Once you have all these questions answered, you can choose the best one for your business.
Use Twinr’s free Ecommerce App Template to create an e-commerce app without learning any coding. You can turn your website into a comprehensive app by joining Twinr. Then, alter it using Twinr’s extensive set of options, which include fonts, colors, design components, and more.
Gaurav is the founder and CEO of Twinr, a tech entrepreneur with a decade of experience and a passion for SaaS. With a Master's degree in Computer Science, he specializes in no-code development, driving innovation in the mobile app industry. When he's not busy growing the company, you'll find him writing about tech, growth, software development, e-commerce, and occasionally sneaking in a game of badminton.
It is fast, packed with features and quite easy to use. And the best part is, you don’t need to possess any coding skills to make use of it or invest a huge chunk of your time or money in website to app conversion.