The ability to conduct business completely online is a game changer for small businesses. It opens them up to an entirely new market of customers, and makes it easier for their existing customers to remain engaged. There are several great platforms for building websites that cater to e-commerce. These platforms can help small businesses connect with their clients and customers and generate sales.
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What are E-Commerce Websites?
Ecommerce websites provide online platforms to sell your products and services. E-commerce sites that are secure will have a few key features to help you share personal information such as credit card numbers or shipping addresses. E-commerce sites are used for money transfers, collecting customer information, delivering downloadable content and managing shipping. They can also be used to advertise your content in search engines.
A high-quality ecommerce website will help a business stay competitive on the market. Small businesses rely on their e-commerce sites to store and manage customer data safely as they grow. Learn more about an ecommerce storefront and how it can help your business. Choose from the list of options below to learn about the best ecommerce platform for small companies.
1. Shopify
Shopify hosts more than 800,000 stores online. Shopify is a great tool for small businesses to take their business online. With customizable widgets and secure checkout, you can make sales easier with a variety of website templates. Use the management dashboard to track the status of transactions and to take advantage of SEO insights. Shopify Lite costs $9 per month, making it an affordable platform that offers a good value.
2. Wix
Wix is another great option for beginners in e-commerce. It is full of features that allow you to create a site according to your own creative specifications. Wix will take your online storefront design to the next step, showing you how changes to the site affect the customer experience. Drag-and-drop allows you to customize every aspect of your shop. Wix tools such as abandoned cart recovery and product zoom are easy to use. Wix has a free plan and paid plans that offer impressive storage, analytics, and support at an affordable price.
3. BigCommerce
Consider choosing BigCommerce as the host for your ecommerce website if you are serious about growing your business. The technology of BigCommerce is highly scalable. This means that every feature on your website can be expanded as sales increase. BigCommerce allows you to sell and connect with your customers on multiple social media sites at the same time. You can also use their SEO tools to increase your brand recognition. These include optimized URLs that help customers find your site and a content distribution network that keeps your website loading fast. BigCommerce plans are more expensive than other platforms but well worth it.
4. Volusion
Volusion was founded in 1999 and brings years of expertise to the world e-commerce. Volusion is known for its analytics. It has a mobile app with intuitive features and full integration of over 1,000 third-party apps. Volusion allows you to track the progress of your website and measure its success. This is great for creating a growth strategy. Volusion’s prices are higher on average than those of its main competitors. However, the data analysis tools it offers may be worth paying for experienced business owners who want to make better use of their data.
5. WooCommerce
WooCommerce works with WordPress and is an open source e-commerce system. You can customize the code according to your needs. If you are not a designer, you can choose from attractive themes that work on mobile devices.
WooCommerce’s most basic version is very affordable, starting at just $6.95 a month. This price includes built-in blogging and advanced embedding. You can also edit your metadata to improve your SEO ranking.
6. Sellfy
Sellfy can be a great e-commerce platform for businesses that sell digital products. Sellfy lets users create their own online storefront and integrate shopping functionality into their social media or personal website. Setting up your store is easy and intuitive. It’s even more convenient that all storefronts have been optimized for mobile.
Basic plan costs $29.99 per monthly and allows you to post unlimited digital products, create discount codes and select between PayPal or Stripe as the payment processor.
7. 3dcart
3dcart may not be for beginners but those with some tech experience will find its range of useful features and over 200 available add-ons appealing. 3dcart’s inventory management system makes it simple to add new products and update the website. The platform offers compatibility with more than 160 payment methods, including payment portals. 3dcart offers a powerful interface for a low price. Prices start at $19 per month, and there are no transaction fees.
8. GoDaddy
GoDaddy makes e-commerce easy and simple for everyone. It has a user-friendly, intuitive interface that allows anyone to build a site and put it online quickly. GoDaddy allows you to create a customized website by answering a few simple questions about your company. GoDaddy’s $25 monthly e-commerce package offers all the basic features, including inventory management and customer insights. This is a great solution for small business owners looking to quickly get online without having to learn a complicated interface.
9. Squarespace
Squarespace, first and foremost, is a website-builder. Its themes and templates simply stand out from the crowd when it comes down to visual appeal. Squarespace has a wide range of customizable, sleek templates that will make your products standout. All of its features are focused on providing professional quality. Squarespace offers e-commerce themes that are tailored to your industry or product. Squarespace offers a range of features, including quick view, image Zoom, integration with social media, and much more.
It’s important to consider your long-term and short-term goals when choosing an ecommerce platform for your online business. You might want to start with GoDaddy or Wix if you are looking for a user-friendly interface. If you require powerful back-end tools, then you should consider Volusion or 3dcart’s top plan. These popular platforms can help you streamline your business by providing you with the tools you need.
