In the past few years, we have witnessed a significant increase in global eCommerce sales from $572 billion to $43.5 trillion, and it continues to increase. Hence, now is an appropriate time for B2B businesses to shift their attention to eCommerce stores, and the easiest way they can do so is by choosing a suitable eCommerce platform.
For B2B businesses, the online eCommerce store platform is an application that helps them to facilitate sales and create goodwill among their clients. So, if you are starting a business or shifting it towards digitalization, having an online eCommerce platform with a robust infrastructure is imperative. It helps you to handle enterprise-level transactions and can integrate with multiple plugins and extensions effortlessly.
Moreover, with so many eCommerce platforms available in the market, it becomes onerous to sift through the available options and choose the one that best matches your business needs. Taking this into consideration, we have created a list of the ten best eCommerce platforms to make it easy for you to choose an apt platform to build an online store.
Key Criteria To Consider While Selecting The Best Ecommerce Platform For Your Online Store
Today, there are multiple eCommerce platforms to choose from. However, it is difficult to determine the best one according to your specific business needs. Here are the must-have features you need to look for when selecting an eCommerce platform.
- Ease Of Use- If you are lacking technical skills, you have to choose a platform that is simple and easy to use. It allows you to create your online store without testing your patience.
- Payment Processing- Choose an eCommerce platform that offers multiple payment options. It will help you to minimize cart abandonment during the checkout process and further increase the likelihood of the customers completing their purchases.
- Analytics- Ensure that your eCommerce platform should have built-in analytics that will help you in tracking the eCommerce metrics key to your business.
- Mobile-Friendly- Today, almost everyone uses mobile phones. The increase in mobile usage for making online purchases makes it fundamental to choose a mobile-friendly platform.
- Integration and Apps-Integration extends the functionality of your eCommerce platform, by incorporating certain features that are not available on your chosen platform.
- Support- Even when you have a simple and easy-to-use eCommerce platform, you may need support for easy accessibility and speedy resolutions.
Top eCommerce Platforms To Build An Online Store in 2022
WorksLeader
WorksLeader is one of the leading eCommerce platforms for online stores that assists B2B businesses in managing day-to-day activities efficiently. They offer various modules such as eCommerce, sales quoting, customer relationship management, sourcing and procurement, catalog management, supplier management, etc.
Big or small, well-established or a start-up, B2B, B2C, or B2G, WorksLeader is designed for businesses of all types and sizes. You can start your eCommerce store without any coding knowledge and plugins. Simple drag and drop features and third-party integrations cover all your store designing and smooth-functionality needs.
And no need to worry about SEO! Your online store with WorksLeader is SEO-friendly and connects with email-marketing platforms too.
WorksLeader digitizes and automates those processes that are performed manually so that you and your team can concentrate more on working effectively and increasing your sales.
It is a cloud-based platform that does not incur heavy investments for servers and other infrastructure needs. Thanks to cloud technology, you get a stable, scalable, and responsive store. A good internet connection is all you need to access your store anytime, anywhere.
Wix
Wix is a cloud-based eCommerce platform, which constitutes more than 110 million websites. It is one of the best eCommerce platforms that make the process of building an online store trouble-free.
It comprises drag and drop tools and ready-made templates that save a lot of your time and effort. If you are new to the online world or a budget-conscious business owner, Wix is a great option for you. It has a transparent dashboard and mobile app to streamline the process of managing stores and tracking sales effectively.
However, it still lacks some of the advanced features available on the enterprise eCommerce platforms.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is another well-known eCommerce platform to build online store. It comprises BigCommerce Essentials, which is a DIY SaaS platform, and BigCommerce Enterprise, which offers a customized experience for large customers. It helps you to set up the eCommerce store in easy-to-do steps.
BigCommerce also helps you to be organized by providing you with the information about the links required for laying out the files. There are more than 800 apps in its store that allow you to add several extra capabilities to your store based on your needs.
Shopify
An all-in-one eCommerce platform, Shopify has all the tools required for launching and scaling up your eCommerce business. It showcases features such as a storefront, SEO, inventory management, and shopping cart capabilities. It has a multi-vendor eCommerce marketplace that constitutes every plugin essential for the growth of your business.
It is used by 90 thousand plus retailers from over 100 countries because of its stability and availability. Its intuitive dashboard streamlines every complex task.
Shopify offers an amazing support community accompanied by a help center and direct chat support. It offers various options applicable for different business sizes.
Squarespace
Squarespace is an eCommerce platform specially designed for those who don’t have any knowledge about coding. It means that you do not have to be a professional website designer to use this platform. This feature-rich solution is one of the best flexible solutions for designing your website. You can utilize its features with a great range of packages.
Moreover, Squarespace offers two plans, namely, Personal Plan and Business Plan. Personal Plan provides you with everything required for setting up a comprehensive website. On the other hand, Business Plan constitutes an extra set of features like promotional pop-ups, code customization, unlimited product support, and much more.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the top eCommerce platforms that will help you in customizing the eCommerce store on every WordPress domain. When you have WordPress as your CMS, this solution converts the existing website into an eCommerce store.
It mainly comes in two variants, open-source and SaaS solutions. With its open-source solution, you can develop various eCommerce stores. On the other hand, SaaS solutions help you to launch stores that sell products on a subscription basis. In this version, you have to pay annual charges that come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Magento
Magento is the open-source eCommerce solution for both small and large enterprise-level online stores. Bigger brands like Nike, HP, and Jack Daniels use this solution. You can also build your online store using its features. However, coding is required. So, you might require a Magento developer or agency if you don’t have the required coding skills.
It has a community of 300,000 developers and 1,000 trusted partners. Therefore, it is easier to get expert support and find a creative agency to help you set up an online store and grow your business.
Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop, earlier known as 3dcart, is an advanced eCommerce platform that has been in this business since 2001. This eCommerce platform builds your online store seamlessly. It encompasses built-in SEO tools that proved to be best for marketers. However, novice users can get frustrated because of its no drag-and-drop builder functionality.
Moreover, you might need some development skills to customize your themes and templates. You can achieve this by joining the developer’s community to get help with the website design.
Volusion
Volusion is another eCommerce platform that is powering eighteen thousand plus eCommerce stores worldwide. This website builder is easy to use and features a drag-and-drop builder and in-page editing. It also offers a plethora of premium themes to choose from.
However, it doesn’t comprise any blogging features. So, if you have to connect a WordPress blog to your store, you can do it with the help of a plugin. Also, you have to buy an SSL certificate separately to secure your website.
The advantage of having Volusion is that it has added sales of digital products. Thus, if your store is about selling ebooks, music, or software, this platform is the best one for you.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
As the name suggests, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based platform offering different products to both B2C and B2B firms. It enables you to integrate both physical and digital sales channels into mobile, social media platforms, online stores, etc.
It is an extensive platform comprising tools such as sales, customer services, marketing, community development, etc., to run your daily business activities smoothly.
Key Takeaway
Every single eCommerce platform is different from each other in terms of features, functionalities, security, etc. However, if you are considering technical expertise, cost-effectiveness, and turnaround time, Magento, Shift4Shop, and Squarespace are the best options.
Those who know how to code and have a certain budget for hiring an expert can opt for an open-source platform. On the other hand, small businesses and startups with limited budgets can think of using SaaS-based platforms because of their periodic cost.
In the nutshell, whichever solution you choose, it is recommended to ensure that it is fulfilling all your business requirements.
