11 Best eCommerce Platforms Businesses Need To Know in 2022 Share: Appnova Digital Agency Date Published 1 October 2021 Categories Blog Reading Time 8-Minute Read This article talks about the best eCommerce platforms that businesses must know about, what sets these platforms apart and how to choose the right one. There’s no doubt that eCommerce offers a huge opportunity for companies. In order to sell your products or services online, your website has to be appropriately equipped. Building an online store from scratch is an enormous task, and fortunately, thanks to subscriptions based and free eCommerce platforms it is now an unnecessary one. With a huge variety of packages to choose it can be difficult to find out which platform is best for eCommerce. When looking at an eCommerce platforms list, most will provide businesses with standard functions such as showcasing products in an online catalogue, taking payments online, managing customers and providing after-sales support. Others will provide more sophisticated functionalities like online marketing features, integration with in-store systems and the provision of APIs. When looking at the best eCommerce platform 2021 has to offer, it will depend entirely on your specific requirements. The Growth of eCommerce When it comes to answering the question, why do I need an eCommerce platform, it’s worth taking a moment to see how much it has grown in recent years. In terms of eCommerce growth statistics, the UK is the third-largest market for online shopping and with revenue figures upwards of £135million, a number that is only set to continue rising in the coming years. So to help you figure out you can capitalise on this growing sector it’s good to perform an eCommerce platforms comparison to find the one that is the most suited to how you want to operate. How To Choose The Best eCommerce Platform For Your Business Standalone eCommerce platforms can be a great solution for starting an online shop. They offer all the necessary features and specialized functionality to make selling online a success. Yet, choosing the best eCommerce platform is not an easy task. There are simply too many factors to take into account and many offers on the market. By knowing beforehand what your needs and requirements are, you make it more likely you will find a good fit. To help you make this difficult decision regarding your eCommerce setup, we’ve compiled a list of the 11 best platforms out there for you to choose from. The 11 Best eCommerce Platforms Shopify Shopify has become one of the most well-known names in the eCommerce sphere with over 450 000 websites currently using it. A fully-featured hosting solution with hundreds of thousands of users, the eCommerce platform is easy to use and quick to set up. Once you’ve signed up, you can begin building your shop and start selling immediately. The intuitive interface makes it simple to create products as well as support your marketing strategy by aiding in creating SEO features like title tags and meta descriptions. You don’t need to know how to code and Shopify offers additional sales channels by providing software and hardware to sell inside physical store locations, on socials and integrate with marketplaces like Amazon. Magento As a self-hosted solution, Magento offers lots of control to their quarter of a million users. You can change almost anything you want in terms of functionality and design, plus, even choose your own server environment. Magento also has an incredibly long list of features with plugins and themes for all manner of purposes, from customer support and marketing to shipping and site optimization. Where it shines though is in regards to the multilingual functionalities as you are able to create separate sites for different languages and sell more effectively to more people. BigCommerce Currently supporting around 35 000 websites such as Skullcandy and Rollie Nation, BigCommerce is a sophisticated eCommerce platform, perfect to host large and quickly growing businesses. If it looks like your business has already outgrown your current situation, BigCommerce might be the best option for you. The platform is robust and tailored specifically for professionals with a lot of advanced features to make life easier such as fully customisable SEO functionality. WooCommerce With over 74 million downloads, WooCommerce powers around 25% of online stores worldwide. As a simple open-source eCommerce plugin for WordPress, it has grown into one of the most popular eCommerce solutions on the market today offering highly customizable solutions. The large community of WooCommerce developers are able to quickly add new functionalities to the plugin that is aided by WordPress being one of the best platforms for SEO out there on the market. With endless SEO customisations and the ability to have more control over your search results, WooCommerce is a good eCommerce platform to start from. SiteCore Commerce SiteCore allows you to craft fully personalised shopping experiences for your customers. With this platform, you can leverage Sitecore’s marketing automation, content management, data and insight capabilities to form an all-encompassing experience. You can create storefronts, product pages, carts, checkouts, accounts, and nurture customer relationships before, during and after the transaction. If you want to target specific people in specific places, then SiteCore is a great platform to build from, which McIntosh Laboratory, alongside the other 5 000 websites currently using this platform, has managed to do incredibly successfully. Wix Wix is a website builder with built-in eCommerce functionality and is most well known for its intuitive drag-and-drop site editor. It provides hosting, infrastructure, SSL certificates and will even help you to pick a domain for your site. They boast hundreds of designer-made templates, promotions and gift cards, intricate product galleries, and easy order management and shipping functionalities. Wix will automatically optimise your online store for mobile devices as well as offer a secure checkout, 24/7 customer support, multiple payment options and solutions all to help you sell more. OpenCart OpenCart has everything you need to create and manage your sales. You can set up unlimited products and product categories for both digital and physical goods. It comes with product reviews and ratings out of the gate and will even support you when it comes to handling a variety of different currencies. With OpenCart, you will be able to see an overview of every important data point relating to your shop and can even build and control several stores from just one singular interface. Salesforce Commerce Cloud A unique feature of Commerce Cloud is their AI system that allows brands to deliver unique shopping experiences to consumers across every channel. This is done by garnering deep and detailed insights into the specific behaviour of customers so you can best optimise your current and future campaigns. However, design and development will require some level of coding knowledge, but Commerce Cloud does offer an extensive list of features that makes scaling your business a much simpler prospect. Squarespace Similar to Wix, Squarespace is a website builder operating with drag and drop functionality. Recently, Squarespace has begun putting more of their energy into the eCommerce side of the business and is supporting its users sell products online. The website templates they offer are bespoke, beautiful, and all come with mobile responsive capabilities, something that is key in today’s marketplace. Their focus on design also makes Squarespace especially suitable for selling products that require high-quality imagery or involve luxury products or brands. Weebly One of the largest site builders currently with over 40 million websites, Weebly makes it very easy to start your eCommerce website. With responsive design templates that feature drag-and-drop customisability, Weebly also offers a code editor for those with a little more experience in this field so it can cater to everyone’s needs. Built to be easy to use, Weebly is perfect for both industry professionals and those who are just getting started with little to no knowledge of websites and eCommerce as a whole. 3dcart 3dcart is one of the fastest-growing ecommerce platforms. This is mostly due to its brilliant SEO features, 50 free themes, and over 100 payment processors. They also take security seriously and are 100% PCI compliant so if that is something that is a make-or-break deal for you, 3dcart might be the place to go. You can also sell outside of your ecommerce platform with the 3dcart built-in Facebook store and can reach shoppers on the go with mCommerce for mobile devices through their platform. Ultimately, if you’re a small business that needs strong SEO capabilities and high levels of security regarding your site, 3dcart is a solid choice to go for. eCommerce Platform Migration With the numerous advantages ecommerce offers over traditional retail, it’s a great avenue not just for buyers to save money, but also for sellers to maximize outreach at a minimal cost. Finding the right one will involve being thorough in your research into the different platforms and speaking to industry experts to ensure that you get the one best suited to your specific and unique needs. Pairing your business with the perfect eCommerce platform is a surefire way to fast-track growth and increase conversion levels no matter what products or services you might be offering. About the author: Sabrina Sedicot is an experienced marketer, focussing on all things digital. She works for Appnova, a creative design agency based in London and Rome. She works on projects across UX/ UI design, eCommerce, Branding & Content Production. She’s inspired by all forms of digital storytelling and interested in creating tailored solutions that can deliver experiences to build brands.