Setting up an e-commerce website is no big deal. Without the help of a website developer or designer, you could create your eCommerce store within minutes with several platforms available to provide you with secure setup service.
Today, we will talk about the top 5 best website builders for any small business. These are:
- WooCommerce – Cheapest approach
- Shopify – Quickest approach
- WIX
- BigCommerce
- Volusion
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is rated as one of the cheapest and most reliable e-commerce platforms available online. According to the eCommerce millionaires website, it has a rating of 9.7 and is rated as one of the best plugins to design the website. In 2017 the company began to focus on e-commerce solely and powers over 5 million websites globally.
Top Features of WooCommerce
- WooCommerce is built on WordPress, one of the most reliable open source content management systems available online. All you require is to install the WooCommerce plugin on WordPress and design your customized website.
- Easy to customize and make changes without any limitations, many products can be added. In addition, any number of orders can be accepted without any restrictions, unlike other e-commerce platforms that rely on the plan to allow those changes to be made.
- Supports more than 150 payment gateways for the shoppers to make payments globally with Stripe, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay can be integrated into the WooCommerce platform.
- Constant security updates are provided to improve the overall security of the website.
- There are countless themes and plugins available to improve your website reach by integrating SEO tools into the online e-commerce platform.
WooCommerce dominates nearly 61% of the total e-commerce market share out of the five builders we compare in this article.
Pros of Using WooCommerce
- WooCommerce is free; all you require is a web hosting platform such as HostGator to start up your website. HostGator Pricing starts at $3.95 on annual payments and $10.95 every month for web hosting, which is relatively cheaper than most e-commerce platforms available online.
- Countless free plugins readily available can be added to your website to increase the store functionality & performance.
- Excellent community support is available to help you with any issues if needed.
- Easily customizable from the homepage to checkout made easy.
- WooCommerce does not charge a transaction fee, unlike Shopify; however, your payment processor (e.g., PayPal) does charge a similar fee.
Cons of Using WooCommerce
- You need to have basic knowledge of WordPress before using WooCommerce as it can look complicated for a beginner at the start; however, eCommerceMillionaires.org does have a plan to set up your store free for you.
- Challenging to implement multi-currency requires a developer’s attention to integrate that process.
- Requires maintenance to keep the website safe; free plugins help you do this.
- No trial period is provided to startup and explore the platform’s benefits.
Overall Ratings
WooCommerce plugin on WordPress has a rating of 9.7 stars, according to the eCommerce Millionaires website. Below is a breakdown of each category.
- Customer Ratings – 9.6
- Sales Features – 9.8
- Website Features – 9.8
- Design Flexibility – 9.5
- Ease of Use – 9.5
- HostGator Support & Live Chat – 9.8
- Value For Money – 10
Sales Features in WooCommerce
- Live Sales Notifications
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
- Upsell and Cross-Sell
- Dropshipping
- Payment Options
- Multi-Channel Integration – Connect store with Facebook and more.
- Digital Selling
- POS – Point of Sales
Read WooCommerce Review
https://ecommercemillionaires.org/best-ecommerce-platforms/woocommerce/
Wix Stores
Wix is a fully hosted site-building service that does not require hosting to start your online store. With over 77 million users growing in over 190 countries, it is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms currently available. It contains e-commerce templates and tools, making it one of the best website builders for beginners to use. According to eCommerce millionaires, with a rating of 9.7, it is one of the most liked platforms by shoppers and retailers.
Top Features of WIX
- Wix stores are designed to promote small-scale to mid-level scale businesses, making it ideal for beginners and small businesses to boost their sales on this platform.
- It is one of the fastest-growing companies currently and could take over a vast percentage of shares in the upcoming years (holds nearly 10% of the market share, which is higher than BigCommerce and Volusion).
- It provides a drag and drops editor, one of the top-most features liked by millions of website retailers.
- Wix acts as a website builder and allows you to pick the eCommerce tools required to be running on your website.
- A free version of Wix is available online to play around with the features not provided by several other platforms, which can be a decisive factor before a user wants to start a business.
Pros of Using WIX
- A free trial of 14 days is provided before you can purchase the plan you desire, starting from $12.50/monthly, which is cheaper than several platforms.
- Requires little or level of web designing skills as it’s easy to use with a store built within minutes.
- It provides an option to include videos on your store, engaging more customers with media tools’ attractive appeal and power.
- It contains Wix ADI and Wix Multilingual tools to create personalized websites and websites in different languages for free.
- Provides shipping monitoring carried out from its website dashboard with tracking made available instantly.
- Rated the highest when it comes to customer satisfaction due to its unique design and simple website structure.
Cons of Using Wix
- Limited payment gateways are available with only 15 gateways available; gateways such as Amazon Pay and Apple Pay are not available to use.
- It suits only small-scale sellers. If small businesses require an update for larger-scale enterprises, it requires a bigger platform that provides better customization.
- It does not support social media sales, which means sales on Instagram, and Facebook cannot be integrated.
Overall Ratings
- Customer Ratings – 9.5
- Sales Features – 9.5
- Website Features – 9.5
- Design Flexibility – 9.5
- Ease of Use – 10
- Support & Live Chat – 9.5
- Value For Money – 10
Sales Features in WIX
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
- Dropshipping
- Multiple payment options
- Multi-Channel Integration
Read WIX Review
https://ecommercemillionaires.org/best-ecommerce-platforms/wix/
Shopify
Known to be the biggest success story of all e-commerce platforms with nearly 24% market shares and the highest search among all e-commerce platforms, according to Google Analytics, Shopify is one of the best online stores available for e-commerce business. It powers nearly 1 million businesses online with a wide range of physical and digital products and holds the highest rating for an eCommerce online store builder. In addition, it is rated 9.6 by the eCommerce millionaires website and is one of the best e-commerce platforms available.
Top Features of Shopify
- One of the simplest user interfaces available in the current market with minimum efforts required to start your business.
- Designed specifically for e-commerce business and sales with tools specifically focused on promoting sales.
- Shopify Academy consists of Shopify Academy to educate yourself about Shopify and use the website with live webinars and interactive sessions to help merchants understand the platform better.
- Point of Sales feature is enabled on Shopify stores, allowing vendors worldwide to receive instant secure payments irrespective of location and time.
- It contains one of the largest online customer service portals with 24/7 support provided onsite and social media for any technical issues the merchant faces.
Pros of Shopify
- A free trial of 14 days is provided in general to set up your businesses.
- One of the easiest store builders to be used online with real-time reports and features such as Google Analytics is incorporated into the website, providing instant updates on sales and profits.
- It provides free SSL, unlike most e-commerce platforms, which increases the security between the clients and businesses.
- Sales can be made across social media and multiple international channels such as e-Bay and Amazon, making a small-scale business be reached worldwide.
- It contains one of the best store inventories’ that constantly updates you on the stock availability of products and inform you when it is out of stock.
- With professional themes suiting international brand standards, it is one of the most appealing sites for any shopper.
Cons of Shopify
- The pricing is relatively higher than other e-commerce platforms starting from $29/monthly (the $9 lite package does not allow you to create your store and is limited to selling via social media).
- A transaction fee of 2.9% + 30c is deducted from each transaction.
- Content requires formatting when you switch between themes making your workload higher when changing the basic theme setup.
Overall Ratings
- Customer Ratings – 9.5
- Sales Features – 9.0
- Website Features – 9.5
- Design Flexibility – 9.0
- Ease of Use – 9.0
- Support & Live Chat – 10
- Value For Money – 8.5
Sales Features in Shopify
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
- App Store
- Product Management
- DropShipping
- Point of Sale
- Digital Selling
- Multi-Channel Integration
- Multiple Payment Gateways
Read Shopify Review
https://ecommercemillionaires.org/best-ecommerce-platforms/shopify/
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is one of the closest competitors for Shopify and WooCommerce, with less than 10% market share in the current e-commerce industry. Companies such as Toyota have invested in BigCommerce platforms, making it a global brand with top clients worldwide. It was featured as one of the “best cloud-based companies” by Forbes in 2016 and is known to provide an all-in-one solution for e-commerce platforms. It has a rating of 9.4 on the eCommerce million website.
Top Features of BigCommerce
- Most complete online stores are currently available, providing built-in onsite features rather than installing separately.
- Other features require no additional payments for the site, which is the most convenient for small-scale businesses as no add-on costs affect the budget.
- Promotes small-scale business by providing integrated education, which helps you expand your business ideas and plans without hiring an external source.
- One of the fastest online consultancy services provides instant live chats and replies to any merchant’s questions.
- It provides one of the fastest site loading speeds and security for e-commerce platforms, with a maximum loading site time of 4 seconds.
Pros of BigCommerce
- A free trial is provided for 15 days before purchasing the plan, allowing individuals to play around and understand the different aspects of tools available on BigCommerce.
- Great built-in SEO tools are available, making it one of the most powerful business development platforms promoting greater reach and search optimization.
- Free marketing tools are available, which most e-commerce platforms do not provide, making this a standout performer from the rest.
- No transaction fees are charged on standard plans, unlike Shopify.
- Provides multiple payment gateways with international and local vendors to make instant money from sales.
Cons of BigCommerce
- The starting price is the costliest among all e-commerce platforms starting at $29.95/monthly.
- It is hard to track customer orders, making online tracking hard as no shipping alerts are generated.
- Unlike most platforms, limited customization options are available, with only a select number of themes available for free.
Overall Ratings
- Customer Ratings – 6.0
- Sales Features – 9.5
- Website Features – 9.5
- Design Flexibility – 9.0
- Ease of Use – 9.0
- Support & Live Chat – 5
- Value For Money – 6.0
Sales Features in BigCommerce
- eCommerce analytics
- Sales management
- Single-page checkout
- Abandoned cart saver
- Multiple Payment Gateways
Read BigCommerce Review
https://ecommercemillionaires.org/best-ecommerce-platforms/bigcommerce/
Volusion
A simple online store builder that holds a slightly smaller market share than the above four platforms. Volusion is known for its data tools and report generations regulated for site visits to product impressions which no other site can provide. It provides you with the required tools to start up small-scale businesses, making it a successful small-scale e-commerce platform.
Features of Volusion
- Provides one of the fastest site speeds among all platforms with integrated SEO tools and automated dashboard features to promote sales.
- It contains a “one-page checkout,” which allows customers to check out instantly on the purchase page rather than opening up a new window to check out.
- Barcode creator available on the store, making it generate a barcode for each product available on the website.
- Every Volusion plan provides an SSL certificate (Level 1), a secured sales integration platform.
- Offers free one-on-one guidance for further help and business queries free of charge for new customers.
Pros of Volusion
- Excellent analytics and data tools are available for website integration and marketing. In addition to the tools, social media marketing can be carried out on the dashboard without requiring external social marketing tools.
- Provides a built-in newsletter feature generated for your products weekly, making it engage directly with customers regularly.
- It allows integration with third-party apps such as MailChimp, GrassHopper, and 1000 other applications required for promoting your business.
- Sales can be completed in multiple currencies to make payments easier for customers, with no transaction fees charged for any payments made.
- Using data science tools available online can boost your sales by consistently showing customers related search products.
Cons of Volusion
- Digital product sales cannot be completed as the site focuses on physical product sales.
- The pricing starts at $29/monthly, the same as Shopify’s, with better features available.
- Outdated features and themes make it look older than the other modern e-commerce platforms, which is a big drawback for several customers in terms of impressions.
- No onsite blogging is available, unlike the different platforms.
Overall Ratings
- Customer Ratings – 9.5
- Sales Features – 7.5
- Website Features – 9.5
- Design Flexibility – 8.0
- Ease of Use – 9.0
- Support & Live Chat – 9.5
- Value For Money – 9.0
Sales Features in Volusion
- Built-in SEO
- Abandoned cart reports
- Third-party integrations
- 99.9% guaranteed uptime
Read Volusion Review
https://ecommercemillionaires.org/best-ecommerce-platforms/volusion/
Conclusion
E-commerce is the new emerging business platform; online sales are the future, and several small-scale businesses have developed into international brands quickly. WooCommerce provides the cheapest plan with the best features of the five platforms available, and Shopify works as the all-rounder in all categories. So if you are looking at a long-term goal for your business venture, WooCommerce and Shopify are the best platforms for your sales as they provide a wide range of features cost-effectively.
