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E-commerce Platform Comparison: The 10 Best E-commerce Platforms

5 minutes

The e-commerce world is vast. Current estimates place the e-commerce market cap at $5.55 trillion in 2022. That’s trillion with a t. Additionally, experts believe e-commerce sales will account for 24.5% of total retail sales by 2025. This figure means that a quarter of all sales will occur online.

Now, more than ever is the best time to jump into the e-commerce world. However, finding the best way to enter the e-commerce market may cause some uncertainty. With so many options, sites, platforms, apps, etc., finding a good place to start may become quite confusing.

In this article, we’re going to discuss the ten best e-commerce platforms in 2023. We’ll be going through an e-commerce platform comparison to help you choose the best e-commerce platform for your needs and goals.

What is an E-commerce Platform?

An e-commerce platform allows merchants to sell goods online. In the past, e-commerce companies (or companies wishing to start selling online) needed to build their own digital platforms. This situation proved quite difficult and prohibitively expensive. Moreover, the amount of coding, development, and testing needed made it quite difficult for small businesses and entrepreneurs to enter the e-commerce market.

Shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay allowed third-party sellers to offer their goods online. However, both Amazon and eBay get a cut of the proceeds from every sale. For most sellers, building their own e-commerce sites became a necessity.

This entire situation changed with the rise of e-commerce platforms. E-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento have enabled virtually anyone to set up an online store. Gone are the days when startups needed to build an online shop from scratch.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs can now leverage these platforms to build a fully functional e-commerce site. Plus, building an e-commerce site on a shoestring budget is now possible.

So, the question is, “which is the best e-commerce platform?”. That’s where our e-commerce platform comparison comes into the picture.

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

What Features to Look for in the Best E-commerce Platforms?

Not all e-commerce platforms are created equally. Some offer better features and capabilities than others. Ultimately, it boils down to which options and functionalities work best with your needs and goals.

Let’s take a look at the features to look for when searching for the best e-commerce platforms, and what we based this e-commerce platform comparison guide on:

Unified capabilities. The best e-commerce platforms for beginners offer a unified solution. In other words, novice users will find everything they need in a single platform solution. There is no need for additional coding or development. The platform is ready to go straight from the box.

Deliver a good customer experience. A good customer experience is crucial in the best e-commerce platforms. Thus, it’s important to be free of as many glitches as possible. Payment processing and loading times are all critical to a great customer experience.

Robust customer interaction. Along with customer experience, interactions are key to a successful e-commerce site. The best e-commerce platforms deliver great customer interaction tools. These tools allow you to use targeted marketing, provide customer service, and boost features such as upselling and cross-selling.

Effective order management. A great e-commerce platform will make order management easy, especially when you utilize multiple channels. Ideally, you want to get an e-commerce platform that enables you to centralize multiple channels in a single order management system.

Boost growth and scalability. The best e-commerce platforms grow with you. They allow for seamless growth and scale. Additional features such as currency conversions, multi-language support, and international shipping options are great tools to expand your business.

Site security. This feature goes without saying. Site security is critical, especially when processing payment information. The best e-commerce platforms take site security seriously. So, be sure to look for features such as “PCI compliance” and “e-commerce SSL certificates.”

Easy to use. A no-brainer, right? The best e-commerce platforms for beginners don’t require extensive coding or web development experience. They are so easy to use that anyone with moderate computer skills can build a fully functional e-commerce site.

Dedicated support. The best e-commerce platforms strive to offer dedicated support. They provide 24/7 support across various channels. In doing so, you can be certain that someone will help you when you need it most.

These features will help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Based on these points, we have built an e-commerce platform comparison for 2023.

The 10 Best E-commerce Platforms in 2023

Here’s our e-commerce platform comparison guide for 2023. We have provided each platform’s pros and cons to help you decide the right option for your needs.

#1: Shopify

Shopify tops the list as the best e-commerce platform. There are nearly four million merchants running on the Shopify platform. Shopify gets our vote for the best e-commerce platform for beginners due to its all-in-one approach. Moreover, it takes hours to get a fully functioning e-commerce site running on Shopify.

Shopify’s various pricing plans range from $9 a month to roughly $200. Plus, Shopify offers thousands of themes (templates) and apps (features) that you can use to run your shop. Most are paid, but the free themes and apps are a great alternative.

Features:

Thousands of apps and themes to choose from
Supports multichannel selling
Secure payment system
Sell internationally with Shopify Markets
Automate virtually every aspect of your store

Pros:

Cons:

#2: BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a big player in the e-commerce platform world. It’s an open-source platform meaning that it’s highly customizable beyond the obvious front-end feature like Shopify does.

BigCommerce offers a balanced approach, allowing businesses to adapt the platform to their needs. This feature is especially important for growing and scaling businesses. Its best feature is the ability to handle large catalog shops. This feature is ideal for large enterprises that need flexibility and customization options from the best e-commerce platforms.

Features:

Various pricing plans range from $29.95 a month to $299.95 a month
Offers different solutions according to specific business needs
Great 15-day free trial to check out the platform before committing
Built-in features don’t require additional apps or plug-insurance
Enterprise solutions available for large businesses

Pros:

Open platform that facilitates customization
Great built-in features reduce the need for extensive customization
Facilitates complex inventory and order management
Top-notch APIs (application programming interface)
No transaction fees

Cons:

Annual sales limits on the basic plan
Customization features are not the most beginner-friendly
No built-in payment service
Themes look relatively similar, so customization may be required
Deep customization needed for larger businesses

#3: Magento

Magento ranks highly in our e-commerce platform comparison thanks to its high-end solutions for large enterprises. This platform is known to be quite complex to use. So, it’s not the most beginner-friendly.

However, its overall upside places Magento near the top of our e-commerce platform comparison. You can easily get started free with Magento. If you have the tech know-how, scaling your business with Magento is a great path to take. Suppose you find it difficult and don’t have your technical team. In that case, Magento experts with many years of experience will always be ready to help you to audit your Magento website and many other services so that you will have more time to focus on other essential things.

Features:

Open-source platform that allows easy customization
Highly responsive, mobile-friendly interface
Great solution for large businesses
Provides high-end solutions for B2B e-commerce companies
Ideal for businesses looking for a highly-personalized look and experience

Pros:

Fully customizable on the back and front ends
Boost SEO with efficient content management
Sites can list up to 500,000 items and handle 80,000 transactions/hr
Easily integrate third-party features and applications
Use multiple languages and currencies on the same site

Cons:

The enterprise solution can cost up to $20,000 a year
Not suitable for beginners or users without much tech know-how
Great solution for large businesses
Not the best e-commerce platform for a small business or startup
Complicated to build e-commerce sites with various additional functions

#4: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is not an e-commerce platform in the traditional sense. It is a plug-in for WordPress that allows you to transform any WordPress site into an e-commerce site. As such, WooCommerce is one of the best e-commerce platforms for small businesses, especially if they already have a WordPress-based website.

WooCommerce is a great alternative for small businesses that want to get into e-commerce but cannot afford to build a new site or would rather not start from scratch on another e-commerce platform such as Shopify. Please note that WooCommerce does require coding experience.

Features:

Open-source platform that enables customization
PCI compliance ensures secure communication
Transform any WordPress site into an e-commerce site by adding a cart
Relatively easy to use compared to BigCommerce or Magento
Offers themes (templates) you can use to get started

Pros:

A cost-effective option for most small businesses
Fully customizable without the need for coding
Transform an existing site into an e-commerce one
A good option for adding payment processing to a current site
Perfect for businesses not looking to expand in the short term

Cons:

It can slow down your existing site since it’s a plug-in
Extra hosting/bandwidth may be needed to improve site performance
Relatively limited capabilities compared to Shopify or BigCommerce
Not ideal for businesses looking to expand or scale in the short term
Not suitable for large businesses with extensive product catalogs

#5: Wix

Wix is a great alternative to Shopify for those looking to start from scratch. Wix allows you to get started easily without the need for coding or web development. It comes with 72 themes you can use straight out of the box.

Plus, the themes are fully customizable, thus allowing you to build your brand any way you want. Ultimately, Wix is one of the best e-commerce platforms for beginners since it’s easy to use and affordable.

Features:

Optimizes SEO by creating a personalized plan
Affordable pricing
Highly responsive allows for great display on mobile devices
Total control over the look and feel of any website
Perfect for newcomers building a site from scratch

Pros:

Cons:

Limited number of themes to choose from
Lacks some of the dedicated apps that Shopify offers
Does not allow deep customization like BigCommerce or Magento
Does not transfer existing sites
Large-scale and fast-growing businesses might find Wix cannot keep up

#6: Elementor

Elementor is one of the best e-commerce platforms for beginners. We have included Elementor in this e-commerce platform comparison as it’s a great alternative to WooCommerce.

Like WooCommerce, it’s a WordPress plug-in that allows you to turn any WordPress site into an e-commerce one. However, the big difference is that Elementor does not require any coding. This difference makes it a beginner-friendly alternative.

Features:

Quickly transform any website into an e-commerce one
Affordable pricing starts at $49 a year
Uses widgets to navigate websites
Creates WooCommerce-type websites with no coding required
Allows you to create truly unique stores

Pros:

Allows newcomers to create visually attractive websites
Comprehensive customization features
Get started quickly with a new site
Great for building an e-commerce site without starting from scratch
Good alternative to Shopify due to its ease of use

Cons:

Does not offer extensive templates like Wix or Shopify
Does not integrate with 3P apps or platforms that don’t run on WordPress
Does not allow extensive back-end customization
Not recommended for large e-commerce sites
Not the best platform for fast-growing or fast-scaling businesses

#7: Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce is best known for its CRM and sales software solutions. As part of its enterprise software, Salesforce offers its Commerce Cloud as one of the best e-commerce platforms for large enterprises.

Please bear in mind Salesforce Commerce Cloud is not suitable for newcomers or small brands. It’s better suited for brands that already work with Salesforce’s solutions.

Features:

Easily integrates with Salesforce’s other products
Uses artificial intelligence (AI) to manage a number of processes
Fully customizable to suit industry, turn of business, size, and scale
Facilitates international business solutions
Help maintain good customer management

Pros:

Part of a highly successful product suite
Can handle can high-volume traffic
Perfect for large-scale companies looking for an all-in-one solution
Get great support from Salesforce
Provides all the tools needed to build a top e-commerce site

Cons:

Not suitable for small businesses, given cost and implementation time
Not recommended for newcomers or beginners, given its complexity
Not the best choice for businesses not already working with Salesforce
Requires a significant investment and development time

#8: Squarespace

Squarespace makes the list as one of the best e-commerce platforms for clothing, as it’s built for small and large businesses alike. Squarespace offers great designs perfectly suited for fashion brands. Also, it’s an all-in-one e-commerce platform that doesn’t require any coding experience.

Features:

Pros:

A solid alternative to Shopify and Wix
Great templates eliminate the need for extensive customization
Drag-and-drop tools make building a site quick and easy
Perfect for newcomers and established businesses
Grows as your business grows

Cons:

#9: Volusion

Volusion ranks high on our e-commerce platform comparison due to its track record. Volusion has been in the market for two decades providing fully functional e-commerce site solutions.

This e-commerce platform is great for beginners and veterans alike. Create great-looking sites using its templates while adding all of the basic functionalities of any professional e-commerce site.

Features:

Very easy to use, similar to Shopify
Create custom designs based on one of its many templates
Reporting features provide detailed insights into specific metrics
Intuitive layout allows you to create websites easily
No major coding or IT experience is needed

Pros:

A solid, cost-effective alternative to BigCommerce and Magento
Functionality and ease-of-use rival Shopify
Powerful SEO tools help position your e-commerce site
Great tools to track metadata for deep analysis of site performance
Provides a great user experience

Cons:

#10: Prestashop

Prestashop makes the cut on this e-commerce platform comparison due to its ease of use and affordability. This e-commerce platform is easily accessible and downloadable. As such, it doesn’t come with any subscriptions or packages.

All you need to take care of are your domain, hosting, and SSL certificate costs. Since it’s an open-source platform, you’re free to tinker around with it.

Features:

Freely available anywhere in the world
Open-source platform that allows deep customization
Facilitates marketing functions such as a blog
Great for multi-currency transactions
Ideal for dropshippers thanks to robust inventory management features

Pros:

Cons:

How can PickyStory Take Your E-commerce Site to the Next Level?

Once you’ve chosen the best e-commerce platform to suit your needs, it’s time to think strategically about how to grow your business. One of the most cost-effective tactics to employ is focusing on generating as much revenue as possible from every visitor to your e-commerce store.

With PickyStory, this is made easier. PickyStory lets you set up product deals, promotions, and bundles that can be displayed across your store. Sold as single products, or add-ons to existing products, these upselling and cross-selling tactics make it easier for your customers to find relevant products, add more items to their cart, and spend more each time they visit your store.

Add PickyStory to your store to grow your sales, and your business.

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

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E-commerce Platform Comparison: The 10 Best E-commerce Platforms

Table of Contents

What is an E-commerce Platform?

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

What Features to Look for in the Best E-commerce Platforms?

The 10 Best E-commerce Platforms in 2023

#1: Shopify

#2: BigCommerce

#3: Magento

#4: WooCommerce

#5: Wix

#6: Elementor

#7: Salesforce Commerce Cloud

#8: Squarespace

#9: Volusion

#10: Prestashop

How can PickyStory Take Your E-commerce Site to the Next Level?

Grow your sales with high-performing deals.

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