What is eCommerce?

Electronic commerce or E-Commerce is a way of selling products online.

As you build and grow your online business, there are popular online platforms that you want to take into consideration.

This has been as a result of increasing demands of consumers for convenience and more competition. Mobile business is now the priority of every firm and scrolling becomes a core element of interactive design.

Following the announcement by Google in May last year, which mobile searches surpassed desktop searches.

Electronic transactions today are done mostly on mobile, and this has led to an idea of putting a “mobile first” approach to your shopping experience. It becomes one of eCommerce business tools today.

There has been a belief by these firms that the mobile first strategy puts you at a competitive advantage from the word go. It is vital that your website design is mobile friendly. Considering hiring the best web designer.

74% of online shoppers are influenced by social media.

60% of retail stores said that they improved their consumer base and developed a loyal clientele after implementing social commerce and becomes one of the best eCommerce tools today.

 

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Mobile friendly website will attract more customers to your site

 

While user experience design is paramount, current ecommerce marketing platforms are utilizing social media and mobile trends. The simple nature is additionally allowing new players with a non-technical background.

With the dynamic requirements of today’s online business in consideration, we have identified five ecommerce platforms that are likely to serve entrepreneurs most efficiently.

BigCommerce Ecommerce Tool

BigCommerce currently hosts over 55,000 stores online. It was launched in 2009 and is among the leading providers of e-commerce software. It ideally takes care of stores and businesses of all sizes, and it is one of the tools of e-commerce. From Toyota and Martha Stewart to SMEs.

This is considered to be the ideal choice for those with little or no technical knowledge on establishing their online business. This is because it provides a comprehensive list of built-in features for the consumer who does not have the time to learn the code.

BigCommerce Solution

  • Does not have a transaction fee
  • It comes with a feature where you can integrate your business with eBay, Facebook, Google shopping and a variety of comparison sites
  • A smooth mobile experience is offered by the free and paid themes that are very responsive
  • A choice of inbuilt features which comprise newsletters, shipping, tax analytics, coupons and much more.
  • Reliable support complete with a very helpful setup wizard, comprehensive guides with visual aids and a range of educational videos
  • Compatible with many website builders

The only downside is it lacks free themes. As of today, BigCommerce only offers seven free items which are relatively few. This is considering that most of its competitors provide more than 20 free themes.

However, It has many premium themes, and it also allows themes customization that can be relevant to your business whenever you want to give it a new and unique feel.

Build Your Own Ecommerce Website with YoKart

YoKart is designed with a specific objective; to assist startups in developing e-commerce systems efficiently.

This is possible thanks to its wealth of features and smart pricing models. For any consumer, YoKart is the one-stop solution for the launch of multi-vendor stores like Etsy and eBay.

YoKart provides its multi-vendor version seamlessly unlike other options.

graph sample of E-Commerce Platforms

Advantages of using YoKart as E-Commerce Platforms

  • A multi-vendor marketplace solution that is ready to launch
  • A dedicated Android app and a mobile-friendly for marketplaces
  • Similar features across all pricing packages
  • For merchants and store owners, there is are extensive manuals, FAQs, video tutorials and a one-year store management free support.
  • The source code is yours, and you can customize the portal to fit your needs

Unfortunately, there are no third-party extensions that are available currently for YoKart.

This is especially the case if you are relatively new to the market. However, it offers a built-in analytics tool for over twelve support payment gateways. Other tools include discount coupons and reward management features.

One of the big negatives of using YoKart is the absence of social marketing capabilities. This means that there are no features to allow merchants to sell on Facebook and other social media. YoKart remains an excellent choice for multi-vendor stores such as Etsy and eBay.

Shopify

What is Shopify?

Shopify is one of many tools for ecommerce that allows a user to set up an online store and sell goods. With its focus on social and mobile shopping, Shopify hosts over 300,000 online shops worldwide. Shopify continues to develop to meet the online store’s requirements of the 21st century.

Market share of E-commerce solutions

Benefits of Using the Shopify Solution

  • Can connect your online store to your Facebook page and sell directly on social media
  • Comes with the choice of over one hundred themes
  • Seller mobile apps and a built-in shopping cart that is mobile friendly
  • Provides ability to link and connect retail store owners with app developers
  • Over 1,500 applications which include extensions and plugins to extend the functionality of the store
  • A full-time, 24/7 support via phone, chat, and tutorials as well as the Shopify community forum.

There are some critical disadvantages despite the numerous upsides with Shopify. First, on every sale, there is an additional transaction fee if you do not use Shopify payment. Moreover, for additional functionality, many of the extensions are not free. This translates to extra running costs for your store.

best web hosting ecommerce

Magento Online Ecommerce Stores

Many times, This is viewed as the market leader among these platforms. It also prides to have about 25% of the market share. Many online stores including big names like Pepe Jeans & Liverpool, Burger King, and Huawei use this software.

This is possible of its scalability and overall reliability. For most of the online stores at the enterprise level, it is considered to be the best.

Advantages of Using It

  • Open to all sorts of customization as it has open source options
  • Ease of management and use
  • Over 9000 extensions and plugins at your disposal
  • Ease of selling on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
  • Comes with an extensive and comprehensive resource library for growth, demos, online interaction by store owners and app developers as well as store management

It has a broad range of pricing for its packages. They range all the way from the free basic community version to the advances enterprise. However, for customization, you will need well-versed developers due to open source and flexible nature.

Big Cartel Ecommerce Platform

graphic with e commerce development tools

Big Cartel is one of the leading names in online industry

This platform has artists, and individually run small-scale or home-based businesses as their primary targets. Since 2005, Big Cartel has assisted a million plus artists with their slogan ‘We believe in the artist.

Big Cartel is often regarded as a sure way for artists and other creative individuals to enter the world of online business and modern web design.

Benefits That Accrue to Using Big Cartel

  • It is straightforward to set up and manage a store
  • Comes with aesthetically sound themes
  • Accessibility to Facebook Shop
  • A comprehensive WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) code editor

One of the significant downsides is that Big Cartel results in limited functionality. This is an explicit limitation for those who want more than just to market and sell products. Only two of the twelve themes are optimized to be responsive to mobile devices.

Conclusion

It does not matter how many articles you read, the only person who can determine the best among the above E-Commerce Platforms is you.

All that matters is whether your choice allows you to market and sell your products in the best manner possible to your clients.

1 Comment. Leave new

  • Duke Vukadinovic
    September 27, 2017 11:30 am

    I had a pleasant experience using Wix and Squarespace as e-commerce solutions as well even though they are not the same level as the ones you’ve listed here. Great job on composing this list!

    Reply

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