You start a business, you want your business to grow, and you think of an ecommerce solution. Now there’s one question that comes to your mind. Which ecommerce platform to choose? This completely depends on you, whether you prefer a hosted platform or a self-hosted one. It is like making a choice between traveling by your own car, and going for the public transportation. Technically, it means that you need to decide if you wish to have your own website or you wish to feature your work on someone else website. However, since most people prefer third party platforms, here are the top 5 ecommerce platforms you can choose, for your online store:
- Shopify
This hosted platform simply tops the chart. When an entrepreneur looks for an ecommerce platform, there are 2 main things he has to consider, ease of use and great functionality. This platform offers the most complete dashboards that are helpful in adding new products, managing new offers and even generating discount codes. The most recent update on Shopify states that now the site will adapt itself to the size of your screen itself. Shopify’s pricing designs, templates simply attract clients for using this hosted platform for their website.
- Volusion
Volusion is a hosted platform, quite similar to Shopify but with some more constraints. This platform tends to be less customizable. This means that you may not be able to make changes in the platform as per your requirement. But there is convenience of use here since this platform does not require coding. Its functionalities are easy to set-up, use, and maintain over a period of time. It offers a larger choice of templates as compared to Shopify.
- Magento
A self-hosted platform, Magento has proved to be a feature-rich out of the box option. The wide range of themes offered can help change the display of your website, and what makes them better–they can be customized from time to time as per your requirement. Another feature is integration. You can integrate several domains into one dashboard and manage multiple storefronts from a single admin panel.
- Bigcommerce
Bigcommerce is a hosted platform that has a huge feature bank. From beautiful designs, to the inventory section, from convenience to security, this platform has subtle differences as compared to Shopify. This platform offers beautiful design options which you can use to modify the appearance of your shopping portal. Its flexible tax system and drop shipping facility are pretty unique. Besides this, Bigcommerce offers quick product upload options as well. This facilitates updating of stock levels immediately. The most unique feature about it is customer support. All you need to do is log in to the customer support page and you get help by means of phone, live chat or mail.
- Bigcartel
Unlike other platforms, Bigcartel has a limited amount of features. One of them is the problem regarding customizability. Once you have given your product a name and the URL is made, no changes can be made. Besides this, the navigation system, ease of use and security are no less than others. The large icons on top of the screen facilitate usability. If you are not willing to sell a large range of products, with a large number of themes and exorbitant SEO features, Bigcartel is the best option for you.
So make your choice regarding the best ecommerce platform, and expand your business.