In the current digital age, starting up an e-commerce business is easier than ever. Many e-commerce platforms provide the necessary tools and resources to help entrepreneurs organize and develop a successful online store in a short period of time. The right eCommerce platform is the core of any online store, offering features for customization, design, marketing, and analytics to help sellers become more successful. With a wide range of eCommerce platforms to choose from, however, it can be a difficult task to decide which one is the best fit for your business.
For beginners, it is essential to choose an eCommerce platform that specializes in supporting new entrepreneurs, with simple setup processes and a user-friendly interface. With the right platform, even first-time store owners can launch a professional online store in no time. To help you make the right choice, we have rounded up five of the best eCommerce platforms for beginners in 2021.
1. Shopify:
Shopify is by far the most popular eCommerce platform, with over a million customers worldwide. Shopify offers everything you need to design and launch a website, manage payment and shipping, organize products, and process sales. Thanks to its simple drag-and-drop interface and comprehensive features, it is the perfect choice for new store owners who want to launch a store without any technical knowledge.
Shopify boasts features like an intuitive and straightforward checkout process, powerful SEO and marketing tools, a mobile-friendly design, an array of premium themes, secure payments, and an app store with over 1300 add-ons and extensions. For successful store owners, Shopify Plus provides advanced features such as advanced customizations and wholesale features.
2. WooCommerce:
WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform for WordPress. As the world’s most customizable eCommerce software, it is the ideal choice for developers who want to create an online store from scratch. With WooCommerce, store owners also have access to hundreds of free and paid plugins to customize their store as they want.
Unlike other eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce is highly scalable and offers a wide range of powerful features, like an eCommerce analytics dashboard, support for multiple payment options, discounts and vouchers, shipping and tax options, and product reviews. In addition, WooCommerce provides users with an extensive library of online resources, documentation, and tutorials to help them fully understand and make the most of the platform.
3. BigCommerce:
BigCommerce is a cloud-based eCommerce platform optimized for large stores and growing businesses. It offers a vast range of features to simplify operations, such as a drag-and-drop editor to create custom designs, product filters and product sorting, automatic emails to customers, support for multiple languages and currencies, and integration with Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
BigCommerce also includes integrated payment gateways, shipping and tax features, analytics capabilities, custom product drop-down menus, and automatic image optimization for better performance. For merchants who need to process large volumes of sales, BigCommerce has an Enterprise plan that provides advanced features like quick order management and product personalization tools.
4. Magento:
Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform designed to accommodate both small and large businesses. Magento is a great option for those who want to create a custom online store with plenty of room to grow. All of its features come standard, including product management, checkout, payment, and shipment processing, support for multiple currencies and languages, product reviews, and more.
Magento also offers a wide range of tools to help merchants increase customer engagement and drive conversions, such as customer segmentation, customer loyalty programs, customer-specific pricing, and merchandising tools. For developers, Magento 2.0 comes with an overhauled architecture for better website performance, a simplified checkout process, and more customization options.
5. Squarespace:
Squarespace is a simple and modern eCommerce platform ideal for entrepreneurs who want to give their store an elegant look without spending much time on coding. With its user-friendly drag-and-drop site builder, store owners can quickly create pages, add products and customize the look of their store to showcase their brand.
Squarespace also comes packed with features specifically tailored to eCommerce stores, such as a secure payment gateway, a feature-rich product gallery, a shopping cart, analytics and reporting tools, discounts and coupons, abandoned cart recovery, and integration with major sales channels. For additional features, Squarespace also offers an extensive app market where store owners can find third-party plugins, add-ons, and modules.
Choosing the right eCommerce platform is an important step when starting up an online store, so it’s important to take the time to research and compare different options. The five platforms we’ve listed above were the best eCommerce platforms for beginners in 2021, and they each offer different features and benefits.
Shopify is the ideal choice for entrepreneurs who don’t need custom features, and WooCommerce is the best option for developers or merchants who want complete control over their stores. BigCommerce is ideal for large stores, Magento is great for developers, and Squarespace is perfect for entrepreneurs who want a modern and sleek store design. No matter what your needs are, you’re sure to find the right eCommerce platform for your business.