Contrary to popular belief, investing capital into a building and focusing on tactics to increase your foot traffic can take place on a much smaller budget. Enter ecommerce platforms. You can use them to build an online store, which acts as a virtual storefront rather than a physical one. But the real question is, what if you’re already running a brick-and-mortar store? What if you want to place an order online and pick it up in-store? What if you want that the in-store inventory doesn’t interfere with the online order inventory? All of this is possible with the right ecommerce platform.
We are here to help you as there are a plethora of options available on the market today. It can be challenging to find the one that best fits your needs. This guide will make it easy for you to compare the most popular ecommerce platforms side-by-side. So that you can make an informed decision about the best ecommerce platform for company needs.
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Choosing the Best Ecommerce Platform for Small Business
Keep in mind that no two ecommerce platforms are the same. Some are tailor made for startups and small businesses, while others are specifically designed with enterprise-level companies in mind. You will also encounter some capable of running an online store on a tight budget, whereas others come with an uncomfortably high price tag. Many include bells and whistles that are helpful for business growth. These are some aspects you should consider while choosing the right ecommerce platform to sell online.
- Overall business size
- All kinds of costs associated with the platform
- Ask yourself if you’re a brand new business or well established in terms of niche
- If the business will have brick and mortar locations in addition to the online store
- Catalog of products you sell
- Your target market
- Budget reports for sales and marketing
- Is the technical side manageable?
- Determine the most important aspect. Does pricing matter more than creative control? What features are non-negotiable?
- Outsource the creation of a mobile app so you can manage your online business while traveling.
- Opt for complete control on the website
It’s imperative to make a list of the things that are a must in your ecommerce platform. There can be a separate list of things you’d like to have but aren’t necessary. This makes it easier to read through this list of ecommerce solutions, allowing you to narrow things down a bit.
The Top Ecommerce Website Tools for Small Businesses
It’s important to understand the process of choosing the right ecommerce platform. But now that we have covered that aspect, it’s time to address the crux. What you should be looking for in the tools that would be used to build your eCommerce website. Luckily, we have compiled some of the top contenders on the market. Remember, these tools are some of the top-ranked products available for small business owners. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be the right option for you.
Wix
Regarding value for money and performance, Wix is the best option for eCommerce stores. It’s designed to excel expectations and deliver exceptional performance, even for those new to building a virtual store. Wix provides users with absolute creative control over the website. My favorite features include a drag and drop store builder, several hundreds of templates, and a mobile-optimized performance.
Ecommerce business owners can choose from a range of payment solutions and a state of the art checkout system. There’s the added option to create stunning product galleries with in-depth store manager tools. Wix is truly a special tool, with the option to calculate global tax and shipping too. But, all is not perfect. As there aren’t quite as many shopping features on Wix that you can get with Shopify. It should come as no surprise as the site is not solely focused on eCommerce. To sell products, you need the Business Basic plan that costs $23 per month.
Sellfy
Sellfy is a fan favorite among small businesses, and for good reasons. Their immaculate subscription-based pricing model can be a real boost for new start-ups. Starting off, Sellfy permits users to sell various digital products They can range from ebooks, videos, and podcasts. That’s not all, ecommerce stores have the luxury of selling physical products from the Sellfy storefront.
Sellfy is also adept at offering POD – print-on-demand services. Pick the item you’re interested in customizing with your own custom text. Next steps are simple, you just design, and branding and sell it via the Sellfy store. The tool generates a clean, mobile-friendly website with a ready made shopping cart to make it convenient for customers to buy.
You can track your store analytics from Sellfy’s backend. These include metrics like visits, purchases, and conversion rates across your store. Sellfy’s marketing tools are specially catered to expand user reach. The versatile platform lets online business owners add product links to their social media and provides selling and tracking options for Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook. Above all that, it’s cheap at only $19.99 a month, with prime features including email marketing and digital products.
Zyro
Zyro is an aesthetic masterpiece. But that is not all, it’s a convenient website builder with the best reputation in the market. This fully-independent website creator comes with everything a brand needs to get started online, no extra coding skills are required.
Users can build a functional website in a matter of minutes by making use of fantastic design templates readily available from the Zyro team. My favorite feature, the drag and drop builder, comes with an intuitive grid. It means designers are less likely to end up with elements that don’t totally line up. Zyro is one tool that complements lightning fast performance on all devices, so you can rest assured that the customers have the amazing experience they crave. For those having trouble creating content for their website, use the AI content creator tool to get started.
One of the best things about Zyro is its comprehensive packages. There’s a free plan to get users started. Keep in mind that the features are a little simple, with 500 MB of bandwidth, and 500 MB of storage. The Online Store will cost you around $8.90, hosting unlimited storage and bandwidth. The Website plan exerts around $2.90 per month, or a Business plan for business use for $4.90 per month.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is one of my favorite platforms. It uses ADI to simplify the process of building an online store. The inclusive platform offers support for more industries than many of its competitors. Having an Artificial Design Intelligence built-in, ecommerce store owners can use GoDaddy to quickly and easily design something for their specific niche. But there’s a downside, with electric speed, you can often lose creative freedom. GoDaddy lacks when it comes to features to choose from, particularly when it comes to blogging. But it is still an amazing option for the offered price. GoDaddy will give you one of the easiest to use platforms on the market today.
However, the service can be a little lacking in some areas, especially for small businesses in a need of significant growth. The price starts around $19.99 per month for the Online Store price plan.
Volusion
Volusion is a rising option and a very commendable one for eCommerce stores today.It is Ideal for business owners in search of growth. It offers everything you need to launch the perfect online store. Its best feature is the ability to offer in-depth data reports. Everything you need to successfully track your site’s performance is located in the same place. When seeking an opportunity to grow your business at a pace that suits you, Volusion can help with that. Like any platform, there are some missing features in the package. For instance, users will not have any blogging tools. Posing a serious problem when wanting to develop your marketing strategy with a content management system.Â
There are positives as well. Volusion is quite affordable, the prices starting at around $29 per month. This platform is best-suited for people who love getting and exploring new opportunities for scalability. Volusion is reeking with fantastic tools, my personal favorite includes SEO features that allow you to attract more customers online. Users can save up to 10% when you pay for your subscriptions annually.
Breaking Down The Perfect Small Business Ecommerce Platform
When all is said and done, how do you decide which ecommerce platform is the best for your small business? It’s a tough choice, and one can even say that all of those mentioned above are equally great. So, the answer most likely comes down to your business needs. For instance, if an ecommerce website owner is looking to enhance sales, the right choice would be none other than GoDaddy. It has all the tools and functionality to succeed under the required conditions. Alternatively, if we speak about a tool that provides a lot of creative control, then Sellfy is a fantastic choice, as is the diversity of Volusion.
On a convenience scale, GoDaddy is perfect as it’s easy to use, and Wix will give you the tools needed to combine online and offline selling. Additionally, Wix is one of the most recommended since it offers fantastic value for money. Platforms like Zyro provide online store owners with all the functionality they could want to excel at multi-channel selling. Ultimately, as we have discussed, the best ecommerce platform for small businesses comes from need, not desire. Market research is essential in these cases as you do not want to go off to the wrong start.
So there you have it. We hope this article will help you choose the right platform for your ecommerce business. In case of any queries, feel free to contact and you can always comment to engage with the post.Â
Featured Image: BigCommerce
