The 5 Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses in 2024

The Top Ecommerce Website Builders For Your Business

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When it comes to ecommerce online businesses, choosing the right fit ecommerce website builder is essential to start selling products online across different markets.

This goal cannot be achieved without researching and highlighting some of the best ecommerce platforms that serve your business needs and requirements.

Indeed, starting an online business requires a lot of preparations, and resources: a business plan, logo, SEO, and finding the right products to sell online.

The most challenging task you and others may face is to pick a reliable digital commerce platform because there are too many ecommerce website builders out there in the market.

In this article, you will discover the top 5 ecommerce platforms based on core features, functionalities, and price. This could help you make a better decision in choosing the one that benefits your business the most.

Statistics of the Global E-commerce Industry

Before diving deeper into the best ecommerce platforms list, let’s get in touch with some key industry market updates for ecommerce. This gives you a reason for deciding whether the industry is profitable or not.

• In 2023, the ecommerce industry market share of global retail sales was 19.5%, and this growth rate is projected to reach 23% in 2027 ( source, eMarketer).
• According to Statista, global ecommerce has reached $5.7 trillion in 2023, and this figure is expected to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026. In other words, the growth rate is predicted to be around 10% per annum ( source, Statista).
• Asia Pacific is the fastest and biggest market for the global ecommerce market, especially China- the global powerhouse in supply chain and ecommerce platforms, which will dominate the region over the next decades ( Source, eMarketer & Statista).

Based on the ecommerce market updated above, it indicates that the global ecommerce market is still profitable and represents the huge potential for small and large businesses to take the market share by offering unique products to sell online.

Let’s explore some best ecommerce website builders with core features and pricing structures for your consideration:

Shopify

If you are searching for the best and largest e-commerce website builder for selling products online, Shopify is the powerhouse in the ecommerce market that offers a wide range of top-notch features to start, manage, and scale up your online business:

• Product listing: you can easily list your product with images, descriptions, and prices on the platform, which means you’ll always update your customers about promotions and new product launches.
• Multi-channel sales: this allows your online store to connect with the world’s largest marketplaces and social media sites ( Facebook, TikTok, Walmark, eBay, Google Search, and Amazon), which means your business can reach millions of customers and increase sales revenue.
• Payments: so you can connect with all popular payment methods ( Apply Pay, Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, etc), which means it makes shopping simple for your customers and boost for conversion more conversion rates.
• Manage your stocks: track your stock level and alert you when your online store’s stock is running low, which means you’ll never run out of stock.

In terms of Shopify pricing, you can select one of the 3 main subscription plans for building a digital commerce platform:

1. Basic: $33 per month, sell globally, manage up to 10 inventory locations, etc.
2. Shopify: $92 per month, all from basic features, 5 additional employee accounts, etc.
3. Advanced: $399 per month, advanced analytics and reports, 15 additional employee accounts, all from Basic and Shopify plans.

Shopify is an ideal ecommerce website builder solution for businesses of all sizes that offers many great functions ( easy to use, top features, and scalable) and benefits to scale your business to the next level.

⇒ Get Started with Shopify for free, and receive $1 per month for the first 3 months.

BigCommerce

Another powerhouse of ecommerce website-building platforms is BigCommerce.

The platform is the best e-commerce platform for small and large businesses with offers a variety of top-notch features to help you create and build your online store successfully.

Here are some unique strengths of this website-building platform you should know:

• Open API Saas platform: you can tailor your online store to your specific needs by customizing the API and accessing the core code, which means you will foster collaboration and flexibility in your store development.
• Infinitely scalable: can handle large traffic volumes and manage complex products on your ecommerce business, this allows you to handle large product sales volumes and scale your business.
• Payment gateways: select a wide range of payment options ( Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, etc.), which means you’ll never install third-party payment providers on your online store.
• Integration hub: with other 1,000 apps available, which means you can install the right fit to enhance your store performances and functionalities.

For BigCommerce pricing, 4 main paid plans are available to select, which are carefully designed based on your business sizes and feature needs:

• Standard: $39 per month, use up to 3 storefronts, unlimited staff accounts, connect to the global marketplace, maximum inventory locations 4, etc.
• Plus: $105 per month, up to 5 storefronts, maximum inventory locations 5, etc.
• Pro: $399 per month, up to 8 storefronts, maximum inventory location 8, etc.
• Enterprise: contact them for more information

Again, depending on your business sales volumes, and budget as well as features needs, delving deeper into BigCommerce’s different subscription plans will help you to the right plan for your business.

⇒ Grab a 15-day free trial with BigCommerce

Squarespace

Another ecommerce solution for building an online shopping store is Squarespace, this website builder provides some basic functions and features that allow you and your team to launch a website, blog, or e-commerce platform.

Here are some core features and functionalities you would benefit from this ecommerce website builder:

• A Variety of available templates so you can select beautiful and modern templates to create a professional and visually appealing website, which means your business will grab the attention of customers.
• Memberships: you can leverage this tool to create content, paid newsletters, and online courses, which means you can monetize your website’s premium content and earn money from membership fees.
• Schedule appointments: you can set your availability and let customers schedule appointments and pay online, which means saving time and creating a good convenient experience for customers.

Squarespace has 4 main paid plans that are designed for different businesses’ needs and required features:

• Personal: $23 per month, cross range of templates, mobile optimization website.
• Business: $33 per month, all from the personal plan, advanced analytics, and integrated ecommerce (3% transaction fee applied).
• Commerce (basic): $36 per month, all from the business plan, integrated ecommerce (0% transaction fee), tools, and features for the online store.
• Commerce ( advanced): $65 per month, all from commerce ( basic), advance shipping tools, provide discounts for standard orders, and sell subscriptions on your store.

With a wide range of tools and features, as well as an affordable pricing structure, Squarespace is considered one of the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses and startups.

⇒ Get started for free with Squarespace ( 14 days free trial)

Hostinger

In the ecommerce website builder market, so often Shopify and BigCommerce are the two dominant players with some excellent features and functionalities.

Hostinger website builder offers budget-friendly packages to start a basic ecommerce website with a few key features:

• Added an ecommerce feature so you can sell up to 500 products and manage stocks and orders in one place, which means you can create the most convenient for customers.
• Up to 150 website templates so you can select any visually appealing templates for designing an online store, which means you’ll build a professional ecommerce store to attract the attention of customers. 
• Integrations: you can install third-party marketing tools like Google Analytics, Facebook, or WhatsApp to stay engaged with customers. This allows smooth communication from order to ship the product.

Hostinger website builder only offers one paid plan package with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The pricing is $11.99 per month.

⇒ Get started with Hostinger Website Builder

WooCommerce

When you start building an online store using WordPress, the WooCommerce plugin is well known for its popularity, rich in features, and seamlessly integrated with a WordPress ecommerce website.

Using WooCommerce means you can convert your WordPress website to a fully functional ecommerce store, and start listing and selling products online.

You can use the paid extension to add more advanced features and functionalities to your site, including themes, shipping and delivery, security, and store management, to name a few.

One of the disadvantages of using the WooCommerce store is you have to install multiple plugins, which means it can slow down your website speed and impact search engine optimization performance. 

Final thoughts on top ecommerce platforms

I’ve discussed the list of best ecommerce platforms based on their key features, functionalities, pricing, and especially potential benefits that may bring to your business.

Selecting the right ecommerce platform also depends on several key factors:

• Business sizes and features need
• Budget flexibility
• Scalability options

If you want to create a full ecommerce platform with all essential and advanced features as well as easy to scale up, then Shopify and BigCommerce are two powerhouses for online store solutions.

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