Eternity in an Instant / Getty Images As of Q1 2022, ecommerce sales make up 14.3% of retail sales in the United States. Yet, 28% of small businesses in the U.S. don’t have websites, making it hard for their customers to shop with them and, in turn, causing them to lose out to competitors that are using dedicated ecommerce platforms to create a seamless shopping experience. We reviewed over a dozen popular ecommerce platforms based on price, range of features, ease-of-use, scalability, and more. Here are our top picks. Shopify offers some of the most advanced inventory management features of all the platforms we reviewed. Users can easily view stock levels and orders at a glance and create detailed product pages with custom metadata, images, pricing rules, and more. Shopify also streamlines shipping tasks including printing labels and sending tracking information to customers. Shopify has a built-in payment processor that works with major credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Users can choose from third-party payment processors like PayPal for an additional fee. Designing a Shopify ecommerce store is easy with a drag-and-drop store builder, around 100 paid and free store themes, and the ability to customize anything without needing design skills. Finally, Shopify integrates with thousands of marketing, sales, inventory, accounting, and other apps to expand its already extensive ecommerce capabilities.
Shopify Pricing
Basic Plan
$29 per monthAll the basics for starting a new businessOnline credit card processing at 2.9% plus 30 cents
Shopify Plan
$79 per monthEverything you need for a growing businessOnline credit card processing at 2.6% plus 30 cents
Advanced Plan
$299 per monthAdvanced features for scaling your businessOnline credit card processing at 2.4% plus 30 cents
All Shopify plans come with a 14-day free trial and 24/7 support through multiple channels. One place where BigCommerce differs from Shopify is in payment processing. Unlike Shopify, which charges 0.5% to 2% per transaction for using third-party payment processors, BigCommerce lets users choose from over 65 processors, including PayPal, Square, and Stripe, without extra fees. This is great for businesses that want to stick with their established merchant accounts. Where BigCommerce pulls away from Shopify is with SEO and analytics. BigCommerce’s SEO increases page load times for better customer experiences and also lets users customize page titles, metadata, and product URLs to improve the chances of products showing up in Google search results. Many of these advanced SEO features are only available from Shopify as add-ons. BigCommerce provides advanced reporting and analytics with every plan, unlike Shopify, which only offers this on its more expensive plans. In addition to getting real-time data on orders, customers, and conversions, users can also drill down and create custom reports on revenue, customer habits, order details, and more.
BigCommerce Pricing
Standard Plan
$29.95 per monthUp to $50,000 online sales per yearBranded online storeBigCommerce mobile appIntegrated social and marketplace sellingProfessional reporting toolsReal-time shipping quotesAnd much more
Plus Plan
$79.95 per monthUp to $180,000 online sales per yearAll Standard Plan featuresAbandoned cart saverCustomer groups and segmentationAnd more
Pro Plan
$299.95 per monthUp to $400,000 online sales per year*All Plus Plan featuresGoogle customer reviewsCustom product filteringAnd more
- +$150/month for each additional $200,000 in online sales. Enterprise Plan
Custom pricingCustom sales limitsAll pro Plan featuresPrice listsMulti-StorefrontAnd more
All BigCommerce plans come with a 15-day free trial and 24/7 live agent support. Volusion makes it easy to design a professional ecommerce site with dozens of themes and a drag-and-drop page editor. Order and inventory management are simple and sufficient for smaller sellers. Volusion also sticks to the basics when it comes to reporting and analytics, allowing users to check traffic, product performance, and abandoned shopping carts.
Volusion Pricing
Personal Plan
$35 per monthGross merchandise volume of up to $50,000 per year100 products1 staff accountPlatform transaction fees of 1.25%
Professional Plan
$79 per monthGross merchandise volume of up to $100,000 per year5,000 products5 staff accountsPlatform transaction fees of 0.65%
Business Plan
$299 per monthGross merchandise volume of up to $400,000 per yearUnlimited products15 staff accountsPlatform transaction fees of 0.35%
Prime Plan
Pricing based on salesGross merchandise volume of over $400,000 per yearUnlimited productsUnlimited staff accountsCustom platform transaction fees
All Volusion plans come with a 14-day free trial and 24/7 online support. Wix comes with hundreds of professional templates and a drag-and-drop editor, making it easy to create a beautiful ecommerce site in just minutes. Setting up and running a basic personal website is free, but upgrading to a paid plan is the only way to unlock Wix’s ecommerce features. Wix offers over 50 payment gateways worldwide including the in-house Wix Payments. Managing inventory and orders and getting revenue and conversion rate reports is handled through Wix’s clean and simple dashboard. It’s important to note that, while Wix’s limitations make it appear to be a lesser platform to Shopify, BigCommerce, or Volusion, the number of ecommerce features you get for the money makes Wix a great option for small online sellers.
Wix Pricing
Business Basic Plan
$27 per monthAccept online paymentsCustomer accounts50GB storageCustom domainRemove Wix ads5 video hoursUnlimited productsFree domain for 1 yearAd vouchersAnd more
Business Unlimited Plan
$32 per month100GB storage10 video hoursAll Business Basic Plan featuresSubscriptionsSell on marketplacesAnd more
Business VIP Plan
$59 per monthUnlimited storageUnlimited video hoursAll Business Unlimited Plan featuresLoyalty program by Smile.ioAnd more
All of Wix’s paid plans include a 14-day free trial, free hosting, and the ability to link a custom domain. Weebly’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor rivals that of Wix, allowing users to create a beautiful online store in minutes. The platform walks users step-by-step through setting up a store, including choosing a basic layout, selecting fonts and colors, adding pages, and choosing a site name. Inventory items can be added right away or once the rest of the site has been built. All of Weebly’s plans feature a fully integrated shopping cart and secure checkout. Users have a choice of a few different payment processors including PayPal, Stripe, and Square. Weebly’s Personal, Professional, and Performance plans also support a shipping calculator for customized shipping rates based on geographical locations. Weebly keeps inventory management and reporting simple and hassle-free, with easy bulk importing and exporting, search engine optimization, and site performance tracking features. Apps and integrations are available, adding even more marketing, sales, and promotion capabilities to any Weebly store.
Weebly Pricing
Free Plan
$0 per monthFree SSL securityAdd third party codeShopping CartUnlimited ItemsInventory ManagementSEOAnd more
Personal Plan
$6 per monthAll Free Plan featuresConnect a custom domainDigital goodsShipping calculatorAnd more
Professional Plan
$12 per monthAll Personal Plan featuresFree domainUnlimited storageRemove Square adsPassword protectionAdvanced site statsAnd more
Performance Plan
$26 per monthAll Professional Plan featuresItem reviewsAbandoned cart emailsAdvanced ecommerce insightsPriority supportAnd more
All of Weebly’s plans offer chat and email support with the two more expensive plans adding phone support. While no free trials are available, a full ecommerce store can be built using the free plan with the option to upgrade later. In addition to selling products, Squarespace makes it easy to sell services and gift cards, create subscriptions and membership programs, and for customers to book appointments online. Integrated email marketing features let users build loyalty by offering discounts and deals. The platform also supports a number of third-party integrations, including Printful and ShipStation, so custom products can be easily created and shipped. Squarespace keeps payment processing simple as well, allowing customers to pay via PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and Afterpay. Checkout is streamlined and simple for quick transactions, and users can customize the checkout process by adding surveys or gift messages, setting custom tax rates, and alerting customers when inventory is low. Easy social integrations allow products to be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. Squarespace’s intuitive dashboard allows users to quickly check and manage inventory, fulfill and ship orders, and get valuable insights on site traffic, sales trends, and customer data. In short, Squarespace is an ideal ecommerce platform for creatives who don’t want to mess with complex data sales tools.
Squarespace Pricing
Personal Plan
$14 per month, billed annuallyUnlimited bandwidth30 minutes video storageSEO features for site visibilityBasic website metricsSquarespace extensionsAnd more
Business Plan
$23 per month, billed annuallyAll Personal Plan featuresProfessional email from GoogleComplete customization with codeAdvanced analyticsGoogle Ads creditsSquarespace transaction fees: 3%And more
Basic Commerce Plan
$27 per month, billed annuallyAll Business Plan featuresSquarespace transaction fees: 0%Customer accountsEcommerce analyticsSocial integrationsProduct reviewsAnd more
Advanced Commerce Plan
$49 per month, billed annuallyAll Basic Commerce Plan featuresSquarespace transaction fees: 0%Sell subscriptionsAbandoned cart recoveryAdvanced shippingLimited availability labelsAnd more
All Squarespace plans come with a 14-day free trial, a custom domain, and 24/7 support. Squarespace has four pricing tiers. However, ecommerce functions are only available with the Business and Commerce plans. WooCommerce is a free plugin that can be used to add ecommerce functions to any WordPress site. Because WordPress is one of the best SEO platforms on the market, WooCommerce makes it easy to create a scalable online store of any size. WooCommerce offers basic inventory management that, while useful for basic stock management, isn’t well suited for high-volume businesses. Order management is more robust, however, allowing users to drill down to view products sold, billing and shipping addresses, and customer records. Although WooCommerce is completely free to use, some of the more useful extensions that bring the platform close to the standards of Shopify or BigCommerce can cost upward of $300. Just as important as the back-end is the customer experience. The best ecommerce platforms make it easy for customers to shop online, view all of the details about the product they’re looking for, choose how to have it shipped, and make a purchase with as few steps as possible. Behind the scenes, ecommerce platforms give businesses valuable insights about what products are selling and how customers prefer to shop. A variety of marketing tools like coupons, discounts, limited inventory alerts, email marketing, and abandoned cart alerts allow businesses to sell more to new and existing customers. Another difficulty with free ecommerce platforms is that, once a business outgrows them, they will need to start over completely with another platform and rebuild their store from the virtual ground up. It’s better to start with a lower-tier plan of a paid platform and then upgrade as needed.
