[Software] Best e-commerce platforms in 2020: website software for an online store

[Sxynix]

There is a huge variety of e-commerce platform packages from which to choose, so building an online store has never been easier.

To begin, first you'll need ecommerce web hosting, which is to say hosting that will scale up with your business without interruption.  Next you'll need shopping cart software to run with your ecommerce site. This will probably include a payment gateway for credit card processing, though if you're already established and have a decent enough credit rating you could apply for merchant services to reduce transaction costs. 

Your ecommerce website doesn't have to be expensive to design, either, as there are plenty of ecommerce themes available. Additionally, if you also have a bricks-and-mortar store than a Point of Sale (POS) system for mobile credit card processing can be particularly desirable.

Which e-commerce software is best for your business depends entirely on your specific requirements. If you're an online-only outfit, then POS integration won't be necessary, but you may get a lot of business from overseas, in which case foreign currency support would be a requirement.

In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the best e-commerce platforms available right now, before moving on to consider other options you might want to explore in terms of creating your own e-commerce solution.

Shopify is perhaps the most well known e-commerce platform available. It was set up in 2006 by founders Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake who, as the story goes, felt that there wasn't a simple-to-use e-commerce platform available and so built their own. The company claims that: "You don't need to have any technical or design experience to easily create a beautiful online store." 

According to Shopify, it's possible to get one of its online stores up-and-running within minutes. Users can choose from a wide range of templates, or they can design the look and feel of their store themselves. It accepts a comprehensive range of credit cards, has Level 1 PCI compliance and 256-bit SSL encryption for security, and it offers 24/7 support via phone, instant messaging or email.

The platform provides a full CMS with which users can manage the functionality and layout of their online store. Users can manage their store on-the-go using Shopify's mobile apps, and the platform itself is fully responsive, meaning the store will be optimized for visitors regardless of whether they access it from a desktop computer or a mobile device. A live chat function is available which allows you to have a real time conversation with your customers. There's a built-in support for 3D models and video too. There's also an option to create customizable storefronts on Facebook and Instagram. One of the newer features is the store speed report.

Shopify also offers users unlimited hosting for their stores, in-depth analytics of how visitors are using the store, and functionality for marketing such as SEO optimization, a discount and coupon engine, gift cards and email marketing tools. You can test out Shopify with a 14-day free trial.

Bigcommerce was established in 2009 and promises to "support your business, not just your store." In August 2020, BigCommerce joined Nasdaq to become a public company. In addition to offering support via phone, instant chat and email, it also offers articles and videos to help with e-commerce, and access to a team of e-commerce experts who can provide advice and guidance about online selling. Their experts are qualified in both Google Analytics and Adwords.

Like Shopify, Bigcommerce provides a variety of templates and themes to help stores look their best and get up-and-running quickly. Alternatively, users can design their own store or use Bigcommerce designers to do so. The platform incorporates a full-featured CMS that allows users to run an entire website, rather than just a store.

Users can benefit from detailed and flexible product management, optimized search engine rankings, along with a variety of integrated marketing tools and analytics. Payments can be accepted via 40+ pre-integrated gateways and shipping details can be customized as per the business's requirements. As of late, some new features have been added like support for Amazon Import and Link and Shopping in Instagram Stories. The platform offers automated order processing, flexible tax rules depending on where orders are made and shipped, and support for multiple currencies. You can test out Bigcommerce with a 15-day free trial.

Rather than being a standalone ecommerce platform, WooCommerce is a free plugin that can turn your Wordpress website into a fully functional ecommerce website.

The basic WooCommerce plugin is easy to install through Wordpress, and even better is that the plugin is free to download and use.

However, to get the most from WooCommerce  you will need to install a number of third-party plugins. This is to add features such as payment processing, inventory management, and stock control. 

Major third-parties are supported, and you can take payments from a range of options, such as Paypal, Sagepay, and Stripe. There are also plugins for a number of integrations, such as for Mailchimp for email marketing and Xero for accounting.

The ability to choose your own plugins means you can customize your ecommerce website exactly to your needs. although most addons have a cost they are relatively cheap, with each tending to cost a few dozen dollars. The result is the ability to build your own fully-functioning ecommerce website quickly, easily, and at a fraction of the cost of other ecommerce platforms.

All in all this makes Woocommerce one of the best contenders for those looking to ease themselves into starting an online retail business, whether for physical products or even digital ones.