10 Best eCommerce Platforms Compared [2024]: Pros & Cons, Pricing and Features to Consider While Selecting an eCommerce Platform

Even though setting up an internet store needs a lot of work, it is possible to simplify the procedure. You won’t need to code the website from scratch using an eCommerce platform. Instead, it will aid in the speedy creation of an online store, management of its eCommerce operations, and improvement of the shopping experience for clients.

Selecting a platform for your business can be challenging because many eCommerce options are available. It must meet your requirements, objectives, and financial constraints. It should also be expandable over time to support your company’s expansion.

We’ve developed a list of India’s top 10 eCommerce platforms for various business types, demands, and budgets to assist you in selecting the ideal platform for building your online store.

We’ll discuss the features and pricing of each platform as well. We’ll also go over the benefits of using an eCommerce platform for your online business and what to look for when selecting one.

What is an eCommerce Platform?

To grasp an eCommerce platform, one must first comprehend what eCommerce is. Since the internet has no physical borders, eCommerce is simply the business of buying and selling goods through it. Enterprises are utilising eCommerce to market to people around the world.

No matter where your consumers are or where they want to buy, you can earn sales and fulfil orders by using an eCommerce platform to design and develop an online experience.

A trustworthy eCommerce platform is much more than most people believe it to be—they think it is simply a tool that allows them to display their products and take payments online.

The ideal eCommerce platform should function as a comprehensive business command centre where you can manage everything from marketing to inventories. It should enable payment processing and provide easy access to all the resources you need to do online business, including your online store. You should rank among the top 10 eCommerce sites in India.

Why Should You Consider Utilizing an eCommerce Platform in 2024?

An eCommerce website can be created in three different methods. The first entails employing a web developer, but this frequently necessitates sizable money that may not be accessible when starting a new firm. The second method is to code it from scratch, but this takes a lot of technical expertise and effort.

Utilizing an eCommerce platform is the third option. Even if you are not an eCommerce specialist, this practical, user-friendly solution makes it easy to develop online stores quickly.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and open-source platforms are the two primary categories of eCommerce software.

SaaS eCommerce platforms provide a simple eCommerce website builder as part of an all-inclusive bundle that includes web hosting, a domain name, and an SSL certificate. The SaaS supplier also handles PCI compliance, upgrades, security, and other aspects of software administration.

Launching an online store with this one-stop method is simple, especially for novices. This strategy includes the eCommerce platforms Shopify and BigCommerce, which we shall cover further in this post.

On the other hand, open-source eCommerce platforms provide eCommerce software that you can download and install on your hosting account to set up and maintain an online store. On our list of open-source eCommerce platforms are WooCommerce and PrestaShop.

Because you’ll have to manage the technical parts independently, an open-source eCommerce platform might not be as user-friendly for beginners as a website builder. However, the website will be more adaptable and in your hands.

This eCommerce platform lets you control every aspect of the website, select the best eCommerce hosting package that matches your budget, and modify the software to better suit your online business.

What Features Should You Consider When Choosing an eCommerce Platform?

eCommerce platforms enable the hassle-free creation of an online store. Consequently, you should consider a few crucial elements while choosing your company.

The primary considerations for evaluating various eCommerce systems are covered in the following section.

Effortless Utilization

It’s challenging to run an online store. You must therefore pick an eCommerce platform that makes it more accessible.

Look for a user-friendly interface to display products on the site, collect online payments, and easily manage inventory.

If you choose a SaaS platform, you must register, pick a plan, and begin developing the website. This kind of eCommerce platform handles updates and security on your behalf.

If you decide on an open-source eCommerce platform, you must first choose a hosting company and a package. Next, download and set up the application. You’ll also be in charge of implementing security protocols and updating features.

Online Store Features

You can look past the fact that all eCommerce platforms, by default, permit and accept online payments.

One of the most important considerations is how many products you can list. Unfortunately, the selection of goods is limited in some eCommerce companies’ more affordable possibilities. So make sure the one you pick enables you to list all your products in your online store or at least a decent number of them.

Additionally, search for features like a shipping tracker and personalised suggestions that improve the consumer experience.

To help you operate the online store, the platform should have the following essential eCommerce features:

• Customers can discover what they desire with product classification and filtering, primarily if the store sells a vast range of goods.

• Product variations – the platform should let you add and manage every product variant, for instance, if you offer t-shirts in several sizes and colours.

• Real-time inventory tracking is essential for keeping up with demand.

• Offer various shipping and payment options during checkout to give your consumers a simple checkout process and lower cart abandonment rates.

Customizability and Design

Web design enhances clients’ shopping experiences, keeps them in your online business longer, and encourages sales. Conversely, if your eCommerce site’s web design or content is unpleasant, more than 50% of visitors will depart.

A decent eCommerce platform should provide appealing and configurable website templates or themes to save consumers from creating the website from scratch. They can save time and effort by selecting a template and customising it for their brand and company.

It’s crucial to ensure the eCommerce platform you’ve chosen meets your demands because some have restrictions on the number of product photographs you may display.

There is a lot of visual drag-and-drop capability available on eCommerce platforms. This functionality is fantastic for those new to web design and development. This kind of graphic editor aids in the intuitive construction of websites.

Payments and Integrations with Third Parties

Your clients’ shopping experience will improve if you provide them with various online payment choices, mainly if you accept payments in their local currency.

Although some eCommerce platforms come with built-in payment gateways, selecting third-party payment processors is also crucial.

When creating your pricing plan, verify if there are additional transaction fees to consider.

SEO and Marketing Tools

eCommerce marketing tools are essential for boosting your clientele, establishing your brand, and developing your online store.

You should search for the following marketing tools in an eCommerce platform:

• SEO tools- By using SEO techniques, you may enhance the organic traffic to your eCommerce website. These tools should be capable of adding meta descriptions and producing SEO-friendly URLs.

• Social media integration– Integrating your brand’s social media channels will help you improve customer relations, expand your audience, and increase sales. 57% of consumers say they’ll follow your company on social media to learn about new services and goods.

• Managing Email Lists– Create mailing lists and subscription campaigns for email marketing to enhance communication. Include banners or sign-up buttons, and distribute emails with updates about new items, ongoing sales, and other crucial information.

• Analytic tools– Utilize analytical tools to examine audience behaviour and traffic patterns to improve website design, content, and marketing tactics to increase sales.

It’s also fantastic if your preferred eCommerce platform offers blogging tools, as this is an additional technique to boost your SEO and eCommerce marketing campaigns. In addition, sharing educational articles about your company helps increase the credibility and discoverability of your website.

Worth the Money

Keep the long-term costs in mind while you search for the ideal eCommerce platform for your company.

Choose a few eCommerce platforms or plans that work for you, then compare their costs and features.

A SaaS eCommerce platform will require you to pay monthly or yearly membership costs. While using a free and open-source platform will only need to pay for hosting and domain name registration.

Remember that adding themes, extensions, or integrations can incur additional charges.

Overall, be careful to pick an eCommerce platform that is dependable and scalable and will support the expansion of your company.

Customer Service

When creating and maintaining your website, you can run into complications. To help you with any troubles, choose an eCommerce platform with reputable customer service and documentation.

Be aware that different eCommerce systems offer varying degrees of assistance; some may only provide chat and ticket support, while others offer round-the-clock phone service.

Exportability

How portable your data is should be your final point of consideration. For example, can you transfer your website design, content, photos, and other data if you decide to quit the platform and move your eCommerce website elsewhere?

It’s simpler on specific platforms than on others. But, again, open-source systems typically make this easier to accomplish.

You can export just about anything from WordPress. Then, you can switch to a different host or install it locally.

10 Best eCommerce Platforms [Updated in 2024]

Whether you run a small manufacturing company or a huge corporation, you need to pick a wholesale eCommerce solution provider who can help you grow without difficulty.

Additionally, it should be simple for you to deploy a platform that suits your needs and budget. Here is a list of the ten best eCommerce platforms In India. 

Shopify

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A robust eCommerce platform makes it easy for manufacturers to launch an online store. With Shopify, you can quickly create a unique design for your online store or choose from thousands of pre-made arrangements.

Using the intelligent drag-and-drop editor, you can quickly design your store thanks to its powerful editing features.

The SaaS platform is packed with features and provides every possible service, including integrated payment processing, comprehensive sales tools, and free SSL certificates. A mobile-friendly cloud-based eCommerce system is Shopify.

Key features

• On Shopify’s mobile apps, you may manage your store. No matter where you access the platform (mobile or desktop), you can quickly track, manage, and change your online manufacturing store.
• It provides excellent data protection with 256-bit SSL encryption and Level 1 PCI compliance.
• Shopify accepts various payment methods, although its membership fees are greater than those of other B2B eCommerce platforms.

Cons 

• Google Tag Manager makes it challenging to track checkout activities.
• When connected to various online stores owned by an organisation, a sales analytics system does not react appropriately.

Pricing

A 14-day free trial is available from Shopify. For $29 per month, new eCommerce firms can join Shopify and use the essential services. Choose the $79 per month plan as your business grows. A month of Advanced Shopify experience is $299.

Adobe Commerce (Magneto)

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Formerly known as Magneto, Adobe Commerce is the eCommerce platform utilised most frequently worldwide. This is because Magento performs as an eCommerce platform with a high degree of customizability that supports third-party sales channels like Amazon.

The open-source eCommerce platform may build a stunning online store with support for multiple languages and currencies.

The websites created with Magento are SEO-optimized and mobile-friendly. Nevertheless, using Magento necessitates some technical know-how or development support.

Key Features

• Thanks to its simple administration panel, you may manage numerous websites and online shops. In addition, it offers sophisticated analytics and reporting solutions to support corporate planning.
• The platform enables you to set up different price points for various customer groups while configuring, bundling, and grouping products.

• Product navigation is multi-layered, enabling product filters across several categories. Price points and product categories can be used to filter search results.
• Thanks to its robust API connectivity, you can personalise your store using any third-party programme.

Cons 

• For beginners, customising Magento-powered eCommerce sites may be challenging.
• It needs specialist hosting like a dedicated server or a VPS (Virtual Private Server) for faster performance.
• Automating cache management is complex.

Pricing

You can download the free Magento Community Edition, which is ideal for small enterprises. However, you may pay between $15,000 and $20,000 for the Enterprise edition.

BigCommerce

It is a well-liked eCommerce option for smaller businesses due to its low total cost of ownership. In addition, BigCommerce’s extremely flexible APIs assist companies in enhancing the functionality of their online stores as they grow.

A wide range of capabilities on the cloud platform enables you to create your eCommerce business easily. Each membership provides access to an eCommerce environment with built-in analytics tools, customer management systems, and SEO tools.

Key Features

• By making it simple to create unique pricing lists and catalogues, the platform enables you to cater to various consumer groups easily.
• Its “Persistent Cart” feature enables end users to shop conveniently across devices without losing the goods they’ve previously added.
• It provides limitless storage, allowing for the development of complete catalogues with more product photographs and videos.
• It allows for the simple incorporation of plugins for site customization.

Cons 

• Because of its complicated built-in features, it has a higher learning curve than other platforms.
• It does not facilitate operations across many sites.
• The API limits the editing of its meta field.

Pricing

Bigcommerce offers a free trial, and monthly plans begin at $29.95. The monthly costs for the Pro plan are $299.95, the Plus plan is $79.95, and the Enterprise edition is available for a bespoke price.

PrestaShop

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This open-source platform is available for free download, making it simple to create an online store for your manufacturing company. The feature-rich eCommerce solution enables you to create your online store using their editable templates. In addition, strong web store administration capabilities provided by PrestaShop are helpful as you grow your business.

Key Features

• PrestaShop’s visual builders make creating a store simple and easy.
• It offers 500 built-in functions that can improve retail administration and customer experience.
• One-page checkout encourages products to purchase, and the SSL protocol system secures transactions.
• It allows payment alternatives in various currencies and 25 languages, allowing store owners to serve a diverse customer base.

Cons 

• PrestaShop template upgrades and changes are pricey.
• The platform is not appropriate for big-box retailers.
• Image quality is reduced by compression.

Pricing

PrestaShop is entirely free and does not require a membership or commission. However, a one-time licence is required to download the open-source software for free.

Volusion

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It is a comprehensive cloud-based eCommerce platform that makes it simple to set up and run your online store. It offers responsive themes with professional design and a robust content editor to personalise them. An excellent customer experience is made possible by integrated CRM and SEO systems.

Key Features

• Volusion provides practical features like inventory control and payment processing.
• Manufacturers can take advantage of a range of store functions thanks to its comprehensive API.
• Call, live chat, or email customer service is accessible around-the-clock.
• Simplifying and streamlining the browsing function are sophisticated search tools and a navigation editor.

Cons 

• People without much technical understanding may find the user interface to be challenging.
• Compared to other open-source B2B eCommerce platforms, customization fees are considerable.
• Integrating blogs is difficult.

Pricing

The Personal subscription for Volusion costs $29 per month, the Professional is $79 per month, and the business is $299 per month. Their customisable premier plan is ideal for big companies.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

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It is a potent eCommerce tool that aids in creating a scalable online shop. In addition, Salesforce boasts practical features like inventory management, image filtering with built-in zoom, and product categorization.

Key Features

• Using automation and AI, it is simple to personalise client interactions.
• The platform effectively manages fluctuations in traffic.
• It facilitates the installation and integration of plugins and add-ons from third parties.
• The platform reasonably retrieves information from other databases.

Cons 

• The platform’s prices are more than its rivals, and add-ons are also extra.
• Because of the user interface’s disorganisation, navigation is difficult.

Pricing

It costs nothing to set up Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Instead, the company’s B2B Commerce plans are priced per order; for example, Starter costs $4, Growth costs $6, and $8.

B2C Commerce plans, however, are based on a percentage system; for instance, Starter is 1% Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), Growth is 2% GMV, and is 3% GMV. B2B2C Commerce is an additional category that costs 1% GMV.

Shift4Shop

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Shift4Shop, formerly 3dcart, is a feature-rich eCommerce solution designed to assist manufacturers in realising their full potential within the eCommerce ecosystem. The extensive business toolset and shopping cart features of Shift4Shop help with inventory management, security, marketing, and customer service.

Key Features

• Hundred or more editable templates with full access to HTML and CSS are available in Shift4Shop.
• By providing Level 1 PCI compliance, the platform protects sensitive data.
• You might use sophisticated SEO and marketing technologies to reach a larger audience.
• It interfaces quickly with backend programs. Shift4Shop’s optimised code ensures that the most crucial page components load first.

Cons 

• It only provides limited support for mobile apps, which is a bummer.
• Its base platform necessitates numerous add-ons.

Pricing

The End-to-End E-commerce version of Shift4Shop is free forever. However, it is only available to US consumers. You must utilise Shift4Shop Payments as your eCommerce store’s payment processor to take advantage of this plan. In addition, there are monthly options available, including Basic for $29, Plus $79, and Pro for $229.99.

OpenCart

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It is a powerful and user-friendly eCommerce store builder. The open-source platform is geared toward global trade. OpenCart assists you in creating appealing store designs. In addition, various pre-made offers and coupons can be employed to boost sales.

Key Features

• You can customise user rights and role-based access for user groups in OpenCart.
• The platform provides a wide range of fully editable templates.
• You can improve the capabilities of your eCommerce storefront by using a variety of third-party modules, add-ons, and extensions.
• OpenCart does provide new manufacturing enterprises with enough marketing tools to get off the ground.

Cons 

• The platform is not compatible with big stores.
• The platform has several glitches and technological problems.

Pricing

The platform OpenCart is free to use. It provides paid technical support from professionals. You can purchase Premium Support for $99 per month if you want ongoing customer care instead of spending on a per-query basis.

Square

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It is a simple platform that enables you to create a user-friendly and valuable online store for your manufacturing company. This eCommerce platform is easy to use and doesn’t require any coding or web design expertise. In addition, square Online gives you access to a new method of selling. Small businesses can use the features for free because of its specific pricing.

Key Features

• Square Online is the best option for small business owners since it provides the most advanced features at an affordable price.
• The platform provides a detailed dashboard on sales, customer journeys, and cart abandonment.
• It has many built-in marketing tools, such as paid adverts and email marketing.

Cons

• The platform does not offer shipping assistance, which is a drawback.
• It is not appropriate for shops with a lot of sales.
• You must use the Square payment gateway to avoid additional transaction fees.

Pricing 

Square Online can be accessed without charge. Use Professional for $12 per month, Performance for $26 per month, and Premium for $72 per month. There are two annual subscription plans available.

BigCartel

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Small business owners can establish an online presence using the eCommerce platform. To assist in creating eCommerce sites suitable for diverse businesses, BigCartel provides a vast selection of pre-built themes with extensive modification options.

Key Features

• BigCartel is simple and cost-free to use.
• You can modify the website’s code in addition to employing themes.
• BigCartel-powered websites have frontend and backend code that is designed to load rapidly.
• The CMS dashboard features an icon-based navigation menu and is very user-friendly.
• A CSV file can be used to add many products, which is fantastic if you work with high-volume product categories.

Cons 

• There is no search feature.
• The platform only provides a few payment methods.
• BigCartel is unsuitable for larger manufacturing companies because it does not offer sophisticated capabilities.

Pricing

Under its Gold plan, BigCartel is free to use for manufacturing stores that offer up to five products. For $9.99 a month, you may get the Platinum package, which covers up to 50 products. Choose the $19.99 monthly Diamond plan to sell 500 products.

Conclusion

The Indian eCommerce market is anticipated to expand by 111 billion US dollars by 2024 and 200 billion US dollars by 2026. This suggests that there is an excellent opportunity for merchants to create, launch, and grow their eCommerce business by leveraging a competitive market.

If you are a small business owner new to the eCommerce industry, you can always start by setting up a free online store. Then, once you get some experience, you may upgrade to paid plans or move to one of the premium platforms to expand your company.

We covered all the information you require about eCommerce platforms in this article. We started by discussing the various aspects to consider when choosing a venue. Then, we looked at the platforms themselves, reviewing the top 10 eCommerce platforms currently on the market.

If you’re ready, select the top eCommerce platform based on your needs and specifications.

WareIQ Logistics- Building Better Distribution and Fulfilment Systems To Escalate Your Business 

WareIQ simplifies the process of efficiently distributing your goods across different locations, reducing shipping costs and achieving 2-day delivery thanks to the nationwide network of fulfillment centres.

Thanks to WareIQ’s fulfillment network, which has dozens of distribution centres dispersed across the nation, small to medium D2C, B2B businesses may swiftly and economically expand regionally.

With our analytics, merchants can choose the right inventory mix to fulfil customer demand while avoiding stockouts, backorders, and deadstock.

Additionally, WareIQ provides total visibility into business activity across the distribution network and is supported by best-in-class fulfilment technologies. From a single dashboard, retailers can monitor inventory levels in real-time, track orders through the supply chain, manage warehouse operations, and more. While this is happening, WareIQ’s well-experienced staff handles order fulfilment, processing, and delivery.

WareIQ also monitors crucial parameters at each site you use, such as inventory turnover, order cycle time, order accuracy, time in transit, and on-time percentage, to further improve your 3PL experience.

Using this data, you may identify areas that need improvement and improve supply chain management for success wherever you work.

eCommerce Platform FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Supercharge your fulfilment with WareIQ now, contact our team.

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