Top 5 E-Commerce Solutions for Small Businesses

As a small or medium-sized business owner, there’s nothing more crucial and beneficial to your success than the Internet. Gone are the days of needing all the tricky logistics of a brick-and-mortar store to set up a shop, because now everything you need can be processed digitally.

But of course, the freedom to start your business seemingly on a whim also means there’s a lot of responsibility involved in choosing the right platform for your business. Because, yes, it’s easy to start your online business, but that also means it’s easy for your competition, too. You need to find your edge online, and that starts with choosing the right platform. 

It might seem like a small, harmless decision, but your e-commerce solution can set the trend for your business’ success. It is, after all, the home where you’ll host everything you need to show potential customers and clients. Which is why you need to choose a platform that cares about search engine optimisation, mobile-friendliness, and its potential for when you want to scale your business.

Here are five of the best e-commerce solutions for those looking to jumpstart their small business into the online world: 

1. Shopify 

There’s a reason you frequently hear of Shopify. It’s almost become a synonym for “online store” in the way Google has become for search engines. That’s because its platform was always designed to support those looking to start businesses (come on, it’s in the name – Shopify. They knew what they were about.) 

But it’s more than just the name value that Shopify provides for e-commerce stores. It’s built its reputation on being a versatile platform that offers tools for businesses that plan on scaling up – custom domains, logo designs, product findings with vendor relationships, and a vast library of stock photos are all great tools to have for any business. 

More than just those tools, though, Shopify offers unlimited file storage, endless product offerings, hosting, security, abandoned cart recovery, and 24/7 support. Packages all start at $9, with higher pricing for more premium features. 

Shopfiy also allows you to buy previous domains, in case you already have an e-commerce website and want to make the jump. Seamless transitioning and robust features really make Shopify deserving of its cult status. 

2. Squarespace 

If Squarespace has anything above anybody else, it’s the mobile friendliness. Squarespace puts effort into making sure that websites translate as smoothly as possible to phone devices. And these mobile-tailored interfaces are also unique based on the overall style of the store. 

Squarespace also knows that when it comes to e-commerce, pictures are everything, which is why they incorporate a “Responsive Image Loader” that allows different resolutions of every photo to be ready for use, regardless of which platform the user is on. 

3. Wix 

Like Squarespace, Wix is another one of those website-builders that people probably know from all the YouTube and podcast ads, but they have a nice set of features that justify their position on all those pesky advertisements. 

For starters, Wix is free to start. Of course, paying annually means you get a free domain and $300 in ad vouchers, but being able to maintain a site indefinitely that you can upgrade later is always a huge plus, especially if you’re just starting out. 

The free version should be accessible and usable to most people, but if you really wanna invest in Wix, you can go for their most expensive plan for $25 a month. Included in it are phone support, priority service, ticket support, and SEO analytics. 

4. WooCommerce 

WooCommerce uses WordPress as its backbone, which is a big bonus if you have any other websites that use WordPress as the main content management system. The easy WordPress integration allows for smooth cross-platform coordination with your other sites, and other people’s sites as well. 

Because it’s built using WordPress, you have the plugin-type features just like you would with any WordPress site. And with over 300 plugins (many of which can help you handle the basic accounting and costing involved in running a business), you won’t be deprived of solutions for when your business decides to expand. 

5. Magento 

Let’s say you’ve already scaled up and you need a more robust system – there’s no better platform than Magento. All the biggest brands – Hermes, Fred Perry, Nike, New Balance, 3M, Bvlgari, Charlotte Tillbury, and even the football club Liverpool – use Magento for their websites because of the powerful and smooth features the service offers.

This laundry list of big clients should already prove its value as an e-commerce solution, but of course, the tradeoff is that it takes a little bit of web development know-how to properly unlock Magento’s potential. This is why the big brands use it, because they have designated budgets and people that can handle this for them. If you’re scaling up and want to go for that level of commitment, then Magento is definitely a great option.