It’s no surprise that the 2020 global ecommerce revenue is estimated to be 3.5 trillion dollars according to Statista . The projection also sees the continued growth of ecommerce space for foreseeable future. It’s not too late to jump start your 2020 ecommerce initiatives and have a strong presence for 2021.

Let’s take a look at the top ecommerce platforms and solutions.

Magento Ecommerce Platform

magento ecommerce platform

There are over 250,000 merchants powered by Magento ecommerce platform. Merchant growth is calculated to about 3 times more on average by using this platform. Magento is the most highly customizable ecommerce platform out there. It’s open source with over 150,000 developers contributing and the community version is free. There’s a cloud solution and an enterprise version for medium to large businesses.

Magento Features:

The Magento platform features set promotional pricing, SEO, easy content management and site control, catalog management and browsing to increase conversion rates and the integration of multiple payment gateways . See the complete list of Magento features.

Pros:

Features are rich and robust, Highly customizable, and Strong SEO

Cons:

Requires experienced developers, requires hosting, multiple language support, and costly themes

Pricing:

Open Source is free. There is a cost for enterprise version.

Best Solutions for:

Developers, small and big businesses

BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers customizable themes and checkout, mobile optimization, allows you to preview before publishing with the Stencil CLI tool and has WordPress integration.

BigCommerce Features:

BigCommerce offers customizable themes and checkout, mobile optimization, allows you to preview before publishing with the Stencil CLI tool and has WordPress integration. With BigCommerce, you can integrate your store to different marketing channels such as Amazon, Ebay and Google Shopping. One of my favorite with BigCommerce is Avalara integration, calculating tax and collecting tax automatically.

BigCommerce Pros:

Hosting, easy to use, lots of features, and supports enterprise.

BigCommerce Cons:

Limited support and extensions, not well known

BigCommerce Pricing:

Standard package is $29.95/month to Pro package $299.95/month.

BigCommerce Pricing

Best Solutions for:

Startups and small businesses

It’s no surprise that the 2020 global ecommerce revenue is estimated to be 3.5 trillion dollars according to Statista . The projection also sees the continued growth of ecommerce space for foreseeable future. It’s not too late to jump start your 2020 ecommerce initiatives and have a strong presence for 2021.

Let’s take a look at the top ecommerce platforms and solutions.

Shopify

With over 800,000 stores powered by Shopify it’s no wonder Shopify is a huge competitor to WooCommerce, in 2018 Shopify made over $1.5 billion in sales during Black Friday. One of the reasons why Shopify is so popular is that it’s relatively easy to setup with their drag and drop website builder. You can get your store up and running within minutes and the platform has tons of free themes and Apps which you can choose from to customize your store front.

Shopify Features:

The features for this platform includes free and paid themes and apps from the Shopify stores, a payment provider for credit card payments, sales channels and enterprise plan for high volume merchants that reduces transaction fees, a blog that gives you helpful tips on running your business, access to experts to help with set up, design and marketing as well as twenty four hour, seven day a week service team.

Pros:

Includes hosting, 24/7 customer support, lots of apps and templates

Cons:

Doesn’t have great SEO, there are transaction fees for third party and there is limited developer customization.

Pricing:

A basic Shopify package starts at $29 per month and advanced Shopify will cost you $299/mo. Depending on your business needs you have three choices, shown below. Apps can get a bit pricey.

Best Solutions for:

People or businesses who are starting out and looking to grow in the long run.

WooCommerce Ecommerce

WooCommerce is an open source platform that was built on WordPress, which means it’s a FREE plugin. There are currently 3.3M live websites using WooCommerce and over 400 extensions available for download. So, if you have a problem, they have an extension to solve it right away. In addition, WooCommerce allows people and businesses to easily turn their WordPress sites into an online shopping store.

WooCommerce Features:

The many features of this platform include a customer account and guest checkout with automatically generated usernames and passwords or option to choose your own and quick check out for those that don’t want to register. Refunds are made easy with one-click. They can be easily managed through your WooCommerce dashboard. Tracking stock levels, notifications for low or out of stock items and order management are other benefits. There are also email templates at your disposal to keep in contact with your customers and because WooCommerce is run on WordPress you have the best in SEO.

Pros:

Free, Open source, highly supported, lots of extensions, SEO ready, works with WordPress, and a lot of developers at your disposal

Cons:

Does not have hosting, can become costly with extensions, not easily customizable

Pricing:

Free

Best Solutions for:

People or businesses who are on WordPress platforms

3D Cart

3D Cart Ecommerce

3dcart has been around since 1997 which makes them one of the older ecommerce platforms out there. They have over 200 built-in features with 50 free themes at your disposal. One of the main features of 3dcart is its website builder which allows users to customize their storefront and you do not need to bother with coding.

3dcart Features:

3dcart has been around since 1997 which makes them one of the older ecommerce platforms out there. They have over 200 built-in features with 50 free themes at your disposal. One of the main features of 3dcart is its website builder which allows users to customize their storefront and you do not need to bother with coding.

3dcart Pros:

Strong business tools, lots of integration, and hosting and support.

3dcart Cons:

Lots of features to choose from, and costly ad-ons

3dcart Pricing:

Standard package starts at $9.50/month to Pro store $114.50/month.

Best Solutions for:

3dcart PriciningStartups and small businesses

OpenCart

OpenCart Ecommerce

Over 350,000 live websites are powered by OpenCart, which is an Open source eCommerce platform. OpenCart is known for its easy setup, thousands of plugin extensions and themes. Yes, it’s free to use. However, you would need your own hosting and setup. OpenCart does have a cloud solution you can utilize. OpenCart is also highly customizable and has a large support community.

OpenCart Features:

OpenCart is open source and free it offers free downloads and updates, no monthly fees, powerful store management, built in SEO, extensions and themes; the largest selection of modules and themes and free community or community support.

OpenCart Pros:

Free, Open source, high customization, and easy setup

OpenCart Cons:

Requires hosting, experienced developers, and plugin extensions

OpenCart Pricing:

Free

Best Solutions for:

Startups and small businesses

Volusion

Volusion Ecommerce

Volusion is also a SaaS a cloud base ecommerce platform and it powers over 12,000 live websites. Volusion comes with hosting and one of the main features of this platform is that it has a dashboard where you can manage your store front from a single location. Additionally, it includes marketplace integration such as Amazon, Ebay, Google shopping and others.

Volusion Features:

Volusion has a store editor that allows you to customize your site and product pages. You are also able to easily and quickly set up payments through PayPal, Apple Pay and Stripe.

Volusion Pros:

Great support and one place to manage your storefront.

Volusion Cons:

Weak SEO, limited capabilities and features, and SSL is extra

Volusion Pricing:

Standard package is $29.95/month to Pro package $299.95/month.

Best Solutions for:

Startups and small businesses