Top 6 eCommerce Platforms For Self-Reliant Small Businesses

Ecommerce company owners have many options in regards to ecommerce platforms or shopping carts — nearly all of which promise to not be difficult to install and manage. In fact, on the other hand, most company owners wind up hiring a Web developer as well as a designer to help them create the right ecommerce website.

Having said that, there are lots of intrepid entrepreneurs (usually with a few HTML and/or design expertise) who wish to create and handle their ecommerce website themselves, who do not need (or cannot afford) programmer. Heaps of little ecommerce business owners share shopping carts, or the top 6 ecommerce solutions, that present for the DIY crowd.

1. Shopify
   Shopify enables the hands on small business owners to design their websites all by themselves and in addition maintain its ever expanding and changing inventory online on their own. One of the Shopify users says that she had done thorough research before launching her business six months ago and as per her Shopify was the best ecommerce platform for small businesses as it is easy to learn how to use this platform. In addition to this, it has a number of themes to choose from. By far, the most important feature of Shopify was that it has a number of apps to monitor your inventory, help with your shipping logistics, launch retargeting campaigns and lots of other features. Some of the users of Shopify recommend it because of its community as well.

Due to a strong community feature, you will be able to solve problems faster, learn quickly and find examples faster. Also, choosing a ecommerce provider with good technical and customer support and a strong community means you will able to save a lot of headaches and technical costs.

Basic plan: $29/month

2. Magento
   Magento is a powerful ecommerce solution provider and has a lot of features. In addition, being owned by eBay makes it easier to sell products on their platform. This is the opinion of one of satisfied Magento ecommerce platform users. The same user says that he was able to add features as the business grew and his requirements changed and all this was possible due to Magento. In the realm of open source software, Magento is by far the most mature and sophisticated.

   One of the other users of Magento says that it offers a choice of renting a hosted version or a self-host version for free that is an easy startup for anyone. And the seemingly countless extensions to customize Magento as per your requirements is an added attraction of this ecommerce platform. Also, the technical support is excellent and the software of Magento is very modular, enabling it to grow with your business, says the user.

   Get going plan: $15/month

3. Bigcommerce
   As far as Bigcommerce is concerned, their team of ecommerce experts helped this user through every step of the process from migrating my store from another platform to this awesome platform. In addition, there is in depth training available on marketing and search engine optimization, say the users of Bigcommerce. The level of support and built in features, including the free design templates that are standard make the life of the ecommerce website owner easier. There is no other choice than Bigcommerce if you want your business to grow and succeed, feel the users of this ecommerce platform.

   Silver plan: $34.95/month

4. WooCommerce
   WooCommerce is a WordPress based ecommerce platform, and its fans say that there is no other ecommerce platform suited for do it yourself kind of websites. Due to the fact that WordPress is free and open source, you have complete control over your webstore without the hindrances of getting into a monthly contract or proprietary software. Hence, WooCommerce is perfect for the first steps of a small ecommerce website and also has the potential to power much larger stores. If you know how to use WordPress, then using WooCommerce will come naturally to you with your products listed as a modified blog post in the CMS or the content management system.

   In addition to all these benefits, WooCommerce is free, so there are no monthly fees that can eat into your profits and it is easy to use. Another plus is that it can be used for both digital downloads and physical products, and the amount of extensions it has got makes it quite flexible.

5. Webs
   Webs is the first choice of many ecommerce website owners due to its simplicity and intuitiveness. Due to these features, users were able to quickly set up their webstore in minutes and decided to upgrade from a free trial. Another feature of Webs is that maintenance of this platform is very easy. Items can be added and removed in under five minutes. In addition, Webs offers the facility of offering its customers several payment options. This makes a Webs platform run ecommerce store looked entirely professional that helps to boost their credibility with potential customers.

   Pro plan: $16.50/month

6. 3dcart
   3dcart helps to set ecommerce stores on a shoestring budget. The main features of 3dcart are that for as little as about $20 a moneth, you can get a cart with built in linking to Google analytics, social media sharing and the most important feature being is to become a host of triggered emails based upon the actions of users. In addition, abandoned carts, product reviews, and other features can be all set to deploy automatically in 3dcart. Thus, 3dcart is popular with those customers who are looking for an entry level cart with a robust set of features.

   Mini plan: $19.99/month

One final say

Even though there are a number of free open source ecommerce platforms out in the market like Magento, it can become quite time consuming to install and maintain them. These type of platforms may be more powerful, but it may happen that a small business will almost always be better off using a hosted store solution. With hosted solutions, there are no manual software updates required and security is being taken care of in the background. Moreover, downtime poses no threat and the personal support these platforms offer becomes a boon for the first time small business owners. However, before going for a hosted solution, most solution providers offer a 14 or 30 day free trial. Make sure you utilize this time frame to determine if it is the right solution for you.