The best eCommerce platforms can significantly enhance businesses by simplifying online store setup, improving operational efficiency, and increasing ROI. They offer robust tools and features designed to help you manage your store.
In this article, we explore the top eCommerce solutions for small businesses, providing a comprehensive overview of their benefits. We’ll delve into how these platforms can help streamline operations and support business growth, helping you choose the right one for your business. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- Ten Best eCommerce Platforms for SMEs
- 10 Best eCommerce Platforms for Small Businesses Compared
- How To Choose the Right eCommerce Solution for Your Small Business
- 5 Advantages of eCommerce Solutions for Small Businesses
- 5 Key Features of eCommerce Systems for Growing Revenue
- Bottom Line on eCommerce Solutions for Small Business
- eCommerce Solutions FAQs
Ten Best eCommerce Platforms for SMEs
1. Wix
The best eCommerce platform for small businesses is Wix because it provides a wealth of features for a relatively small investment. It offers more than 500 customizable, mobile-friendly templates. Moreover, you can incorporate various types of media, such as animations, video backgrounds, and scroll effects, to enhance your website.
One of the standout features of Wix is its built-in SEO and analytics, which allow you to track your website’s performance. Additionally, Wix provides free hosting, social tools, chat functionality, mailbox and contact management, and more. For transactions, the platform accepts secure online payments or deposits, all commission-free.
Wix offers four pricing plans:
- Basic ($17/month)
- Core ($29/month)
- Business ($36/month)
- Business Elite ($159/month)
All Wix plans accept online payments and domain connections. The main difference between the plans is the number of video hours they support.
Wix is trusted by countless users and IT service companies worldwide and is one of the best eCommerce platforms for small businesses on the market.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace is another great eCommerce platform for small businesses, particularly popular among photographers, restaurateurs, and fashion designers. This platform offers a range of blogging, marketing, and SEO tools, as well as built-in analytics. A Squarespace online store can integrate with popular apps, social media, and payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, and Apple Pay.
As far as design goes, Squarespace offers numerous award-winning templates that are mobile-friendly and highly customizable.
Squarespace offers four pricing structures:
- Personal ($16/month)
- Business ($23/month)
- Basic Commerce ($28/month)
- Advanced Commerce ($52/month)
The Business plan is a good fit for small businesses as it includes all the necessary features at a modest price, including:
- Mobile optimized templates
- SEO features
- 24/7 customer support
- Basic website metrics
- Advanced website analytics
While the Basic Commerce plan offers great features like checkout on the domain and selling on Instagram, it lacks abandoned cart recovery or advanced shipping features like the Advanced Commerce plan.
3. Shopify
Shopify is among the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world with a market share of 10.32%. It offers many professional themes that include mobile shopping carts and can integrate with over 100 payment gateways.
Shopify provides small businesses with more advanced tools than Wix or Squarespace. For instance, it facilitates website design, Facebook selling, free shipping options, product reviews, gift cards, and discounts, among other features. What’s more, this platform gives you full access to the HTML and CSS files of your store, making it fully customizable.
Shopify has several pricing plans:
- Basic Shopify ($29/month)
- Shopify ($79/month)
- Advanced Shopify ($299/month)
The main differences between these plans are the number of staff accounts, Shopify payments, and point-of-sale capabilities.
With 24/7 support, manual order creation, discount codes, fraud analysis, and abandoned cart recovery, among other features, Shopify is a great option for small stores looking to scale their operations easily and efficiently.
4. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is one of the most popular platforms among apparel & fashion, health & beauty, manufacturing, and food & beverage brands.
Some of the key features BigCommerce provides are:
- Theme customization
- Checkout customization
- Mobile optimization
- WordPress integration
- Digital wallets integration
- Coupons & discounts
- And more
Like other eCommerce solutions on this list, BigCommerce includes SEO tools that allow you to optimize your pages and products for search engines. What’s unique about it is its capability to sell across channels, enabling you to make your products available on several platforms while managing the entire inventory through BigCommerce.
It also facilitates international selling as it:
- Supports 250+ local currencies in over 129 countries
- Offers multi-language interfaces
BigCommerce pricing plans include:
- Standard ($29/month)
- Plus ($79/month)
- Pro ($299/month)
The Standard plan is convenient for small businesses as it includes unlimited accounts, products, file storage, and bandwidth, as well as social media integration, responsive design, coupons, discounts, and gift cards, to name a few.
The Plus plan offers more advanced features, such as customer segmentation and an abandoned cart recovery tool, making it a better option for fast-growing online businesses.
5. Weebly
Weebly is one of the most budget-friendly eCommerce platforms for small businesses. It is perhaps best known for its customizable email templates, built-in SEO features, and website analytics.
Its shipping tool allows you to send products to national and international customers, while its inventory features allow you to easily manage import and export. Furthermore, Weebly allows you to create coupons and gift cards, accept payments using Square, Stripe, or PayPal, and feature customer reviews.
Weebly affordable pricing plans consist of:
- Personal ($10/month)
- Pro ($12/month)
- Performance ($26/month)
The Pro plan is basic and has very few selling options. On the other hand, the Business plan is the right fit for small companies, giving them access to all the features listed above, as well as unlimited storage, SEO, and analytics, a free domain, and even $100 credit for Google Ads.
6. WooCommerce
With 39% of the total market share, WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce solution for small businesses and large enterprises alike. It’s a WordPress plugin known for its great content management system.
The platform offers more than 400 extensions including payments, shipping, marketing, and accounting. WooCommerce provides countless themes and unrestricted customization both in terms of UI and UX.
Its product categories, tags, and attributes allow users to easily navigate through the inventory, while the product ratings and reviews features provide the social proof they need to make their purchasing decision.
In addition, some of the useful extensions also include:
- Customer accounts and guest checkout
- Email templates
- Search engine optimization
- Related products
- Reporting
- And more
To calculate the final cost of your WooCommerce development project, consider these factors:
- Choosing a host ($3.95 - $5,000/month)
- Registering a domain ($15/year)
- Picking a theme (optional cost - $20 to $100/year)
- Store management
- Payment gateway
7. Square
Square can be another great choice of eCommerce platform for small businesses. It is powered by Weebly, so it comes with the same customization options. This solution facilitates selling on your website and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Square accepts major payment gateways while keeping transactions secure. Product management, simple orders, SEO, and email templates are also among its most popular features. Unlike Weebly, however, Square can track customer behavior and create custom invoices. It also uses AI to help you identify products and match them with a relevant category.
Square is one of the rare eCommerce solutions for small businesses that offer a free plan. So, with zero investment, you can build your online store and enjoy features like:
- Selling unlimited items
- Integrating Instagram
- Leveraging SEO tools
- Integrating with Google Pay & Apple Pay
- Accepting Square gift cards
- And more
However, do keep in mind that Square has a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30. Besides the free plan, the platform also offers paid plans, such as:
- Plus plan ($29/month)
- Premium plan ($79/month)
Some of the main features these plans provide include expanded site customization, QR code ordering, and customer accounts.
8. GoDaddy
GoDaddy makes it possible to sell everywhere and manage everything all in one place. This platform enables you to sell directly to marketplaces like eBay or Amazon and promote your products on Facebook. It also integrates with PayPal, Apple, and Google Pay.
You can choose from an array of mobile-friendly templates and enjoy a range of marketing tools, including email campaign builder and SEO. They also offer cloud hosting, an increasingly popular option.
GoDaddy has one eCommerce pricing plan for $20.99/month, which includes 24/7 support and advanced analytics. There is also a free one-month trial.
9. Magento
Next on our list of best eCommerce solutions for small businesses is Magento. Just like WooCommerce, it is an open-source software, which means users can customize it according to their needs. This is a slightly more advanced template that may require some development assistance.
It is known for:
- Great scalability
- SEO friendly
- Full integration between existing systems
- Process recurring payments
- Discounts
- Shipping
- Member subscriptions
- And more
Magento Open-Source is free of charge, so your expenses will depend on third-party fees only.
10. Volusion
Volusion has more than 180,000 users across various industries such as food & beverage, fashion, and retail. This platform offers expertly designed themes that are responsive and accessible from any device. Additionally, it also includes a content editor, navigation editor, homepage slideshow, and product category pages.
With Volusion, you can process orders easily, use the Related Products feature to incentivize more sales, apply various shipping options, and secure checkouts. It also provides popular features, including SEO, abandoned cart reports, deals of the day, gift cards, and ROI tracking.
Volusion offers several pricing plans:
- Personal ($35/month)
- Professional ($79/month)
- Business ($299/month)
With the Personal plan, you can only have one account and sell up to 100 products. The Professional plan can host up to five accounts and a sales volume of up to 5,000 products. It also comes with some additional eCommerce tools, including:
- Ratings and reviews
- Abandoned cart reports
- Phone orders + CRM
- Import/Export
The Business plan allows you to sell an unlimited number of products. This plan comes with advanced features like Amazon & eBay integrations, an advanced report builder, deal of the day, and loyalty program, and more.
Volusion also offers a 14-day free trial.
10 Best eCommerce Platforms for Small Businesses Compared
| Platform | Cost Per Month | Unique Feature |
| Wix | $17 - $159 | Built-in SEO and analytics |
| Squarespace | $16 - $52 | Award-winning customizable templates |
| Shopify | $29 - $299 | Full access to HTML and CSS for customization |
| BigCommerce | $29 - $299 | Multi-channel selling capability |
| Weebly | $10 - $26 | Customizable email templates |
| WooCommerce | Depends on a host of factors | Over 400 extensions for various functions |
| Square | $0 - $79 | AI for product identification and categorization |
| GoDaddy | $20.99 | One-stop solution for selling and managing |
| Magento | Open Source Free | High scalability and SEO-friendly |
| Volusion | $35 - 299 | Related Products feature to boost sales |
How To Choose the Right eCommerce Solution for Your Small Business
Choosing the right eCommerce platforms for small businesses is crucial for the success of your online store. The right platform can streamline your operations and ultimately drive growth.
Here are some key factors to consider when selecting an eCommerce solution:
- Cost: Ensure the platform fits within your budget by considering both initial and ongoing expenses.
- Features: Aim for a solution that offers features, such as SEO tools, mobile optimization, and customizable templates.
- Scalability: Choose a scalable platform that can grow with your brand, particularly those offering advanced integrations as you expand.
- Ease of use: Opt for a user-friendly platform that doesn’t require you to have technical knowledge to manage its capabilities.
- Custom support: Make sure you choose a solution that provides quick and easy customer support so you can immediately resolve issues that arise.
Considering these factors will help you find an eCommerce solution that aligns with your business goals and resources. Making an informed decision now can save you time, money, and effort in the long run while setting your business up for sustained success.
5 Advantages of eCommerce Solutions for Small Businesses
Here are the top advantages of using the best eCommerce solutions for small businesses:
- Quick entry to online selling: With any of the eCommerce software listed in this post, your online store can be ready within minutes. They have pre-built templates that you should only configure and insert your products.
- Easy administration: Most of the platforms on the market offer ready-to-use themes. You only need to make minimal customizations to adjust them according to your needs. This means anyone can personalize their online stores even without prior knowledge of coding.
- Customer service: Almost all available eCommerce solutions offer 24/7 customer support. It comes in handy whenever you come up with an issue. Simply talk to customer support and the problem will be solved as soon as possible.
- Omni-channel selling: eCommerce software makes it possible to sell on different platforms like Amazon or Facebook and manage your customers and sales from one dashboard. This saves you both time and effort.
- Easy payments and shipping: These platforms also have integrated payment gateways that allow you to receive easy and secure online transactions. What’s more, they also come with different shipping options from which customers can choose.
5 Key Features of eCommerce Systems for Growing Revenue
Here are the top features of eCommerce software for small businesses:
1. Customization
The best eCommerce solutions for small businesses offer hundreds of pre-made templates you can customize as you please, adjusting your user interfaces (UI) to reflect your brand identity.
Moreover, features such as multiple shipping options, payment methods, product categorizations, discounts, and coupons can help you customize your users' experience and incentivize more sales.
2. Automation
One of the best features of eCommerce software is its ability to automate routine and complex processes, such as:
- Detect customers’ addresses when shipping products
- Calculating taxes, shipping rates, and pricing for selected products
- Customer registration and generating usernames and passwords
- Send notifications and emails
- And more
Automating these can significantly improve your efficiency and customer service.
3. Marketing Tools
With eCommerce marketing tools, you can drive traffic to your website and grow your audience. Here are some of them:
- Email templates: eCommerce software comes with various email templates that you can personalize. For instance, with Shopify Email, you can create campaigns and send emails using your domain name. Later, you can use your dashboard to analyze their performance.
- SEO: These platforms also include various SEO features. Wix, for instance, offers stores that load fast and are mobile-friendly. What’s more, it allows optimizing titles, product descriptions, and meta and alt text, which are essential in increasing your search engine visibility.
- Social media: Solutions like Squarespace allow integration with different channels like Facebook and Instagram while allowing consumers to buy directly from them.
4. Analytics and Reporting
The analytics and reporting tools within eCommerce solutions for small businesses help you measure KPIs and give you an insight into how well your store is performing.
Thanks to these features, you can:
- Monitor visitor numbers
- View sales, refunds, and coupons over time
- Get alerts when traffic is spiking or dipping
- See your top products and categories
- Track cart abandonments
- Check trends over time
All these will help you understand what is working or not and allow you to improve your selling strategies to increase your revenue.
5. Integrations
Most of these solutions integrate with third-party platforms to improve your online store's performance. Some of the most popular integrations are:
- Payment gateway integration: eCommerce software integrates with most credit cards and platforms, including PayPal, Stripes, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. These facilitate easy and secure transactions.
- Marketplace integration: You can also connect your online store with other selling platforms such as eBay and Amazon, while managing sales from your online store. This can help you increase your reach and, consequently, sales.
- Social media integration: Your online store can integrate with Facebook and Instagram to facilitate direct social media selling while processing your payments within the store.
Bottom Line on eCommerce Solutions for Small Business
The best eCommerce solutions for small businesses help growing organizations reach online markets effectively and on budget. They require minimum to no development, which keeps the final cost minimal and gives you more control over your store.
Each of these eCommerce solutions comes with its unique sets of features and advantages. To find the one that fits your needs, focus on:
- Templates and customization options
- Features for process automation
- Marketing tools such as email campaigns and SEO
- Built-in analytics
- Third-party platform integrations
Selecting the right platform will make your day-to-day operations easier and accelerate business growth. Professional eCommerce development agencies can be a great help in this.
eCommerce Solutions FAQs
1. What are eCommerce solutions?
eCommerce solutions are platforms that allow businesses to create and run online stores. They come with all the key tools built-in, allowing you to manage sales, customers, products, and other day-to-day operations.
Most eCommerce solutions also come with:
- Customizable templates
- Inventory management (digital) facilities
- Shipping features
- Payment gateways
- Product categorization
- And more
2. What is the best eCommerce platform for small businesses?
These are some of the top eCommerce platforms:
- Wix's drag-and-drop editor is perfect if you want a visually stunning site.
- Weebly offers the best value for those on a budget.
- BigCommerce is excellent for boosting sales.
- WooCommerce is the most versatile option.
3. How much should I pay for an eCommerce solution for small business?
Depending on your eCommerce business size and functionality, the total cost can range between $30 to $10,000. Aside from the development costs, you should also consider the expenses for digital marketing.
A small to medium-sized eCommerce enterprise can spend between $1,000 to $10,000 per month on advertising, while larger companies can end up allocating over $15,000 per month for their marketing campaigns.
