What are the Most Popular E-commerce Platforms?
A software tool that allows online businesses to manage their website, marketing, sales, and operations is known as an ecommerce platform.
BigCommerce, for example, provides robust ecommerce functionality while also connecting with popular business tools, allowing companies to centralise their operations and operate their businesses their way.
What Are the Benefits of Using Most Popular E-commerce Platforms?
Your ecommerce software has a major impact on the profitability and stability of your business, whether you’re expanding a brick-and-mortar store, seeking an enterprise-level solution, or even establishing a business from scratch.
The following are the only alternatives to an ecommerce platform:
Building one from the ground up is unthinkable for most organizations – and only justifiable for multimillion (or multibillion) dollar enterprises.
Using a plugin, which isn’t ideal if you’re trying to start and grow a legitimate company, even if it’s a little one.
What Ecommerce Solutions Do I Have?
There are three main types of e-commerce platforms:
Open-Source.
SaaS (Software as a Service) (software-as-a-service).
Commerce without a leader.
Ecommerce platforms that are open source.
Regardless of the hosting configuration (cloud or on-premise), all patches and Most Popular E-commerce Platforms updates must be manually applied across the board.
Open-source ecommerce platforms allow you to customise any component of the code.
This type of ecommerce platform is popular among development and IT-heavy businesses that seek complete control over their online presence.
When you use an open-source ecommerce platform, you — the brand — are in charge of:
ERP, analytics, and business intelligence (BI) tools
The creation of new web-based features for the site, such as discount and promotion engines.
Tools for merchandising and marketing (e.g. SEO features, email marketing).
Drag-and-drop builders are a type of drag-and-drop builder.
Open-source ecommerce platforms are too complicated, expensive to run, and need too much technical knowledge for many firms.
As a result, there has been a significant shift to the following two types of ecommerce platforms:
SaaS.
Commerce without a leader.
In fact, open-source ecommerce solutions hosted in the cloud (rather than on-premise) account for only 46% of large ecommerce firms’ considerations.
Why?
Because compared to SaaS or headless commerce solutions, open-source ecommerce platforms and sites have a 6x annual cost of ownership.
Brands may benefit from SaaS and headless commerce to help them get to market quickly.
And we live in a fiercely competitive world where a delay in implementing stunning and innovative UX, product, or backend improvements might offer your competitors an advantage.
Platforms for ecommerce that are delivered as a service.
Cloud is the hosting environment.
Many of the complexities of running an online business are removed with SaaS ecommerce solutions. You essentially “rent” the platform rather than designing and developing a custom solution or an open-source solution (which is often developed to the point of being custom).
When development costs are taken into account, this is a much more cost-effective option than open-source solutions.
The SaaS supplier handles product upgrades, security, hosting, PCI compliance, and all other aspects of operating your own programme.
Ecommerce brands’ marketing and growth teams are frequently the internal boosters for SaaS ecommerce solutions. You can go to market fast and economically with a SaaS solution.
Because of the closed-off portion of code on a SaaS solution, IT and development teams are frequently concerned about a lack of flexibility and modification. APIs, as well as non-proprietary code and staging environments for UX build outs, serve to alleviate this problem.
The term “Open SaaS” refers to platforms that meet the preceding criteria.
Platforms for headless commerce.
Cloud is the hosting environment.
The shopping cart is separated from the CMS in headless commerce, a type of CaaS ecommerce.
Brands frequently utilise a design experience platform (DXP) like Adobe Experience Manager or Bloomreach, or a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Drupal in these use cases. They then integrate a decoupled ecommerce shopping cart.
Because of their inexpensive total cost of ownership and extensive API flexibility, SaaS solutions are frequently employed in favour of decoupled carts.
IT and development departments at large organisations have traditionally been the controllers of the business when it comes to on-premise hosting, open-source platforms, or custom platform builds.
However, SaaS and cloud hosting challenged the business due to the high expense of monolithic technology stacks and the requirement for speed and innovation in marketing.
Headless commerce solves this problem by enabling for a quicker time-to-market and a reduced total cost of ownership.
On the operations end, brands can keep their single source of truth monolithic systems by using APIs, plug-ins, and occasionally decoupled technology.
Content Management System (CMS), for constructing sites and blogging, is another decoupled solution that a Headless Commerce provider interacts with.
Data gathering is an example of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
Provider of Email Services (ESP).
To sell through numerous sales channels, you’ll need to use Product Information Management (PIM).
Inventory management is part of the Order Management System (OMS).
To cover your payment processors, you’ll need a point of sale (POS).
Amazon or eBay are examples of marketplaces.
On the presentation layer, SaaS APIs enable a modern SaaS technology stack, which includes anything from ecommerce SaaS platforms to ESPs and even lighter weight ERPs like Brightpearl.
IKEA furniture is the best analogy to use here.
The microservices are the various components of the item, which when combined form a completed project.
For many ecommerce businesses, headless commerce is the initial step toward microservice architecture.
Burrow, a DTC furniture business, uses a unique frontend that connects content and commerce. They were able to build the kind of shopping experience they wanted for their customers by adopting a headless configuration.
“Along with operational functions, being headless has empowered us creatively as well,” says Burrow Co-Founder and CPO Kabeer Chopra. “We use a headless CMS to drive modernization of our platform and to create a great digital experience across multiple channels.”
Returning to our IKEA example, consider the basic IKEA nightstand.
You’ve done headless commerce in a sense if you replace the top portion of the nightstand with their new wireless charging enabled top:
Using a new front-end component that provides an upgraded version of the old while maintaining the same basis and utility (e.g. drawer = cart/checkout).
What Are The Advantages Of Self-Hosted vs. Cloud Computing?
Ecommerce website can be hosted in one of two ways:
Self-Hosted.
Cloud.
Neither of these alternatives is a platform in and of itself.
They simply refer to how the site is hosted, with computers on-site (actually in a room controlled and maintained by your IT or development team) or off-site and managed in a warehouse (think Amazon Web Services, for instance).
Most Popular E-commerce Platforms that are self-hosted.
Ecommerce business owners that use self-hosted ecommerce systems must acquire hosting, deal with installations, and frequently do software updates manually.
Using self-hosted ecommerce software to run an ecommerce website necessitates the use of developers to maintain and update the site, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Magento Open Source, which is free to download but requires hosting, is an example of a self-hosted ecommerce solution. You have the option of hosting it on your own or using a hosting service. In fact, most open source ecommerce platforms can be hosted on-premise or by a third-party supplier.
WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin for WordPress, is an ecommerce solution that is typically hosted by a third-party hosting provider, but it may also be hosted on-premise on your own servers with some technical know-how.
More control over your online retail platform, greater visibility of your own data, and a better grasp of data protection are all advantages of this approach.
While this strategy may make sense for some exceedingly complicated businesses, it usually leads to increased costs and lower revenues.
Ecommerce platforms that are hosted in the cloud.
Off-site solutions like Amazon Web Services are used by cloud-hosted ecommerce platforms to provide hosting for their customers.
This means that the cloud platform is in charge of the brand’s uptime. BigCommerce and other cloud ecommerce platforms have an annual uptime of 99.99 percent.
One of the benefits of using a cloud-hosted ecommerce platform is that it is less expensive because you don’t have to pay for servers, maintenance, or upgrades. As needed, you’ll also get help from the hosting service provider.
There are certain drawbacks to cloud hosting, such as needing to pay a licencing charge in addition to the hosting fee. You also have less control over the servers and are unable to customise them to match specific requirements. You’re in control of both security and safety.
Patches, updates, and upgrades are not always installed automatically on cloud-hosted ecommerce platforms. Only SaaS and headless commerce platforms are capable of doing so.
What Are the Key Features of an Ecommerce Platform?
Every online store has its own set of requirements, and selecting the correct ecommerce platform is entirely based on the platform’s ability to address the day-to-day issues that your business faces.
However, there are a few essential things you should learn about potential suppliers.
Important elements of an ecommerce solution include:
The hosting environment, domain name, year-over-year uptime, and bandwidth are all factors to consider.
API call volumes are unrestricted.
Website builder featuring non-proprietary languages and free, user-friendly site templates.
A large app store or marketplace with pre-built connectors with best-in-class service providers.
Site, checkout, and whole experience (out-of-the-box) are all mobile optimised and totally configurable.
Mitigation of PCI Compliance
Throughout the site, there are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) elements and fully adjustable URLs to help you rank higher on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other search engines.
Promotions and discounts, analytics, catalogue management, WYSIWYG editors, and other fundamental ecommerce operational elements are built-in.
What to Think About When Choosing Most Popular E-commerce Platforms?
Although you may be enticed by a particularly low-cost plan that satisfies some of your requirements, you should conduct some research before committing. You can switch hosts at any time, but transferring your site can be a pain for both you and your visitors. Take into account the following:
1. Establish a budget.
Your ecommerce site could cost anything from $10 to $10,000 to build and host. Even if ecommerce hosts provide competitive packages, you must comprehend what you’re obtaining in order to determine whether they’re truly cost-effective.
Paying extra isn’t always the best way to get the greatest service.
Choosing the Most Popular E-commerce Platforms, on the other hand, will almost always leave you seeking for add-on capabilities elsewhere. The most expensive option is frequently piecing together costs from several sources.
Decide on our budget for the following items before choosing an ecommerce host:
Designing a website.
Functionality and programming.
Security.
Hosting is charged on a monthly basis.
Maintenance.
Licensing.
Developing a unique app.
If you choose with solitary web hosting, you’ll need to look at the prices of these services from various companies. When looking at all-in-one hosts, though, you’ll often discover that you can choose a premium subscription that contains all of these capabilities while remaining within your budget. Also read Top Ecommerce Platform in 2021
2. The intended audience.
If you want to reach a large and engaged audience, you’ll need to advertise to social media users, so researching a platform’s marketing tools is a good idea.
Facebook alone has around 2.7 billion monthly active users. That’s a significant number of potential clients.
BigCommerce has built-in Facebook and Instagram connectors, allowing you to market to users directly in their news feeds or main accounts.
With the introduction of Buyable Pins, Facebook Shop, and Instagram Shopping, you can now sell straight to consumers without them having to leave their preferred platform. Also read Best E-commerce platform-2021
3. The number of items you have.
Perhaps you have a large selection of physical products or a large number of variations for your primary product line.
If you have a huge catalogue and need several product pages, or if you plan to expand your business, choosing a platform with low SKU restrictions limits your upside. Read Terms of service here.
4. There is room for expansion.
It’s critical to choose a web host that can scale with your business. It’s advisable to pick the best web host right away so you can acquaint yourself with them as your business grows.
What kind of traffic do you expect to see on your site? If you’re just getting started, it’s natural that you won’t require a high-traffic server. Your ecommerce business, on the other hand, could scale quickly if you focus on your growth.
Will your host be able to handle current and future traffic demands? Also read Build a business with bigcommerce.
What could happen if you execute a viral promotion or campaign? Your website’s hosting architecture must be adaptable enough to withstand traffic spikes without crashing.
Because it can keep up with traffic, cloud hosting is one of the finest solutions for ecommerce businesses. You have practically limitless development potential because your site’s hosting needs are handled by a network of machines.
5. The type of customer service that is offered.
Every day, you’re inside an ecommerce solution.
And when that time comes, it’s nice to know that you can contact a live person to help you with your issue, whether through phone support, email, or chat.
Some platforms outsource customer care, making it difficult — if not impossible — to call in for assistance when you need it most.
Every one of our customers, we believe, is entitled to individualised customer service from BigCommerce. Read Top 10 E-commerce Platforms: Comparison in 2021.
Comparison of the Best Ecommerce Platforms
Every ecommerce platform has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Businesses must assess the various platforms based on their own unique requirements and use cases.
The Most Popular E-commerce Platforms are listed below.
Magento
Volusion
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a service provided by Salesforce.
- WooCommerce
- Shift4Shop
- Shopify
- Kibo
- Prestashop
- Squarespace
- Cartel de la Grande
- Wix
- Ecwid
- Episerver
- OpenCart
BigCommerce
Because of its low total cost of ownership and highly configurable APIs, BigCommerce is regarded an Open SaaS platform provider and a developing headless commerce provider.
Small company and startup options are also available, with built-in features and SEO control. The platform’s integration options, such as our headless WordPress plugin, make it a forerunner in the field of headless commerce solutions.
Magento.
Magento has always been an on-premise, open-source solution chosen by brands with large IT or development teams. In recent years, Magento 2 (also known as Magento Commerce Cloud or Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition) debuted a cloud-based, open-source solution.
Volusion.
It is Most Popular E-commerce Platforms geared toward small businesses and hobbyists.
Volusion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late July 2020. Volution is still open and working as usual, according to a blog post on the company’s website.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a service provided by Salesforce (Demandware).
Salesforce Cloud Commerce, originally Demandware, is a SaaS ecommerce platform supplier that high-profile fashion merchants frequently use.
Like Shopify and BigCommerce, it’s an open SaaS model.
WooCommerce.
It is an open-source ecommerce platform that includes a shopping cart in addition to a brand’s WordPress content.
It’s most commonly utilised by small businesses and amateurs, bloggers who want to branch out into ecommerce, and brands who want to hire developers who are familiar with the WordPress and JetPack platform.
Shift4Shop.
This is another SaaS ecommerce platform, albeit one that is usually overlooked.
Shift4Shop offers multilingual support and advanced shipping options without the need for an API.
Shopify.
It is a well-funded, publicly traded SaaS ecommerce company. They’re popular with small businesses, amateurs, and brands with fewer than 100 SKUs.
Shopify Plus is an enterprise product offered by the company. Check out Cart Consultants’ Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce comparison for more information on the benefits and drawbacks of each platform.
Kibo.
It is an omnichannel platform provider that in 2016 purchased Mozu, a SaaS ecommerce platform.
Mozu was created from the ground up to provide the most cutting-edge ecommerce SaaS solutions.
Prestashop.
Prestashop is a cloud-hosted, open-source, freemium ecommerce software.
The platform is available in 60 languages and is widely used outside of English-speaking nations, where other platform providers such as BigCommerce dominate.
Demandware.
Shopify.
Magento.
Squarespace.
Squarespace is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) website platform. Their work with the creative community has made them famous. Their ecommerce platform was inspired by the necessity for a light-weight cart (with cart recovery) to sell things among the creative community.
It’s mostly utilised by the creative community for low-volume SKUs.
The Big Cartel is a criminal organization.
Big Cartel is Most Popular E-commerce Platforms for small businesses that don’t require a complex platform. Bands, clothes designers, jewelry makers, craftsmen, and other forms of artists are common Big Cartel vendors. The platform is simple to use, although it only has a few features. If you have a huge product library, Big Cartel may not be able to meet your expectations.
Wix.
Wix, like Squarespace, is recognised for its straightforward website setup and keeping things simple with a drag-and-drop interface, affordable pricing, and modern paid and free templates. Entrepreneurs and other small company creatives are the most common users of Wix. The platform takes pleasure in providing a solution for both novices and specialists looking for creative flexibility in their website design.
Ecwid.
Ecwid has grown in popularity among small business owners, with over 1 million online users. This solution is a widget, not a platform, designed for people who want to add a store to an existing website. Ecwid is a free solution if you have fewer than ten products in your catalogue. Plans begin at $15 per month after that.
Episerver.
Content and personalization are at the heart of Episerver’s platform. The platform, which is another headless commerce solution, aims to merge digital marketing, content management, and digital commerce into a single solution. For mid-market and enterprise-level merchants, the solution is a popular alternative. Other Episerver solutions, such as Episerver Find and Episerver Campaign, are designed to work well with the platform.
OpenCart.
OpenCart is a free and open-source programme for managing online stores. Merchants may use the platform to create multiple storefronts and payment options, manage product options and attributes, and add an unlimited number of products. Small enterprises, freelancers, and mid-market merchants like this choice.
