Having an online storefront is one of the most straightforward ways to conduct e-commerce. The merchant creates a website and uses it to sell products and services using shopping carts and e-commerce solutions. The “right” solution will depend on the merchant and their products. Below is a list of some of the top e-commerce platforms. Check them out and see which one is right for you.
Magento –
Considered by many as one of the most flexible e-commerce solutions in the market, Magento offers powerful features right out of the box. It gives merchants the ability to customize just about aspect of their e-commerce store, and you have complete freedom over the look, feel, and functionalities of your site.
Magento also has an active community of experts, developers, and agencies allowing merchants to easily connect with others if they need support. And if you need to further extend the functionality of Magento, you can always use add-ons to enhance your site.
Demandware –
This fully-hosted solution allows you to run a powerful e-commerce store in the cloud. Merchants using Demandware won’t have to worry much about platform maintenance and development since it’s fully hosted by the company (though this may limit your freedom a bit).
One of Demandware’s strengths is that it’s built with omnichannel retailers in mind, and it has features that enable merchants to easily sell across physical and digital storefronts.
Oracle Commerce –
This enterprise e-commerce solution can be implemented on-premises, or it can be hosted by Oracle or a third party. It has features that can benefit both B2B and B2C merchants, and it comes with powerful functionalities that enable you to sell more complex merchandise and data-rich offerings.
Oracle Commerce also allows users to easily customize sites and campaigns while giving them the ability to efficiently launch sites for multiple brands and markets.
Shopify –
A popular choice among many SMBs, Shopify has features that let you sell online, on social media, and in-person. It lets merchants build and customize their e-commerce site through easy-to-use interfaces and templates. And it has features such as inventory management, reporting, buy buttons and more. It also has social selling functionalities for those who are active on sites like Facebook and Pinterest.
Shopify is fully hosted, which means merchants won’t have to worry about maintaining the platform or using their servers.
WooCommerce –
Woo Commerce is an open source e-commerce platform for WordPress. It comes with standard features such as analytics and reporting, shipping options, and mobile-friendly functionalities. Built specifically for WordPress, Woo Commerce seamlessly connects with the platform. This makes it a very attractive choice for existing WP users.
Woo Commerce is highly extendable and very developer-friendly, offering things like custom AJAX endpoints, Webhook systems, and more.
BigCommerce –
Used by big and small brands alike, BigCommerce offers features such as a site builder, shipping options, reporting, and more. It also enables merchants to sell on other sites and platforms, including eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Google Shopping, and Square. Plus it has a Buy Button for enabling sales on blogs, emails, and more.
Additionally, BigCommerce has a built-in B2B offering for wholesalers and merchants selling to other businesses.
BigCommerce is fully-hosted, so the company handles all platform maintenance and updates.
Volusion –
Another popular e-commerce solution, Volusion enables merchants to create online stores, showcase their merchandise, and take payments all on one platform. Volusion comes with standard features including a site builder, shopping cart software, marketing tools, and more.
Drupal Commerce –
This is an open-source e-commerce framework that enables users to build online stores and applications on Drupal. Drupal Commerce is highly flexible and offers hundreds of modules that allow users to enhance and extend its functionalities. There’s also Commerce Kickstart, “a distribution of Drupal Commerce packed with features that make it more complete, faster to launch, and easier to administer.”
The Signature Software Lab is providing above e-commerce platform and alongside with a variety of integration other platforms.