With the global rise of online shopping, running a retail business without an online sales channel means giving up potential customers to your more tech-savvy competitors. However, running an online marketplace is impossible without a high-grade e-commerce platform. Below are the most reliable solutions on the market selected by Riselane.com e-commerce professionals.
1. Shopify
Shopify is a household name for e-commerce amongst millions of small and growing online businesses. All because the platform combines such important features as:
- simplicity;
- affordability;
- scalability;
- responsive tech support;
- seamless social media integrations;
- advanced inventory management.
Besides, Shopify provides a large selection of payment options and the simplest online storefront builder that doesn’t require you to have any web design skills.
2. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is pretty much similar to Shopify when it comes to storefront building and simplicity of management, but it has a bigger focus on middle and large enterprises. It means that the platform offers a larger selection of payment options (55 gateways), a more advanced SEO toolkit, and advanced analysis and reporting features for all the available plans.
3. Volusion
Volusion is a great choice when your business needs the simplest and the most affordable solution out there. The developer of this platform managed to turn the entire setup process into a fun game. Of course, simplification has led to limitations, so don’t expect the same feature sets as Shopify and BigCommerce offer. Still, it’s packed with such essentials as product performance analytics, storefront builder, shopping cart follow-ups, and more.
4. Wix
Wix is one of the most affordable and straightforward e-commerce platforms ever, and it even has more customers than its largest competitor, Shopify. Here you can create a stylish storefront in just a few minutes. As for the payment options and integrations, Wix is somewhere in the middle between Volusion and Shopify. If the absence of Amazon and eBay integration and the limited number of payment options is not a problem for you, you will get the largest feature set for the lowest fee possible.
5. Squarespace
Squarespace is the best alternative to Wix when it comes to selling creative products. All due to the advanced website editor that lets you create sleek website designs without overwhelming you with complex tools. The platform is cross-integrated with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Twitter to make it easier for sellers to reach out to creative item seekers. Besides, it’s one of the most affordable solutions out there with lots of advanced features and marketing bonuses, such as Google AdWords credits and more. The payment options are quite basic and offer only PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and Venmo, but the checkout process is seamless and lets users customize the process with gift messages, surveys, and custom tax rates.
Grow with the Market
Once you employ a worthy e-commerce platform, you gain an instant advantage over those businesses that don’t have online storefronts yet. Choose a solution attentively as it will become the core of your online business for many years upfront.
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