Starting your own business isn’t easy. While technology has definitely made it a lot simpler and streamlined, there are still many choices and considerations to keep in mind before you ultimately get your business off the ground and start building a successful store.
One of those considerations is what e-commerce websites and services to use in order to sell your products. We all know that growing an online store is a fantastic way to kickstart your entrepreneurial venture; it doesn’t take much money and can easily be set up in the comfort of your home office or even laptop. However, what you do need to understand is what tools are available to you and how to effectively use them. Building an online store from the ground up can be terrifying to most people, but with the right e-commerce platforms, it can be as simple as clicking a few buttons.
In this guide, we’ll be telling you about 4 of the best e-commerce websites to sell your products on and why we’d recommend them.
- Magento
For developers that know their stuff, Magento is a fantastic open-source e-commerce website platform. You’ll need a dedicated programmer to help you set it up and the enterprise version costs at least $20,000 per year, making it incredibly expensive. It is, however, open-source and features unlimited customization, making it fantastic for scaling up in the future. We can’t recommend Magento for beginners, but if you’re serious about your business and are willing to hire developers, Magento is the only choice.
- Shopify
To many, Shopify is seen as the gold-standard in e-commerce platforms. It powers thousands of sites across the internet and features a wealth of extensions, themes and plugins. However, it’s not perfect and some investment is required to get your store working optimally. Shopify also has its own programming language which can be difficult to learn if you’re not experienced with development, and you have to pay more to get more customization. Shopify is fantastic for beginners and entrepreneurs alike and has a range of packages that suit all budgets and business sizes.
- Tictail
Tictail doesn’t require any technical knowledge which is fantastic, and upgrading allows you to customize your theme even further. The payment processes can be difficult to wrestle with at times (especially considering how easy it is with other ecommerce platforms) and they’ll take a commission form your sales. Overall, Tictail is simple and great for hobbyists or people who are just testing the waters with their products.
- BigCommerce
Since it was introduced, BigCommerce currently runs over 65,000 online stores and is one of the biggest names in the market. It has a massive number of features such as newsletters, easy coupon creation, shipping and analytics. It also has no transaction fee and great website themes. However, it lacks some cross-platform support and you may have trouble getting your products to sync with an Amazon marketplace or other e-commerce platforms.
