2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING BEST E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS
An Overview of the Best E-Commerce Platforms
When someone visits an e-commerce website, they’re arriving at what’s described as a virtual storefront.
People tend to flock to e-commerce sites because they’re fast and convenient, but the actual process of setting up one of these sites can be difficult if you don’t have the right e-commerce website builder and e-commerce platform.
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An e-commerce platform usually integrates different software technology that allows merchants to build not only their site but also host the storefront they need to sell their products and services.
Many vendors offer fully integrated e-commerce software that combines everything from customer relationship management software to solutions for inventory management. Often when a merchant chooses the best e-commerce platform, it includes programming to build the site.
Merchants also have the option to choose different hosting options, although the most popular e-commerce platform hosting option tends to be the cloud. Companies can create their e-commerce platforms inexpensively, and then their vendor takes care of things like maintenance and upgrades. The merchant can also grow their business and the features of their e-commerce platform easily with cloud-based hosting options.
The following is a ranking of the best e-commerce platforms and e-commerce software, along with reviews as to what makes each of them top e-commerce platforms.
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AdvisoryHQ’s List of the Top 6 Best E-Commerce Platforms
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the names below to go directly to the detailed review section for that e-commerce software):
Top 6 Best E-Commerce Platforms | Brief Comparison
Top E-Commerce Platforms | Key Feature | Key Benefit |
| BigCommerce | Users can create their site, customize it, and take advantage of hosted services | Lots of customization including the ability to accept payments from most leading providers |
| Drupal Commerce | The only e-commerce software built on an enterprise CMS | Connects content and products seamlessly to drive sales on and offline |
| Magento | Flexible customization options for branded customer experiences | The most popular e-commerce software in the world |
| PrestaShop | Free open-source e-commerce software | Robust marketing options including built-in SEO and email creation tools |
| Shopify | All-in e-commerce software to sell online, in-store or on social media | Integrates with marketplaces like Amazon seamlessly |
| WooCommerce | Comprehensive e-commerce solution with many extension options | Specifically designed to integrate with WordPress |
Table: Top 6 Best E-Commerce Platforms| Above list is sorted alphabetically
Tips for Choosing from the Top E-Commerce Platforms
With so many e-commerce platforms available, how do you choose the best e-commerce platform for your business needs?
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While there’s no right answer for everyone when it comes to an e-commerce platform and online store builder, there are some things you can keep in mind. These include:
- How large of a stock or inventory size does a particular best e-commerce platform offer? You want to find an e-commerce platform that allows you to pay the lowest amount while getting the most options including scalable stock sizes.
- What payment method do you want to use? For example, do the e-commerce platforms you’re considering use third-party payment processors like PayPal?
- When you’re looking for an e-commerce website builder and e-commerce platforms, think about whether it’s hosted or self-hosted. Can you make changes to your store in a live environment if you need to?
- What is the cost and how do you pay? Many of the best e-commerce platforms now offer monthly payment options that let you scale up your services as you need them, which are relatively budget-friendly and convenient.
Of course, these are just a small sample of the many things to keep in mind as you choose from the top e-commerce platforms and choose an e-commerce website builder.
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AdvisoryHQ’s Selection Methodology
What methodology does AdvisoryHQ use in selecting and finalizing the credit cards, financial products, firms, services, and products that are ranked on its various top-rated lists?
Please click here “AdvisoryHQ’s Ranking Methodologies” for a detailed review of AdvisoryHQ’s selection methodologies for ranking top-rated credit cards, financial accounts, firms, products, and services.
Detailed Review: Top Ranking Best E-Commerce Platforms
Below, please find the detailed review of each of the top e-commerce platforms. We have highlighted some of the factors that allowed these e-commerce software options to score so well in our selection ranking.
BigCommerce Review
BigCommerce is a leader among e-commerce platforms that provides the tools and features businesses of all sizes need to be successful.
Image Source: BigCommerce
Specific reasons BigCommerce is on this list of top e-commerce platforms are below.
E-Commerce Website Builder
The BigCommerce e-commerce website builder gives users the features they need to build a store, but also streamline their business so they can focus on selling.
Users can easily create a responsive, completely customized store by choosing a template from their beautiful designs for any industry. The customizable online store builder lets users create the ideal shopping experience for their customers, with options like code-free updates, or they can work with a developer.
Site Management
Once someone has used the e-commerce website builder, BigCommerce continues to offer robust features for the management of their online store. For example, the e-commerce CMS feature from BigCommerce lets users add and manage products and categories and pages, or launch a blog without the need for any other software.
There are also options for customers, and each product has its own SKU, price, and images.
Payment Gateway
One of the many ways BigCommerce is unique from a lot of other e-commerce website builder options and e-commerce platforms is that they let users use any preferred payment gateway.
They support some of the leading payment providers including PayPal-powered by Braintree, Apple Pay, Strip, Pay with Amazon and many more. These are all available at low rates as well.
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Drupal Commerce Review
Drupal Commerce is open-source e-commerce software that is used along with the Drupal content management system. With Drupal Commerce, users can sell products, track invoices and payments, facilitate shipping and more.
Some of the reasons Drupal Commerce is on this list of the best e-commerce platforms and online store builder options are below.
Overview
Drupal Commerce is one of the top e-commerce platforms that lets users integrate not just commerce but also content and community. The result is an engaging web experience to improve traffic and results for online retailers.
This is a powerful but simple e-commerce platform where merchants can integrate a variety of features to suit their individual needs.
Content-Driven
One of the most unique features of Drupal Commerce, as compared to many other e-commerce website builder and e-commerce platform options is the fact that it’s content-driven. It’s built on an enterprise CMS so that content is seamlessly connected.
The benefits of the content-driven structure of Drupal Commerce is the fact that merchants can drive both online and offline sales with an optimized user experience and merchandising tools, as well as robust SEO tools and options.
Other Features
Other features of Drupal Commerce that lead to it being a ranked a best e-commerce platform include the fact that it’s extremely flexible, modular, and configurable. It’s ideal for selling both physical and non-physical items, and there are options to incorporate unique online shopping cart and payment models, such as licensing and subscription.
It’s also easy to use and paves the way for a customizable workflow that let non-technical employees make changes.
It’s an open-source e-commerce software option, which lowers costs, improves speed and also ensures security and continual innovation.
Magento Review
Magento is a popular open-source e-commerce software developed by the Varien company. Specific products available from this leading e-commerce software company include an enterprise cloud edition, commerce order management, business intelligence, and shipping.
Specific features and options available with Magento, one of the top e-commerce platforms, are detailed below.
Reputation
Magento is one of the top e-commerce platforms and e-commerce website builder options, and as a result, it’s used by many top big-name brands. This agile, open-source e-commerce software includes a system of 150,000 developers and more than 300 solution partners. The developers that are part of the Magento ecosystem help users stay up to date with the evolution of commerce, so Magento customers are always ahead of their competition.
It’s also the most popular e-commerce platform in the world, and there are more than 250,000 merchants around the world that use it.
Sales and ROI
According to Magento, when users turn to this best e-commerce platform, they have many advantages at their disposal, and these advantages lead to results. Merchants who use Magento grow three times faster on average than other similar e-commerce platforms. There’s also a 50 percent reduction in Total Cost of Ownership for Magento users versus other e-commerce platforms.
Flexibility
Flexibility and versatility are usually essential when someone is comparing e-commerce software and choosing top e-commerce platforms.
Magento leads the way in innovation among e-commerce platforms, and they offer flexible ways to customize platforms to provide distinctive and branded experiences.
The goal for merchants when they use Magento is that they’re able to adapt quickly and stay ahead of the curve regarding customer buying patterns.
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PrestaShop Review
PrestaShop is a free, open-source e-commerce software solution and online store builder that more than 250,000 sites run on.
Image Source: PrestaShop
When comparing the best e-commerce platforms, the following are reasons PrestaShop is ranked as one of the top e-commerce platforms.
Online Store Builder
The online store builder and e-commerce website builder available with PrestaShop is straightforward and powerful, so users have everything at their disposal to quickly and easily build and operate their online store.
There are more than 310 built-in features to improve sales, and options to manage unlimited products and data for free.
Some of the e-commerce website builder feature options include product quick view, promotional banners, cross-selling, and optimized product page layouts.
Shopping Cart Software
The online shopping cart options from this pick for one of the top e-commerce platforms is designed to be powerful and secure.
Users of PrestaShop can choose from more than 50 payment solutions and gateways, and accept direct payments including credit cards, debit cards, e-checks, gift cards, and more.
In addition to some of the most robust online shopping cart options available, merchants can also configure shipping with all major carriers, easily set up tax rules based on their jurisdiction and provide a seamless customer checkout experience.
eMarketing
Along with the basics of e-commerce software, such as the online store builder, this e-commerce platform also features options for marketing to drive traffic and increase sales and loyalty. For example, there are built-in SEO features including customizable meta titles and descriptions, and in-depth data analysis tools.
Online marketing tools available with this best e-commerce platform include the ability to create dynamic cart pricing rules and offer coupons and vouchers, as well as encouraging customer reviews.
Also, if you’re interested in e-commerce CMS, there are email marketing options as well for the development of engaging email campaigns.
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Shopify Review
Shopify is one of the most well-known e-commerce platforms and in addition to being one of the top e-commerce platforms, it’s also useful for selling on social media and in person.
Reasons Shopify is a leader among e-commerce platforms, online shopping cart tools and e-commerce website builder options are detailed below.
Customizable Control
Shopify is a best e-commerce platform because they provide everything users need right at their fingertips.
Merchants can use the e-commerce website builder to customize their online store, they can add new sales channels in a matter of seconds, manage unlimited products, fulfill orders in one step, and also track their sales and growth trends over time.
Marketing
Shopify is all-in-one e-commerce software, and the software includes e-commerce CMS options and marketing tools as well.
For example, with Shopify merchants can do email marketing automation, make Instagram and Facebook ads quickly, and integrate powerful apps for more marketing tasks.
Amazon
Amazon is the world’s largest marketplace, and Shopify makes it easy to sell there as well. For example, when you’re a merchant using Shopify you can sync your products to Amazon in a matter of minutes. It’s also easy to manage inventory and orders from across multiple sales channels in one location, and there are options to create a customizable Shopify online store and reach new customers on Amazon.
In addition to great integrations like Amazon as well as online shopping cart integrations, with Shopify users have no limit to the number of products they can show, and they have access to dedicated support 24/7.
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WooCommerce Review
WooCommerce is a customizable e-commerce platform designed to help people build their online business on WordPress.
WooCommerce is included on this list of top e-commerce platforms for many reasons, including the ones below.
Extensions
One of the many unique and convenient things about using this e-commerce platform are the many free and paid extensions that are available. Some of the extensions that work with WooCommerce include:
- Zapier
- Sage Pay
- MailChimp
- Strip
- Amazon Pay
- Woo Subscriptions
- United States Postal Service
- ShipStation
- UPS
Features
WooCommerce has a lot of great features that make it one of the leading e-commerce platforms. First, it’s built specifically to integrate with WordPress.
It also offers the option to sell everything from products to downloads and subscriptions, and it’s designed to be mobile friendly. You can turn your existing WooCommerce store into a mobile app with no custom coding, and you can scale up or down with WooCommerce as you need to over time.
WooCommerce is completely open-source, so there is a growing community of contributors as well.
Other Core Features
At the core of WooCommerce are many other great features. For example, merchants can choose from pre-installed online shopping cart and payment gateways, and they can completely control their own checkout process.
There is geo-location support, taxes can be automated, and merchants can choose to customize cart behavior, among many other options.
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Conclusion—Top 6 Best E-Commerce Platforms
Choosing from the many available e-commerce platforms is an important decision for online merchants. You want the best e-commerce platform that will meet your needs, from inventory options to checkout and shipping functionality.
All of the best e-commerce platforms and top e-commerce platforms included on this ranking are the best available. They offer robust features from the online store builder to the online shopping cart, they feature great extensions and customizable options to add-on to the functionality of your store, and they’re depended upon by millions of merchants around the world.
AdvisoryHQ (AHQ) Disclaimer:
Reasonable efforts have been made by AdvisoryHQ to present accurate information, however all info is presented without warranty. Review AdvisoryHQ’s Terms for details. Also review each firm’s site for the most updated data, rates and info.
Note: Firms and products, including the one(s) reviewed above, may be AdvisoryHQ's affiliates. Click to view AdvisoryHQ's advertiser disclosures.
