You’ve decided to take the plunge and set up your online store, but are stumped on how to obtain the best e-commerce solution for your particular business.
Don’t despair, you’re hardly alone. A lot of aspiring merchants have to deal with this challenge at some point, and what we want to do in this piece is to give you a few choices we’ve uncovered that merit a look.
Once you’ve decided what’s important for you as a business owner, and then compared those goals with the fit these platforms afford, you’ll be able to make the most informed decision you can. For simplicity’s sake we’re only going to look at hosted e-commerce software solutions. Self-hosted solutions require a level of expertise seldom found in many startups.
5 Software solutions for Small Business E-commerce stores
Shopify – Easily the biggest hosted shopping platform out there today, Shopify is an easy to use solution that gives you all the modern bells and whistles, while giving you tons of great themes and apps to make your store unique and functional. They boast more than 160,000 active online stores.
BigCommerce – Another in the drag and drop variety, BigCommerce is a lot like Shopify, but in my opinion a bit more complicated to use. Still they have their adherents, as 90,000 stores will attest to!
Wix E-Commerce – If you’re looking for a drop dead easy solution for less money, you can’t go wrong with Wix. You can have your store up in literally a few hours with a fully-integrated shopping cart included. Super easy to use!
Weebly E-Commerce – Another of the easy solutions, Weebly has a whopping 440,000 stores online. This is due to their extreme low cost and ease of use. A good tool for beginners!
SquareSpace – This solution offers some stunning looks and can help you produce a good-looking store in no time. While they may not have as many features as Shopify and BigCommerce, you can think of Squarespace as a lower-cost little brother.
