Opening an online store is very easy but at the same time there is one confusing task, that is selecting the best eCommerce platform. You need to take some wise decisions while choosing your eCommerce platform. You should keep in mind that all eCommerce platforms are not the same; they offer different features. And if you choose a platform that doesn’t provide necessary tools, then you will not end-up building a great eCommerce site. So if you are thinking that you can choose any platform no matter what, then trust me you are going to make a wrong decision. Think again but this time read this article to get some idea about the 5 best eCommerce platforms for 2017
By every passing year the eCommerce technology is evolving and hence you can see a very tough competition. Customers are expecting so much from your online store. That only getting easy setup, some level of customization and other standard features is not enough. Of course you need to go out of the box to attract more audience towards your online store. You should expect features like mobile friendliness, social media platforms, customer support, search engine optimization and more. Before going into details let’s see what some key features of an eCommerce platform are.
Ability to run on a single platform
A platform that can provide a 360 degree overview of the website
Support unlimited expansion
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and etc
24/7 customer support. ( 7 days a week and 24 hours a day)
Depending on this understanding I have selected top 5 eCommerce platform that can make your online business a success in year 2017. Let’s have a look on them.
1- Shopify
Well Shopify comes number 1 in the list of best eCommerce platforms for year 2017. It is no doubt the best email market platform for the individuals and business that are looking for simple and easy solutions to sell their goods online. Let me tell you one important thing before going into details that Shopify is best platform for small or medium size online stores. The reason is that its certain features are limited and can affect your large business in some negative way. Whereas it’s simple customization tools are very attractive and beneficial for small and medium size business.
Moreover if you are a newbie and you want to test Shopify services firstly then you don’t need to spend even a penny on it. Go get the free trail of Shopify. Yes Shopify offer its users a free trail of 14 days without any commitments of staying beyond the trail period. So don’t wait not hesitate go get your free trial now.
Okay moving towards some more features that makes Shopify one best eCommerce platform for year 2017. Let’s talk about its ease of use. Shopify will provide you easiest hosted shopping cart that can be used to build an online store. Both admin end and customer front end are easy to use and will give you the best possible navigation. You just need a little effort to start with Shopify. It doesn’t require you to be a very technical personal. No matter if you are a newbie just learn some basic HTML and you can run your online store very easily.
Talking about the designs, Shopify believes in simplicity no matter what. You can create a very fabulous online store with very little effort. Shopify offers both free and premium themes so you can avail both as per your requirement. Shopify offers total 551 themes, and 23 of them are all free. In addition to that these themes are quite responsive on many devices like smart phones, tablets etc. Overall Shopify has amazing features and services that you must be needing to make your online store a success.
2- BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an Australian based company that expanded its business gradually all across the globe. Now BigCommerce have round about 100,000 online stores that are capable of generating the business of $5 billion that makes it one of the biggest platforms for eCommerce. Because of it huge number of users and its popularity BigCommerce is on number 2 in the list of top 5 best eCommerce platforms for year 2017. BigCommerce claims that they will provide all the new and latest features you are looking for to build up a new and successful business. You can create an online store with very little effort and can set up your online business within few days.
Talking about the pricing details of BigCommerce, it offers you three pricing plans named as standard, plus and enterprise. The pricing plan starts with $29.5 per month and ends on $79.5 per month. The standard plan is you need as a beginner. It will provide you everything you are hoping to start a new business with. The most amazing thing about BigCommerce pricing plan is that, it will not restrict you anyway. You will get unlimited products, unlimited storage along with unlimited bandwidth.
In addition to that you can also avail the free trail of BigCommerce. Yes it offers free trail of15 days to its users without demanding any advance credit card or bank details. All you need is to register yourself and start using BigCommerce without any hesitation. Note one thing, you will not be able to sell your product sin free trail, for this you need to get upgrade first.
Talking about its ease of use, if you are not a technical personal then don’t worry you can still use BigCommerce platform as it is piece of cake to develop your own online store using BigCommerce. If you find something difficult, spend few hours on it or else you can use the customer support to sort out your difficulties. . The customer support team will be guiding you with the help of live chat, photos and email support. In addition if you want something new, just go to the App store and add the tools of your own choice just in one click. See how easy and simple it is to use.
Now move toward another feature that makes BigCommerce one best eCommerce platform for year 2017 and this is its template design options. BigCommerce offers 83 template designs in which 7 are free and other 76 are not free of course. It is very important to make your store very presentable and good looking. Of course who will prefer to visit your online store if it is messy, unattractive and ugly? Yes all the themes offered by BigCommerce are attractive and eye catchy that can grab user attention at once. In case you want to edit the template according to your requirement, you have freedom of doing so too. In short BigCommerce of course is one best eCommerce platform you need to use in 2017.
3- WooCommerce
If you are running a WordPress site and you are looking for some tool to manage it then you are on the right place. Yes I am going to tell you the best eCommerce platform that might help you in your wordpress. WooCommerce was launched back in year 2001 and from then till now it have been downloaded 16 millions time. Woah that shows WooCommerce is quite popular among the users across the globe. Though it is free to download but you can’t operate it for free. So let’s have a look on the pricing details firstly.
The anyalysis shows that WooCommerce offers more features in reasonable prices. It is free to download but you need to upgrade yourself before selling your products. WooCommerce start its pricing plan with $79 and goes up to $139 depending on the features you availing. The more you pay the more you will avail definitely. As compared to other eCommerce platforms like Shopify and some others, WooCommerce is way too cheap and offers more features too. So if you have any word press site and you are looking for some eCommerce platform then WooCommerce is actually what you need.
Let’s move towards its ease of use. WooCommerce as we discussed above works with word press , it is easy for the people who are already aware of word press but as compared to other platforms, for me it is little difficult for the newbie’s. If you are facing any difficulty from installation to setup or in web designing you can always look toward the customer support team. They will be guiding you through each step and will make this easy for you. In addition to that you can also see video tutorials as guidance.
As you can use the word press themes too, but I will suggest you to use WooCommerce built in themes. They are not free of course but you will find them more attractive and organized. It is very important to make your online store look eye catchy to grab the attraction of audience and to have more conversions. One better thing about its design is that both back end and front end are mobile friendly. You can use and operate it through your mobile and smart phone as well. In short this is a treat for the word press sites owners. Start using it today and make your online store more popular.
4- Magento
The all independent company that is recently spun out by ebay, yes you are right we are talking about Magento. Magneto strives in the very tough competition and now it is on number 4 in the race of top 5 eCommerce platforms for year 2017. Basically magneto is suitable for large size business and very high end eCommerce websites. The best thing about Magneto in my point of view is that, it has high level of security and is highly customizable. It is offering all the new and unique features that are being missed by other eCommerce platforms. Let’s see in details what it has to offer.
Talking about its price firstly, the magneto users are very satisfied with its cost effectiveness. Unlike other eCommerce platforms you are not supposed to pay on monthly basis. In other eCommerce platforms when you avail the monthly package you are already limited to many things like number of products and bandwidth etc. You can avail both free and paid extension and it will set up your online store in very little or no cost. That’s amazing no? So if you are low budget and you want to use some extra ordinary platform for your online store, Magneto is right choice for you.
Moving towards its design and theme, if you are worried that you are not a techno person, then stop worrying. You don’t need to be very technical in case you want to use Magneto because it is very simple and easy in use. You can select theme of your own choice from thousand of available themes and can customize it according to your requirements. All you need to do is select the theme, either built in or from third party provider and customizes it according to your need that matches the company brand, mission and values.
It is very easy in simple in use with best customer support service and mobile friendly themes. You can use Magneto on many devices like laptop, Smart phones, tablets and etc. It will provide you features like multi languages, multi store front, multi currency support and many other. In case you find any difficult don’t worry the customer support team will help you out. So Magneto is best eCommerce platform for huge business. Don’t waste your time on thinking, just go start your online store with Magneto now.
5- 3D Cart
Well this eCommerce platform strives the tough competition and is now part of 5 best eCommerce platforms in our list. 3D Cart was founded back in year 1997 and now it has 17,500 users all across the across the globe. Its popularity shows that it must have something very attractive for merchants. 3D Cart has some very useful features including mobile selling and some best tools for selling on social media platforms like face book and twitter etc Let’s see some details of 3D Cart.
Talking about its pricing plan, 3D Cart offers 5 numerous deals for its users. Well you must be thinking that it is not a nice idea and will lead some people to confusion. But in my point of view having more pricing plans is a plus point. The 5 pricing plan includes
Nano plan: For $9.99 you will have 25,000 products with 2000 monthly visitors and 1000 newsletter send.
Mini plan: For $19.99you will have 200 products with 4000 monthly visitors and 1000 newsletter send.
Starter Plan: For $35.99 you will have 1,000 products with 8000 monthly visitors and 2000 newsletter send.
Professional Plan: For $65.99 you will have 10,000 products with 20,000 monthly visitors and 5000 newsletter send.
Professional Plus plan: For $99.99 you will have unlimited number of products with 50,000 monthly visitors and 20,000 newsletters send.
Well 3D Cart dashboard is very much similar to word press and Shopify hence is extremely easy and simple in use. It has navigational bar on the left side of dashboard and amazingly you can see some tutorials and videos on the dashboard too. Moving towards its themes and designs, the theme store is connected to dashboard so you can easily jump into dashboard and theme store and can try different themes and layout. 3d Cart offers over 100 templates, all of them are very attractive and eye catchy. In addition to that all these templates are mobile responsive and work on different devices. You can avail all these themes free of cost which surely is a bonus for you. In short this is one of the best option to avail if you want to do something good with your online shopping store. Go start your online store with 3d Cart now and grab some more audience on your online store.
Conclusion
Well! This is very obvious that the above top 5 ecommerce platforms for year 2017 are not best for every sized business and need. Each platform is designed to fulfill some pre-assumed goals and needs. But trust me if you are realistic and you need what your online store is about and what are your needs, then one of above 5 can best match your requirements. This is the right time to choose the best eCommerce platform and to make your online store a big success. Because you must have heard that “there is no need to cry over split milk”. Make some wise decision and make your business a huge success.
I hope the above article must be helpful for you!
Thank you for reading!
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