With the expansion of online stores, every business owner needs to come up with the best solution related to providing his customers with the best experience. Also, an online store that is optimized in the right way can attract more potential clients and significantly increase your revenue.
When it comes to customers, there are many reasons why most of them prefer using online buying options, such as convenience, affordability, and save time. The rise in popularity of online stores is especially notable during 2024 when many people were under lockdown measures because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Moreover, if you need a proper online store, there are several methods you can choose. You will need a website connected to your business, credit card payments, the installed cart option, and many more. You can hire a developer to create and optimize the website for you, which is especially beneficial if you are not familiar with all of the factors that are needed for a good online store. If you need assistance from professional developers that can help you with logo design, web design, optimization, marketing, and content, visit webx360.
On the other hand, there are many platforms with preinstalled plugins–SEO toolkits, live chats, and form builders such as 123formbuilder.com–that you can use to create a website on your own. However, you will have to learn more about the best methods related to hosting, creating lists, shipping options, marketing, customer support, and more. E-commerce platforms are beneficial because they represent a much more affordable option for your business. Also, there is a wide selection of these platforms available, and you should learn more about their possibilities and the advantages you can get from using some of them. Here are the top 5 platforms for building e-commerce websites.
1. 3DCart
There are many reasons why 3dcart is in the first place on our list. There are many features that you deserve to know about, and we will start with the main ones. The base features summarize the inventory control, customer-focused tools, as well as business management. All these features will allow the e-commerce owner to easily create, design, and run his online shop. Despite that, good interaction with the clients is another reason why some businesses become successful. Fortunately, the platform allows you to do that in the best possible way.
A common problem that most first-time business owners have is a lack of cash flow. They will use every opportunity to save more money. However, their money-saving mustn’t negatively influence the progress of their business. Thanks to different features, you will manage to eliminate some additional costs. For instance, the users of 3dcart will get free domain registration. Despite that, the transaction fees in this case do not exist. The web hosting of your e-commerce store will be secure. That will help you protect your website from any potential hacker attacks and viruses.
In the end, we need to highlight the marketing features of the platform. 3Dcart comes with built-in SEO tools that will help you optimize your blog, product descriptions, etc.
We highlighted some of the features that you should know about. However, they are not the only ones. That is the reason why we recommend you check the website we attached above to find out more.
2. Shopify
Shopify is one of the most popular platforms for online businesses, with over 2 million users and one million online stores currently running. Also, the worth of products sold over this platform is higher than $150 billion. Moreover, their services are not free, and the cheapest option is to pay around $30 per month for a subscription. With a basic plan, you can choose between 9 free themes and some other features.
However, you will have to pay for some advanced options like improved themes, plugins for better services, more accounts on one profile, and more. The great advantage of Shopify is that you will get a two-week free trial that you can use to check whether you find this platform useful for your business or not. They have excellent customer support available all the time. Nevertheless, you can add an unlimited number of products, offer gift cards and discounts to customers, link the website with your social media accounts for improved marketing, and more.
3. Zyro
If you are looking for the most affordable option for your online store, you should check out Zyro that costs only around $9 per month for its basic plan. The main benefits of this platform are 11 free themes, money-back available during the first month, over 70 payment gateways, free domain during the first year, and a lot of free images that you can use in the product listing and for the design.
However, you can only enlist 100 products with a basic plan, while other plans provide you with an unlimited number of products. There is a wide selection of payment options that you can integrate into this platform, such as MasterCard, Visa, Stripe, PayPal, and more. Moreover, Zyro has excellent features related to providing you with data necessary to improve your marketing strategy, such as the ability to connect the system with Google Analytics.
Nevertheless, we have to mention that customer support of this company is available all the time. The only downsides are that there is no free trial option, a limited number of products for a basic plan, and you are obligated to sign a contract for at least three years. Also, for some advanced features like cart recovery, connection with social media, live chat support, discounts, and more, you will have to choose some more expensive options rather than the basic plan.
4. Wix
If you are looking for a proper combination of advanced features and an affordable platform, Wix might be the best solution for your business. The main advantages are that there are no transaction fees, you can choose between some great shipping deals, free hosting for one year, and add an unlimited number of products. This platform is getting more popular over years, and there are over 500,000 companies from all around the world that are using it. One of the best features is the wide selection of free themes that are compatible with smartphones. When it comes to payment options, you can integrate most of the popular ones along with their solution, the Wix Payment. However, you will need some improved plan for some advanced options like insights, increased storage, link with social media, taxation, and more.
5. Squarespace
Another great option that you can use to build your e-commerce website is Squarespace. The basic plan will cost you $18 per month that will provide you with a great selection of free themes, unlimited listings, and insights. However, the fees are increased with a basic plan, and they are 3% of your sales. On the other hand, the Advanced plan that costs $40 per month provides users with automation, rate calculator, cart recovery, and more. Moreover, you can create an unlimited number of accounts and integrate all of the popular payment processing options.
6. Volusion
While it might seem quite expensive to pay $26 per month for a basic subscription plan, you should know that it offers some advanced options and features like free themes, no fees, integrated payment options, and more. Also, if you want improved design, you can choose over 30 themes that cost $180. The only limitation related to the basic plan is the limitation of products.
You can add online payment options like Stripe, Amazon Pay, PayPal, along with their system, Volusion Payments. If you want to use all of the advanced features, the best option is to choose a Professional Plan that will cost you around $850 annually. With this plan, you will get a whole set of features like the connection with social media, website optimization, gift cards, discounts, analytics, and more. On the other side, the only downside is that you can only add up to 5,000 products to your lists. Only the Business plan option offers an unlimited number of products.
7. Weebly
Drag-and-drop type of website builders is usually the choice of many business owners. They are simple to use, and they do not require you are familiar with coding. There are two additional options that drag-and-drop builders offer. First of all, you will manage to update everything on your website whenever you can. Despite that, you won’t have to hire someone else to change the look of your website. That will help you save a decent amount of money.
Despite that, the importance of entertaining and engaging product pages is essential for your success. Thanks to Weebly, you will manage to create a standalone product page for each product that you plan to offer.
The platform comes with four different price plans, and they are all slightly different. People often decide to subscribe to paid versions of the platform. However, which package you will use depends on the size of your businesses. If you work with a huge number of products, Business Plan ($25/month) would be the right choice.
When we talk about payment options, Weebly supports three of them. Those three payment gateways are PayPal, Square, and Stripe. We can agree these three payment operators are the most popular ones in the world. Because of that, we believe that is the opportunity many entrepreneurs will like.
There is one disadvantage that we need to highlight. Features like real-time shipping rates and gift cards are only available if you subscribe to the most expensive Performance plan. However, investing is part of every business process. Because of that, we are sure you won’t hesitate to invest a bit more and subscribe to the best plan.
Kim Marks 
Nicola Holder