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Driving more sales is the ultimate goal of any business, be it small or large. Reaching a wider audience is one excellent way to increase sales opportunities and broaden your business horizons. This is possible with eCommerce platforms. Scaling the business at the global level is relatively easy. With abundant online selling platforms, you can increase the availability of your products or services, reduce operational costs, simplify the buying process, and derive benefits from customer advocacy.
If you want to find the best online selling platform for your business, you are reading the right guide. But, to make an informed decision, you must know how to choose one.
This article curates the list of top 10 eCommerce platforms after evaluating all critical factors, such as security, SEO, technical support, integrations, web design responsiveness, price, and scalability. It means you can choose any of them based on your requirements.
eCommerce platforms are commerce engine websites, and CMS (Content Management Systems) used to manage catalogued products and register purchases.
Their primary objective is to help businesses sell products online. To achieve this, online selling platforms enable vendors to create apps and websites optimised for Commerce or provide a marketplace where they can list their products alongside other businesses.
The first option facilitates you listing your products free from competition and keeping all your profits. By choosing this method to make sales without any third party, you will own all your customer data and gain valuable insights into consumer behaviour and preferences. Leveraging these insights further can help you create your own marketing and SEO strategies to grow your business.
Contrarily, the second option allows you to reach the mass market and generate more revenue quickly by listing your product on a reputable marketplace. The major drawback is that you need to share your profits with your chosen marketplace and cannot access customer data to run targeted campaigns.
There are many advantages of using a marketplace for businesses. These platforms are essential for omnichannel commerce, letting vendors create company profiles and list their products on a marketplace to reach a wider audience and improve customer experience.
Let’s discuss all the advantages of leveraging these online selling platforms for businesses:
One significant reason modern businesses use eCommerce platforms is to boost their sales and drive revenue. Listing your products on these marketplaces increases the number of people who see them. This increased number of eyeballs generates more traffic on your website and, hence, more sales.
You can adjust your stock to the customer’s needs and your product’s prices to the global market. This will help you reach more buyers and sell to people all over the world without any limitation to the customer’s demographics.
Listing your products on these online selling platforms will save you ample money that you might otherwise have spent on reaching out to your customers and running your business operations and promotions.
The best part is that you do not need to buy or rent physical business premises; all you need is to buy a domain and host or pay a commission to the marketplace. These platforms also allow you to save money on storage and delivery expenses.
Online marketplaces offer an additional channel for selling your products to diverse customers. On the contrary, if you sell products only through your website, your reach and market exposure will be limited. So, listing your products on these marketplaces also elevates your brand awareness.
Online selling platforms help businesses establish trust by providing their audience with an unbiased look at others’ experiences with their products. These user reviews are incredibly valuable and nurture relationships between businesses and their potential customers.
eCommerce platforms provide excellent opportunities to build new trading partnerships, especially with suppliers and traders abroad.
Listing your products on online selling platforms makes the shopping experience convenient and straightforward for your customers. The best part is that customers do not need to go anywhere to buy the product. With a few clicks, they can proceed with the purchase, enhancing the overall customer experience and making the buying process easy.
Various online platforms allow you to tailor your offer to customers’ needs and preferences. Imagine you are running a physical store; however, that physical store would not facilitate the analysis of consumer behaviour.
Modern eCommerce platforms feature a variety of analytics tools and AI software to give you insights into consumer buying habits. It allows you to personalise the power but also respond swiftly to changing trends and customer preferences.
An eCommerce platform contains software for building and running an online store. Out of so many platforms, it might be daunting to make the right choice that helps you build or manage your online store. Therefore, we have curated the list of 10 best eCommerce platforms that allow you to design unique websites and manage your business as it grows and evolves:
Who does not know about the world’s largest online retailer? Amazon is one of the top online selling platforms, selling more than 4,000 products per minute. This platform opens up millions of opportunities for sellers. It is one of the most sought-after marketplaces available, with over 5 million sellers. A large number of visitors increases the likelihood that your items will be seen and sold.
The process of applying to sell on Amazon is straightforward. All you need to do is register on Seller Central by providing a few details, such as your name, phone number, address, and tax ID. Once you fill in all the details, you need to select the category you want to sell in. If you fill in the correct information, it just takes seven days to get the approval. As soon as you get the approval, you can start selling.
Amazon is best recommended for small to middle-grade sellers who want exposure to millions of customers.
eBay is one of the oldest online selling platforms, having existed since 1995. You will be amazed to know that it has more than 1.7 billion listings and over 135 billion users worldwide. You can get the best price for special or unique items by auctioning them and creating bidding wars. This platform is best for sellers who sell both new and refurbished products and are willing to auction them at higher prices.
It allows sellers to list anything on eBay, from everyday items such as clothes, shoes, and watches to unusual things like popcorn-scented pillows, vintage ’70s tables, and whatnot.
Another reason sellers prefer this platform is that even if you’re a new seller and you have no website or setup, their Seller Hub will assist you in streamlining your business as smoothly as ever. Just like Amazon, eBay has a massive audience, helping you sell your products quickly.
Etsy specifically deals with selling handcrafted products, gift items, and vintage products. It started in 2015, and within no time, it gained popularity. It has more than 95 million active users, making it an attractive platform to start selling your handcrafted or unique products online.
The best thing is that you get a ready-made market of buyers on this platform. If you also have vintage items or a unique talent for making handcrafted products, there can be no better platform for you than Etsy.
But remember, this platform is not for everyone. The reach is limited, and the audience is also majorly focused on looking for handmade products. The unique thing about Etsy is that sellers sell items independent of the Etsy brand. This means that the buyer would know that they are buying your brand/product, not something that Etsy is selling.
So, when customers click on your brand name, they will automatically be redirected to your custom storefront.
Shopify is one of the best online selling platforms, as it is very easy to create a store on this platform. Anyone with zero technical knowledge can also run a store on Shopify. It comprises millions of businesses, and the highlighting part is that the prices are reasonable. It provides over 150 themes and customisable templates to choose from. Furthermore, it also offers numerous payment options, round-the-clock support, and third-party integrations.
It is important to know that Shopify has around 11% of the market share, and more than 50% of sellers get repeat purchases, which is a huge number. It provides all the tools you need to get started, like generators for your logo and company name.
Selling on Shopify is very easy. You just need to create your Shopify store and find suppliers using Shopify Handshake or any other dropshipping app. You can also install Shopify apps for landing page builders, lead generation, email marketing, etc.
BigCommerce is a platform that can help you scale your business. It is designed to support the requirements of medium to large businesses. It provides an extensive suite of tools, from marketing to analytics, top design options, and much more. The platform offers all the advantages of a SaaS platform and the flexibility of an open-source platform.
One of its highlighting features is its omnichannel selling, which allows you to promote your eCommerce store to numerous marketplaces while keeping inventory management in one place. Another advantage that it offers to sellers is that it provides customer segmentation based on customers’ shopping habits and backgrounds.
You do not need to possess any technical knowledge to use this platform. Its drag-and-drop builder helps you build and customise your store easily and quickly. The platform also considers the security of both buyer and seller; therefore, it has hacker deterrent provisioning and hardware firewalls that make your operations or transactions safe.
Wix can be an excellent option for new business owners who don’t want to be overburdened with too many high-tech features. It is one of the leading site builders with solid eCommerce integration. The platform is very easy to use, and you can set up your store within minutes. It can be used to build any sort of website and also as an e-commerce website builder.
The platform also provides a point-of-sale solution and enables the opening of a retail store. Its straightforward features and easy user interface make it ideal for people looking for a low-maintenance, professional store.
You can choose from hundreds of templates to suit your preferences. Its drag-and-drop features and elements to customise your online store make it a perfect choice.
Wix offers all the basic elements needed to run an online store, such as secure payment options, a shopping cart, search and filter options, and the ability to move to a wishlist. Overall, it is a great platform, but it cannot handle complex functionalities.
WooCommerce can be the best online selling platform if you already have a WordPress website. It is an open-source eCommerce solution, with more than 12% of all online stores using it globally. It can be used to modify websites and blogs into online storefronts. It provides numerous features, such as multichannel options, various payment methods, and SEO features.
Its various plugins enable you to add other required online store functions to your existing WordPress website. Once you download and install the WooCommerce platform, it allows you to manage your online store from the WordPress dashboard, making your work easy and quick. It also provides data on sales done as per date, product, and category; you can export the reports via CSV.
With the help of over 59,000+ WordPress plugins, users can add any feature to their website. Thus, WooCommerce allows users to customise their eCommerce site as per their requirements.
Ruby Lane is one of the best online selling platforms for selling vintage and antique items like those on Etsy. They majorly allow you to sell goods that are older than 20 years, but you can also sell new goods. However, the only condition is that they should have been bought at least a year ago.
It is recommended that you should always read the documents carefully before listing the goods on Ruby Lane, as every product category has different price limits and rules.
Selling your products on this platform grants you access to top-targeted buyers for categories such as antiques and collectibles, vintage and art, and jewelry. It is an excellent platform to connect with passionate and elite buyers, as here you will mostly find people looking for something unique and ready to spend a good amount for it.
Their user base usually ranges from 40 to 70 years old; therefore, if your goods or products can serve this demographic, it can be a great platform for you.
Facebook Marketplace was started by Facebook in 2016 to attract people from its community to buy and sell products. It is one of the best sites to sell online as they charge no money to list an item. Yes, you have heard it right! You just need to create an account with them, and it’s done.
If you want to create a new listing, you will need to go to the Marketplace tab on the homepage. There, you will have the option to upload pictures of the goods you want to list, write the description, and set the location. Once all this is done, you can publish the post. It has a huge customer base of all ages, so you can see a great response within hours of listing your product.
There are no hidden charges or extra charges, and you have the flexibility to decide who pays the shipping charge and who does not. It has also partnered with various big platforms, such as Shopify, to let sellers show their products, advertise them, and find new customers for their listed products.
Craigslist was started in 1995 as an email distribution list between friends, which people mainly used to get great deals on used goods in their local area. This web-based platform is available in 700 cities across 70 countries. It is a significant local forum where you can find a lot of different products at the best prices.
You do not need to register on Craigslist to create a listing, but creating an account can help you edit posts and renew them whenever they expire.
One major drawback of this platform is that it does not provide a system to send or receive money or ship orders. Therefore, buyers and sellers will either have to meet face-to-face or set up their process to complete the transaction. Due to this approach, scams are more likely to happen, and if they do, you won’t get any help from the company.
Running a business in 2024 requires you to explore different eCommerce sites before you select one. We know how time-consuming it can be to compare the features, functionality, and pricing of numerous platforms. However, this list of the top 10 online selling platforms will help you make an informed decision by analysing which site best suits your specific needs.
Now that you have finalised the online selling platform, the next big thing is to collaborate with an efficient logistic company, like Shiprocket that offers your customers multiple supply chain services, starting from eCommerce shipping, warehousing, hyperlocal delivery, same-day delivery, and B2B and bulk shipping. So, no matter what eCommerce platform you choose, until your logistics partner is reliable, you won’t be able to increase your efficiency, minimise costs, boost production, enhance customer satisfaction, and make smarter use of warehouse space.
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