We have witnessed the exponential growth of e-commerce businesses in recent years, and they will continue to grow. It is expected to reach 8.1 trillion dollars by 2026. Consumers are choosing online shopping for convenience, range of products, and affordability. With the advancement in technologies, the e-commerce industry is transforming. The user experience is enhanced with the application of technologies like Artificial intelligence, Augmented reality, and Virtual reality. If you are planning to start your e-commerce business, we provide dedicated developers who will help you build an e-commerce website for your business.

With the plethora of e-commerce platforms, it can become confusing to pick one that would suit your business requirements. The platforms are different from each other with their unique features, but there is a certain set of features that are vital to building an e-commerce website. Below we have mentioned a few of them for you to check before making your decision.

Features of e-commerce platform to look for:

1. Security
2. SEO capabilities
3. Mobile-friendliness
4. Scalability
5. Integration with technologies like AI, AR, and VR.
6. Customization
7. Payment processing

To set up an online store, you would need an e-commerce platform, here are the four top-performing eCommerce platforms you can choose from for your business.

Top eCommerce development platforms

Magento

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP and released in 2008. Magento 2.4.5 is the latest version launched in August 2022. Magento commerce is also known as Adobe commerce, it was acquired by Adobe in 2018. Magento is used mostly by medium and large enterprises since it would require some technical knowledge to develop an e-commerce website using Magento. There is Magento open source which is a free version to use and Magento Commerce software which is a paid version.

Magento is used by around 0.9% of all websites and a lot of renowned companies around the world use Magento. Some of the companies that use Magento are cosmopolitan, Panasonic, and Acer.

Features of Magento:

1. Security

Magento provides advanced security features such as two-factor authentication, and it supports multiple authenticators like Authy, Duo, and Google authenticator.

2. Mobile commerce

The e-commerce website built using Magento is highly responsive and has been optimized for all devices.

3. SEO

There are in-built SEO tools that are useful and efficient to optimize the e-commerce websites for the search engine to drive traffic.

4. Customization

Magento developers can customize the e-commerce website as per your business requirements. The Magento Marketplace has a large number of extensions that are useful to extend features.

5. Payment

There is a built-in payment processor with Magento, and there are many payment getaway extensions that you can use with Magento and offer secure payment processing to the users.

Shopify

Shopify is an easy-to-use e-commerce platform that is used popularly by online retailers. Shopify is a subscription-based software-as-a-service sales platform, which was launched in 2006. It has 14 days free trial period, before you choose from the various subscription plan according to the requirements. With the Shopify subscription, you get all the tools that you would need to set up your online stores such as domain name, themes, and hosting.

Shopify is one of the leading e-commerce platforms with 10% of the market share. Red Bull, Heinz, Fitbit, Penguin Books, and Tesla are some of the established global brands that are using Shopify. Shopify keeps updating the tools and functionalities with each version, with the latest version of Shopify 14.0 launched in Oct 2022.

Features of Shopify:

1. Easy to use

Setting up an online store with Shopify is an easy process that doesn’t require technical expertise. The ease of use is advantageous for small companies and start-ups who are just starting their e-commerce journey. Shopify makes the management of stores also super easy, with the convenience of managing through mobile phones.

2. Marketing tools

There are in-built tools with Shopify, it also optimizes the website by feature to add the Meta tag, Meta description, and unique URLs. Shopify supports a wide range of plug-ins that you can use like SEO, SEO plus, SEO booster.

3. Speed

There is a built-in speed checker in Shopify that gives you a sense of site speed and having that information you can make necessary changes to increase performance.

4. Social Media Integration

Shopify provides seamless integration with various social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allowing you to use these platforms to market your products.

5. Integration

There are 6700 plus apps and plug-ins that are supported by Shopify. It lets the online store with many payment processing gateways offering the convenience of secure payment.

Also read: How to start an eCommerce business: Step-by-step Definitive Guide

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce platform launched in 2011. Woocommerce is a plugin of WordPress that allows you to convert a website into an e-commerce site. It is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms and is also free to download. Woocoomerce has all the functionalities required for an e-commerce store.

The popularity of Woocommerce can be assessed by the percentage of e-commerce websites built on Woocommerce which is 36.68 %. Certified comic shops, Garantia, Atlantica Patia, and Singer, are some big companies that prefer Woocommerce.

Features of WooCommerce:

1. Easy to use and install

WooCommerce is free to download, easy to use, and install. The installation process can be completed by just following the wizard.

2. Scaleable and Mobile-friendly

There are many extensions available with woo-commerce that help to add different features and functionalities to the website. There are themes available that make the website user-friendly and responsive on mobile also.

3. Flexible and Secure

The flexibility of WooCommerce, lets you sell anything you want to. It is an incredible platform with which you can sell any physical product or any digital product.

4. Support

It is a WordPress plug-in and WordPress is the most popular CMS to build websites Therefore the community support for WooCommerce users is huge.

5. Flexible Payment

WooCommerce supports a whole range of options for payments as digital payments, e-wallets, and pay-on delivery. It is compatible with payment gateways like Paypal, Stripe, and Doku.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform that is easy to use. It is a SaaS-based platform. BigCommerce offers features that make it a popular choice among fast-growing companies. It has a user-friendly interface that is simple to use for non-technical users also. BigCommerce gives a trial for 15 days and there are different plans available.

Casio, Almanac, Sony, Ubisoft, and Adore Beauty are some of the popular brands that leverage the features of BigCommerce. BigCommerce is used by 0.3% of all websites.

Features of BigCommerce:

1. Analytic Optimization

There are built-in SEO features available that help to increase the exposure of the website.
There is an inbuilt analytic dashboard that provides details about customer insights and page visibility.

2. Customization

It has a large number of themes available that you can use to customize your website.

3. Inventory management

Inventory management with BigCommerce is efficient making it a popular choice for large enterprises.

4. Multiple Platforms

BigCommerce lets you use Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms for marketing.

5. Integration

It integrates with a huge number of third-party applications which helps to add functionality to the website. There are over 800 applications that can integrate with the BigCommerce platform.

The four e-commerce platforms we have discussed in detail are some of the best options that you can pick for setting up your online store. Irrespective your business is big or small and the industry these platforms have all the essential features that you would need to develop an e-commerce business website. You can choose the best e-commerce web development company, and they can build you a high-performing e-commerce website in no time. We have vast experience in working with e-commerce platforms, connect with us for your development requirements.