12 Ecommerce solutions to kick-start your business

Hannah Conway

Ecommerce solutions are designed to help you start, maintain and grow your online business. It’s important to do your research, so we’ve laid out some of the options, to help you pick the solution that works for you.

Running a thriving ecommerce site isn’t all about selling products. You’ll also need to make sure you’ve got the best possible setup for sending and receiving money. It should be easy, cheap and fast - and online providers like Wise are here to help.

Pay people abroad & receive money with low and transparent fees. Find out more.


Contents
Ecommerce Platforms

Ecommerce sites: Which one to choose?

Let’s get your new business up and running. We’ve put together a list of 12 ecommerce software solutions and platforms for small businesses - complete with some essential facts and stats you need to know.

For full pricing and details of available features visit the provider's websites. The availability of some features will depend on registration country.

Shopify

A popular cloud-based ecommerce solution powering around 800,000 online shops worldwide¹, Shopify is specially designed for small and medium businesses. This means that it’s super easy to use, so you can create and customise your online shop and start selling right away.

BASIC Shopify: USD 29 /mo

  • Online store and website.
  • Social store option.
  • Marketplaces available.
  • Staff Accounts: 2
  • Point of Sale (POS): Shopify PoS app & third-party apps supported.
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart
  • Android and iOS store management app
  • Unlimited number of product listings
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • SEO Tools available.
  • Templates available - called Themes.
  • Blog Module available.
  • Free 14-day trial available.

Shopify: USD 29 /mo

  • All features of basic plan.
  • Staff accounts: 5
  • Point of Sale (POS): Supports Regular Shifts; Shopify PoS app; third party apps.

ADVANCED Shopify: USD 299 /mo

  • All features of basic & Shopify plan.
  • Staff accounts: 15

EKM

Based in the UK, EKM is cloud-based and offers a comprehensive ecommerce platform which does pretty much everything you need. This not only means that you’ll get UK-based customer support, but you may also find that the platform is more attuned to the needs and challenges facing UK businesses.

BASIC EKM: £29.99 +VAT /mo

  • Online store and website.
  • Social store option.
  • Marketplaces available.
  • Staff Accounts: 1
  • Point of Sale (POS): Supports third party apps.
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart.
  • Android and iOS store management app.
  • Up-to 500 product listings.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • SEO Tools available.
  • Templates available.
  • Blog Module available.
  • Free 14-day trial available.

EKM: £64.99 +VAT /mo

  • All features of basic plan.
  • Staff accounts: 5
  • Unlimited product listings.

ADVANCED EKM: £194.99 +VAT /mo

  • All features of basic & EKM plans.
  • Staff accounts: 15

PRO EKM: £549.99 +VAT /mo⁶

  • All features of basic, EKM and advanced plans.
  • Staff accounts: Unlimited.

Volusion UK

Volusion provides an ecommerce software to over 180,000 entrepreneurs⁸, with most of the same features as its rivals. It’s a cloud-based platform offering built-in search engine optimisation (SEO), mobile capability and intuitive integration with seller sites like Amazon Marketplace and eBay. Volusion is pretty easy to use and most of its best features are built directly into the dashboard, with no need to purchase any add-ons.

PERSONAL Volusion: USD 29 /mo

  • Online store and website.
  • Social Store
  • Staff accounts: 1
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart
  • Android and iOS store management app.
  • Up-to 100 product listings.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • SEO tools available
  • Templates available.

PRO Volusion: USD 79 /mo

  • All the features of personal plan.
  • Marketplaces available.
  • Staff accounts: 5
  • Point of Sale (POS): Supports third party apps
  • Up-to 5000 product listings.

BUSINESS Volusion: USD 299 /mo⁹

  • All the features of personal plan.
  • Staff accounts: 15
  • Unlimited product listings.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an open-source ecommerce solution offering a free basic plan. While it’s technically possible to run a functional site on the free plan, you are likely to need many of the add-on features – which are chargeable. PrestaShop isn’t as easy as other platforms to set up and you will need to sort and pay for hosting, a payment gateway and other essentials yourself.

FREE PLAN PrestaShop

  • Online store and website.
  • Social store.
  • Mobile responsive shopping carts.
  • Unlimited product listings.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • Unlimited staff accounts.
  • SEO tools available.
  • One mobile responsive default theme is included in the free plan, but over 3,000 others are available to buy as add-ons.
  • Android and iOS store management app: can only be used with the PrestaShop Web Service Module add-on available for purchase.¹⁰

ecommerce-software

BigCartel

If you’re an artist or crafter keen to start selling online, Big Cartel could be the platform for you. It’s billed as ‘made for makers’, with a number of tools to help you tweak and customise the aesthetic of your online store. If you can code, Big Cartel even lets you adjust the JavaScript, HTML or CSS directly – but you don’t have to, as there are many tools available for non-coders too. It’s easy to set up and very affordable.

PLATINUM BigCartel: USD 9.99 /mo

  • Online store and website.
  • Social store.
  • Marketplaces available.
  • 1 Staff account.
  • Point of Sale (POS): Supports third party apps
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart.
  • Android and iOS store management app.
  • Up-to 25 product listings.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • SEO tools available.
  • Templates available.
  • Blog module available, through custom pages and integration with third party apps like Zapier.
  • Free Trial: You can test out Big Cartel for free on their limited Gold Plan, which lets you list just five products at a time with restricted access to features.

DIAMOND BigCartel: USD 19.99 /mo

  • Same features as platinum plan.
  • Up-to 100 product listings.

TITANIUM BigCartel: USD 29.99 /mo

  • Same features as platinum and diamond plans.
  • Up-to 300 product listings.

ShopWired

Just like EKM, ShopWired is geared towards UK sellers. It’s a great value solution, offering most of the standard features you’d expect from an ecommerce platform at a very reasonable monthly cost. You’ll get a full content management system (CMS), mobile responsiveness and the chance to sell on multiple channels. You can even expand your global reach with ShopWired, as it allows visitors to view prices in their local currencies.

PRO ShopWired: £29.95 +VAT /mo

  • Online store and website.
  • Social store option.
  • Marketplaces available.
  • Staff accounts: 2
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart
  • Up-to 750 product listings.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • SEO tools available.
  • Templates available.
  • Blog module available.
  • Free Trial: Test out ShopWired for yourself with a free 14-day trial.

ADVANCED ShopWired: £59.95 +VAT /mo

  • Same features as pro plan.
  • Staff accounts: 5
  • Point of Sale (POS): Supports third party apps.
  • Unlimited product listings.

PREMIUM ShopWired: £119.95 +VAT /mo¹²

  • Same features as pro and advanced plans.
  • Staff accounts: 15

BigCommerce

This large, US-based company offers three different products aimed at different enterprise levels. As well as a solution for larger businesses and one specifically for B2B and wholesaler firms, BigCommerce offers a full-featured platform for small businesses wanting to build an online shop. You can expect comprehensive, fully hosted solutions with all the bells and whistles of other top providers included. Set up is easy and quick, there are no transaction fees and there’s a trial period if you want to give BigCommerce a test run.

STANDARD: USD 29.95 /mo

  • Online store and website.
  • Social store option.
  • Marketplaces available.
  • Unlimited staff accounts.
  • Point of Sale: POS for BigCommerce app
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart
  • Unlimited product listings.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • SEO tools available.
  • Templates available.
  • Blog module available.
  • Free Trial: Test out ShopWired for yourself with a free 15-day trial.

Same features for PLUS plan: USD 71.95 /mo and PRO plan: USD 224.95 /mo.¹³

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the most popular and widely used ecommerce solutions on the web. As of 2015, around 30% of webshops were powered by it.¹⁴ There are a couple of reasons for its popularity – firstly, it’s built on WordPress which a huge number of websites run on, making it quite easy to integrate. It’s also free (with plugins and extras available to purchase if you want to extend functionality) and designed to be user-friendly. You will need a little technical knowledge if you want to customise your online WooCommerce shop, but it’s otherwise quick and easy to get started.

FREE PLAN WooCommerce

  • Online Store and Website - built on WordPress.
  • Social store available through extenstions (some for free, some chargeable).
  • Marketplaces available - free extension.
  • Point of Sale (POS) - free extension supports third party applications.
  • Mobile responsive shopping cart - but depends on theme used.
  • Android and iOS store management app.
  • Unlimited product listings.
  • Unlimited Bandwidth.
  • Magento

    Magento is a free open source ecommerce solution for small businesses and start-ups, although the company also offers an expensive advanced solution for much larger businesses with more complex needs. We’ll focus on the free, open-source version here. It doesn’t cost a penny to start using it, but you will need to pay for specialised Magento hosting.

    FREE Magento OpenSource

    • Online Store and website.
    • Social store available - through chargeable extensions.
    • Marketplaces – free extension
    • Point of Sale (PoS) - through chargeable extensions.
    • Mobile responsive shopping cart.
    • Unlimited product listings.
    • Unlimited Bandwidth.
    • Staff Accounts: 1
    • SEO Tools available.
    • Templates available.¹⁶

    Etsy

    For some small businesses and entrepreneurs, there may not be a need to invest in a full-scale ecommerce solution. Instead, sites like Etsy present an easy, affordable solution. It’s a marketplace for handmade, unique and custom art, crafts and vintage items, so it’s the perfect place for artists and makers to sell their work.

    Getting started with Etsy is simple, you just need a professional set of product photos and you can open your own online shop straight away. You’ll pay a small listing fee per item, a standard monthly service cost and a commission when you sell anything. Whether Etsy takes a payment processing fee depends on the method used. For example, taking payments through PayPal is free. But don’t forget about PayPal’s conversion rates - it can be cheaper to use an alternative like Wise.

    Amazon

    Amazon is another direct way to start selling, without needing to build an online shop or website from scratch. This online retail giant sells literally everything, including products by other ecommerce businesses through Amazon Marketplace and Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA).

    All you need is an Amazon account to register as a seller and start listing products. Before you start selling on Amazon though, make sure you take a close look at the fees and charges to make sure the numbers add up. There are also fees which apply to certain categories of products.

    Once you’re all set up and the products are flying off the virtual shelves, it’s time to make sure you get paid. This is no problem if you’re selling in the UK, but you may face high currency conversion fees if you receive payments from customers in other countries. But don’t worry, help is at hand. Add your Wise Business account to your Amazon account and withdraw your earnings directly into it using the real mid-market exchange rate.

    eBay

    Selling on eBay is just the same as on other marketplaces like Amazon, with one key difference. You can register with a free eBay account, list products and only pay fees when you sell items, but you also have the option to sell your products via auction. Many eBay business sellers prefer to use Buy It Now, the fixed price way of listing items, as it’s more like a standard ecommerce site.

    eBay has a whole bundle of subscription packages and fees to familiarise yourself with. Each of these packages gives you a certain amount of product listings a month, although you’ll need to pay extra if you exceed your limit. Again, it’s a smart idea to get your calculator out and make sure your profit margins can stay healthy when selling on eBay.

    Interested in selling on eBay? Work out how much you could make with our eBay fee calculator.

    ecommerce-platform

    Best ecommerce platform for small business

    We can’t tell you which is the best when it comes to ecommerce platforms. It’s all about finding the right fit for your business. We can however highlight some key things to consider, to help you narrow down your options. If you’re really boiling it down to just a few essentials, we recommend looking for solutions which score highly on:

    • Price: Choosing any new service will always come down to cost. Small businesses need a cost-effective solution that maximises profit and builds sales, without costing the earth. You need to find the right balance between the features you need and the cost of a monthly plan. It could be that spending a little bit more now results in healthy sales growth later on.

    • TrustPilot rating: Review sites should always be taken with a pinch of salt. It’s very useful to know how others have got on with an ecommerce solution, but remember that their business needs may be very different to yours. Some people have unrealistic expectations, which will always result in disappointment. However, if the same issues are mentioned time and time again, this could be a cause for concern.

    • Number of products: If your business grows and you want to sell more, you don’t want product restrictions holding you back. Many basic plans come with unlimited products as standard, so you don’t need to pay more if your offering grows.

    • Mobile responsiveness: Over half (58%) of British consumers use their smartphones for online shopping¹³, according to research by uSwitch. You simply cannot afford to be missing out on this customer base, so always look for ecommerce solutions with mobile-responsive themes.

    Best ecommerce platform for SEO

    You might have spotted above that some ecommerce platform offers are particularly good for search engine optimisation (SEO). But why is this important? Well, SEO is all about making your website easy to discover by potential customers - If consumers can’t find it, they can’t buy your products.

    Built-in SEO features aim to optimise online stores for Google’s search results, which should make it easier for shoppers to find your products. There are lots of factors that make SEO work, from the simplest – properly naming products, page titles and URLs to match what customers are searching for – through to more technical aspects which can affect SEO performance, such as page-load speeds and accessibility.

    So, when comparing ecommerce business systems, it’s worth taking a closer look at SEO. It isn’t always included in free plans, but you don’t necessarily want to be paying a fortune for a bolt-on.

    Load Time

    Page load time is pretty much what it says on the tin. It’s the time it takes for each page – in this case, a product page or a click-through to checkout – to fully load.

    It’s really important for SEO as well as customer service. Speed is a ranking factor for Google searches, so a slow site can see your ranking plummet. For customers, even a half-second delay can cause impatient shoppers to abandon their cart and head elsewhere.

    Mobile and Desktop Speed

    For the very best chance of selling as many products as possible from your ecommerce site, it needs to be fast. Web users have sky-high expectations of how quickly pages should load and how fast websites should be. If they have a disappointing experience on your site, there are literally thousands of other websites for them to choose from.

    Remember that a huge number of shoppers will make purchases from their smartphone or tablet, as well as browsing your site and finding information so they can make purchases later. So, your site needs to be mobile-responsive, and it needs to offer lightning-fast speeds.


    Ecommerce solutions are designed to help you start, maintain and grow your online business. You won’t struggle to find ecommerce solutions, as there are many of them out there. The main problem will be sifting out the best ones, and choosing the right platform for your business.

    It’s important to do your research, so we’ve laid out some of the options, to help you pick the solution that works for you.

    Running a thriving ecommerce site isn’t all about selling products. You’ll also need to make sure you’ve got the best possible setup for sending and receiving money. It should be easy, cheap and fast - and online providers, like Wise are here to help.

    Sources used:

    1. Shopify: About
    2. Shopify: Pricing
    3. Shopify: Shopping Carts
    4. Shopify: Marketing - SEO features
    5. Shopify: Themes
    6. EKM: Pricing
    7. EKM: All Features
    8. Volusion UK: About
    9. Volusion UK: Pricing
    10. PrestaShop
    11. BigCartel: Pricing
    12. ShopWired: Pricing
    13. BigCommerce: Pricing
    14. WooCommerce: About
    15. WooCommerce: Features
    16. Magento

    Sources checked on: 14-November 2019.


    *Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

    This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

    We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.

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