5 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Business in 2022
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Agatha Aviso is a writer of the Retail Section at Fit Small Business, focusing on retail software and ecommerce platforms.
This article is part of a larger series on Retail Management.
Businesses use ecommerce platforms to create online stores with shopping cart and payment processing capabilities and help fulfill orders via inventory and order management tools. The best ecommerce platforms for small businesses integrate online marketplaces, like Amazon, and POS systems for in-person sales, allow for social media selling, and have scalable pricing plans that start under $100 per month.
We narrowed our list of 16 ecommerce platforms to the best five. Based on our evaluations, the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses are:
- Best overall: Shopify
- Best for growing businesses: BigCommerce
- Best for existing websites: Ecwid
- Best for storefronts: Square Online
- Best for creatives: Squarespace
Best Ecommerce Platforms Compared
Free Plan | Paid Monthly Fees | Built-in SEO Tools | In-store and Mobile Sales | Abandoned Cart Recovery | Customer Service Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
✕ | $29–$299 | ✓ | Has its own POS | ✓ | 24/7 phone, live chat, and email support | |
✕ | $29.95–$299.95 | ✓ | Has integrations with Square POS | ✓ (on higher plans) | 24/7 phone, live chat, and email support | |
✓ | $15–$99 | ✓ | Works only on iOS | ✓ (on higher plans) | Email (free users), live chat and phone (paid subscribers) | |
✓ | $12–$72* | ✓ (basic) | Has its own POS | ✓ (on higher plans) | Email, live chat, and phone; weekdays: 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Eastern time; weekends: 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Eastern time | |
✕ | $33–$65** | ✓ (basic) | Has integrations with Square POS | ✓ (on higher plans) | 24/7 email, live chat; weekdays, 4 a.m.–8 p.m. Eastern time |
*Square Online’s plans are under lump-sum billing.
**Squarespace can support ecommerce features at its second tier, Business.
All ecommerce platforms in our guide offer a free trial and provide integrated payment processing, social media selling, and shipping solutions.
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Shopify: Best Overall Ecommerce Platform
Shopify
Overall Score: 4.68
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Print discounted postage straight from Shopify
- Powerful reporting shows which items are most likely to sell
- Access hundreds of additional features and integrations via Shopify app store
- 24/7 customer support
What's Missing
- Costs at least $29 monthly for a full ecommerce store
- No low-stock alerts without upgrade
- Shipping calculator requires an annual plan
Shopify Is Best For:
- Businesses with online sales as a profit driver: Shopify’s website builder, sales tools, and inventory management features help you scale your online business effectively.
- Multichannel retailers: Shopify tops our recommended multichannel POS system, offering a POS and ecommerce system that connect seamlessly for omnichannel sales.
- Online stores that would like to sell on social media: While most ecommerce platforms offer social media integrations, Shopify has exclusive partnerships with companies like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to allow in-app purchases.
- Entrepreneurs wanting to try a dropshipping model: Shopify connects to hundreds of dropshippers via plug-and-play options in the Shopify App Store.
Shopify is sometimes called the only true competitor to Amazon—and for a good reason. We have tested a lot of ecommerce website builders, and Shopify is one of the easiest systems to use in creating an ecommerce website and managing orders.
We tested its tools when we signed up for a free trial, and they did not disappoint. Shopify gives small businesses all the tools they need to compete with ecommerce giants. It has product reviews, live customer chat, geolocation to change your language or currency based on the visitor’s location, and a customer return portal—and that’s just scratching the surface.
It has also made a name for itself in providing POS software to manage in-store sales, so it’s perfect for businesses that sell in person and online. Last but not least, it integrates with Amazon, so you can easily sell your products there and on Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Pinterest, and other marketplaces.
Based on our evaluation criteria, Shopify earned a 4.68 out of 5. We gave it perfect scores on its sales and product features and ease of use. Lack of a free plan and not offering a free domain name prevented it from getting a perfect score.
Shopify Pricing
- $29 per month for Basic Shopify; includes all the main ecommerce features but has limited reporting. Online transactions are charged at 2.9% + 30 cents.
- $79 per month for Shopify Standard; provides stronger reporting (such as first-time vs returning customer sales), USPS cubic pricing, and a discounted transaction fee of 2.6% + 30 cents.
- $299 per month for Advanced Shopify; lets you build custom reports and show third-party calculated shipping rates at checkout. Online transactions are further discounted to 2.4% + 30 cents.
Shopify has robust tools to scale your business effectively. However, as your business grows and your needs go beyond what Advanced Shopify offers, you can contact the provider to upgrade to Shopify Plus, Shopify’s enterprise-level solution.
The provider also has a $9 per month Lite plan, which lets you add a buy button to your existing website or blog. This plan is startup-friendly and ideal for sellers wanting to add products to their existing blog or standard website and sell on Facebook or in person using a mobile device. This plan also allows you to send invoices and accept online payments but does not let you build an online store.
See our full guide to Shopify pricing and learn more about this platform in our Shopify review.
Shopify Standout Features
Website builder with drag-and-drop functionality
A big part of what’s made Shopify so successful is the powerful website builder that is very easy to use. Its legacy themes already come with a content management system (CMS), so you can set up your store and have website pages such as about, contact, and blog pages. Its recent rollout of theme upgrades included Online Store 2.0—a theme that provides more modular flexibility and drag-and-drop functionality. We find Shopify’s site hierarchy and navigation notable—whenever you change the URL of a webpage, there’s an option to redirect the old URL to the new one, a simple but often overlooked step.
Advanced inventory management
Shopify has one of the best inventory management systems, although the most advanced features require a paid upgrade. All account levels can import items, manage returns, and view basic inventory reports. With POS Pro (an additional $89 per month), you can create purchase orders (POs), receive orders with a barcode scanner, and run more advanced profitability and product demand reports.
Real-time shipping calculator & discounted postage
You can set up flat-rate, weight-based shipping or charge actual shipping rates from USPS, UPS, or DHL. While Shopify’s pricing page indicates that the latter feature is available only to Advanced accounts, the platform will enable it upon request for anyone on an annual plan. As mentioned earlier, all versions can print discounted postage labels directly from Shopify for the carriers. Shopify also integrates with hundreds of third-party fulfillment apps, should you prefer an alternate delivery service, such as ShipStation, or dropshipping.
More multichannel selling tools than competitors
Simultaneously sell your items on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and many other websites. Shopify offers more multichannel selling options than any other platform.
One-click checkout option via Shop Pay
Shop Pay (formerly known as Shopify Pay) lets your customers check out easily by saving their payment details. The biggest advantage it gives to Shopify stores is that it works across all stores that have Shop Pay enabled. For example, if a customer purchased an item in one Shopify store, all their purchase details are saved in the system so that when they buy something from another Shopify store, they can literally check out with just one click. Currently, Shopify is the only platform with this integrated checkout feature across all of its user stores.
Marketing tools, including Shopify Email
Abandoned cart recovery is included with all accounts at $29 per month and higher. This is a feature only Shopify offers across all tiers, compared to other ecommerce platforms that offer it only in their higher-priced plans. Shopify Email, its native email marketing tool, is also included—with 2,500 emails per month and additional emails priced at $1 per 1,000. Shopify has the best built-in email marketing tools, allowing you to segment customers based on their purchase history, geography, and other variables (third-party apps may be required).
Sales & website analytics
In addition to all the standard sales reports, Shopify provides more detail about website visitors, like demographics and which page they first clicked on to access your site. Shopify’s Standard plan ($79 per month) includes website cart analysis, which tells you which items a customer is likely interested in based on what they’ve previously added to their cart.
24/7 customer support
Phone, live chat, and email support are available 24/7. Plus, Shopify has detailed guides and instructional videos for getting started.
Ready to get started? Our guide on how to set up a Shopify store will walk you through the process.
What Shopify Is Missing
- Product management: Shopify has a three-limit variant on its products, with only up to 100 variant combinations. Digital product downloads and custom order fields, such as personalized items, would need a separate app. BigCommerce has unlimited product variants and a built-in custom work order feature.
- Compatibility with big marketplaces: If you plan to sell items in marketplaces like Walmart Marketplace and PriceGrabber, BigCommerce would be a better fit.
Shopify Store Examples
Denise Woodard created Partake Foods out of a need for allergy-friendly snacks for her daughter, Vivane. Partake offers gluten-free, vegan, and allergy-friendly cookies in flavors kids will love, such as chocolate chip, birthday cake, and ginger snaps.
Denise shared that she chose to work with Shopify because it was important for her to easily understand the behind the scenes of running an online store even as a non-techie person. She noted that Shopify makes it easy for her to track analytics and maintain touchpoints with customers.
Creator and editor Janine Vangool launched her Shopify store, Uppercase Magazine, in 2007, making her one of Shopify’s longest-standing customers. She shared that she went through growing pains early on, selling subscriptions via the platform before there was a “clear and easy way to even do so.”
There are now Shopify-compatible apps for subscription-based processes, and she has been using Shopify’s extensive apps to further streamline her business operations and increase sales orders.
BigCommerce: Best for Growing Online-only Businesses
BigCommerce
Overall Score: 4.42
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- No transaction fees with numerous payment processing integrations
- Great value plans: Competitive pricing for the features included
- Ability to sell on enterprise and ecommerce apps (Google Shopping, Walmart Marketplace, and PriceGrabber)
What's Missing
- Customization tools aren’t beginner-friendly
- Has sales volume limits on its plans
BigCommerce Is Best For:
- High-revenue enterprise businesses: The lack of transaction fees and ability to shop for the best payment processing rates make BigCommerce a cost-effective platform to run for high-revenue companies.
- Online stores carrying a large variety of inventory (such as clothing stores): BigCommerce lets you set up 250 product options and up to 600 variants.
- Businesses offering a mix of physical, digital, and service-based products: BigCommerce allows you to sell these options without the need of a third-party integration.
When it comes to choosing the right ecommerce software for your business, it will most likely come down to BigCommerce vs Shopify. We consider BigCommerce a close runner-up to Shopify in being the best overall ecommerce platform. BigCommerce, as its name implies, is best for growing businesses that need a scalable sales platform and tech-savvy users wanting to customize their online stores. Its open SaaS structure makes it an attractive platform for companies that want to personalize their stores as much as possible.
In our evaluation, BigCommerce came right behind Shopify, scoring 4.42 out of 5. Its built-in sales features, advanced level of customization, SEO capabilities, and zero transaction fees earned high marks. However, its ease of use and sales volume limits on pricing plans prevented it from getting a perfect score.
BigCommerce Pricing
- $29.95 per month for Standard; includes a responsive website, a single-page checkout, access to the BigCommerce mobile app, and payment integrations (Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay). It provides real-time shipping quotes, professional reporting tools, coupons, discounts, and gift cards.
- $79.95 per month for Plus; features an abandoned cart saver, persistent cart saver, customer groups, and stored credit cards.
- $299.95 per month for Pro; provides product filtering, custom SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), and Google customer reviews.
All plans include unlimited staff accounts, products, file storage, and bandwidth. Each plan has access to 24/7 live support, BigCommerce’s POS tool, and multiple sales channels—such as a branded online store, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Shopping.
Read our BigCommerce review to discover more about what it can do for your ecommerce business.
BigCommerce Standout Features
SEO (the ability to set up and implement from the backend) is one of BigCommerce’s strongest features.
Website builder with fully customizable themes, including checkout pages
What’s noteworthy about BigCommerce’s themes is its capability to display an extensive catalog of products. You can customize your website using Store Design, its page builder visual editor, and access fully customizable themes, checkout customization tools, and WordPress integration. However, its free website themes offer little variety compared to those of Shopify or Squarespace.
Marketplace & social media sales channels
Most robust product management out of all platforms in this guide
BigCommerce’s most significant advantage over Shopify is its product variant management feature. Unlike Shopify (which allows only up to three product options), BigCommerce lets you have up to 250 product options and auto-generates SKUs for all combinations of variants you set up. Its limit on product variants is 600, a big jump from the 100 limit of Shopify and Squarespace. Moreover, BigCommerce lets you sell physical, digital, and service-based products without having to use a third-party app (often at a cost). Subscriptions, however, require an app.
Multicurrency & multilanguage capabilities
The platform accepts over 100 currencies and offers local payment options with your preferred gateway. You can also localize your store’s front-end according to your market’s language.
Granular inventory management
The “Products” tab offers an at-a-glance view of your stock status. You can update products, add new items, and edit product descriptions and prices here. Additionally, you can be as detailed as you want with your products’ metadata descriptions and product and category URLs—allowing you to take advantage of SEO tools.
Advanced SEO features
Features such as automated image optimizer, on-page SEO capabilities, sitemap generation, and site speed enhancers are advantageous for SEO. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is also implemented on all BigCommerce themes. Unlike Shopify and Squarespace, you can customize your store products’ metadata, header tags, and titles and create and change product-specific URLs easily.
Ready to get started? Learn how to set up a BigCommerce online store.
What BigCommerce Is Missing
- Variety in its free website themes: While BigCommerce offers free website templates, they look similar and don’t provide the same flexibility and options that Shopify and Squarespace offer. When you create your store on BigCommerce, be prepared to invest in a paid website template.
- Built-in email marketing: BigCommerce still has yet to offer a native solution that lets you send emails to your customers, something Shopify rolled out with Shopify Email.
- Discounted shipping rates: While BigCommerce offers live shipping rates across its plans, discounted rates are still unavailable unlike with Shopify.
BigCommerce Store Examples
Jentri Quinn, a professional makeup artist and esthetician, capitalized on BigCommerce’s native integrations to keep updated with the latest ecommerce trends and remain competitive. In addition to using the native Meta (Facebook and Instagram) integration, she shared that TikTok helped boost organic traffic to their online store.
Catherine and Ned Haegerty have been bringing rare, artisanal Chinese teas to the US since 2004 through their business, Silk Road Teas. When it was time to scale, Ned shared that they chose BigCommerce because it had the right tools for the growth they needed. For example, the complex inventories involved in the tea trade was something that BigCommerce’s built-in product management feature could solve.
Ecwid: Best Free Ecommerce Platform for Existing Websites
Ecwid
Overall Score: 4.42
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Sell anywhere (website, social media, and in person)
- No ads shown on free sites
- Free USPS, UPS, and FedEx shipping calculator
- Works on Wix, Squarespace, Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, and more
What's Missing
- Free plan is limited to 10 products, doesn't provide coupon codes, and lacks inventory tracking
- Limited customer support
- Limited customization options
Ecwid Is Best For:
- Businesses that have an existing website: Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace users have native Ecwid integrations—no code is required to set up Ecwid, making it much easier to use.
- Sellers with a narrow inventory of products: Ecwid’s forever-free plan is perfect if you have 10 or fewer products to sell.
- Hobbyists and those who sell as a side business: Ecwid’s basic plan ($15/month) lets you sell on Facebook and Instagram and provides you with inventory tracking, marketing tools, and a mobile app.
If you already have a Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress website and want to start selling products, then Ecwid is an excellent free option. While Wix and Squarespace have ecommerce plans, they can get expensive and often lack features that Ecwid provides for free, like a shipping calculator and a related products section.
Ecwid can be integrated with both those platforms and any other website builder where you can inject code. It can also be used as a free standalone website, although this is less common.
In our evaluation of ecommerce platforms, Ecwid scored a 4.42 out of 5. The ability to upgrade to paid versions, free shipping calculators, and the ability to sell anywhere contributed to its high score. Ecwid has limited customization features and customer support, which are crucial for ecommerce solutions. However, it is still the best value and user-friendly choice if you want free ecommerce software for your existing website.
Ecwid Pricing
- Free plan ($0); has 10 products, and you can create your online store or add products to a current site. Social media sharing buttons can be enabled within the product page, making promotion easier for you. Ecwid is the only free ecommerce platform with free shipping calculators for all the major US carriers, Canada Post, Royal Mail, and more. This means you can charge customers actual shipping rates based on their location and the package weight. However, support is only provided by email.
- $15 per month for Venture, a basic plan that allows you to feature 100 physical products and connect your store to other sales channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy. You can also sell digital goods, which have a 25GB per file limit. Android and iOS apps and store management features (such as discount coupons, gift cards, inventory tracking, and advanced SEO tools) are included. Support in this tier is provided through chat.
- $35 per month for Business, which has all of Venture plan’s features—except you can now sell up to 2,500 products and connect to Amazon and eBay. Moreover, advanced store management features (e.g., abandoned cart emails, product filters, wholesale pricing groups, and a multilingual storefront) are added to your dashboard. Support is provided by phone and chat and free customization for up to two hours for those under annual plans.
- $99 per month for Unlimited, which has provision for an unlimited number of products, your own branded iOS and Android shopping app and point-of-sale (POS) system, and priority support. For those under annual plans, you are entitled to up to 12 hours of free customization.
Ecwid’s plans allow you to build your online store, add it to any website, and sell on multiple sites simultaneously. It also comes with a mobile-responsive shopping cart and the Apple Pay one-tap checkout feature.
Read our Ecwid review to learn more about the platform’s pricing and features.
Ecwid Standout Features
Sell anywhere
You can sell either online—through Ecwid’s storefront, an existing website, social networks, on mobile—or in person by connecting your store to a POS platform. Also, you can manage sales channels through Ecwid’s control panel, which automatically syncs data, like orders and inventory.
Additionally, its buy button feature can be added to any web page and directly links your product. It automatically adapts to the website’s colors and style without the need for coding knowledge.
The Buy Button feature allows you to customize the information you want to reflect when the product is linked to your website.
Customer-friendly storefront experience
Ecwid makes it easy for your customers to buy products by providing a drag-and-drop “add to cart” feature, an easy option to “checkout without creating a store profile,” a customer address book, and the ability to save favorite products. Language is easily detected and can be translated to over 45 different languages, and real-time shipping rates are adjusted based on the customer’s IP address.
Flexible store management & marketing tools
You can sell both physical and digital products on Ecwid. Promotions can be done with discount coupons and volume discounts, whereas you can calculate different shipping options in real-time based on carrier rates. In addition, inventory tracking is synced for online and offline purchases.
Product management, with limitations based on plan
Ecwid doesn’t impose a limit on product variants but has product limits per plan. You only get an unlimited number of products by subscribing to the highest plan, Unlimited ($99/month). This platform is the only one among our top five ecommerce website builders that doesn’t offer unlimited products with its basic plan.
Mobile app for managing your business on the go
Ecwid provides a store management app (iOS and Android) for paid subscribers through ShopApp. You can also manage your store through the app by updating inventory, managing orders, and receiving notifications. Images, prices, availability, and any online changes automatically sync with the mobile app.
Ready to add Ecwid to your WordPress website? Read our step-by-step guide on using Ecwid.
What Ecwid Is Missing
- Multiple website pages: Since Ecwid is primarily designed as an add-on to existing sites, it only offers a single-page Instant Site that can act as your homepage or landing page. If you want a full-blown website, Shopify, Squarespace, and BigCommerce are better choices.
- Native POS: If you plan to sell in person, you’d need a POS to process payments. While Ecwid can integrate with Vend, Clover, and Square, you still need to be on its highest plan at $99 a month—and this is expensive. If you need an integrated POS and online store system, consider going with Square Online or Shopify.
- SEO: Ecwid doesn’t offer SEO capabilities on its free plan, and even with paid plans, its capabilities are limited. Shopify and BigCommerce are better options.
Ecwid Store Examples
Beer geek Dave Hawley initially set up Beer Cellar, a craft beer store, as a brick-and-mortar store because he wanted a shop experience where customers could have a drink while they shopped or even stop by for a drink with friends. When he decided to take his business online, he went with Ecwid because of the easy learning curve and its integration with the store POS Beer Cellar was using. He used Ecwid’s Instant Site to set up two online stores: one for the Geneva store and another for the Glen Ellyn location.
Cecilia Taibo Rahban, a designer and solopreneur, decided to go with Ecwid when she put her jewelry collection online for sale because of its ability to get added to her chosen web hosting platform. She is proud to be an Ecwid early adopter; she likes Ecwid’s ability to display an online store in multiple languages and add promotional offers such as free shipping on conditional offers, which has helped double her store sales.
Square Online: Best Simple Solution for Storefronts
Square Online
Overall Score: 4.01
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Create an online store for free
- Sell items on Instagram and Facebook
- Integrates with all major postal carriers (with upgrade)
- All-in-one ecommerce and payment processing solution
What's Missing
- The free option is filled with Square ads and branding
- Inventory can be counterintuitive
- Premium features can get expensive
Square Online Is Best For:
- Businesses on a budget: Square Online has a forever-free plan that allows you to accept payments offline and online.
- Businesses offering curbside delivery or click-and-collect options: Create a web page to receive orders through your Square POS system. Customers decide on delivery options.
- Solo proprietors (such as massage therapists, fitness instructors, makeup artists, and hairstylists): Square Online’s checkout function lets you easily accept prepayment for your services and automatically charge for monthly services.
Square Online is best for businesses that want to add online ordering to brick-and-mortar stores such as cafes, retail outlets, and professional service shops. A free plan lets you create a professional online store and sell unlimited products with built-in credit card processing. Paid subscriptions are available for more advanced features such as using a custom domain instead of the yoursite.square.site domain that’s provided for free.
Like Shopify, Square includes a POS for businesses that sell in-store and online. Unlike Shopify, however, its POS is free to use, with optional paid upgrades. Square Online is our leading free ecommerce platform. Meanwhile, Square is one of our best POS systems for small businesses.
This platform earned a 3.80 out of 5 in our evaluation of best ecommerce platforms. Its strongest feature is the ability to sell on multiple channels (in-store and mobile) and social media platforms, giving the advantage of having hardware options (POS) for processing payments. However, lacking customization options and counterintuitive inventory management tools prevented it from getting a higher score.
Square Online Pricing
- Free ($0) plan includes all the main features for a professional ecommerce site. Create a full website, list unlimited products with variants, and manage your orders through Square Dashboard. The free option requires you to use a yoursite.square.site domain, though, and will display a Square logo on the footer.
- $12 per month for Professional*; lets you use a custom domain and custom fonts and removes Square branding from your website.
- $26 per month for Performance*; adds product reviews, abandoned cart recovery, and priority customer support and lets you buy discounted postage labels straight from Square.
- $72 per month for Premium*; adds a shipping calculator to charge customers real-time rates from USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL. Transaction fees are also discounted.
*Plans are under lump-sum billing.
Square Online Standout Features
Square Online works similarly to Shopify. It offers user-friendly POS software, online stores, ecommerce functionalities, and integrated payment processing with industry-leading omnichannel contactless payment tools. The biggest difference is that Square Online’s POS and online store products are free to use, whereas Shopify requires a monthly subscription. However, Shopify’s ecommerce offerings are also significantly more robust. Read more about Shopify vs Square.
Get more details about what this platform can do for your business in our Square Online review.
If you run a restaurant and want to launch online ordering for delivery or curbside pickup, you can set up a free ordering page using Square Online. Online orders are displayed in your restaurant POS and kitchen printers, so there’s no disruption to your standard order process.
Website builder with some customization options
Square Online allows you to build a full-blown website with multiple pages, contact forms, an email sign-up, and much more. The website can be custom-branded with your logo and colors, and you can choose which features you want to appear—and in what order. However, you cannot fully edit the layout or add integrations as you can with Shopify.
Inventory & product management
You can import your inventory with categories, variants, and modifiers and set up low stock alerts. However, all of this needs to be done from the Square Item menu, not the website item library, which can be confusing. Unlike Shopify, Square Online does not provide inventory reports or let you automate customer returns.
Shipping options include flat-rate, dynamic & discounted postage
The platform requires you to set up your shipping rates (which can be flat-rate or based on weight)—unless you upgrade to the Premium edition ($72 per month), which lets you charge the actual prices from mail carriers. With the Performance edition ($26 per month) or higher, you can buy discounted postage labels for USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL straight from the dashboard.
Click and collect & local delivery
Set up click-and-collect options (like curbside pickup), specific pickup hours and order windows, order prep times, customer notifications for when their order is ready, and whether or not shoppers can schedule pickup times.
Multichannel selling
Sell items on Instagram or Facebook, and manage orders through Square.
Marketing tools include abandoned cart recovery
Abandoned cart recovery (available to $26 per month accounts and higher) automatically sends reminder emails to customers who stopped before checking out. Square Online also offers email marketing features, starting at $15 per month.
Built-in sales analytics
Square Online provides a range of sales reports, including sales by category, discounts applied, and tax collected. Paid versions of Square Online also provide some basic website analytics—like page views, search terms, and referring sites.
Live customer support
Email, live chat, and phone support are available weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time, and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. During my evaluation, it took about 30 minutes to get connected to a live support agent who was very knowledgeable and helpful.
Ready to create a free Square Online store? Read our step-by-step guide to Square Online.
What Square Online Is Missing
- Several payment options: Square Online’s payment integration is limited to Square, although it also supports PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. If you want the freedom to choose your payment processor, we suggest you consider BigCommerce.
- Shipping calculators: With Square Online, you still need to set up shipping rates manually, compared to Shopify or BigCommerce, which provides free entry plans. You must be on Square Online’s highest tier ($72/month) to get real-time shipping calculators.
- Advanced inventory management features: Square Online doesn’t have barcode, supplier, or purchasing features. If you handle various products that require bundling, kitting, or cross-location inventory tracking, BigCommerce is a better fit.
Square Online Store Examples
Juan Saravia and his wife Stephanie Figueroa created an online ordering system through Square Online for their restaurant La Pupusa Urban Eatery. Using Square, they set up delivery options such as pickup, local delivery, and shipping.
Parlour, a Vermont-based salon, decided to expand its online presence with Square Online, adding hair and skin care products for online selling.
Squarespace: Best Website Templates for Artists & Creatives
Squarespace
Overall Score: 3.68
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Highly rated website templates
- Easy to use
- Sell items on Instagram and Facebook
What's Missing
- High transaction fees without upgrade
- Moderate design customization freedom
- No phone support
Squarespace Is Best For:
- Bloggers, vloggers, and social media influencers: Squarespace’s blogging features are among the best. If you primarily monetize your content and offer merchandise on the side, Squarespace is the ideal platform to get into.
- Photographers, creatives, artists: Squarespace has a design-first premise. If you primarily sell a visual portfolio, Squarespace’s plans include unlimited storage and bandwidth, making it a good choice for anyone looking to host a digital portfolio.
Squarespace is simple but doesn’t sacrifice quality, making it ideal for solopreneurs who don’t have the time to learn a more advanced system like Shopify but want to showcase their products with top-notch quality. Its sites are always designed to look modern and trendy, no matter how much of a novice you are at web design. In fact, it’s our top pick for the best website builder for small businesses.
It scored 3.68 out of 5 in our evaluation, earning a perfect score on its design functionality and available templates, as Squarespace is known for top-rated templates. However, some of its ecommerce features are limiting for larger sellers, such as few available third-party integrations and extensions. Basic ecommerce features, like unlimited products and abandoned cart recovery, are only available in premium or higher-priced plans.
Find out how Squarespace compares with Shopify in our Squarespace vs Shopify review.
Squarespace Pricing
- $33 per month for Business is the lowest-priced plan supporting ecommerce. You can sell unlimited products, including digital items and gift cards, but it lacks a shipping calculator and has limited reporting. There’s also a 3% transaction fee on top of your payment processing fees.
- $36 per month for Basic Commerce removes the extra 3% transaction fee, allows customers to create accounts, and provides more advanced analytics, like a purchase funnel report.
- $65 per month for Advanced Commerce, which adds a USPS shipping calculator, abandoned cart recovery, and the ability to sell subscriptions.
Squarespace Standout Features
An example of a Squarespace template for an ecommerce website (Tudor Squarespace Theme Preview Image).
You can view more samples here.
Excellent, easy-to-use website builder
Squarespace is one of the most uncomplicated website builders to use and, thus, one of the hardest to mess up. Its highly acclaimed website templates are among the most stylish and best designed. While you do not get nearly the same customization options as Wix, many users will find they can simply enter their product details and are good to go.
When building our demo store, we learned that switching Squarespace templates would require repeatedly setting up the Commerce portion. This was a bit frustrating at the start. Still, we realized that Squarespace templates are the most fluid among the ecommerce website builders we have reviewed because we can easily customize the look and feel of the website without needing to switch templates.
Inventory management & tools for custom products
The platform lets you import items via a spreadsheet or add them manually with photos and a description. You can create variants for products (such as different colors or sizes) and set up low stock alerts. Another unique feature worth noting is that Squarespace lets you set up forms for products, so you can request additional information from customers when they make a purchase.
Flat-rate or weight-based shipping
With Squarespace, you’ll need to set up your shipping rates, which can be flat-rate or weight-based. To calculate real-time rates from USPS, FedEx, or UPS, you’ll need to be on the Advanced Commerce plan ($65 per month).
However, unlike the other ecommerce systems we reviewed, Squarespace does not let you print postage labels directly from the program, but you can do so through a ShipStation integration.
Sell on Instagram & Facebook
Squarespace enables you to tag your items on Instagram with a link to purchase and create dynamic Facebook ads for your products. Unlike Shopify, there is no integration with Amazon, eBay, or other ecommerce channels.
Marketing tools, including integrated email marketing
Abandoned cart recovery is available with the Advanced Commerce plan. Squarespace also has email marketing available for an additional fee, or you can integrate Mailchimp.
Basic analytics
It includes a few basic reports, including sales by product, traffic sources, and geography of visitors (by country or state). The Commerce plan ($36 per month) provides a purchase funnel report, telling you what percentage of visitors view products, add them to their cart, and make purchases.
24/7 customer support
Squarespace offers email support 24/7 and live chat support on weekdays, from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
To learn more about the platform’s features, read our Squarespace review. If you are ready to get started, check out our guide to launching a Squarespace online store.
What Squarespace Is Missing
- In-person payment processing: Squarespace is better suited to those not requiring a storefront solution. If you plan to sell in-person, Square and Shopify are better options.
- Extensive integrations: Squarespace doesn’t offer many third-party integrations, limiting your options, especially if you plan to expand your online store. Shopify offers thousands of integrations in its app store. If you need a feature that isn’t offered in Shopify, chances are you will be able to find one in its app marketplace.
- Advanced ecommerce features: Product categorization, more dropshipping options, and advanced inventory management are just a few things that are lacking in Squarespace. If you plan on scaling, we recommend you start with Shopify’s basic plan and upgrade as needed.
Squarespace Store Examples
Fashion designer Rachel Burke’s main requirement was that her website and store be aesthetically pleasing but simple and functional to use. She chose Squarespace because it was easy to navigate. It helped that some of her favorite creatives also used the platform for their respective websites.
Soilboy’s offers indoor plants, potted houseplants, ceramic planters, and planting essentials in Singapore. It uses Squarespace for its online store to get a simple, clean, and modern look, allowing its plant offerings to take center stage.
How We Evaluated Ecommerce Platforms
We compared 16 of the most popular ecommerce platforms based on what is essential to small businesses, including price, site builder tools and maintenance, sales and product features, and ease of use. We also considered our retail and ecommerce experts’ evaluations of each software.
Based on the above criteria, Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for small businesses. The software received the highest overall score (4.68 out of 5) according to our grading system for ecommerce software. Based on our personal experience trying different ecommerce platforms and working with small businesses that utilize them every day, Shopify is also one of the top software that we would personally recommend.
Click through the tabs below for a more detailed breakdown of our evaluation criteria.
15%
Pricing and Payment Integrations
30%
Site Builder and Maintenance Features
30%
Sales and Product Features
15%
Ease of Use
10%
Expert Score
15% of Overall Score
First, we looked at whether or not each platform offers a free plan and monthly pricing options under $100 because most small businesses operate on a budget. Then, we ensured those plans included options that could grow with the business. Finally, we gave points to platforms that integrate with mobile (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay) and popular payment solutions (like Stripe and PayPal), with bonus points for buy now, pay later financing options and one-click checkouts because these are revenue-driving options for small businesses.
Ecwid and Square Online got the highest scores in this category, primarily because of their free plans. Shopify and BigCommerce followed closely behind, with their basic plans starting at budget-friendly prices.
30% of Overall Score
Every small ecommerce business needs to build its online store on a solid website builder. We considered the available templates, customization options, and the overall flexibility of the site builder. We also reviewed the quantity and quality of third-party extensions compatible with the software and if it includes a free domain and SSL certificate, unlimited storage and bandwidth options, and built-in SEO tools and site analytics.
Shopify was a clear winner in this category, earning perfect scores except for one criterion—it doesn’t offer a free domain name. BigCommerce and Ecwid followed closely behind.
30% of Overall Score
We evaluated features significant to online stores, including easy product set up, catalog and SKU management, inventory management, tools for selling in-store and mobile, integrated social media selling, marketplace selling (such as Amazon), and the ability to sell unlimited products (including downloadable files). We also considered the variety of fulfillment methods (such as local pickup), shipping options, and security tools (including SSL certificate and PCI compliance). Many small businesses also do marketing themselves, so we considered the availability of marketing tools, such as abandoned cart recovery, promotions and discounts, customer segmentation, email marketing, personalization tools, and product recommendations.
Shopify earned a perfect score in all criteria under this category, followed closely by BigCommerce and Ecwid. The primary point of distinction was Shopify’s abandoned cart recovery feature at its entry plan, while BigCommerce and Ecwid only offer it at a higher tier.
15% of Overall Score
Because online stores operate 24/7, we prioritized platforms that offer 24/7 customer support and have multiple customer touch points, such as phone, email, and chat. We also awarded points to easy solutions to set up or have guided prompts and a comprehensive help center.
All platforms earned high marks in this category, with Shopify and BigCommerce at the top spots.
10% of Overall Score
*Percentages of overall score
Bottom Line
If you want your online store to scale with your business, you need to consider the features your customers will expect as you grow. For example, are you prepared to support multiple languages and currencies or provide customer support through an automated chatbot? Can you set up customer user accounts, email marketing, and a loyalty program?
These features become more important as your store expands and play a key role in helping your store grow. Ecommerce platforms must offer the essential features at a lower starting price point and have options for advanced functions and extensive integrations.
Shopify has advanced functionalities and plans that scale with your business in a user-friendly package and at an affordable price point. We recommend it as the best ecommerce platform for small businesses. Visit Shopify to try it for free for 14 days.
You May Also Like…
- Learn how to start a retail business and how to start an online store, including sourcing products and carving out a niche.
- Set up your ecommerce website with well-crafted product descriptions and high-quality product photos.
- Explore free ecommerce website builders.
- Explore Shopify alternatives.
