6 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses in 2023

In addition to being the best all-around option, Shopify is good for:

• Omnichannel retailers: Shopify tops our list of recommended multichannel POS systems, offering a POS and ecommerce system that connect seamlessly for omnichannel sales.
• Multichannel online sellers: 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.
• 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.

• $39 per month for Basic Shopify; includes all the main ecommerce features but has limited reporting. Online transactions are charged at 2.9% + 30 cents.
• $105 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.
• $399 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.

As your business grows and your needs exceed what Advanced Shopify offers, you can contact the provider to upgrade to Shopify Plus, Shopify’s enterprise-level solution.

Shopify also has a $5 per month Starter plan, which lets you sell on social media using a checkout link. This plan also allows you to send invoices and accept online payments but does not let you build an online store.

• One-click checkout option via Shop Pay: Shop Pay works across all Shopify stores that have Shop Pay enabled to give shoppers a seamless one-click checkout. 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.
• Abandoned cart recovery in all plans: Abandoned cart recovery is included with all online store plans. This is a feature only Shopify offers across all tiers, compared to other ecommerce platforms that offer it only in their higher-priced plans.
• Free integrated email marketing: 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).
• Shopify Shipping: Shopify’s built-in shipping tools make it easier to fulfill orders right from your home. Display real-time shipping rates for your customers at checkout, and receive discounts of up to 88% on shipping labels, which you can purchase and print right from the Shopify dashboard.

• 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 nearly 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.
• Drag-and-drop site builder: Shopify’s recent rollout of Online Store 2.0 provides more flexibility than it had in the past, including some basic drag-and-drop functionality. It’s a good balance of being able to customize your online store while also not being able to break it. However, if you’re looking for a true drag-and-drop editor, consider Wix.
• SEO: While Shopify has decent features, you can’t customize product metadata or easily change product-specific URLs. For more robust SEO tools, look to BigCommerce and Wix.

• High-revenue enterprise businesses: The lack of transaction fees plus the 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. By comparison, Shopify only allows for up to 100 variants.
• Businesses offering a mix of physical, digital, and service-based products: BigCommerce allows you to sell these options without the need for a third-party integration.
• B2B businesses: BigCommerce has a dedicated B2B edition with separate themes, custom pricing and bulk-discounting tools, invoicing portal, restricted access options, corporate account management, and more.

• $39 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.
• $105 per month for Plus; features an abandoned cart saver, persistent cart saver, customer groups, and stored credit cards.
• $399 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.

• Fully customizable themes, including checkout pages: What’s noteworthy about BigCommerce’s themes is their 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.
• Most robust product management out of all platforms in this guide: BigCommerce’s most significant advantage over Shopify is its product variant management feature. 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.
• Sell multiple types of products and services: 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 and multilanguage capabilities: Accept over 100 currencies and offer local payment options with your preferred gateway. You can also localize your store’s front end according to your market’s language.
• 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.

• 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.

• Businesses that have an existing website: Tumblr, 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.

• Free plan ($0) has 10 products, and you can create your online store or add products to a current site. 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 e-mail.
• $19 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 with a 25GB per file limit. Support in this tier is provided through chat.
• $39 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 (such as abandoned cart emails) are added to your dashboard. Phone and chat support are available, plus up to two hours of free customization for those under annual plans.
• $99 per month for Unlimited, which provides unlimited products, your own branded iOS and Android shopping app and point-of-sale (POS) system, and priority support. Those under annual plans are entitled to up to 12 hours of free customization.

• 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.
• Buy buttons: 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.
• 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.
• Dynamic multilingual capabilities: Language is easily detected and can be translated into over 45 different languages, and real-time shipping rates are adjusted based on the customer’s IP address.
• Mobile app for managing your business on the go: Ecwid provides a store management app (iOS and Android) for paid subscribers. You can update inventory, manage orders, and receive notifications.

• 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 to be on Ecwid’s Business or Unlimited plan to connect a POS like Square, Clover, or Vend.
• 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.
• Free plan limitations: The free plan only allows for 10 products, lacks abandoned cart emails, and doesn’t allow you to sell on Facebook or Instagram. If you need these tools for free, consider Square Online.

• Businesses on a budget: Square Online has a forever-free plan that includes a full standalone website, unlimited products, social media sales, shipping label printing and discounts, marketing tools, and an automated tax calculator.
• 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 like pickup in-store or curbside, delivery, or shipping.
• 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. Plus, it comes with subscription management tools, self-service customer accounts, and a full-featured online booking platform.
• Age-restricted products: Square Online has an age verification pop-up tool that is ideal for storefronts like breweries wanting to offer pickup orders.
• Square POS users: If you already use Square POS, Square for Retail, Square for Restaurants, or Square Appointments, Square Online is a seamless addition for online sales, orders, and appointment booking.

• Free ($0) plan includes all the main features of 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.
• $29 per month for Plus*; includes all Free features, plus the ability to accept PayPal payments, personalized ordering, expanded site customization, self-serve (QR) ordering, customer accounts, and a free domain for a year.
• $79 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.

• Streamlined website builder: 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. Square will automatically set you up with a theme based on your business type, which you can then customize.
• BOPIS, click and collect, local delivery fulfillment: Set up click-and-collect options (like curbside pickup or buy online, pickup in-store), 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.
• 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.
• Multichannel sales: One of Square’s strongest features is the ability to sell on multiple channels (in-store and mobile) and social media platforms. Plus, Square manufactures some of the best card readers for small businesses.

• 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: You must be on Square Online’s highest tier ($72/month) to get real-time shipping calculators. Shopify offers stronger shipping tools.
• 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.
• Fully customizable website: You cannot fully edit the layout of your Square Online store (like you can with Wix) or add integrations as easily as you can with Shopify.

Overall, the lack of customization options and counterintuitive ecommerce inventory management tools prevented Square from getting a higher score. If your main goal is to drive online sales, you likely won’t be happy with Square, but it is a great choice for brick-and-mortar businesses.

• Small, design-focused businesses: Wix allows for more no-code creative control and flexibility than any other ecommerce website builder on this list.
• Building a community: Wix has sophisticated blogging tools that make it easy to create engaging content and get it in front of your customers. You can also organize and host events, communicate with site visitors via live chat, host discussion forums, and more. Shoppers can create accounts to participate in discussions, but also view their past orders and create wishlists.
• Digital content creators: Create, manage, paywall, and sell all kinds of digital content, including video, music, and art.

• $27 per month for Business Basic includes 50GB of storage space and five hours of video. You can sell unlimited products and activate the abandoned cart recovery feature.
• $32 per month for Business Unlimited includes 100GB of storage, 10 hours of video, an automated sales tax feature, and the ability to display pricing in local currency. You can also feature up to 1,000 product reviews, offer subscriptions, and dropship up to 250 products.
• $59 per month for Business VIP has unlimited storage space, video hours, and dropship products. It also includes 3,000 product reviews, customized analytics reports, a loyalty program, and priority customer care.

All the plans featured have ecommerce features. Website builder plans are available at lower tiers.

• Drag-and-drop site builder: Wix features a true drag-and-drop editor with hundreds of pre-made content blocks and a helpful grid tool to line up the elements on your site with precision. You can create a truly custom site without a single line of code.
• SEO tools: Wix SEO Wiz offers step-by-step instructions for optimizing your online store to get it ranking on Google. Its SEO tools include editing page URLs, setting meta descriptions, creating title tags and alt text options, the ability to set keywords for different pages, and more.
• Wix Owner app: Wix’s mobile app lets you manage your online store on the go. Manage products, upload photos, chat with customers, create and send blog posts or email campaigns, and more right from the app.
• Selling subscriptions: Wix has dedicated features for selling and managing subscription boxes and recurring product orders. You get a notification each time a subscription payment renews. Customers can log in to their account, view orders, and manage their payment methods and subscriptions.
• Integrated print-on-demand sales: Wix has white-label print-on-demand dropshipping tools through Modalyst. This works well for creators wanting to sell branded merch or items from AliExpress suppliers.

• Inventory and order management: Wix lets you categorize inventory as “in stock” or “out of stock” but otherwise lacks detailed product tracking tools. Its order fulfillment and shipping workflow is also not as streamlined as what you’d find in Shopify, which has more shipping label and discount options.
• Too much creative freedom: If you are not confident in website design, the Wix builder can be overwhelming. And, it’s easy to make “mistakes” like text that is hard to read. The benefit of opting for a more templated site builder like Shopify or Squarespace is that it is hard to break it. However, Wix also has an alternative version of its web builder, Wix ADI (short for Artificial Design Intelligence), that is better suited for beginners.

• 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.

• $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.

All the plans featured have ecommerce features. There is a website builder plan at $23 per month.

• Excellent, easy-to-use website builder: Squarespace is one of the least complicated 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.
• Tools for custom products: A 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.
• Merchandising features: Upload product videos, add product photos for each variant, and show shoppers related products.
• Sell anything: In addition to physical products, Squarespace has native tools for selling services, digital goods, subscriptions, memberships, and courses.
• Advanced SEO tools: Squarespace guides you through an SEO checklist and has built-in tools for keyword research, analyzing traffic, optimizing page titles and descriptions, local SEO management (like Google My Business), and more.

• 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.
• Pricey add-ons: Squarespace’s ecommerce plans are pricier than most competitors for similar features. We find Shopify and BigCommerce offer better values.
• No revisions or backups: 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.

Shopify is the best ecommerce website builder for most beginners and most recommended for starting a small business. It is easy to use and can grow with you as your business evolves.

Learn more in our Shopify review.

The best ecommerce platform for you depends on what kind of business you have and what your goals are. Consider everywhere you want to sell (your own website, social media, in-person, Etsy, etc.). It’s most important that you choose a platform that can accommodate all of your sales channels in one place.

Also consider your inventory tracking needs. If you just have a few products and plan to manage all orders yourself, a website builder with ecommerce tools (like Squarespace or Wix) might be enough for you. However, if you have a larger inventory assortment or one with variants, you’ll want to choose something designed with this in mind, like Shopify or BigCommerce.

Learn more about honing your business concept in our guide to starting an online store.

Square Online tops our list of the best free ecommerce platforms. It allows for unlimited products and sales with few limitations. You can create a professional-looking site, connect other sales channels, and market your business for free.

Having an ecommerce platform for your business brings plenty of benefits from less overhead costs to a wider customer reach. Ecommerce or online stores also help you collect customer data where you can get market insights. Since an online store lets you reach a wider audience, it is easier to scale up your business.