Top 5 E-Commerce Platforms For Less Than $100

Selling online is a way for business owners of all sizes to carve out a niche in the new digital landscape. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace allow sellers to create a storefront they have full control over.

However, not all ecommerce website builders are created equal. Some have better objective performance, more features and value than others.

1. Shopify

Shopify is a robust all-in-one commerce platform that provides entrepreneurs with tools to create and operate fully functional online stores. While it can be used to build informational sites and blogs, the ecommerce version of the platform is optimized for adding products, processing orders, calculating taxes and shipping items seamlessly. It also enables businesses to sell through multiple sales channels like Amazon, Google, eBay, Walmart, TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram.

Its intuitive design process empowers beginners to validate their business ideas by launching a minimum viable store with little or no technical knowledge. In addition, the platform has a collection of professional themes that merchants can customize to align with their branding and customer preferences. It also provides a wide range of integrations to streamline operations, including accounting software, inventory management solutions, email marketing platforms and social media channels.

Shopify’s SEO features help retailers optimize their websites for search engines. This helps them attract qualified traffic, reduce reliance on paid advertising in the long run, and improve conversions. Its advanced analytics capabilities, on the other hand, allow enterprises to predict future business trajectories using machine learning algorithms.

The ecommerce solution’s mobile-friendly design makes it easy for customers to view product details, add items to cart and complete purchases from any device. Its built-in security features protect against common attacks like distributed denial of service (DDoS), which can cripple a website during busy periods. Its network infrastructure leverages Content Delivery Networks and caching techniques to accelerate page load times.

Shopify’s app store houses over 4000 third-party apps that enable merchants to extend the functionality of their ecommerce sites. For instance, Oberlo helps merchants with dropshipping and Privy provides email popups. The platform’s a la carte pricing for add-ons, however, can quickly add up to significant expenses.

2. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an ecommerce platform designed to carry a store into big business – a bit like a jumbo jet that’s equipped with all the power of a space shuttle. This means that the system is packed with a slew of powerful tools that work best when you have a clear vision of what you want your business to be.

One of the most notable features of BigCommerce is that the system doesn’t charge transaction fees (that’s a feature only available to some ecommerce platforms, including Shopify). That may not seem like a huge deal until you realize how expensive credit card processing fees can add up to over time. Another great feature is that the platform is agnostic when it comes to payment gateways and does not penalize merchants who use a provider other than its own. Finally, the platform supports payments in more than 100 currencies.

If the basic functionality of BigCommerce doesn’t cover what you need, the company offers an app store with over 700 apps that can be used to enhance the site’s capabilities. This includes tools for SEO, customer reports and merchandising. And if there’s a dataset that the app doesn’t cover, BigCommerce offers an extensive API library to allow developers to create their own solutions.

Lastly, the BigCommerce platform has strong support options, including phone and email. The company also has a helpful FAQs page. If you have any problems, BigCommerce will provide a team member to help resolve them. And if the team member can’t help you, they will escalate the issue to someone else in their support department. This is an important feature to look for when choosing a vendor.

3. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a WordPress-based eCommerce solution that offers a full range of business functionalities. It supports many payment gateways and offers an array of marketing tools. It also provides an easy-to-use analytics dashboard. This dashboard allows you to track visitor behavior and purchase information. It will help you analyze the performance of your online store and determine what changes you need to make in order to increase sales.

Woocommerce is a highly customizable solution. It allows you to create unlimited product categories and variations. It also provides a variety of shipping solutions and allows you to sell digital products such as eBooks. Additionally, it has a feature that lets you highlight discounted products and related products to encourage customers to buy more. It is also SEO-friendly and works on the WordPress platform, which makes it easier to implement top SEO practices.

The cost of starting an online store with WooCommerce is relatively low compared to other platforms. It has a user-friendly interface and can be used by people with no prior experience with eCommerce or web design. It is also compatible with other ecommerce solutions, such as Shopify and Magento. However, WooCommerce has a larger community and 50,000+ WordPress plugins that can extend its functionality.

It is possible to add features to a WooCommerce site that can increase the cost of your website. For example, you might want to add a shopping cart, search engine optimization (SEO) services, and email marketing integrations. These third-party applications can increase your WooCommerce pricing, but they are essential for growing an ecommerce business. Using these third-party applications can improve your ecommerce site’s performance, boost conversion rates, and attract more visitors.

4. Squarespace

Squarespace is a site-builder that’s renowned for its ease of use. It has a drag-and-drop editor that allows you to customize its award-winning templates without touching a line of code. And it has robust ecommerce features that help you grow your business. It offers inventory management, shipping tools and built-in email marketing capabilities. It also supports dropshipping and lets you connect with several third-party fulfillment services.

Its cheapest plan with ecommerce is the Commerce Basic, which costs $26 per month. This gives you the ability to list up to 100 products, create waitlists for out-of-stock items and enable customer accounts. You’ll also get access to advanced ecommerce analytics. However, if you need more advanced ecommerce features, such as abandoned cart recovery or the ability to sell subscriptions, you’ll have to upgrade to the higher-tier Commerce Plus plan, which costs $65 per month when paid annually.

Squarespace is one of the few website builders to include unlimited storage and bandwidth in its plans, so you can build a full-fledged online store without worrying about hitting a product limit or running out of space. It also includes specific ecommerce tools like mobile-optimized checkouts and integrated accounting, and its omnichannel selling feature allows you to sell on social media and marketplaces. Its built-in email marketing tools are useful, too, since they save you from having to pay for a separate app. In addition to its ecommerce features, Squarespace also has a robust blog management system that makes it easy for you to publish and share content. In fact, the platform has a blog tool that can automatically resize your content to fit different screen sizes. This way, your readers can enjoy a consistent experience no matter what device they’re using to browse your website.

5. Jimdo

Jimdo offers a free website and store builder, as well as paid plans for online store functionality. You can choose between a no-coding mode, in which the platform constructs a site for you using your answers to a series of questions; or a coding expert mode in which you select and edit templates yourself. Both modes allow you to add galleries, background videos and blogs, as well as online store functionality.

Jimdo’s online shop features include product variants, a mobile-optimized checkout, and order management and processing capabilities. It also offers a range of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe and Klarna Sofort (in select countries), and enables you to sell in up to 23 different currencies. It doesn’t charge a transaction fee on orders, unlike some competitors like Shopify and Squarespace.

Other important ecommerce features that Jimdo includes include a drag-and-drop page builder, social media integration and SEO tools. Any changes you make to your site are automatically saved, which is a nice feature that many website builders lack. It also allows you to connect your site to social media accounts, which will help boost exposure of your products and services.

Although Jimdo’s free plan includes a number of important ecommerce features, it does have some limitations that you should be aware of before you use it for your business. For one thing, it only lets you create up to 100 products. This is likely enough for many small businesses, but it may not be sufficient for more extensive retailers. The platform also doesn’t offer robust analytics, which could be an issue for more advanced merchants who want to track and analyze their sales data.