Choosing your ecommerce software is an important part of starting an ecommerce business.
The right ecommerce software will give your online store the features you need. It will maximize conversions at the checkout, provide multiple sales channels, and make it easier for you to grow.
So, where to start? This post covers what to look for in ecommerce software and some of the best ecommerce solutions to try in 2024.
| Software | Monthly plans from | Built for ecommerce | Advanced selling features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $5 monthly | Yes | Yes |
| Wix | Free | No | Yes |
| BigCommerce | $29 | Yes | Yes |
| Adobe Commerce | Custom pricing | Yes | Yes |
| WooCommerce | Free | Yes | Yes |
| PrestaShop | Free | Yes | No |
| Squarespace | $27 | No | No |
| GoDaddy | $10.99 | No | No |
| Volusion | $31.50 | No | No |
| Amazon | $39.99 | Yes | No |
| Shift4Shop | Free | Yes | No |
What is ecommerce software?
Ecommerce software is the system that allows your online store to operate. It can include features like a checkout, inventory management system, fulfillment service, and marketing tools.
Basic ecommerce software solutions will let you list products for sale and accept payments online. However, most platforms go further, serving broader online business needs such as website-building and social media integration.
The best ecommerce software provides an entire ecosystem of tools and features to help your business grow.
The best ecommerce software for 2024
The best ecommerce software depends on your individual business goals. Let’s look at some of the best ecommerce platforms for 2024:
- Shopify
- Wix
- BigCommerce
- Adobe Commerce
- WooCommerce
- PrestaShop
- Squarespace
- GoDaddy
- Volusion
- Amazon
- Shift4Shop
1. Shopify
Shopify is the best ecommerce software for most sellers. It combines an intuitive interface with advanced ecommerce features.
Whether selling through a website, on social media, via marketplaces, or in person, Shopify users can manage their business through a single platform.
Shopify’s suite of tools and products include:
- An online store builder
- Hosting services
- Payment processing
- Shipping and fulfillment
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- And more tools and products
When you’re up and running, take your website to the next level with Shop Pay, the best-converting online checkout. Harness custom storefronts, abandoned cart recovery, and product subscriptions for a better shopping experience.
As your orders increase, use Shopify POS to capture in-person sales and Shopify Fulfillment to handle delivery and inventory.
Want more features? Tap into the Shopify App Store for more than 8,000 apps designed to connect and upgrade your site.
With Shopify, you don’t need technical expertise or funding. The ecommerce software contains everything required to launch and scale a business.
Free trial length: Three days. Then enjoy three months for $1 per month.
Pricing:
- Shopify Starter: $5 per month
- Shopify Basic (most popular): $29 per month
- Shopify: $79 per month
- Shopify Advanced: $299 per month
Integrated sales channels:
Mobile app features: A suite of mobile tools to fully manage your online business.
Point of sale: Yes.
2. Wix
Wix is a website builder with drag-and-drop functionality. The platform has ecommerce features that can be added to your website if you want to sell products online. While the Wix website builder is free, you will need a paid subscription to remove Wix branding and take advantage of the ecommerce tools.
Websites created with Wix can perform basic ecommerce tasks: you can track orders, process online payments, sell through multiple channels (on higher-tier plans), and automate customer emails.
However, Wix lacks some of the more detailed ecommerce features available on Shopify, such as low-stock alerts to help you avoid stockouts. If you have a moderate-to-large inventory, Wix software may be too simple for your needs.
Free trial length: No free trial.
Price: Free–$159 per month, depending on features included.
Integrated sales channels: Available on higher-tier plans.
Mobile app features: Yes.
Point of sale: Yes.
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce makes enterprise-level ecommerce software designed for large companies. The platform is powerful enough to handle retail businesses with high turnover and large inventories.
BigCommerce supports a wide range of ecommerce features, including cross-border sales, SEO, social selling, and third-party marketplaces—but it may be overkill for smaller stores.
It’s also more rigid in terms of customization. When ecommerce brand Grace & Lace wanted to implement upselling and cross-selling, it switched from BigCommerce to Shopify Plus to access more flexible selling features.
Price: $29–$299 per month, depending on features included. Custom pricing for enterprise businesses.
Free trial length: 15 days.
Integrated sales channels: Yes, including price comparison sites.
Mobile app features: Yes.
Point of sale: Third-party integrations available.
💡 The world’s biggest brands choose Shopify Plus for their enterprise needs.
Learn more about how Shopify and BigCommerce compare.
4. Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento)
Adobe Commerce is an ecommerce platform for established companies with the resources to build and maintain an online store. It requires a third-party hosting provider and a basic level of technical expertise.
Adobe Commerce is likely not the best platform for ecommerce outlets that want to sell across multiple channels. Integrating selling channels and international payments is a more complicated process than with other software on this list.
Previously, ecommerce site Character.com had a complex Magneto (now Adobe Commerce) site that promoted thousands of products. To achieve the right functionality, the store required multiple integrations, making site management difficult. After migrating to Shopify, Character.com experienced a 40% increase in conversions.
Free trial length: No free trial.
Price: Custom pricing only.
Integrated sales channels: Limited.
Mobile app features: No.
Point of sale: Third-party integrations available.
5. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free plug-in for WordPress. It turns WordPress blogs into ecommerce stores with their own branding, products, and checkout.
Using WooCommerce, merchants can promote products, accept orders, and track sales. For more complex features, additional add-ons can be installed. While this adds to the platform’s flexibility, it also creates a complicated back end.
Because features like domain name registration and hosting are not included with WooCommerce, you’ll need to pay for them separately, which can make it hard to keep track of total fees.
Price: Free basic plug-in. Additional features sold separately.
Integrated sales channels: Yes.
Mobile app features: Yes.
Point of sale: Yes.
💡 Monetize WordPress websites with the Shopify Buy Button. Embed the button to start selling on your blog—for only $5 per month.
6. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a platform for newer online businesses. The ecommerce software is basic but flexible, allowing merchants to tailor their stores as required.
For simple ecommerce features such as a shopping cart and checkout, a free version of the PrestaShop is available. However, you’ll need to find a hosting provider.
The paid version of the platform comes with hosting, store installation, and developer support.
Free trial length: 14 days.
Price: Free – $24 per month.
Integrated sales channels: Yes.
Mobile app features: No.
Point of sale: Third-party integrations available.
7. Squarespace
Drag-and-drop site builder Squarespace features a user-friendly interface and ecommerce features.
As a website creation platform rather than dedicated ecommerce software, however, some tools are lacking. There are only two payment integrations, for example.
One benefit of Squarespace is its inventory-tracking features. You can also upgrade your plan to sell subscription products.
Free trial length: 14 days.
Price: $27–$49 per month for commerce plans, depending on features included.
Integrated sales channels: Yes.
Mobile app features: Yes.
Point of sale: Yes.
💡Add the Shopify Buy Button to your Squarespace site for $5 monthly.
8. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a well-known domain seller that also offers an ecommerce website builder. It uses artificial design intelligence to speed up site design, using the information you provide to build a customized website.
Although you can get up and running fast with GoDaddy, there are limits to the number of products you can sell via the platform. So, if you want to scale your store, GoDaddy isn’t the best ecommerce software.
Free trial length: 7 days.
Price: $10.99–$20.99 per month, depending on features included.
Integrated sales channels: Yes.
Mobile app features: Yes
Point of sale: Yes.
9. Volusion
Volusion is another ecommerce software that started out as a basic website builder and has since expanded its functionality to accommodate online selling. While you need to register and pay for a domain name through a third party, Volusion includes web hosting in its plans.
Volusion has basic ecommerce features such as order processing, recurring billing, inventory tracking, and related product promotion. You can also create and manage customer accounts and add taxes.
However, customization options are limited, especially when changing site templates. Once merchants hit a certain stage of growth, they may want to upgrade to an ecommerce platform with a wider range of tools.
Free trial length: 14 days.
Price: $31.50 – $269.10 per month, depending on features included.
Integrated sales channels: Yes, via extensions.
Mobile app features: Yes, via extensions.
Point of sale: Yes.
10. Amazon
While Amazon is best-known as a third-party marketplace for promoting and selling products, it also allows merchants to create branded Amazon storefronts. This gives ecommerce companies a global audience of millions—although Amazon remains in control of your content and charges fees on every sale.
Creating an Amazon store is a great way to supplement your existing sales channels. As you reach new customers and build brand awareness, shoppers will migrate to your independent online store so you can avoid Amazon’s associated fees and restrictions.
Free trial length: No free trial.
Price: $39.99 per month plus additional referral fees.
Integrated sales channels: Integrate Amazon with your Shopify store.
Mobile app features: Yes.
Point of sale: No.
11. Shift4Shop
Formerly 3dcart, Shift4Shop offers free ecommerce software for businesses that process a minimum of $500 per month through Shift4Shop’s checkout tool. Merchants who make less or prefer to use PayPal payment processing pay $29 per month.
Shift4Shop doesn’t have extensive ecommerce functionality, but you can set up online shopping for your business quickly, with numerous website templates. You can use its API to integrate your store with third-party apps.
Price: Free for businesses that process a minimum of $500 per month through Shift4 payment processing, or $29 per month using PayPal payment processing.
Integrated sales channels: Yes.
Mobile app features: Yes.
Point of sale: Third-party integrations available.
Features to look for in an ecommerce solution
Pricing
You can use ecommerce software to launch an online business with little to no money. But costs will grow as you make sales, start marketing, and require more complex features.
According to Shopify analysis, most small businesses spend around $40,000 in their first year, with 9% allocated to online business needs.
Shopify merchants spend an average of $38,000, while non-Shopify merchants spend around $41,000:
It takes time to generate a return on your business investments. So it’s important to choose ecommerce software that won’t eat your entire budget—but still has the tools you need to grow your business.
While the cheapest ecommerce software may seem tempting, there’s more to consider. Instead of focusing on where your business is now, think about your future operations and find ecommerce software that can scale with you.
Scalability and usability
First things first: Your ecommerce software must align with your technical skills.
If you’re a programmer, you might be looking for open-source ecommerce software for maximum control of your website. For most people, however, an accessible interface is a must.
Schedule a demo or start a free trial to ensure learning curves aren’t too steep.
It’s also important to consider how your ecommerce software will integrate with more complex elements of your business, such as inventory management and accounting.
When choosing ecommerce software, look for well-reviewed business management tools alongside store-building features. This will prevent migration issues when your operations grow.
Let’s say you plan to expand into physical retail. You’ll want ecommerce software with add-ons, plug-ins, and integrations to give you in-person selling features—like Shopify POS.
💡 Shopify POS instantly syncs your inventory and sales data, so you always have up-to-date information.
Streamlined checkout
A friction-free checkout will make a measurable difference to your conversion rate. As an ecommerce entrepreneur, one of your priorities should be an easy and secure checkout experience for shoppers to complete their purchase.
Desirable checkout features include familiar payment options like Google Wallet and PayPal, as well as the ability to collect customer information for future use.
If you use Shopify, Shop Pay increases checkout speed by four times. You can also leverage Shopify integrations, with more than 100 payment gateways to accommodate all payment methods and currencies.
Customizability
Most ecommerce stores share features such as product detail pages and shopping carts. But for more advanced functions, and a unique look and feel, find ecommerce software with customization options.
Look for a platform that not only offers a variety of themes and templates, but also allows for deeper customization. This could include the ability to change colors, fonts, and layouts, or even add custom code for more advanced changes.
Shopify, for instance, has customizable themes for a professionally designed branded storefront. Store owners with developer skills can create their own templates using Liquid, an open-source template language. For total control, you can separate your store’s front end from Shopify’s ecommerce software.
Integration with other tools
If your ecommerce software can’t easily connect with other services, your business becomes restricted to your software’s native features and channels. That might be OK if your store has just opened, but as you grow, you’ll likely need to make use of third-party tools.
For example, perhaps you’ll need to connect your store to marketplaces so that you can synchronize sales and inventory on platforms such as Amazon and eBay. Or, you might want to add an AI-powered chatbot to answer shopper’s questions live as they browse your site.
Most popular ecommerce software maintain app stores to facilitate these interactions, where developers can build and sell official integrations. Shopify, for example, integrates with more than 8,000 apps in its App Store, making it easy to connect your store with leading tools.
Search engine optimization features
Search engine optimization helps drive organic traffic to your website. When your online store is optimized for search, you’ll appear more frequently on search engine result pages, which increases visibility and traffic.
Beyond keywords and metadata, search engines also consider a topic’s relevance to your website’s area of expertise. The Google algorithm will determine how authoritative your content is by checking who is linking to your webpages.
To help optimize your content, choose ecommerce software with SEO features, such as the ability to manipulate metadata, increase page load speed, and compress your images.
For example, with Shopify’s ecommerce software, Google’s WebP image formatting comes built-in to make images load 30% faster.
Web hosting
Web hosting is a fundamental element of website development. Hosts store the information and content from your website in a publicly accessible server database. Every website is hosted on a server from a web hosting provider. Some ecommerce software offers built-in web hosting, while others require an external solution.
If you use ecommerce software on a hosted platform, your solution is simple. You won’t need to search for a third-party solution or pay additional fees. If you use Shopify, web hosting comes free with every plan.
Multichannel selling
The lines between physical and digital commerce are blurring. Even mom-and-pop stores now embrace a multichannel approach. You need ecommerce software that enables selling across social media, websites, and physical stores, rather than restricting you to a specific channel.
Shopify acts as a business command center, syncing real-time online and in-person sales data. You can promote and sell on multiple channels from within Shopify, including third-party marketplaces like Amazon and wholesale.
Customer support
No matter how good your ecommerce software, there will be times when you require support to fix an issue or build a new feature for your online store. That’s why it’s a good idea to choose ecommerce software with strong customer support.
Look for providers that offer support via multiple channels, such as phone, email, and live chat. Also, consider the quality of self-help resources, like knowledge bases and tutorials. An active community forum can be a great source of information.
Why an online store needs ecommerce software
Ecommerce software is the backbone of any online store. It’s the engine that powers your business, allowing you to manage products, accept payments, and track orders.
Here’s why your online store needs ecommerce software:
Easy store setup
Most store owners are not interested in using code to program an ecommerce website.
Ecommerce software offers a no-code way to create and maintain an online store. Thanks to intuitive interfaces and drag-and-drop functionality, you can design your store, add products, and set up payment options with basic computer skills.
This means you can get your store up and running quickly by yourself—no need to hire extra help.
Payment processing
Ecommerce software developers invest millions of dollars to create high-converting payment experiences. Using these payment processors makes it more likely that your customers will successfully check out and not abandon their cart.
Ecommerce software payment processors also allow customers to pay using a variety of options, and help keep customer information secure—a benefit that makes your brand appear more trustworthy.
Order management
Managing orders effectively is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction.
Ecommerce software helps you track orders from the moment they are placed through to delivery, providing updates to customers along the way.
With automated order management, it also becomes easier to check stock levels and process returns.
Customer experience optimization
Using ecommerce software to build your online store also makes it easier to create a satisfying browsing experience.
A combination of professionally designed themes and a well-engineered back-end results in stores with easy navigation, quick loading times, and a seamless checkout process—whether you’re shopping on desktop or mobile.
Beyond enhancing the shopping experience, a website with a premium feel contributes to a sense of professionalism and quality for your brand.
Analytics and reporting
Understanding your customers and their behavior helps your store grow more effectively.
Most ecommerce software comes with built-in analytics and reporting tools that provide insights into your customers’ shopping habits, popular products, sales trends, and more.
Security and compliance
In the ecommerce world, security is paramount. Customers need to feel that their personal information is safe when shopping on your website.
Using popular ecommerce software is a simple way to keep your online store compliant with the latest security standards and regulations, such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).
Reach a global customer base
With a brick-and-mortar store, your reach is mostly determined by your location. Move online with ecommerce software and you can sell products internationally, 24 hours a day.
Most ecommerce software comes with features to enhance international sales, such as multi-language support, currency conversion, and international shipping support.
Start selling online with Shopify
When choosing ecommerce software, remember to consider your current and future needs.
The right ecommerce software isn’t just a store builder. It should provide support across your business—now and when you grow.
Ecommerce software FAQ
What is the best ecommerce software?
Shopify is the best ecommerce software. Shopify has an extensive list of tools to help you manage your online business and streamline your checkout, with 24/7 customer support and the flexibility to grow with you.
What are the major types of ecommerce software?
There are three main types of ecommerce software: software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and on-premise platforms. SaaS is a subscription-based model where the software is hosted on a third-party server and accessed via the internet. PaaS provides an environment for developers to build apps and services over the internet. Lastly, on-premise platforms are installed and run on a company’s own servers.
How does ecommerce software work?
Ecommerce software connects all of your online systems in the back end to ensure you can promote your website, sell products, and fulfill orders.
How do I build an ecommerce website?
Choose an ecommerce software from the list in this article, sign up for an account, and design your ecommerce website. Customize the look and feel, add products, and set up the back-end processes for checkout and fulfillment.
