10 Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses In 2023

Subbly is a subscription eCommerce platform that's designed to help small businesses set up and manage their online stores. Excellent option if you're looking to sell products or services on a recurring basis.

Subly is a platform that is easy to use, flexible, and won't break the bank. It's got a clean interface, it's not overly complicated, and it's got a pricing model that's friendly for small businesses. Plus, it's specifically designed for subscription businesses. And, unlike other platforms, it will give you the power to handle almost everything related to your subscription business without the need for a plugin or integration.

I like the way Subbly allows you to integrate with shipping platforms like Pirate Ship but also gives you the option to easily export to a CSV file that you can upload to the platform of your choice or your in-house fulfillment system.

Additionally, there are a few standout features that I really appreciate. First off, the checkout process is super customizable. You can tweak it to fit your brand and your specific needs. Plus, it's got a built-in subscription management system, which is a lifesaver. It makes it easy to manage all your subscribers, send out notifications, and handle renewals. And let's not forget about the analytics. Subbly provides some really useful insights into your sales and customer behavior.

Subbly integrates with HotJar, Twilio, Pirate Ship, Shipstation, Drip, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Intercom, and Klaviyo. You can also set up an integration with Zapier to connect to thousands of additional apps (requires a paid subscription with Zapier).

Lightspeed is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that’s perfect for small businesses who want to set up and start selling right away. The tool features an awesome drag-and-drop website builder that doesn’t require any coding experience to get started. Lightspeed also has advanced inventory management features like product variants and bundling which allow you to customize how your products are purchased. It's easy to add automations for cross-selling and discounts at checkout as well.

Once you set up your store, you can immediately sell on social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, and Walmart. You can optimize your ecommerce operations with features like product management, order fulfillment, and customer relationship management. It’s easy to add shipping and payment options. And their mobile app is perfect for keeping track of things on the go.

Lightspeed’s built-in SEO tools help you to boost conversion rates. Features like abandoned cart emails can help your customers come back for more. And their Lightspeed Retail feature allows you to sync products between a bricks-and-mortar store and your ecommerce storefront.

Lightspeed integrates with a wide variety of platforms like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Printful, ShippingEasy, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, bindCommerce, Quickbooks, Kliken Stats, UniSender, HubSpot, and ZenDesk. Many additional integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

Pricing starts at $14.08/month, and a freemium plan is available.

BigCommerce is an ecommerce platform that helps small businesses scale their online presence and increase sales. It provides tools for creating an online store, managing products, and processing payments, as well as providing analytics and insights into customer behavior.

BigCommerce offers various tools for creating an aesthetically pleasing website with a professional look. It has a drag-and-drop editor that makes designing the storefront easy. There is also an in-depth style editor that allows users to change colors and fonts within the template without needing any coding knowledge. This includes customizable templates that can be used to create unique designs that reflect the business’s brand identity and style. The templates are also mobile responsive, allowing customers to browse the website from any device without compromising on quality or design.

BigCommerce offers powerful marketing tools such as product reviews, discount codes, gift cards, and automated email campaigns. These features help businesses reach new customers by increasing visibility through SEO tactics. The platform allows businesses to create customized product pages which provide detailed information about each product so that customers can make informed decisions when purchasing items from the store. It also has built-in email marketing capabilities so users can easily create campaigns and send out newsletters or promotional emails directly from the platform itself.

Additionally, it integrates with Google Shopping Ads so businesses can list products on Google’s search engine results pages without having to manually upload each product individually. BigCommerce provides built-in payment processing services which make it easy for customers to pay for purchases quickly and securely using a variety of payment methods such as credit cards or PayPal. The platform also integrates with other popular payment providers such as Stripe or Amazon Pay so that businesses can accept payments from more customers around the world.

Features include customizable templates, built-in SEO, marketing tools, shipping & fulfillment, inventory management, reporting features, mobile-friendly design, responsive checkout, multiple payment gateway options, extensive third-party integrations, and 24/7 customer support.

Integrations include LiveChat, ShipStation, Georgias, Mailchimp, Quickbooks Online, Yotpo Product Reviews, Justuno, Brightpearl, Acumatica, ActiveCampaign, Hubspot, Klavyio, Shopgate, Printify, and dozens of other apps.

BigCommerce costs from $29.95/month and offers a 15-day free trial.

WP Engine is a web hosting provider that’s primarily used for blogging due to its superfast site speed. Recently, they have started offering their Genesis pro subscription plan that comes with a feature-packed website builder. The framework comes with built-in marketing features.

The Gutenberg-ready site builder can be used to create reusable modules and enable next-level customization on headers, logos, or any aspect of your ecommerce website to match your design language. There’s an open-source community of developers that audit the framework and add new security features.

You can use the sample child theme that sits on the top of the framework to beautifully edit the design of your site without affecting the underlying site code.The community also provides for hundreds of useful integrations, plugins, add-ons, and extensions. It integrates with WooCommerce and other major ecommerce apps.

With WP Engine as the web hosting provider, the sites load super fast, which in turn can be great for the site to rank on Google.

The pricing for WP Engine’s startup plan starts at $25 per month.

If you have read my other articles on ecommerce platforms, you might have noticed that Shopify is a frequent feature in them. From storefront to inventory management to marketing tools, Shopify equips an ecommerce site with all the necessary tools to launch and scale an online store in 2021.

The product has features like SEO tools, email marketing, search optimized product pages, shopping cart, and more. The Shopify SaaS is known in the industry for its stability and always-on availability. Shopify lets you perform all the necessary inventory management tasks like tracking and adjusting inventory, exporting or importing inventory via CSV files, and more. Shopify’s analytics give you critical ecommerce insights like store visits, transaction data, site speed, and more.

The product works with other commonly used ecommerce business apps like Oberlo, Facebook Messenger, Amazon, Stocky, Apple Business Chat, and 3k other apps including marketing, reporting, shipping, and customer support. The Shopify mobile app lets you sell products and manage your ecommerce store on the go.

Shopify has direct support via chat and email. Also, it is backed by one of the largest active communities of ecommerce entrepreneurs. You can engage with the community via the Shopify community forum or via social media groups dedicated to the product.

Shopify costs from $29/month when paying monthly, with 2.9% + $0.30/transaction. Shopify offers a 3-day free trial from their website. If you shop around, you can find affiliates who offer 14-day free trials.

Squarespace is a popular website builder and ecommerce platform that allows users to easily create and manage their own websites and online stores. It offers a variety of customizable templates and drag-and-drop design tools, making it easy for users to create professional-looking websites without needing to know how to code. In addition to its website building capabilities, Squarespace also offers robust ecommerce functionality, with features such as inventory management, payment gateway integration, and customizable product pages.

Squarespace is known for its user-friendly interface and sleek, professional design templates, which allow users to quickly and easily create beautiful websites and online stores. I especially appreciated the all-in-one nature of the platform, which eliminates the need for separate hosting, design, and ecommerce tools.

Squarespace is known for its high-quality customer support, offering a variety of resources to help users get the most out of the platform. The platform offers 24/7 email support and live chat support during business hours, as well as a comprehensive knowledge base and community forum where users can get answers to common questions and connect with other Squarespace users. Additionally, Squarespace offers a variety of online resources, including video tutorials, webinars, and in-depth guides, to help users learn how to use the platform effectively. 

Squarespace integrates with Flickr, Foursquare, Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, AMP, Apple News, Apple Pay, FedEx, PayPal, Stripe, Square, USPS, UPS, Dropbox, Google Search Console, Pinterest, and others. 

Squarespace costs from $16/month. Payment processing adds a 0-3% transaction fee per purchase. They offer a 14-day free trial. 

PrestaShop is a free and open-source ecommerce platform that enables users to create and manage their own online stores. It offers a range of features and customization options, including product management, payment gateway integration, shipping and tax configuration, and a variety of design templates and modules. 

PrestaShop is highly flexible and can be customized to suit the needs of businesses of all sizes, making it a popular choice among small and medium-sized enterprises and startups. With a large and active community of developers and users, PrestaShop also offers a wide range of plugins and integrations to extend its functionality and tailor it to specific business needs.

PrestaShop is praised for its flexibility, affordability, and wide range of features. With its modular architecture, users can customize the platform to meet their specific needs and requirements, making it a popular choice for businesses with unique or complex ecommerce needs. Users appreciate the wide range of free and paid modules and themes available, as well as the easy integration with a variety of payment gateways and shipping providers. Additionally, users praise PrestaShop's responsive and helpful customer support, which includes a comprehensive knowledge base, community forums, and professional support options. 

PrestaShop integrates with QuickBooks, eBay, Amazon, USPS, and ICEcat. Because PrestaShop is open source, you have the option to build your own custom integrations (with some programming know-how). 

PrestaShop is free to use.

Wix is known for its beautiful design templates. Wix’s drag-and-drop website builder comes with 800+ free themes that you can customize based on your brand tonality. The Artificial Design Intelligence tool helps you automate the website design process based on insightful questions about your product.

The dashboard seems well-organized, with everything you need organized in the right order. Wix integrates seamlessly with apps like Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and other essential B2B business apps.

The product comes with a Help Center, but a live chat option seems to be missing.

Wix’s ecommerce and business plans start at $23 per month.

Lightspeed eCom is a feature of Lightspeed HQ, a cloud-based retail POS system. Lightspeed eCom lets you import stock from your physical store to your ecommerce platform with a one-click system. It gives shoppers live updates on quantity on hand levels.

Apart from that, the tool lets you make mass updates to your inventory data with spreadsheet imports and exports. The analytics dashboard gives you data on daily, weekly, and monthly performance. The tool also provides a special conversion report that tells you where your store needs optimization to increase sales.

Support is available by phone with varied time listings based on its different offices. Apart from that, the support can also be reached by email. Lightspeed integrates with apps like Mailchimp.

Restock, Stripe, and other retail ecommerce apps. The pricing for the plan that includes the ecommerce features starts at $99 per month.

Swell leverages headless ecommerce technology to create customized customer experiences for your online store. Swell offers ecommerce features like unlimited pages, real-time shipping quotes, payment processing, and more. In terms of inventory management, you can add unlimited product options, variants, and attributes. It also comes with features like bulk editing and product bundling.

Apart from that, you can track item shipment, and edit order items before finalizing orders. The product gives you in-depth sales reports that you can filter by product, customer, coupon, and more. It also comes with PayMotion, a multi-channel ecommerce platform that provides revenue optimization features designed to boost sales.

Swell offers support via phone, email, and live chat. The basic plan starts at $59 per month with a 14-day free trial.