It is needless to say that the pandemic turned our lives upside down. Besides mandated school and colleges closures that eventually increases the demand for online university assignment help and shutdown of local shops, the pandemic triggered worldwide digitisation. According to a survey titled ‘COVID-19 and E-commerce’, more than half of the survey’s respondents shop online more frequently than they used to do before the pandemic. It is, in fact, expected that e-commerce sales will account for almost 18.1% of worldwide retail sales in 2021.

In simple words, e-commerce is gradually taking over.

You need a robust e-commerce site if you want to up your game in the online space.

Here are the 5 best platforms to build your e-commerce website in 2021.

1. Wix

Wix not only provides readymade templates for the website but also a full-functional and customisable e-commerce platform. Unlike other platforms involving a basic complexity, Wix lets you efficiently build a simple yet effective e-commerce website. Therefore, it is a perfect pick for businesses that need a simple site without the bells and whistles of a giant-sized online store.

Features of Wix:

• Reliable hosting for the website- You can get appropriate domain names for free through this platform. The hosting services provided by Wix are SEO-optimised, secure and dependable.
• SMB-Friendly- Wix provides all the essential features required for building impressive web hubs without investing a fortune.
• Artificial design intelligence & Wix code– The supply experts can create a professional, personalised website based on who you are and what you do.

Wix has topped my list because it is simple to use and requires zero coding skills. Anyone interested in building an e-commerce site can use this platform to create an effective e-commerce site.

2. Shopify

Got a small business that you want to bring into the online space? Shopify is the right platform for you in that case. It features an onboarding wizard that guides you about adding products, connecting your domain, customising your store’s visual appeal, and setting up payment systems. The platform also lets you choose from over 1200 themes available on ThemeForest to build the site.

Features of Shopify

• Abandoned cart recovery- 7 out of 10 customers add products to the shopping cart and leave without buying. You can keep a tab on these activities by navigating to Orders followed by Abandoned Checkouts.
• Auto-calculation of shipping prices- Shopify provides real-time carrier shipping, enabling you to calculate the shipping prices for each customer automatically.
• Customisable customer profiles- You get to keep track and monitor your customer’s buying behaviour and purchase history.

Let’s say you want to build a website for students to purchaseessay rewriter tools. Wouldn’t it be better if you could take payments online just how you would do in traditional stores? Shopify makes that possible through Shopify POS, which is a mobile app that facilitates online payments.

3. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is the right e-commerce platform for larger retail brands. You can go for it if you want to expand your operations online or to include online orders for your large brick-and-mortar store. The interface is simple. It lets you customise templates to market or sell your products or to design your online store. You don’t need high-level web development skills to use this platform for building an e-commerce site.

Features of BigCommerce:

• Unlimited file storage, products and bandwidth- There aren’t any limits on storage space, catalogue size and the number of requests your website receives within a month.
• Les downtime- With an impressive 99% uptime rate, BigCommerce keeps your online store open and functional even during the flash sale and holiday rush.
• Bulk pricing- Bigcommerce allows you to incentivise purchases through bulk discounts at a higher quantity.

The platform helps you make a wide slew of customisations to your e-commerce site. For instance, let’s say you want to create a landing page for a website that provides homework help to students. So, you can choose from a list of dozens of professional themes available on this platform for purchase.

4. Squarespace

Are you interested in building an e-commerce website that’s not only functional but also creative? Well, Squarespace can help you with that. It features a gamut of stunning templates and a strong inventory system. In addition, the online store templates available in this platform serve a wide range of industries such as fashion, food & drink, education, etc.

Features of Squarespace:

• Third-party integrations- This feature lets you connect your website to third-party services and apps such as MailChimp, Amazon and Opentable.
• Promotional pop-ups/mobile information bars- Subscribing to the Business Plan or higher can help you highlight specific offers on your website.
• Custom CSS- You can apply custom CSS to any site using a built-in custom CSS editor. It also provides font and image file storage for CSS assets.

Squarespace lets you add a stylish storefront along with classic e-commerce features like promotional pop-ups and discounts. If you often offer discounts and other such promotional tools to your customers, Squarespace is the platform for you. From individual products to entire orders, you can add suitable promotional tools as and when required.

5. Ecwid

Ecwid is for launching online stores with minimum initial outlay. The free plan lets you sell your first ten physical products. You can, however, upgrade the plan and sell even more at $15 a month. This is the perfect choice if you already have a website and want to integrate the store with it. It supports a wide variety of platforms such as Drupal, WordPress and Weebly. You can even change your domain name to a custom domain after upgrading to the Venture plan.

Features of Ecwid:

• One free and three paid plans- The three paid plans are called Venture, Business and Unlimited. Each paid plan offers specific additional features to improve the functionality and visual appearance of the e-commerce website.
• Responsive Storefronts- You can optimise your online stores across all devices and operating systems. The responsive storefront helps you display the products and catalogues accurately on all kinds of devices.
• POS functionality- The POS functionality enables you to approve online payments using an Apple smartphone or a tablet, irrespective of your physical location.

Ecwid consists of intuitive building functionality. For example, you can use it to create online catalogues for your e-commerce website. The rich features such as adding photos, flexible payment options, etc., make it an absolute hit among e-commerce site owners.

Wrapping Up,

All the e-commerce platforms mentioned here offer rich online shopping and buying features. However, each platform caters to specific e-commerce needs. For instance, BigCommerce caters to overall e-commerce requirements, whereas Shopify serves small businesses the best. Identify the purpose of your e-commerce site, the number of products you want to include and your target audience. These factors will help you choose the right platform for your e-commerce site.

Author Bio:

Henry Tesfayeis a web developer at a reputed firm in the United Kingdom. He also helps students who type ‘help me do my homework’ on the live chat portal of Myessayhelp.co.uk. In addition, Henry loves to read in his free time.