The Mercury Blog | Ideas & Insights | Major Tom

Reviewing eCommerce platforms: Which is best for you?

Written by Sean Robinson, Copywriter | Aug 9, 2022 5:05:24 AM

Choosing the right ecommerce platform for your business can be a daunting task.

But, your decision can be made a bit easier when you consider your capabilities and your goals. Each eCommerce platform has their own strengths and weaknesses, so to determine which will best suit you, you need to line your own wants and needs up with their strengths. If you’re clear on what you need to accomplish, this article, as an eCommerce platform comparison, will  show you which is right for you. If you’re unclear on what your organizational goals are, we can help.

We have reviewed all of the most popular eCommerce platforms to bring you this list. It includes everything from free solutions to enterprise-level software. We’ve included our top picks for various categories along with some honorable mentions that might work well in certain situations. These include:

  • Magento, 
  • Shopify Plus 
  • BigCommerce Enterprise 
  • Woocommerce 
  • Square eCommerce

Our goal is to make it easy for you to decide which platform is best suited for your business needs with a clear eCommerce platform comparison. Check out our eCommerce platform comparison table below or read on to learn more about each option!

Shopify Plus eCommerce Review 

Shopify was the first popularized SaaS platform for small-to-mid-sized businesses and mid-market retailers. With Shopify Plus, you have the same dashboard and editor as Shopify, but you’ll have access to higher-level tools, features, customization, and a dedicated staff.

Shopify Plus makes sense for merchants when they reach around $1-2 million in annual revenue. Although it's not the actual amount that’s significant, it’s the growth and level of organizational sophistication this sales number represents. 

We've found that at the $1-2 million point, Shopify Plus' usefulness and uniqueness compared to other programs like Square and even Shopify becomes more and more obvious. One of the most beneficial features about Shopify Plus, is that they work to eliminate overheads around platform maintenance, upgrades, and security patching. But remember  that pricing for Shopify Plus is calculated by usage and sales volumes — this can vary greatly, depending on your business. 

Price: 

Starting at $2,000/month. Shopify Plus fees vary depending on the complexity of your needs. 

Strengths: 

  • Scalable and reliable
  • Features like automation capabilities to help your business grow 
  • Great omnichannel services
  • Complex script creation is easy 
  • High-volume traffic handling 
  • Reduction in operational and maintenance overhead 
  • Site will never go down
  • Fast onboarding process 
  • Integration of other platforms

Weaknesses: 

  • Limited Backend Customization
  • Limited Content Management 
  • Payment Gateways

Who it’s for: 

Medium to Enterprise-level businesses

 

WooCommerce eCommerce Review 

WooCommerce is a WordPress eCommerce plugin that gives you more control over your online store than Shopify Plus — it allows for hosting to be done in any location. WooCommerce is not an eCommerce tool for beginners, however, you also don’t need to be an expert coder to use it.

Even though WooCommerce comes preinstalled with Bluehost, it’s still not intuitive for those without technical knowledge. The learning curve can be steep — especially since there's no live help. Fortunately, there are detailed video tutorials available that will guide new users step-by-step through every feature. WooCommerce also has a very large world-wide online community you can turn to for help.

WooCommerce is great for those looking for a maximum amount of flexibility. This is the site for you if you have the technical knowledge needed for customizations.

Price: 

Free and customizable 

Strengths: 

  • Open-source means you can alter the plugin to suit your needs 
  • Pricing is dependant on your needs 
  • Security 
  • Lots of free and paid plugins and themes 

Weaknesses:

  • Updates may not be compatible with plugins, themes, or extensions on your site (test first, update later) 

Who it’s for: 

  • Businesses who need a level of individuality 
  • Small to medium-sized shops
  • Businesses with an in-house or trusted developer 

 

BigCommerce Enterprise eCommerce Review

BigCommerce Enterprise is a high-volume eCommerce platform for brands who have a lot of site visitors. It provides a higher level of service, with features able to withstand intense traffic influxes or conversion rates that are higher than what most companies need. You'll never have to worry about your site going down again because as long as there's power in the building — you're good from an uptime perspective (99%).

BigCommerce Enterprise is great for businesses that are purely or mainly online. 

Price: 

  • Per month: $400 - $20,000 
  • Pricing is calculated by the average value of your order as well as the average number of orders that you process each month

Strengths: 

  • High volume 
  • Great service 
  • Site will never go down
  • Fast onboarding process 
  • Integration of other platforms
  • No transaction fees 

Weaknesses: 

  • Paypal transaction fees are the same as basic packages 
  • Coding help can be slow (you have full access to the HTML, CSS and Javascript of your site, so each site is unique making problem solving slower. However, Enterprise clients will receive more in-depth support.) 

Who is it for: 

  • Businesses with high-volume online traffic 
  • Businesses that are mainly online 
  • Businesses making $1 million+ annually 

 

Square eCommerce Review

If you’re a one-off seller, a small business owner, or just getting started in the eCommerce space, Square could be right for you. Getting set up with Square only takes a few minutes. Just follow their step-by-step guide and you’ll be up and running in no time. The free option will give you a basic, functional online storefront. If you ramp up to one of the paid versions, you will have more transparency into how your eCommerce store is performing, and can adjust your tactics accordingly. 

You don't need to know anything about web design or coding to get started. This also means that you won’t be able to customize your store or your customers’ experience as much. 

Price: 

  • From free to $79 per month, depending on your package

Strengths: 

  • A free URL
  • Free unlimited hosting (with paid packages) 
  • Inventory management and tracking
  • Responsive web design
  • Integrated and advanced reporting
  • Support for in-store pickup

Weaknesses: 

  • Shipping strategy is lacking and does not have adjustable rates
  • Account stability issues are common
  • Poor customer service                                                                                                      

Who is it for: 

  • Beginners or online merchants who want a simple solution, fast

 

Magento eCommerce Review

Magento is made up of eCommerce platforms and flexible cloud solutions. There are two available products: Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. Both of these can only be operated by those with professional web development experience. Magento is not for beginners. It is for businesses who have developers on their team.

Magento does, however, supply plenty of resources for customer support — you just have to be fine with pursuing answers yourself. 

Price: 

Magento Open Source is free 

Magento Commerce 

Strengths: 

  • Flexibility and expandability
  • Multiple customization options
  • A huge community for support

Weaknesses:

  • Security is not built in (you’re responsible for installing your own SSL certificate)
  • Expensive plans
  • Hosting not provided

Who it’s for: 

  • Businesses with an in-house or trusted developer 

 

Shopping for an eCommerce platform can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. We think that choosing the right one is worth your time and energy because of how much they can impact your bottom line. After all, you want the best ROI possible! To help make this decision a little easier, we created a free eBook,  “The hitchhiker’s guide to the B2C ROI-driven ecosystem." Download yours today.