Businesses are evolving in this digital age to a new dimension where purchasing or selling is as simple as a click away.
Whether you’re selling a pen or real estate, you don’t need a brick-and-mortar location. While you focus on providing value to your target clients, e-commerce platforms have you covered. The entire process is economical, time efficient, and simple to use!
Starting a business is considerably easier these days as a result of the combined forces of e-commerce and the Internet. Your virtual “home base” can be readily constructed utilizing one of the numerous e-commerce systems available. As a result, the e-commerce industry is booming and creating new opportunities for enterprises. Thus to organize time management and several tasks, companies need several tools, such as time-tracking for small businesses, task management tools, and communication tools for the teams.
2021 sees B2B sales projecting at $1.2 trillion. It is a significant rise from $889 billion in 2017.
Consider Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba, among others; you can examine how your firm is growing in the internet space. However, these household brands and optimistic numbers obscure the huge pressures that e-commerce businesses are currently facing. Consumer demands are increasing, and severe competition has resulted in razor-thin margins, making it harder for firms to operate in this virtual world.
To stay ahead of the competition and win, e-commerce businesses must expand their networks, monitor their competitors, leverage cutting-edge technologies, enhance their customer service, and ensure their online security by using tools like ExpressVPN to hide their true IP addresses.
Table of Contents
What are some of the dominant e-commerce niches?
Despite strong competition, the e-commerce business still has enormous potential in a variety of niches, including:
- Baby toiletries that are eco-friendly
- Natural skincare products
- Handmade toys and other pet-related things.
- Print-on-demand apparel
- Fitness equipment
- Organic and gluten-free options available upon request
- Online course and further resources
The Top Performing Ecommerce Platforms for SMEs in 2021
Let’s look at some of the best market players this year:
1. eWorldTrade
We shall start with the most in-demand B2B ecommerce platform for SMEs today: eWorldTrade. This growing marketplace continues to attract all kinds of buyers, and a great majority of them happen to be from the small and medium-sized business sectors.
The platform lists a wide variety of categories for manufacturers to list their products and capitalize on a marketplace where buyers and suppliers can develop a long-term and mutually benefitting relationship. eWorldTrade has been the fastest growing B2B ecommerce platform in the last five years, settling its position in the top 10 due to being dynamic and offering a unique shopping experience.
eWorldTrade’s success in connecting the right buyers to the right supplier has tremendously upvoted this platform’s reputation in the B2B marketplace. More and more buyers and suppliers looking to expand their products’ online reach are turning towards eWorldTrade for maximum returns.
2. Magento
Magento, an open-source e-commerce platform, provides a plethora of essential and intriguing features. Numerous organizations, ranging from small to enterprise-level, are profiting from the flexibility and power of Magento’s online stores.
You can hire Magento developers to construct your store efficiently so that you can focus on running your business. It provides limitless customization options to let you create your business the way you’ve always imagined. You receive a slew of templates, widgets, and plugins, all of which are continually updated.
Magento operates incredibly well in the SEO field, which is critical for increasing your online presence. Additionally, the high-performance platform is quick to address any faults that may arise. Additionally, online stores built on this platform operate flawlessly across a variety of platforms, including mobile phones. If you compare it to Shopify, it’s more affordable.
Additionally, the Magento Commerce platform integrates with third-party sales platforms such as Amazon. Magento is great for providing the finest possible sales experience, in addition to being available for free download. If you choose an open-source solution, you can either self-install and configure it or use a reputable Magento hosting platform. Moreover, with Magento Speed Optimization services, your online store’s loading speed can be significantly improved, providing a better user experience for your customers.
3. Weebly
Weebly is an excellent alternative for small and medium-sized organizations wishing to establish a cheap website.
To get started, you don’t need to be a tech whiz; only the fundamentals will suffice. Additionally, it provides blogs for promoting and marketing your products through the addition of relevant articles. Additionally, you receive a plethora of fascinating and professional themes.
It’s simple to create, manage, and amend your website, even from a mobile device. It allows for complete customization and includes a large selection of professionally designed themes. You can create galleries, unique backgrounds, and slideshows that are specifically tailored to your business. Additionally, it provides third-party connectors for your store, as well as SEO tools to assist you in being recognized.
Because Square powers Weebly transactions, you can rely on the platform for all of your payment needs. The simple-to-use platform is free for basic use, but you can upgrade to the Pro edition for $12 per month and receive $100 in Google advertising credits in addition to a free domain.
4. Opencart
Choose Opencart to gain complete control over the design of your online business.
It is an open source platform that enables you to create, run, and develop your business in the manner in which you imagined. The simple-to-use, easy-to-start platform enables you to quickly launch your digital store. Take advantage of the platform’s openness, free updates, and downloads, all without paying a monthly subscription.
Along with built-in SEO, powerful management enables you to manage your products, orders, customers, promotional codes, and tax rules. Extend your store’s functionality by selecting from over 13,000 themes and modules. Opencart’s dedicated customer support team is always there to assist you in the event of a problem.
For secure transactions, Opencart has integrated the world’s most popular payment gateways, including PayPal, Amazon Payments, FedEx, and Skrill.
5. Elementor
All that being said about WooCommerce, you’re going to need to hire a web designer if you lack significant coding chops. Unless you use Elementor.
A popular WordPress website builder, Elementor now powers more than 7% of all websites. And, with its WooCommerce website builder, you can create comprehensive, stunning WordPress-based online stores, code-free.
Offering users more than 20 WooCommerce-related widgets, users have complete freedom to bring about even the most ambitious design. Offering best-in-class cloud hosting features, Elementor can be relied on for hosting your eCommerce store, as well.
6. WooCommerce
Are you a WordPress devotee?
Adding a shopping cart to an existing WordPress site using WooCommerce. You can utilize this WordPress plugin in lieu of developing a separate platform.
It includes adjustable delivery options and 140 region-specific secure payment methods such as PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. The highly configurable platform enables you to extend the functionality of your store using official WooCommerce extensions, which include marketing, store enhancement, multi-channel, and point of sale interfaces.
The platform is built using the REST API and can be combined with nearly any service. It is also expandable as your business grows. You can quickly list your products on Google Shopping, promote your business on social media platforms such as Facebook, and communicate with customers via email using MailChimp. Additionally, utilize Google Analytics to report on and track marketing initiatives.
A WoCommerce store requires more server resources than a standard blog, so pick your hosting provider carefully.
7. BigCommerce
Using BigCommerce, create a strong and differentiated digital store without sacrificing scalability, stability, or security. It enables your firm to overcome complexity through the provision of comprehensive and specialized services aimed at growing your brand.
Create a unique storefront design with built-in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS using custom themes. Additionally, you may tailor the payment experience using the server-to-server payment API and SDK. Create a mobile-friendly store, preview before posting, and build the store in WordPress. Increase traffic to your site by using SEO-friendly URLs and metadata.
BigCommerce accelerates your site by integrating Google Cloud, Akamai Image Manager, and Google AMP infrastructure. Drag & drop to customize your products and generate over 70 native promos and discounts. It supports a variety of digital wallets, including Apple Pay, PayPal, and Amazon Pay.
8. Prestashop
Prestashop assists you in creating a fully customised store of your dreams by taking into account the unique requirements of diverse enterprises. It provides the features, functionality, and performance necessary for brand development and growth. Easily add your goods, configure their functionalities, and modify them.
You can define pricing rules, configure coupons, choose discount modes, and personalize shipping. Additionally, Prestashop offers SEO-optimized storefronts that allow you to monitor your SEO score and connect your digital store to social media for increased engagement and traffic. Additionally, you may track your marketing activities via regular reports and visitor information.
Prestashop is currently available in over 75 languages, which will assist you in growing your user base. Utilize a single back office to manage many digital stores to reduce expenses and improve convenience.
9. Shopify
You anticipated it, correct?
Are you looking for a solution that combines all of the point of sale capabilities necessary to launch, operate, and expand your business under one roof?
Shopify has your back. Begin your entrepreneurial career by selling your products on a variety of platforms, including social media, online marketplaces, and more.
Shopify integrations include built-in tools to assist you with marketing activities such as creating, conducting, and analyzing Google and Facebook campaigns. For your convenience, manage all of your orders, payments, and shipments from the same dashboard. Access CSS and HTML codes to simply customize your website.
With over 3,200 applications that integrate directly with Shopify, you may extend the functionality and features of your site. It includes over 70 premium themes designed by prominent designers like as Pixel Union, Happy Cog, and others. Shopify includes a blogging platform that enables you to educate and inform your audience through the use of high-quality posts.
Shopify includes a free 256-bit SSL certificate to encrypt any data on your site. Additionally, it provides secure payment gateways and the ability to make credit card payments using Visa, American Express, or Mastercard. Shopify has close to 11% of total market share in e-commerce which swamps of opportunities.
10. Drupal
Create a bold digital store with Drupal by combining the optimal marketing, fulfilment, and payment solutions to expand your consumer base. You may manage your content in the same way that you manage your product data models, which includes product pages and search interfaces.
Over 1 million developers worldwide contribute to Drupal’s stability and security. Protects your store with database encryption, access control, security reporting, and automatic updates, as well as the prevention of malicious activities and denial-of-service assaults.
Drupal enables marketing automation via social media, email, CRM, and SEO, among other features. Additionally, it functions as a content repository accessible via an API, allowing you to tailor content to your users based on their geolocation, device type, browser history, and behavioral classification. The site is multilingual, with over 100 languages available.
Due to the fact that it is open source, you are responsible for installation and configuration. Rather than that, you can go for managed hosting, which allows you to concentrate on your primary business.
11. Silverstripe Cloud
With SilverStripe Cloud, you gain access to our open-source CMS, which runs on SilverStripe hosting. They provide 24×7 support to ensure that your infrastructure is always up and running. This Platform-as-a-Service is a complete solution for managing digital experiences due to its powerful dashboard, high-performance platform, and a wide range of popular development tools.
12. Sylius
Utilize the open source Sylius platform to give your store a unique appearance and feel. It is entirely built on the Symfony PHP framework. It incorporates high-quality code, sound ideas, and testing techniques to simplify development and user experience.
The platform includes built-in APIs that enable you to easily build mobile apps for Android and iOS, as well as progressive web apps. As a result, you can sell your items regardless of the device that your target clients utilize. Integrate your site with the various technologies required to grow your business, such as CRM, ERP, inventory management, and email.
Sylius is easily deployable on a variety of different hosting platforms, including Clouds, Nexcess, and others.
13. Sellfy
Sellfy is a straightforward but powerful platform for building an online store to sell physical things, subscriptions, and digital products. If you despise complexity yet require effective results, Sellfy is for you!
You can sell your products directly on YouTube, Instagram, or Soundcloud by inserting a “Buy Now” button or providing a simple link on your website.
Without additional integrations, you may enhance your sales by utilizing email marketing, upsell options, and discount codes. Customize your store by adding your logo, making designs, and changing the colors to match your brand. The bilingual platform optimizes your store for mobile device customers, allowing them to access it from both mobile and desktop platforms.
Sellfy takes payments from more than 200 countries and makes use of secure payment processors such as PayPal and Stripe. Analyze data to gain strong insight into top-performing goods, traffic channels, and business locations.
14. Saleor
Easily install your online store with Saleor and benefit from world-class performance and flexibility to keep your business running smoothly. Through its revolutionary GraphQL API, it enables seamless integration of your store with a variety of systems such as CRM, CMS, and compliance APIs.
It allows you entire front-end flexibility, allowing you to use the PWA storefront or the JavaScript SDK, as well as the opportunity to switch to another platform or language. You have complete control over your product packages, groups, and settings. It supports a wide variety of currencies, languages, and translations.
Monitor and analyze your business’s progress to help you shape it for the long term. Future-proof your brand by developing a robust and secure store with cutting-edge solutions. Additionally, it facilitates Magento migrations and utilizes clean code to introduce exciting new features to your store.
If you’re ready to go beyond traditional company, the moment has come to create a scalable digital store on a feature-rich and dependable e-commerce platform. Choose the proper service provider for your business based on your requirements and budget to earn brownie points that might save you time and money in the long run.
