13 Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses in 2024

 13 Best Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses in 2024

Building an online store from scratch can be overwhelming. Turn your pain into a manageable and rewarding process using one of the best ecommerce website builders.

By: Elsier Otachi

You're building an online storefront from scratch. But, like 24% of small business owners, you lack the technical expertise to create and run a website.

An ecommerce website builder can help you create a professional, engaging site without dragging you through web development hell.

This guide shares a curated list of the best ecommerce website builders to help you create your site, build brand credibility, and convert leads into paying, loyal customers.

How we selected the best ecommerce website builders

Set your standards high when picking the best ecommerce website builder for your small business. With so many tools on the market, it’s important to know what to look for when starting your ecommerce business. 

Here’s how we selected our 13 best website builders for ecommerce:

Transparent payment structure. We provided the monthly cost for website builders on our list. Builders that only offer annual plans can be too much of a risk, especially for newer businesses just starting out.

Ease of use. While many business owners prefer working with freelance website developers, we made sure that anyone with limited tech experience can access the builders on this list. 

Plethora of features. All the ecommerce website builders on our list have several useful features, as we see that as the best way to build an ecommerce website. If a builder was too simplistic, it didn’t make the cut.

Scaleable. As your business grows, so too might your website. We highlighted builders that offer plenty of options for different sized companies.

The 13 best ecommerce website builders in 2024:

1. Shopify: Best for businesses that intend to scale

2. Wix: Best for small businesses looking to get started quickly

3. Hostinger: Best for businesses wanting to use AI

Shopify: Best for businesses that intend to scale

Shopify powers ecommerce sites in over 175 countries and 10% of the total ecommerce sales in the U.S. So, it's no surprise that Shopify powers established brands like Pepsi, Nestle, Vogue, and Unilever. Aside from these big names, Shopify is a great beginner-friendly option for individuals with little technical knowledge.

The robust online store builder makes it easy to set up a stunning, secure, and full-featured ecommerce site and start selling online. No coding skills are necessary because Shopify offers plenty of customization through drag-and-drop templates. 

Emerging businesses turn to Shopify to launch their cost-effective online store. Shopify provides room to scale your business, so you’ll never find yourself constrained or needing a new platform.



Source: Dohful

Key features

100+ professional and free store templates. Other website builders require coding knowledge—or only offer templates at a cost—Shopify makes building your own website easier by allowing users to select from hundreds of free pre-made template designs

Built-in SEO features. Shopify makes your website SEO-friendly by automatically adding sitemaps and allowing you to add canonical tags to make your website easier for search engines to crawl and rank. Plus, you can manually edit tags, descriptions, URLS, and more.

Burst stock photo library. Quality photography can be an issue for entreprenuers on a budget, but Shopify solves this with its free stock photo platform called Burst.

8,000+ apps and tools. The Shopify app store offers a vast number of tools to make your online store functions so it improves the customer experience.

With these and other features available for your small business, you can get your ecommerce store up and running—even on a tight budget.

“Shopify offers outstanding possibilities for customizing and expanding an online business presence,” says Ben Kuhl, CEO and founder of Shelf Expression, custom shelves solutions, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. “With a vast selection of plugins to choose from, and easy-to-use customization features like changing colors or adding new pages, entrepreneurs can build their website to exact specifications.”

Don’t want to dabble with the website building code yourself? Connect with Fiverr’s Shopify experts to build a custom solution for your business.

Pros

Free three-day trial, no 

Pros

Free three-day trial, no credit card required

Easy-to-use interface, including the ability to build and customize your store without coding

All-in-one POS system that comes with inventory tracking, staff management, and more

No transaction fees for stores using Shopify Payments

Option to easily transfer an existing ecommerce store and its data to the platform using Shopify’s Store Importer app

Offers the most dropshipping integrations among ecommerce platforms

Seamless scalability with multiple plans for businesses of all sizes

Cons

Pricey higher-tier plans

Short trial period (three days)

Free hosting only for higher plans

Lacks marketing automation and email hosting

Shopify user reviews

👍“Our favorite Shopify feature is the app store and the many options you have to customize your site with new ecommerce functionality,” says Ryan Turner, founder at Ecommerce Intelligence, an ecommerce agency.

“Basically, anything you can ever think of building in terms of features for an ecommerce brand, has already been created in the app store. This makes Shopify incredibly customizable, even if you need features that aren't included in the standard SaaS product.”

👎“As user-friendly as Shopify can be, certain customization requests may exceed the capabilities of its native editing tools,” says Kuhl. “I discovered this when trying to add contact information such as email and phone number into my website's header. To make up for these limitations in functionality, technical expertise or resources are required to complete more complex tasks—an option that was necessary in order for me to get what I needed done effectively.”

Pricing (monthly)

Basic plan ($29): Gives you up to 77% shipping discount, 10 inventory locations, and card rates starting at 2.9% + 30¢ USD online

Shopify plan ($79): Gives you up to 88% shipping discount, 10 inventory locations, and card rates starting at 2.7% + 30¢ USD online

Advanced plan ($299): Gives you up to 88% shipping discount and insurance, 10x checkout capacity, and card rates starting at 2.5% + 30¢ USD online

Plus plan ($2,300): Gives you 200 inventory locations, unlimited staff accounts, and fully customizable checkout with 40x capacity

Need help setting up a Shopify website? Check out Fiverr Shopify development services by freelance experts.

Setup your Shopify website with these online gigs

2. Wix: Best for small businesses looking to get started quickly

Over 250 million people choose Wix to build their online businesses. It’s a flexible and powerful website builder that helps you create an ecommerce site in minutes.

You can use Wix's controls to customize and tweak every aspect of each page. Wix's Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) can auto-build a site if you don't want to design much. Just answer a few simple questions, and the ADI tool will generate a quick web page.

Beyond site design and editing, Wix is a feature-heavy site builder that offers small business owners a wide range of simple and complex tools to create customizable, responsive, and mobile-optimized sites.

Babywear brand Bonsie used Wix to set up its ecommerce business. Besides launching target ads using Wix's built-in Facebook Ads Manager, the company used Wix's SEO tools to optimize the quality content on its Wix blog, landing it the top search position for the "skin-to-skin babywear" keyword.

Key features

Vimeo editing features. Wix and Vimeo are partners, allowing business owners to easily create stunning videos they can share on social platforms.

platforms.

Social media marketing tool. Through Wix, you can schedule posts, use pre-built templates, or publish directly to different platforms all in one place.

Mobile site editor. Customize desktop vs. mobile-only elements to ensure users get the best possible experience no matter which device they visit your store with.

Multilingual website. Wix’s editor allows you to bring international customers to your store with localization and translation options.

Pros

Powerful setup wizard

Built-in SEO capabilities

Enterprise-grade infrastructure

Free top-grade hosting

No additional transaction fees

Large selection of apps and plugins

Free plan available

14-day free trial on paid plans

Cons

You can't switch templates once the site is live

Free domain only available for one year

Slower loading times, especially for larger ecommerce stores

Some limited customization, such as with sales confirmation emails

Wix user reviews

👍“I could easily modify my website by using Wix’s drag-and-drop interface,” says Alex Constantinou, managing director at The Fitness Circle. “This eliminated the need for me to learn any code. Wix also integrates with popular payment processors such as PayPal and Stripe, meaning I can process orders, payments, and delivery.”

👎“Although you can create a free ecommerce website with Wix, you can’t sell anything without upgrading to a paid plan,” says Sanjay Gupta, president ofGurin Products. “Wix's basic plan lacks essential inventory management features, such as low-stock notifications, tax calculators, and dropshipping options. If you have a substantial inventory, you will need ecommerce software with more efficient inventory-tracking facilities.”

Pricing (monthly)

Light ($17): Gives you two collaborators, 2GB storage space, and the light marketing suite

Core ($29): Gives you five collaborators, 50GB storage space, and the basic marketing suite

Business ($36): Gives you 10 collaborators, 100GB storage space, and the standard marketing suite

Business Elite ($159): Gives you 15 collaborators, unlimited storage space, and the advanced marketing suite

3. Hostinger: Best for businesses wanting to use AI

Hostinger is one of the best beginner-friendly builders on the market. It also doubles as a web hosting provider. Hostinger offers over 150 professionally designed ecommerce templates to make setting up your online store a painless task.

It’s also extremely affordable, with no sales transaction fees. Beginners will enjoy the intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

What makes Hostinger stand out from the competition is its valuable AI tools. From an AI builder to an AI heatmap to an AI logo maker, businesses wanting to experiment with AI will find everything they need in Hostinger. 

Key features

AI builder. Enter your brand name, select your website type, describe your business, and AI will take care of the rest—delivering a customizable website specifically for you.

Marketing integrations. Communicate with your customers seamlessly and track your website data with built-in third-party marketing tools.

AI image generator. Display stunning images on your site with Hostinger’s AI image generator—the first five images are free. 

Pros

Zero transaction fees

Over 20 payment methods

Free domain

Free email

Integrated AI tools

Includes website hosting services

Impressive speed and uptime

Cons

Can only list up to 500 products

No free plan or trial

Can’t switch templates once live

Only one plan that includes ecommerce features

Pricing (monthly)

Business website builder ($3.99). Gives you access to all ecommerce and AI features, 30-day money-back guarantee, and mobile editing.

4. Squarespace: Best for SMBs with minimal product lines

Squarespace is the best ecommerce website builder for new, growing, and established businesses.From merchandising to checkout, you'll find everything you need to power your online store and showcase your products or services at their best.

While Squarespace is better suited for selling services, it also has plenty of sales tools and the ability to have unlimited products and storage. 

Building with Squarespace is simple: pick a template, get a free custom domain, customize, and publish. It’s no wonder Jones Bar-B-Q, a restaurant famous for producing delicious sauces, settled on Squarespace to build its business online. Today, the restaurant's customers can purchase their favorite sauce flavor from anywhere in the world.



Key features

Subscription selling. Great for businesses that operate on monthly or annual models, Squarespace makes it easy to manage and sell subscriptions.

Squarespace AI. One of Squarespace’s latest features makes marketing easy—input a prompt and the tool will give you top-of-the-line marketing copy.

Social media integrations. Allow customers to purchase your products directly from platforms like Instagram or Facebook.

Analytics app. Keep track of your analytics wherever you are by downloading the Squarespace analytics app for IOS or Android

Pros

Simple and easy to use

No-code editing capabilities

Easy to change your design

Free domain name and SSL certificate, as well as unlimited bandwidth and storage

Access to a wide range of free, professionally designed templates

Free domain with annual plans

Cons

Backend has a steeper

to an outside service.”

👎“I was an early adopter to Pagecloud (user since 2015) and had special pricing for it,” says a Pagecloud user in the nonprofit sector. “After I canceled it and resubscribed under an organization I now work for, the price really was a stark difference.”

Pricing (monthly)

Start (Free): Gives you one site, one page, and 1000 website visitors/mo.

Launch ($20): Gives you one site with two team members, 100 pages, and 10,000 website visitors/mo.

Grow ($36): Gives you one site with 10 team members, 200 pages, and 25,000 website visitors/mo.

Pro ($79): ​​Gives you one site with 10 team members, 300 pages, and 75,000 website visitors/mo.

6. BigCommerce: Best for SMBs with multiple product variants

BigCommerce targets mid-market and enterprise brands with its cloud-based, multichannel website-building technology.

The builder combines flexible customizations and integrations so you can focus more on business growth and less on website development. There’s plenty of room for scaling, as BigCommerce allows you to build a large store with many offerings.

Di Bruno Bros—a specialty food business—used BigCommerce Enterprise to create a high-quality online customer experience and grow its gourmet gift sales. The gourmet food retailer leveraged BigCommerce's flexible, cloud-based platform to create an online storefront with a matching customer experience as its physical stores.

The company switched from its previous ecommerce website, which required a lot of custom code, making it difficult to update.

Within days, it launched a new site using BigCommerce, provided a more delightful customer shopping experience across devices, and got:

63% more conversions

$1.5K per month hosting cost savings

6.5% more online sales

9% more orders

Key features

Cross-channel ecommerce. BigCommerce makes it easy to integrate with top marketplaces, sell on social platforms, and even automatically update your in-store sales.

Shipping tools. Get industry-leading shipping rates and choose from any of BigCommerce’s broad portfolio of shipping partners.

Platform-wide APIs. Developers can create their