6 Best eCommerce Sites To Make an online store

With the evolution of eCommerce sites now everything is a click and order. Everyone we see is using a smart device and everything is being bought and sold using it. If you have a good idea and if you are the one who is looking for the right platform to start an online business, then this article is for you.

In this article, I will let you know the 6 best eCommerce sites to start your online business right away. By the end of this article, you will get to know how easy it is to start an online business.

If you don’t know about the eCommerce business, I recommend you to take this Ecommerce beginner course from Udemy. It is a comprehensive course that gives you basic information and the ways to sell products on eBay, Amazon, Alibaba.

Note: The websites in the below list will give you ready-made websites and templates. If you want, you can create your own WordPress website and use Woocommerce to sell products from your website. You can read How to make a blog in 5 minutes. Don’t want to learn to make your own website, then read this article.

What are eCommerce websites?

eCommerce websites or say an eCommerce website builder is the type of CMS software that allows people to set up an eCommerce store for their online businesses without any coding knowledge. As of today, The most popular eCommerce websites CMS software are Shift4Shop, Shopify, and Bigcommerce.

6 Best eCommerce Sites to Start Online Business

Many hire website developers and invest a lot of amount in building the platform for online business. But, not it can be done easily with the following best eCommerce sites.

Note: For quick decision, Navigate to the Conclusion section where we have added a short summary of all eCommerce websites.

Video Tutorial:

For the reader’s convenience, we always create a video tutorial. Either you can watch and learn or simply skip the video and continue with the list mentioned afterward.

1. Shift4Shop (Formerly 3dcart)

Shift4Shop (formerly known as 3Dcart) is the first eCommerce website builder you should consider to build your online store. Well, if the pricing is the major concern for you then Shift4shop could be the life savior for you. Shift4shop is completely free or in other words, you don’t have to pay any monthly fees for using their eCommerce platform.

Highlighted Point: Unlike other eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Shift4Shop doesn’t charge monthly fees and this is only possible if eCommerce owners use their “Shift4Payments” as the payment gateway on their websites.

That free thing is currently applicable to only USA citizens.

When we talk about features, it covered it all. Compared to other eCommerce platforms here you will get 10 times more free themes, fraud protection features, free migration, and also a free domain name.

Shift4Shop has been standing tall in the eCommerce space for more than 21 years and has over 200,000+ active customers worldwide. These stats clearly show the reputation and trustworthiness of this eCommerce platform. Big companies like Hammacher Schlemmer, The UPS Store, etc are already using the Shift4Shop eCommerce platform for running their online store.

It doesn’t matter what type of eCommerce website you wanna build, everything is possible with Shift4Shop. Apart from eCommerce Shift4Shop gives you the built-in blogging platform which you can use to create blog-oriented content and engage with your visitors coming through a search engine.

As you all know that eCommerce core system is built with 3 aspects: Store owners, search engines, and shoppers. By keeping these three dimensions in mind Shift4Shop has designed its eCommerce software and strategy. 

Besides eCommerce, Shift4Shop has been helping users to improve their website SEO and social presence as well. Their platform includes built-in SEO and social media marketing tools. So you don’t have to worry anymore about SEO optimization.

Why Shift4Shop is the Best eCommerce Site to Set Up an Online Store

In this section, we will see the major benefits a user gets when he/she decided to go with Shift4Shop:

The Pricing Benefit: 

Whereas other eCommerce companies are charging $29-$299 for the standard plans and $2000+ for the enterprise plans, The Shift4Shop charges nothing from their USA-based customers. Isn’t it a great thing?

Apart from the free eCommerce platform, Shift4Shop charges nothing for extra features, plugins, integrations, setup fees, and whatnot. 

So in a nutshell, Shift4Shop is a truly free eCommerce website builder active in the market.

Dozens of Free eCommerce Themes:

We have compared the list of free themes available in today’s list of eCommerce websites and we have found that Shift4Shop is ahead of all. 

Further Shift4Shop has been adding 100+ new themes on a daily basis. So it doesn’t matter which industry you are into, you would definitely find your desired store theme here.

• Related: 15 Best WooCommerce Themes (WordPress Store Themes) 

Free Migration: 

There is good news for users who are currently operating their store on different eCommerce platforms and want to migrate to Shift4Shop. 

In Shift4Shop there is nothing like migration cost. Otherwise, other eCommerce websites charge extra 1,000 bucks (approx) for providing migration assistance. 

Fair Plans & Features Pack:

Shift4Shop has a majority of its advanced features inbuilt into the system whether it is related to eCommerce, marketing, SEO, inventory management, or whatnot.

Further, Shift4Shop plans are designed in a way that you would get everything in one place. Unlike other eCommerce platforms here you won’t have to pay for features that come by installing an extra app. 

One of the best examples of such features is the real-time shipping rates. In other companies, This feature is commonly found in high tier plans but Shift4Shop put up this advanced feature in their free plan.

Free Domain Name Benefit:

So you don’t have a domain name for your eCommerce store, right? Well, it won’t be an issue. If you go with Shift4Shop then you will get a domain name absolutely free of cost. 

Yes, I am talking about a normal domain name, not a subdomain under the Shift4Shop name. Other eCommerce websites normally give you a sub-domain name on which their brand name is appended. For example mystore.shopify.com.

So this could be another perk a user gets when he/she chooses the Shift4Shop eCommerce website.

Inbuilt Conversion & Marketing Tools:

To get a high conversion rate we need various tools in our eCommerce website. Guess what Shift4Shop has got your back.

Here you will find various marketing tools like discounts, coupons, offers, daily & group deals, etc. All these marketing tools help you to convert confused users into customers. Apart from marketing tools, built-in analytics and email marketing tools are also there.

To convert users who abandoned from the cart page can also get converted with the help of Shift4Shop special “cart abandonment recovery tools“.

The Benefit of PCI Compliance and Secured eCommerce Platform:

Undoubtedly we all agreed to the fact of increasing website attacks and data breaches nowadays. Attackers specially target those websites where payment is associated. In other words, eCommerce websites are the most vulnerable to such attackers. 

But if you host your eCommerce site with the Shift4Shop then you don’t have to worry anymore. Because Shift4Shop is one of the few PCI-certified eCommerce platforms in the market which ensures 100% top-level security and protection.

The SEO Benefit

As we all know that all shopping or eCommerce website builders are automated and hence SEO is automated too. Due to this we always are in a dilemma of choosing the best eCommerce platform which ensures 100% search engine optimization.

Further by handling SEO tasks to the right hands like Shift4Shop, we can eliminate the need for third-party SEO plugins. 

[ We have compared the SEO of Shift4Shop with Shopify and found a major advantage associated with Shift4Shop. Let me tell you.

If your product URL involved multiple categories then Shopify makes it very long and clumsy by appending a product/variant code which is not good for SEO at any cost.

Then Shopify read it like this:
https://abc.com/collection/blue/aew-booster?variant=2415115

See, Shopify has been adding a product category to the URL unnecessarily and due to this, the product URL looks really bad and long. We cannot alter this because Shopify doesn’t give us control of the URL slug.

On the other hand, suppose if we are using a Shift4Shop eCommerce platform then we can easily generate the URL slug of our own choice. ]

It is one of the many SEO advantages that you would find in the Shift4Shop. 

So here is the list of a few popular SEO tools you would only find inside the Shift4Shop eCommerce website:

• Schema markup
• 301 redirects & 404 auto detect
• Canonical URL
• Customizable URL structure
• Dynamic XML sitemap generation
• Robot.txt file generation
• Google AMP support
• Google Analytics integration
• Customizable page meta tags 
• More…

• Related: RankMath vs Yoast SEO WordPress Plugins Comparison

Inhouse Marketing Tools for Social Media Marketing

When we talk about social media promotion, Shift4Shop has plenty of tools (both organic and paid) inbuilt into their platform which helps you in improving the social presence of your eCommerce website. 

Under organic tools, Social sharing buttons are the most valuable feature. With this, your customers can quickly share your products on major social media platforms.

Further, you can install the Facebook Pixel code on your eCommerce site as well. For increasing the reach of products Shift4Shop allows you to sync your eCommerce website with different platforms including Facebook, Amazon, eBay, etc. 

Affiliate Program Benefit – A Free Out of Box Feature

Well, I don’t know about you but I really like this affiliate program marketing approach. Because it is cost-effective. Users will come to your site, join the affiliate program and promote your products in exchange for little commission.

Well, I used to think that creating an affiliate program for an eCommerce site is expensive but Shift4Shop literally won my heart. Compared to other platforms where you have to pay an extra $50-$200 monthly for this feature, with Shift4Shop it is absolutely free.

• Related: 6 Best WordPress Affiliate Program Plugins

The Strategic eCommerce Approach Benefits

Shift4Shop has been following a “strategic eCommerce approach” to solving business challenges. In other words, solving the challenges which hinder the website reach, engagement, conversions, and customer retention. 

To improve website reach, Shift4Shop is offering these possible solutions:

• Social media promotion by Facebook store integration
• Implement and improve SEO presence by inbuilt SEO tools
• Make your website mobile-friendly by enabling a responsive design and AMP functionality.
• More…

To improve website engagement, reduce bounce rate, and increase visitors spending time on a site Shift4Shop offers these potential solutions:

• Allows us to add a carousel on the homepage with featured and most selling products.
• Allows us to add a related blocks section on all product pages.
• Allows customers to create a wish list and gift registries.
• Allows customers to save carts
• Provides separate sections for product reviews and Q/A.
• More…

To enhance conversions, and reduce cart abandonment rates these tools are available:

• Daily & group deals
• Offers, coupons, and promotions
• Real-time shipping calculator so that customers can estimate the exact amount they have to pay.
• Abandoned cart saver tool
• Fast single page checkout
• Newsletter to communicate as well as offer product deals
• More…

To enhance customer retention, customer satisfaction these are the possible solutions provided by the Shift4Shop:

• Autoresponders & Automation rules
• Reward points
• Gift certificates
• Store credits
• Affiliate (Referral) Program
• More…

The Customization Benefit

The Shift4Shop eCommerce store themes are perfectly designed. But sometimes we want a custom design solution and if you don’t have a developer in your team then how would you achieve the desired design outcome?

Well apart from CSS and HTML customization, Shift4Shop has tied up with the design experts (designers and web developers) that you can hire and ask them to design a custom eCommerce store.

Not just designers, Shift4Shop also collaborated with professional marketers and photographers. So in case, you need such people you can hire them anytime. 

The Product Comparison Module Benefit 

Indeed we all have an urge to compare products or say variants of products before finalizing the final one. Isn’t it? Often time I saw the absence of a comparison module on eCommerce websites. 

But the comparison module is highly essential and plays a vital role in improving the bounce rate and customer retention rate.

Well if you develop your store with Shift4Shop then you can let your customers compare up to 4 products at a time across various data points. And the great thing is this comparison module would cost you nothing.

The Digital Selling Benefit

Nowadays not everyone wants to start a physical products eCommerce store, some prefer digital content selling. For this, your eCommerce store must provide the functionality of digital downloads to customers when they buy any digital product. 

Gladly Shift4Shop has digital downloads module which you can use to build your digital content eCommerce store. 

The Benefit of Long Payment Integrations List

Payment Integrations are the backbone of any eCommerce website. If your customers are situated worldwide then it is a must to provide a payment gateway they usually use or prefer to make online payments.

Shift4Shop has tied up with more than 100 global payment service providers (including PayPal) which enable the store customers to choose any payment gateway they like. Customers won’t have to pay any additional transaction or integration fees.

Hint: Shift4Shop has a special offer for USA citizens only. Signup to Shift4Shop and just enable “Shift4Payments” on your eCommerce website as a preferred payment gateway option. This way you can enjoy Shift4Shop full service without any charge.

So if you build your eCommerce store with Shift4Shop builder then your customers would not face any payment-related issues.

The long list of global payment options includes popular credit card providers, ACH & eCheck payments, Digital wallet options (PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, etc), and also buy now pay later payment option.

• Related: What is Payment Gateway? How Payment Gateway Works?

The Benefit of Complete Shipping System

Shipping is the hardest and could be the most frustrating phase of your eCommerce journey if your eCommerce system is not good. 

I don’t know about your current eCommerce shipping system but trust me Shift4Shop shipping module is very robust and rich in features. 

These are the shipping benefits you would get when you choose Shift4Shop:

• Real-Time Shipping Rates: Shift4Shop fetches real-time shipping rates from popular shipping carriers including UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, Canada Post, Royal Mail, and AU Post. 
• Custom Shipping Methods: You have full control over custom shipping methods. You can create a custom shipping solution based on product weight, value, quantity, zip code and offer a flat or free shipping rate.
• Shipping Labels Automation: Say goodbye to the manual filling of shipping label information. Shift4Shop automatically pulls the customer information and prints a shipping label for you. Saves tons of time and reduces the chances of mistakes. 
• Shipping Markup: Optional
• Shipping Carriers: USP, USPS, DHL, FedEx, Canada Post, Australia Post, etc. 
• Different Shipping Methods to Different Customers: Possible
• More…

The Benefit of Upselling & Cross-Selling Marketing Techniques

Shift4Shop has a range of quality marketing-oriented features that helps your eCommerce website in growing. Upselling & Cross-selling techniques are 2 of them.

Basically upselling is the concept of persuading customers to upgrade their shopping carts. Customers can upgrade their carts by adding extra features provided by you for example warranties, add-ons, accessories, etc. And in cross-selling, we basically offer related products which attract customers to also include them in a cart.

Shift4Shop gives you the related blocks module which you can use to provide additional items along with your primary product.

The Benefit of Pre-Ordering Module

Nowadays before launching the new model/product companies run campaigns where customers can get the latest update of upcoming products. The goal of this approach is to create excitement in customers’ minds and persuade them to book orders in advance. 

Gladly Shift4Shop has a “pre-order” module that simplifies the Preordering process.

Huge Number of Free External Apps & Integrations

When we talk about enhancing or extending the eCommerce website functionality then Shift4Shop offers a huge number of apps and integrations categorized into 24 categories. 

We have checked and found out that the majority of these apps are free. It could not be possible to disclose a complete list of apps here. However, these are the most picked apps by the Shift4Shop users:

• eCommerce Search Solutions: FusionBot, Doofinder Site Search, Convermax Site Search, Nextopia Site Search, etc.
• Email Marketing: GetResponse, Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, EmailOctopus, etc.
• Cart Abandonment Tools: Lucky Orange, Poptin, Cart Notices, 3dboost, Abandoned Cart Saver, Exit Monitor, etc.
• Dropshipping Suppliers & Tools: Doba, Dropshipper.com, AliExpress, etc. 
• Shipping Software: ShippingEasy, ShipRush, ShipWorks, etc.
• Age Verification Apps: Idology, AgeChecker, BlueCheck, etc.
• Channel Management Software: ChannelUnity, SellerCloud, Linnworks, etc.
• Live Chat Software: LiveChat, PureChat, Olark, etc.
• Inventory Management Apps: ChannelUnity, SKULabs, etc.
• Shipping Refunds Apps: LateShipment, Refund Retriever, etc.
• Order Management Apps: ChannelUnity, SellerCloud, etc.
• Feed Management Software: GoDataFeed, DataFeed, etc.
• SMS Marketing Apps: Mobit, TextMagic, Call Loop, etc.
• Sales Tax Apps: Avalara AvaTax, TaxCloud, etc.

Shift4Shop eCommerce Site Features

Dozens of features are yet to be explored. Shift4Shop is offering a tremendous amount of features and it is not possible to cover all of them. 

So instead I am going to outline the top-rated features of the Shift4Shop eCommerce website.

Core Features:

• No coding knowledge is required. A powerful website builder is given to shoppers to design a website at ease.
• No transaction fees
• Rest API support for building an app and connecting with Shift4Shop eCommerce store
• Free domain registration
• FTP Access
• Quick books connector
• Customer Groups module: This allows you to serve different customers effectively. This feature can help you to form customer groups and offer them different prices, newsletters, and much more.
• Secure shopping cart
• Real-time shipping with automatic label printing
• 3d Feedback Module: To collect customer feedback and suggestions
• Unlimited Product Variants: This allows you to add unlimited versions of a product with different settings, specifications, etc.
• Shipment Delivery Notifications: This module is meant for customers. Through this module, your eCommerce website sends a notification to your customers in different states of shipment.
• Unlimited orders can be received and generated
• Unlimited bandwidth provided
• Unlimited product categories can be made
• Product reviews: Allows customers to give a review
• Unlimited product images with zoom functionality
• Inventory Management: Stock tracking, Out of stock alert, and much more.
• The gift wrapping module allows to add gift wrap feature along with products
• Bulk data import/export
• IP Blocking: This allows you to block a range of visitors’ IP addresses.
• CRM (Customer relationship management) is available to record all customer interactions, allow the customers to submit tickets, and much more.
• Supports upselling and cross-selling marketing techniques
• 2-Factor Authentication can be enabled on login forms
• Products FAQ: Customer can ask questions directly on a product page which could be answered by other customers or the staff members. 
• The saved carts module is supported
• Advanced Product Options 
• Bulk Quantity Discounts for providing bulk pricing discounts to specific customer groups who are looking to buy products in bulk.
• Working purchase order system
• Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) is there to handle & manage returns
• GDPR toolkit module is there which adds a cookie acceptance banner, privacy policy, etc on our eCommerce store.
• One Page Checkout system feature ensures rapid fast order processing.
• The product comparison tool is inbuilt
• Multiple Ship to Module allows customers to make a purchase of multiple items at once and have them delivered to different locations.
• Shift4Shop has an email marketing autoresponder that ensures customers received a personalized email as soon as they place an order.
• Mobile-friendly themes
• Enable digital products selling
• Pre-order module to schedule product launches and receive orders in advance.
• Home Page Carousel module to showcase top products and more.
• Real-time reports, statistics, and analytics
• eCommerce auto-ship program module is available which allows shop owners to provide products on a subscription basis.
• Tax Calculator is inbuilt.
• Customer support: 24*7 (phone, email & chat)

Marketing Features:

• SEO tools inbuilt
• Email marketing integrations: Aweber, MailChimp, etc.
• Blog system inbuilt
• The rewards point loyalty module allows you to offer rewards to customers when they purchase something.
• Daily deal and group deal modules allow you to create interesting offers which last for a limited period of time.
• The waiting list module alerts customers whenever the product is back in stock.
•  Landing page marketing
• Make-an-offer special feature which allows you to create bid-based products where customers can bid on them by tapping on the “make an offer button”.
• The social wish list module allows customers to create socially shareable products wish lists.
• The store credit facility is available for customer refunded products.
• Affiliate program cost-effective marketing approach
• Gift certificates or cards could be sold easily
• Abandoned cart saver system
• Email a friend module enables you to share or spread the word about your products through email.
• Coupons and discounts 
• Email marketing newsletters
• Built-in gift registry

Payment Processing Features

• 160+ payment gateways
• Tokenized payment processors
• Supports Interchange-Plus pricing mechanism
• Square payment gateway integration
• Financing any pay later options
• Supports visa checkout and master pass
• Apple Pay & Google Pay wallet integrations
• PayPal integration
• Accept world most popular cryptocurrency – Bitcoin
• Stripe Integration
• ACH and eChecks supported

Sales Channel Features 

• Moto (Mail-order / Telephone-order) built-in system allows you to process and manage orders placed over the phone.
• AliExpress dropshipping facility
• Facebook integration allows you to sell your eCommerce website products on Facebook
• Integration with POS system
• Amazon & eBay integration
• Sell on Google
• More…

The Advantages of Choosing Shift4Shop eCommerce Website Over Shopify

Shopify is the world’s 2nd best eCommerce site after Shift4Shop. There is no denying of fact that Shopify’s name is more popular than other eCommerce services. However, this is only because of the marketing. Otherwise, in terms of features, Shift4Shop has been giving tough competition to Shopify.

Hint: Don’t forget to learn more about Shopify from the upcoming sections of this article.

We have compared Shift4Shop with Shopify and found out these advantages of Shift4Shop over Shopify:

• First of all, Shopify has no such plan as Shift4Shop end-to-end plan which offers completely free service.
• Then, Shopify includes a lot of extra expenses and hidden costs compared to Shift4Shop such as transaction fees, monthly fees, and paid apps fees. Shopify plans are designed in a way that even their higher plans don’t have most of the inbuilt features. So to increase Shopify capabilities you don’t have an option rather than buy its external apps. In Shift4Shop you would find most of the features inbuilt into the system.
• In Shopify, the feature of real-time shipping rate is coming under its most expensive plan, however, Shift4Shop offers at a free of cost to all its customers regardless of their plan.
• More professionally designed free themes can be seen in Shift4Shop.
• The features Shopify is included in its most expensive plan – “Shopify plus”, are available in all Shift4Shop plans.
• These apps are built-in Shift4Shop whereas in Shopify you have to pay for them: Google Customer reviews, B2B Wholesale invoicing, Multiple ship-to, B2B & B2C Channels on One Store, FTP Access, Digital downloads, Upsell & Cross-sell, recurring orders, etc.
• The free domain name benefit: Shopify can only offer a free subdomain-based domain name for your eCommerce website but Shift4Shop is providing a normal domain to its users with no charges at all. 

Note: If you’re an existing Shopify user and want to migrate to Shift4Shop then there is good news for you. Shift4Shop team helps you to migrate without charging a penny and also offers you special incentives as well.

The Limitations of Choosing Bigcommerce eCommerce Website Over Shift4Shop

• Annual revenue limit: In BigCommerce customers have to upgrade their plans if they achieve the allotted sales limit in their current plan. However, this limitation cannot be seen with Shift4Shop end-to-end (free) plan.
• Lesser payment options
• No FTP access
• Lack of features including dropshipping, waitlists, email module, backorders, etc.
• Less number of free themes
• Bigcommerce put up the majority of its basic features in top tier plans including abandoned cart tools, unlimited API calls, customer groups, etc.

Shift4Shop eCommerce Site Pricing & Plans

As I mentioned in the introduction section that Shift4Shop could be a completely free eCommerce website builder when a user belongs to the USA & agreed to use their “Shift4Paments” payment gateway. Even monthly charges, setup charges, etc are excluded under this scenario.

For other location users, these are the Shift4Shop pricing plans:

Note: End-to-End plan incorporates entire features of Shift4Shop eCommerce website. Navigate to the Shift4Shop website to break down these plans.

Note: Transaction fee is excluded from all Shift4Shop plans.

Shift4Shop eCommerce Website Pros & Cons

Pros:

• The only eCommerce website that is offering a complete set of eCommerce tools without any charges.
• Wishlist, Saved Carts functionality
• The essential features related to SEO and marketing are included.
• Real-time shipping calculator
• No setup fees
• No additional transaction fees
• No apps integration fees
• SMS marketing
• Free migration
• Free domain name
• No restriction on annual revenue to be achieved
• POS system is present

Cons:

• Free for only USA customers
• Supported less number of third-party apps compared to Shopify.
• Mobile application isn’t available.
• Under Shift4Shop basic, plus, and pro plans there is a restriction on annual sales

Visit Shift4Shop Website 

Note: Still confused about Shift4Shop? Well, why don’t you jump to the conclusion section and go through its summary?

2. Shopify

Shopify is the “Apple of eCommerce World”. These statistics are the proof of this statement – Over 1.7 Million businesses, 175 countries, $200 Billion USD sales, 200k+ Active Users.

Shopify is the first eCommerce builder which comes to people’s minds when they’re looking to build an eCommerce store. Well, it is a complete solution that includes the necessary features to start an eCommerce business. Not just a shopping cart, features like SEO, marketing, shipping, inventory management, order processing, POS system, and whatnot are packed inside it.

The main highlighted feature of Shopify is the list of supported apps. I guess this is the main reason why people opted for Shopify because otherwise, Shopify is expensive though.

Feature-wise it can’t beat up the Shift4Shop however in usability it definitely can.

So if Shopify is that popular…you may wonder why I put up Shopify in 2nd place. ?? 

Because it is not a complete free eCommerce solution like Shift4Shop and it packed most of its advanced essential features in its top tier plans which makes your pocket totally dry.

Why Shopify is the Best eCommerce Site to Set Up an Online Store

The Really Long List of Shopify Apps

Literally, Shopify nailed it in terms of third-party apps integrations. Over 7k (both free and paid) apps are there in the Shopify app store which can be easily integrated with your store. And the list is still growing because Shopify is the world’s most popular eCommerce website builder and due to this app developers always approach Shopify first.

It’s not possible to reveal the complete list of 7k Shopify apps here but let me tell you the apps are divided into these categories:

• Store design: Notification, Image & media, Page enhancements, Store pages, Navigation & search, Internationalization.
• Conversion: Upselling & cross-selling, Promotions, Customer feedback, Cart modification, Recovering orders, Store alerts.
• Marketing: Marketing Analytics, Advertising, Email marketing, SEO, Direct marketing, Content Marketing.
• Store Management: Operations, Business insights, Policy & Security, Store development, Finances.
• Fulfillment: Managing orders, Fulfilling orders, Managing inventory, Inventory planning, Fulfillment records
• Customer Records: Support, Post-purchase services, Managing customers, Customer accounts.
• Merchandising: Product variations, Additional purchases, Pricing, Product display, Order options, Gifts.
• Shipping and Delivery: Shipping solutions, Delivery & pickups.

Browse the complete list of Shopify Apps from here.

Ease of Use

Well, the Shopify base cart has limited features but that doesn’t mean that Shopify is incapable. Due to this, it is very simple to operate the store on Shopify compared to another eCommerce website like Shift4Shop. 

With the readymade templates, friendly drag and drop design editor everything becomes flawless. Further, you can have the option to hire a Shopify expert who helps you from scratch.

Apart from designing, the process of working with Shopify apps is also smooth. Just install the app and you’re good to go. If you ever use a WordPress CMS then you would not feel any trouble with Shopify.

The King Size Active Community

Being an eCommerce giant, Shopify has a huge number of active eCommerce clients. So obviously if you ever encounter a problem with Shopify then you will definitely find your answer on the internet. Dozens and dozens of tutorials, forums communities are available where people always discuss Shopify-related topics.

Further, if you’re enrolled in Shopify plus plan then you get direct access to Shopify plus academy and Shopify Facebook community.

Sell to Everyone with Huge Number of Payment Gateways

Doesn’t matter where your customer is chilling right now in the world, Shopify makes sure that they can buy your products/services with their preferred payment gateway.

Shopify covered almost every part of the world. You can check the available payment gateways in your country from this: Shopify Payment Gateways List.

I am going to disclose the payment gateways options for USA, UK & India.

Shopify India Payment Gateways Options:

Credit & Debit cards, Cash on delivery, Netbanking, Wallets, Bank Transfer, UPI, EMIs, PayPal, PayU, PayTM, CCAvenue, Razorpay, Cashfree, EBS, Airpay, 2Checkout, G2A Pay, Coinbase, GoCoin, PayDollar, Bitpay, MasterCard Payment Gateway Services.

Related: 6 Best List of Top Payment Gateways in India

“Shopify Payments” Benefit

Similar to Shift4Shop, Shopify also has its own payment method called – “Shopify Payments”. 

If you’ve opted for this payment gateway then the transaction cost would be gone forever. Yes, you heard it right.

Other benefits associated with Shopify Payments are: No setup required compared to third-party payment gateways.

Note: But there is one thing you should keep in mind that regardless of the benefit of no transaction cost, Shopify still gonna charge you the monthly fees as per the plan you opted for.

Compared to Shopify, Shift4Shop is completely free and involved no charges at all.

Note: “Shopify Payments” feature is available in limited countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hongkong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherland, Newzealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA (Excluded US territories)

Shopify Lite Benefit – A Reasonable Plan

Shopify Lite plan is the savior for users under these situations:

• For users who don’t have a huge budget for setup an eCommerce site. OR
• For users who just want to add products and get paid from their existing site.

In a nutshell, Under this Shopify Lite Plan, you get a “Shopify buy button” embeddable widget which gives an option to copy-paste the product blocks from Shopify to your website with the help of embeddable code. 

Hint: You cannot create an eCommerce store with Shopify Lite Plan.

The Shopify Lite is the most affordable plan. The pricing details are mentioned under the Shopify Pricing & Plans section.

Shopify eCommerce Site Features:

• 70+ themes responsive and mobile-friendly themes
• Drag and drop based eCommerce store builder
• Staff training for store setup can be provided
• POS system is available to handle and manage in-person sales.
• Shopify fulfillment system ensures successful deliverability of products to the customer’s hands.
• Store Management Features: Customer accounts, Customer profiles, Customer groups, Email templates, Dropshipping, Refunds, Order fulfillment.
• Inbuilt blogging platform: Publish articles, manage comments, etc.
• Unlimited products could be added
• Free SSL certificate
• Abandoned Cart Recovery tool
• Gift Cards can be sell
• SEO Tools
• Customization: Colors, Imagery, Fonts, HTML, CSS
• New order notifications every time
• WordPress & SquareSpace integration
• Automated emails to keep customers engaged
• Comprehensive dashboard to get a quick overview of sales, orders, audience, etc.
• Shopify Buy Button: Lets shoppers generate an embedded code for products (along with checkout) that can be hooked on any type of website.
• Sales channel: Boost your eCommerce business by selling Shopify products on multiple channels including Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, Google, etc.
• Mobile Application: To operate an eCommerce store from the mobile app and get access to live orders, revenue data, analytics, and much more.
• One single inventory across all sales channels
• Automated shipping calculation: Receive automated live shipping rates from the world’s most popular shipping services: UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.
• Automated tax calculation: Doesn’t matter where you are situated, Shopify does tax calculations automatically.
• Domain name flexibility: Use your own domain name or purchase a new domain name through Shopify.
• Configure flexible shipping rates: Fixed price, weight-based, location-based, tiered pricing, free shipping, etc.
• Multiple Languages: Not just checkout page, you have full flexibility to translate your whole website into more than 50 languages.
• SEO friendly Product Reviews
• Discounts & Coupons for customer
• Inventory Management
• Digital products friendly
• Unlimited product variations
• Import/Export product feed
• Product Organization
• Multiple product images with different angles can be added
• Supports video & 3D assets
• Products can be sold on a subscription basis
• Powerful & Secured Web Hosting: Unlimited bandwidth, SSL certificate, Email forwarding, Instant Upgrades, PCI Compliant
• Advanced Analytics: Product reports, Traffic reports, Export reports, Google analytics collaboration, a dashboard for a quick overview.
• 24*7 Customer Support: Email, Live Chat, Phone
• 100+ Payment Gateways support.

Shopify Pricing & Plans

Shopify consists of 5 plans:

• The Basic Plan: $29/month
• The Shopify Plan: $79/month
• The Advanced Plan: $299/month
• The Shopify Lite Plan: $9/month
• The Shopify Plus Plan: $2000/month

And in this section, we are going to have a look at all of them. 

The Breakdown of Shopify – Basic, Shopify & Advanced Plan

Take a look at the image below to see all features included in these plans. Few things of these plans you should keep in mind:

• First is transaction cost is reduced as you upgrade your plan
• To eliminate transaction costs, you can use the “Shopify payments gateway”. However, the monthly cost would still remain. 
• An online store could be created in all these 3 plans

The Unique Shopify Lite Plan – $9/month

Well, I already talked enough about this unique plan in the earlier section, however, if you have landed over this section directly then let me tell you again that this is a unique plan of Shopify because of its pricing and buy button feature.

Shopify Lite plan is designed for users who just want to add products and sell from their already existing website/blog. In such a situation, Users can use Shopify “Buy button” feature and embed products on their website with the embeddable code provided. Don’t worry payment gateways, invoices are also included in this plan.

Note: You cannot create an eCommerce store with Shopify Lite Plan.

The Shopify Plus Plan

This is the most expensive plan (started from $2,000 USD) of Shopify and is only recommended to big enterprises and merchants. Under this plan, the user can access all features and literally everything available under the Shopify system.

Some of the enterprise-level features proposed by Shopify under the Shopify plus plan are:

• Shopify organization admin access: Give you access to control all the eCommerce stores from a single location.
• Advanced Shopify apps access
• Access to checkout.liquid – A high-level customization payout
• Extra API calls so that you can integrate your store with custom apps
• Merchant success program access
• Unlimited staff members can join and work simultaneously
• Shopify plus academy access
• Shopify Facebook Community membership access
• An option to create a separate wholesale store

Shopify eCommerce Website Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Ease of use
• Free trial is there
• The mobile app is available
• A huge number of supported apps
• unique Shopify lite plan – started from just $9
• “Shopify payments” is there for killing transaction cost
• 14-day free trial
• No limits on the sales limits

Cons:

• You might face difficulties in calculating the total cost of your Shopify plan. Because the final price is determined only when you finalize the number of apps you’re going to use.
• Some Shopify apps are subscription-based meaning monthly recurring fees.
• Unlike Shift4Shop, Shopify doesn’t offer a free domain name.
• Monthly charges are still there — even if you use Shopify payments
• Transaction fees (0.5-2%) would be applicable on all plans unless you use Shopify payments
• Shopify payments service is only available in limited countries.
• Required third party app to enable multi-currency support.

Hint: Don’t waste time, Signup to Shopify now because initially, 14 days are for a trial period.

Visit Shopify Website

Note: Still confused about Shopify? Well, why don’t you jump to the conclusion section and go through its summary?

3. Bigcommerce

BigCommerce is another established and best eCommerce site builder in the market and has been providing services since 2009. Features wise it is ahead of Shopify because it offers more built-in features. Another advantage with BigCommerce is the absence of transaction costs. No matter what plan you are interested in, the transaction cost would not bother you at all.

Hint: The BigCommerce pricing starts from as low as $29.95/month

BigCommerce is one of the major competitors of Shopify and sometimes it can be extremely confusing to decide between them because pricing is also identical. 

But the overall cost with BigCommerce is going to be less here compared with Shopify. However, it is not completely free as we saw in Shift4Shop.

The features of BigCommerce are listed in the next section. But before that, I would like to highlight some points about BigCommerce for which BigCommerce received an appreciation compared to other eCommerce websites.

The Benefits with BigCommerce over Other eCommerce Websites

• First is as mentioned the transaction cost freedom. And the advantage of the tremendous amount of inbuilt features.
• A huge number of product options – 250 to play with.
• 600 Variants could be possible of a single product.
• Multiple currency functionality is inbuilt – I checked with other eCommerce websites and found out that some other websites don’t have this feature inbuilt 
• Generating the AMP version of your eCommerce store would be free in the case of BigCommerce.
• The option of advanced reports is available under all plans.
• The Buy button is better here. It works with multiple currencies.
• Real-time shipping rates can be fetched under all plans. This is one of the major perks you get with BigCommerce because this is a kind of advanced feature generally found in top-tier plans of the eCommerce websites.  
• POS system is compatible with all BigCommerce plans
• GDPR consent box is out of box benefit here
• Stencil CLI tool is inbuilt into the system which helps you to test your eCommerce site in a local setup.

BigCommerce eCommerce Site Features at a Glance:

• Page builder – Visual approach – No coding required
• Theme customization: CSS, JS, HTML
• 45 Payment Gateways
• Nitro enabled site speed – Google cloud platform, Google AMP & inbuilt image optimizer support
• Coupons & Discounts – Generate 70+ types
• SEO Friendly
• Faceted search technology support
•  Cross channel support: Sell on the different marketplace (Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping – 1 click integration), Social Media, POS.
• B2B Related Features: Customer Groups, Price Lists, Bulk Pricing, Purchase Orders, Punch out, Quote Management, B2B Payments, Advanced Search, APIs
• International Features: Multi-currency, Multi-language, Cross border fulfillment, Global CDN.
• Core Commerce Features: Scalable catalog, Shipping, Tax, Staging environment, Vaulting, Refunds & Returns, Customer groups, SSO, Reports & Analytics.
• WordPress integration
• Robust checkout customization capability. Support one-page checkout too.
• Mobile friendly
• Stencil Tool support – For testing the website in a local environment
• Two-factor authentication
• Export/Import: 301 redirects, Products data, Customers data, Orders data, Themes, etc.
• Application Marketplace Categories: 21 – Accounting & Tax, Analytics & Reporting, B2B/Wholesale, Order management, Checkout, CMS, CRM, Data transfer, ERP, Financing, In-store, Marketing, Mobile, Merchandising, Payments & Security, Product & Shipping, Product Sourcing, Sales Channel, Shipping & Fulfillment, Site tools, Tag management.

BigCommerce eCommerce Pricing & Plans

Again the BigCommerce pricing is almost the same compared to Shopify & Shift4Shop. And gladly 15 days free trial is also there here. 

Note: No transaction cost is associated with any of the BigCommerce plans.

The BigCommerce plans are as follows:

• The Standard Plan: $29.95/plan
• The Plus Plan: $79.95/plan
• The Pro Plan: $299.95/plan
• The Enterprise Plan: Custom plan

Navigate to BigCommerce plans official webpage to explore them in detail. 

BigCommerce Pros & Cons

Pros

• No additional transaction fee benefit compared to Shopify
• Unlimited staff members
• Mobile app benefit
• Multi-currency support is inbuilt
• Buy button works in multiple currencies
• 15 days free trial
• All BigCommerce plans allow you to have an unlimited number of staff accounts.
• A huge number of Product Variants (600) can be defined.

Cons:

• There is no plan similar to Shopify Lite. However, the “Buy Button” could be found in BigCommerce.
• Less number of Payment Gateways
• Abandoned cart saver is not available in a standard plan
• The number of themes is larger here. However, most of them are variations of one another with slight differences in the layout.
• Not suitable for dropshipping business model
• Limitation on the number of sales

Try Bigcommerce 15 Days Free Trial 

Note: Still confused about BigCommerce? Well, why don’t you jump to the conclusion section and go through its summary?

4. Pixpa

Pixpa (10% Discounted Link) is another best eCommerce site you can consider especially when you wanna sell digital downloads. Pixpa is a unique website builder popular among photographers or people who are interested in building a portfolio.

The majority of its theme templates are portfolio and digital products oriented. This is why I recommend Pixpa to only people who are interested in selling digital downloads, design projects, workshops through their eCommerce store.

With its “eCommerce galleries” module you can create attractive product galleries and add them to your eCommerce website. To enable store features you have to turn on the eCommerce module and you’re good to go.

Yes, the “Print” option would be given too along with downloads so if you want to sell printed artwork or anything printed then you can do it easily with the Pixpa eCommerce website. 

Apart from the store and client galleries module, the blog module is also be provided. So yeah you can write normal articles and attract customers with the SEO approach. 

Note: Pixpa doesn’t charge you a dime. Only transaction cost made by your payment processor is involved.

Let’s check the Pixpa eCommerce-oriented features.

Pixpa eCommerce Website Features

• Both print and download based photos/digital products can be sell
• No commission on sales
• Discount coupons
• Drag and drop design editor
• Tax and shipping rates
• eCommerce reports & analytics
• Intuitive dashboard
• Base (local) currency can be configured
• Product variants
• Customizable themes, CSS and HTML
• Built-in advanced SEO tools
• Checkout within your domain name
• Guest checkout
• Branded checkout pages
• Customer registrations
• Inventory Management
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Order processing
• Unlimited traffic
• Social sharing buttons
• 24*7 customer support: email, live chat.
• Physical products could also be sold without any trouble.
• Payment Gateways: Stripe, PayPal, and offline payments.
• 50+ third-party integrations: Google Analytics, MailChimp, HotJar, Square, etc.

Pixpa eCommerce Website Pricing

Pixpa has 4 plans. However, the first one “Light Plan” is useless because it doesn’t include eCommerce-specific features. So ultimately you have to decide from the next 3 plans and the pricing of these plans are as follows:

• Personal plan – Starts from 4,999 INR ($67 Approx)
• Expert plan – Starts from 6,999 INR ($94 Approx)
• Business plan – Starts from 9,999 INR ($134 Approx)

Pixpa Discount

Offer: Our readers get a special 10% discount on all Pixpa plans through This discounted link.

Pixpa eCommerce Website Pros & Cons

Pros

• A 15-day free trial is available. No credit card required
• 50% discount for teachers and students
• Free domain name for the first year
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• No additional charges apart from the annual subscription amount.

Cons

• Restriction on the number of products
• Limited storage. However, storage can be extended by additional charges
• Limited payment gateways

Note: Still confused about Pixpa? Well, why don’t you jump to the conclusion section and go through its summary?

Related: 7 Best WordPress Portfolio Plugins to Try

5. Magento

Magento is said to be the best option for start-ups. The most important point here is eBay’s own Magento. So, you have the advantage of selling the products on your website and on eBay. Only using Magento gives you this facility when compared to other eCommerce websites.

It provides you the customizable designs and you can add as many features as you want to help you to increase your business in the long run. The plan starts from 15$ per month and it is quite worth it.

6.Webs

Webs eCommerce website allows you to create your own website from among various available robust themes. It is very easy to customize the theme by adding and removing items, changing the colors and background images, fonts, and much more. It provides you the built-in SEO booster and social media integration to have Facebook Like and Twitter feeds on your online store.

It is mobile-friendly and gets listed in Google and Yahoo with the basic information you give. The enhanced plan starts from 12.99 per month which is perfect for enhanced business.

Conclusion: Which is the Best eCommerce site to make an online store?

So this is it. You have reached the end game.

For users who directly landed at this section can follow the quick summary below and make their decision.

Shift4Shop Bottom Line: 

• Go for the Shift4Shop eCommerce website when you are located in the USA so that you can enjoy this service for free.
• Go for the Shift4Shop when you don’t want to pay hidden fees: transaction fee, monthly fee, paid apps/integration fees.
• Prefer Shift4Shop if you want an eCommerce solution that offers features more than any eCommerce website available in the market. Yes, it beats them all. 
• Also, go for it when you’re ready to invest a little bit of time in learning because compared to other eCommerce platforms, for example, Shopify, the user interface is a little bit hard but don’t worry as I said after investing a few days you would be used to it for sure.

Shopify Bottom Line:

• Go for Shopify when you want to build your eCommerce site with the world’s most favored eCommerce builder. 
• Go for Shopify when you have a good budget because its integrated apps will take your final price to the mountain peak.
• Go for Shopify when you don’t want any restrictions on the sales limits.
• Go for Shopify when you want to take advantage of the simplest eCommerce builder platform.

BigCommerce Bottom Line

• Go for BigCommerce when you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to Shopify. Because here you gonna find more number of inbuilt unique features and no transaction cost, which result in overall cost reduction.
• Go for BigCommerce when you’re dealing with products for which you have to create a huge number of variations. The benefit of 600+ product variations would definitely save you here.
• Go for BigCommerce when you have a long eCommerce team for onboarding. The unlimited staff members option in all BigCommerce saves you here.
• Go for BigCommerce when you don’t have a concern with the sales limit.

Pixpa Bottom Line

• Go for Pixpa when you want to develop a digital product based eCommerce store
• Go for Pixpa when you can satisfy with only 3 payment methods: PayPal, Stripe, and offline mode.

It is very critical to choose the correct eCommerce website builder otherwise the migration would be a disaster for you. We are not scaring you but actually telling you the reality. 99% of the people did the mistake initially and face the migration issue and wastage of money.

So just go with any of the eCommerce websites recommended by us and grow your eCommerce business.

Don’t forget to share your opinion and thoughts in the comment section.

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FAQ: Best eCommerce Website