5 Best Ecommerce Platforms for 2022

Businesses use ecommerce platforms to create online stores that have shopping cart and payment processing capabilities and help fulfill orders via inventory and order management tools. The best ecommerce platforms integrate with online marketplaces, like Amazon, and POS systems for in-person sales and have scalable pricing plans that start under $100 per month.

We narrowed our list of 10 ecommerce platforms to the best five. Here’s what we found:

• Shopify: Best overall ecommerce platform for small businesses
• BigCommerce: Runner-up, best overall for growing online-only businesses
• Ecwid: Best for adding a free ecommerce store to an existing website
• Square Online: Best simple solution for storefronts
• Squarespace: Best for artists and creators wanting top-rated templates

Best Ecommerce Platforms Compared

Our Rating (out of 5)	4.68	4.38	4.31	3.73	3.61
Paid Monthly Fees	$29 to $299	$29.95 to $299.95	$15 to $99	$12 to $72*	$26** to $54
Free Plan	-	-	✔	✔	-
Free Trial	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Integrated Payment Processing	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Built-in SEO tools	✔	✔	✔	Yes, basic	Yes, basic
Multichannel sales (in-store and mobile)	Has its own POS	Has integrations with Square POS	Works only on iOS	Has its own POS	Has integrations with Square POS
Integrated social media selling	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Abandoned cart recovery	✔	Yes, but on higher plans	Yes, but on higher plans	Yes, but on paid plans	Yes, but on higher plans
Integrated shipping solutions	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Customer Service Hours	24/7 phone, live chat, and email support	24/7 phone, live chat, and email support	Email (free users), live chat and phone for paid subscribers	Email, live chat, and phone (weekdays: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time; weekends: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time	24/7 email, live chat (weekdays, 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time)
	Visit Shopify	Visit BigCommerce	Visit Ecwid	Visit Square Online	Visit Squarespace

Click through the tabs below for a more detailed breakdown of our evaluation criteria.

Shopify: Best Overall Ecommerce Platform

Shopify

Overall Score: 4.68 OUT OF 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing and Payments	4.06	OUT OF	5
	Site Builder and Maintenance Features	4.50	OUT OF	5
	Sales and Product Features	5.00	OUT OF	5
	Ease of Use	5.00	OUT OF	5
	Expert Score	4.69	OUT OF	5

What We Like

• Print discounted postage straight from Shopify
• Powerful reporting tells you which items are most likely to sell
• Access to hundreds of additional features and integrations via Shopify app store
• 24/7 customer support

What's Missing

• Costs at least $29/month for a full ecommerce store
• No low-stock alerts without upgrade
• Shipping calculator requires an annual plan

Shopify Pricing

• $29 per month for Basic Shopify; processing fees at 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction
• $79 per month for Shopify Standard; discounted transaction fee of 2.6% + 30 cents
• $299 per month for Advanced Shopify; online transactions are further discounted to 2.4% + 30 cents

Shopify is sometimes called the only true competitor to Amazon—and for a good reason. It’s one of the easiest ecommerce systems to use in terms of creating an ecommerce website and managing orders, and it gives small businesses all the tools they need to compete with ecommerce giants. It has product reviews, live customer chat, geolocation to change your language or currency based on the visitor’s location, and a customer return portal—and that’s just scratching the surface.

It has also made a name for itself in providing POS software to manage in-store sales, so it’s perfect for businesses that sell in-person and online. It’s also our top-recommended multichannel POS system. Last but not least, it integrates with Amazon, so you can easily sell your products there, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Pinterest, and other marketplaces.

Based on our evaluation criteria, Shopify earned a 4.68 out of 5. We gave it perfect scores on its sales and product features and ease of use. However, a lack of a free plan and not offering a free domain name prevented it from getting a perfect score.

Shopify Pricing

• $29 per month for Basic Shopify; includes all the main ecommerce features but has limited reporting. Online transactions are charged at 2.9% + 30 cents.
• $79 per month for Shopify Standard; provides stronger reporting (such as first-time vs returning customer sales), USPS cubic pricing, and a discounted transaction fee of 2.6% + 30 cents.
• $299 per month for Advanced Shopify; lets you build custom reports and show third-party calculated shipping rates at checkout. Online transactions are further discounted to 2.4% + 30 cents.

As your business grows and your needs go beyond what Advanced Shopify offers, you can contact the provider to upgrade to Shopify Plus, Shopify’s enterprise-level solution.

Shopify also has a $9 per month “Lite” plan, which lets you add a buy button to your existing website or blog. This plan is startup-friendly and is ideal for sellers who want to: 1) add products to their existing blog or standard website and 2) sell on Facebook or in-person using a mobile device. It also allows you to send invoices and accept online payments but does not let you build an online store.

Shopify Standout Features

Shopify’s menus—such as adding a new product—are sleek and easy to use.

• Website builder: A big part of what’s made Shopify so successful is the powerful website builder that is very easy to use. Like the one for adding a new item, user menus are sleek and streamlined, providing just the right amount of detail. For example, whenever you change the URL of a webpage, there’s an option to redirect the old URL to the new one—a simple but often overlooked step.
• Inventory management: Shopify has one of the best inventory management systems, although the most advanced features require a paid upgrade. All account levels can import items, manage returns, and view basic inventory reports. With POS Pro (an additional $89 per month), you can create purchase orders (POs), receive orders with a barcode scanner, and run more advanced profitability and product demand reports.
• Shipping: You can set up flat-rate, weight-based shipping or charge actual shipping rates from USPS, UPS, or DHL. While Shopify’s pricing page indicates that the latter feature is available only to Advanced accounts, the platform will enable it upon request for anyone who’s on an annual plan. All versions can print discounted postage labels directly from Shopify for the carriers, as mentioned earlier. Shopify also integrates with hundreds of third-party fulfillment apps, should you be using an alternate delivery service such as ShipStation, or dropshipping.
• Multichannel selling: Simultaneously sell your items on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and many other websites. Shopify offers more multichannel selling options than any other platform.
• Marketing tools: Abandoned cart recovery is included with all accounts $29 per month and higher. Email marketing is also included with 2,500 emails provided per month and additional emails priced at $1 per 1,000. Shopify has by far the best built-in email marketing tools, as it allows you to segment customers based on their purchase history, geography, and other variables (third-party apps may be required).
• Analytics: In addition to all the standard sales reports, Shopify provides more detail about website visitors, like demographics and which page they first clicked on to access your site. Shopify’s standard plan ($79 per month) includes website cart analysis, which tells you which items a customer is likely interested in based on what they’ve previously added to their cart.
• Customer support: Phone, live chat, and email support are available 24/7.

What Shopify Is Missing

• Drag-and-drop website builder: You will need to build your Shopify website using a WYSIWYG editor, which can sometimes get clunky. Shopify has a third-party app that can let you install a drag-and-drop feature, but Squarespace uses a drag-and-drop interface that comes with its aesthetically pleasing website templates.
• Product management (limited product variants, no custom product or work order tools, and no digital product features): Shopify has a three-limit variant on its products, with only up to 100 variant combinations. Digital product downloads and custom order fields, such as personalized items, would need a separate app. BigCommerce has unlimited product variants and a built-in custom work order feature.
• Compatibility with big marketplaces like Walmart Marketplace and PriceGrabber: If you plan to sell items in these places, BigCommerce would be a better fit.

Visit Shopify

BigCommerce: Best for Growing Online-only Businesses

BigCommerce

Overall Score: 4.38 OUT OF 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing and Payments	4.06	OUT OF	5
	Site Builder and Maintenance Features	4.25	OUT OF	5
	Sales and Product Features	4.50	OUT OF	5
	Ease of Use	4.50	OUT OF	5
	Expert Score	4.69	OUT OF	5

What We Like

• No transaction fees with numerous payment processing integrations
• Great value plans: Competitive pricing for the features included
• Ability to sell on enterprise and ecommerce apps (Google Shopping, Walmart Marketplace, and PriceGrabber)

What's Missing

• Customization tools aren’t beginner-friendly
• Has sales volume limits on its plans

BigCommerce Pricing

• $29.95 per month for Standard
• $79.95 per month for Plus
• $299.95 per month for Pro

When it comes to choosing the right ecommerce software for your business, it will most likely come down to BigCommerce vs Shopify. We consider BigCommerce as a close runner-up to Shopify in being the best overall ecommerce platform. BigCommerce, as its name implies, is best for growing businesses that need a scalable sales platform and tech-savvy users who want to customize their online stores. Its open SaaS structure makes it an attractive platform for companies that want to personalize their stores as much as possible.

In our evaluation, BigCommerce came right behind Shopify, with a score of 4.38 out of 5. Its built-in sales features, advanced level of customization, SEO capabilities, and zero transaction fees earned high marks. However, its ease of use and sales volume limits on pricing plans prevented it from getting a perfect score.

BigCommerce Pricing

• $29.95 per month for Standard; includes a responsive website, a single page checkout, access to the BigCommerce mobile app, and payment integrations (Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay). It also provides real-time shipping quotes, professional reporting tools, coupons, discounts, and gift cards.
• $79.95 per month for Plus; features an abandoned cart saver, persistent cart saver, customer groups, and stored credit cards.
• $299.95 per month for Pro; provides product filtering, custom SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), and Google customer reviews.

All plans include unlimited staff accounts, products, file storage, and bandwidth. Each plan has access to 24/7 live support, BigCommerce’s POS tool, and multiple sales channels—such as a branded online store, eBay and Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Shopping.

BigCommerce Standout Features

SEO (the ability to set up and implement from the backend) is one of BigCommerce’s strongest features.

• Website builder and design tools: You can customize how your website looks and feels using its page builder visual editor, fully-customizable themes, checkout customization tools, and WordPress integration.
• Sales channels: BigCommerce offers multiple ways to sell your products outside your storefront—like on social media platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram). You can also list your items on ecommerce marketplaces—such as eBay and Amazon.
• Order management: This feature lets you access all your orders and sort them according to which fulfillment process stage they are in—like awaiting payment, fulfillment, and shipment. Incomplete, refunded, and archived orders are categorized in this dashboard. All order information can be exported as a CSV file for use with other services, such as third-party fulfillment companies.
• Inventory management: The “Products” tab offers an at-a-glance view of your stock status. Here, you can update products, add new items, and edit product descriptions and prices. You can also be as detailed as you want with your products’ metadata descriptions and product and category URLs—allowing you to take advantage of SEO tools.
• Multicurrency and multilanguage capabilities: The platform accepts over 100 currencies and offers local payment options with your preferred gateway. You can also localize your store’s front-end according to the language of your market.
• SEO features: Features such as automated image optimizer, on-page SEO capabilities, sitemap generation, and site speed enhancers are advantageous for SEO. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is implemented on all of BigCommerce themes as well.

What BigCommerce Is Missing

• Variety in its free website themes: While BigCommerce offers free website templates, they look similar and don’t provide the same flexibility and options that those of Shopify and Squarespace offer. When you create your store on BigCommerce, be prepared to invest in a paid website template.
• Built-in email marketing: BigCommerce still has yet to offer a native way to let you send emails to your customers, something Shopify has rolled out with Shopify Email.
• Discounted shipping rates: While BigCommerce offers live shipping rates across its plans, discounted rates are still unavailable—unlike Shopify that provides this.

Visit BigCommerce

Ecwid: Best Free Ecommerce Platform for Existing Websites

Ecwid

Overall Score: 4.31 OUT OF 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing and Payments	5.00	OUT OF	5
	Maintenance Features	4.25	OUT OF	5
	Product Features	4.25	OUT OF	5
	Ease of Use	4.00	OUT OF	5
	Expert Score	4.06	OUT OF	5

What We Like

• Sell anywhere (website, social media, and in person)
• No ads shown on free sites
• Free USPS, UPS, and FedEx shipping calculator
• Works on Wix, Squarespace, Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, and more

What's Missing

• Free plan is limited to 10 products, doesn't provide coupon codes, and lacks inventory tracking
• Limited customer support
• Limited customization options

Ecwid Pricing

• Free plan has provision for 10 products, and you can create your online store or add products to an existing site.
• $15 per month for Venture
• $35 per month for Business
• $99 per month for Unlimited

If you already have a Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress website and want to start selling products, then Ecwid is an excellent free option. While Wix and Squarespace have their ecommerce plans, they can get expensive and often lack features that Ecwid provides for free, like a shipping calculator and a related products section. It can be integrated with both those platforms and any other website builders where you can inject code. Ecwid can also be used as a free standalone website, although this is less common.

In our evaluation of ecommerce platforms, Ecwid scored a 4.31 out of 5. A forever-free plan with the ability to upgrade to paid versions, free shipping calculators, and the ability to sell anywhere contributed to its high score. Ecwid has limited customization features and customer support, both of which are crucial for ecommerce solutions. However, it is still the best value and user-friendly choice if you want free ecommerce software for your existing website.

Ecwid Pricing

• Free plan has 10 products, and you can create your online store or add products to a current site. Social media sharing buttons can be enabled within the product page, making promotion easier for you. It is notable that Ecwid is the only free ecommerce platform with free shipping calculators for all the major US carriers, Canada Post, Royal Mail, and more. This means you can charge customers actual shipping rates based on their location and the package weight. However, support is only provided by email.
• $15 per month for Venture, a basic plan that allows you to feature 100 physical products and connect your store to other sales channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy. You can also sell digital goods—and these have a 25GB per file limit. Android and iOS apps and store management features (such as discount coupons, gift cards, inventory tracking, and advanced SEO tools) are included. Support in this tier is provided through chat.
• $35 per month for Business, which has all of Venture plan’s features—except you can now sell up to 2,500 products and connect to Amazon and eBay. Moreover, advanced store management features (e.g., abandoned cart emails, product filters, wholesale pricing groups, and a multilingual storefront) are added to your dashboard. Support is provided by phone and chat and free customization for up to two hours for those under annual plans.
• $99 per month for Unlimited, which has provision for an unlimited number of products, your own branded iOS and Android shopping app and point-of-sale (POS) system, and priority support. For those under annual plans, you are entitled to up to 12 hours of free customization.

All of Ecwid plans allow you to build your online store, add it to any website, and sell on multiple sites simultaneously. It also comes with a mobile-responsive shopping cart and the Apple Pay one-tap checkout feature.

Ecwid Standout Features

• Sell anywhere: You can sell either online—through Ecwid’s storefront, an existing website, social networks, on mobile—or in person. You can do in-store or in-person sales by connecting your store to a POS platform of your choice. Managing sales channels can be done through Ecwid’s control panel. It automatically syncs data, like orders and inventory.

Additionally, its Buy Button feature can be added to any webpage and directly links your product. It automatically adapts to the website’s colors and style without the need for coding knowledge.

The Buy Button feature allows you to customize what information you would like to reflect when the product is linked to your website.

• Storefront customer experience: Ecwid makes it easy for your customers to buy products by providing a drag-and-drop “add to cart” feature, an easy “checkout without creating a store profile” option, a customer address book, and the ability to save favorite products. Language is easily detected and can be translated to over 45 different languages, and real-time shipping rates are adjusted based on the customer’s IP address.
• Store management: Ecwid allows you to sell physical and digital products, and you can categorize those goods based on their features such as colors, sizes, etc. Promotions can be done with discount coupons and volume discounts, whereas you can calculate different shipping options in real time based on carrier rates. In addition, inventory tracking is synced for online and offline purchases.
• Mobile app: Ecwid provides a store management app (iOS and Android) for paid subscribers through ShopApp. You can also manage your store through the app by updating inventory, managing orders, and receiving notifications. Images, prices, availability, and any changes you make online automatically sync with the mobile app.

What Ecwid Is Missing

• Multiple website pages: Since Ecwid is primarily designed as an add-on to existing sites, it only offers a single page Instant Site that can act as your homepage or landing page. If you want a full-blown website, Shopify, Squarespace, and BigCommerce are better choices.
• Native POS: If you plan to sell in person, you’d need a POS to process payments. While Ecwid can integrate with Vend, Clover, and Square, you still need to be on its highest plan at $99 a month—and this is expensive. If you need an integrated POS and online store system, consider going with Square Online or Shopify.
• SEO: Ecwid doesn’t offer SEO capabilities on its free plan, and even with paid plans, its capabilities are limited. Shopify and BigCommerce are better options.

Visit Ecwid

Square Online: Best Simple Solution for Storefronts

Square Online

Overall Score: 3.73 OUT OF 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing and Payments	4.50	OUT OF	5
	Site Builder and Maintenance Features	3.38	OUT OF	5
	Sales and Product Features	3.75	OUT OF	5
	Ease of Use	4.00	OUT OF	5
	Expert Score	3.13	OUT OF	5

What We Like

• Create an online store for free
• Sell items on Instagram and Facebook
• Integrates with all major postal carriers (with upgrade)
• All-in-one ecommerce and payment processing solution

What's Missing

• The free option is filled with Square ads and branding
• Inventory can be counterintuitive
• Premium features can get expensive

Square Online Pricing

• Free plan includes all the main features for a professional ecommerce site
• $12 per month for Professional
• $26 per month for Performance
• $72 per month for Premium

Paid plans are all under lump-sum billing.

Square Online is best for businesses that want to add online ordering to brick-and-mortar stores such as cafes, retail outlets, and professional service shops. There is a completely free plan that lets you create a professional online store and sell unlimited products with built-in credit card processing. Additionally, paid subscriptions are available for more advanced features such as using a custom domain instead of the yoursite.square.site domain that’s provided for free.

Like Shopify, Square includes a POS for businesses that sell in-store and online. Unlike Shopify, however, its POS is free to use, with optional paid upgrades. Square Online is our leading free ecommerce platform. Square also offers one of the best POS systems for small businesses.

Square Online earned a 3.73 out of 5 in our evaluation of best ecommerce platforms. Its strongest feature is the ability to sell on multiple channels (in-store and mobile) and social media platforms, giving the advantage of having hardware options (POS) for processing payments. However, lacking customization options and counterintuitive inventory management tools prevented it from getting a higher score.

Square Online Pricing

• Free plan includes all the main features for a professional ecommerce site. Create a full website, list unlimited products with variants, and manage your orders through Square Dashboard. The free option requires you to use a yoursite.square.site domain, though, and will display a Square logo on the footer.
• $12 per month for Professional* lets you use a custom domain and custom fonts and removes Square branding from your website.
• $26 per month for Performance* adds product reviews, abandoned cart recovery, and priority customer support and lets you buy discounted postage labels straight from Square.
• $72 per month for Premium* adds a shipping calculator to charge customers real-time rates from USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL. Transaction fees are also discounted.
• *Lump-sum billing

Square Online Standout Features

Square Online works similarly to Shopify. They both offer user-friendly POS software, online stores, ecommerce functionalities, and integrated payment processing with industry-leading omnichannel contactless payment tools. The biggest difference between them is that Square Online’s POS and online store products are free to use, whereas Shopify requires a monthly subscription. However, Shopify’s ecommerce offerings are also significantly more robust. Read more about Shopify vs Square here.

If you run a restaurant and would like to launch online ordering for delivery or curbside pickup, you can set up a free ordering page using Square Online. Online orders are displayed in your restaurant POS and kitchen printers, so there’s no disruption to your standard order process.

• Website builder: Square Online allows you to build a full-blown website with multiple pages, contact forms, an email sign-up, and much more. The website can be custom branded with your logo and colors, and you can choose which features you want to appear—and in what order. However, you cannot fully edit the layout or add integrations as you can with Shopify.
• Inventory management: You can import your inventory with categories, variants, and modifiers and set up low stock alerts. However, all of this needs to be done from the Square Item menu, and not the website item library, which can be a little confusing. Unlike Shopify, Square Online does not provide inventory reports or let you automate customer returns.
• Shipping: The platform requires you to set up your own shipping rates (which can be flat-rate or based on weight)—unless you upgrade to the Premium edition ($72 per month), which lets you charge the actual prices from mail carriers. With the Performance edition ($26 per month) or higher, you can also buy discounted postage labels for USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL straight from the dashboard.
• Click and Collect Delivery Options: ​​Set up click and collect options (like curbside pickup), specific pickup hours and order windows, order prep times, customer notifications for when their order is ready, and whether or not shoppers can schedule pickup times.
• Multichannel selling: Sell items on Instagram or Facebook, and manage the order through Square.
• Marketing tools: Abandoned cart recovery (available to $26 per month accounts and higher) automatically sends reminder emails to customers who stopped before checking out. Square Online also has email marketing features available, starting at $15 per month.
• Built-in Analytics: Square Online provides a range of sales reports, including sales by category, discounts applied, and tax collected. Paid versions of Square Online also provide some basic website analytics—like page views, search terms, and referring sites.
• Customer support: Email, live chat, and phone support are available weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time, and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. During my evaluation, it took about 30 minutes to get connected to a live support agent who was very knowledgeable and helpful.

What Square Online Is Missing

• Several payment options: Square Online’s payment integration is limited to Square, although it also supports PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. If you want the freedom to choose your payment processor, we suggest you consider BigCommerce.
• Shipping calculators: With Square Online, you still need to set up shipping rates manually, compared to Shopify or BigCommerce that provides it for free in its entry plans. You would need to be on Square Online’s highest tier ($72/month) to get real-time shipping calculators.
• Advanced inventory management features: Square Online doesn’t have barcode, supplier, or purchasing features. If you handle various products that require bundling, kitting, or cross-location inventory tracking, BigCommerce is a better fit.

Visit Square Online

Squarespace: Best Ecommerce Platform for Artists & Creatives

Squarespace

Overall Score: 3.61 OUT OF 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing and Payments	3.38	OUT OF	5
	Site Builder and Maintenance Features	4.00	OUT OF	5
	Sales and Product Features	3.38	OUT OF	5
	Ease of Use	3.00	OUT OF	5
	Expert Score	4.38	OUT OF	5

What We Like

• Highly-rated website templates
• Easy to use
• Sell items on Instagram and Facebook

What's Missing

• High transaction fees without upgrade
• Moderate design freedom
• No phone support

Squarespace Pricing

• $26 per month for Business (additional 3% fee on transactions on top of your payment processing fees)
• $30 per month for Basic Commerce, which removes the extra 3% transaction fee
• $54 per month for Advanced Commerce

Squarespace is simple but doesn’t sacrifice quality, making it ideal for solo entrepreneurs who don’t have the time to learn a more advanced system like Shopify but want to showcase their products with top-notch quality. Squarespace sites are always designed to look modern and trendy, no matter how much of a novice you are at web design. Its pricing is also a little cheaper than Shopify, starting at $26 per month. However, to access advanced features, like a shipping calculator, that price will push closer to $54 per month.

It scored 3.61 out of 5 in our evaluation, earning a perfect score on its design functionality and available templates, as Squarespace is known for top-rated templates. However, some of its ecommerce features are limiting for larger sellers, such as few available third-party integrations or extensions. Basic ecommerce features, like unlimited products and abandoned cart recovery, are also only available in premium or higher-priced plans.

Squarespace Pricing

• $26 per month for Business, which is the lowest-priced plan that supports ecommerce. You can sell unlimited products, including digital items and gift cards, but it lacks a shipping calculator and has limited reporting. There’s also a 3% fee on transactions on top of your payment processing fees.
• $30 per month for Basic Commerce, which removes the extra 3% transaction fee, allows customers to create accounts and provides more advanced analytics, like a purchase funnel report.
• $54 per month for Advanced Commerce, which adds a USPS shipping calculator, abandoned cart recovery, and the ability to sell subscriptions.

Squarespace Standout Features

An example of a Squarespace template for an ecommerce website. (Tudor Squarespace Theme Preview Image) You can view more samples here.

• Website builder: Squarespace is one of the easiest website builders to use and also one of the hardest to mess up. Its highly acclaimed website templates are among the most stylish and best designed. While you do not get nearly the same customization options as Wix, many users will find they can simply enter their product details and are good to go.
• Inventory management: The platform lets you import your items via a spreadsheet or add them manually with photos and a description. You can create variants for products (such as different colors or sizes) and set up low stock alerts. Another unique feature worth noting is that Squarespace lets you set up forms for products, so you can request additional information from customers when they make a purchase.
• Shipping: With Squarespace, you’ll need to set up your shipping rates, which can be flat-rate or based on weight. To calculate real-time rates from USPS, FedEx, or UPS, you’ll need to be on the Advanced Commerce plan ($54 per month). However, unlike the other ecommerce systems we reviewed, Squarespace does not let you print postage labels directly from the program, but you can do so through a ShipStation integration.
• Multichannel selling: Squarespace enables you to tag your items on Instagram with a link to purchase, and create dynamic Facebook ads for your products. Unlike Shopify, there is no integration with Amazon, eBay, or other ecommerce channels.
• Marketing tools: Abandoned cart recovery is available with the Advanced Commerce plan. Squarespace also has email marketing available for an additional fee, or you can integrate Mailchimp.
• Analytics: It includes a few very basic reports, including sales by product, traffic sources, and geography of visitors (by country or state). The Commerce plan ($30 per month) provides a purchase funnel report, telling you what percentage of visitors view products, add them to their cart, and make purchases.
• Customer support: Squarespace offers email support 24/7 and live chat support on weekdays, from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.

What Squarespace Is Missing

• In-person payment processing: Squarespace is better suited to those not requiring a storefront solution. If you plan to sell in-person, Square and Shopify are better options.
• Extensive integrations: Squarespace doesn’t offer many third-party integrations, which can limit your options, especially if you plan to expand your online store. Shopify offers thousands of integrations in its app store. If you need a feature that isn’t offered in Shopify, chances are you will be able to find one in its app marketplace.
• Advanced ecommerce features: Product categorization, more dropshipping options, and advanced inventory management are just a few things that are lacking in Squarespace. If you plan on scaling, we recommend you start with Shopify’s basic plan and upgrade as needed.

Visit Squarespace

How We Evaluated Ecommerce Platforms

We compared 10 of the most popular ecommerce platforms based on what is essential to small businesses, including price, site builder tools and maintenance, sales and product features, and ease of use. We also considered our retail and ecommerce experts’ evaluations of each software.

Based on the above criteria, Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for small businesses. The software received the highest overall score (4.68 out of 5) according to our grading system for ecommerce software. Based on our personal experience trying different ecommerce platforms and working with small businesses that utilize them every day, Shopify is also one of the top software that we would personally recommend.

Bottom Line

If you want your online store to scale with your business, you need to consider the features that your customers will expect as you grow. For example, are you prepared to support multiple languages and currencies or provide customer support through an automated chatbot? Can you set up customer user accounts, email marketing, and a loyalty program?

These features not only become more important as your store expands, but they also play a key role in helping your store grow. This is why it is crucial that ecommerce platforms offer the essential features at a lower starting price point and have options for advanced functions and extensive integrations.

Shopify has advanced functionalities and plans that scale with your business in a user-friendly package and at an affordable price point. We recommend it as the best ecommerce platform for small businesses. Visit Shopify to try it free for 14 days.

Visit Shopify

You May Also Like …

• Learn how to start a retail business and how to start an online store, including sourcing products and carving out a niche.
• Set up your ecommerce website with well-crafted product descriptions and high-quality product photos.
• Explore free ecommerce website builders.