Four E-Commerce Platforms to Consider When Selling Online
Let’s face it, e-commerce is the way of the future. With a global pandemic changing the way us consumers interact with brands and how we make purchasing decisions, more and more people are jumping to purchasing online and having their items shipped directly to their door. These days, more people are willing to wait for their purchases to ship, rather than have to go inside a busy store.
With all of that being said, e-commerce is a booming industry - and rightfully so! There have even been grants created for small businesses to take their brick and mortar stores online to accommodate the changing times. So if you have ever been considering selling online, now is the prime time to do so.
But how do you go about selling your products online? The best place to start is considering which online platform to start your business on. Here are 4 platforms that you might want to consider when selling your products online:
Shopify
Shopify is the powerhouse of e-commerce. Many businesses opt to use Shopify for their online store as it can offer an extensive amount of features, enable a business to have a fully customized design & is a great inventory management system. Shopify not only allows you to sell products online, but you can manage a store front through it as well. With a variety of theme options, you can easily have a custom storefront that looks nothing like someone else’s, especially when working with a web designer and/or Shopify developer (such as myself!). Shopify offers significant scalability, so whether you are just starting out and working off a free theme, or you are a growing business who needs something more, Shopify can handle it all.
Pricing & Key Notes
Shopify has three plans for their pricing: Basic, Shopify and Advanced. Pricing and features vary between plans, so be sure to look at each option closely before you make your decision.
Basic: $29USD/month
Key Notes: This plan has most of the features that the other two have, however it has some higher processing fees, lower shipping discounts and doesn’t allow for reports.
Shopify: $79USD/month
Key Notes: Middle of the pack, “standard” option for most Shopify users. Allows for report generation, has a little bit higher shipping discount and lower transaction fees, but doesn’t offer workflow automations, third party shipping rate calculations or some key features for international commerce.
Advanced: $299USD/month
Key Notes: This is the top tier for Shopify plans. It has the lowest processing rates, highest shipping discounts and has all of the features. The creme-de-la-crop of Shopify plans.
If you are serious about e-commerce, Shopify is the best platform to work on. If you’ve read this far and want to jump right in, let’s chat about how we can develop a strategic and beautiful custom Shopify experience for your customers together.
Squarespace
Squarespace is my go-to website platform when it comes to designing the majority of my client’s websites. It is an exceptional platform that offers designers the ability to create fully custom websites through code. When working with a designer, you can know that your website won’t look like everyone else’s. Squarespace is very user-friendly upon client-handoff, so the learning curve isn’t significant like other platforms, and clients can easily manage their site themselves. Squarespace does offer e-commerce capabilities, however in comparison to Shopify, they lack some key features, and aren’t really suited for stores that have more than 20-30 products. Their e-commerce management experience is quite easy to use however, so it is a great option for service based business and those businesses with smaller inventory.
Pricing & Key Notes
Squarespace has 3 tiers of their plans that allow for e-commerce capabilities. Each have a variety of what they offer, so review them carefully before choosing the one that best suits your needs.
Business Plan: $23USD/mo (when paid up-front for the year)
Key Notes: Has e-commerce features, but they are very limited and basic. Has a transaction fee for processing payments through the platform.
Basic E-Commerce Plan: $27USD/mo (when paid up-front for the year)
Key Notes: Has more features than the Business plan and no transaction fees, but doesn’t include abandon cart recovery, selling subscriptions, and few other key e-commerce features.
Advanced E-Commerce Plan: $49USD/mo (when paid up-front for the year)
Key Notes: This is their highest tier, with access to all their e-commerce features. Aside from giving access to the last few more advanced e-commerce features, this plan doesn’t differ much from the Basic E-Commerce plan.
Square
For a more budget friendly, quick set-up, Square is a great website builder. If you’re not picky on how your site looks, but want an easy to use, easy to set up online site, consider this builder. Square does not offer many customizations when designing your customer-facing site, so they can look more on the plain side. They aren’t super scalable either, so if you plan on growing, you will likely need to move off of this platform. But if you are just looking to get online, this is a great option.
Pricing & Key Notes
Square is a free e-commerce website builder. You can get your site up and running fast, and it can easily be tied to a physical store through the Square payment processing systems that are in place with your site. Designing the look and feel of your website is very limited however. They do offer paid plans, but the paid plans don’t add much more value to your design, aside from being able to upload your own fonts, use your own domain, abandon cart features, and accepting a few other forms of payment, such as PayPal. Most plans have a 2.9% processing fee with a 30 cent transaction fee for online payments, aside from the Premium plan, which decreases the processing fee.
Etsy
Etsy is a great tool for businesses who are starting out but may not need a standalone website, or who want to sell on a marketplace style platform. It’s the perfect platform for handmade and custom curations. Because you are on a marketplace platform, you can advertise your product to millions of consumers. However, the downside to this e-commerce model is that you are now competing for valuable real estate on that platform with the other thousands of sellers who may be selling some various of the same product as you. It does have some rather low start up costs however, with your first listing being only $0.20, so it is certainly an enticing platform to start on.
Pricing & Key Notes
Some key things to note about selling on Etsy are that they have no additional monthly fees, they allow secure transactions and automatic deposits. The listing fees are $0.25 and are active until they sell, or for 4 months. They have a 6.5% transaction fee and a 3-4% + $0.25 payment processing fee, and a 15% offside ad fee. Etsy pays to advertise your items through offsite ads which is great, and you only pay a fee when you make a sale from these ads. This could add up however, so keep an eye on your expenses if you are using this platform.
Review
When choosing the right e-commerce website platform, think not only about where your business is now, but where you foresee it growing to. When you look ahead at where you want your business to be, you can choose a platform that best suits your goals and is scalable to match your needs. Working with a designer and/or developer can really help uplevel your online presence, so don’t hesitate to reach out with your ideas to see if we can make them happen!
