eCommerce Platforms Review: Squarespace, Shopify, Shoplazza, Amazon, Woocommerce

To start an online business is hard. Fortunately, there is plenty of software to help you with your online store. This article reviews 5 ecommerce platforms and marketplace, including Shoplazza, Squarespace, Shopify, Amazon, and Woocommerce.

Shoplazza

Shoplazza, founded in 2017, is an e-commerce platform that lets people and businesses construct their own online storefronts. It assists its entrepreneurs in achieving their goals more quickly by providing 24/7 support.

Pros:

• Quick and easy set up of beautiful themes.
• Checkout section optimization.
• Sync Amazon products with one click.
• Multiple currency transactions.
• Support for dropshipping and global supply chains.
• Easy store migration.
• Dashboard for easy business management.
• Active support for clients and customers.
• SEO-friendly; faster page loading speeds.

Cons:

• Only 7 days free trial
• Limited themes for blogs

Squarespace

Squarespace is a SaaS-based web content management system. Individuals and businesses can use this system to construct and operate websites, blogs, and online stores.

Pros:

• Allows selling digital products
• Beautiful themes available
• Extremely easy to set up
• 24/7 assistance
• Possibility to program promo codes
• Blog module

Cons:

• Limited customization
• Limited multilingual site possibilities
• Few integrations available without going through Zapier
• No app store for more features
• No dropshipping

Shopify

Shopify allows you to design a professional-looking store. It is necessary, however, to subscribe and pay a monthly charge. In addition, a percentage of each sale made on your E-Commerce site is deducted.

Pros:

• Large amount of extensions
• Link physical sales to virtual sales
• Fast and light loading time
• High level of security
• Platform hosted directly by Shopify to minimize technical issues
• Competent technical support
• More than 70 payment gateways
• Assistance available 24/7

Cons:

• Limited customization
• More Paid Items
• Translation of the site is possible, but not very efficient
• Bad SEO score
• Unable to customize the payment process

Amazon

The obvious reason Amazon has made progress in online marketing is its rapid delivery of services and customer satisfaction. The company delivers products from A-Z door to door providing customers with convenience.

Pros:

• Over 240 million Amazon customers worldwide
• Many potential buyers look for their needs only on Amazon
• Significant "Traffic" without having to pay additional costs
• No store software needed
• You can outsource all your shipping logistics and benefit from low shipping costs
• Well-established partnership program for Amazon affiliates

Cons:

• 7% to 20% Amazon Selling Fees
• In "FBA" the transport costs must be included in the sale price
• Several suppliers of the same product can create a price war
• Dependence on Amazon

WooCommerce

This platform allows you to construct a store, an effective and simple e-commerce solution while taking advantage of WordPress's many benefits. A readymade e-commerce solution that is very accessible for anyone who wants to establish an e-commerce site using WordPress.

Pros:

• A good choice for newbies
• Free, in addition to the cost of web hosting
• 100% customizable and flexible
• Supports an unlimited number of products
• Offers around 400 robust plugins and themes
• Complements multilingual content and currencies

Cons:

• Too many plugins affect the performance of your website.
• Customer support is not timely
• Extra costs for premium themes and extensions.

Conclusion

Whatever their positioning (marketplace, second-hand, pure players, retailers, etc. ), all of these e-commerce sites have several things in common: the practice of offering the best prices, with promotional offers, a large selection, and variety of products, a reputation that allows them to reassure customers about the safety of their online purchases, fast deliveries, internationalization of their market, and so on.

If you decide to open your own online business, I hope this post will assist you in determining which options are ideal for you.

(Contributed by Yorly & Hermes Fang)