The Top eCommerce Platforms By Usage (w/ Free eBook!)

Today, choosing the appropriate eCommerce platform for your business is much harder than ever before because of the increasing number of options you have to choose from. A good eCommerce platform will allow your company to make electronic exchanges on multiple devices, at anytime of the day with no hassle. You as a business owner or even an employee who’s processing these transactions should have nothing short of the best when it comes to an online eCommerce platform now that there are so many quality options on the market.
Depending on what type of business you own, and based on the number of employees and online revenue you have, it might be best to look into hiring a professional eCommerce implementation team that knows the platform you want to use inside and out.
Today, everything in the eCommerce world is simplified for the customers. Most websites are now accessible in a user friendly format on all devices to guide the customer to checkout quickly. These newly upgraded eCommerce websites are the ones that are going to succeed because they were able to budget for a quality eCommerce platform & implementation that is the right fit for their unique business situation both now and in the future.
The eCommerce platform space has begun to mature and some of these platforms are now much more than a decade old. How are you supposed to know which eCommerce platform is right for you? I think the first place to look is the trajectory and the data behind what businesses are currently using these eCommerce platforms. Are large companies using the platform? Are smaller companies using the platform successfully? Are the top websites using the platform? This data from Builtwith will help you decide whether the eCommerce platform is a good fit for your small, medium or enterprise size business.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a simple, easy to use, eCommerce platform for WordPress. WooCommerce is now responsible for 30% of all online stores, which is the largest market share out of any platform. WooCommerce is an extension to WordPress and is easy to install. It allows you to sell very quickly and easily with a WordPress website, as well as ship to wherever you’d like with free shipping or flat rate shipping.
WooCommerce is a great fit if you want to get a site up quickly, as well as utilize the incredible content management capabilities of WordPress such as native blogging capabilities and more. WooCommerce has a massive plethora of extensions to improve the software. It is an ideal fit for businesses just starting out in eCommerce or that have not yet hit the million plus online revenue threshold.

OpenCart

OpenCart is an easy to use lightweight eCommerce platform that is open source based on the PHP and MySQL technologies. It is more natively feature rich than WooCommerce but not nearly as impressive as the featured loaded Magento Community or Magento Enterprise platforms. It is a good fit for a new eCommerce business that wants to get up a site quickly at a low cost. It does not have as robust CMS capabilities as WordPress for non eCommerce content so it is a better fit if you have very little non eCommerce content.

Magento Community

Magento Community edition is the leading open source eCommerce platform among the top websites because it is built to provide online merchants with the most flexible cart system. Magento was developed throughout the year 2007 by the company Varien, and shortly released to the public just seven months later.
What makes Magento Community edition so impressive is that it comes with the features that most enterprise eCommerce platforms such as Demandware or Hybris would charge significant license fees for, at literally zero licensing cost. Features such as multi website, customizable order processing, complex catalog capabilities, and much more are native to Magento Community.
Magento Community edition is certainly the most powerful free open source eCommerce solution, especially with the newly enhanced 2.0 edition. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Magento Community is not to be taken lightly and can become very expensive to maintain and customize just like any other enterprise & complex software.

Squarespace Commerce

Squarespace is a content management system which allows anyone to build and manage their brand online. They typically support both smaller companies and individuals such as local artists, as well as larger corporations looking to take their virtual businesses to the next level. Empowering individuals is something that Squarespace strongly believes in, by giving smaller brands the ability to stand out online with high quality customer support.
For non-coders, this web platform is highly recommended in order to get your website up and running because of its easy to use website builder tools. Squarespace is not open source, and is a hosted platform, therefore customization of the platform is limited. So if you are looking to make a more complex website with many features, you may want to look into other options. If you are an entrepreneur, local artist, or larger corporation with simpler website needs, Squarespace is for you.

Shopify

Shopify is a Canadian based eCommerce company developed in 2004, originally as an online store for snowboarding equipment. Simply enough, Shopify allows businesses to set up their online stores to sell their products to the public all with one monthly cost and infrastructure, opposed to the other open source platforms which require more work to setup. It is important to have multiple options and with this platform, there are more than a hundred different templates that Shopify offers when designing a website to make yours as personable and unique as possible.
There are plenty of templates that are modern and well designed free of charge.  If you are a company that has a little bit of financial breathing room many high quality templates are $80-$180 that may pay off in the long run, seeing as it is just a single payment. Shopify is great for smaller retailers but is not necessarily a great fit for more complex eCommerce sites or B2B eCommerce needs. It does now offer a plus version for larger sites but doesn’t seem to quite have the enterprise presence among larger sites that Magento, Demandware, Hybris, and other enterprise platforms have. Despite lack of enterprise market penetration, Shopify still shows healthy growth on all fronts.

Zen Cart

Out of all the platforms, Zen Cart was one of the first eCommerce web design platforms that offers free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The online store management system was renovated in 2003 making a change by moving away from osCommerce and moving toward the newly coded template system which is largely CSS-based. The best thing about Zen Cart is you can download the system for free! They did this purposely because they wanted to stand out as a company that offers a technology that can be used by non-IT people. Zen Cart was once much more popular and has since lost market share to platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify and more. It has had a decreasing trajectory in usage for quite some time now.

OsCommerce

OsCommerce is an “Open Source” e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. Having an open source model similar to Opencart, Magento, and Zencart allows users to access all the code and customize in order to change the aspects of the software to fit the needs of a business. OsCommerce was once very popular but has since lost marketshare to platforms that have become much modern in recent times such as Shopify and Magento. OsCommerce was started in 2000 as one of the first open source eCommerce platforms.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an eCommerce software solution that helps businesses design their websites. They offer free premium templates depending on what you are trying to achieve. You don’t need to have any technical skills in order to build your website with BigCommerce which is helpful to many start-ups that are looking to dive into the eCommerce industry. There is a ton of flexibility when it comes to BigCommerce so whether you are selling 5 products or 5,000 products, you are still able to create the website that you desire, and because many start-ups begin at the lower end of the spectrum, this is a great ability to have.

Drupal Ubercart

The Drupal extension Ubercart gives your Drupal website the ability to sell online. Drupal, which is a leading open source content management system, allows users to access thousands of modules and themes in order to give as many personalized options as possible. As an open source eCommerce solution, Ubercart is a great platform to use if you are looking for great shopping cart functionality in tandem with the power of the Drupal CMS platform. An internal development team is able to alter the Ubercart features to accommodate many eCommerce needs because of Drupal’s flexible open source architecture. Having flexibility is more important than most people realize when it comes to being successful with eCommerce.
When you are choosing which eCommerce platform you are most comfortable with, customer service, flexibility, and support are always improving at Ubercart. However, also keep in mind that the Ubercart platform marketshare seems to be shrinking despite the strong Drupal community.

Volusion

Volusion offers hundreds of free templates that are easy to implement to get your website up and running quickly. Volusion is a California based shopping cart solution, that integrates shopping cart software with product merchandising, site design, SEO, marketing and order processing. Also Volusion provides an affiliate marketing and rewards program called MyReward. This is a great feature for many small businesses because when customers are visiting and buying from your website, they can build loyalty points. These point eventually get transferred into a store credit, which is great for building long term relationships with consumers. Volusion was once a very popular platform but has since lost a lot of its momentum and market share to platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento.

Big Cartel

This is a pretty basic online platform which is why this is one of the better platforms for companies selling a smaller range of products. Big Cartel has a range of options that are offered, one of them being free. The trick is with the free option you are only allow to showcase five of your products that you want to sell online. Now if you are a start up clothing company that has only five t-shirt designs so far, than Big Cartel could be exactly what you are looking for. Now if you are looking for a greater number than just five, you are more than welcome to choose from their budgeted options depending on the number of products you’re looking to display.

nopCommerce

nopCommerce is a free, downloadable software. This very simple shopping cart solution could be great for new online businesses. You will notice that this platform allows your website to meet all of the search-engine standards such as search friendly URLs to well-structured content. It also has great themes for your products. nopCommerce is well known for its modular / layered structure which gives users the ability to create additional functionality and makes it as easy as possible to manage your websites. These layers are easily accessible and user friendly on a mobile device as well as on other alternative tablets.

Yahoo! Store

Yahoo! Stores is an eCommerce platform that allows you to choose from hundreds of free or paid templates for the development of an online site. It is known for being implemented for smaller companies because of its simplicity and low monthly cost similar to Shopify. The lowest rate can also be affordable by a almost any start-up as well. Yahoo! Stores plans are reflected by it’s retailers expected monthly sales unlike say Shopify whose platform is based off the number of products being sold or the amount of storage a company needs for space to satisfy their website capabilities. Yahoo was once a very popular eCommerce platform but has since lost traction to companies like Shopify and BigCommerce.

Fotomoto

This Print-on-demand eCommerce system allows you to sell your artwork in multiple forms. Once you make an account and link it to wherever you had been selling them virtually in the past, it is very easy to get your site up and running without hassle. Behind the scenes of this platform are a handful of sales representatives, professional print labs, packaging and shipping services, and software specialist.
The great thing about Fotomoto is all the work the staff behind the curtains are doing on behalf of you and your business to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. One of those main selling points as a platform thats more directed at the website host (you) is the aftermath of the customers purchase. If you feel as though the easiest thing to do is too DIY, then by all means go ahead! But Fotomoto offers a printing network that prints, packages, and ships your order right to the customers for you! You don’t have to lift a finger besides the one that you’re using to complete the actual order. Fotomoto could be a great fit for smaller businesses looking to leverage a great print network like Fotomoto.

3D Cart

3D Cart is a software as a service eCommerce solution similar to Yahoo Stores, Bigcommerce, Shopify and more. This platform is great for any individuals that are looking to get their name and brand out into the virtual world of eCommerce. 3D Cart is known for its shopping cart solution which they claim powers over 17,000 stores, although that data is not backed up by Builtwith. You are able to choose from hundreds of themes and templates that 3D Cart has to offer.
Selling products on Facebook, as well as promoting your products videos on Youtube is easier than ever with 3D Cart. With the Facebook app as well as having a sleek Omnichannel platform, your entire website should look the same across all devices and channels.  When your website is complete, you are going to want to start promoting it! You are able to promote your store by email marketing, as well as mobile commerce tools, and social media integration with 24/7 hour assistance from the 3D Carts customer service line.

Miva Merchant

Miva is a long standing eCommerce platform for small and medium size businesses. It is great for up and coming businesses because it is a versatile and stable platform that is able to be customized for whatever kind of look your company is going for. They have a less expensive small business version starting at less than $100 a month and a more expensive enterprise edition that goes for approximately $1500 a month. Miva provides a full range of in house services to help businesses implement their solution rather than going through a third party.

X-Cart

X-cart is an eCommerce shopping cart site that allows you to choose from either a cloud-based cart or a self-hosted licensed software option. Within these two options your company is able to pick from a handful of attributes such as web design, migration, installation, hosting, online monitoring, and fraud services. It has a much smaller eCommerce community than many of the other small business platforms but still has thousands of sites using the platform.

E-Junkie

E-Junkie is a shopping cart service that is set up for business owners and operators who are looking to enter into the Commerce world. This software prides its self on the security of their transactions. All transactions through e-Junkie are done within their system which can be embedded into your website. Customers who purchase virtual goods from a client’s E-Junkie store will then receive a secure downloadable link that expires after a certain number of downloads or a certain time.
E-Junkie is an interesting solution because it essentially allows you to add their shopping cart into your website via code snippets. They support many payment gateways like Paypal as well as have integrations with platforms like Google Analytics.

Drupal Commerce

Drupal is used by larger companies and organizations. This platform is increasing in usage but at a much slower rate relative to WordPress & WooCommerce because it is significantly more expensive to implement and maintain. If you have very complex content related website needs but also need eCommerce, Drupal Commerce could be a good solution for your website.

Magento Enterprise

Magento Enterprise edition comes straight from the Magento Community edition and has the same base core files as Magento Community. Magento Enterprise has many features such as rewards points, customer segmentation and more that Magento Community does not. Magento Enteprise is a very successful platform because it is less expensive than some of the major enterprise platforms like Hybris and Oracle Commerce but has the capabilities to compete with such platforms. The other advantage is that there is a large pool of developers and agencies that support it because of its massive community edition usage.

Demandware

Demandware is an enterprise cloud-based eCommerce platform technology for retailers. This software allows them to make and manage a custom online website as well as give them full access to the mobility feature. Demandware is a public company that has become very successful by doing a revenue share model with customers. It is in the enterprise class tier as one of the more expensive eCommerce solutions on the market.

Hybris

Hybris is an omni-channel eCommerce platform that integrates all digital and physical customer touch points into a single platform. It is now owned by SAP, a global leader in information technology solutions. This worldwide managed company is a leader in both B2B and B2C eCommerce industries by keeping up with the everyday changes in the Internet world.  It is a best in class eCommerce solution that is on the more expensive enterprise side to implement for larger companies.

Oracle Commerce

Oracle Commerce was an add on to the companies successful CX portfolio. Oracle Commerce was originally ATG Commerce which was acquired by Oracle a few years ago. Now, Oracle Commerce continues to power some of the largest sites in the world. Similar to IBM, Demandware, and Hybris, it is on the more expensive side of eCommerce platforms.

IBM WebSphere Commerce

This single, unified software platform framework is built for enterprise eCommerce websites. IBM WebSphere Commerce provides an omni-channel shopping experience that helps engage your customers with experiences through great content, marketing, and promotions. IBM Websphere powers some of the largest eCommerce sites in the world and is typically a fit for larger complex sites that require extensive customization. If you do not have a large implementation budget, IBM Websphere is probably not for you.

NetSuite eCommerce

SuiteCommerce enables businesses to seamlessly connect every step of a multi-channel, multi-location business — from ecommerce, POS and order management to merchandising, marketing, inventory, financials and customer service. This platform allows you to create unique, personalized and compelling mobile, web and in-store experiences that differentiate your brand and exceed customer expectations. One of the biggest advantages of Netsuite is the ability to have an all in one backend ERP, CRM, seamlessly connected with your eCommerce platform all together.

Digital River

Digital River offers eCommerce, payments and top online marketing services to global companies of all sizes. Known as an Commerce-as-a-Service solution, being able to support the shopper experience at its best is something that Digital River prides its self on. Local shopping experiences in global markets and more payment options than any other company makes Digital River a leading global provider. What differentiates DR is their full solution: reseller business model; robust, flexible cloud-based SaaS platform; and comprehensive business operation support which manages, supports, and powers users sites. They typically provide eCommerce services for larger websites not small businesses.

GSI Commerce (eBay Enterprise)

Formally known as GSI Commerce, eBay Enterprises provides a globally well developed eCommerce solution and service that allows you to be ultra connected to your consumers at all times. This  company specializes in running online shopping sites for larger brick and mortar brands and retailers. There are not many GSI Commerce sites in existence today as the platform is not as popular as it once was.

Four 51 Order Cloud

Order Cloud is one of the leading B2B eCommerce software in the world powering sites like Papa Johns and Verizon B2B portals. It is a cloud based infrastructure that allows you to leverage its API’s to create an independent front end architecture. Its new API structure makes it more of a platform as a service. It is a great platform and has a lower cost of implementation for larger more complex business to business eCommerce sites. Builtwith does not have any data on the platform but over 10,000 businesses use Order Cloud.

Insite Commerce

Insite Commerce is one of the leading B2B eCommerce platforms. Similar to Order Cloud, Builtwith does not have any data on the platform because it is most likely used on more of a server side level in which Builtwith cannot crawl the site to understand it. Insite Commerce is used by many mid to larger business to business eCommerce sites and is a good fit for a company making tens of millions in business to business online transactions.

Zoey Commerce

Zoey Commerce is an interesting software as a service eCommerce platform because it was built on top of Magento community. It has all the native functionality of Magento making it one of the most powerful software as a service eCommerce platforms for smaller businesses.

CIMM2

CIMM2 is a new B2B eCommerce platform built by a company called Unilog. Similar to Order Cloud and Insite, Builtwith does not have any data on the platform because it is most likely used on more of a server side level in which Builtwith cannot crawl the site to understand it quite as well.
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Conclusion:

The Builtwith data is not perfectly accurate but does give you a good picture of what platforms are used heavily across the Internet or by the top eCommerce sites in the world. You most likely want to choose a platform that has a strong trajectory of sites using it, a large user base, and a strong community of agencies that develop for it. If no one develops for the platform it will be very hard to find people to help implement the platform for you if you cannot do it in house.

Top B2C Platforms for Small Businesses:

• Shopify
• Magento Community
• WooCommerce
• BigCommerce
• Squarespace Commerce
• Opencart
• Zoey Commerce

Top B2B Platforms for Small Businesses:

• Magento Community
• BigCommerce
• Zoey Commerce

Top B2C Platforms for Larger Companies:

• Demandware
• Magento Enterprise
• Hybris
• Oracle Commerce
• IBM Websphere

Top B2B Platforms for Larger Companies:

• Hybris
• Order Cloud
• Magento Enterprise
• Insite Commerce
• Cimm2
• Oracle Commerce
• IBM Websphere