8 Best E-Commerce Platforms for Startups [2024 Update]

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to start your e-commerce business, an online marketplace like Amazon or Etsy might seem like the obvious choice. However, these platforms take a cut from your sales, and they give you limited options to personalize your store.

In contrast, a website builder is a long-term solution that can help you build your brand and grow your startup. You’ll have to choose wisely here as well because not all website builders offer the same e-commerce capabilities.

You’ll want a builder with an intuitive editor and built-in features such as shopping carts, product catalogs, and marketing tools to help you streamline your business. You’ll likely need a platform that’s affordable – but still scalable – to make it easy to upgrade as your business grows.

I tested the most popular e-commerce platforms and found a few that made the grade. After extensive testing, I can confidently say that Wix is the best website builder for startups. It’s easy to use and gives you plenty of design freedom at affordable prices. Plus, it offers some of the best selection of e-commerce features I’ve seen, like product templates, custom shopping carts, and store management tools.

You can try Wix for free, or read on to learn more about my other recommendations.

What We Look For in the Best E-Commerce Platforms for Startups

I used several criteria to evaluate the best website builders for startups. In addition to comprehensive security features, I also placed particular emphasis on the following:

• Ease of use. Your e-commerce platform should be easy to set up and manage, even with minimal technical knowledge. All the website builders on my list are user-friendly and suitable for beginners.
• Well-designed, customizable templates. A good e-commerce website starts with a high-quality template that you can customize to match your style. I picked website builders with attractive templates that give you plenty of design flexibility.
• Marketing tools. Startups rely on marketing to help them increase their online presence. For this reason, I included platforms that offer versatile tools such as a blog, email marketing automations, social media integrations, and more.
• Affordable plans. Starting and maintaining an e-commerce website shouldn’t eat into your budget. I chose e-commerce platforms that offer a range of pricing plans, including budget-friendly options.
• Scalability. E-commerce platforms should be able to scale with the growth of your business. I opted for the platforms that can handle large amounts of data, orders, and website traffic.

1. Wix: Best Selection of E-Commerce Templates

Wix offers the widest variety of e-commerce templates among website builders on this list – there are 500+ designs to choose from. These are fully customizable, which means you can tailor any template to fit your needs. Wix’s powerful yet beginner-friendly drag-and-drop editor lets you tweak your site to the tiniest detail.

All e-commerce templates include Wix Stores, the company’s suite of online store tools. It’s comprehensive and easy to use, providing features such as product page customization, order tracking, and label printing to help you streamline your processes.

Wix’s generous free plan gives you access to nearly every online store feature. That said, you’ll need to sign up for one of Wix’s e-commerce plans to accept online payments. They cost more but you’ll get greater store space and video uploads, as well as unlimited products to support your growing store.

Features

• Built-in SEO and marketing. Wix SEO Setup Checklist lets you enhance your startup’s search engine rankings with instant Google indexing and keyword recommendations. Also, the Coupons, Discounts, and Price Quotes tools allow you to create the perfect price strategy to boost your sales.
• Free Wix-made apps. Wix App Market has over 50 Wix-created apps you can install for free. Standouts include Wix Loyalty Program to reward returning customers and Wix Chat to make it easy for site visitors to reach out.
• Ascend by Wix. For an additional (but affordable) fee, Wix offers an effective set of business tools to help you handle marketing and payments. These include a social post builder, an email marketing platform, an invoicing tool, and more.
• Robust analytics. With Wix Analytics, you’ll get real-time insights into your site’s traffic, customer behavior, and product metrics to help you identify areas that need improvement.

Read our expert Wix review to learn more.

2. Shopify: Best Platform for Startups Looking to Scale Quickly

As a dedicated e-commerce platform, Shopify has an extensive set of online store tools for businesses of all sizes. It offers modern themes with useful built-in tools such as product catalogs, stock counters, and countdown timers. The most attractive designs don’t come cheap, but even the free themes come with nifty features like social media integration and mega menus.

One of Shopify’s strongest features is its huge app market. You’ll get access to over 8,000 free and paid integrations to help you turn your store into a one-stop shop for all your customers’ needs. Whether you need to add value in the form of online chat, loyalty programs, or shipping solutions, these apps have you covered.

Even Shopify’s cheapest plan gives you access to advanced features such as unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery, and multichannel selling. This means you have the freedom to grow your store without worrying whether your site has the power to handle large amounts of data and traffic. You can use Shopify’s free trial to test the platform before committing.

Features

• Efficient order management. Your startup can improve performance and customer satisfaction by taking advantage of Shopify’s tools for tracking, managing, and filling orders from one place.
• Built-in POS system. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, Shopify’s Point-of-Sale (POS) system lets you sync data between your physical and online stores, allowing you to manage inventory and staff access.
• Shopify Payments. In addition to providing access to over 100 payment processors, Shopify has its own payment solution, Shopify Payments. It costs extra but supports multicurrency selling and eliminates transaction fees.
• Shopify Email. Shopify’s native email marketing tool lets you send up to 10,000 monthly emails for free to keep your subscribers informed and engaged. Also, you can tailor your email templates to align with your store’s design, enhancing your brand’s recognition.

Check out our full Shopify review to learn more.

3. BigCommerce: Best for E-Commerce Startups That Sell Internationally

BigCommerce is a flexible platform that provides plenty of functionality. You can categorize products by brand, edit products in bulk, and provide real-time shipping quotes to give your customers the most accurate shipping prices. However, the sheer number of features makes BigCommerce’s interface a bit tricky to navigate. There may be a learning curve involved at first, especially if you’re a beginner.

Still, once you learn the ropes, it’s a powerful tool, particularly if you want to cater to an international audience. BigCommerce allows you to build multilingual sites and have separate site versions and catalogs for different locations, which makes it an excellent choice for international online stores.

BigCommerce’s entry plan offers good value for startups, including features such as unlimited products, reporting tools, and the ability to display product reviews. As your business expands, higher-tiered plans can support growth as they enable product filtering and customer groups, among other features. You can sign up for BigCommerce’s 15-day free trial to see if it’s right for your business.

Features

• Discount options. BigCommerce offers over 70 discount options to help boost your sales, from coupon codes to gift cards and bulk pricing.
• Persistent cart. You can ensure a smooth customer experience by saving their shopping cart items to their account. If they switch devices, the items in their cart will still be there.
• Customer segmentation. This feature allows you to sort customers into groups (e.g., for promotions or product access) to create personalized experiences on your website.
• Multicurrency selling. BigCommerce allows you to integrate payment gateways like PayPal and Amazon Pay and accept payments in over 100 currencies.

Our expert BigCommerce review has more on features and pricing.

4. Squarespace: Best for Creative Startups Focused on Social Media Marketing

If you sell creative work, you’ll love Squarespace’s top-class designs, which include plenty of space to upload high-resolution images. Though the selection of e-commerce templates is somewhat limited, you can build your own template using Squarespace Blueprint. You can choose pages, sections, and colors one at a time while guided by expert tips.

Squarespace has excellent tools for promoting your startup on social media. You can connect your site to all major social platforms and let customers buy your products directly from Facebook and Instagram. Also, with its Unfold mobile app, you can create eye-catching Instagram posts about your products and brand by using custom templates, filters, and stickers.

Unlike Shopify and BigCommerce, you’ll have to sign up for the most expensive plan to get access to tools such as abandoned cart recovery and advanced shipping options. I suggest trying out the Basic Commerce plan, as it lets you sell on social media and eliminates transaction fees. You can take Squarespace out for a test run using its 14-day free trial.

Features

• Beginner-friendly blogging. Squarespace provides a powerful blogging platform that makes it easier to organize and publish content on your site. You can post product-related news and tips and let your customers share them on social media.
• Squarespace Extensions. Squarespace has a carefully curated selection of third-party tools that are extremely useful for startups. For instance, TaxJar helps you create tax returns, Printify allows you to ship custom products globally, and soona provides expert e-commerce product photography and video.
• Free logo maker. You can use Squarespace’s completely free logo-making tool to promote your brand and make it more memorable.
• Tools for service sellers. Thanks to Squarespace’s Client Invoicing feature, service sellers can accept payments, manage invoices, and collect client information from one single place.

For more info about plans, check out our expert Squarespace review.

5. SITE123: The Easiest Way to Get Your Startup Online

Best for beginners looking to launch their website quickly, SITE123 is all about speed and simplicity. SITE123 has only a handful of e-commerce templates but all its designs follow a similar structure, making them easily adaptable. You won’t get advanced customization options, but you can still change your site’s colors and layout using SITE123’s extremely simple point-and-click editor.

SITE123 is a particularly good option if you’re selling photography. It offers a great selection of gallery layouts you can use to showcase your work in all its glory. You can choose from classic options such as carousel and slideshows – or something more outside the box, such as a rounded images gallery.

SITE123 has a free version, but you’ll need to sign up for the Professional plan to get access to e-commerce functionality. Still, the Professional plan is quite affordable and it comes with other useful features, such as 35GB of bandwidth and storage, a built-in mailing list tool, 3 additional languages, and the ability to connect your own domain.

Features

• Conversion tool. SITE123’s conversion code tool allows you to track where leads come from so you can make informed decisions about your site’s layout and content.
• Wire transfer payments. If you live in an area where online payment methods aren’t widely used, you can add your bank details in the store settings to collect funds from clients who pay offline.
• Built-in forms. SITE123’s custom form builder lets you tailor your forms based on the type of information you want to collect from your customers. You can choose from various layouts, customize fields, create auto-reply messages, and more.
• Accessible support. SITE123 is very easy to use but if you get stuck, live chat support is available in English (24/7) plus 16 other languages (at various times).

To learn more, check out our full SITE123 review.

Get Online Easily With SITE123 >>

6. IONOS: Affordable E-Commerce Platform with Helpful AI Tools

IONOS is one of the most affordable website builders out there and a fast way to get a professional website off the ground. Though its template selection and customization options are fairly limited, you can build any website you want using its AI features. All you need to do is answer a few questions and IONOS will generate a website for you, complete with text and images you can tweak.

Higher-tiered plans give you access to more advanced AI tools. For example, AI Image Generator helps you create on-brand images to keep your visual identity consistent. Also, AI SEO Text Generator creates SEO-friendly page titles and descriptions to improve your rankings on search engines. In addition to AI tools, these plans also unlock access to more advanced SEO features and an integrated booking tool for scheduling appointments online.

IONOS doesn’t have a free plan or a free trial, but you can use its 30-day money-back guarantee to test the features before you commit.

Features

• Free business email. IONOS gives you a professional contact email for free on all plans. Your email address can match your domain, helping to promote your startup.
• rankingCoach and List Local apps. rankingCoach and List Local will help you optimize your site for SEO. List Local also helps to increase your online visibility by listing your startup details in the most important online directories for your field of business, including Google.
• marketingRadar. This built-in tool allows you to track your competitors’ social media and search engine activity to stay on top of the latest trends and learn how to make your startup more successful.
• Built-in privacy features. IONOS provides legal page outlines to help you create privacy settings and cookie banners.

Read our expert IONOS review for more details.

Other Notable E-Commerce Platforms for Startups

If you want to review more options, here are some additional considerations for your e-commerce startup.

7. Webador

Webador has a well-rounded set of online store tools that are easy to use. For instance, you can create checkout forms, track orders, and even add special labels for products that are on sale or trending.

That said, Webador is best for startups that plan to sell a small range of products. You’ll have to upgrade to the Pro plan to get e-commerce functionality and you can only sell up to 10 products. If you want the ability to add unlimited products to your store, you’ll have to subscribe to the most expensive plan.

8. WordPress.com

Known for its blogging abilities, WordPress.com also offers powerful online store tools through its WooCommerce plugin. WooCommerce is an e-commerce platform specifically developed for WordPress, which comes with tons of themes and robust store features such as loyalty programs, bulk discounts, and dynamic product upsells.

That said, WooCommerce is only available on the Business plan, and the more advanced features require subscribing to the highest-tiered plan, which can be pricey for startups. Also, depending on your technical background, WordPress.com might involve a learning curve, so it may be challenging for beginners.

Choose the Best E-Commerce Platform for Startups to Grow Your Business

Although every business has its own needs, startups mostly need a platform that’s inexpensive and simple to use. It should also be scalable and provide useful e-commerce tools to help your startup grow while allowing you to concentrate on your business.

Whether you’re placing emphasis on an affordable solution, a user-friendly website builder, or a comprehensive set of built-in e-commerce features, several platforms can meet your requirements and help your startup.

If you want a balance between ease of use and creative control, Wix is my top recommendation. Wix offers 500+ e-commerce templates, which you can customize to your heart’s content using its intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to scale quickly, Shopify has what you need. You get access to an extensive app market with over 8,000 integrations to add more functionality to your store.

Or, if you want robust built-in e-commerce tools, BigCommerce is a great option. It also offers advanced multilingual features to help you reach out to international customers.

If you’re still undecided, here’s a quick comparison of the different e-commerce platforms I tested.

FAQ

Which platform is best for an e-commerce startup?

Every business has its own needs, so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That said, in my opinion, Wix offers the most comprehensive set of e-commerce tools for startups. It’s straightforward to use, and it has a wide selection of e-commerce templates and built-in online store tools to help you launch your website quickly.

What’s the most affordable e-commerce platform?

Considering the value you get for the money, I would say BigCommerce is a reasonably priced choice. It provides advanced features like unlimited products and multicurrency selling on all plans and doesn’t charge transaction fees.

Is Shopify good for startups?

Shopify is an excellent choice for startups as it offers powerful online store tools while staying affordable and easy to use. Plus, it provides tons of third-party apps to help your business scale quickly.

What should a startup e-commerce website include?

A top-level domain and privacy tools are necessary for an e-commerce site for safe payments and customer data protection. In addition to security features, your website should be mobile-responsive and easy to navigate to enhance user experience. Also, accessible support is essential to ensure customer satisfaction.

Take a look at our guide on building your own website for more tips on creating a functional and visually appealing online store.