By using good shopping cart software, you can increase your online sales and adapt it to the changing needs of your online business. The best eCommerce shopping cart software is responsively designed, mobile-ready, and community-driven in its development to maintain the focus on your needs as a merchant. Each e-commerce platform has its advantages and limitations, so none is the best. E-commerce platforms can also be built on countless platforms on the Internet.
1. Square Online Store
A free eCommerce website from Square Online is available to retailers, restaurants, service providers, and non-profit organizations. A Square Online store can be opened by any business, from mobile businesses to multi-store chains. The store lists products for sale, processes payments, and delivers orders by traditional shipping methods, curbside pickup, or local delivery. Online store analytics are also synced with Square's backend for accurate data management between online and in-person sales.
Advantages
- Developed POS system
Users without technical or design skills can easily customize Square Online's templates. If you use Square POS, you'll find that Square Online will be even easier to set up and use: Inventory, customer data, loyalty programs, and other Square features you already use will be automatically migrated.
- Ease of use
The site dashboard allows you to keep track of customer journeys, product sales, and abandoned cart recovery.
- SEO & marketing
In many cases, some simple tweaks are all Google needs to recognize your product for what it is. Google bots are smart, but they cannot read pictures, nor will they be able to grasp the full meaning of your nicely written product descriptions. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool for any small business. But if you can get your product to rank high in Google search results for keywords (like 'winter candle,' in our case), your sales will skyrocket. Square Online provides a plain English explanation of the product, exactly what you need. Pages can be explained the same way.
Disadvantage
- Shipping
When setting up your shipping in Square Online, there are many options to choose from. Depending on the territory you're shipping to, you'll need to choose how you'd like to calculate delivery costs. You can adjust your shipping charges based on flat rates, order weight, order total, and item quantity. If certain criteria are met, you can also receive free shipping. In order to avoid higher transaction fees, you'll need to use the Square payment gateway. The platform requires some initial learning.
- Limited customization
Square's online dashboard allows you to customize the appearance of invoices and customer receipts. The appearance of your receipts and invoices can be customized for each location if you have multiple locations.
2. WooCommerce
WordPress' eCommerce shop system, WooCommerce, is the most popular and free option. With this plugin, you can turn your WordPress blog into an integrated online store with one click. The simplicity and versatility of WooCommerce make it stand out from the crowd. Like WordPress, WooCommerce provides a full complement of plugins and themes and has a simple modular framework.
Advantages
- Easy installation
It is quite simple to install WooCommerce. Users should follow the instructions of the WordPress installation wizard to install this plugin for eCommerce development. The platform is open-source and can be installed for free. But some features require payment. Ecommerce features and a variety of themes are available via the WooCommerce plugin. The themes are not expensive but are still reasonably priced.
- Integration with WordPress
There's a reason why WordPress is so popular - it does a great job, is extremely versatile, and is supported by a substantial community (both for-profit and nonprofit). Since WordPress and WooCommerce are seamlessly integrated, WooCommerce can access an entire universe of plugins, themes, tutorials, and values that no other platform can. Lastly, suppose you already have a WordPress-powered website and wish to add e-commerce to it. In that case, WooCommerce is the easiest solution to do because you don't need to design & support a store on a completely different platform.
- Powerful SEO
WooCommerce plugins and extensions are compatible with these plugins. Your eCommerce store SEO is taken care of by them. In addition, they are secure and undergo regular updates to ensure that WordPress users receive the best possible service.
- REST API
A key system controls access to the WooCommerce REST API. Your WordPress users receive these keys. It can be enabled in these settings.
Disadvantages
- Speed performance
With the increasing expectations of users, WooCommerce stores own introduced innovative and new tools, such as live chat, real-time inventory, and personalization, to address those expectations. Despite this, these features can lead to a probable conversion slayer - a dawdling website if executed incorrectly. Your WooCommerce store's abandonment rate will be higher the slower it is. Less revenue typically follows. Moreover, a slow-loading page will negatively affect your store's ranking.
- Associated cost
Even though WooCommerce is free to download and install, some extensions may require payment to function properly. This is the biggest con because it gives the impression that business owners incur hidden costs. Paying for an alternative payment gateway to PayPal, for instance, will be your responsibility. The majority of the extensions require subscriptions, so you'll have to deal with the stress every year. Depending on how advanced you want it to be, your store can be built for anywhere between $39 and $249.
- Potential coding conflicts
The WordPress plugin for WooCommerce cannot be installed on non-WordPress sites. Due to these terms, businesses that want to use WooCommerce must remake their website if they want to use it.
3. Magento
Magento is an e-commerce platform owned by Adobe. It is specialized in e-commerce websites. Magento users can connect with their customers and sell their products with hundreds of unique features.
Advantages
- SEO
The platform has a lot of SEO settings that you can adjust and modify continuously for better performance.
- Built-in features
Magento has several settings for managing the entire platform that is easily accessible from one place and can be used by anybody first stop.
Disadvantages
- Require excellent development skills
Both users and developers find Magento to be a popular platform. Finding knowledgeable Magento developers is, therefore, a challenge. There are two main reasons for this: Object-oriented development is complex, and core software experience is crucial. Furthermore, Magento has a large database system that includes more than twenty thousand files and two hundred tables. Learning it can take years. Consequently, even a developer with a good reputation is likely to charge high prices.
- Associated cost
Magento comes in a variety of versions. The community version of Magento is free; the enterprise version costs about fifteen thousand dollars. The Premium Enterprise Edition of Magento, for example, is geared toward large businesses and costs an average of over fifty thousand dollars a year. If you cannot install the extension yourself, charge a third-party fee. It will be quite expensive. Since it is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, it commands a high price.
4. OpenCart
You can download and update OpenCart, an open-source eCommerce platform, for free. Furthermore, you are not liable to pay any monthly fees for OpenCart. A robust store administration feature lets you manage customers, products, coupon codes, tax rules, orders, and more. Furthermore, OpenCart lets you choose from various themes and modules to expand your online store's functionality.
Advantages
- An intuitive environment to get started
OpenCart makes it easy to know how healthy your business is through its extensive set of reports and metrics. Each report can be customized to meet your needs. To make adjustments to your site, you can filter the data collected by your site. A well-designed dashboard provides you with all the information you need about your store at a glance, making it easy to understand.
- Great shipping method
Currently, OpenCart supports virtually all the shipping methods major e-commerce sites use. If you live in another country, you can use the postal service, such as the USPS, Australia Post, or Royal Mail. FedEx, UPS, and other services are also available. Your customers will be able to receive their products on time if you follow a method designed to work with your present operations.
- Advanced multi-store capabilities
Capabilities for managing multiple stores OpenCart. The word "free" has an attractive ring to it. As you explore the plugins and add-ons marketplace, you'll find that several solutions are free. Integrating different payment gateways into your site without paying anything is possible. Similar services would usually require payment on other platforms.
Disadvantage
- SEO
OpenCart's biggest problem is the creation of duplicate pages, which you will find when you begin building your platform. Your website may have multiple URLs for the same page as you work through the design process. You must implement canonization at a coding level to prevent your link equity from spreading too far.
- Performance
Developing a large and more complicated online store with OpenCart is impossible due to the inconsistency of large-scale extensions. The lack of uncomplicated support for high-level functions limits OpenCart's ability to expand with your business.
5. Prestashop
Open-source, free, and feature-rich Prestashop lets you run your online store either in the cloud or your server. There are approximately 250,000 stores worldwide using this software, and it is available in 65 languages. It is easy to launch a store, although it takes some work. Prestashop's business model involves selling services to its customer base that include optional add-on features and themes. This allows it to offer a sophisticated e-commerce solution for anyone who wants to sell digital or physical goods online.
Advantages
- Highly customizable
Using Prestashop, you can customize your shopping site easily. Features can be added or removed easily based on your needs. In Prestashop website development, specific store areas can be customized easily since it is very flexible.
- User-friendliness
It is easy and convenient to customize Prestashop. An e-store built with Prestashop does not require technical knowledge. The back end is easy to use and has a simple design.
- Strong user community
It has probably the largest user community in the world. Registered users can exchange insights, benefits, and even technological know-how using the platform.
Disadvantage
- Extremely overpriced customer support
There are no Prestashop experts or support teams. Prestashop's biggest flaw is this. Despite this, the users are not bothered by this because there are well over 700,000 active members (on support pages) who always assist the users whenever confusion arises.
- Developer skills needed for deep customization
A great deal of customization is possible, but it requires some technical knowledge. Taking on such a task alone is risky, so many store owners have to hire IT specialists.