5 Most User-Friendly E-Commerce Platforms

Introduction

Choosing a proper shopping cart is very important. It has to function appropriately with your enterprise. The website builder of your choice should be user-friendly if you stand at the edge of establishing your new eCommerce business. Without your understanding of how to set it up to run, even the strongest feature set would be meaningless.

The shopping cart needs to be simple and intuitive, apart from its core features. In this article, LitExtension – #1 Shopping Cart Migration Expert has examined and compared 5 most user-friendly platforms, which are:

• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• Wix
• Squarespace
• Shift4Shop 

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5 Most User-friendly eCommerce Platforms

Shopify

Shopify was originally started in 2006 and is an extremely user-friendly combination of customizable templates with the most extensive range. It has flourished faster than any other eCommerce solution in recent years. The currently powers more than 800,000 stores and sells over $100 billion with over 1,000,000 active users on-board. Shopify is a hosted SaaS platform, so you do not have to concern about bug fixes. This may sound strange, but at first Shopify was designed as a snowboarding website which has recently begun the revolution in e-commerce. Convinced that no current framework could build the estores you’ve imagined in your dreams? Shopify has exceeded wildest fancy. It has its own official theme store, and all themes are able to be personalized and updated in a complete list, so no coding is needed. All in all, Shopify is considered as one of the most user friendly platforms.

Pros of using Shopify

• The top-notch feature is a beautiful design: Dozens of trendy luxury themes show you how an elegant brand shop ought to look like and be made. No experience programming is required – just use your mouse to start the magic.
• A one-stop eCommerce site: As a fully-hosted template-based solution, Shopify takes over from a store owner and provides protection, continuous updates, and identification and reporting of bugs.
• A clean and modern interface that is easy to use: It is the best choice for thousands of newcomers and/or users with little technical expertise, being an easy-to-use shopping cart.
• SEO compliance: Shopify makes it pretty easy to achieve the best and become a SEO expert. Additionally, you can maximize your site’s performance by the access to Shopify SEO apps.
• Full-Stack customer support, made of seasoned and attentive experts from Shopify. You can use e-mail, live chat, and phone 24/7. In the meantime, the Shopify Help center has sufficient documentation and FAQs that users usually find to solve common problems.
• Multi-channel integrations: such as Snapchat, Twitter, Amazon and eBay. Go to the cheapest prices scheme-Shopify Lite-for only $9 a month, you will have access to the social sales.

Cons of using Shopify

• Extra charges: Depending on your turnover, pricing strategy, location and profitability for the shop, Shopify charges an additional transaction fee (for example, Stripe or PayPal) for the payment processor fee.
• Multilingual store: There is a wide range of models for bilingual online shops, but their functionality is costly or quite restricted.
• Shopify jargon: You would need time to get accustomed to the specific grouping, such as the use of “collections” over “categories,” etc when you switch your current stores from some other platforms to Shopify.

Pricing

The cost of Shopify’s pricing plans per month are:

• Basic Shopify: $29
• Shopify: $79
• Advanced Shopify: $299

Shopify Basic can satisfy your needs unless you run a large shop. You will receive discount codes, unrestricted storage products and multi-channel integration. Upgrading to Shopify or Advanced Shopify provides better analysis and reporting.

BigCommerce

How if LitExtension said “BigCommerce the biggest competitor of Shopify” to you?

BigCommerce is the first alternative and the most similar solution in the hosted eCommerce market next to Shopify. BigCommerce operates as a SaaS network for other sites as well as a shopping cart. All is innovative and fashionable here. The flying characteristics are twofold: award-winning store management and versatile transport solutions for live sales and cost estimation. In addition BigCommerce easily combines with popular social networks such as Amazon, eBay, and others, so if you intend to create a multi-channel shop, choose this website developer above anything else. With the benefits that BigCommerce brings about, it is recognized as one of the most user friendly platforms in e-commerce.

Pros of using BigCommerce

• BigCommerce provides over 60 payment connecting gateways such as PayPal, ApplePay, Stripe, AmazonPay, and so on. It helps users to create an online e-mail address for visitors who take part in the marketing process and leave the shop without buying. This is involved as one of the best-abandoned machinery savers around. This feature can increase your sales dramatically.
• Support service packed with strength. Customers receive telephone, live chat, forums and FAQs with technical help. By the way, consultations can be obtained through official websites on Facebook and Twitter.
• An app store with a wide range of extensions to help you increase your sales potentials.
• Unprecedented collection of communication tools. You can set up a wide variety of loyalty programs, incentives, infinite product variations, coupons and discounts with BigCommerce.

Cons of using BigCommerce

• The integrated blog does not make RSS feeds simpler to use.
• Annual online sales restriction: You will be forced to upgrade your income for a more expensive payment plan, if your annual income exceeds the limits set. Your monthly cost, platform transaction fees, credit card fees and add-on fees are all included in BigCommerce.

Pricing

Features	BigCommerce Standard	BigCommerce Plus	BigCommerce Pro
Monthly Price	$29.95	$79.95	$249.95
No. of Products	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
24/7 Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Coupons, Discounts and Gift Cards	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blogging	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free SSL	Yes	Yes	Yes
Customer Segmentation	No	Yes	Yes
Abandoned Cart Server	No	Yes	Yes
Google Customer Reviews	No	No	Yes
Real-time Shipping	Yes	Yes	Yes

WIX

Any other platform is underwhelmed when compared to WIX in terms of user-friendliness. It is a website builder drag and drop that can be used without a code line. WIX’s become a competitive alternative in the last years, when Shopify and WooCommerce enjoyed their hype, with a supporting community and an incomparable number of features that everyone comprehends.

In 190 different countries WIX has more than 100 million people onboard. Everyone can set up an online store with its beautiful, professional templates of more than 500 available. With the user-friendly editor, you can drag content anywhere on your web and your online shop can draw visitors’ attention and turn them into admirers. WIX lets users to remain in their free plan as long as they wish, unlike Shopify. Four payment plans are also available (actually as very price-effective), and costs range from $13 to $39. With its outstanding benefits that customers could gain from, WIX is thought to be one of the most user friendly platforms in e-commerce.

Pros of using WIX

• Sophisticated design: WIX allows you to create your own excellent design in a very short time with loads of customizable, stylish and modern models.
• Intuitive interface drag&drop: The drag-down interface is very easy to start with. A quick question. Can an online shop be launched overnight? Well, no way if you’re not going to opt for WIX. Just simply select what you need (image, slideshow, text) and place your image wherever you wish.
• Free plan: First and foremost, WIX grants you a risk-free opportunity to try the program upside down, so you know exactly what to expect before you move to the premium plan. Packages provide you with more efficient, interactive resources, but they are not a must.

Cons of using WIX

• Not a pure forum for eCommerce. WIX certainly isn’t for you if you’re only keen on originally created shopping carts. It is above all a builder of a website, which can also sell stuff. E-Commerce capabilities can therefore be a little fundamental.
• You can use over 500 professional templates, but without redesigning your site you can’t switch templates.
• Value for money: May build a shop free of charge, but users must upgrade them for three economic e-commerce plans to sell.

Pricing

The three WIX plans for eCommerce business are:

• Basic – $17/month
• Unlimited – $25/month
• IP – $35/month

  

Squarespace

Similar to WIX, SquareSpace is another website builder that doesn’t need coding experience, and in very short amount of time has become a significant eCommerce player. It has sophisticated designs, like many others on this list, to get you started. Not all consider coding is fun, so if you don’t know how to write a line of code and you don’t want to learn it –SquareSpace is accessible. SquareSpace concentrates on esthetics and has branded itself towards creative industries like fashion, music and art. For a long time, SquareSpace is one of the most user friendly platforms in e-commerce.

Pros of using SquaresSpace

• Simple to use and understand are the built-in plug-ins with the platform itself. No programming or coding skills needed to establish your store after migration or restart it.
• High-quality photographic themes and models that do not need additional modification and adaptations.
• Tech support is available through a wide range of platforms, including email, live chat, online forums and training videos to prevent tech errors.

Cons of using SquareSpace

• No telephone suopport. You won’t receive immediate help if a problem is needed.
• Limited SEO optimization software.
• For general, advanced marketing tools and innovative customer loyalty programs are lacking.

Pricing

• $12: Personal SquareSpace
• $18: Business SquareSpace
• $26: Basic Commerce SquareSpace
• $40: Advanced Commerce SquareSpace

  

Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop (previously 3dCart) offers merchants around the world a simple and powerful platform to build and manage their online store and the eCommerce solution is a practical solution. Both small and large retailers could use integrated social media interconnection, order management technology, e-mail marketing tools,  and loads of other comprehensive apps to grow and extend their activities. Shift4Shop, with its advantages, has been listed as the top most user-friendly platform in e-commerce.

Pros of using 3dCart

• Offer sellers a powerful productive forum for online marketing and sale and provide consumers with a smooth and simple online way to order.
• Check your eCommerce code absolutely via the safe administrative interface of 3dCart. Safe access from any computer connected to the internet to the network, client information, shop inventory, and invoices.
• Choose from a wide array of free and professional templates or have a personalized premium theme designed for your store, product, and image.

Cons of using 3dCart

• 3dCart measures bandwidth slightly differently than other eCommerce software platforms. The number of visits you shop every month will track their bandwidth. Since no option exists to choose unlimited bandwidth, you can expect to pay overhead charges for exceeding your bandwidth limit. The new overage bandwidth charge is $5 per gigabyte exceeding the limit.
• Old-fashioned admin interface: The one field 3dCart is not able to fix, even after many user requests. In addition, 3dCart has lacked a modern-look manager interface. Though consumers don’t often see the backend, I believe that a horrible backend has bad impact on user-friendliness as shop owners are going to spend much of their time on the store.

Pricing

Features	Startup	Basic	Plus	Pro
Monthly price	$19	$29	$79	$229
Annual price per month (10% discount)	$17.10	$26.10	$71.10	$206.90
Transaction fees	None	None	None	None
Order limit	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Maximum products	100	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Number of staff users	1	2	5	15
24/7 support	Online	Phone and online	Phone and online	Phone and online
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited

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Conclusion

You can give your favor to one of these five most user-friendly platforms when you launch an online shop with little experience. They all provide these apps and services as standalone solutions so that you can concentrate on what you are really keen on – online sales. You will find a good outlook on your business by understanding all your needs and requirements in advance. In this article, we have illuminated these top five website builders to build a successful online store in the view of our first-hand experience. These 5 carts also top the preference of many customers who’ve been using our service, as well as the most popular migrations we have performed so far.

Use LitExtension – #1 Shopping Cart Migration Solution migration demo when you are still not sure what your match is fine. Merchants could take a quick peck at how the migration work.  You could check which one is your favorite shopping cart. We support migration frrom over 100 shoppingping cart

Thank you for keeping up with this article this length. We hope that this comparison among 5 most user friendly platforms in e-commerce has helped you to get to know these 5 platforms and at some point, you could make up your mind about which platform you’ll be settling with in the future. Should you have any concerns, don’t hesitate to leave us a message via live chat on the website or an email at [email protected]. Join our Facebook Community to get more eCommerce tips and news.