How Do You Select an eCommerce Platform for Business?

Commerce has been around for a long time, and it gets easier with time and the development of digital online marketing. Previously, if someone wanted to create a business and sell goods, they needed a real location that they could either buy or rent. This is one of the reasons why in the past people had to have some savings to start a store from scratch.

So how do you select an eCommerce platform for business? Start with your needs, not the platform marketing: list what you sell, how you take payments, what you can spend each month and how much technical help you have. Then score each candidate on cost, scalability, custom URLs, mobile-friendliness, user experience, speed and checkout. This article compares Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce and Weebly against those criteria and finishes with a scorecard you can use to make the final call.

How to Choose the Best ECommerce Platform for Your Business

Since then, things have changed radically. There are still physical stores, and you can launch one using the same procedures as before, but the most common way for individuals to get started is through digital. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that e-commerce accounted for 17.1 percent of total U.S. retail sales in the second quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted.

Having an online store means less investment in physical things, but you still need a place where you can sell your products. Even though this place is digital, there are still some costs and other types of solutions associated with it.

Starting to build your virtual store can be quite a challenge in terms of choosing the right platform that your store will be based on. There are a huge number of e-commerce platforms out there that can fit all types and sizes of e-commerce needs.

But when it comes to choosing, you can feel overwhelmed by the number of platforms out there and confused about what your needs are as a business that is just starting out. Of course, almost all platforms claim to be the best choice for businesses, but which ones are really right? The sections below cover the features to weigh first, then a few of the most appropriate e-commerce platforms for businesses, so you can make an informed decision in the end.

Features to Consider When Choosing an ECommerce Platform

Before we go to specific ecommerce platforms, you should think about what you need or what is important for your ecommerce business. Once you have decided, you can look at the platforms and what they have to offer and pick the one that best meets your needs. The must-have ecommerce site features are a useful checklist to start from.

ECommerce Platform Cost

Cost is a very important feature, especially if you are just starting out and have limited resources. Costs for e-commerce platforms can range from free versions to thousands of dollars, depending on many factors, such as the features you need and the size of the business.

Most of them have some sort of free trial or free starting plan where you can experience the benefits of the platform before you make a decision. Make sure the price covers all necessary features such as hosting, add-ons, payment processing and transaction fees. Compare the total monthly cost at the sales volume you expect, not just the advertised plan price, and check current figures on each vendor’s official pricing page because plans and prices change often.

ECommerce Scalability

This is also a very important feature because it takes your future into account. Although your resources are now limited and you need fewer options, in the future as your business is successful you may need to add additional features and solutions, such as more staff accounts, more inventory locations, wholesale pricing or selling on marketplaces and social channels.

This is why you should choose a platform that will allow your business to grow in the future without being overly complex or costly. Moving a live store to a new platform later means migrating products, customers, orders and URLs, which is far harder than choosing well at the start.

Website Custom URL

Your store URLs should be customizable so your customers can find you very easily. A custom domain, plus clean product and category URLs that you control, should be included in the platform plan because your store’s success depends on it.

Mobile-Friendly Platforms

Many people now buy products on their phones, so you have to take into account how mobile-friendly the platform is, and how the design can be adapted to fit this. Search visibility depends on it too: Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with a smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking, a practice it calls mobile-first indexing. Preview every theme you shortlist on a real phone, including the cart and checkout.

ECommerce User Experience (UX)

On the same page, the user experience that the platform offers is also very important. The UX has to be very easy to navigate from the customer’s point of view, because no matter how good it looks, if customers have problems with it, then it is a failed experiment. Test search, filters, product pages and the path to checkout as if you were a first-time buyer.

Website Speed

Last but not least is the speed of the website. It is a well-known fact that people feel frustrated when they have to wait more than just a few seconds for a page to load. This can lead to high outbound traffic and low conversion rates, and slowly loading pages will cost you sales in the long run. Google’s guidance on Largest Contentful Paint gives a practical benchmark: a good LCP value is 2.5 seconds or less. Heavy themes, oversized images and too many apps or plugins are the usual causes of a slow store.

Checkout and Payment Security

The effectiveness of the ecommerce checkout process is critical. Check which payment methods each platform supports, whether it charges extra fees for outside payment providers, and who is responsible for card security. The PCI DSS standard applies to any business that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, so understand how much of that burden the platform takes on for you. The PCI Security Standards Council explainer covers the basics.

If these factors are taken into account and established to begin with, comparing platforms becomes far simpler.

Five E-commerce Platforms for Business

We are going to compare and contrast the following ecommerce platforms: Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and Weebly. Plan names and prices change often, so treat the plan details below as a starting point and confirm current pricing on each official site before you commit.

Wix Ecommerce

Wix is one of the eCommerce platforms suitable for businesses with a modest catalog that want a store and a brand website in one place. All website creation is quite easy, as Wix has drag-and-drop editing and AI design tools that allow even people with limited technical knowledge to create beautiful and functional e-commerce stores.

Wix Price

When it comes to pricing, Wix is very affordable for a small store, and you can build your site for free before choosing a plan. To sell, you need the right tier: on Wix plans, accepting online payments requires a Core, Business or Business Elite plan. Higher plans add more advanced commerce and marketing features, so match the plan to what you actually need.

Advantages of Wix

• Templates for your choice;
• Greater flexibility in page design;
• App market;
• Animations;
• Automatic site backup;
• Artificial intelligence design.

Disadvantages of Wix

• The free and entry plans cannot take online payments;
• Loading speed, which is not ideal on design-heavy pages;
• Choose your template carefully, because redesigning later is work;
• Not very customizable compared with open source options.

Shopify Ecommerce

Of course, we cannot discuss e-commerce without discussing Shopify. It is one of the greatest e-commerce platforms available, because it has some incredible sales features that are regarded as industry-leading tools. In addition, there is a large, rich app marketplace with countless plugins that can be used.

Shopify is for people who want to create the ultimate e-commerce experience, and in this context it is a much richer platform than Wix. If you are comparing it with an open source store, see Shopify or WooCommerce on design options.

Price of Shopify

When it comes to pricing, Shopify is logically more expensive than Wix, for example. It is naturally richer in features and functionality. According to Shopify pricing, Shopify sells its main plans as Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Basic includes the basics you need to start a new business, Grow suits a growing business, and Advanced and Plus provide extensive tools for scaling. If you are just starting out, you should only consider the first option.

Watch the payment fees as well as the subscription. Shopify charges an extra third-party transaction fee when you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, and the rate depends on your plan. There is usually a short free trial, so you can check it out before you decide.

Shopify Advantages

• Many themes available;
• Free trial version;
• There are a lot of plugins;
• Integrated payment options.

Shopify Disadvantages

• Expensive as you add plans and paid apps;
• Can be additional fees if you use another payment provider;
• Limited blogging platform.

Squarespace Ecommerce

Squarespace is a good choice for a business because it offers a simple website builder that nevertheless produces stunning results. You have access to an inventory management system as well as a variety of theme templates for creating an e-commerce site.

This system can be integrated into your site to track inventory and let you know when you need to re-stock certain products. Squarespace has a lot of options that you can use to give your consumers a wonderful ecommerce experience.

Price of Squarespace

Squarespace offers a variety of plans to meet the demands of its consumers, and all paid plans let you sell. According to Squarespace pricing, Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, and the Basic plan charges an online store transaction fee that the Core, Plus and Advanced plans do not. Features such as abandoned cart recovery and subscription selling are not limited to the top plan either: Squarespace support says abandoned checkout recovery is available in the Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced plans. Even a basic plan has just about everything you need to start and run a successful e-commerce business.

Squarespace Advantages

• Easy to set up;
• Suitable for simple stores;
• Amazing design templates;
• Free trial version;
• Good SEO tools.

Squarespace Disadvantages

• A transaction fee on the entry commerce plan;
• Fewer third-party extensions than Shopify or WooCommerce;
• Less suited to very large catalogs or complex dropshipping.

WooCommerce (WordPress)

WordPress is designed for companies that require an advanced blog in addition to their eCommerce platform. It is simple to install the WooCommerce plugin in WordPress, and with it, it is simple to develop a website that can handle eCommerce activities. The most valuable aspect of WordPress is that it allows you to construct highly customizable websites with a wide range of features.

Because it is an open source eCommerce platform, you can add almost any eCommerce feature you want to really make your website stand out in Ecommerce. The plugin is user-friendly once set up, and there is a large developer community that can assist you in creating the greatest eCommerce site for your company.

Price of WooCommerce

According to WooCommerce pricing, WooCommerce is a free, open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress, so it is technically free to use. However, free software does not mean a free store. Hosting, a domain, paid extensions and payment processing must be purchased or paid for, and you can accept payments with WooPayments or another gateway of your choice.

WooCommerce Advantages

• Thousands of themes;
• Highly customizable;
• Very affordable with your own hosting;
• You can add additional functions;
• No limits on products and orders.

WooCommerce Disadvantages

• You need to choose and set up a payment gateway;
• You need some technical knowledge to create it;
• You are responsible for hosting, updates, backups and security.

Weebly Ecommerce

It is a low-cost platform that will get you up and running. Weebly was acquired by Square in 2018 and is now part of the Square suite of business tools, which makes it a natural fit if you already take in-person payments with Square. Weebly is a good option if you are just getting started and have a small budget. Furthermore, because the platform is so simple to use, nearly anyone with only basic technical skills can use it to set up an e-commerce business.

Price of Weebly

When it comes to online store price, Weebly pricing shows that Weebly still offers a free plan, which is excellent for beginners. Paid plans add a custom domain and more store features, so check the current plan comparison before you choose.

Weebly Advantages

• Very affordable;
• Integrated apps and Square payments;
• Easy for beginners and very simple to use;
• Themes of your choice.

Weebly Disadvantages

• Not ideal for international websites;
• Limited options for design;
• Fewer advanced commerce features than larger platforms.

ECommerce Platform Selection Scorecard

Use this scorecard to turn the features above into a decision. Give each criterion a weight from 1 to 3 based on how much it matters to your business, score each shortlisted platform from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) after testing it, multiply each score by its weight and add up the totals.

1. Total cost: plan, apps, themes, hosting and payment fees at your expected monthly sales.
2. Scalability: room to add products, staff, locations and sales channels without switching platforms.
3. Custom URL: your own domain and control over product and category URLs.
4. Mobile-friendly: theme, cart and checkout work well on a phone.
5. User experience: customers can search, filter and buy without confusion.
6. Speed: key pages load quickly on a phone, with a good LCP of 2.5 seconds or less as the target.
7. Checkout and payments: the payment methods your customers use, extra fees and PCI responsibility.
8. Ease of setup: what you can build and maintain with the people you have.

Here is a hypothetical example. A one-person candle business with about 40 products weights cost and ease of setup at 3, speed and checkout at 2, and the remaining criteria at 1. After trialing two hosted builders, its scores look like this:

Criterion (weight)	A	B
Total cost (x3)	4 (12)	3 (9)
Ease of setup (x3)	5 (15)	3 (9)
Speed (x2)	3 (6)	4 (8)
Checkout (x2)	4 (8)	5 (10)
Other four (x1 each)	14	17
Total	55	53

Platform A wins for this owner because it is cheaper and easier to run, even though Platform B has the stronger checkout. A business with a developer on staff and a large catalog would weight the criteria differently and could reach the opposite answer, which is the point of scoring against your own needs.

Choosing the Best ECommerce Platform for Your Business

These are just some of the most suitable platforms for business to suit your Ecommerce strategy. The most common problems for businesses are a limited budget and a small number of employees, which means there will not be a developer to assist with the website setup. In this context, choosing a platform that is very easy to set up and reasonably priced is a priority. Once you choose, document how orders, payments, refunds and inventory are handled so every person on your team runs the store the same way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which eCommerce platform is best for a small business just starting out?

There is no single best platform. Hosted builders such as Wix, Squarespace, Weebly and Shopify are easiest when you have no developer, while WooCommerce suits businesses that want full control and can manage hosting. Score your shortlist on cost, ease of setup, speed and checkout before deciding.

Is WooCommerce really free?

The WooCommerce plugin is free and open source, but running a store is not. You still pay for hosting, a domain, any paid extensions and payment processing, and you are responsible for updates and security.

What hidden costs should I check before choosing a platform?

Check payment processing rates, extra transaction fees for outside payment providers, paid themes, paid apps or plugins, domain renewal and any plan upgrades needed for features such as abandoned cart recovery. Add them up at your expected monthly sales volume.

Can I switch eCommerce platforms later?

Yes, but migration takes planning. You need to move products, customers, order history and images, and redirect old URLs so you keep search traffic. Choosing a platform that can scale with you reduces the chance you will need to move.

Author Bio: Angela Johnson is a leadership consultant. She is also a skilled blogger who writes content on topics like business leadership, education and self-growth.