Webshop Platforms for Connected E-commerce. The Top 5

What are my top five webshop platforms for connected e-commerce? In short, there are many options for webshops that can be connected to a supply chain. If you want to avoid developing connectors yourself, then it makes sense to look into platforms that have standard supply chain add-ons available. These are typically the most popular ones, such as Magento, Woocommerce, Prestashop, Shopify, and Batavi.

Most popular platforms?

Which webshop platforms are the most popular? In conclusion, WooCommerce is by far the most popular platform of 2020. Also, among Icecat customers WooCommerce, Prestashop, and Amazon are the most used platforms.

Best choice for your business?

What is the best webshop choice for your business? That depends of course on your specific requirement. In general, all platforms have the same basic functionalities. But, some are more feature-rich than others. These platforms are often more complicated and expensive. When making a choice, you have to pay attention to the small differences.

In short, in the table below you will find an overview of my top five e-commerce platforms with their various features. In order to see what suits you best.

Open source	+/-	+	+	–	–
Flexible to build	+	+	+	–	+/-
Popular	+	+	+	+	–
User friendly	–	+	+	+	+
Quick set-up	–	+	+	+	+
Support included	–	–	–	+	+
Enterprise version	+	–	–	Only Shopify Plus	+
Good reviews	+	+	+	+	No reviews
Template available	+	Limited	Limited	+	+
Free version	+	+	+	+/-	–
Commercial upgrade?	+	–	–	+	+

Magento

What are the pros of Magento? First, it allows you to fully control how you deliver your customer experience, without limits. Second, Magento enables merchants to sell customizable products and digital goods online. Third, it enables merchants to handle the complexities of B2B commerce. Fourth, it supports various payment solutions such as PayPal and Amazon Pay. And finally, Magento web stores can also be used and managed mobile.

The main con is that hosting Magento is very “heavy”. Therefore a good hosting package is required. Further, users experience a loss of performance when no extensive hosting package is chosen. When this is the case, you will immediately notice this in the speed of the system. Another issue is ‘bugs’. Magento suffers from bugs relatively often. Some disappear like snow in the sun, but others are sticky. And finally, Magento is complex. Not in the last place because different commercial or community versions can be incompatible.

WooCommerce

The main advantages of WooCommerce are the availability of an endless number of plugins and its scalability. But, also the seamless integration with WordPress, good product presentation, ease of adding product variants, its user-friendly interface, good search engine optimization, and the presence of a global community for asking questions.

But, the cons are that WooCommerce has only a limited number of free templates and there are hidden costs related to maintenance, upgrades, and managing the interactions between plugins.

In conclusion, WooCommerce is a great low-entry option if you already have experience with WordPress as a website management tool or if your budget is very limited.

Prestashop

The pros for Prestashop are first the availability of an endless number of plugins. Secondly, its scalability. Thirdly, good product presentation, Fourth, ease of adding product variants. But also its user-friendly interface, good search engine optimization, and the presence of a global community for asking questions.

But, the cons are that Prestashop has only a limited number of free templates and there are hidden costs related to maintenance, upgrades, and managing the interactions between plugins.

Shopify

In short, Shopify has a global user base that provides ratings and community support and guaranteed performance and security in its own cloud hosting. Furthermore, it has all the bells and whistles. For example, it is easy to use, has standard online marketing options, and had a 30-day trail. But also supports a responsive design (for mobile and tablet) with many themes you can adjust yourself and provides a wide choice of “add-ons”.

On the other hand, you should check carefully whether Shopify has the integrations you want. But, the installation process is slow and is more vulnerable to hackers as you can customize it. And in addition, its built-in blogging platform is not the best. Further, a lot of Shopify jargon is thrown at you as a user. Finally, it is difficult to switch to another platform.

Batavi

The pros of Batavi are that is a fully flexible template system for business-to-business applications. Most important, it has a complete content management platform and customer-specific pricing support. Further, it has modules for payment, or shipping available, and it supports related products for cross- and upselling. Another pro is its content management system that is fully integrated with product content providers. For example, an Icecat interface is standard available. The Icecat specifications can be used for product search and product comparison.

A drawback is that Batavi has still a less extensive installed base than the other four mentioned webshop platforms.

In conclusion, Batavi is a great B2B webshop option. A hidden gem.

How to connect?

We have experience with connecting Magento Commerce, WooCommerce, Prestashop, Shopify, and Batavi. We created standard addons to these platforms for Icecat and supply chain solutions of Iceshop. For example, Icepim, Iceorder, and Iceimport. Also, we can set-up a total solution for you including required hosting, and help you navigate through the selection process.

Source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/best-ecommerce-software/