Jun 10, 2019
The eCommerce industry’s meteoric rise since the early 2000s has made way for tons of new and innovative platforms to showcase its offerings in the best light. The website host you choose with which to start your online business will have a massive effect on your sales, operational abilities, and how your brand is viewed both online and offline. When running a successful B2B business in 2019, these are a few eCommerce solutions to consider.
Magento
For years, Magento has been an industry leader in the B2B eCommerce space, with a number of robust functions available for the small-business owner. For the price conscious, its platform is available to download completely free of charge through Magento Open Source. Magento Commerce, which we’ll be covering here, is prime for B2B businesses, and has top notch customer support and an extensive knowledge base and forum community for communicating with other Magento users.
Pros:
- Flexible, open source platform with third party integrations
- Vast number of features from multi-store management to multilingual support
- Responsive web design for mobile configurations
Cons:
- Magento Commerce can cost up to twenty thousand dollars per year
- Skilled Magento developers are few and far between
- Learning Magento yourself can be incredibly time consuming
WooCommerce
Despite the interesting name, WooCommerce is simply a plugin for WordPress. Don’t let this fool you, though, WooCommerce has the ability to transform your ordinary website into a beautiful and powerfully integrated online store. This eCommerce solution is free for personal and commercial use, but one must include a plethora of additional costs that come standard in most other platforms. Regardless, WooCommerce is a no-brainer for those already familiar with WordPress and looking to upgrade their site with one simple plugin.
Pros:
- Customer and administrator accounts
- Tons of free and paid themes
- Large selection of plugins and extensions
Cons:
- User friendliness could be improved
- Decentralized support for third-party extensions
- Maintenance of a WooCommerce store will take some work
NetSuite
NetSuite is a leading business management software company boating over 16,000 customers worldwide. In addition to eCommerce, NetSuite’s services are designed for small- to medium-sized businesses with additional ERP and CRM capabilities. After being acquired by technology leader Oracle in 2016, the now-subsidiary company has continually improved its offerings year after year, without fail.
Pros:
- Affordable price structure for most
- NetSuite is natively integrated
- Can provide you with ERP and CRM modules all in one
Cons:
- Limited customizability
- Limited access to sales data
- Not 100% responsive to SEO optimization techniques
Shopify
Founded in 2004, Shopify is one of the oldest and most widely recognized eCommerce solutions currently on the web. It is known for its sleek, sophisticated themes sported by relevant brands, such as Tesla and Adidas. Shopify launched Shopify Plus early 2014 in order to attract large, enterprise-ready organizations like the aforementioned. Whether you’re grossing $10,000 in revenue annually or $10 million, you will certainly be content with the Shopify platform.
Pros:
- Great pricing for tons of necessary eCommerce features
- Very small learning curve, saving you time and money
- Reliable web infrastructure with one of the largest B2B client bases on the internet
Cons:
- When using Shopify Plus, you’re locked in to its capabilities, unlike open source solutions
- Content limitations may force those looking for a fully-fledged CMS to look elsewhere
- While Shopify doesn’t take long to learn, mastering the platform can take time
BigCommerce
Pros:
- Several pricing levels from which to choose, allowing you to spend just as much as you need
- Full content management functionality
- Ability to manually tweak CSS and HTML, as desired
Cons:
- Clunky theme editor
- Extra fees for stores earning $125k+ in revenue
From a front-end web development perspective, each of these reputable companies will provide your end user with very similar usability and design experiences. Your core business strategy will help you identify which of these will suit your personalized needs for the maximum amount of efficiency. However, you cannot go wrong choosing any of the amazing eCommerce solutions outlined here!
