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Why Use Shopify? 26 Pros Share Their Thoughts

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated July 6, 2021

why use shopify?

If you’re investigating your options when it comes to ecom platforms and trying to figure out which would be the best fit for your business, you’ve definitely come across Shopify.

It’s the most popular solution available today with well over 2 million stores being run on it. But why use Shopify? What is it that makes it the default pick for most ecommerce businesses?

We thought it’d be interesting to put this question to a group of people that are extremely familiar with the inner workings of Shopify, and know exactly where its strengths lie. We got in touch with 20+ Shopify experts that use the platform every day and asked them each to provide one answer to the question of “Why use Shopify?”

We’ve compiled all of these reasons to use Shopify in this article to give you some insights into the benefits you can expect to take advantage of should you choose to use the Shopify platform for your store.

 

Why Choose Shopify? Here are the Biggest Reasons

Before we discuss the reasons to choose Shopify in more depth, we’re going to cut to the chase and show you the factors that have the greatest pull when it comes to people using the Shopify platform.

During our research in putting together this article, we asked 30 Shopify pros, each of whom have worked with the platform extensively, what they consider to be the 3 biggest benefits of using Shopify? The most commonly cited responses are shown in the chart below.

Biggest Benefit of Using Shopify
(Feel free to use this chart. Grab a copy here)

A lot of the most common responses to this poll really serve to highlight what pulls many businesses towards Shopify; it makes e-commerce accessible, in several different ways.

Firstly, you don’t need lots of technical knowledge. Sure, it helps, but it’s not necessary. Its user interface is easy to understand, even if this IS your first rodeo. It’s a hosted solution, which takes a lot of the technical setup + security considerations off your plate from the get-go, and the extensive app ecosystem allows you to add pretty much any functionality you might need to your store within a few clicks, often for very low cost and sometimes even for free.

And that leads us to one of the other major benefits that our expert panel highlighted. It’s very accessible in financial terms too. You can launch a new store for quite literally less than a new cell phone contract (Basic plan + free template), and unlike the cell phone, you’re not locked in. If it doesn’t work out or you want to jump ship, you can. They don’t feel the need to trap you, which I personally always find pretty reassuring.

Scalability was another popular response, with Shopify having the infrastructure in place that allows the platform to get you online when you’re still working out of your garage, and grow with you no matter what heights you reach. The experts also felt that the flexibility Shopify offers (you can build virtually anything you’re likely to want or need) and the outstanding customer support are other major reasons to choose Shopify for your store.

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • Best Ecommerce Platform for Small Business? What 78 Industry Pros Think
  • Best Shopify Themes – 58 Experts Vote
  • The Best Ecommerce Books? (27 Ecom Pros Share Their Favorites)
  • Top Reasons for Cart Abandonment + Solutions
  • All Ecommerce Resources

Reasons to Choose Shopify

 

Why Use Shopify? 26 Reasons to Choose the Platform

Shopify has become the first port of call for most businesses that sell products or services online. It’s incredibly popular. But why? Why use Shopify? Especially when there are dozens of other solutions out there.

That’s the question we set out to answer. We wanted to really get to the bottom of exactly why Shopify has become the “big dog” in the ecom space. Below you will find an overview of all of the Reasons to Use Shopify that we curated during our survey.

  1. Brilliant for Direct-to-Consumer Sales
  2. Built for Businesses of All Sizes: From Startup to Enterprise
  3. World-Class App Ecosystem
  4. It’s Risk-Free
  5. Amazing Partner Community
  6. POS System
  7. Streamlined Sales Process for Both Customer + Vendor
  8. Incredible 1st Party Solutions
  9. Internationalizing Your Brand is Very Easy with Shopify
  10. It’s the Best Multi-Channel Platform
  11. Perfectly Optimized for Mobile
  12. Its Script Editor for Creating Customisations (Shopify Plus)
  13. Very Easy and Flexible to Work With
  14. Headless Commerce capabilities
  15. Can Handle Lots of Traffic
  16. Great to Use from an SEO perspective
  17. Start at 2nd Base, Instead of from Scratch
  18. Theme Store Offers Well designed, High Quality, Scalable Themes
  19. Extensive Free App Library and One-Click Install Solutions
  20. Tag Functionality
  21. Lots of Payment Gateway Options
  22. Analytics are Detailed and Precise
  23. It’s Conversion Ready + Provides Superior Conversion Rates
  24. Shopify Reduces Abandoned Carts
  25. Integration with Amazon Marketplace
  26. Run Your Business Wherever You Are

Do you feel strongly about a benefit of the Shopify platform that is not on our list? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section of the article!

 

What the Experts Said: Reasons to Use Shopify Explained 

I’ve rambled on for long enough. I’m the messenger, nothing more, so I’m now going to leave it to the real experts to talk through the reasons why they think Shopify is a great e-commerce platform. And remember, these are folks that know it inside out and have set up all manner of businesses on Shopify.

A particular talking point caught your attention? Use the filters below to skip to it.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • DTC Sales
  • Scalability
  • Script Editor
  • App Ecosystem
  • Risk-Free
  • Partner Community
  • POS System
  • Sales Process
  • 1st Party Solutions
  • Internationalizing Brand
  • Multi-Channel
  • Mobile Optimized
  • Easy to Use
  • Headless Commerce
  • Handles Lots of Traffic
  • SEO Ready
  • Start at 2nd Base
  • High-Quality Themes
  • Free App Library
  • Tag Functionality
  • Payment Options
  • Shopify Analytics
  • Conversion Ready
  • Abandoned Carts
  • Amazon Integration
  • Location Independent
Ben Rummel
Father, husband, designer & Shopify expert living in Minnesota. I love branding small businesses from the ground up and helping Ecommerce stores get the traction they need to succeed.
https://www.benrummel.com/

  • Theme Store Offers Well designed, High Quality, Scalable Themes

    – “If you are looking for a way to launch your online store without knowing how to code, then the Shopify theme store is for you. The Shopify theme store offers a large variety of modern templates that are incredibly easy to customize to fit the needs of your store. Not to mention, they are a cost-effective way to get your store up and running without hiring a developer for far more money.

    A Shopify theme is what determines the look, feel, and functionality of your store. Let’s face it, how your Shopify store looks directly affects your credibility. The way customers perceive you in the first few seconds can make or break a sale. Professional looking Shopify themes are proven to keep your visitors intrigued and can give you a competitive advantage over your competition. They have many different styles and layout options to design and structure your home page, category pages, product pages, and all other pages of your site.

    In order for a theme to make it into the official Shopify theme store, each theme goes through a rigorous list of tests and requirements for usability, SEO, site speed, Ecommerce best practices, cross-browser compatibility, responsiveness, code compliancy, unique layouts, attention to detail, functionality, etc… Shopify’s own in-house theme team reviews every line of code created for themes offered in the official store. Only themes in the official Shopify theme store have undergone this extensive quality review. So you know you’re getting a quality concrete foundation for your store with a theme from the official Shopify theme store.

    There are free themes and premium themes in the theme store. Although in my experience, you get what you pay for. Think of your theme as an investment. The free themes are good, but not great. They offer the bare minimum features to get your store up and running (side note: free themes are preferred as a base for developers to create a fully custom store design, because there’s not much excessive JS or HTML to get in the way of creative coding). Any theme between $100-$170 are mid-level and have more customizable sections and features than the free ones. The $180 themes are the highest quality and have the most customizable/rearrangeable sections, best developer support, constant bug fixes/updates that are free to you, and all the bells and whistles. They are definitely worth the higher price point and in most cases, never need any code manipulations to meet your store’s needs. Some of my favorite go-to $180 themes are Impulse, Prestige, Motion, and Empire.

    Check out the industry survey we did on the best Shopify themes

    Shopify also saves the users time and frustration of finding a theme by integrating a theme filtering system into their theme store. Users can easily filter their theme choices to find the theme that supports the size of their product catalog, desired features or functionality, marketing tactics, and by industry. Finding the correct theme that is suitable for your store is important because it helps you to manage and display your content and products properly to your buyers.”

Richard Forbes-Simpson
Shopify Developer working with some of the biggest and fastest growing brands in the world.
https://graftstudio.com/

  • Script Editor to Create Customisations

    – “Shopify has some very cool features and useful tools when merchants make the upgrade to Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus is a plan option available to merchants operating on a more enterprise level where sales, orders and daily visitors are significantly higher.

    One such feature is access to its Script Editor to create customisations typically done with third-party apps. You can write your own scripts to enhance the checkout and shopping experience.

    Such examples are:

    Percentage-based discounts (i.e Buy one get one free)
    Product bundles and product combination offers
    Dynamic pricing for volume-based price breaks (great for wholesale).

    There are many more examples but it’s a very powerful feature for merchants who want to extend the capability of Shopify to tailor their business’ needs further.”

Sam Trotter
Columnist, speaker, consultant and independent brand evangelist, Trotter specialized in startup, small and medium sized brands and builds effective marketing frameworks for sustainable growth.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samtrotter/

  • Built for Businesses of All Sizes: From Startup to Enterprise

    – “Whether you are targeting your 1st sale or your 100,000th, Shopify was built with you in mind. If you have never built an ecommerce store before, Shopify has made it easy for anyone to get started. Making a store is COMPLICATED and Shopify has simply demystified it. Tackling shipping, taxes, credit card processing, inventory… it’s TOUGH.

    Shopify has easy integration options to make sure your site doesn’t sit there incomplete. After you’ve finally gone live, the Shopify platform is built for your continued growth. Whether that’s through apps you want to connect, increasing your inventory management, reducing your costs with a different credit card processor, Shopify has made everything easy and upgradeable.”

Lucy Kelly
Lucy started her handmade jewelry business bel monili in 2010 from her home-based studio in Pittsburgh, PA. She now teaches other handmade entrepreneurs how to build and grow their craft businesses online through her online course Bloom: Get Online, Grow Online.
http://www.bloombybelmonili.com

  • POS System

    – “Shopify’s Point of Sale (POS) System allows Shopify store owners to seamlessly move from online to in-person sales without having to worry about syncing inventories or even needing to scan bar codes. This feature is extremely valuable for users with retail or pop-up locations in addition to their online store presence.

    The ability to merge both ecommerce and in-person sales with the POS system gives the store owner the ability to manage their inventory across sales channels while gathering customer data all in one place. The transaction fees are competitive at 2.7% for Basic plan users, 2.5% for Shopify plan users, and 2.4% for Advanced plan users.

    There are several different hardware options available: the simple Tap & Chip card reader ($49 USD) allows a Shopify user to connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to a mobile device, making it a great option for sellers at places like pop-up markets or mobile boutiques. The Retail Stand ($149 USD) allows the user to use an iPad as their display to accept payments, while the Retail Kit ($229 USD) gives you both the Tap & Chip card reader as well as the Retail Stand. (iPad is not included in any of these).”

Firuza & Ramin Sultanov
Founders of ECOM ACADEMIE: an e-commerce agency
https://ecomacademie.com/

  • Extensive Payment Gateway Options

    – “Shopify offers a vast amount of payment providers that you can connect to your store in order to receive payments from clients all over the world. Depending on where your business is located you are presented with different payment gateway options: PayPal, Stripe, Shopify payments, 2checkout etc. If the most popular choices (like Stripe & PayPal) aren’t available in your country, Shopify allows you to choose from other options.

    Connecting a payment gateway is relatively easy and straightforward. Shopify is also the only e-commerce platform (as far as we know) that has it’s own payment gateway – Shopify payments. Depending on your business needs you can connect one or even several gateways. For instance, you can accept credit card payments through Stripe but also integrate PayPal, which allows customers to pay using their PayPal accounts. This gives customers flexibility and choice, which in return increases conversion rates.”

Veronica L Jeans
Veronica Jeans is an Ecommerce consultant, Shopify Partner, and Bestselling Author. She has extensive experience helping Shopify businesses grow in the global marketplace - from startups to brick-and-mortar stores. She has worked in international business for over 35 years and her key to success has been never giving up on anything!
https://veronicajeans.com

  • Run Your Business Wherever You Are

    – “Entrepreneurs usually multitask and like to remain in control of their businesses in order to run them effectively. Responding fast is essential for businesses to compete in fierce competition for customers. Shopify offers a variety of inherent Apps that make it possible.

    On the go, Shopify can be used in several ways to run a business.

    1. In Shopify, you can enable push notifications to receive an alert every time an order is placed with your store.

    The Shopify app badge icon shows the number of open orders for one store only.

    With an Android phone, you can still receive the push notifications with SMS, but the app badge icon is not available as yet.

    With an Android phone, you can still receive the push notifications with SMS, but the app badge icon is not available as yet.

    2. The Shopify Mobile App is the complete store on mobile. Store owners can manage their online stores with the Shopify Mobile App, which allows them to:

    • Add and manage products and collections,
    • Fulfill orders and create shipping labels,
    • Create offline orders,
    • Refund customers,
    • Manage inventory levels,
    • Communicate with customers,
    • Compare and manage sales channels,
    • Change settings,
    • Manage staff,
    • Share order information with your staff,
    • Track revenue and other analytics throughout the day.
    • And a lot more.

    Adding shortcuts to Siri for sales, visitors and orders is another cool feature of the App Settings on mobile.

    3. Shopify Mobile App also lets you access different store dashboards if you have multiple stores.

    The app can be downloaded by logging into your Shopify account via a browser and downloading the application.”

Ben Bitvinskas
Co-Founder @ Atlasmic
https://atlasmic.com

  • Extensive Free App Library and One-Click Install Solutions

    – “One of the most compelling reasons to choose Shopify over its competitors is its extensive free app library with one-click install solutions. You have a wide range of alternatives not just for adding functionality to your online ecommerce store but also for connecting it with other tools. You pay for the Shopify plan, but in return, you can get tons of great apps that are free and available only on Shopify.

    Shopify App Store

    Not only you can select an app from 8 main categories, but there are also 43 subcategories – from store design improvements, marketing tools to customer service and sales. A constantly growing developer market provides better tools every day, and seamless integrations mean that you can install those apps with a single click.

    From the user experience perspective, it means that you no longer need a developer to help you out installing those widgets. Remember when you needed to install a sales tool and it required javascript to be added somewhere in the code? The Shopify App Store makes it easy for you and saves you from these headaches.”

Devon Chulick
Devon is a product manager with 10 years of experience, working for companies like Chubbies, Everland and Dollskill. He is currently the cofounder of StartPlaying.Games.
http://devonchulick.com

  • Incredible 1st Party Solutions

    – “Shopify is always looking at its app ecosystem and the SaaS solutions offered to its users. When they find a powerful solution, they integrate it as a first-party feature. As customers looked for Remember Me payment solutions, Shopify released Shop Pay. This linked every other Shopify store customer to the same account that could be used across Shopify stores, even if you haven’t shopped with that specific brand before. A customer who just bought a pair of Chubbies Shorts, who then goes to All Birds to buy some shoes, will see they can easily pull up their previous payment method.

    Shopify continues to look for opportunities to create first-party solutions for its platform based on trends and customer data. Just this past year, Shopify released their native solution for Buy Now Pay Later. Usually, a BNPL solution is a payment gateway that takes the user off-site and then processes their payment. With the release of their native BNPL solution, users never leave checkout.

    Shopify continues to find solutions for the largest trends in ecommerce.”

Jason Stokes
With 15 years in the industry, Jason has helped hundreds of ecommerce businesses grow and thrive. An entrepreneur with a passion for creating and innovating, he’s worked with many clients across a range of industries and loves nothing more than seeing a customer's business succeed.
https://eastsideco.com/

  • Great to Use from an SEO Perspective

    – “Shopify is great in that it allows ecommerce businesses of all sizes to create beautiful and functional online stores, but that would be pointless if customers weren’t able to find them.

    Many potential customers start their search for products they’re looking to buy in Google, and stores will only appear in the results if they work well from an SEO point of view. Shopify allows stores to be optimised for SEO to maximise the chance of appearing in front of their customers in the search results, which is absolutely essential.

    While SEO is a long-term strategy, it’s important to get the basics right straight away. Shopify has been created with SEO in mind, so it allows merchants to optimise key areas like title tags, URLs, alt text and meta descriptions. There are also some automatic SEO features taken care of for merchants like automatically generated sitemaps and robots.txt files, and canonical tags added to pages to stop duplicate content issues.

    The way that Shopify stores are structured make them easy to crawl and be understood by search engines and there are many Shopify themes designed to be responsive, fast and mobile-friendly, which helps from an SEO point of view as well.

    All of these factors add up to improve the SEO performance of the sites, and helps Shopify store owners gain more traction and visitors by appearing in front of more of their customers, more of the time.”

Mitchell Davies
Digital Project Manager at KiwiSprout. KiwiSprout is a New Zealand digital agency that offers strategic partnerships to Shopify Plus and high growth Shopify stores.
https://kiwisprout.nz/

  • Headless Commerce capabilities

    – “A key advantage of the Shopify platform is their Headless Commerce capabilities.

    Headless Commerce separates your storefront that customers interact with from your back-end systems such as order fulfillment and inventory management, giving you more creative and functional control. With Headless Commerce, you can take your branding and checkout anywhere you like, whether that be on the web, mobile app store, gaming, or any other platform.

    Shopify is one of the best options for Headless Commerce because their Storefront API and SDKs enable you to quickly get to market with all your ecommerce needs on whatever customer-facing experience you create. The documentation and community also makes it easier for developers to create their first Headless Commerce experience.

    Shopify Plus takes this a step further again with faster API call rates and exclusive APIs, helping large and quickly growing ecommerce brands scale.

    If you need to integrate a number of critical business systems with a high level of control over how your website looks and works, all tied together in a highly performant storefront, Headless Commerce with Shopify is your best pick.”

Chen Zissu
Shopify expert | Helping merchants drive success through innovation
http://zissuglobal.com/

  • It’s the Best Multi-Channel Platform

    – “In the past few years, Shopify has shown itself to be the best O2O platform – or in other words, the best platform to connect offline to online. However, developing hardware and its own integrations between the offline experience (POS) and the online store is only one step they’ve taken to become a multi-channel monster. Shopify has integrated more and more social media channels so you can list products from Shopify to their catalogs and it was the first platform to enable product tags on TikTok.

    In addition to POS + social media channels, Shopify has integrated and developed more and more marketplaces. It was the first and only platform to integrate Walmart and develop its own marketplace to sell B2B called Handshake. And this is just a small taste of the integrations Shopify has developed to become the best multichannel platform to sell everywhere through one place.”

Rebecca Worsley
CEO of Rainy City Agency, Shopify Experts specialising in Design, Development & CRO
https://rainycityagency.com/

  • Perfectly Optimized for Mobile

    – “With mobile shoppers continuously on the rise and with most stores having an unbalanced split of 70/30 Mobile to Desktop, it’s imperative that your shop is mobile optimised. Shopify was designed with mobile responsiveness in mind. It is nearly impossible to build a Shopify store that is not responsive on mobile.

    If you don’t have a developer to help build your Shopify store, carefully selecting a theme file to work from will ensure that your site is responsive from the beginning, allowing you to launch easily without a hitch and worrying if your mobile customers will be able to make a purchase without issues. If a theme is not mobile responsive, Shopify will not approve it to be featured in the official Shopify theme store. This is why we recommend starting from an approved Shopify theme as a base template. Additionally, you can easily manage your entire Shopify store from their iOS or Android application.

    If you do have the capacity to work with a Shopify Expert that specialises in UX design and development, they will know and understand the importance of enhancing your site to be designed and built mobile-first. There is a difference between a site that is responsive and one that has been designed with a mobile-first approach in mind. The issue with just relying on mobile responsiveness is that it’s not been fully designed for mobile; there are lots of variables that need to be taken into consideration when designing for mobile. The goal is to ensure it’s a lean design that offers a laser focussed user experience, and you can later enhance this further when you start to work into desktop. By working this way round you’re serving the majority of the customers who shop via their mobile device.

    One of the first things to think about is content. Lots of text isn’t going to work with a mobile-first design. You need your call to actions clearly visible and to have short, snappy text that’s going to speak directly to the user and cover as much as possible without the need for scrolling.

    Shopify gives you the option when designing and building sites to enhance your site for mobile. There are no limitations when it comes to what you can do with your design and development on the Shopify platform, so always remember – mobile first!”

Channing Muller
Channing Muller is an award winning marketing & public relations consultant and the principal of DCM Communications. She works with event professionals and business owners to grow and scale their businesses with refined marketing strategies developed through one-on-one and group consulting, customized marketing programs and public relations.
http://www.dcmcommunications.com

  • Streamlined Sales Process for Both Customer + Vendor

    – “When it comes to selling tangible products, Shopify is definitely what I recommend to my clients. The platform is built for it and provides a very streamlined process for sales from receiving an order confirmation to printing shipping labels and tracking inventory for each item.

    There are a variety of carrier options to choose from for shipping so you can set the prices, process(and profit margins) as works best for your business. Then you can easily tick off when it’s been shipped and the customer gets an email notification. Everything is so smooth for the buyer from clicking “add to cart” through checkout and then for you as the shop owner from receiving the order to dropping off packages. Win-win on both ends.”

Omer Riaz
Omer Riaz worked for over a decade as an IT consultant for big four consulting firms. Seven years later Urtasker.com has a team of about 200 e-commerce experts spanning over three global offices and we are going strong- managing over 200 brands selling on Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart.
https://www.urtasker.com/

  • Integration with Amazon Marketplace

    – “One valuable reason brands, especially new small businesses, should use Shopify is their ability to integrate with Amazon. This integration provides an opportunity to connect with millions of potential customers instantly, who are searching within the Amazon marketplace for products. Shopify provides a feature that allows companies to create Amazon listings, link already existing Amazon listings, as well as syncing inventory and fulfilling orders.

    This is great for small businesses that don’t have a huge marketing budget and want to focus on growing sales quickly, and are not so concerned about building a brand (initially). Our clients have experienced as much as 20% to 30% increase in their sales when harnessing the native integration that Shopify offers with Amazon.”

Dave Hermansen
An 18+ year ecommerce veteran, Dave has been featured in national media several times as an e-commerce expert. He and his brothers have owned more than 150 web stores and currently manage more than a dozen eCommerce websites in addition to running their eCommerce training program and website brokering service.
https://storecoach.com/

  • Shopify’s Tag Functionality

    – “Shopify offers a “tag” function that no other “out of the box” shopping cart platform provides. Tags provide you with a great deal of flexibility and functionality.

    You can create filters with tags that allow customers to drill down on the exact product they are looking for. For example, if your website sells televisions, customers can use checkboxes to narrow the selection by size, brand, smart/non-smart, price, etc. giving them the ability to end up with only a few products that meet their needs exactly. This is normally something that can only be done with high-priced add-ons or custom programming with other shopping carts, if it is possible at all!

    Tags also allow you to easily assign products to one or more collection (category) without having to manually add them. Just create a new collection and tell Shopify to add any products that contain a certain tag. Putting multiple tags on a product allows it to show up in multiple places.

    There are even more ways you can use tags … you can add tags to products so that they show up when customers search using specific words. You can add tags to your customer’s detail page and then use those tags to filter customers – very handy for bulk emails and upsells (e.g. all customers in the MidWest or all customers who used financing to purchase products – they usually have “money left to spend”). You can even place tags on orders and filter orders by those tags (e.g. tag all orders for a certain type of product so that you can quickly see all of the customers that bought that type of product – again, very handy for email blasts and upsells).”

David Eberst
Co-Founder at Mustbuy GmbH from Hamburg, Germany. Our brands include NAIPO which has an international presence.
https://www.naipo.de

  • Internationalizing Your Brand is Very Easy with Shopify

    – “The first option is to add further subdomains to your existing account (free of charge) and edit the payment and language settings accordingly.

    This option is relatively easy to set up and a good option if you want to test the waters in a new country. Also, it’s the best option if you want to deliver almost identical content to the audience you want to target with the new subdomain.

    The second option, which we opted for, is creating a new Shopify account and tailoring the content to its full extend for the new ccTLD (top level domain). This is the more systematic yet more expensive and time-consuming option.

    Nonetheless, the second option really helped us gain way more traction internationally, and, due to Shopify’s user-friendly backend, we can switch between the country-specific websites effortlessly. Furthermore, it’s very easy to assign access and create teams to country-specific Shopify accounts with this option which helps to maintain accountability.

    Lastly, it`s very easy to export and import all products from one store to another. Even code customizations can be copy-pasted into the new store – if required. All in all, it’s easy to duplicate the existing store and make the required changes on the new, country-specific, Shopify account.”

Chase Clymer
Chase Clymer is the Co-founder at Electric Eye where his team creates Shopify-powered sales machines from strategic design, development, and marketing decisions. He is also the host of Honest Ecommerce, a weekly podcast providing online store owners with honest, actionable advice to increase their sales and grow their business.
http://electriceye.io/

  • Brilliant for Direct-to-Consumer Sales

    – “If your business is selling a product online direct-to-consumer, Shopify is the best option. It’s the only platform built from the ground up to sell products, and it does it very well. It can also scale all the way up to enterprise-grade performance with Shopify Plus.

    The ‘limitations’ that people seem to complain about aren’t ever an actual issue. The lift to migrate from another platform to Shopify down the line sometimes is a complex process, so just save yourself the headache, and pick right the first time.

    If you’re selling B2B or high-ticket items, Shopify is probably not the best item. It’s very much specifically well suited for consumer goods.”

Stephen Carl
Founder of Needle Movement, a conversation marketing agency that helps Shopify brands affordably double down on email marketing and SMS.
http://www.needlemovement.com

  • Start at 2nd Base, Instead of from Scratch

    – “The tough road of eCommerce is figuring stuff out, right? And any eCommerce team member’s time is best spent on growth, not keeping the ship afloat.

    Shopify is an excellent starter kit and onboard ramp to multi-million dollar sales simply because the ecosystem is already built out. You don’t need to be the first one to do anything on Shopify.

    The website themes and functionality are industry-leading so Shopify stores rarely have to worry about the basics: in design, marketing or tech.

    There are thousands of third-party integrations available today and many are just plug-and-play, taking less than a business day to go-live.

    And wow, the network effort. That’s what gets lost when we all go deep in the rabbit-hole of evaluating eCommerce tech and checking off the boxes.

    Shopify has an enormous, engaged community of partners and active users which allows its active participants to learn faster.

    With any burning question you have, there’s usually a dozen people who have worked through the same project before. Even the growth playbooks have been around for years – tried, tested and optimized.

    With most business decisions on Shopify, you’re not flying alone. Shopify stores can have informed opinions and inputs to draw from which makes a world of difference since eCommerce success is always based on the ability to optimize ahead of the competition.

    That’s why Shopify is such a popular shortcut for eCommerce businesses, like starting at second base, instead of doing it all from scratch.”

Maude Lavoie
French Shopify Expert and Digital Consultant in Quebec, Canada. I help business owners to improve their Shopify Store, automate their processes and make more sales.
https://nitromedia.ca

  • It’s Risk-Free. For Real!

    – “You don’t need to invest a huge amount of money to start to sell online. You can scale at your own pace, adding experts, apps or custom code along the way.

    If it doesn’t work, which could happen since that’s also part of starting a business, you won’t have lost a fortune.

    But when it works, you’ll get amazing ROI 😉

    • Shopify constantly updates its platform.
    • They also conduct fraud analysis on each order made through Shopify Payments.
    • It never goes down because you have too many users on your website. (Ask any Dragon’s Dens participant. Shopify never fails their merchants)
    • It’s simple and fast to use.

    All this for 29 bucks.

    As a developer, I could see Shopify as an enemy. But it’s not. It’s an ally. I can focus on helping business sell online instead of developing a store from scratch every time (as I would need to do with WordPress).

    WordPress/Woocommerce’s time is up. Merchants want to try something by themselves and after that come to Shopify experts for advice about taking their Shopify store to the next level.

    Shopify makes e-commerce simple for merchants. And that’s what they need in this uncertain time.”

Adam Binder
Keyword-cruncher, customer-collector and web designer extraordinaire. Adam is the Founder of Creative Click Media. If he's not in front of the computer marketing your business, he's playing with his son, Miles. Tweet him at @AdamBinder_
http://creativeclickmedia.com

  • Shopify Reduces Abandoned Carts

    – “The COVID-19 pandemic forced consumers to spend more time shopping online than ever before, which consequently led to more abandoned carts than ever before. In fact, research published in March 2020 found that the average cart abandonment rate across industries was at a massive 88%. If your online shop were a brick and mortar store, this would be like watching nearly all of your customers fill up their carts before dropping them off at your register and leaving empty-handed. Pretty frustrating, right?

    Although it can be disheartening to see so many almost-sales sitting in the backend of your website, Shopify’s abandoned cart tracking technology makes it so no potential conversion is a lost cause. If Shopify is able to connect an abandoned cart to an email in your subscriber database, it will send them a link to revisit the products or services they left behind the last time they were on your website. Sometimes a reminder is all your customers need to finish their purchase, and Shopify takes care of the nudging for you so you can focus on driving new customers into your sales funnel.”

Brian Lim
Brian Lim is a serial entrepreneur who has bootstrapped three eCommerce businesses that include iHeartRaves, INTO THE AM, and Emazing Lights which collectively forms The Emazing Group and grosses over $30M per year. Brian was on Season Six of ABC’s Shark Tank where he received offers from all five sharks.
https://www.intotheam.com/

  • Can Handle Lots of Traffic

    – “We migrated from Magento and we absolutely love Shopify Plus. The main benefit is that we no longer feel like our tech is built on a house of cards. After appearing on Shark Tank, we knew that being featured on a highly viewed television show would attract quite a bit of website traffic.

    In the year leading up to the episode’s air date, we purchased thirty servers, simulated load tests, and invested over $500,000 to make sure the Magento site could handle the massive influx of traffic that would be coming our way. But when the episode aired, the site went down. In the world of eCommerce, uptime means everything! A lot of money was lost that day and that never would have happened if we would have been set up on Shopify to begin with.

    It was complicated to migrate over from Magento, but once we were fully on the Shopify ecosystem we were able to do the same functionality in 1/4 of the time it took on Magento. Installing apps without a developer and test servers has been a dream come true.”

Kerrin Hands
Kerrin is the founder of Elevatr Digital, a branding and design agency that helps Shopify ecommerce retailers succeed. We have deep experience in building ecommerce websites on the Shopify platform.
http://elevatrdigital.com

  • Shopify is Easy and Flexible to Work With

    – “Having worked in ecommerce for eight years, I’ve tried quite a few of the ecommerce CRM platforms. Six years ago I decided to only work with Shopify. Why? It’s just so damned easy, flexible and effective for the end-user.

    Six years ago, admittedly, Shopify was pretty basic, but nonetheless powerful, and simple to use. It was sometimes difficult to persuade my clients to move to Shopify because of its simplicity; they felt that it wasn’t a serious product. As Shopify has invested in its platform and grown exponentially as a business, it is now taken seriously as a powerful ecommerce tool by businesses of all sizes.

    And it is the flexibility, combined with power and intuitive ecommerce flows, that helps vendors of any size to use Shopify. Solopreneurs and side hustlers can set up a basic ecommerce store with little knowledge and no experience in coding, at a low monthly cost. Larger businesses can invest in the Shopify platform safe in the knowledge that the platform is flexible for growth and is straightforward for their staff to use.

    What Makes Shopify Easy to Use?

    • Set up the basics of a site in minutes
    • Easy to add and edit sections to build your brand story content
    • Easy to create a basic, yet effective, branded site
    • Intuitive ecommerce features
    • Easy to set up shipping
    • Simple, effective checkout
    • Secure servers and payments
    • Deep app ecosystem
    • Basic SEO built-in
    • Amazing step by step help documentation
    • Quick and knowledgeable support
    • Simple to understand analytics
    • Built-in Marketing channels
    • Easy to set up and sell on social media.

    Branded Site Content

    Not having to spend time, energy and money on building and developing a site means those resources can be directed to what really helps sell your product or service, and that is beautiful and engaging branded site content with a solid brand strategy and ecommerce flow.

    I advise investing in a premium theme such as one made by Archetype, which have useful and powerful features to help you sell, and make designing your own site even easier. Saying that, I have built many successful ecommerce experiences using the simple sections on the basic Debut theme with no customization, and this is due to the client investing in authentic branded site content. One such store is now on Shopify Plus and still on the same Debut theme I set up several years ago!

    Summary

    At the end of the day, Shopify is a fantastically powerful and easy to use tool, but it is how you use the tool that matters. Before you start a store, invest in your brand strategy, brand design and think about the ecommerce flow.

    Your theme is your palette, try to use the sections available to build your site with the branded content you have developed. Any other necessary functionality can be added using the excellent apps in the App Store.”

Dan Sheard
Managing Director of Velstar, Dan Sheard and his team of ecommerce experts help brands scale globally through the power of Shopify Plus, with clients including Avon, Public Desire, Linda Farrow, and BOYY. Having worked in ecommerce for many years, Dan has unparalleled experience when it comes to helping brands achieve success.
https://velstar.co.uk

  • World-Class App Ecosystem

    – “One of the biggest benefits of Shopify is its app store. From email marketing and reviews to shipping and inventory management, merchants have unlimited access to the broadest range of third-party technology providers at their fingertips. And because each app integrates seamlessly with Shopify, merchants can focus on growing their business from every angle without worrying about downtime.

    Also, Shopify’s ecosystem continues to attract the very best talent to create new and valuable technology integrations. This commitment to innovation ensures businesses on Shopify always remain one step ahead of the curve.”

Daniel Nordby
Web developer, Shopify theme and app builder, and general e-commerce enthusiast.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nordbydaniel

  • Amazing Partner Community

    – “Shopify is a brilliant platform. But it is not all things to all people – perhaps intentionally so. While it grows at a thoughtful and careful pace, it also systematically cultivates partner relationships on several tiers.

    On the agency tier, Shopify knows its partners well. Referrals aren’t a perk of being in the Shopify club. Rather, Shopify has an intimate knowledge of which agency specializes in specific areas, and refers incoming merchants to the best fit. This intentional system allows agencies to flourish while simultaneously ensuring merchants launch with their specific needs addressed by the best in the industry.

    On the technological tier, Shopify has made its APIs open and widely available for any use a developer can imagine. This means platform extension where shortcomings might previously have been perceived. Metafields are a great example – only accessible via an API, the average user won’t ever touch metafields. However open APIs, plus app developers, equals a range of solutions that allow merchants to extend and enrich their data models in ways that are not considered “out of the box,” via metafields. The win-win is that developers can market their talent for real payoff while merchants receive plug-and-play solutions to some of the most challenging and frequent issues a retailer can face.

    Finally, on a general community tier, Shopify has struck a unique balance where knowledge-sharing is built into the nature of its ecosystem. From their Partner Slack channel to developer and merchant forums, it’s apparent that partners aren’t information hoarders. Shopify has been able to manage and grow its community connections to build trust between partners – even those who are direct competitors – to genuinely care for the merchant and their success. Ask any question you can fathom and there are likely dozens of people, from various echelons of the Shopify environment, who will swoop in to aid you and ensure your success.”

Viktoriia Pavlova
Ecommerce CRO and User Experience expert working with DTC brands & Ecommerce growth agencies
https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktoriia-pavlova-uxui-designer/

  • It’s Conversion Ready + Provides Superior Conversion Rates

    – “A beautiful online store is useless if it doesn’t convert visitors into paying customers. Shopify tackled this issue within its core. Every step of user experience from browsing through products to buying is optimized for conversion no matter whether you use free or paid themes, whether you use extra upsell apps or not.

    Shopify offers built-in multichannel selling, ready-made abandoned cart recovery emails and upsell features in its original offering, which pushes clients to complete the purchase and buy more. And the best part, store owners don’t have to spend hours configuring those features or go through the guesswork. Everything is ready and pre-packaged.

    If you want to take your conversion optimization game to the next level, Shopify offers a lot of upsell and cross-sell apps that really work. Something no other platform is offering.

    Detailed (yet simple) conversion rate analytics allows you to make better decisions and adjust your product offers and user experience to boost sales.

    From my experience, brands that moved from Woocommerce to Shopify generate on average 30% more sales!”

Ari Oster
Ari Oster is VP of Growth at Technology Commerce Management - TCM. He is an inventor and entrepreneur, passionate about building online products that people can use and enjoy. In recent years, he's focused on e-commerce and currently in charge of promoting 28 e-commerce brands in different vertical markets.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arioster/

  • Analytics are Detailed and Precise

    – “TCM is a tech-first e-commerce aggregator that relies heavily on big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology for e-commerce store optimization and growth.

    Shopify analytics are a huge advantage for us because the analytics provided through the platform are so detailed and precise. We can take advantage of the analytics in a variety of ways that benefit each store, as well as our company as a whole.

    • Shopify analytics, reports and 3rd-party apps bring together the entire view of the store metrics in one place, from logistics to customer journey and the conversions funnel. These numbers are crucial to achieving our monthly and annual goals for individual e-commerce stores. This data helps us to make intelligent decisions.
    • Since TCM is an e-commerce aggregator that manages many stores on the Shopify platform, we benefit from the Shopify API as an enabler for gathering all the metrics from all the stores into our business intelligence (BI) tools. It accelerates the way we control and grow our business.”

Filed Under: Ecommerce

Best Shopify Themes? We Asked 58 Experts What They Think

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated July 6, 2021

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no added cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Best Shopify Themes

Shopify is undoubtedly one of the most widely-used ecommerce platforms with close to 1.4 million stores running on it. The fact that the combined sales of all Shopify merchants came to an incredible $5.1 billion during the Black Friday Sale of 2020 really does emphasize that fact. And that’s growth of over 74% year-on-year.

The design and usability of your store will have a big impact upon whether you’re able to share in that success, which brings us to the focus of this article; Shopify themes. There are hundreds to choose from when setting up shop. But which one will show off your products in just the right light? And which one will turn curious shoppers into paying customers?

We wanted to help you on this quest to find the perfect theme, so we got in touch with over 50 Shopify experts and asked them for their thoughts on the matter. “In your experience what are the best Shopify themes to use?” we asked.

These are pros that have built hundreds of Shopify stores between them; they do this for a living and know what it takes to get results. The list of recommendations that we ended up with are all themes that are battle tested and proven to provide a great foundation for a thriving Shopify store.

So whether you’re just setting up your first Shopify store or have been thinking about changing the theme on an existing store, you’re likely to find a few options worth investigating further.

The Best Shopify Themes? How Our Experts Voted

Theme# of Votes
#=1. Impulse16 Votes
#=1. Prestige16 Votes
#2. Flex - Use Coupon Code 2035 for 20% Off13 Votes
#3. Debut11 Votes
#4. Turbo - Use Coupon Code 2035 for 20% Off9 Votes
#5. Motion8 Votes
#6. Streamline5 Votes
#=7. Empire4 Votes
#=7. Warehouse4 Votes
#=8. Showcase3 Votes
#=8. Shella3 Votes
#=8. Parallax3 Votes
#=9. Venue2 Votes
#=9. Avone2 Votes
#=9. Narrative2 Votes
#=9. Canopy2 Votes
#=9. Split2 Votes
#=9. District2 Votes
#=9. Wokiee2 Votes
#=10. Story1 Vote
#=10. Context1 Vote
#=10. Minimal1 Vote
#=10. Envy1 Vote
#=10. Responsive1 Vote
#=10. Brooklyn1 Vote
#=10. Flow1 Vote
#=10. Venture1 Vote
#=10. Pacific1 Vote
#=10. Belle1 Vote
#=10. Ella1 Vote
#=10. Shoptimized1 Vote
#=10. Boost1 Vote
#=10. Atlantic1 Vote
#=10. Debutify1 Vote
#=10. Palo Alto1 Vote
#=10. Vogue1 Vote
#=10. Superstore1 Vote
#=10. Testament1 Vote
#=10. Divi1 Vote
#=10. Modular1 Vote
#=10. Ecom Solid1 Vote
#=10. Theme Kit1 Vote

There were 42 different Shopify themes mentioned by the pros that we surveyed, and you can see the full list in the table above. As you’ll notice though, there were several that were consistently recommended and it’s the top 5 that we’re going to focus on in particular. These were Impulse, Prestige, Flex, Debut and Turbo. This leading pack contains both free and premium options, and caters to a variety of different needs, which we’re going to discuss below.

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • Best Ecommerce Platform for Small Business? What 78 Industry Pros Think
  • The Best Ecommerce Books? (27 Ecom Pros Share Their Favorites)
  • Top Reasons for Cart Abandonment + Solutions
  • All Ecommerce Resources

A Closer Look at the 5 Top-Voted Shopify Themes (Including Both Paid + Free Shopify Themes)

1. Impulse

Impulse is the best Shopify theme if you want to give your store a clean and modern look. It’s developed by ex-Shopify employees who know exactly what works well with the Shopify platform so you don’t need to worry about any technical hiccups (phew!). It’s got a bunch of cool features like the possibility to add custom HTML, Shop the Look, beautiful transitions, and it works exceptionally well on mobile.

The best part about this theme is that it’s a great fit for stores of all sizes, and works very well for those that have a larger product range thanks to robust collection page filters and live search functions that are built-in. And if you’re a sucker for CRO (+ you should be), it’s loaded with features to help you convert more visitors into customers.

More Info


2. Prestige

If you require a store that has visual storytelling at its core and places a real emphasis on images, Prestige might be the right option. It allows you to add numerous high-quality images to show off your products without slowing down the site. The minimalist design coupled with a silky smooth UI/UX makes it a great theme for boutique stores — especially those selling high-end jewelry, fashion, and cosmetics products. 

It was created by Shopify Experts who found it hard to find the right theme for their clients. They decided to fill in the gaps and create a theme that contained everything they felt other options were missing. Image hotspot linking, clean, well written code, and the fact that it’s very well optimized for mobile users are all aspects of this Shopify theme that make it very highly regarded.

More Info


3. Flex

Flex can be whatever you need it to be. Design constraints are commonplace (and often frustrating) with a lot of themes, but forget about them here. This Shopify theme is super customizable and is a great option if you need to have a lot of control over your store and make something truly unique. But the best thing is that you have all of this flexibility without needing to dive into the code-base. It’s also fast-loading, SEO friendly, comes with 13 pre-built demo layouts and works amazingly well whether you sell just one product or thousands.

It is produced by the very highly regarded pros at Out of the Sandbox, so you can count on first-class support and future updates to keep your store running smoothly.

More Info


4. Debut

Debut is free (one of the best free Shopify themes according to our survey) and comes automatically installed on any new store, which makes it incredibly easy to get started if you’re new to the Shopify platform and still learning the ropes. It’s also a great option if you just need to get a store live quickly, possibly to test a product concept you have, or to use as a foundation for a more complex custom built store since its code is very well written and already stripped back.

While it’s true that Debut doesn’t offer you all the bells and whistles that other Shopify themes on this list do, its barebones design ensures it’s not only one of the easiest themes to use, but that it’s also one of the fastest loading Shopify themes (very important in the world of ecommerce!). Additionally, Debut is regarded by many to be the most web-accessible theme currently available.

More Info


5. Turbo

As the name suggests, Turbo is built for fast loading speeds and takes a mobile-first approach. It’s also a great option for CRO enthusiasts as it gives you loads of call-to-action options, allows you to build cross-sells and upsells on the shopping cart page, and much more. Turbo is built by the talented folks over at Out of the Sandbox, who as we mentioned earlier have a stellar reputation in the Shopify space, meaning you don’t have to worry about suspect support or the theme not being properly maintained in the future.

Its powerful feature offering and versatility make it a good option for store owners that maybe don’t have a crystal clear vision of what they want their store to look like, but are intent on creating something that helps them to “stand out from the crowd”.

More Info


 

Read What The Experts Said: Picks for “Best Shopify Theme” Explained

Below you can read exactly what each Shopify expert recommended and why. These people are deeply knowledgeable about all things Shopify, including themes, and if you’re in the process of choosing a theme, I think you’ll find the insights shared very useful.

If you’re interested in what was said about a particular Shopify theme, use the filters below to skip right to those comments.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • Impulse
  • Prestige
  • Flex
  • Debut
  • Turbo
  • Motion
  • Streamline
  • Empire
  • Warehouse
  • Showcase
  • Shella
  • Parallax
  • Venue
  • Avone
  • Narrative
  • Canopy
  • Split
  • District
  • Story
  • Context
  • Minimal
  • Envy
  • Responsive
  • Brooklyn
  • Flow
  • Venture
  • Pacific
  • Belle
  • Ella
  • Shoptimized
  • Boost
  • Atlantic
  • Debutify
  • Palo Alto
  • Vogue
  • Superstore
  • Testament
  • Wokiee
  • Divi
  • Modular
  • Ecom Solid
  • ThemeKit
Richard Forbes-Simpson
Shopify Developer working with some of the biggest and fastest growing brands in the world.
https://graftstudio.com/
  • Prestige – “Geared towards giving the ‘high-end’ feel, this Shopify theme has it all. Used by some pretty well-known brands, it’s fully customisable, easy to use and comes with many components essential for high conversion rates.”

  • Debut – “The theme that comes already installed in your Shopify account. No other Shopify theme has offered merchants their first look-in to how their store could look and as much inspiration for start-ups bootstrapping their new businesses. Very much a ‘bare-bones’ theme with simplicity in mind, it offers merchants the platform to scale-up with ease. Has also helped many beginner Shopify developers with learning how the theme codebase works. Probably the most influential and impactful theme out there in that respect.”

Stephen Carl
Founder of Needle Movement, a conversation marketing agency that helps Shopify brands double down on email marketing, SMS and messaging apps.
http://www.needlemovement.com

“As marketers, our #1 goal with a Shopify website is that it’s conversion-friendly and that it doesn’t create too many headaches (or time-suck). That gives us the necessary headspace to focus on growing the business.

We’re big fans of Out of the Sandbox themes and here’s why: they’ve been battle-tested already as they are the current backbone of many current Shopify Plus stores.”

  • Flex – “My favorite Sandbox theme is Flex (Turbo gets second place) You can find dozens of Flex live store examples HERE (and swipe great ideas for your own site!) New features are released frequently and there’s a large Shopify community online via Facebook Groups (such as Shopify Entrepreneurs) and other forums.

    Flex does cost more than other Shopify themes (btw, it goes on sale frequently on Out of the Sandbox’s site). IMHO, the overall time saved in outside developer costs is well worth it.

    Some of the killer Flex features include: Mega-menus, Having 13 different overall store templates to choose from, 3 different product page layouts and CSS customization.

    It’s a multi purpose solution that covers most out-of-the-box Shopify store needs and helps to move the needle.”

Galen King
Galen is the founder and creative director of Lucid and has been a Shopify partner since the very beginning.
https://lucid.nz

“When choosing a theme for Shopify, it is important not to make your decision based on the design or content of the demo store. Design and content are easy to change—it’s layout, functionality and user-experience that is harder and more expensive to change later on.

We pick Shopify themes based on the desired functionality of our clients and focus less on the look-and-feel.

We look for themes that are well-built with thoughtful code patterns and minimal bloat or technical debt. We actually prefer themes with fewer settings but with a good number of sections and content blocks to enable merchants to easily add messaging and storytelling.”

  • Impulse – “All Shopify themes by Archetype Themes are well built with thoughtful features and design elements. Impulse is well-suited for larger-inventory stores as it has robust collection page filters and type-ahead search built-in without the need for apps.”

  • Prestige – “Prestige is beautiful and functional and works well for more curated catalogs while also supporting large-inventory stores. It has some lovely merchandizing elements like “shop the look” and “buy this with” built-in.”

  • Debut – “Shopify’s default free theme is well built and lean, making it a reliable starting point for any major custom build. With fewer features and functions and minimal design opinions, we often use Debut as a framework for more complex stores.”

Zlatko Bijelic
Founder at Tako Agency
https://www.takoagency.com

“At Tako Agency, we love to build fully custom (unique) eCommerce experiences for our clients. A fully-custom build (no theme) is considered our high-tier of our service offerings. The majority of the time, the clients that can afford that level of service are doing $5-10M in revenue per year. There is a lot that goes into the process of customization. As a fallback, most of our clients are completely satisfied with a more Hybrid approach. A hybrid approach is where we take the Out of the Sandbox Flex theme, and we make necessary customization within that framework. For example, a client may love the theme, but they don’t want to feel like they are using something that other merchants out there have – so we will design and build them a custom homepage, product page, and any other pages they need within the OOTS theme framework. Alongside the ad-hoc page changes, we will rebrand the theme to match the merchants’ brand.”

  • Flex – “The Out of the Sandbox theme(s) are built to scale and give the merchant the ability to change content for marketing purposes (colors, fonts, text, images, etc.) right from the Shopify theme customizer without the need of having to go into the code-base. They are also SEO friendly and have an excellent code structure for those who want to go in and make some code-base changes.

    When clients are at a crossroads or need to launch sooner rather than later, we recommend that they look at OOTS as a primary option.”

Liz Bertorelli
Liz Bertorelli is a Social Lead at TikTok Canada and owner of Passionfruit, a LGBTQ Lifestyle brand with over 7 years of Shopify experience.
http://twitter.com/@liznlbee
  • Minimal – “For those just getting started and looking for a simple and clean theme to use, you can do no harm with Minimal. It’s always been my go-to theme when starting up a new Shopify store, no matter what the niche. It does have a few styles to pick from, as well as features I personally didn’t expect it to have – like product filtering and an image zoom function on product pages.”

  • Showcase – “This is one the best Shopify themes and a personal favorite. Showcase is one of the more visually interesting ones but doesn’t sacrifice function. Yes, you can have it all with this theme – form, and function. While I absolutely love how bold and at the forefront the product photography is, I really appreciate how clear and seamless the user experience is from the sticky navigation all the way to checkout.”

Adam Bastock
Adam is an eCommerce SEO Consultant growing Shopify stores to their first £1m in revenue.
http://www.abastock.co.uk
  • Story – “One of my favourite Shopify themes is the (Paid) Story. Out of the box, you can create simple but powerful mega menus, without the need for third-party apps.

    Many of the stores I’ve worked with have struggled with navigation that couldn’t keep up as their product ranges grew.

    One of the key tools Shopify store owners have when it comes to SEO is creating dynamic collections that organise their catalogue according to the customers’ needs. Being able to improve internal navigation via a clean, simple mega-menu from day 1 is a huge benefit. Other eCommerce platforms are far more challenging to create these flexible collections with – so Shopify owners need to make the most of it!

    Story’s native menu design also removes the need for additional apps that can be code-heavy, causing partial loading “Content Layout Shift” issues as menu code loads over the top of other menus, and generally slows the site down and gives a bad experience.

    It’s quick too, scoring well on GTMetrix and Lighthouse – though this can quickly change depending on what other apps you’re using. Honourable mention goes to Warehouse, which has even more navigation flexibility but fails to deliver a good balance of design and function.

    When choosing a Shopify theme, navigation can easily be overlooked as a dull functional aspect – customers (and Google) need to easily find your products!”

Mike Wagan
First Verified Shopify Expert & Ecommerce Consultant in the Philippines, working with SMEs and Corporations since 2007 on their Shopify setups & ecommerce digital marketing strategy.
https://mikewagan.com
  • Empire – “This theme is my go-to Shopify theme for Shopify setups that have a huge number of products. The live search function is one of the highlights, and this also looks really nice on mobile with the search function fully visible. The updates for this theme are also very constant and their support is top-notch! And once you own this Shopify theme, you have access to lifetime support, so you don’t have to worry about having your theme becoming outdated and needing to pay again for the updated version.”

  • Wokiee – “There’s a bunch of great Shopify Themes on Themeforest, but if you are looking for a more affordable Shopify theme that’s jam-packed with features then make sure to check out Wokiee. One of the best features of this theme is that it is highly customizable, with a plethora of layouts available, especially for the homepage. Whether you need a theme for a big inventory or you are a startup and just have a handful of items in your shop, they have a layout for that!

    On top of that, they also have added features that you would otherwise need Shopify Apps to replicate, saving you from having to commit to monthly payments. And the mobile layout is really good too!

    One drawback of having a Themeforest Shopify theme is that you will have to re-purchase their support if you need to update your theme after 6 months or a year – but its definitely worth it since their customer support is awesome, plus the support that Themeforest has for its customers is great!”

  • Venture – “If you are just starting out, strapped for cash and looking to DIY your Shopify store then the Venture theme is your best free option IMHO. It looks good, really clean and simple, and the mobile layout is also very intuitive. With some of the Shopify setups that I have completed – this is the one most preferred by businesses who need to get their Shopify stores up and running ASAP. The code is also lightweight, making your Shopify store load fast – which is very important since visitors want fast-loading websites. So, for the best free Shopify theme option – my vote goes to Venture.”

Samuel Larsen
Over the years, Samuel has been a consultant for some of Shopify’s largest online stores. He has been a Shopify certified marketing and setup expert since 2016 and currently runs a Shopify store optimization agency, CRO Gurus
http://www.crogurus.com
  • Flex – “If budget is not an issue, and you are looking for a fast, easily customizable Shopify theme, Flex would be my go-to recommendation. The unique thing with this theme is that it comes with 13 prebuilt demo layouts and options so that you can more easily get your store launched. We’ve tested this theme thoroughly and found it to be both fast and versatile.

    Also, since this theme is made by Out of the Sandbox, you can count on them for future updates and quality support.”

  • Shoptimized – “This is a theme that has been made purely with conversions in mind. It is not a good fit for stores focusing on their brand or looking to achieve a high-end look. However, if you are mainly selling products under $100 and don’t need a beautiful store, this is likely to be a perfect choice. The nice thing about this Shopify theme is that it has a lot of functionality built into the theme, so you don’t need to worry about using as many apps.”

Jasoliya Brijesh
I started working on Shopify in 2016, and now run a small development company called Codify InfoTech, which specializes in Shopify store design and development.
https://codifyinfotech.com
  • Debut – “I will recommend the free Debut theme that is provided by Shopify.

    I am suggesting this theme because it has all of the features that are needed for any eCommerce store, like slider, best header and menu + footer, image and text section, product section etc.

    It is the most usable theme from Shopify’s free theme offering. We can make all changes on the Debut theme that clients need, as it’s such a simple and clean coded theme with minified Js and css code. That helps the store to run faster than other Shopify themes.

    You can manage the look and feel of the theme from the editor directly, no need to dive into the code. You can manage color, text, font and size.

    Overall, in my experience, the Debut theme is a great option for most stores.”

Esti Meisels
I am the founder and Head Spade at Code & Spade. I have a BA in Marketing and Design, and a background in UX/UI. I combine creativity + strategy + knowledge to deliver design that’s disruptive and effective. Over the past 3 years I have serviced over 75 clients and have assisted in generating millions in revenue for my clients.
http://codeandspade.com
  • Wokiee – “Having a Shopify theme that is easily adaptable based on your needs is both a benefit in saving time and money. Some of the reasons why I will always opt for Wokiee include the many features that come native to the site such as mega menus, filters, stickers, compare, wishlist, instagram shop/feed, related products, special price count down and many more. Plugins often slow down your site and are the leading cause for bugs. (Hey, didn’t you opt for Shopify for the seem-less experience?)

    Wokiee comes with over 75 predefined skins/layouts making it most ideal for small businesses who don’t have the budget to spend on customizing them.

    The code is very clean and organized which enables developers to make quick changes and allows the non-tech-savvy guys the flexibility to edit everything on the front end.

    Overall it is a win for clients, designers and developers alike.”

Olivia Kuczynski
Co-founder of Maukau, France’s very first Shopify-only agency. We help brands launch their Shopify stores and scale their business. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): conversion optimization, branding, and funny cat videos.
http://www.maukau.com

“In no particular order, here are the 3 best Shopify themes we recommend: Turbo, Prestige, and Impulse. These are all feature-packed themes that can provide a great result out-of-the-box, but can also serve as super solid foundations to build custom features on top of!”

  • Turbo – “In terms of features, Turbo is one of the most (if not the most) powerful Shopify themes out there. This is why we often use it as a canvas or toolbox for merchants that don’t have a clear idea of what they want just yet on their store. Turbo’s wide range of features makes it adaptable to small catalogues right through to stores with hundreds or thousands of products. Although we don’t usually recommend purchasing themes outside of Shopify’s official theme store, the incredible developers behind Turbo are well-established actors within the Shopify community and are known for their outstanding customer service!”

  • Prestige – “As its name implies, Prestige’s design is particularly suited to high-end brands with beautiful imagery. It provides numerous advanced features, including some hidden ones (e.g. product-specific tabs on the product page), so it’s always useful to have a look at the theme’s documentation, as some of its functionalities might be real game-changers for your store.”

  • Impulse – “In many ways, Impulse can be seen as a hybrid of Turbo and Prestige, mixing fancy features and eye catching design. Thanks to its flexibility, two stores using Impulse can end up with a totally different look and feel.”

Mike Giordano
Go to guy on demand for successful roll-out and management of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing Solutions; specializing in generating revenue and customer loyalty for Shopify and BigCommerce stores through full circle digital marketing and optimization strategy.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgiodigital/
  • District – “This Shopify theme is hot right out of the box, and packed with all kinds of flexible homepage sections that allow me to quickly create a beautiful onsite experience for Shopify stores. Really good for apparel or showcasing any kind of brand that is really aesthetically focused. Top-notch support team makes for nice icing on the cake.”

  • Testament – “Another aesthetically awesome Shopify theme right out of the box, with an absolute abundance of flexibility in how and where things are displayed. I’m a big fan of how easily I can build sections at full width or not, 2:1 column structure, etc. And another awesome support team behind the product.”

Ilana Davis
Ilana Davis is a Shopify Superhero who works with e-commerce shops to remove friction from the buying process. She rescues websites to attract more visitors, provide better SEO, and increase conversion rates at a fraction of the cost of a full redesign.
https://www.ilanadavis.com/

“The best Shopify themes – well that depends. I know frustrating! Yet they all have their pros and cons. I’ve listed my go-to themes below. When choosing the best Shopify theme for your store, make sure you check all the features, decide which are most important to you and go with that one. It’s a lot easier to grow into a theme (more than you need) than it is to customize the code (what works now). Custom code gets expensive especially if you don’t have a developer on staff. So get a Shopify theme you can grow into!”

  • Debut – “Likely an unpopular opinion, as the base theme that all Shopify stores start with, Debut does exactly what’s needed. There are no bells and whistles here, but if you need to get your shop live and without a lot of fuss on the design, this will do the job. For a free Shopify theme, Debut has a clean design and is easy to use.

    The number one reason I recommend Debut is because it’s the most web-accessible Shopify theme. As with any theme, it is up to the store owners to ensure continued web-accessibility.

    I prefer to invest in a theme, but if you can’t Debut is the way to go.”

  • Flex – “No surprise here. Flex from Out of the Sandbox is my go-to theme. This widely used theme is fantastic out of the box and highly customizable. As its name describes, the theme is incredibly flexible and can look completely different on a variety of Shopify stores. There are so many settings that it can be hard to figure them all out.

    From head to toe, Flex gets it done. From mega menus, sections, custom product page templates, variant selections, options for colors and fonts galore (including many from the popular Google Fonts collection), built-in back-in-stock notifications, and custom footer columns. Even if there isn’t a setting you need, it’s easy to add custom code or easily connect to an app to achieve your goal.

    Though one of the most expensive Shopify themes on the market, Flex appeals to a broad audience and has options to fit across all vertical markets. I’ve found Flex to also be great if you have one or thousands of products as it scales nicely.”

  • Impulse – “From Archetype Themes, Impulse has most of the elements store owners are looking for in a paid Shopify theme. It’s easy to set up, good support (which doesn’t come with every theme), and showcases the store branding in a clean and elegant way.

    Impulse works great for the small and large store catalogs and has the ability to create custom product and page templates as needed. Developed by ex-Shopifolk, the theme allows for customizations, but is also good right out of the box.

    Impulse is the underdog of paid Shopify themes. I truly don’t think it gets enough attention.”

Anna-Maria Morena
Marketing & ECommerce Director @ Incloud Business Solutions
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annamariamorena/
  • Showcase – “Really like the look of the Showcase theme by Clean Canvas.

    It’s got a flexible grid (1 to 3 columns) but still looks clean, is easy to navigate and modern. It can be minimalistic with punches of colour to really distinguish each section or scroll. Recommend for a fashion store or retail websites, as it really shows off the great photography in those industries while leaving optimal space for details.”

Nicolas Fradet
I'm an eCommerce & Shopify (CRO) consultant - I've been working online for 19 years - I specialize in lifting Shopify stores sales and revenue through psychology, persuasion & science.
https://nicolasfradet.com/

“As a Shopify conversion consultant, I’m always looking for Shopify themes that make it easy to customize the layout, so I can A/B test my way to a fine-tuned selling engine.

Here are two of the best Shopify themes that stand out for me:”

  • Belle – “Don’t be fooled by the name, this theme is suitable for any type of business, because it has dozens of features that you can tailor to your brand, and that I know to be proven to grow conversions.

    For example, you can easily add social proof to your site, showing the number of products sold in the last day or how many people are looking at a product.

    It’s also possible to add urgency to the process, showing a sales countdown timer or a nice callout when products are low in stock.

    Some other Shopify themes might have some of these, but the way they are designed on this theme really sets it apart.”

  • Ecom Solid – “This Shopify theme also has a lot of features that help to lift sales.

    For example, you can easily show a quick upsell or a “frequently bought together” box on the product page, nicely positioned under the main “Add to Shopping Cart”. These can really help to increase your average order value.

    The theme also offers a header with a big search area, which is crucial in helping visitors find the best product for their needs. Even more so if you have hundreds or thousands of products.”

Shannon Conheady
Founder @ Ecomm Guys - Lover of all things e-commerce.
https://www.theecommguys.com/

“The ‘best’ Shopify theme is highly dependent on your use case for your store. The benefit to working with an existing theme is that it simplifies the setup, but you sacrifice flexibility and speed.”

  • Warehouse – “For stores with large inventories, we are a big fan of Warehouse. The layout is very product-focused, looks professional, and is relatively easy to edit.”

  • Motion – “For medium-sized inventories and for a real wow factor, Motion is our go-to when suggesting a Shopify theme. While appearance is very subjective, we are big fans of the layout and section options, and love that its documentation can walk merchants through how to create their own sectioned pages.”

Mitchell Davies
Digital Project Manager at KiwiSprout. KiwiSprout is a New Zealand digital agency that offers strategic partnerships to Shopify Plus and high growth Shopify stores.
https://kiwisprout.nz/

“When considering what Shopify themes to recommend, we look for themes that are easy for beginners to setup, provide enough customisation to adapt to your growing brand, and themes that offer good PageSpeed scores (Google’s measure of website speed) out of the box. Based on these criteria, we have three main picks:”

  • Debut – “Debut is the Shopify theme that is installed by default on new Shopify stores, and while it may be boring to say that this is our favourite theme, there’s a lot of reasons why you should consider sticking with it.

    The first reason is that it’s one of the simplest Shopify themes to setup and customise. The theme is free, comes installed onto your store automatically, and has straightforward theme customisation making it one of, if not the best Shopify theme for beginners.

    The variety of homepage sections and features it provides will also give you a lot of mileage to adapt the theme as your store grows, and provides a great starting point for Shopify Experts to implement additional features for your store.

    Another reason is PageSpeed. From our testing, Debut is among the fastest loading Shopify themes on the platform. Delivering a shopping experience that loads quickly and consistently for customers is crucial to your store’s success.

    The only real disadvantage of Debut is, due to its popularity and being the default theme for Shopify stores, it can be difficult to separate your store visually from all the other stores using it.”

  • Boost – “The main appeal of Boost is the range of features it provides, including tagging images with products, predictive searching, and unique homepage sections not seen on most Shopify themes.

    If you want to deliver a unique shopping experience with room to grow and adapt your store, Boost is a great choice.”

  • Narrative – “Narrative is a free Shopify theme suitable for stores with a lot of high-quality photography and a small catalog of products. Boasting a decent PageSpeed score and a number of features for customisation, Narrative is a good option if you’re looking for an easy setup, but want something a little different.”

Shawn Moreau
Shawn is the owner of the eCommerce agency, Gapstow. As such, he appreciates that everyday he gets to solve new problems in different ways.
http://www.Gapstow.co
  • Flex
  • Turbo
  • “Flex, Turbo, or really anything from Out of the Sandbox. I use and recommend these themes because Out of the Sandbox makes some of the best Shopify themes that are great right out of the box. We do a lot of custom development, but with these themes we know that our clients have the functionality that they need to be able to do most things without development. The themes don’t break, they look great, and are updated regularly.”

Maude Lavoie
French Shopify Expert and Digital Consultant in Quebec, Canada. I help business owners to improve their Shopify Store, automate their processes and make more sales.
http://www.nitromedia.ca
  • Prestige – “This is really my favorite. It’s a simple, pure Shopify theme that will make all your photos stand out. If you have gorgeous lifestyle photos of your products, you’ll love Prestige. It’s packed with a lot of nice features like a mega menu, image hotspot linking, popup for your newsletter and promotions, a nice selection of blocks for your homepage and smooth animations.”

  • Atlantic – “Atlantic is a nice theme if you want something simple and fast to set up. It’s really easy to use. So if you don’t want to have too many choices and need to set up something fast and clean, it’s your go-to Shopify theme. You’ll be online in no time!”

  • Flex – “If you are looking for something that will last you a lifetime and have tons of features, Flex is the one you need. If you are the type of person (or business) that need a lot of flexiblity or you are not sure what you really want/need for the future, Flex will suit your needs. It’s more pricey, but you have 13 styles included in one theme. It’s like a swiss army knife: perfect for any adventure.”

Wes Grasty
I'm an official Shopify Expert and run an agency helping Shopify businesses increase their sales through conversion rate optimization and other opportunities.
https://www.ultrafade.com
  • Flex – “We almost exclusively use the Flex theme from Out of the Sandbox, mainly for two simple reasons:

    – The name says it all! It’s called Flex because it is super flexible in terms of being able to configure exactly what you need without editing backend code, which in turn makes it super easy to upgrade to new releases when they are available.

    – One of the things we specialize in is page speed optimization and some Shopify themes are configured in such a way that makes it difficult to make these optimizations, but not Flex! It is the only Shopify theme that we have been able to get scores (Page Speed Insights) over 90 for mobile and desktop.”

Dan Cassidy
Founder of Brandhopper Digital, an e-commerce marketing growth agency helping e-commerce sellers build and grow beautiful Shopify stores that convert.
https://brand-hopper.com

“Shopify has tons of themes to offer no matter the niche your e-commerce brand is in. That said, we tend to focus on themes for our clients that are fast, scaleable, and allow us the ability to communicate the brand message clearly and beautifully. Shopify themes that we often use for clients include Streamline, Venue and Palo Alto for the following reasons:”

  • Palo Alto – “Palo Alto is one of our favorite themes when building Shopify stores for our clients for a few reasons. First and foremost is the ability to showcase beautiful imagery or videos throughout the website. Second, there are native features built into the theme that allow for brand storytelling on the homepage and product pages. This Shopify theme is great for brands with medium size catalogues that are looking to build a long term relationship with visitors and customers.”

  • Streamline – “Streamline is a great Shopify theme for e-commerce brands that want to convey movement with a slightly edgier feel. Brands in the fitness or other “action” or alternative niches would be well served by Streamline. The theme is modern, fully customizable, and offers great support.”

  • Venue – “Venue is a great theme for brands that want to convey a beautiful, relaxed, laid back aesthetic. This Shopify theme is perfect for brands in the outdoor space or natural goods category including handmade custom products and some foods/beverages.

    The theme allows e-commerce brands to easily add multiple variants – think combinations of size and color on the product page – which isn’t native with other Shopify themes.”

Ronny Perez
Hi my name is Ronny Perez. I'm a Web Engineer and I'm obsessed with building amazing digital products that impact people's lives.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronny-perez-083b9152/

“Before choosing a theme for your storefront or merchant storefront, you will have to consider a few things. Such as your store’s or merchant’s objective with their product, their audience and their budget. In order to achieve this, choosing the correct theme is essential. The following Shopify themes I believe can help you get a store up and running for most needs and situations.”

  • Debut – “The Debut theme is the default theme that comes with every store and is one of the free themes that Shopify provides along with few others. Out of all those free Shopify themes, the Debut theme stands out the most for me because of all the rich functionality right out of the box. Some of this theme functionality includes slideshow, promotional banner, product recommendation section and so much more. Rich in functionality can sometimes mean overwhelming, but that’s not the case with the Debut theme. It allows you to use what you need and leave out what you don’t need. If you need more customization to match your brand, you can change the theme yourself or if you would like to add a more advanced feature, a developer can use the Debut theme as a base to build the feature very easily.”

  • ThemeKit – “ThemeKit is not a theme per se. ThemeKit is a command-line tool for Shopify themes. What Themekit allows you to do is build any theme you want from scratch. ThemeKit can be used by a single developer or a team of developers. Unfortunately, ThemeKit is not for non-technical people so you will need a developer depending on your needs if you don’t have the knowledge yourself. This approach can also be a little bit more expensive but the advantage is that you can build a store from the ground up, with as much functionality as you need. Customizing it to match your brand is much easier and you don’t have to deal with the constraints of a theme. What makes ThemeKit so great is that not only can you make a theme from scratch that fits your needs, but you can also use ThemeKit on any of the starter Shopify themes that you already own.”

Dave Lowensohn
I'm a web developer from Portland, OR, just like everybody else.
http://handwovenindustries.com
  • Brooklyn – “I often fantasize about “starting from scratch,” and every now and then I actually attempt it. Within the first hour I’m beaten back by the sheer volume of components I’d need to assemble just to get things functioning – slideshows, image galleries, dropdown menus, schemas for settings panels, etc etc. Brooklyn has it all, and it’s free, and it’s very easy to customize. When someone needs a shop from scratch, fast and cheap, 9 times out of 10 Brooklyn gets it done.”

  • Parallax – “This is a paid Shopify theme, but when you do the math on what you get vs. your own hourly rate you’d have to be an impossibly fast and cheap developer for this to not be a really smart investment. The parallax scrolling effect is less ubiquitous than it was a few years ago, and therefore less likely to be specifically requested by clients, but this has been a go-to Shopify theme of mine for years, as it takes a lot of complicated VFX fiddling off your plate and lets you say yes to more client-specific feature requests without blowing up the budget.”

  • Venue – “Another paid theme, but one I’ve used on several projects because it’s just a delight to work with. The default animations & transitions are classy but not flashy, and tend to pair really well with the design comps I get from the classy but not flashy clients I like working with. Pretty much any Shopify theme can be brought to bear with enough HTML & CSS, but Venue really shines by having great ready-to-use section components & pretty much anything a client would want to tweak already there and tweakable in the settings.”

Tom Hooker
Hello. We are On The Road. Think of us as an independent Shopify development agency. We know what it takes to sell more online, stand out from the crowd, and feel user friendly.
https://www.ontheroaduk.co.uk

“I’m a big preacher when it comes to choosing a Shopify theme to only go to the Shopify theme marketplace rather than looking at 3rd party templates, as you rarely get problems this way and they guarantee 100% support and system integrations, which ensures no problems as you grow:”

  • Streamline – “ My first choice is Streamline, one of the best Shopify themes for merchants and particularly those that are in the fashion industry. It can be used for any small – medium-sized product catalog. The main reason I’ve chosen this theme is because of how mobile optimised it is and the little work you also have to do to it to make the page speed fast. Two key conversion killers if you get them wrong and this theme really helps with both.”

  • Impulse – “I’ve found this one tends to be generally very popular. With some excellent navigation features and an easy to set-up product filtering system, it boasts a great balance between style and user ability for stores that might have a larger product range. With the sections and design features built-in, with the help of a talented graphic designer, anyone could make this Shopify theme look nice for their store.”

  • Canopy – “This Shopify theme is built for food and drink products, and I think with everything that’s going on (the dreaded Covid) it would be wrong not to include a theme that was best suited to the changing times for some industries. I have a few clients on Shopify who decided to set-up and launch themselves with this theme and it’s made it so easy for them as it caters to that industry from the homepage right through to the product pages. Also, the killer shopping cart drawer is well suited to the target audience this Shopify theme is aimed at.”

Chase Clymer
Chase Clymer is the Co-founder at Electric Eye where he and his team create Shopify-powered sales machines from strategic design, development, and marketing decisions. He is also the host of Honest Ecommerce, a weekly podcast where we provide online store owners with honest, actionable advice to increase their sales and grow their business.
http://electriceye.io/
  • Debut – “If you’re just getting started and you’re extremely budget-conscious, Debut is a fine choice. It’s not going to win you any web design or UX awards, but it will sell your inventory if you’ve got product-market fit.”

  • Impulse – “The makers of this Shopify theme are all ex-Shopify employees. This is a very good base to build upon for brands that are a little further along.”

  • Fully Custom – “At a certain point, you really need to consider having something tailor-made for your brand. Once you’ve found product-market fit and scaled, investing in your brand with a fully tailored experience will pay off in the long run. I talk about when this makes sense in this podcast episode.”

Debra Lutsky
Founder of Digital Retail Partners
https://digitalretailpartners.com/
  • Motion – “Motion is an overall great theme for beginners looking for animation.

    • Easy to use. Above all, we believe that you should be able to manage your own site on a day-to-day basis without much development support. The structure of Motion is among the more intuitive Shopify themes. The sections are easy to understand and operate, it’s a great building block of a theme.
    • The animation capabilities are great right out of the box. Using this theme as a starting point is a great way to easily incorporate simple animation to your Shopify site.
    • The advanced mega-menu functionality. This theme has uncomplicated mega-menu features that are perfect for stores with a large product category. We love how easy it is to create nested menus in Shopify.
    • Support staff is responsive and detailed. Archetype Themes provides excellent documentation for all of their Shopify themes and their support staff is friendly and very responsive, should you have any questions.”

    Stores we’ve built on Motion:
    https://shopcathyb.com/
    https://dinternoscia.com/

  • Impulse – “Impulse is an easy-to-use Shopify theme with great options for dynamic pages.

    • It comes with customizable functions built-in. This theme includes a sectioned page
      template and a pre-built FAQ page. You’ll find that these are incredibly useful. Impulse’s sectioned page template is just as easy to use as their homepage sections, it’s perfect for beginners.
    • Sleek styling and optional parallax function. Having the option to turn on parallax images can set your site apart from other static sites. Parallax makes it easy to turn basic images into eye catching images.
    • Additional menu areas. Additional toolbars for sub-navigations are built-in. This is especially helpful for customer care links that you want to highlight outside of the main menu.”

    Stores we’ve built on Impulse:
    https://found.global/
    https://thecaldwellcollection.com/
    https://thegussie.com/
    https://shopminiclasix.com/

  • Prestige – “Prestige is a great theme for stores that want to feature editorial and make the most of their blogs.

    • The homepage sections are unique. We love the hotspot tagging function that comes
      standard on this theme, it’s perfect for stores with great lifestyle shots that want to feature those on their homepage.
    • The shopping function on their blog page. This feature is unique to Prestige and it’s great for sites that plan to tag products in their blogs.
    • Menu functionality on the FAQ page. Not many Shopify themes have menu functionality on individual pages.”

    Stores we’ve built on Prestige:
    https://tribalwear.com/
    https://opalensbeauty.com/
    https://azupetite.com/

Claudio Mars
Claudio Mars is an entrepreneur and digital marketing expert. He helped dozens of ecommerce brands and professional generate over $500,000 in revenue. Alongside his master's degree, Claudio received training from the worlds top digital marketing specialists and is constantly honing his skills to maintain his competitive edge in the field.
https://claudiomars.com/

“A very common question I get from clients is “What’s the best Shopify theme for me?”. There are all sorts of factors that go into deciding on a theme. To make it easier to start selling on Shopify, I present three themes, divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced Shopify skill levels.”

  • Debut (Beginner) – “Debut is a flexible Shopify theme that is suitable for every online shop, regardless of inventory size. With Debut you can quickly set up a store and start selling. It is very beginner-friendly and looks polished without any theme customisations. This makes it perfect for eCommerce entrepreneurs who are just starting out and are looking for a tried and tested theme.”

  • Impulse (Intermediate) – “Impulse is a cutting-edge, speedy, and mobile-first Shopify theme. I usually recommend it to clients who seek a theme that incorporates a lot of CRO strategies and tricks. When fully optimised and combined with a strong brand, its CR can be extremely high. It is my personal favourite because all ads seem to convert with this theme.”

  • Turbo (Advanced) – “Turbo is a fully-loaded, premium Shopify theme that is perfect for Shopify Plus merchants. Offering high-demand functionality, reliable performance, and rich design flexibility, Turbo is a favorite among industry professionals and experienced merchants.”

Guy Redmond
A tech savvy head of marketing, web operations & digital communications.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyredmond/
  • Debut – “If you are new to the online world and want a quick, clean ecommerce website, Debut should be your first-choice Shopify theme.

    Straight out of the box, you have two theme styles; Default, a bright, clean-looking theme and Light, a fresh modern twist on this popular theme.

    Naturally, these customisable themes are fully responsive for mobile and come with a host of features for displaying and promoting your products, including; Homepage Video, Promotional Banner, Newsletter Subscriber and Customer Testimonials, plus a heap of UX features as standard; Product Filtering, Predictive Search and Product Recommendations.

    Did I mention it was FREE…?

    There are loads of Shopify developers out there, but cost may be holding you back. So if you have outgrown these themes, or you want to rebrand yourself, it’s a good time to consider heading over to Shopify’s’ paid themes.
    Here, for the price of a cheap mobile phone, you can sample the world of parallax scrolling, animated page loading and themes which are optimised to showcase your product images in high resolution.

    That’s not all, in the paid themes, you will see a lot more options to help you convert your visitor into a customer, such as Quick buy, allowing the customer to add to shopping cart without leaving the page they are on; Custom Promotions Tiles, adds discount, or promotional tile to a product, helping convert the customer and Email Pop Up, to help you grow your database of prospects.”

  • Prestige – “One good example of a paid Shopify theme is Prestige. It’s aimed at those selling in the premium end of ecommerce. Opting for a sans-serif font family, Prestige is perfect for those looking for elegance and a high-end brand appeal.

    Prestige helps you tell your brand story with some nice features like a built-in timeline tool and (my favourite) the Image Hotspot Linking, allowing you to visually highlight and link to your products in brand images, all in high-resolution.

    Like many Shopify themes, there are three style options to choose from, but there’s not much difference between them.

    • Allure – Clean modern design, with image transition. (font: Montserrat)
    • Couture – Bright, sharp design. (font: Century Gothic)
    • Vogue – Bright and modern. (font: DIN Neuzeit Grotesk)”
  • Warehouse – “Looking at websites with a larger inventory and the need to manage your catalogue a bit smarter, Warehouse is a great starting point.

    You may have noticed a bit of a theme with the themes. It’s that under the hood they are all the same, but each one is the next step in your ecommerce knowledge and commercial progress.

    Warehouse theme gives you all the tools you need to manage a large website. It’s SEO friendly, mobile responsive, offers customisable colour features and allows you to promote and convert your visitors into customers. But if you are managing a large website, then these next two features are just for you.

    • Predictive Search – Display live search results and quick links for products and store pages. This can reduce the time a visitor spends looking through your mega menu, as your products have already been indexed on your website and will take the visitor directly to the product they are searching for.
    • Stock Level Indicator – Create urgency by displaying remaining stock in a progress bar, this is not just for fast-moving products; it’s ideal if you have slow moving stock too, as you can manage it to drive the conversion completion.

    I know I’m only allowed to recommend 3…but I just have to give an honorable mention to Venture.”

  • Venture – “Venture is another free Shopify theme and is the next step for those with a larger inventory and need to categorise products.

    One key additional feature of Venture is a Multi-Column Menu. This is a real boon if you have nested products in categories: Mens> Mens Clothing> Mens Shirts> Mens Short Sleeved Shirts> Mens Hawaiian Shirts.

    Your Venture theme options are:

    • Snowboards – Modern font (Unica One) with a crisp look.
    • Outdoors – Has a slightly softer (outdoors?) feel, softer serif font (Lora).
    • Boxing – Another modern clean theme, using a modern font (Open Sans Condensed).

    Like all these Shopify themes, there are additional customisation options regarding layout, colour palette etc.

    Oh, and did I mention it was FREE too…?”

Aditya Tatte
We have been developing interesting & technically sound e-commerce solutions for over 7 years. We are a Shopify partner & highly vetted Shopify expert listed on the Shopify portal. Our focus isn't just delivering the task as requested, but providing thoughtful solutions with the most beneficial outcomes for our clients.
https://adexlabs.com

“There are so many Shopify themes out there to choose from if look at the Shopify theme store & other theme marketplaces. But my personal preference leans towards the themes from the Shopify theme store as they are coded according to the guidelines given by Shopify. That’s why the themes are stable & reliable.

My personal favorites are Debut and Prestige.”

  • Debut – “This theme looks simple, elegant & allows you to build a good looking website. It has all the basics, as well as advanced elements/features that are required for every site. The most important part regarding this particular Shopify theme is that it can be used as a starter theme for any kind of custom development.”

  • Prestige – “This Shopify theme can give a “high-end” look and feel to any brand. The theme comes with three different premium design choices & supports high-resolution product imagery that’s perfect for visual storytelling.”

“Just to summarize, great design, stability, performance, flexibility, and coding standards are the most important aspects to consider when choosing a Shopify theme in my opinion.”

Ivan Bora
Founder at INB Digital OÜ - Shopify stores that sell. Official Shopify expert since 2013. We evolved into INB Digital in 2019 and offer turnkey Shopify solutions, customisation & marketing advice. We bring sales to your dashboard!
https://inb.digital
  • Motion – “If you are looking for a simple and effective jump-start Shopify theme, Motion theme is your choice. It is a theme from the official Shopify theme market. It is fast, clean and functional out of the box. You don’t have to be a code ninja to build a fully functional Shopify store with Motion. If you are an experienced developer and need to change some core functionality, you will find structured, well-written code. You can extend it in a logical way. No code spaghetti inside.”

  • Shella – “If you are looking for the Swiss army knife of the Shopify world, we recommend Shella theme as a starting point. It is a mature, multi-functional codebase for feature-rich Shopify stores with tons of pre-made designs that will let you build a store in a short amount of time. The code is clean, extendable and developer-friendly. Our choice for complex projects.”

Daniel Sheard
Managing Director of Velstar, Dan Sheard and his team of ecommerce experts help brands scale globally through the power of Shopify Plus, with clients including Avon, Public Desire, Linda Farrow, and BOYY. Having worked in ecommerce for many years, Dan has unparalleled experience when it comes to helping brands achieve success.
https://velstar.co.uk/

“Choosing a Shopify theme can make or break your business. Not only does it determine how your store looks, but it also impacts conversion rate. So, getting it right is essential.

Shopify offers business owners a LOT of options! Which is great, but it also means finding the perfect Shopify theme can be tricky. To help, here are my picks for the three best Shopify themes and a few reasons why…”

  • Warehouse – “Are you a merchant with a large catalogue of products? Then this is the Shopify theme for you. It provides you with three different designs to help you create a seamless user experience no matter what size your inventory is. Its key features include predictive search, exit popup and stock level indicator which all help to persuade your customers to make that all-important purchase.

    There are tons of merchants relying on this theme right now, but with infinite customisation options, you don’t have to worry about blending into the crowd.”

  • Split – “With a mobile-first approach, Split is perfect for brands who want to display their highly visual products in a more impactful way. But it’s way more than just an eye-catching ecommerce theme. Split combines popular design trends such as parallax scrolling and full-width layouts with unique features to create a truly engaging user experience.

    So, if you’re looking to make a memorable impression, this Shopify theme could be the perfect choice for you.”

  • Flow – “Finally, Flow is a sharp, minimalist design that allows your products to take centre stage. The ultra-modern look is complemented by the homepage video feature, giving brands the freedom to tell their story more dynamically. Flow is perfect for luxury brands looking to create a mobile-friendly, multi-level shopping experience.

    And with customisable content sections, unique product grids and free theme updates, this Shopify theme is sure to tick plenty of boxes for your business.”

Andrei Arkhanguelski
eCommerce entrepreneur with expertise in Shopify and Amazon.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arkhanguelski/

“Let’s start with the basics. What should you look for in a Shopify theme?

  1. Clean user interface with great user experience and layout;
  2. Ease of customization without breaking the code;
  3. Optimized for mobile devices by being fully responsive;
  4. SEO optimized;
  5. Support and updates from the developer;
  6. Compatibility with most Shopify Apps.

Now, let’s touch upon my two top choices when it comes to the best Shopify themes to use for your store.”

  • Divi – “The reason why I like this Shopify theme is that it gives the Shopify store owner incredible flexibility by providing an intuitive front-page builder. Divi offers hundreds of templates to choose from depending on the design aesthetic you’re going for. You get a library of 40+ elements to choose from and the best part is that all the editing you do is fully responsive. You don’t need to worry about your online store working improperly on a mobile device.”

  • Prestige – “The reason why I like Prestige, a paid Shopify theme that costs $180 USD, is that it looks clean on both desktop and mobile. The theme is designed for premium, high-end brand appeal and if you look at examples of stores running it, I think you will appreciate the smooth user experience that’s mobile optimized. The Prestige theme has some great features like image hotspot linking, tell your story timeline, home page menu lists, and a slide-out shopping cart. It’s designed for visual storytelling and is fully optimized for large images. It’s ideal for creating a refined aesthetic if you’re selling a premium product that commands a certain caliber of visual aesthetic. This theme has a 93% approval rating in Shopify’s Store, which is a pretty solid argument in its favour. If you’re looking to create a premium look and feel for your online store, definitely check out the Prestige theme. It’s well worth $180 USD.”

Robert Bentley
As a Shopify designer & developer for the last 6 years, I have built or helped build over a hundred sites, and have helped clients grow into top-selling Shopify stores. I design beautiful, clean, pixel-perfect sites backed by effective solutions that improve conversions and maximize each sale.
https://bentleyhq.com
  • Impulse – “My favorite Shopify theme for development is the Impulse theme. This theme has a lot of great features out-of-the-box like mega menus, tons of promotional sections, and great collection page filters. This theme not only looks great but is very easy to customize and build in new features. (A close 1b would be the Motion theme from the same theme developers.)”

  • Parallax – “This is a theme I’ve been using with clients for many years. It is VERY easy to customize. It loads super fast and looks great. Take a look at https://www.bactrack.com/ as an example of how I was able to build a ton of great features into this Shopify theme like mega menu sliders, product comparison, upsells, and more.”

  • Debut – “As far as free Shopify themes go, you can’t go wrong with the Debut theme. It is a great starter theme for most shops and is easy to customize as your shop grows. And Shopify keeps improving it. It now has an ajax cart which is great for the mobile experience.”

Julia Jaeckle
Julia graduated in Banking & Finance in Germany and lives in Dubai since 2011. Her former experience in Banking and Real Estate Sales for Emaar Properties has given her the competitive edge and attention to detail in order to create efficiency in business. She has been advancing in her career in being the CEO and co-founder of Creative971 since 2016.
https://www.creative971.com/

“Shopify and Shopify Themes… it all seems so simple, yet let me tell you that your success stands and falls also with the theme you choose for your store.”

  • Impulse – “I’d recommend the “Impulse” Shopify Theme, which is probably one of the best themes out there when it comes to Shopify. Now, why is that so? Just by looking at the theme, you will notice the rich features and neat appearance that it already comes with. In short, the UI/ UX hits on point and that’s also from a mobile responsiveness perspective. By choosing Impulse, you’ll see how flexibility from a frontend is done right and also equally as impressive is the opportunity to create multi-column menus and multi-category filtering.”

  • Motion
  • Streamline
  • “Also, the same developer of Impulse, hosts two more Shopify themes, those are Motion and Streamline. Motion is great for established brands whereas Streamline is for the new generation, purely focussing on mobile-first. Keep an eye out for those themes, and be sure to rock your A-game when it comes to E-Commerce on Shopify.”

Reid Withrow
Shopify + Google Certified Partner
https://reidwithrow.com

“Choosing your store’s theme is the backbone of your store’s look and feel. Outside of the product description, you want to ask yourself what do you want to see when visiting a store? What captures your attention? In short, put yourself in the consumer mindset.

With that being said, Shopify offers a slew of 3rd party themes throughout its app store. I am one who likes animation, and movement. Your entire store can smoothly animate into view, engaging the customers’ attention, while portraying the ideal look and feel.”

  • Motion – “MOTION, by Archetype Themes, is by far my go-to Shopify theme. You can surely bring your brand to life through animation and video with their theme. One other unique feature that Motion has is the ability to give sub-categories to collection pages. This is great for clothing or supplement companies that have large catalogs.

    Motion Shopify Theme

    Just like all Shopify themes, one will have the ability to customize to their liking. The original version of the theme comes with around a dozen built-in section blocks. Section blocks; meaning you would have the ability to turn every page or product into a drag and drop editor when designing. This will work perfectly for most store owners. I have taken it a bit further and have custom coded an additional 17 section blocks to choose from. The possibilities are endless. I highly recommend you take a look at Motion when searching for a new Shopify theme.”

Sigurd Tranaes
Founder of Call Houston, a Shopify Expert agency, shaped by collaborating freelancers scattered around the world. We are driven by business development and strive to catch the amazing opportunities the internet offers.
http://www.call-houston.com

“I’ll recommend three types of Shopify themes for three kinds of stores:”

  • Empire (Large Inventory) – “The theme mimics the experience of Amazon. It has a highlighted focus on the live search bar, which I think is often wrongly deprioritized by stores. We often see the the “search” function is one of the most used by visitors, and therefore it should really be an integrated part of the experience. Empire moreover, offers the ability for detailed product filtering without adding a third-party app. As a developer, the more features that are provided from the theme side, the more complex it can often be to work with and understand the theme, but I think Empire is a good tradeoff between functionality and complexity.”

  • Prestige (For Most Stores) – “This Shopify theme is so easy to recommend. It is very standard but has some nice design features. It is super versatile and I find that most stores will enjoy working with it. From a developer’s perspective, it is not necessarily super simple to work with, but once you understand the structure, it’s a breeze.”

  • Vogue (The Niche) – “Ever since we started designing stores with the widescreen, most have not looked back. But before the sticky headers and widescreen images, we had the menu on the left. I often talk to clients about how the large widescreen image as the top element is not the best idea for conversion, and it’s become such a standard template for “modern” designs, that I think it’s rather overused. Vogue has put the menu on the left. With our huge screens, I find it an extremely pleasing functionality to have the menu to the left. Also, it’s also a bit nostalgic, and it works great for stores that want something “different”. Kingdom is another Shopify theme that does this and is worth checking out too.”

David Abel
Owner of The Digital Lightbulb. A business consultancy focusing on revenue growth and unlocking major opportunities for online store owners, by improving conversion rates with low cost, best in class solutions.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/digital-consultancy/

“There are many answers to “What is the best Shopify Theme” depending on your business type. Fashion, coffee, health & wellness, etc all have their own best ways to present the offer to the customer, and I would recommend researching about 6 different themes for your industry and creating a comparison table to help with your decision-making. Lots of Shopifythemes come with good mobile design, SEO & customizable content making it simple for anyone to start a store.”

  • Motion (Best for Premium Fashion) – “Motion was built by former Shopify employees who understand how & what the customer needs. Motion is a Shopify theme that brings a brand to life with very smooth video players, great animation and smooth flow touches.

    Business owners can use a multitude of effects (hover, parallax scrolling & image zoom), coupled with a tidy blog, lookbooks, great large imagery and pop-out shopping cart. All of this shows off product of a higher price that needs to tell its story.”

  • Avone (Best All Rounder) – “Avone theme, although not on the Shopify store is the best all-rounder in terms of price and options. There are up to 28 homepage designs users can choose from and for $69 most new store owners cannot go wrong. The theme comes with a lot of features already such as social integration, wishlist, countdown, related products and recently viewed, which would otherwise add development cost to store owners and could end up slowing the site down if not done properly.”

  • Context (Great for Features) – “A little cheaper than Motion, Context needs little customization and is great for storytelling with large images, 3D model features, clean drop-down navigations and simple, effective product filtering on category pages. Additionally, a powerful predictive search & multi-currency and language options make this a really viable option for businesses that want conversion driving features without adding extra apps.”

Leighton Prabhu
We work in partnership with ambitious Shopify store owners to help them scale from 6 to 7 figures and beyond. Our core services are paid social (Facebook/Instagram) + Klaviyo email marketing + Google Shopping + on-site conversion optimization. Particularly experienced in the fashion & jewelry sectors.
https://intersticeconsulting.ca
  • Prestige – “This is a very elegant and minimalist Shopify theme with a mobile-first design. It’s well suited to fashion and jewellery stores. Apart from the look of the site, the theme developers adhere strictly to best practices in coding. Support is very responsive.”

  • Turbo – “This is a very popular premium Shopify theme that focuses on speed, although that doesn’t translate directly into a better Shopify store speed ranking. It has a lot of options such as different templates for product pages, giving you the flexibility to create alternative versions. They also have a coding helper extension for Chrome which is quite useful for those with limited coding backgrounds.

    One of the drawbacks is that it’s not on the official Shopify app store. The company has also grown a lot in recent years and is not as helpful or responsive in its support compared to other themes we’re using. They want to upsell their customers to a premium support plan that involves an annual payment, which is also not usual for Shopify themes. Still, it remains a very popular choice.”

Maya Page
Maya Page is the owner and Creative Director of the Chicago Web Co., a full-service Shopify web design agency.
http://www.chicagoweb.co
  • Flex – “Our top choice when asked about the best Shopify themes is always Flex by Out of the Sandbox. Versatile, fast, and well-built, Flex is able to handle any build – both big and small. Most Shopify themes can sometimes look a bit “cookie-cutter”, but Flex is so adaptable that you can easily make your website stand out. For those store owners that like to dabble in a bit of CSS, Flex gives the capacity to do so without having to dive deep into the code. We love this theme for our clients because once we install, implement and custom-code it, they’re able to go in and adjust easily, thus feeling empowered to edit their website.”

  • Turbo – “Another Out of the Sandbox favorite is Turbo. Lightning fast and built for speed, Turbo is packed with features and options. Great for style and performance, Turbo is able to take large catalogs of products and flawlessly present them for a great shopper experience.”

  • Parallax – “And finally, we love working with Parallax, once again from Out of the Sandbox. Like all their other Shopify themes, it is well-built, fast, and beautiful to work with. It is best for large, horizontal, and landscape images (think golf courses, farmlands, or nature). Versatile enough for any build, it packs a mighty punch when it comes to features and tends to be a client favorite.”

Steven Hudspith
With over thirty years of retail experience and now 7 in ecommerce, I bring all of this experience into conversion rate optimising of Shopify sites helping them to improve their sales.
http://crowth.co.uk
  • Flex – “The Flex theme by Out of the Sandbox is by far the best Shopify theme currently available and they are one of the best theme makers for Shopify. All bar two of their themes are available in the Shopify theme store but they keep their two premium ones just on their own site. They are just as reliable as the ones on the Shopify theme store though, which have to go through months of testing before being approved.

    The theme comes with some great features as standard like live search, mega menu and a collection page sidebar filter. Each section can have its margins and padding adjusted easily without the need to touch the code. The main banner image has a desktop image version as well as a mobile one too.

    You have different options in style layouts for the header and footer, plus there are three different product page styles to choose from. As with all the Shopify themes by Out of the Sandbox, it comes with extra page templates.

    This theme gives you the basics to build a good solid foundation.”

Farhan Niazi
eCommerce expert from New Zealand - specialising in the hospitality industry.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/farhanniazi/

“I purchase all my themes from the Envato Market for Shopify and WordPress.”

  • Ella – “I personally like robust, clean, fast, well-organized themes with an easy to use, self-explanatory interface and at the moment Ella ticks all the boxes for me.

    With constant updates and improvements, good after-sales support, thorough documentation and a million options to customize the theme without the need to code, this a winner for me.”

Liz Woodruff
Ecommerce, digital strategy, and client services professional focused on driving conversion rate optimization
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizrwoodruff/
  • Split – “Like Glossier? So does everyone. Utilize the headless ecommerce look and feel that made this brand worth an estimated $1B+. Minimalist yet with a slight edge, this Shopify theme is optimized for large images (beauty shots), high res product page gallery, flexibility on promo banner locations, and the ability to choose between a multi-level, sliding sidebar menu or a big horizontal menu (a la Glossier). This theme is best for beauty or retail brands that appeal to millennial women who should find familiarity with its look and feel, and thus, functionality, leading to easier mental conversion.”

  • Empire – “Just admit Jeff Bezos has it all figured out and allow shoppers stuck at home for almost a year now to overcome the hurdle of a new website with this Amazon-inspired Shopify theme. From a prominent live search bar with predictive search, visually orienting headers, and the ability to support a large catalog, this is perfect for sellers who understand that buyers love to utilize filters to narrow down their selections.”

  • Canopy – “Perfect for those who are intimidated by ecommerce, especially food delivery or grocery stores or restaurants who needed to pivot on a dime during the pandemic. This Shopify theme focuses on a simple one-page checkout to max out conversion. It’s one of the most approachable Shopify themes to use and customize. The immediate catalog focuses on demonstrating many products at once, with immediate add to cart functionality. For sellers, the products and collections are highly customizable and simple navigation puts the focus on browse, research, and convert.”

David Simoes
I help people sell amazing stuff online ❤️ Shopify Expert & Founder of Sounds Good Agency
https://soundsgood.agency

“The best Shopify theme for your business really depends on your needs, skill set available, and resources to make it awesome for your brand. In some cases, you won’t even worry much about the theme you’ll choose, because you have the need and the resources to invest in bespoke web design done by a professional agency. If you’re just starting and figuring stuff out, here are the best tips on how to get the best fit, right from the beginning.”

  • Flex + Turbo – “If you want to go as codeless as possible and avoid page builders (which may make sense), it might be a good idea to invest in a state of the art Shopify theme. Out of the Sandbox is one of the most popular and recognized brands in the Shopify theme development ecosystem – and there are great reasons for that. You will always be fine choosing any of the themes they create and sell on the Shopify Themes Marketplace. However, you need to recognize 2 beauties they sell exclusively on their website: Turbo and Flex. Turbo’s built for editability and speed – one of the most popular themes they’ve ever built. Flex is the newest one and takes Turbo to the next level in terms of design flexibility. If you already played with Shopify in the past and love to play with theme settings, these choices are a dream made true.”

  • Prestige – “Lastly, I must refer to another personal preference – Maestrooo. They are a Shopify Experts team who got tired of never having the right theme for their clients, so they took the issue into their own hands and started creating awesome themes that are crazy popular nowadays and definitely among the best Shopify themes you can buy. You’ll never get wrong by choosing anything developed by them, but if you want to see the most recognizable Shopify theme that crowns these theme developers among the best, go check out Prestige.”

I’m only allowed to nominate 3 themes, but there’s another Shopify theme that I feel deserves an honourable mention.

  • Debut – “If you’re a good coder or have the resources to hire one, there’s nothing wrong with using a free Shopify theme as the basis for your store. The standard and classic example is the Debut theme. Great things about this theme: it always has the latest features that Shopify releases to the public (while some premium Shopify themes might take some time to catch on), it’s very light (so no BS or complicated configurations for beginners) and it has everything you need to kick-off your business. Ideally, you want to put some work in the graphics and customize the theme a bit so you better differentiate yourself from other brands also using Debut. If you plan on doing some coding yourself or hiring someone, this theme will allow anyone to work on it easily and you’ll avoid paying for features you don’t need or won’t use. Using a lightweight Shopify theme like this can also be a great starting point if you plan to design most of your store with some page builders like Shogun or Pagefly.”

Ali Abbas
Founder of Ecommerce Pro (Top Rated Shopify Experts) & Ruby on Rails Developer with 8+ years in retail, eCommerce & development.
http://www.ecommercepro.com
  • Impulse – “We’ve worked on almost every premium theme on Shopify but there are few that stood out from the rest. Impulse is one of them due to the level and ease of customization during the store setup.

    Apart from the flexibility of editing the header/footer easily with no code, Impulse has a template called “page.sections” that can be easily duplicated in the theme code. If you don’t know, this page template allows you to shuffle between different blocks/sections exactly as if you’re modifying your homepage. At Ecommerce Pro, we duplicate this page and use it to build well-designed unique about, contact, product and collection pages.

    Another feature we love and enjoy is the “Custom HTML” block/section that helps us build sections that are not part of the original theme. This basically saves us time in developing new sections that are not part of the original theme.

    Finally, we prefer to work on Shopify themes that are not only efficient to build but also easy to update from your side as a merchant!”

Rebecca Worsley
Rainy City Agency helps brands grow faster on Shopify & Shopify+. We have over 200+ 5 star reviews and are experts in redesigns and platform migrations.
https://rainycityagency.com/

“Selecting a Shopify theme is hard for brand owners as without knowing the ins and outs of how each theme works it can be tricky to make that decision. A lot of brand owners I have worked with tend to go off the demos that are available within their niche, but this isn’t always the best way to decide.

Our key factors when looking at any Shopify theme to use for clients are the abilities within the theme, the number of sections you have available to work with, and what other extras it has that will enable you to take your store from standard Shopify to beautiful and high converting.”

  • Flex – “We think this is one of the best Shopify themes out there right now. It has amazing sections for the homepage where you are not restricted to the global fonts and colours like with other themes; you are able to customise each section you use. The “page.details” templates are another great feature – these allow you to create up to 9 other custom sub-pages using similar sections to your homepage! Goodbye, boring “About” pages and hello beautifully designed content and eye catching images. This also extends to the product pages – we love creating long-form product pages that allow you to shout about your brand and USPs. Using the readymade sections in this Shopify theme you’re able to add extra content to give your customer much more info about your brand and all the cool places you’ve been featured in.”

  • Impulse – “We love the transitions on this theme. It’s a great Shopify theme to use if you’re looking to design a cosmetics or fashion store. It has a “Shop the Look” feature which is a key selling point, as it allows customers to view beautiful lifestyle shots and purchase all the products that are featured. We also love the mega menu on this theme and the fact that it’s highly optimised for mobile viewing.”

Sarah Dyer
Freelance eCommerce Marketer and Shopify Partner
https://www.valleygal.co.uk/
  • Envy – “This Shopify theme is my top pick for medium-sized inventories. I am obsessed with this theme, it has so many useful features sellers can utilise as they grow. One of my favourite features is the ‘Text Adverts’ section where you can easily add key information for users i.e. ‘Free Delivery’, ‘Click and Collect, ‘Ethically sourced’ etc. Great for brand USPs! Envy also has a fantastic pop-up feature that comes with the theme – no need to use an additional app that can often cost you extra money.”

  • Narrative – “This is my pick for the best free Shopify theme. Narrative is super slick, stylish and is perfect for small inventories and packed full of punch brand storytelling (hence the theme’s name!). This is a great theme to kick off start-up businesses, particularly in beauty, accessories and technology. Just add your brand’s fonts, colours and message and boom – you’re ready to sell!”

  • Responsive – “This is my pick for the best ‘growth’ Shopify theme, suited for stores with a large inventory. A highly adaptable and customisable theme, with amazing features such as quick shop, special page builder and fantastic on mobile. One for those with a lot of products, you can utilise their buildable mega nav and product filtering options.”

Ben Hall
Managing Director of Block Digital. We provide bespoke Shopify solutions for growing businesses.
https://www.blockdigital.co.uk/

“Which Shopify theme you should choose varies store to store. For example, stores selling fashionable clothing may opt for a theme that is focused on the imagery. Stores with a large catalogue selling home goods may opt for a theme that shows more products per page.

Where possible, store owners should explore as many of the themes available to them on the Shopify Marketplace and third-party marketplaces.

However, that can be overwhelming so we’ve compiled a list of what we consider to be the 3 best Shopify themes.”

  • Turbo – “One of the best all-in-one Shopify themes out there is the Turbo theme by Out of the Sandbox. This high-performance premium Shopify theme has a focus on mobile-first approach, speed and usability. With its modern look, style, features and many customisable sections and options, this theme can be a perfect fit for anyone looking for a clean, user-friendly, high-performance website.”

  • Prestige – “The Prestige theme delivers a clean and minimal design with a focus on large, high-quality images without slowing the user down. Having lots of customisable settings, options and multi-purpose sections, this is a great match for anyone who wants to keep in control and customise the site exactly how they want it. This theme is suitable for stores selling a variety of products including fashion, cosmetics, luxury items and more.”

  • Warehouse – “The Warehouse theme is great for store owners who have a large catalogue with a variety of different products. This theme can show off many products and collections while still making it easy for users to find the product they’re looking for by making use of the large mega menu, predictive search and product filters.”

“Tip – When looking for a theme on the Shopify Marketplace, you can install a theme for free to demo it. Do this as much as possible as you will never know which Shopify theme is suitable for you until you try it.”

Daniel D Ciolac
Founder at Kloonk Technologies - A Shopify Development Agency based in London, working with clients from startups up to enterprise level businesses around the globe.
https://kloonk.com

“Well, I’ll keep it simple. The best Shopify themes are fast, flexible, reliable, and very well-designed. When choosing the best Shopify Theme, always consider these factors:

  • Performance first: fast loading speeds and enhanced mobile experience
  • Design Flexibility and Functionalities
  • Match Company’s Brand”
  • Turbo – “Turbo is a premium Shopify theme and an excellent choice for any size of shop. From one product to large inventories and high volume stores, Turbo delivers top performance, high-demand functionalities and outstanding design flexibility.”

  • Impulse – “The design of the Impulse theme is fully optimised for a terrific mobile experience and works just as well on desktops. With powerful features, minimal and modern design, Impulse theme helps any sized store to create an online presence that looks and sells as effectively as any of the top brands.”

  • Flex – “Flex is the most advanced and highly customisable premium Shopify theme on the market. Working very well for both small and large inventories, it offers endless design possibilities powered by the ultimate control over the look and feel of any Shopify store.”

Denis Pratasenia
Denis Pratasenia is Chief Marketing Officer at SpurIT, an eCommerce development company that is focused on everything Shopify related, digital accessibility, and its own in-house products.
https://spur-i-t.com/

“First, we need to look into how well suited the theme is for the client’s niche and business requirements. For example, for a clothes boutique it’s better to choose a Shopify theme with the functionality that would allow buying a total look, while for an electronics store the key factor would be the enhanced product filtering options. Another important thing is the rich functionality of the theme. The more that can be done out-of-the-box, the less additional coding is required to add the missing features.

And last but not least is how mobile-friendly the theme is. The importance of this factor for an eCommerce store is hard to underestimate.

So, in our opinion the three best Shopify themes are:”

  • Prestige – “It’s a great, fully responsive theme, with the possibility to design content specifically for mobile. The theme is also perfect for selling mass-market products, like clothing, accessories, beauty products, or even food, as it allows adding a lot of visual content and is well suited for selling products in bundles. Due to the switchable tabs, the theme is a great choice for showcasing many collections on the homepage without making it too long.”

  • Impulse – “This Shopify theme has a highly customizable popup, which is so great that it can even replace an app. The theme is great for smaller stores, digital products or services, as there’s a great “icon + text” functionality to describe the main benefits, which surprisingly, is not that commonly found in other Shopify themes. Other great features include the possibility to add the parallax effect to many website sections and a great variety of text customization options.”

  • Pacific – “Its highly customizable and extensive mega menu clearly stands out and makes this Shopify theme the best choice for mid-sized online stores with many product collections. Also, there’s the possibility to customize the color scheme to literally any color you desire, which is essential for creating a brand image, tailored to conversions.”

Tamara Masson
Tamara runs a Certified Shopify Expert Agency for clients across the globe to create bespoke websites with one objective: converting visitors into customers and boosting sales! Design, Development, Marketing, Sales, SEO and more.
http://www.tamarawebdesign.com

“One of the main questions we get from our clients is: “Can I modify the design of my store easily after you deliver it to me, without coding, since I don’t know how to do that…I really want to be autonome…” Well – this is what good about Shopify, everything is so easy to manage, but we still need to make sure we pick the right theme that fits the client niche and its special needs.

We would recommend two themes, both of which are amazing choices and among the best Shopify themes you could opt for if you have a fashion store or are in the beauty niche.”

  • Modular – “Elegant, modern and super flexible for long term businesses. Those are the main reasons why we love this theme so much. Plenty of customization options without the need to code. This theme also has a very nice about us page, FAQ section, looks great in mobile and offers great customer service support. Overall, this Shopify theme has everything an online business needs and more.”

  • Showcase – “If you have beautiful photos and you are in the fashion niche, this is quite possibly the best Shopify theme you could choose. Clean design and trendy. It allows you to stand out from the crowd. Big photos with dynamic elegant effect, nice mega menu and CMS pages that are more developed than standard classic pages on Shopify. We also love the product page layout. It’s great for adding some additional information about the product and you can even add a nice video full screen.

    We choose Betty and Native styles for our brands, but the others are also not bad at all.”

Jon Dodd
Design Partner at Alloneword, a creative direction, visual identity and web experience studio
https://alloneword.xyz/
  • Prestige – “This Shopify theme comes up again and again as a reference from our clients, and we’ve worked on it extensively. It has a lot of really useful homepage features (such as hotspots over images to tag products), and is especially useful if your site is a fashion or luxury site. The preset styles are also well put together, so if you can’t afford a studio to help with the setup, you can get something that looks really polished together by yourself.”

  • Empire – “This theme is really suitable if you’re selling wholesale, or have a large or diverse product range, which on some of the more ’boutique’ Shopify themes can seem a bit contrived. There’s a lot of nice touches to sell your USPs, and again the preset styles are really nicely considered.”

  • Motion – “This theme really does have personality, with its chunky well-spaced layouts, and animated load in states. It’s really one of the best Shopify themes to use for simple sites where there are just a few categories and/or products. It feels very contemporary and fresh and when we’ve used it at Alloneword, it’s worked for a range of brands and products.”

Tom Collver
Co-Founder @ pb+j – Creating High-Performing eComm for Founder-led DTC brands
https://www.addpbj.com
  • Superstore – “Superstore is great for high-SKU builds and has an easy CSS framework. There are multiple section types to work with making it very flexible and it has a decent amount of accessibility built-in.

    Some of the features I like:

    • Great structure for merchants with medium to an extremely large volume of SKUs in their catalogue — this shows on the PLP and PDPs
    • Fairly good documentation on how to use
    • Continual updates and iterations being done on this theme
    • Great design/style variety for page section types and navigation menus”
  • Flex – “Flex has powerful, built-in sub-collections and an awesome CSS flexbox. Additionally, there are a bunch of customizer settings for advanced theme control. With great documentation, this Shopify theme is easy to understand and manipulate.”

  • Prestige – “Prestige has clean, understandable code, lots of useful Index sections, options for a Mega Nav and for Mobile Nav to be different than Desktop. It has options for a Shopping Cart Drawer, a built-in pop-up Newsletter form, customizer editable accordion FAQ section, and editable Contact form. It really is a reliable, feature-rich option.

    Some of the things I like about it:

    • Great structure for merchants with a small to medium volume of SKUs in their catalogue — this shows on the PLP and PDPs
    • Fairly good documentation on how to use
    • One of the best Shopify themes to date that offers the kind of UX/UI that’s sought after for boutique-level brands
    • Great design/style variety for page section types and navigation menus”
Chen Zissu
Zissu LTD, a Shopify website-development and branding-service provider endorsed by Shopify itself, delivers a full range of services to enable brands on the platform to become leaders in their respective markets. The company’s array of services takes e-commerce businesses from concept to conversion, regardless of the stage of the business’s journey.
http://zissuglobal.com/
  • Impulse – “One of the biggest trends in 2021 will be PDP (product detailed page). Impulse theme allows you to use different sections in the product page template. Whether it’s promotional images, text and image, lead forms, maps, and much more. Using the parallax effect and its clean design, Impulse theme must be the best Shopify theme.”

  • Turbo – “This Shopify theme was built for CRO. From call to action buttons, add to cart and options on the product pages, built-in upsells and cross-sells on the shopping cart page, in addition to great loading times…All of this makes it a great theme indeed.”

  • Shella – “It has all. Builder sections to add any layout for a picture gallery, collection collage, 2 sliders in one section, the best product filtering options on collection pages and more. You can change it to be RTL, and it has a lot of additional languages already translated which saves you time and all for less than 60$!”

Richard Hatfield
We work with founders, startups and established businesses as a truly independent ecommerce consultancy; trusted to help create, develop, manage and execute ecommerce solutions and digital marketing campaigns. We offer unique insight and expert knowledge that resolves problems, reduces risk, optimises success and enables growth.
https://www.ventorq.com
  • Streamline – “Streamline is a high impact, aesthetically pleasing Shopify theme that gives clarity to brands.

    With mobile-first design at the heart of the theme, it comes with 3 styles to start you on your way. The product pages are story focussed so great for branding and really selling the features of your products. GIF style image animated content options and video integration are built-in without significantly impacting page speeds. The mobile menu is also a great feature.

    The Streamline theme is versatile and a pleasure to use.”

  • Shella – “Shella is a fully response premium theme with great page speed. It comes with ready to use skins for multiple product types, multiple menu designs, and integrated product filters. You can also hide options on product listings to reduce clutter.

    Shella can support multiple media types, advanced product color swatches, size guide pop ups and custom product tabs to create information-rich product pages. Quick view, wishlist and compare functionality are also built-in.

    It’s mobile optimised and fast performance will help your SEO and Core Web Vitals.

    With Shella Shopify app you can create a great looking, high performing ecommerce site with ease.”

Tracy Sailors
Co-founder & Partner in 5+ Shopify Stores + over 10 Years e-Commerce & Shopify Design Experience
http://www.tracysailors.com
  • Impulse – “Many clients ask for my recommendation when building their store and I highly recommend the Impulse theme. The theme is very flexible and easy to use for store owners, and also comprehensive for developers to customize layouts and features. The theme is also excellent in its mobile-friendly design and options for shop page promotions. My vote for best Shopify theme goes to Impulse!”

Iacopo Pecchi
Omnichannel Commerce Shopify PLUS Expert
https://www.linkedin.com/in/iacopopecchi/

“I would recommend the themes that can be found on the Shopify Theme Marketplace (https://themes.shopify.com/), and specifically the “Prestige” theme.”

  • Prestige – “Prestige offers great security. Frequent updates and great support. For those that want to use an advanced Shopify theme that focuses on storytelling, this is the perfect choice.”

Kristi Mitchell
Kristi Mitchell has spent over two decades creating and building high growth companies that focused on marketing and eCommerce. She’s currently developing and implementing eCommerce strategies with several prominient online brands, and recently began working with Global Widget to develop and execute an Amazon-first omnichannel strategy.
http://www.kristine-mitchell.com

“There are some great Shopify themes available today and with so many great options, choosing one is always a tough decision. I think it comes down to what you’re selling, knowing who your audience is and choosing a Shopify theme that fits into exactly what you need.”

  • District – “District provides great functionality, looks good on mobile, and offers some useful features like embedded image zoom functions, color swatches on the product pages, and Quick View. All essential to sell retail. Their support team is also very responsive.”

  • Avone – “Avone is an easy theme to use, looks great, loads fast, and offers over 1000 theme options. There are so many ways to highlight content depending on what is right for the products being sold. There are many apps built right into Avone, so you don’t have to spend additional money and won’t have to worry about apps slowing down your store performance. The customer support is hands-down the best I have encountered.”

Pankaj Kumar Maurya
Director at Inoyasis Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Expert at Shopify Experts Marketplace. Freelancer on Fiverr.
https://techydive.com
  • Debutify – “Selecting a Shopify theme is crucial as it will directly affect your sales and customer experience. As a Shopify expert, I have worked with many different themes and we have also custom coded themes for our clients, but if I were to recommend the best option for a beginner it would be Debutify. This theme comes with everything loaded that is needed to start your store. You don’t need to rely on multiple apps for features like currency converter, upsells, product tabs, multiple languages etc. It’s high converting, easy to customize, well documented, lightweight and completely free.”

Kerrin Hands
Kerrin is the founder of Elevatr Digital, a branding and design agency that helps Shopify ecommerce retailers succeed. They have deep experience in building ecommerce websites on the Shopify platform.
https://elevatrdigital.com/

“As a Shopify Experts agency working mostly with entrepreneurs who are either startups, replatforming, or bricks and mortar stores going online, we need Shopify themes that are flexible, fast and user friendly.

I find that we rarely stray from the themes made by ARCHETYPE. They currently have three themes – Impulse, Motion and Streamline. All three are pretty similar with some fairly minor differences in their layouts and features.

As a studio that focuses on branding and web design, my main reason for choosing Archetype’s themes is that they offer sections on all pages, one of the few Shopify themes to do that, which opens up many options for designing and building compelling and rich brand stories.

All of their themes are feature-rich including 3D/AR product images, powerful product filtering, promo sections throughout, upsells, smart mega menu, extensive parallax section… the list goes on.

When required to adapt the sections, the code is well designed and very easy to work with.”

  • Impulse – “IMPULSE is currently my favourite. Modern and clean and easy for clients to get the hang of quickly. As with their other Shopify themes, the ‘palette’ of sections and tools allow good flexibility to build different flows of pages. It is easy to get creative to achieve different site looks depending on the content.”

  • Motion – “Similar to Impulse but with a focus on video.”

  • Streamline – “This is their latest offering which boasts fast load times and is developed with a focus on mobile.”

“Archetype’s support is second to none. Very responsive, reliable and quick to help with simple enquiries.

You really can’t go wrong with any of the Archetype Themes.”

Filed Under: Ecommerce

The Best Ecommerce Books? (27 Ecom Pros Share Their Favorites)

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated October 14, 2021

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no added cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Best Ecommerce Books

Ecommerce has absolutely exploded in recent years. Online sales are projected to account for roughly 22% of global retail sales in 2023. But while now is most definitely the time to dive into the ecommerce market, not every online store that hits the internet generates the same kind of revenue and conversions.

So, what is it that makes some e-commerce businesses succeed, while others fight to stay afloat? While there isn’t a generic formula for success, one way to glean some insights and learn a thing or two is by reading some of the best e-commerce books that have been written. And that’s why we put together this article.

But we didn’t want to put together just another standard reading list of the most popular titles listed on Amazon (definitely not our style). So we took a different approach to putting together this post and reached out to a bunch of the world’s top ecommerce business owners, consultants and marketers, and asked them for their recommendations on books that they think anyone involved in ecommerce should read at some point.

So whether you’ve just launched your first ecommerce store and want to fast-track the learning process or you’re a seasoned veteran looking to sharpen your toolkit, there’s bound to be some useful titles on our list.

Top Picks: Best Books to Read for Ecommerce

There were lots of different titles recommended during the course of our survey, but there were only a few books that were referenced by more than one of our experts. If you’re on the hunt for the “best ecommerce books to read” the following list would be a great place to start. While some of them aren’t specifically about ecommerce, their teachings can most definitely be applied to ecom.

1. The Everything Store

When you think of successful online stores, Amazon is the first name that’ll come to your mind. But did you know that the e-commerce giant started as an online bookstore launched from Jeff Bezos’s garage? Written by journalist Brad Stone, “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” is an inspiring account of the rise of this e-commerce juggernaut. The book also highlights the innovations and strategies that have contributed to its success.

More Info


Purple_Cow

2. Purple Cow

Is your online store struggling to garner traction despite spending plenty of advertising dollars? It’s high time you get your hands on Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable”.  The Business Week and Wall Street Journal bestseller will compel you to brainstorm ways to make your business stand out from the crowd. It also features a treasure trove of insights on how to create and showcase your brand’s unique story.

More Info


Good_to_Great

3. Good to Great

How do some businesses manage to stand the test of time, while others strive for success but ultimately fail? Written by Jim C. Collins, Good to Great uncovers the factors that contribute to an organization’s long-term success. The book features extensive statistical analysis of 11 pairs of business competitors. It finds out what propels a great company to reach new heights of success while its competitor fails to accomplish the same.

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80/20_Sales_and_Marketing

4. 80/20 Sales and Marketing

This book is a must for every e-commerce marketer. Written by marketing consultant and expert Perry Marshall, “80/20 Sales and Marketing” explains how to get the best bang for your buck on your e-commerce marketing campaigns. It helps you understand the importance of selling to the right person rather than aggressively marketing your product to everyone.

More Info


Building_a_StoryBrand

5. Building a StoryBrand

Donald Miller’s “Building a StoryBrand” outlines a seven-point framework to help you spin a compelling and captivating narrative around your brand. It’s just the guidance you need to transform your e-commerce business into a brand that instantly resonates with your target consumers. It also includes various insights on how to showcase your brand’s core values and vision.

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The_Goal

6. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

First published in 1984, “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement”, describes a manager’s fight to keep his manufacturing plant running against all odds. Written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, this novel is an MBA lesson wrapped inside a fast-paced thriller. It outlines various strategies and techniques you can use to skyrocket your business’s success.

More Info


Other Books Recommended for Ecommerce By Ecommerce Professionals

In this section, we’re going to run through all of the other titles that were recommended. We’ve organized them into some rough categories for you so that you can navigate to the books of most interest more easily.

Specific to Ecommerce

The E-commerce Book 👈

Billion Dollar B2B Ecommerce: Seize the Opportunity 👈

Dropshipping 101: Your Ultimate Guide to Getting Started With Ecommerce Dropshipping, Finding Products to Sell Online, and Marketing Your Dropshipping Business 👈

New Retail Born in China Going Global: How Chinese Tech Giants are Changing Global Commerce 👈

Ultimate Guide To E-commerce Growth: 7 Unexpected KPIs To Scale An E-commerce Shop To £10 Million Plus 👈

B2B eCommerce MasterPlan: How to Make Wholesale eCommerce a Key Part of Your Business to Business Sales Growth 👈

Built to Scale 👈

Business Management

The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business Like Amazon 👈

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action 👈

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done 👈

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 👈

1 Minute Manager 👈

Business Development + Strategy

Outliers: The Story of Success 👈

The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies 👈

Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business 👈

The Lean Marketplace: A Practical Guide to Building a Successful Online Marketplace Business 👈

The Innovator’s Solution (Creating and Sustainability Successful Growth) 👈

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less 👈

The Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur’s Handbook: Everything You Need to Launch and Grow Your New Business 👈

Exponential Organizations: New Organizations Are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (and What to Do About It) 👈

Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential 👈

The 4 Hour Workweek 👈

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t 👈

The Customer Centricity Playbook: Implement a Winning Strategy Driven by Customer Lifetime ValueThe Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind 👈

Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay on Top Forever 👈

Marketing/Communication

The Wizard of Ads: Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires 👈

It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be 👈

Forging An Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide 👈

Ogilvy on Advertising 👈

The Robert Collier Letter Book 👈

Consumer Behaviour/Psychology

The Experimentation Handbook 👈

Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy 👈

The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don’t) 👈

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More 👈

Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart 👈

Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success 👈

The Only Way to Win: How Building Character Drives Higher Achievement and Greater Fulfillment in Business and Life 👈

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference 👈

The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind 👈

Data/Testing/Usability

You Should Test That 👈

Making Websites Win: Apply the Customer-Centric Methodology That Has Doubled the Sales of Many Leading Websites 👈

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability 👈

Business Biographies

Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way 👈

Sam Walton: Made in America 👈

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman 👈

Relationships + Audiences

How to Win Friends and Influence People 👈

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact 👈

Misc

As a Man Thinketh 👈

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century 👈

The Obstacle is the Way 👈

My Utmost for His Highest 👈

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think 👈

New Releases Worth Checking Out:

Shopify Made Easy [2021]: Step-By-Step Blueprint To Launch Your Shopify Store FAST And Make Money 👈

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • Best Ecommerce Platform for Small Business? What 78 Industry Pros Think
  • Best Shopify Themes? What 58 Experts Say
  • Top Reasons for Cart Abandonment + Solutions
  • All Ecommerce Resources

Read What The Experts Said

Below we’ve published exactly what each expert had to say when we asked them for their recommendations on the books they deem to be “must reads” for anyone involved with ecommerce. If you want to see what was said about a particular book, use the filters to jump right to the relevant content.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • The Everything Store
  • Purple Cow
  • Good to Great
  • 80/20 Sales and Marketing
  • Building a StoryBrand
  • The Goal
  • The E-commerce Book
  • Billion Dollar B2B Ecommerce
  • Dropshipping 101
  • New Retail Born in China Going Global
  • Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Growth
  • B2B eCommerce MasterPlan
  • Built to Scale
  • The Bezos Letters
  • Start with Why
  • The Effective Executive
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  • 1 Minute Manager
  • Outliers
  • The Ultimate Sales Machine
  • Users Not Customers
  • The Lean Marketplace
  • The Innovator’s Solution
  • Essentialism
  • Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook
  • Exponential Organizations
  • Simple Numbers - Straight Talk - Big Profits
  • The 4 Hour Workweek
  • Scaling Up
  • The Customer Centricity Playbook
  • Always Day One
  • The Wizard of Ads
  • It's Not How Good You Are
  • Forging An Ironclad Brand
  • Ogilvy on Advertising
  • The Robert Collier Letter Book
  • The Experimentation Handbook
  • Decoded
  • The Brain Audit
  • The Long Tail
  • Into the Magic Shop
  • Black Box Thinking
  • The Only Way to Win
  • The Tipping Point
  • The Catalyst
  • You Should Test That
  • Making Websites Win
  • Don't Make Me Think
  • Losing My Virginity
  • Sam Walton: Made in America
  • Let My People Go Surfing
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • The Power of Moments
  • As a Man Thinketh
  • The World is Flat
  • The Obstacle is the Way
  • My Utmost for His Highest
  • Factfulness

Shabbir Nooruddin

Shabbir Nooruddin is an online entrepreneur and coffee addict.
https://coffeeinmyveins.com
  • The Tipping Point – “The Tipping Point is one of my favorite books for understanding how ideas can snowball in popularity. As e-commerce entrepreneurs, we’re always looking to get an element of virality in our marketing efforts. This book provides an out of the box way to think about how things go viral.”

  • 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More – “Even though this book has been around for a long time, the lessons it teaches in how to prioritize your work and cut out timesucks are there to stay and can be applied in all aspects of life.”

Kaleigh Moore

Freelance writer specializing in blog content for eCommerce platforms and software integrations.
http://KaleighMoore.com
  • Purple Cow – “This book is a must-read for ecommerce business owners looking to learn how to differentiate their positioning, to stand out from the competition, and to build a unique brand that customers root for.”

David Kohn

A retail and eCommerce veteran with a keen interest in customer psychology and how we make decisions. Although now in furniture I spent many years in book retail, particularly non-fiction.
http://www.heals.com
  • Users Not Customers – “Written in 2011 by the then CEO of digital marketing agency HUGE, this presents a model of how to make yourself indispensable in your market. A narrow focus on what you sell or do is not enough, you need to think instead about how you make yourself genuinely useful and add value to the lives of your users.”

  • Decoded – “This book pulls together much of the most useful science on behavioural psychology and decision-making and shows how it can be applied practically to real marketing decisions. Although not specifically about eCommerce, this will prompt you to think about your brand and what it stands for and to work out how you execute that in your digital channels.”

  • The Experimentation Handbook – “Digital White Papers and eBooks from solution providers are rarely worth the paper they’re not printed on but this is an honourable exception. Endless Gain are a Manchester-based CRO agency who build their work on the principles of behavioural psychology. This eBook is chock-full of useful, real-life examples of how you can translate the theory into practice.”

Liam Quinn

Having studied Computer Science at the University of Hull, I've spent a decade working within eCommerce. Previously Head of Digital at a leading UK Shopify Plus Partner - now part of the eCommerce consultancy team at Vervaunt. With a technical focus, this often involves replatforming, technical performance & SEO, and digital strategy.
https://vervaunt.com
  • Making Websites Win – “This is my first recommendation and #1 answer to anyone looking for the most actionable book on building a successful ecom site. It’s focused on Conversion Rate Optimisation, from a couple of guys that are masters on the topic. But more than that, it is a rulebook on the absolute fundamentals of psychology & user experience to create an effective page structure. This would be a worthy read for any agency or internal ecommerce team, with actionable points that can be applied to every site – making it a great one to keep on the shelf to reference when needed!”

  • New Retail Born in China Going Global – “A topic I find incredibly fascinating after visiting China & working with a couple of clients in finding the best solutions to selling online in China. Whilst that isn’t immediately relevant to everyone, understanding the ecommerce trends – including smart devices & digital payment methods – of 800 million consumers should be. The use of experience-first physical retail environments has suddenly been made extremely relevant, and along with concepts like VR & streaming there are a lot of glimpses into what to expect for us in the near future.”

  • Let My People Go Surfing – “My final recommendation is a bit less ecommerce specific and more about creating a brand that lasts. How to build a retail company that treats staff to such a high standard that they never want to leave, creates products to such a high standard that they’ll (almost) never be thrown away – and hold the mission statement in such high regard that it becomes the metric of their success. As sustainability continues to trend in ecommerce, Yvon Chouinard documents exactly how it’s done well here. I’ve been obsessed with Patagonia since reading this book, so hopefully someone else finds it as inspiring.”

Thomas J. Vosper

With 12+ years in ecommerce Thomas has a long record of delivering growth online. During 6+ years at Amazon, he led strategic seller acquisitions, category launches and merchant services before moving to Tesco to build their marketplace business. He co-founded consumer shopping site aisle3 in March 2020.
http://www.thomasvosper.com
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – “I’ve found this one of the best, most influential books on personal development I’ve been lucky to read. It’s applicable to both your personal life and all aspects of a business.

    Even though it was first published in the 80’s it still accurately resonates today.

    These are the seven habits:

    • Be proactive
    • Begin with an end in mind
    • Put first things first
    • Think win-win
    • Seek first to understand, then to be understood
    • Synergize
    • Sharpen the saw

    Every single chapter is a treasure trove of actionable insight that helps you understand and focus on what matters to really achieve your goals. Once you begin with the end in mind so many challenges become much easier to manage.

    Personally, I have found the hardest to implement, but most useful, is seek first to understand. Not only does this stop me jumping in with a solution or opinion, but it also encourages me to really listen to the other person without focusing on my response. Of course, this is a bit of a curse since once you start to master this yourself you will quickly become very frustrated when you realise how little you are listened to!”

  • Black Box Thinking – “This entire book focuses on various studies and anecdotes that explain why it’s so hard to admit mistakes. But that if you want to improve, either significantly or via marginal gains, then it is recognising and embracing these mistakes that sets you up for success.

    Without mistakes and failure there simply is no progress.

    I’ve heard quite polarizing views on Matthew Syed’s style of writing but I find it thought-provoking through the use of expert storytelling of relatable examples. He demonstrates through these tales surprising examples of failures that on reflection are easy to correct whilst framing how you can bring this insight into your day job.

    For me, the biggest eye-opener I have taken back to business is the principle of cognitive dissonance and how rather than admit mistakes, or accept a different viewpoint, we try and reframe the evidence.

    Whilst I can now spot this in political arguments and turmoil, the most useful application is when I’ve found difficulty approaching new business or in final stage negotiations.”

  • Factfulness – “Factfulness is one of the books I’ve read that has most dramatically changed both my view of the world and how I react and interact with data and statistics. This is incredibly useful in stimulating contrarian thinking and rebel ideas in a business environment.

    Most interesting is how it tackles a fairly consistent belief that the world has gotten worse – however, this cannot be further from the truth.

    In almost every single measurable category life is better than it was even less than 50 years ago.

    More people in the world are escaping poverty, living longer and have better access to education and healthcare.

    There’s a great piece of advice in this book about how we can better treat our children to grow up respecting facts.

    There’s a great piece of advice in this book about how we can better treat our children to grow up respecting facts.

    There is no good to come from continually reminiscing about the past through rose-tinted glasses – children should know what the past was really like (especially the bad parts).

    They should learn how to hold two apparently competing views at once, such as, there is pain and poverty, but things are getting better for many people across the world.

    Finally, try to teach them and us how to avoid feeling anxious or helpless when the news is being overdramatic.

    The biggest learning for me was the need to escape from the bubble of popular media and look behind the news coverage to put the real facts in context.

    The next time you see a group of trained rescue experts, with first aid training, pulling survivors out of a collapsed building try to focus not on the rubble but the group of people that would have not have had the training or equipment just a few years ago.”

Hendrik Laubscher

Hendrik Laubscher is the Founder and Chief Analyst of Blue Cape Ventures, a boutique research consultancy that focuses on marketplaces and cross-border e-commerce.
https://blog.haimrich.com/ecommerce-newsletter/
  • The Everything Store – “Amazon is arguably the greatest e-commerce business in the Western World yet few know how they operate and interact with the sector. The book describes Amazon Founder, Jeff Bezos’s early life and how he started Amazon. I particularly enjoyed the sections on how it got started (an online book store that 25 years later sells everything for its customers). The key takeaway is that business owners must understand that to stay relevant you need to disrupt your own business or others will do it.”

  • The E-commerce Book – “Graf and Schneider do what few authors have done – a deep look into all the various business models that e-commerce businesses have and key learnings for them. As small business owners have little time, it is vital to understand that globally there are various business models that can be used to sell products to consumers.”

Kaivan Dave

Kaivan Dave is an Entrepreneur, who is passionate about eCommerce, Branding, and Leadership.
https://awesomecoffee.com/
  • Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur’s Handbook – “This book covers building a business model and strategy. If you don’t know your customers well enough to reach them, and if you haven’t built something that’s a good fit for them, the rest of your model isn’t going to work. This book isn’t just for folks in eCommerce, it can help anyone that’s part of an organization or looking to start a company.”

  • Forging An Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide – “This book is outstanding. Lindsay has such great experience and is able to relay valuable information that can benefit your organization. Reading this book will help to eliminate making mistakes and find out how your brand can flourish. Her ideas and knowledge are remarkable. It is worth reading even twice so you don’t miss anything!”

  • Ogilvy on Advertising – “Everyone that wants to work in the advertising industry must read this book. It tells you David Ogilvy’s experience throughout his career and the information shared here is valuable even in today’s digital world. Great insights and advice.”

Shawn Cannon

Shawn is an entrepreneur from the Midwest. With 20+ years of experience in sales and marketing, he leads the marketing effort for several businesses. Both that he owns, and others through his consultancy.
http://www.heliobrands.com
  • The 4 Hour Workweek – “The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss dramatically changed my life. In fact, I have said several times that I was not the same person coming out of that book from when I first went in. It taught me that my success will not just rest in my efforts and that it was vital for me to outsource all the work that I could. As a result, I have been able to duplicate myself incredibly. While I may only spend 4 hours on a venture, it has allowed me the time to spend more time on more ventures thereby allowing me to grow exponentially.”

  • Good to Great – “Good to Great by Jim Collins is a must-read for any entrepreneur that wants their business to exceed beyond them. Jim has studied businesses and how they operate for a very long time and he penned this book with the anecdotes of real businesses and pinpointed the reasons their businesses were able to thrive while others strived and ultimately failed. It helped me form the mindset necessary to create a culture within my organization that will allow us to stand the test of time.”

  • Scaling Up – “Scaling Up by Verne Harnish is great for a seasoned entrepreneur. I would not recommend it for someone just starting out as the concepts laid out in this book are a bit advanced. If anything, read it when you start out and then pick the book up again in a year or two for a more thorough read. That’s exactly what I did. Verne walks you through how to properly structure your business, who to add, and when to add them, to allow massive growth within your company.”

Marc Rust

Marc is a branding expert who creatively helps companies define their message and reach audiences with relevance and value. Marc applies his years of experience in eCom- merce, finance, higher-ed and the agency world to provide businesses with actionable solutions that work. He is a passionate leader, advisor, public speaker (even being a speaker at TEDx), brand strategist, and storyteller.
http://www.marcrust.com
  • The Wizard of Ads: Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires – “This book is one I can never put down because it is pure inspiration. I have used the knowledge from this book over and over. This is a must-read to keep within arm’s reach at all times. Just open it anywhere, read what you land on and you will see!”

  • Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way – “Most business books can be difficult to read simply because business people are not always the best writers. Richard Branson knows how to write and tell the amazing stories that have made him who he is. I think business books should inspire you and this one does just that!”

  • It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be – “This is a must-have and read for anyone wishing to understand how marketing works. I have given this book away more than any other. You will find yourself coming back time and time again to learn from it.”

David Denholm

Helping the world sell their grannies online since 2005. I help eCommerce companies sell their finest wares. (I haven't actually sold a grannie yet).
http://www.kungfucommerce.co.uk
  • Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Growth – “I love that the authors are brothers! They also have done some awesome work in the UK as e-commerce consultants – this is not just a theory book. Whilst the language in the marketing of the book borrows more from the world of Internet marketing than e-commerce, their 7 KPIs are a great way to focus the mind of e-commerce store owners. Making sure you are concentrating on the very things that will move the needle.”

  • B2B eCommerce MasterPlan – “What I really like about this one is it is a B2B play and when it came out was unique in that fact. There are a lot of B2B businesses out there that want to add e-commerce to their business. This really gives them a plan and action steps on how to think about adding this factor.”

Connor Gillivan

Connor Gillivan is currently an owner of OutsourceSchool.com. He was an owner of FreeUp.net, which was acquired in 2019. Connor is an expert in hiring and scaling with virtual teams and shares his business insights on his own blog, ConnorGillivan.com. He currently lives in Denver, Colorado.
https://outsourceschool.com
  • Sam Walton: Made in America – “If you’re in eCommerce, it’s critical to know the fundamentals of retail. In this autobiography of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, you’ll learn how Walmart grew into a billion-dollar company and how they adjusted to eCommerce as the Internet took form.”

  • The Bezos Letters – “A quick read with 14 key principles that have made Amazon such a powerhouse. You’ll be able to take the 14 principles and apply them to your own eCommerce business. You’ll also be inspired by Bezos and how he and his team have created and run Amazon from the start.”

Shyna Hegde

Shyna Hegde brings nearly a decade of global digital eCommerce experience focusing on driving roadmap and strategies for high growth clients and platforms. Her portfolio of clients include some of the largest Fortune 500 B2B and B2C companies. She is a respected thought leader and nationally distinguished speaker.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shyna/
  • Billion Dollar B2B Ecommerce: Seize the Opportunity – “There is a large opportunity within B2B Business, understanding the gaps, customer sentiment, how to grow and pivot for B2B and lead the team for growth. I would say this is a little more towards the mature audience in eCommerce, who are in the business and want to scale. But it gives a lot of case studies and perspective on how to achieve and manage scale. It’s a really good book nonetheless with lots of insights and tactics.”

  • Building a StoryBrand – “Analytics and Branding/Marketing are key to eCommerce growth. After successfully building a store, without a brand vision or marketing investment there is no return on investment to the awesome store you built. This book gives you a good guide to branding and why it is important. It also has a guide to building a brand story.”

  • Dropshipping 101 – “If you are wondering why dropshipping, it’s the new way of getting an eCommerce business started in the shortest and low investment way. A lot of companies are drop-shippers and you may not even know it. This book is a must-read for any eCommerce business owner/professional. Dropshipping is a business model that allows you to run an eCommerce business without inventory. Instead, your supplier holds the stock for you. After you make a sale, you pass the order along to a supplier, who ships the product directly to your customer. An interesting read that guides you through the steps to start dropshipping.”

Dennis M. Driscoll

Dennis is a retail guy at heart. Having mastered the internal order forms from Sears at the age of 5, he has spent most of his adult life working in software development for retailers and eCommerce Companies.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennismdriscoll/

“While none of my selections are directly eCommerce books, I believe they are essential for anyone who wants to start, join or improve an eCommerce Company and its offerings.”

  • Outliers – “This book by Malcolm Gladwell through real-life examples and data analysis examines what it takes to be the best at what you do, regardless of area of focus. A combination of luck, skill and hard work separates the truly excellent from the ordinary. Gladwell confirms that 10,000 hours of focus and discipline is all it takes to become an outlier.”

  • Good to Great – “Jim Collins does an in-depth statistical analysis of 11 pairs of companies who compete with each other, at the same time, in the same industries. The author shows how and why one company succeeds at transforming into a great company while its competitor, faced with the same challenges and external pressures, either succumbs to the pressure or proves to be less successful. The results of his team’s efforts uncover the need for fanatic discipline to your mission, vision, values and goals. This fanatic discipline needs to exist at all levels of the organization. Oh, and as Malcolm Gladwell points out above, there is a great deal of luck, skill and discipline in these great enduring companies.”

  • The Everything Store – “As if to cap off a modern-day example of the two books mentioned above, this book by Brad Stone about Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com, shows how an Outlier with fanatic discipline took an idea dreamed up on Wall Street has become the world’s biggest online retailer, cloud service provider and customer experience juggernaut. This book paints the clearest picture I have seen on how hard yet rewarding eCommerce can be. The author shows how Jeff Bezos and team used a long term focus, imagination, risk-taking and discipline in the face of daunting odds, naysayers and the unknown to achieve what they have.”

Jen Oliver

Jen lives in Philadelphia and has been working in eCommerce since 1997. In her career, she’s worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including J. Crew, Best Buy, National Geographic and The New York Times. She's currently employed by Sitecore, a leader in digital experience management.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenoliver/
  • The Power of Moments – “Often when we talk about improvements in eCommerce, we focus on the minimal (but real) incremental gains in UI improvements discovered through disciplines such as testing. This can lead to a myopic view of the ecommerce experience. What “The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact” teaches us is that excellence in ecommerce is about far more than the top navigation or the product detail page. To create a compelling experience that keeps customers coming back, marketers are tasked with creating experiences that delight in unexpected ways. The opportunities for these experiences can happen anywhere – from packaging to promotions to customer service on-hold music.

    As an example, during the early days of the pandemic, I received an email from Boden, a British fashion brand and one of my favorite retailers. They sell fancier clothes – a category no one was paying much attention to at a time when people were spending their days in sweats and pajamas. The fictitious voice of the brand, Johnnie Boden sent an email saying, “It’s hard to know what to say right now. It might seem highly inappropriate to show you clothes for which you currently have no need, but we’ve already made them and it’s too late to stop. I really hope that they cheer you up.”

    This was a radically different message than what other retailers were sending at the time, most of which focused on safety protocols. This moment stayed with me, even months later. The email felt genuine and personal, and actually did cheer me up.”

Andrew PM Tse

Andrew Tse is an entrepreneur with a wealth of experience across industries and market segments. He has a proven record of building ecommerce platforms and a ready network of marketing and sales channels to reach a large audience. His core strengths include the most effective use of marketing dollars to reach new customers and convert sales and is often referred to as the “Sales Growth Guy”.
https://www.fittyshades.com
  • The Everything Store – “My first pick is the story of Jeff Bezo’s rise from a startup in his garage to a global e-commerce behemoth. It will inspire you because we all start as a small business, even Amazon. His major innovations that have altered ecommerce forever are reviews by customers to give social proof, Prime next day delivery and FBA logistics to store and deliver orders for sellers. Having grown with Amazon and played a small part in their success by growing their consumer electronics division, I appreciate their proprietary technology for product suggestions, performance metrics and first-class logistics. They are very much a company you if you can’t beat em, join em to build massive online sales.”

  • 1 Minute Manager – “This book is a must because it’s simple and effective. It gives you a clear and consistent structure to motivate and manage your people. It’s your team that will build your company and your success and why this book has been a bestseller for 4 decades. Set 1 min goals with each employee and make sure they are written down and reviewed regularly. Give a 1-minute reprimand if the goal is missed which means confronting the action that went wrong and what can be done better. If the goal was achieved, give a 1 min praising telling them what great value this has contributed to the team and business.”

  • As a Man Thinketh – “An absolute classic book that is essential reading to keep you grounded and focused. Written over a hundred years ago but a book I would implore everyone to read. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” is the central theme of this original self-help book. Our world is shaped by us not the other way around and Allen writes beautifully and persuasively about why we determine our fate, with positivity and calmness we achieve positive outcomes; with anxiety and fear comes failure and lack of direction. He likens your mind to a garden, left to grow unattended and wild, you can see the weeds and mess, but cultivate and tend to it and you can produce fruit for a lifetime.”

Sandra Yönter

I've had the opportunity to start exciting projects and turn them into million dollar businesses and create opportunities to discover amazing brands, products and services for people worldwide. I'm an experienced digital & e-commerce executive with 25 years of experience in building, managing and growing online business units internationally.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandrayonter/
  • The Lean Marketplace – “In this book, Makkonen and Gracia provide detailed practical advice to build and run a successful marketplace. Using an example of a marketplace for personal trainer services, while also referring to Airbnb, Etsy and Uber, they take us through all the steps from concept to launching and growing a marketplace. Whatever your experience with marketplaces might be, this book is a must-read!”

Stuart Heffernan

I’ve been working in Ecommerce for 18 years, starting my digital career at Tesco.com. I’ve been at Pernod Ricard for 4 years and my most recent role is as Global Ecommerce Lead.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-heffernan-b8733419/
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People – “I was recommended this book at university whilst on my business course… I didn’t read it! I was then recommended this book by my 1st great boss after 2 false starts in my career post-university. It changed my life and I aim to read it at least once a year. No other book I have read has helped me understand the psychology of colleagues, clients and suppliers in business.

    Written in the 1930s, its message is still 100% relevant even today. Good business is about crafting great relationships and motivating those around us and this book (still!) has the answers.

    I simply cannot recommend this book enough.”

  • Start with Why – “This book again was a recommendation and as my career has progressed into more strategic roles, it has helped me craft strategies that really influence people and leaders in business and is a gem of a read. It’s hard going at points, there’s a lot to take in, but Sinek eloquently crafts a message of how to bring meaning and emotional investment into business. If you wish to understand how to drive people to believe in your message, this book will help guide you there.”

Evian Gutman

Evian is the Founder & CEO of two startups: Ringcommend and Padlifter, and consults to SMBs on growth strategies. Prior to that, he was a management consultant and Head of Digital Marketing for a global business consulting firm. Evian is the author of the best-selling book Coming Back From COVID.
https://ringcommend.com.au
  • Building a StoryBrand – “Who hasn’t struggled with communicating their value to customers in the past? We often take for granted that our business’s offerings add immense value to our customers. Yet from the perspective of unfamiliar buyers, this is not always a given. The author does a fantastic job of distilling the art of storytelling down to a seven-point framework that will help eCommerce business owners put themselves in their customers’ shoes and tell a compelling story that translates into sales.”

  • Don’t Make Me Think – “When it comes to driving sales in eCommerce, your goal is to create a path of least resistance. And if the title of this book didn’t already make clear its overarching theme, readers will walk away with a greater appreciation for the importance and necessity of user experience, intuitive navigation, and information design. For any eCommerce business owners keen to improve their Conversion Rate Optimization, this book is definitely worth its weight in gold!”

  • You Should Test That – “The art of effective marketing involves setting oneself on a path of continuous improvement that involves hypothesizing, testing, reviewing, and adapting. When it comes to eCommerce, it’s often easy to take for granted that what makes sense in our heads isn’t always the same thing going through the heads of our potential customers. This book emphasizes that point. It provides actionable tips and tools for validating your assumptions and baking your proven methods of success into your business’s DNA.”

Will Seippel

Will Seippel is the visionary founder of WorthPoint.com, a site “on its way to becoming the Bloomberg of the antiques and collectibles industry.” Leading the growing company, he changed the collectibles market by bringing the power of technology to valuing items online, the same way eBay changed selling items online.
http://www.WorthPoint.com
  • The Long Tail – “A book that inspired me on several fronts is “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More” by Chris Anderson. I read it when it first came out in 2006, around the time we were discussing the design for WorthPoint.com, and many of the observations shared by Anderson still resonate. Because I’m a collector at heart, and given the nature of our business, I also enjoy nonfiction books with a focus on archeology, history, and biographies, usually with a ‘treasure hunt’ or discovery somewhere in the mix.”

  • Into the Magic Shop – “More recently, I was impressed by the bestseller “Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart” by Dr. James R. Doty, which was published three years ago and came to my attention in 2020. The author’s hardscrabble upbringing resonated with my personal experience, and I found his writing both interesting and engaging. While teaching readers how the brain works, he offers suggestions to harness positive thinking and train the brain to overcome even insurmountable challenges to achieve goals. The book also touches on how to come back from the brink of failures, and he underscores the importance of compassion in the work you do, explaining how successful leaders can build inclusive teams. At WorthPoint we take great care of our team members, and this book suggests that if other companies did more for their employees — like paying 100% of the health insurance premiums and better-than-average living wages or tailored benefits — they’ll meet more success in the long run.”

Michael Maher

I run my own Amazon Managed Services Agency and love it. We translate your brand story into highly engaging product listings and artfully utilize Amazon's Advertising Platform to insert your brand into the conversations consumers are having with them.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher/
  • The Only Way to Win – “The world of ecommerce is fast-paced and competitive. You have to have the mental fortitude to withstand all of that. In this book, you learn strategies that top athletes use to keep your head in the game. Use this and believe in yourself.”

  • Purple Cow – “Longevity, in any capacity, for a brand requires them to have a clear unique story and to tell that story to their target audience effectively. Seth Godin shows you why being unique and standing out is so important. Go and be the big fish in the small pond and dominate YOUR niche. You can’t be all things to all people.”

  • My Utmost for His Highest – “This book keeps me centered and reminds me of what is most important. If I can show God’s love in every interaction I have, then I know my life has been purposeful.”

Bruce Harpham

Bruce Harpham helps software companies get more leads through content marketing. He is the author of "The Marketing Blueprint: Scale Your Startup Business To 1000 Customers"
https://bruceharpham.com/
  • The Ultimate Sales Machine – “This is one of the few business books that I have read multiple times – it is that good. Specifically, you will learn both core sales techniques to sell more products and related skills. For example, he provides an excellent approach to create your own training system and time management.”

  • 80/20 Sales and Marketing – “In e-commerce, there are many different marketing and advertising options. Deciding where to focus your efforts is difficult! Marshall’s book, based on his years of success with Google Ads, gives you an excellent framework. For example, it is almost always better to focus on your top 10% or 20% of customers who buy frequently rather than trying to market to everybody.”

  • The Robert Collier Letter Book – “This book was published decades ago and it is incredibly valuable. In this book, you will find letters used to sell coats, books and even coal! Don’t let the older style language put you off. There is copywriting good in this book if you apply yourself to it. Human needs and desires haven’t radically changed.”

Alvin Hill

Alvin has extensive experience developing and leading large scale and middle market, ROI driven and strategic digital marketing and eCommerce initiatives across industries. He has successfully launched and led major DTC and B2B efforts in various retail verticals, publishing, education technology, aviation and financial services, as well as held executive roles in private equity and Global Fortune 100 firms.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvinhill
  • The World is Flat – “This is a classic and older, but recommended reading for anyone with eCommerce aspirations. While not specific to eComm, it is very relevant because it explains how the convergence of technology has and continues to break down barriers across the world. This is all about globalization and less friction enabling a future way of doing business with no boundaries…eCommerce fits!”

  • The Obstacle is the Way – “This book is based on the premise that instead of looking out upon the world and how we can change it to our benefit, we should instead look at how we can change to make an impact. In this age of hyperpersonalization, the desire for seamless interoperable channels and ubiquity, successful eCommerce depends on how well one can provide these experiences for their customers and users. Also, this book explains that the tolerance for failure needs to be high as it is necessary to try quickly, fail quickly, learn quickly then try again quickly until the success happens.”

  • Built to Scale – “This book excellently addresses many of the issues that I have seen with eComm businesses making sure that the proper foundation is in place and that growth and penetration is supported as the business evolves. It does a great job explaining in a non-technical way things such as, what product descriptions should look like on a website, how to target the desired demographic, common mistakes that should be avoided and how to grow revenue in general. A value add is that the book incorporates actual case studies of eCommerce brands that have successfully grown, which allows readers to be inspired by excellence and borrow accordingly.”

Trent Allan

Entrepreneur / Business Growth Expert / Public Speaker
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tallan/
  • Exponential Organizations – “If you have ever wondered about what the types of businesses are that will succeed the most in the next 10 to 20 years, you have found it, they are called Exponential Organizations. This book by Salim Ismail not only lets you know what Exponential Organizations are, but how to ensure your business is one of them. More than just an e-commerce strategy book, this book is a must-read for any business owner that wants to stay in the game and grow their company quicker than their competitors.”

Jason Goldberg

Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg is the Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis Communications, and host of iTunes top-rated E-Commerce Podcast, the Jason & Scot Show. Under his Twitter handle @retailgeek he is one of the most followed e-commerce subject matter experts on the web.
https://retailgeek.com/
  • The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind – “So much of what we do in e-commerce is helping consumers to make purchase decisions, and helping co-workers adopt new thinking, and both of those require a great understanding of cognitive psychology. This is a great recent book in this category by Jonah Berger.”

  • The Customer Centricity Playbook: Implement a Winning Strategy Driven by Customer Lifetime Value – “One of the most important shifts in e-commerce is the transition from simple transaction-based metrics (like sales) to customer lifetime value. This book is a great entry point for this journey.”

  • Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay on Top Forever – “You can’t compete in e-commerce without being a student of the world’s most successful e-commerce business, Amazon. This book by Alex Kantrowitz is a great introduction to some of the core leadership principles that make Amazon successful.”

Adrian Wakeham

Adrian is the Regional Manager - Australia and New Zealand for the international e-commerce web development agency SmartOSC. With ten years in and around the e-commerce industry, he helps iconic brands provide scalable, cost-effective enterprise commerce solutions.
https://www.smartosc.com/en/australia

“For budding and experienced e-commerce business owners and professionals alike, when it comes to the best books to invest your time in reading, it really depends how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go.

While the Global pandemic of 2020 has slowed this down somewhat, the human interaction that comes from attending as many of the e-commerce industry meetups, networking and educational events as possible cannot be underestimated either.

These events will allow you to absorb advice, share war-stories, successes and failures from peer merchants, small and large, and pick the brains of various technology and implementation partners and consultants – many of whom may be authors of relevant business books as well!

From a purely reading perspective, however, there are hundreds of books you could read on every facet of business, sales, operations, leadership, UX, marketing, start-up life, investment, product development and so on.

Distilling down to just three is a difficult task, so I’ll simply suggest here the three books that Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, shares with his top Executives.

These are notable because they provide the framework that Bezos uses to shape the future of the company.”

  • The Effective Executive – “Consider this book as the ultimate guide to productivity. Like all skills, Drucker explains how effectiveness can be learned.

    Read this book and then, more importantly, practice:

    • Recording where your time goes,
    • Focusing on what you can contribute,
    • Making your strengths more productive, rather than building on weaknesses,
    • Doing the things that are important, not merely urgent,
    • How to take rational actions.”
  • The Innovator’s Solution – “Many e-commerce business owners dream of being a disruptor. Now, naturally, The Innovator’s Solution cannot guarantee success, but this book expands on the concept of “how can” and “why should” companies become disruptors themselves?

    Underpinning this, is identifying how to both create and sustain business growth over the long term. Identifying the common key forces that cause managers and business owners to make bad decisions that impact the ability to grow, the authors based this on in-depth research and test theories in hundreds of companies across many industries.

    What the first recommended book here was to productivity, The Innovator’s Solution is the ultimate guide to disruption and sustainable growth.

    Pro tip – A previous book from the same author, called The Innovator’s Dilemma, was allegedly the only business book that Steve Jobs ever actually liked. So that may be a companion read worth checking out as well.”

  • The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement – “Now this one is indeed a proper U-Turn compared to the above, and indeed most other business books, which can be very dry and matter-of-fact reads.

    The Goal is actually a novel about a failing manufacturing plant and how it is turned around by a manager. We all love stories, and the narrative format of The Goal may be an easier way to digest these fundamental business theories.

    Since its publication in 1984, the messages taught in this bestseller are as relevant today as ever, such as: Developing a process to manage system constraints, learning how to drive continuous improvement, and driving better collaboration between teams.

    The lessons imparted in this book can be applied to many business processes, including:

    • Operations Planning
    • Accounting & Management Reporting
    • Process Improvements
    • Sales & Marketing Operations
    • Achieving a Better Work-life Balance

    For an exercise in seeing how tenacity and working smarter, not harder reaps rewards, The Goal is a real page-turner!”

Matt Thorpe

Matt is a straight-talking e-commerce & digital marketing consultant with 18 years of online expertise. He’s helped over 80 e-commerce brands, including Jack Wills, Ann Summers, FILA, Scribbler Cards, Hanro, and Redber Coffee. Matt’s blog, Webshop Mechanic, helps small e-commerce businesses to implement the right proven strategies to succeed.
http://webshopmechanic.com
  • Purple Cow – “The one book that really stands out to me is Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

    Many e-commerce business stores fail because they don’t know how to stand out from the crowd or engage their customers. They set up a business (usually to make money) but fail to do any market research to find the right customers and understand what those customers actually need or want. This makes it very difficult to stand out in front of your audience and be noticed. It also makes it more difficult to sell and you become a commodity.

    Purple Cow makes you look at your business (not just e-commerce) from a different perspective. It makes you understand that you need to identify the right audience and then create a product or adopt a marketing approach that is engaging and appeals to that audience, helping you to stand out from the competition.

    Without standing out and being interesting, your business will struggle to convert interest into sales and to create loyal customers. Make your online brand engaging, talk to your customers and you will have a better chance of success.”

Austin Brawner

Austin Brawner is the world’s most sought after eCommerce business coach. He's helped more than 354 established store owners, marketers, and freelancers unlock massive growth in their businesses while freeing up more time to do what they love.
http://www.brandgrowthexperts.com
  • The Brain Audit – “…”I know I have a great product, why aren’t people buying?” If you’re asking this question, you need to read this book. It will help you get a deep understanding of your customers and the story you need to tell them about your brand in order to make the sale. The step-by-step process outlined in the book is simple to follow and will improve your messaging and how you communicate it. I’m constantly recommending this book to my clients.”

  • Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits – “By far one of the most influential finance books I’ve ever read. Greg Crabtree takes the mystery out of financial forecasting, profitability, metrics tracking, and more. I wish I would have read this book earlier in my entrepreneurial journey as I spent WAY too much with my first business not thinking about profits.”

  • The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement – “Regularly used in MBA classes, and for good reason. This book really helped me start identifying the bottlenecks in my business and what I need to do to remove them. The book is written in novel style, but is packed with relevant lessons applicable across many business verticals. Read it, then share it with your employees to get them thinking about the bigger picture.”

I know I was only supposed to recommend 3 books, but I consider this next one to be a must-read. Think of it as my bonus recommendation.

  • Essentialism – “Most businesses struggle to scale because they focus on too many things at once. When I read this book, I was stretched too thin with too many irons in the fire. If you’re feeling simultaneously overworked and underutilized or have any urge to declutter your work life, this book is a must-read. The remedy here is rarely to “get more done” and almost always to “do the right things.” This book will help you simplify and find balance so you’ll feel more at peace across all aspects of your life.”

    I interviewed author Greg McKeown on my podcast — check it out for some additional nuggets of essentialist wisdom:

    149: The Art of Doing Less But Better w/ Greg McKeown [Part 1]

Filed Under: Ecommerce

Top Reasons for Cart Abandonment + Solutions (Featuring 36 Ecom Pros)

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated May 27, 2021

You have plenty of people visiting your website, looking at your products, and even putting items in their carts. BUT (you knew there was going to be one) for some reason a lot of these “browsers” don’t seem to be turning into customers. They’re not crossing the finish line and completing your checkout.

Sound familiar? That’s because it is. Shopping cart abandonment is a major problem in ecommerce. There have been lots of studies done, and while the percentages may vary (anywhere from 55% – 80%), the message is always the same; an incredibly high proportion of online shoppers are bailing and heading out the door before they hand over their money. Here’s one such study by the Baymard Institute, and some more stats provided by barilliance.com.

But rather than viewing this as a major problem, look at it as an opportunity. Ask yourself “why customers abandon shopping carts?” If you can reduce the number of people abandoning their carts and convince them instead to go ahead and buy, you can generate more revenue for your business without driving any additional traffic to your site. What’s not to like?!

If you’ve read a bunch of ecommerce books and still have no idea of where to start or you feel like nothing you’ve tried so far has made much of an impact, don’t panic. There are lots of different factors that can cause visitors to turn into cart abandoners, and we spoke to 36 ecommerce experts to hone in on the top reasons for cart abandonment you should be looking at, as well reveal possible solutions for each of these problems.

 

How to Reduce Cart Abandonment and Make More Sales: An Overview of the 36 Causes

Reduce Cart Abandonment

  1. The Wishlist Basket – People using the cart as a wishlist
  2. Cart doesn’t show sufficient product info (sizes, colors etc)
  3. Not enough delivery options
  4. Customers that are researching now to buy later
  5. The customer doesn’t trust you
  6. Lack of gifting options/controls at checkout
  7. No option to checkout as a guest
  8. Ignoring store data and not tailoring your design to what it’s telling you
  9. Unavailability of stock
  10. A shopping cart that is difficult to edit
  11. First Name/Surname Vs Full Name
  12. Customers leaving the website to look for promos
  13. Getting distracted by something offline
  14. Form fatigue caused by long checkout forms
  15. Shipping charges that are either unclear, unexpected or expensive
  16. High customs duties for international customers
  17. Discount codes that don’t work
  18. Customer Address Information Form is Below Par for Today’s Shopper
  19. Fear and sense of risk causing the potential sale to be lost
  20. Fraud screening process causing false card declines
  21. Complex buyer questions that haven’t been answered on the website
  22. Long and/or complicated registration process
  23. Price promoted is not the price that is later displayed at checkout
  24. A lack of confidence in either the product or retailer
  25. Concerns about payment and data safety
  26. Customer thinking that they may be able to get cheaper or faster shipping elsewhere
  27. A lack of user reviews
  28. Complicated or unclear return policy
  29. Worried about getting the best value available
  30. Insufficient payment options
  31. Your checkout funnel not being properly optimized
  32. Ambiguous delivery timeframes or delivery options that are simply too slow
  33. International taxes and duties not being communicated before checkout
  34. Fantasy shopping – a form of 21st century entertainment
  35. No 3rd party validation for the store
  36. A checkout experience that is waaaay too cluttered

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What the Experts Said: Solutions for Each Cause

Each ecommerce pro that we spoke to outlined one cause of cart abandonment that they’ve encountered, and also shared some strategies and ideas that you can implement to overcome it. There’s some absolute gold in there! Take action on what you read here and you’ve got a good chance to improve cart abandonment metrics and close more sales.

Use the filters below if you want to skip to a specific cart abandonment cause.

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • Ambiguous or Slow Shipping Timeframes
  • Bait and Switch Pricing
  • Checkout Funnel is Not Optimized
  • Cluttered Checkout Experience
  • Complex Buyer Questions
  • Complicated or Unclear Returns Policy
  • Complicated Registration Process
  • Concern About Getting the Best Value
  • Conducting Research to Buy Later
  • Customer Address Form is Below Par
  • Discount Codes Not Working
  • False Declines
  • Fantasy Shopping
  • Fear and Risk
  • Fear That It Is Cheaper/Faster Shipping Somewhere Else
  • First Name / Surname vs Full Name
  • Form Fatigue
  • Getting Distracted By Something Offline
  • Inability to Easily Edit Cart
  • Insufficient Payment Options
  • International Customers: Retailer Doesn’t Ship or High Customs Duties
  • International Duties & Taxes
  • Lack of 3rd Party Validation
  • Lack of Confidence in the Product or Retailer
  • Lack of Delivery Options
  • Lack of Trust
  • Lack of User Reviews
  • Leave to Search for Promos
  • No Guest Checkout Option
  • Not Collecting or Making Decisions Based on Data
  • Payment or Data Safety Concerns
  • Poorly Implemented Gifting Experience
  • Poorly Structured Data
  • Shipping Costs
  • Stock Availability
  • The Wishlist Basket

Tom Shivers

Tom Shivers is founder of Capture Commerce and has worked with scores of clients to turn around ecommerce marketing, SEO, PPC and conversion optimization. Let’s turn your site around so it performs too.
https://www.capturecommerce.com/shopping-cart-abandonment-analysis.php

  • Customer Address Information Form is Below Par for Today’s Shopper

    – “This cause of cart abandonment comes early on in the checkout where customer and address information is requested. There are 12 guidelines for this area to prevent a shopper’s doubt or frustration and to provide what they need to confidently complete the element and move forward to finalize the order.

    Here are some of the usability issues at this point in the checkout:

    • Explain why seemingly unnecessary personal information is needed
    • Use “Shipping Address” as “Billing Address” by default
    • Auto-detect city and state immediately after Zip code is provided
    • Have a single phone field and avoid asking for phone type
    • Use a single “Full Name” field
    • Use IP geo-targeting to pre-select the user’s country
    • Consider hiding “Address line 2” behind a link
    • Avoid or clarify “Business address” selections

    For one client I could see that their cart completion rate was average, between 30-35%, and as I looked at their checkout process I knew it could be better.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Baymard Institute has researched shopping cart abandonment and compiled their findings into 134 guidelines based on usability reviews of 50 leading ecommerce sites.

    I acquired the research and scored my client’s checkout. It revealed 35 guidelines that were either not acceptable or broken.

    As I went over the specific elements of my client’s cart that cause shoppers doubt or frustration and showed them what to do to fix these issues, they agreed that the customer and address form could be better.

    Next to the Phone field: “Just in case we need to talk about your order.”
    By the Email field: “We’ll send you a confirmation email later.”

    This change impacted my client’s checkout completion rate, but it wasn’t the only factor. There were a number of changes made all at the same time from other areas of the checkout like credit card form, order review, validation error and persistence, etc.

    But, as soon as the changes to the checkout were implemented, their checkout completion rate went from 30-35% up to 40-45% and they still have a number of recommendations to implement.”

Shane Barker

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, product launches, sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.
https://shanebarker.com/

  • Long and Complicated Registration Process

    – “A long and complicated registration process is a major reason for cart abandonment. People often get scared when they see a long registration form and, to avoid the hassle, just abandon their carts.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “There are several ways to overcome this problem. You can simplify your registration process and reduce the number of form fields. You can also give them the option to register using social profiles like Facebook or Google, making it much easier to register.”

    If you want to take it a notch higher and further simplify things, you can provide consumers the option to check out as guests. This would eliminate an entire step in the checkout process and enable people to make quick, hassle-free purchases.”

Darren Ratcliffe

Darren is the founder of Digitl, an eCommerce and Marketplace specialist agency based in Manchester.
http://digitl.agency

  • Fear and Risk

    – “Purchasing is an emotional experience, and whilst for some this can be an exciting and addictive experience, for others it can trigger emotions of fear and risk – there have been a lot of studies into the psychology of online buying.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “To help stop your potential buyers from “bottling it” I’d suggest that you look at a few key things. Firstly convey that your product is wanted, and is high demand – that will give you social proof that your customer is going to fit in with the crowd. We’re tribal beings so this will go a long way into the process.

    We love choice, but too much choice can bring indecision and “analysis paralysis” – do you really need to offer that T-Shirt in 24 different colours, or will just six options do?

    Both of these areas are tied together with creating a feeling of urgency and demand for your products. Using widgets that say “Somebody from Manchester just bought this product” on your website is a great way to show people are buying your product RIGHT NOW and if you only have five left show that on the site, people will be more likely to snap it up!”

Natasha Norton

Natasha is a UK based Principal UX Designer with more than twelve years experience covering the full spectrum of the User Centred Design process. She specialises in designing beautiful intelligent solutions, fusing her creative passion with her problem-solving ability.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashanorton

  • Poorly Implemented Gifting Experience

    – “With Father’s Day fast approaching, I’ll be purchasing my gift online, but trusting a site to deliver a decent gifting experience is a big ask and one where many sites fail. Users infrequent use of gifting and the lack of GUI conventions, means many gifting experiences are poorly implemented. Often gifting is a neglected feature of the checkout flow which can have a detrimental effect for both purchaser and recipient if the site does not perform well. One reason for abandonment is the address field, if the user has specified the order as a gift, then the billing address should not default to auto-fill the shipping address with the same details, as this can frustrate the user.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “I encountered a similar issue with GAP, who allowed me to select a gift message but little else, and it was within the context of the standard checkout flow, so there was no true personalisation or gift receipt options. Whereas Etsy, have thought about the user flow and include a gift checkbox explaining that prices will not be shown on the packing slip and upon selection of this checkbox allows the user to enter a free gift message.

    To help resolve this issue, I would ensure that the gift flow includes the following conventions: Billing address should not default to the shipping address, you should provide descriptive text explaining the gifting options and process and make the process more convenient by providing personalised gift options (message, receipt or wrap service). This should ensure a smoother more convenient gifting experience.”

Rory O'Connor

Rory O' Connor, is the founder and CEO of Scurri. Since launch Rory has focused on building and leading an impressive team of highly experienced technologists and advisers.
www.scurri.com

  • Lack of Delivery Options

    – “Delivery options at checkout are a massive determining factor as to whether a purchase crosses the line or not. Shoppers have the power to compare price, speed and convenience across multiple sites so if the types of delivery services and costs on offer aren’t satisfactory, buyers will abandon carts and find more suitable options elsewhere.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Today’s consumer has higher service expectations requiring shorter and more convenient delivery times and options as a standard. Experience is king and retailers need to invest and innovate to stay ahead of the competition by offering a wide range of choice including same day, next day, free delivery or collect from store. Amazon are leading the way in this field offering delivery within 2 hours in major cities and GPS real time tracking.

    Brands that raise the standard of delivery service in this way, will retain their edge and future proof their business by reducing cart abandonment, increasing conversion and attracting and retaining customers that might otherwise shop with their competitors.”

Jill Stolt

Experienced Marketing, Analytics and eCommerce Strategist
linkedin.com/in/jillstolt

  • Inability to Easily Edit Cart

    – “Often when shopping visitors will add multiple items to their cart in order to make a final decision on checkout. If your cart doesn’t allow a user to easily add quantity, delete items, and change size or color, you risk losing taking them out of the checkout flow and potentially losing that order.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “When enabling cart edits (size, quantity, color), you keep customers on a forward path trajectory, and I have seen this increase cart conversion by as much as 10% points on various clients.

    You’ll also want to make it as clear as possible what items may or may not be covered under a promo code – especially when there is a spend threshold to reach a certain discount. Make it as clear and upfront as possible how much a customer is saving and what a great deal they are getting!”

Marc Elmer

Seasoned Multi-Disciplined Digital Consultant working across all industries and disciplines, focused on Project Delivery and High Performing team coaching
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelmer/

  • The Wishlist Basket

    – “When you look at abandoned carts the range of potential reasons very much relates to the products or services that you are selling.

    In many cases, I’ve seen with my customers at the moment – High Value Purchases (above £2000) having a high abandoned cart rate as they are looking to check the prices both online and offline or do not have enough information immediately to make a purchase..

    So the question is WHY? – simply; many sites are not making full use of the “Wish-list” functionality that is available in most, if not all, eCommerce platforms. The Customer knows that in most cases a basket will persist for a period of time, allowing them to move around, even sometimes for days at a time (thanks to cookies) – to be able to find the best deals, read reviews, and make the final decision.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “So what can we do to help?

    1. Provide a Wish-list functionality
    2. Where possible, allow comparison to related products
    3. Allow communications to remind customer of the basket

    These 3 items are merely the simple solutions that you can implement to be able to solve the top level problem. Where the root of the problem lies is to be discovered from your analytics and looking at your customers journey.

    A number of root causes on your site could be:

    1. Lack of product details
    2. Lack of user generated content (customer reviews)
    3. Supporting content

    While we all fuss and worry over how many carts are abandoned in our monthly or weekly reports – and we try and remedy that – if you see a continual trend in this area, you need to look further at the reasons – first looking at the display of the content of the product, but also look at the competition and what it is that makes the difference.

    Always remember any eCommerce is a connected ecosystem and every part of content and product detail, imagery, and tone of voice is connected – therefore the make sure there is synergy throughout your journey – this leading to a supportive customer journey and higher conversion rates.”

Chrissy Millen

Christine is an eCommerce and SEO Consultant living in Denver, Colorado. Specializing in services focused on SEO, Paid Social, SEM and Email Marketing, she applies her background in data analysis and sales funnel optimization to establish a foundation for growth for her clients.
https://www.westcitymarketing.com/

  • Your Checkout Funnel is Not Optimized

    – “The checkout funnel is all the steps from Shopping Cart to the Thank You page after purchase. Many eCommerce sites have several steps for checkout. Usually it goes something like this: Cart > Customer Information > Shipping Method > Payment Info > Purchase

    Most eCommerce sites tend to build in these steps by default. This is because there are a lot of fields to be collected in the process of making a purchase and having more than 1 step makes it feel simple and less overwhelming for the visitor. There’s also the advantage of capturing that customer email first so you can re-market to them.

    I’ve also seen some clients have just one step/on page to checkout. This can work too, especially if the product is less expensive or something your customer has purchased before.

    Regardless of your funnel, there is almost always something you can do to improve and optimize. So, as with everything in digital marketing, you need to test to find out what works best for your customers and product.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Why should you optimize your checkout funnel? Think of the checkout as a huge lever in your sales (check out this article). The closer you optimize to the bottom of the funnel, the bigger the impact. For example: If you can decrease your abandonment from the payment page by just 25%, this will bring a 25% increase in sales (on the same ad spend). Think of what this would do to your ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) and ability to scale your marketing!

    How to Decide What You Should Test?

    Historical Data:

    If you’ve configured enhanced eCommerce tracking for google analytics, the shopping behavior report can be helpful to see where the drop off is happening so you can hone in on a couple of ideas. Here’s where you can find this report in Google Analytics: Conversions > eCommerce > Shopping Behavior report.

    Shopping Behavior Report in Google Analytics

    Collect Feedback from Website Visitors:

    As a site owner, you are too close to your product to really view it objectively, so it’s a great idea to have some outside eyes help you with optimization. There is software for this, like Hotjar or Crazy Egg. Or you can just ask a few friends to go through your checkout process a few times (don’t forget mobile!) as if they were a customer. Have them take notes during each test on where they had questions or what they found difficult or confusing and how long it took them to make a purchase.

    Here are some simple best practices I’d recommend in optimizing your checkout funnel:

    1. Have clear and concise button text i.e. ‘proceed to checkout’ ‘proceed to payment info’, ‘add shipping info’ ‘place order’
    2. Add notes of reassurance where necessary, like ‘You will have a chance to review your order first’ or ‘no hidden shipping fees’.
    3. Show the progress to checkout with labeled steps, highlighting where they are in the process.
    4. Remove excess: fields, navigation, wordy text, anything that doesn’t NEED to be there can be removed.
    5. If you have something important you want to note with your customers, don’t invoke fear, just state clearly and concisely. It doesn’t need to be a pop up or big red text.
    6. Add an exit popup to bring back those trying to abandon with a simple incentive.
    7. Mobile first! Do what you can to improve the experience and increase mobile conversion.
    8. Test, Test, Test, don’t assume you know what will work best for your customers, always use data to guide your decisions.

    Good Luck!”

Tim Kilroy

Growth coach for retailers and agencies. 8 weeks can transform your business.
https://timkilroy.com

  • Fear That It Is Cheaper/Faster Shipping Somewhere Else

    – “OK – here is the situation – your customer has just dropped something in their shopping cart and they get nearly all the way through checkout. They love the product – that color is going to look GREAT on them. The price seems good. Shipping charges are clear. But before they click on “Submit Order”, they hesitate.

    Somewhere in the back of their mind is fear that it is on sale somewhere else, or Amazon can get it to them tomorrow, or, or, or… These customers are so fearful that they didn’t get the best deal or the most convenient delivery option so they stop and check pricing somewhere else. And guess what happens when they look somewhere else – they buy there even if your original deal was a little better. They do that because they are tired. Shopping sucks, checkout forms aren’t fun.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “You know that I am right – you’ve done it too… There is a solution to the human proclivity towards “downside protection”. It isn’t a fancy shopping cart plug in, it isn’t a nifty graphics treatment, an it sure as hell isn’t a chatbot. The solution starts way before your customer gets to checkout. It starts back with your branding and messaging around customer satisfaction.

    By messaging throughout the process (callouts in search ads, customer promise in your nav or on the product page, quality reviews from Google or Stella or whomever, and some checkout messaging) that show your commitment to making your customers feel valued and safe makes the “in the moment” fear of getting a sub-optimal deal drop dramatically. When the proof of your value as a great retailer is everywhere, and your commitment to servicing your client permeates their experience, that “Submit Order” hesitation disappears.”

Jason Greenwood

Jason Greenwood has specialized in eCommerce for over 17 years. He is currently eCommerce Manager for New Zealand's largest online retailer of natural health products, HealthPost. He also consults on Digital Transformation & eCommerce in the ANZ region.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-greenwood-digital-expert

  • Stock Availability

    – “Over the years I have discovered that the single biggest driver of Abandoned Carts (other than product + shipping price) is stock availability.

    Let’s think about a real life example.

    I go to website A and want to buy products B, C & D. Products B & C are in stock now, but D is not. On some websites I can place the order and D goes on back order, while B & C ship immediately, but on many sites you simply cannot place items on back order or complete an order with out of stock items in your cart.

    Let’s say site A is a site where I cannot place anything on back order.

    Now, of course I want to qualify for free shipping thresholds, product/cart level discounts, loyalty incentives and other bonuses on offer if I buy products B, C & D together/at the same time.

    So, I am faced with a dilemma:

    • Do I remove item D from my cart and potentially lose some of my bonuses but complete the purchase anyway?
    • Do I wait until the item is back in stock (assuming the site offers back in stock notifications and if not, I’d have to check back frequently to even know) to complete my full order?
    • Do I abandon my cart and shop somewhere that has ALL of the items in stock and available for immediate shipment (assuming their prices are competitive)?

    I know what I do in these scenarios and I know what most people do too. They abandon their cart and purchase elsewhere. No amount of Abandoned Cart emails or workflows is going to prevent this!”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “In other words, one of the biggest levers you can pull (other than product + shipping costs) to reduce abandonment is to ensure you have most of your catalog in stock and immediately available at all times.

    The higher the frequency or volume of out of stocks you have as a % of your total catalog, the higher your Abandoned Carts will be and the lower your conversion rate overall.”

Fleur Filmer

Fleur is a passionate business owner with over 25 years experience. Having founded and owned 4 businesses, across 2 countries; Hong Kong and Australia, and 3 verticals; import/wholesale, online retail and Strategic Marketing consulting, Fleur has earned her stripes in the real world of business.
www.fleurfilmer.com

  • No Guest Checkout Option

    – “The art of a fabulous website is to give the greatest number of options in the very simplest of formats.

    Sure, we don’t have the same ability to smile at our customers, welcome them warmly or extol the value of our products as they walk through the store or engaging them with our wit and expertise at the check out counter as we would in offline retail but we do have online tools to do these things as brilliantly as possible online.

    Often, eCommerce owners look to apps as their sole means to engage customers. This is not, though, the best or the most authentic methodology.

    eCommerce is fundamentally no different to any other offline business; all business SELLS a product or a service to a customer or client who NEEDS or WANTS their particular offering and hopefully does so at a PROFIT. The equation is not rocket science.

    When we sell online, we need to mimic the offline sales experience as closely as possible. Humans are still buying from humans, so…….be HUMAN in your website messaging.

    There is competition everywhere – someone will ALWAYS be willing to sell the same or a similar product to your customer base (hello – China’s modus operandi) and therefore SERVICE, VALUE and ENGAGEMENT are critical in every transaction and especially in eCommerce as we basically remove the actual human element.

    One thing that, to me, seems so incredibly elementary is the option at checkout of a guest checkout or to establish an account.

    The stores that do not allow guest checkouts and virtually railroad you into setting up an account prior to payment are simply asking for cart abandonment issues.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Of course, there are exceptions – for instance, if you are setting up a payment plan or a subscription then, of course a customer is going to have to establish an account because the transaction includes ongoing business, however in the vast majority of cases, the customer does not NEED to establish an account so, in these cases – give them the option.

    I understand that, in most cases, accounts are infinitely easier for an eCommerce owner;

    • they can give customers access to their invoices and tracking details and therefore save on the resources of customer service for everyday issues, leaving your savvy customer service team to handle only the important stuff.
    • collection of data for further communication is golden

    However, the brownie points (aka reduction in cart abandonment) that you will garner from offering the option of a guest checkout far outweigh the above.

    The option of a guest checkout is also critical for the 3 aforementioned critical elements of eCommerce.

    1. SERVICE – offering the guest checkout option sub-consciously demonstrates to the customer that they are King or Queen. They call their own shots, they decide on the option best suited to them.

    A hint here would also be to reword the options such as “Checkout as a guest” and “Checkout as a VIP”. Think about it; which option would YOU choose??

    2. VALUE – When the difference between the two is clearly explained, you have another golden opportunity to demonstrate the after-sales value that you offer to the customer.

    For instance, the fact that I can track my package is a HUGE plus on a checkout page – maybe stipulate that this service is only available for account customers. Maybe offer an incentive to people to sign up as an account customer, for example, $10.00 off their next purchase from your store (emailed or messengered to them immediately after finalisation of this transaction.)

    3. ENGAGEMENT – when offering the option, you allow those who may be purchasing a one-off or simply not interested in keeping yet another password to checkout simply.

    However, the copy used in the explanation of the two options can make a customer feel part of a tribe, a community, an online family if they choose to establish an account.

    It is true that there are many ways to run an online store however, if we all understand that the HUMAN element in all transactions is the key, we see the common sense in offering very simple options such as a guest checkout as just one way to keep a customer and to avoid cart abandonment.”

Neil Sampson

Neil heads the UX team at Matter of Form and focuses the team on prioritising the customer experience by utilising user centric design thinking methodologies. Having worked across an array of digital touch-points such as Farfetch, Kurt Geiger, Aesop and Sunspel, Neil brings a wealth of UX and eCommerce strategy experience to the table, along with technical knowledge and experience design. Neil is an avid cyclist, competing in races across Europe.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-sampson-b7890714/

  • International Duties & Taxes

    – “For businesses shipping internationally, it’s essential that shipping timeframes and costs are clearly communicated at key points during the online sales funnel. Depending on the shipping location of the end user, they may be subject to import duties and government taxes when the product crosses the border.

    It’s a friction point that raises anxiety and uncertainty in the mind of the end user. “Will I have to pay for duties in addition to my shipping cost?”, they ask “Or is this incorporated within the product price?”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “If your business does ship internationally, we recommend solving this possible cart abandonment by;

    1) Highlighting this on the Product Detail Page E.g. “All Import Duties are included”. Personalisation of this message using Geo-location will provide extra reassurance. E.g. “All Import Duties are included when delivering to *Country*”.

    2) During Checkout: Provide a small line of copy adjacent to the “Shipping Address” when an “Import Duty” country is selected. E.g. “All Import Duties are included”.

Abdo Mazloum

A computer science graduate, he picked up some white hat SEO tricks when he was working as a web developer. He then switched disciplines and became an SEO/SEM specialist for SSENSE and then moved up to team lead. He later held the positions of digital marketing manager at Beyond the Rack and VP at a marketing agency. After 10 years of experience, he made the leap from intrapreuneur to entrepreneur and he now leads the operations of Webtmize, a digital marketing agency.
https://www.webtmize.com/

  • Getting Distracted By Something Offline

    – “Let’s admit it, we all get sidetracked by our family members, friends, business associates, cold callers, our favourite TV show and even our pets :o), and sometimes this happens while we’re in the middle of a checkout process of an e-commerce site on our phones or desktops. You may then close that window and not even recall you were about to buy something.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Unfortunately, there’s no way to mitigate that kind of user behaviour. However you can always run win-back campaigns by sending a cart abandonment email once or more with an incentive such as a coupon code to get free shipping or a discount. You can also run advertising campaigns on Google and Facebook to a segmented list of cart abandoners, whether it’s done via cookies or with email list uploads. I would suggest not doing it for longer than 7 days post abandonment.”

Ben Popplestone

With 20 years of experience with eCommerce solutions providers internationally, Ben enjoys pushing the boundaries of digital commerce. He has an in-depth understanding of commerce operations across multiple industries and has been engaged with start-ups right through to top tier organisations, uncovering specific business requirements and strategising for their success.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpopplestone/

  • Ambiguous Timeframes for Delivery or Delivery that is Not Quick Enough

    – “One of the great challenges, and opportunities, for retailers is the growing demands of consumers. The challenge is that the last ‘wow’ experience for a shopper becomes their new baseline. The opportunity exists for retailers who can cohesively bring technology and process together for an innovative proposition – they get to lead the expectation wave, driving loyalty and further acquisition in the process. And we know that people buy experiences, not just products … experiences that add value, and experiences they can share with others.

    It’s no surprise then that post-cart in the online shopping journey, when the next consideration for the consumer is “how will I actually *get* my purchase”, that many will decide not to progress if the fulfilment options don’t meet their expectations, and this is particularly the case for younger generations. In fact, according to a Neolane study in 2018, up to 97% of shoppers born after 1995 abandon their carts over order fulfilment woes and two out of five would cancel an order if the shipping was going to take too long.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “This is not necessarily a quick or easy fix. It’s not like adjusting the CX of the checkout. Shipping different order types and sizes to different geographies with different services and couriers can lead to a large logistical matrix that needs to be represented to the consumer in a simple fashion. Adding to that different stock locations and ensuring inventory is visible in as real-time as possible brings complexity in logic and systems integration. Then adding again a variety of different sales channels such as marketplaces, call centres, apps, from which orders need to be consolidated before fulfilment and the level of rocket science goes up a notch!

    Typically, order management systems are used to alleviate this challenge. Integrating with sales channels and fulfilment channels and providing logic to optimise the order distribution. It’s particularly useful for retailers with a distributed store network, which can operate as a fulfilment channel as well as sales, allowing for additional fulfilment options including BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick-up In Store), ship from store and ship to store. This provides additional options to the consumer as well as speedier delivery, but also efficiency across fulfilment costs for the retailer as well. An OMS can be implemented at any point, but it makes most sense to do so when designing the systems architecture to minimise duplicated effort in setting up logistics.

    However, the hard work under the hood is not the only consideration. Presenting the options to the consumer in a clear and concise way is critical, and making this accessible to them throughout their shopping journey including at checkout is also key. Happily though, this is simpler and often works well when the customer can dynamically enter their location for a list of fulfilment options and shipping services to choose from. One site that does this well is Mr Porter in the UK, where the page is presented in a separate window that doesn’t take the consumer away from the page they are on – simple but effective.

    Mr Porter - Shipping Info

    A further tip, that I don’t see too often, is to use photos on the shipping info page. Product photos are important for convincing the customer to add to cart, and including a packaging/unboxing photo can enhance the service proposition that a customer looks for when deciding to complete the purchase, and increase conversion.”

Amy Madonia

Amy Madonia is an independent consultant with over 13 years of experience managing ecommerce sites and leading digital marketing efforts for a variety of brands. She works for both enterprise and startup clients, focusing on acquisition strategy and analytics as core practice areas. Amy holds a BS in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University and an MBA from UNCat Chapel Hill.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymadonia/

  • Fantasy Shopping

    – “Does anyone remember the last time they used the wish list functionality in your account? Does anyone remember even seeing it recently? I don’t. I wouldn’t use wish list anymore because my cart is just as good a wish list as any, since most carts are persistent. Many consumers use the cart in the same way.

    Fantasy shopping is a sport, a way to kill time, another form of entertainment. You fill your cart with no intention of checking out, basically using the “add to cart” button like you would a ‘like’ on social. Given this behavior change of the last 5 – 7 years abandonment rates are up significantly, and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with your checkout or cart functionality. It’s just a change in consumer behavior.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “So what to do about it? In-cart promos that speak to hitting thresholds help. Cart abandon emails and targeted display ads help. Payment options and delivery options help.

    An example of a payment option is Afterpay. The total price in the cart may say $39 total price, but isn’t it more attractive / a bigger conversion driver to pay only $9.75 today, get and enjoy your product and pay the rest in 3 installments of $9.75 later on? An example of a delivery option that helps is Postmates. As you are considering buying items in your cart, you see you can have the items delivered for $9 flat fee to you in less than 2 hours. These tactics all help drive conversion and decrease cart abandon.”

Chris Kostecki

Digital marketer with extensive paid search background. Recently left agency life to serve clients directly, bringing over 15 years of national brand and agency experience to small and local businesses in Central Mass and beyond. Father of three!
www.ChrisKosDigital.com

  • Concern About Getting the Best Value

    – “Online shoppers are savvy and are looking for the best value. Big-store sites have conditioned the shopper to expect low prices and quick shipping and so other online stores need to make sure the value is communicated through checkout.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “While it is easy to say to provide value outside of product price, let’s assume your store positioning is well defined and your customer focus top-notch.

    If you use promotions, it should not be a game to apply them during checkout. If the traffic was served a coupon before or during their site visit, consider investigating ways to capture and apply the coupon during checkout. Another option is to communicate available coupons based on what is in the cart.

    If you are facing a high abandonment rate and you are in a competitive space, there are tools & techniques available depending on your store platform to address this, including:

    • Countdown clocks: offer a nominal promotion that is only good for a few minutes if the checkout stalls
    • Mouse/tap-triggered light-boxes: Offer a promotion when the traffic attempts to navigate away from the cart. These can also be used to “email my cart for faster checkout in the future” and helps create a specific segment.
    • Abandon cart audience segment: Remarket & Email specifically to those who left the cart, coupled with a dynamic product feed to resurface their products, leverage their visit to bring them back. Remember to set your cart page as the landing page.
    • *To avoid:* Surveys: Checkout abandonment is not the time to try and gather additional data from the traffic, it is a distraction from the task at hand and will most likely not be as insightful as surveying site browsers or completed sales.

    Ultimately, it is best to address any value concerns prior to checkout, though the reality is that it is a consideration throughout the purchase and addressing it head-on can help drive some of those who would have jumped through to the confirmation page.”

Martin Bispels

Founder and owner of Vendre Innovations, providing consulting and fractional CMO services to small and large firms across all industries
https://www.vendreinnovations.com/

  • Payment or Data Safety Concerns

    – “Slow page loads, freezes, glitches, and even cheap-looking design elements can lead buyers to a change of heart after they’ve placed items in their carts and are ready to check out. In my experience (as both a consultant and a buyer), skepticism plays a strong role. Data security has become an area of focus for modern consumers, and people in general are far more savvy about breeches and mismanagement than they were even a year ago. Anything that triggers an alert signal can upend a sale.

    A flashy pop-up promotion that interrupts the flow of the checkout process can send customers out the door. A stray typo can do the same. Anything that suggests a fly-by-night operation that might sell, store, or otherwise abuse data or credit card info sends a clear message: better to buy your socks, event tickets, or service subscription from someone else.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “To prevent this kind of nuanced misstep, you’ll need to place yourself in the buyer’s position at every stage of the process. But general empathy isn’t enough; you need a professional marketing pro to review your entire sales process from end to end if you’re seeing too many abandoned carts.

    Strong analytics and tracking can also help. Are the abandonment rates increasing? When did the increase start? Are the increases correlating with high cost totals? Is the checkout process too complicated? Do you explain what you do with customer data and how you dispose of it at the completion of a sale?

    Have you taken a hard look at site elements that may come across as spammy or unprofessional? Customers worry about several things when they make an online purchase, including shipping times and the accuracy of product descriptions, but in 2019 we can add data security to the list.”

Nicola Clement

Nicola has worked in digital for the past 18 years, for many big brands such as Jetstar, Kathmandu, Forever New, Quiksilver and Smiggle. She has now founded Meraki Digital and works with other retailers retailers deliver exceptional customer experiences across the full customer journey.
www.merakidigital.com.au

  • International Customers: Retailer Doesn’t Ship or High Customs Duties

    – “International customers can be a source of cart abandonment on your site. Consider the scenario where you’ve found a product on Instagram which you LOVE and just have to have it. You go to their website, you add a few things to the cart to get over their free shipping threshold and then you go to checkout. You go to put in your shipping address and it either doesn’t let you select your country or when you do, the shipping costs change and all of a sudden you are whacked with customs and duties (if they are disclosed). You have invested all this time and effort to put together your perfect order to find out you can’t order. This negative experience is far greater than landing on the site and being told up front that they only ship to certain counties (Glossier does this well). Even if you open up shipping to other countries in the future, it is unlikely they will come back.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Set up segments in your analytics for customers from countries who can get their orders delivered and those who can’t. Compare the bounce rates, conversion rates (some will order through forward shippers or friends) and key exit pages. Look at the percentage of traffic coming from outside your current shipping areas. This will help you quantify the issue and potentially identify an opportunity for where you could open up shipping or another third party channel like an Amazon US store where you can use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to handle local distribution, shipping and customer service.

    Then make sure the messaging is clear on your website upfront for all customers, way before they get to the cart. Ideally use a personalization tool to display different content to users based on their geo-location such as “Now Shipping to Canada. Flat Rate Shipping $9 For All Orders”. This way you are not compromising the experience for your local customers, but you’re also making it much easier for your overseas customers. Always ensure you have an International delivery page in your footer as well, even if you don’t offer it so the information is easily accessible.

    One last thing, which will impact returns more than cart abandonment, but ensure whenever the international customer will incur duties and taxes this is clearly marked. Think about adding a check box so they need to acknowledge they understand this, and aim to provide links to third party pages with more information on likely costs. If customers are rejecting orders at customs due to the additional costs, not only is it a bad experience, it’s also going to cost you more money in the long run.”

Luiz Cent

Luiz Cent is the President of eCommerce Cosmos, eCC partners with Klaviyo & Mailchimp to help reduce shopping cart abandonment for dozens of clients.
https://ecommercecosmos.com/

  • Leave to Search for Promos

    – “Customers are smart and they abandon carts to discover promos offered by retailers to try and bring down the price of their shop.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “A way to counteract this is to A/B test your cart abandonment emails. You can run an A/B test offering an incentive a week after abandonment instead of immediately. You can also A/B test the different types of abandonment offers.

    Discover if you need to offer an incentive. For example, a client we worked with, SKICKS, A/B tested Free Shipping vs FREE Shoe Laces & the version offering Free Shipping outperformed the version offering free laces by 49%!”

Robert Mendelson

With over 20 years of digital marketing experience, Robert spent 10 years building up his home decor eCommerce stores to multi-million dollar businesses. In his spare time, Robert secretly reviews snobby third wave coffees and dark chocolates.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmendelson/

  • Lack of User Reviews

    – “As humans, we want to be liked, be a part of ‘the tribe’.

    We look to others to see if it’s safe to go there, and then, will it be a good experience.

    It’s no coincidence that there are ‘like’ buttons all over! Who doesn’t love the addictive dopamine rush of an ego-boost whenever we learn of someone liking one of our posts!

    In the online world, Customer Reviews are an easy indicator to first-time shoppers to let them know if this is a ‘tribe approved’ road worth travelling or not. Reviews help answer our monkey-brain’s question: ‘Will I be liked if I shop here?’

    No wonder studies show 55% of online shoppers expect customer reviews.

    Often a shopper will arrive at your site as a result of a specific product search. Shopper sees the product is what they are looking for, into the cart it goes and then off to checkout.

    But wait…is this product any good? What about this site I’m about to buy from for the first time — can I trust them? Oh, let me take a look at the reviews…”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Solicit both product and overall site experience reviews. When I was running my online store, every customer would get an automated email a couple of weeks after delivery asking for two reviews, one of their overall shopping experiences, and then another about the specific products they purchased. This enabled us to show an overall review score front and center as an item in our header menu, as well as individual product reviews. Two different ways to reassure shoppers.

    Don’t edit out negative reviews — they lend authenticity to the positive ones. Negative reviews actually make your positive reviews look even better! And when a visitor sees only positive reviews, eyebrows get raised as to whether or not you’re hiding something; after all, no one — and no shopping experience — is always perfect. These days, transparency is crucial.

    Take the opportunity to turn negative reviews into positive ones. By reaching out to each negative reviewer, you not only let them know that you actually care about them and what they think, but often you can resolve the situation to their satisfaction and then get them to post an update to their review, which lets others know about how you turned lemons into lemonade. These can be among the most powerful and impactful reviews, even more so than the positive reviews!

    Make sure your site’s reviews are front and center on your home page, and on every page. Your happy customers are your best promoters, make sure to show off your best reviews as high up as possible on the home page. On other pages, make sure there’s a link in the ubiquitous menu, and don’t forget to include specific product reviews on product pages.”

Mark Wilkinson

Mark Wilkinson is a Senior Sales Manager for the Norton Shopping Guarantee. He works closely with top retail companies to increase their conversion rate through 3rd party validation.
www.NortonShoppingGuarantee.com

  • Lack of 3rd Party Validation

    – “Research shows that a lack of trust is the easiest way to lose customers on your ecommerce website. Simply put, people do not like to buy things from people or companies they do not trust. Trust is an interesting topic, as there’s a variety of ways to message, achieve and convey trust to new and existing customers.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “A quick, easy way to convey trust is through 3rd party validation and trust seals. At it’s core, the concept is to use a well known company or brand to “back up” your reputation as a trustworthy online retailer. Originally this idea has been pioneered by organizations like the Better Business Bureau and Norton Secured.

    The goal of 3rd party validation is to convince potential customers that the they will have a safe, secure, and reliable shopping experience when buying on your website. During the split-second purchase decision, shoppers will look for this validation to give them confidence as they prepare to hit the “Complete Order” button.

    The Norton Shopping Guarantee program achieves this validation by providing shoppers with Identity Theft Protection, a Purchase Guarantee, and a Lowest Price Guarantee. Here’s an example below:

    3rd Party Validation - Shopping Cart Abandonment Solutions

    The beauty of trust programs and 3rd party validation, is you can easily run A/B tests to measure the conversion rate impact. Don’t just take my word for it, let the data do the talking!”

Justin Whitaker

Justin brings over ten years of experience in digital marketing and strategy. Working alongside Google's Brand Accelerator division Justin lead his team in identifying scalable digital solutions to deliver the client's needs. He comes from enterprise level ecommerce companies where he focused his skills optimizing Omnichannel solutions.
https://trellis.co/

  • Not Collecting or Making Decisions Based on Data

    – “Many online stores try to pack in offers, signups, share features, and a slew of payment and shipping options which is a problem so simplicity always has my vote. Unfortunately a simple checkout process always isn’t an option with all the type of online commerce.

    My number one rule of thumb is to trust your data. I make the majority of my decisions for my clients based on an educated and informed source. If you don’t have the data in place to make an educated choice, hire someone to put that data in place. I cannot stress this enough, get your data to a place that you’re able to not only understand, but have the knowledge to make an informed decision. The right data will help you see a glimpse of the future for your checkout process.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “A great example is women’s clothing websites and who their audience typically is. If 70% of their website traffic is shopping on iOS devices by all means focus Apple Pay as the first option to check out. Apple Pay speaks for itself in terms of conversions, but will also help diminish the abandon rate (they also spend more). If your website traffic browses on mobile but checks out on desktop, then give your customers the option with dynamic payment method depending on the browser they are using.

    The home improvement market can be a challenge. I’ll use a specific example for this, a tile company came to us with a range of issues that needed help and cart abandonment was one of them. Their customers would browse, add a few products to the cart and checkout with samples of the tile. The attribution window was upward of 3-4 months before checkout for actual product, which simply wasn’t doable for a number of reasons. In 3 to 4 months the product the customer may have added to their cart wasn’t in stock, no longer in production, or limited quantity. The result was a lost customer which is something no business wants. Tile is something that isn’t an impulse buy, so a long attribution window can be expected. The tile company’s checkout process was nearly perfect, so optimizing the cart or their checkout process wasn’t something that would help the abandon rate.

    The solution was a strategic re-marketing plan that targeted shoppers using custom events. This means collecting specific website events before the checkout process starts. When a customer would calculate the price of tile (which is priced by the square foot) a custom event would trigger, putting that customer in a custom audience inside Facebook. After the event trigger Facebook’s ad network would do its job. The customer would immediately get ads about “limited quantity”, “limited stock”, “percentage off” or something directly relevant to that specific product and other product suggestions. This was one of many custom event triggers, but the example can be applied to virtually any areas of a website.

    The outcome was less abandon carts and a shorter conversion window. Now, this setup was a little more advanced in terms of tracking custom events from Facebook, but it was discovered through website data.

    A few takeaways would be to make sure you have a Facebook pixel installed on your site and at a minimum, get familiar enough to understand what it can measure. Google Tag Manager can be your best friend to track and measure specific events so learn a little more on what it is and how it can be used, the same goes for Google Analytics and how it’s used. I always advise my clients to install some form of website tracking tool like Inspectlet.com. This give you the ability to watch recording of user sessions so you can see with your own eyes the success or failure of your website.”

Fernando Lopez

Digital Marketing Leader - Growth Consultant (ex-eBay)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandolopezau/

  • Insufficient Payment Options

    – “If your checkout only features limited payment options or payment options that are less common, this will undoubtedly increase the % of people that abandon your cart.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “In this day and age there are 100 and 1 ways to pay for anything from credit cards to PayPal to Venmo to Square cash to direct debit to Poli to Bitcoin! Now you don’t have to support all these options – there is definitely such a thing as too many payment options – but you absolutely want to include any that would be considered common payment options for:

    1. Your Audience: Younger audiences will favour mobile payment options and apps
    2. Your Market: Payment options differ heavily amongst countries (Poli from above is Australian) and this can have a huge impact if you are planning to sell cross border

    So do your research on the groups and countries you are selling too, so that you can ensure you provide options to keep all your customers happy.”

Dan Marques

Dan Marques is a data-driven eCommerce marketer and entrepreneur. Dan is the co-founder and managing director of Trident Growth Partners, a digital growth agency founded on the basis of performance partnerships. He previously led eCommerce and Digital Marketing for Talbots, as well as Adidas Group.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmarques

  • Form Fatigue

    – “Particularly on mobile, folks do not love filling out all the required information when they can checkout on Amazon with just one click.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “One of the easiest ways to help solve this issue is to add alternative checkout and payment providers (e.g. Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Amazon Pay). A combination of these four typically leads to a 15-30% increase in checkout completion (especially on mobile) and is relatively easy to implement on most eCommerce platforms.”

Branden Moskwa

Work With Me And Discover How We Can Use Technology To Grow Your eCommerce Business To A Whole New Level
https://nadimo.com/hire-me/

  • Conducting Research to Buy Later

    – “Research indicates that over 17% of people abandon their cart because they were simply conducting research to buy later. This is particularly true nowadays with omni-channel purchases on the rise, as well as the simple fact that people do exactly as the research states, RESEARCH.

    They may come to your site to check out the pricing, color options, and even shipping options. I mention the last one because quite frankly if they have gone so far as to add an item to the cart they may very well be looking to get further details beyond that of something that can be found on a given product page. That said, however, people use the cart as a means of bookmarking products, and it makes sense.

    I tend to focus efforts on the issues that can be solved at least in some respect from technology and tech intervention. Until recently I had not considered this issue to be something that could really be resolved in such a manner that could prove overly beneficial until…”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “I was thinking about when I used to work in retail and thought about how many people originally walked into a store only to tell me they were just browsing, then ended up buying something in the end. I then did a little digging and thinking about options to address these types of people so that you can CONVERT them into sales.

    Some might tell you to add a countdown timer, and in some cases this may work, but beware as it may also anger more people then it does win you business. So this is not my suggestion.

    I started thinking, if I already have pixels in place to track these people so that I can start targeting them with FB ads once they leave, then at least I am doing something, small win. MAKE SURE YOU’RE DOING THIS! Use pixel ads to re-target all your cart abandonment traffic, it’s a huge opportunity lost if you are not!

    BUT there had to be something else!

    How can I get them to buy while they are on my site, and not through offering discounts or anything of this nature. The answer to this is to increase the customer satisfaction. Ensure that you are using your onsite chats to answer any questions and to truly engage the customer in an experience that is second to none. Again this may have as much impact as changing a buy button from brown to beige. But who knows, at least its worth a try.

    I came to the consensus that this is not retail, it is eCommerce and these people are doing what they said, researching to buy later. SO…

    So here is my solution: GET THEIR EMAIL!

    Use a custom script on the page that triggers a page-takeover when they are about to leave the site. This could specifically say something to nature of “Email me my shopping cart” (*We can do this for you, just hit our link and contact me).

    There is evidence, albeit still VERY limited which indicates that these emails converted 22.73% of shopping sessions, and were responsible for 44.74% of triggered email revenues.”

Derek Chew

Fullmoon Digital® is a leading Digital Marketing Agency that delivers online marketing solutions tailored specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. The company was founded by entrepreneurs with a vast amount of experience in social media and online marketing. We pride ourselves in delivering an outstanding service that help our clients reach and exceed their goals.
https://fullmoondigital.com

  • Cluttered Checkout Experience

    – “I’ve seen my fair share of cart pages that are cluttered with header and footer navigation. Even though there have been a lot of studies and testing done, there are still ecommerce businesses that have not taken the step to clean up their cart pages. This causes the shopper to click away from the cart and wander off back into browsing mode, instead of checkout mode.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “The way this can be handled to improve checkout conversions and reduce cart abandonment is to look at your cart page, and remove ANYTHING that can be a distraction to your shoppers cart funnel. It’s one of the changes that is simple and can yield incremental sales for your business.

    Don’t underestimate this small adjustment. In ecommerce, the smallest changes can bring the highest return.”

Stuart Gordon

A successful sales leader with 14 years’ experience in the software industry and 9 years focussed on the e-commerce sector. Stuart has worked with a variety of retailers to implement platforms that improve the customer experience and boost revenue.
www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-gordon-3205377/

  • Lack of Confidence in the Product or Retailer

    – “Being confident in the product and the company selling it to you is key to any purchase decision and online retail significantly magnifies this factor, way beyond any face-to-face interaction where the tone of voice and body language also play a big part. Humans are naturally suspicious, they seek out value, they like their ego to be stroked and our decisions are based on emotion as often as logic, so you need to cater to many personality types to be successful. A website is attempting to communicate all the required information at once and customers can struggle to absorb this information in the way it was intended. This means helping the customer to make the emotional connection required to purchase is not so easy via a screen.

    The psychology of buying, how people make purchase decisions and what influences their choices are not limited to buying online or limited to products that are delivered to their homes. Buying psychology affects every purchase we make – from pens and printer cartridges to food, clothing and furniture, right up to the largest purchases most of us ever make, vehicles and houses; we will not buy if there is a lack of confidence in the product or the person selling it to us. Don’t get me wrong, the PC, smartphone and tablet are fantastic platforms to reach a far wider audience than ever before, but simply presenting your products is no longer enough – your customers need more from a retailer to feel confident. They need help, expert advice and reassurance in the service to really feel confident in spending their money.”

  • Ideas On How to Solve It – “How does a retailer cater to the needs of a customer who wants to engage at key stages during the shopping journey and how do they know the ideal moment to help? In my experience, the best results are obtained with a mix of AI + messaging + humans. These elements can come together in a seamless combination, providing a retailer the opportunity to influence the purchase decision at the optimum moment for the customer, boosting satisfaction levels and revenue simultaneously.

    Artificial Intelligence alone can become frustrating, as chatbots are nowhere near as capable in a pre-sale environment as we had once hoped. Humans in contact centres taking one call at a time are expensive and eat into your margin. However, combine the two options and add real-time messaging, where AI handles the FAQ type questions and each live agent can handle 2-3 messages at once when the chatbot escalates them. Now efficiency is high, NPS scores are rising, Lifetime Customer Value is increased and AOV goes up because the customer has a new level of confidence that the products will satisfy their needs and the retailer is there to help when they require it. AI can achieve great things, but just remember the human touch is essential to truly understand the emotional beings that are your customers.”

Simon Morton

Founder of an award winning e-commerce agency with a mission to squash e-commerce problems.
https://www.supplyant.com

  • First Name / Surname vs Full Name

    – “Perhaps the most interesting cause of abandonment I’ve seen over the years came about from a split test we conducted where we looked at conversion rates when we asked for first name & last name in separate boxes vs one box for the full name.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve This – “If one box was used for the full name the conversion rate for the checkout improved. Amazing but true and reducing the number of required fields is always a winner. I’ve experienced +3% in conversions from this small change.”

Steven Reinblatt

Over 25 years of retail technology and e-commerce expertise focused on driving revenue growth and maximizing return on investment.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-reinblatt-02a1716/

  • Complicated or Unclear Returns Policy

    – “Acquiring new and loyal customers is challenging and often costly, but once you’ve driven a qualified customer to your website, your hope is that they’ll make their first purchase and begin the journey towards becoming a loyal customer who purchases from you regularly.

    One thing that will prevent a customer with the intention of purchasing, from completing their order, is an unclear returns policy or one that has a returns fee associated to the return.

    In the world of apparel, customers who have never purchased from you before, often won’t be sure of what size to purchase, even when you have a size chart that is easily accessible to them. Customers will often buy 2 sizes of a particular style with the intention of returning the size that doesn’t fit. This isn’t always the ideal scenario for retailers, but if it’s the first step to a customer becoming loyal to your brand, the return is merely a drop in the bucket and is easily absorbed.

    With this in mind customers will often abandon their shopping cart if the following criteria are not met:

    • The customer can’t find the return policy on your website
    • The customer finds the returns policy but is unclear what steps need to be taken to complete the return
    • There will be a charge such as a restocking fee or the customer will be charged for shipping to return the item

    80% of shoppers will not make a purchase unless there is a hassle-free return policy.*”

  • Ideas On How to Solve It – “Make your returns policy accessible and visible throughout the site. There should be a link to the returns policy in the footer. As well, consider adding it on your product page.

    Within the returns policy, be clear, what the steps are to complete the return. Does the customer need to contact your customer service department first or not? Do they need to access a link for a free return shipping label? Are returns in store possible, assuming you have a brick and mortar store and if so, what documentation is required to support the return?

    Lastly, and this may be painful in the short-term; don’t charge customers a restocking fee and if possible provide a free return shipping label. The increased cost to the retailer in the short-term will break down barriers to purchase for the customer and help generate the initial sale and future sales.

    Remember, when it comes to returns, make it as seamless as the purchase experience and you’ll have loyal and dedicated customers.”

* https://www.readycloud.com/info/the-ultimate-guide-to-ecommerce-returns

Richard Lazazzera

Richard Lazazzera is an entrepreneur, former Shopify Growth Team Strategist, and founder of A Better Lemonade Stand.
https://www.abetterlemonadestand.com

  • Discount Codes Not Working

    – “In recent years, one of the primary reasons that shoppers abandon their carts is when discount codes don’t work at checkout. In fact, in the United States, 46% of shoppers according to Statista reported that they’ve abandoned a shopping cart because the discount code they had didn’t work.

    With more and more ecommerce stores using discount codes to drive shoppers to their website, it can be a huge disappointment for shoppers when they think they’ve been promised a discount and the code doesn’t actually work. This can create distrust in the brand and can deter the shopper from ever coming back to the store.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Luckily, this is usually a pretty easy problem for most ecommerce stores to fix: Make sure your discount codes are always working! Whenever you share discount codes with your audience or include ones in your ads, diligently monitor them on a regular basis to ensure that they never expire or accidentally get turned off.

    Don’t forget to also make it super clear where shoppers can input their discount code in the checkout process so they don’t have to search around to find where to put it. The easier it is for shoppers to use their discount codes, the more likely they are to follow through with their purchase and possibly even purchase from you again.”

David Jaeger

David managed over $100 million in marketing budgets, and runs his own successful ecommerce store.
www.resultkitchen.com

  • Complex Buyer Questions

    – “Complex Buyer Questions that haven’t been resolved on the rest of the site. As I run a business in a complex e-commerce space, the customers have a lot of questions, and the answers aren’t readily available on the site. Sometimes, it’s almost impossible to have all of the answers.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “We use a layered approach of aggressive live chat, both facebook messenger and our site, as well as retargeting on cart abandons.”

Emily Pfeiffer

My love/hate relationship with ecommerce is fueled by a nearly-25-year history and my understanding that it will never stand still so neither can I. Walking the line between strategy based in analytical data, and an instinctive opinion with a “let’s see what happens” shrug, this is my world.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilypfeiffer/

  • Lack of Trust – The Easiest Way to Lose a Sale

    – “We know there are a million reasons why a customer might not complete their purchase. This article offers lots of valid causes of abandonment from a bunch of really smart ecommerce experts. Some solutions are metrics-driven, some require UX adjustments, and some are as simple as clear expectation management.

    But the one cause that I always obsess over is a toughie – it’s a broad and nebulous idea, which makes it harder to identify and therefore more of a challenge to address: LACK OF TRUST.

    The struggle is bigger for relatively small or less-well-known sites. A customer shopping on Amazon knows the retailer and has some idea what to expect. They’re skipping the courtship and going straight to meeting the parents, because there is already established comfort and history.

    But if a customer stumbled onto your site from a search result or found you from a link or ad, you’ve got an uphill battle ahead of you. Because you’re not as well known as your larger competitors, you need to convince the customer that you can be trusted – and you’re starting from square one. Even if they’ve been on a few dates with you, how can they know it’s safe to trust you?”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Your mission is to prove that…You’re legitimate, reliable, and safe. You will deliver as promised, both in terms of the product’s details and quality, and the delivery of the item itself.

    You can be trusted with their personal information (you won’t spam them or otherwise abuse their data). You stand by your product and your promises, and your customer care staff are trained and equipped to make it right if you fall short.

    What does this look like on site?

    1. Start with the basics! Ensure the website looks clean and current. If it looks frequently maintained and not neglected or out of date, it instills confidence in legitimacy. This has become easier than it used to be. There are now very affordable ecommerce platforms with free themes and upgrades that make it simple to continually adjust to changing consumer expectations.

    2. Have a secure website with an up-to-date certificate so the browser will show that it’s secure and won’t pop up warnings (which are a giant off-ramp for customers).

    Secure Website

    Above: Browsers have some version of these icons next to website URLs. A fully secure site is basically a requirement these days (Google won’t like it otherwise) but especially on pages where personal information is being entered, it really is necessary. This is one small step toward seeming trustworthy to your customers.

    3. Demonstrate history to make it clear you’re not a fly-by-night operation. Do this by using blog posts and other content that you add over time. Speak authoritatively about your products and services, and make it clear you’re an expert, not just a storefront.

    4. Be very consistent with your brand voice. Just like people, a brand is judged by how consistent and genuine it is. This should cross over into every touch point, from ads to on-site copy, to the call center.

    5. Make it easy to get in touch. Whether or not they take you up on it, feeling like there are real people available to help and an actual company behind the website will absolutely build that trust. Want to seem sketchy? Avoid all contact information, offer no support, and cause your customers to wonder whether you’re maybe just a fake website designed to take their money and never deliver. (That was sarcasm. Please don’t do that.)

    Customer Care

    Above: Link to support and phone number prominently displayed at the top of the website, just above the cart – in the top-right corner, where users’ eyes naturally go.

    6. Include guarantees, display them prominently, and follow through on them. You might have a guarantee of quality, of shipping delivery times, or of satisfaction in general. Be clear about how you’ll correct these issues (free returns? Replacements? credit?) and again, deliver as promised.

    Guarantee

    Above: A brand that uses its real estate to hammer home its commitment to quality is one that consumers will want to trust. It helps when it’s a known brand with a history of providing good value, of course. The website also has a page with details about the guarantee that are easy to understand.

    7. Make sure your Policies are available and easy to find. Almost no one reads them, I know, but NOT having them should send up major red flags. Give your customers every opportunity to believe you are responsible and will handle them, and their data, appropriately. Bonus: don’t stop at just the required Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Also include your Returns Policy, especially in the cart. This is another barrier to purchase we can bust through.

    Cart

    Above: Left side of cart page has links to these policies in a very clean layout. It also shows the shipping options clearly, including the automatically-applied free method.

    Make your offers clear and easy to apply. Free shipping over a certain amount? Don’t require a code, and do make sure to put this offer right up front. It breaks down a major barrier to purchase (paying shipping costs) and can increase your average order value as the customer is incentivized to reach the threshold for free shipping (if it’s within reason). Great offers that apply only to a small subset of products and don’t make this very clear up front only create annoyance, which whittles away at trust. Make it painfully clear and extremely easy what the deal is and how to get it if you value your customers’ trust.

    Free Shipping

    Above: Free shipping offer front and center at the top-center of the website, on every page. No gimmick, no catch, no code required – what you see is what you get. The offer is clear and easy to receive.

    Cart 2

    Above: Note the discount code field. It is not hidden, collapsed, or otherwise hard to find. Your discounts are out there. Don’t deter your customers from using them – they’re much more likely to complete the purchase if they have an offer to use! Extra Credit: publish your own perpetual (or constantly changing!) discounts on sites like RetailMeNot so that customers have something to find and apply if they’re looking.

    9. Never bait and switch offers. There’s nothing worse than a giant “80% OFF” when the fine print says “up to” above it and “one item” below it. I’ve even seen scandalous ads like “FREE SHIPPING ON EVERYTHING” and it wasn’t until optionally clicking into the details to find that they meant “EVERYTHING over $200.” People might be drawn in by the over-promise, but the switcheroo doesn’t make them want to stay. It’s the best way to destroy trust and lose a customer in frustration. Even with the best of intentions, a poorly worded, unintentionally misleading, or difficult-to-qualify-for offer is a bad move. It’s all too easy to offend and annoy online shoppers with click bait. Don’t do it.

    Because trust is an emotional feeling, it’s impossible to pin down every little thing that might instill it or shake it. This list is a good start, but if you think like a consumer and continually evaluate, you will certainly find more ways to build it.

    Spend time browsing your website with your “I’m a first-time customer” glasses on. Look at other sites to see how they make you feel by comparison. Make no assumptions, and think like a nervous shopper. Evaluate that first impression and the ongoing experience and make sure a new browser to your site has every opportunity to feel comfortable enough to become a buyer.”

Tim Davies

Lead eCommerce Strategist at ZELLIS, Australia and President of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance Australia. Powering growth in multichannel commerce through best practice UX and Data optimisation. Neto Premum Partner and international speaker.
www.zellis.com.au

  • Poorly Structured Data Leads to Confusion and Doubt

    – “Online shopping can be rather addictive due to the dreamy hypnotic state we find ourselves experience whilst doing it. The fluid journey through search engines, marketplaces and websites on the quest for material satisfaction is only possible when the information upon which that journey is based is carefully optimised and structured. It’s the unseen side of ecommerce that customers never think about, and frankly shouldn’t have to. The effort required to structure and optimise data properly can be onerous and time-consuming, but it is something that merchants overlook to their peril.

    Cart abandonment is nothing more than getting cold feet at the last minute. So what makes us chicken out of something we at first thought was worth devoting attention to? If the website looked dodgy in the first place, we wouldn’t have even reached the Cart at all. So it’s fair to assume the website design was pleasant enough for us to press on.

    We’ve found the perfect product, just what we were looking for, and at a fair price, so we select the colour or size variant from the product page and add it to Cart before checking out what else might be worth looking at. The shopping cart is like a personal assistant holding all the stuff we give them just in case, so we can go through it all later and make our real decision. So when we go to check what they’re carrying for us and they can’t tell us the colour or size of some products, wouldn’t that make you a little annoyed?

    The size and colour variants are typically crystal clear to understand and select on the product page, but if the child SKU data fields have not been optimised to display the attributes of each variant, then what’s displayed in Cart will be a vague reference to the product with no specific attributes. Would you buy a pair of shoes if the Cart didn’t display the size you’d selected? No, I wouldn’t either.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Structuring and optimising product and category data requires a knowledge of how people shop online, how they search and browse, and how what they see sets unconscious expectations about what’s coming next. When those expectations are not met, confidence is diminished and confusion or doubt can take over very quickly. Nobody parts with their hard-earned money if they’re not feeling completely safe and assured. Arriving at a website Cart to be met with uncertainty is a pretty good motivator for walking away and shopping elsewhere.

    Online retailers need to be willing to put in the effort to understand how customers think and react to what they see online. Curating that customer journey is no accident, and won’t engage or convert well if the data upon which it functions is flawed or incomplete. Don’t undercook your online business by ignoring product data. If you’re willing to put in the effort required to attract customers to your website, don’t sell yourself short by failing to address the quality of the data that will keep them there and entice them to buy.”

Denise Purtzer

Denise is an Ecommerce Executive with nearly 20 years in the industry working in various capacities including Fintech and Fraud.
http://linkedin.com/in/denisepurtzer

  • False Declines

    – “Most conversations with merchants around the topic of cart abandonment rarely include fraud screening considerations, but this problem is real and extends beyond the initial cart abandonment. When a customer’s payment card is rejected by a merchant, more than 40% ditch the cart without trying another payment method. Worse, about a third of falsely declined customers say they never shop with that merchant again. So not only do false declines lead to cart abandonment, they also drive up customer churn rates and drive down the lifetime value of those customers.

    This is a huge problem, because false declines are so common. They cost merchants far more in lost revenue than completed fraud does. Thirty percent of shoppers say they’ve been wrongly declined, and false-decline loss estimates range from $118 billion (according to Javelin Research) to $300 billion (according to Aite Group). Shoppers who’ve had a negative experience are more likely than customers who had a good experience to talk to friends about it, in person and on social media, which can damage the merchant’s reputation.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “Reducing false declines can reduce cart abandonment, customer churn, and brand damage. And it’s possible to drastically cut false declines without experiencing more fraud. Here are the steps we help our clients put into practice:

    First, know your false decline rate. Many merchants don’t track this data, and their third-party fraud solution may put false declines and stopped fraud into the same bucket for reporting. Next, implement manual review of all flagged orders by fraud analysts instead of automatically rejecting them. If you don’t have the resources to do this in-house, you can outsource it, either year-round or during sales peaks. Then, feed the data from these reviewed orders back into your machine-learning program so the fraud-detection algorithm gets smarter and flags fewer good orders.

    Finally, track your false decline rate and cart abandonment rate changes over time to see the impact of more comprehensive fraud screening. Whether you want to tweak your current process, or overhaul completely, a large library of industry resources around fraud can be found here:

    https://www2.clear.sale/resources

    https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/topics/security-pci-compliance/49-of-shoppers-abandon-a-retailer-after-experiencing-credit-card-fraud

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanmckee/2018/11/19/three-digital-commerce-growth-opportunities/#79c33eea3822

    https://www.apnews.com/5b7e2fd8cdfd46c4874af2f1a443c938”

Sophie Shiatis

Sophie offers more than 20 years of experience as a Marketing Executive and Strategic Marketing Consultant, driving marketing strategy, ecommerce optimization, and utilizing information and analytics to accelerate companies to new levels of success. Sophie specializes in web and ecommerce optimization, digital marketing, demand generation strategies, and go-to-market creation.
www.shiny.blue

  • Bait and Switch Pricing (Price Promoted Not Same as at Checkout)

    – “The other day I was looking to buy two tickets for a local concert. Once I found the concert tickets on the website, I added them to my cart. As you can see the price is $15 per ticket as seen in the cart. I clicked on checkout and I realized that instead of paying a total of $30, I had to pay $42. How did this happen? All along the price was advertised as $15 per ticket. This is a typical approach seen on many websites selling concert tickets online. Why not disclose the price of the processing and service feels ahead of time. Needless to say I abandoned the cart and ended up getting the tickets at the door where I did not have to pay those additional feels.”

    Price Promoted…

  • Bait and Switch Pricing Cart

    Price at Checkout…

    Bait and Switch Pricing Checkout

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “This website could have eliminated abandonment by clearly stating the cost of the ticket (including the fees) ahead of time so visitors are not caught by surprise. Another annoyance was the fact that they had a timer on the site, so by the time I thought of it and was ready to pull my credit card out the timer had expired and I had to start all over again. Just a bad experience all together.”

Dimitri Stefanopoulos

Dimitri is a ecommerce/digital strategist and consultant and has advised SMB to Enterprise clients across a broad range of verticals
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitristefanopoulos

  • Unclear, Unexpected or Expensive Shipping Costs

    – “Just about every report/study I have read on the topic of cart abandonment lists unclear/unexpected or expensive shipping costs among the top three reasons. It’s usually the leading cause.

    People have become accustomed to free shipping. It started with Amazon Prime. Free 2-day shipping has always been one of Prime’s key differentiators. It’s one of the most important moves Amazon ever made and it changed ecommerce forever.”

  • Ideas on How to Solve It – “If you have an ecommerce site selling physical goods and charge for shipping, you’ll want to take a look at your analytics data. Odds are that it’s driving a high abandonment rate. If so, do a deeper dive on your data to determine exactly where people are dropping off. If you find shipping to be the issue, there are several strategies you can employ to reduce your abandonment rate.

    I recommend taking a phased approach to tackling the issue, as you might find that what customers are reacting to is confusing shipping terms/costs vs. the fact that shipping isn’t free.

    Customers want to know what their total cost will be before they spend a lot of time filling information out. Take a look at your checkout process. If you can’t get to an all-inclusive total until a customer has reached the final step, you’re likely losing a large percentage of people before they’ve even seen the shipping cost. Try displaying an “estimated shipping rate” on the basket/cart page. The simple step of displaying an estimated total can significantly reduce your abandonment rate.

    If free shipping is really what your customers are after, but your business model doesn’t support it, try one of the following:

    1) Offer “free shipping” by building the cost of shipping into the price of your products.

    Assuming you have a clear understanding of actual shipping costs, you can test offering free shipping by building the cost of shipping into the price of your products.

    2) Offer free standard shipping but incentivize paid/premium shipping.

    One approach I have found to be quite effective is to create a tiered shipping model. For example, offer free standard shipping with a longer lead time, and faster shipping for a premium. Many customers will opt for the faster method if the cost is reasonable.”

Filed Under: Ecommerce

Best Ecommerce Platform for Small Business? Here’s What 78 Industry Pros Think

by Chris Herbert | Last Updated March 20, 2021

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no added cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

While the high street is fast becoming a ghost town, ecommerce is booming. More people are buying online than ever before. It’s also never been easier to start selling online. Whereas the #1 question for small businesses used to be “how the hell can I afford to get into ecommerce?” now it’s “which ecom platform would work best for me?” You just need to choose one and away you go, sometimes in as little as a few hours. But how do you decide which one to choose? Which platform can help you take your business to the next level?

If you’re struggling with these questions, fear not. We’ve put together this article to help you “figure it out.” How? Well, we talked to the people that really know about this stuff. We reached out and spoke to 78 ecommerce experts, asking each one a very simple yet crucial question: “In your professional experience, what have you found to be the best ecommerce platform for small business?” We let each expert put forward their top 3, and we’ve posted the results below, as well as what each expert had to say. Warning: Some real knowledge bombs were dropped in the making of this article.

So whether you’re just getting into the world of ecommerce or you run an established small business that is looking to increase its revenues by reaching more customers online, this article should help you to hone in one or two options that are worthy of further investigation.

***Who knew that definitions for “small business” vary so wildly?! For the purpose of this article we defined a small business as “any business that has an annual turnover of $0 – $1.5 million and 1-25 employees.”

Top Ecommerce Solutions for Small Business: How Our Experts Voted

Platform# of Votes
#1. Shopify69 Votes
#2. Magento37 Votes
#3. WooCommerce33 Votes
#4. BigCommerce19 Votes
#5. Wix10 Votes
#=6. PrestaShop4 Votes
#=6. Miva4 Votes
#7. Squarespace3 Votes
#=8. EKM2 Votes
#=8. Volusion2 Votes
#=9. Shopware1 Vote
#=9. SAP1 Vote
#=9. SuiteSommerce1 Vote
#=9. Adrecom eSuite1 Vote
#=9. ShopyGen 1 Vote
#=9. iPage1 Vote
#=9. blueCommerce1 Vote
#=9. Weebly1 Vote
#=9. Bespoke1 Vote
#=9. VTEX1 Vote
#=9. Neto1 Vote
#=9. Kooomo1 Vote
#=9. Brightpearl1 Vote

So there you have it! There were 23 different platforms recommended for small business ecommerce during the course of our survey, but as you’ve probably already seen from the table above, there were a small group that kept cropping up time and time again.

No other ecommerce solution was recommended more than Shopify – it was the runaway winner. In fact, it’s hard to have a conversation about selling online these days without mentioning Shopify. They just make ecommerce so accessible, and easy. You don’t need to be a programming whizz or spend thousands of dollars upfront any more. You can take your pick from one of the many beautiful Shopify themes on offer, and have a store set up and running in just a few days, sometimes even in just a few hours. Crazy, right?!

BigCommerce was another solution that was spoken very highly of by our experts and shares many similarities with Shopify, with some suggesting they feel it offers more “out of the box” functionality. And Wix was the other hosted platform that scored well, with its drag and drop interface, user friendliness and ulta-affordable subscription plans making it a great place to get acquainted with ecommerce or use as a testing ground with very little risk.

So in terms of hosted options, Shopify, BigCommerce and Wix are the best ecommerce sites for small business according to our survey and three solid contenders to check out. These are all rather good if you don’t want to get bogged down with the technical side of things yourself.

If you’re looking for a self-hosted ecommerce platform, which generally offer a lot more flexibility and control over both the design elements of your store plus its features, then our poll also turned up a couple of results worthy of your consideration. At #2 on our list, Magento was only beaten on recommendations by Shopify, and ecom pros consistently referred to it as being an extremely powerful platform that has the ability to scale from startup store to an online business turning over millions in revenue per year. It’s feature rich (there’s virtually no functionality you can’t achieve), great for SEO, and very robust. You will likely have to hire a developer though, unless you possess decent programming skills.

The other option if you want to go down the self-hosted route is WooCommerce, which was the 3rd most recommended ecommerce solution overall in our survey. This converts any WordPress site into a fully functioning, very versatile ecommerce platform, and there are thousands of themes and plugins available, making it easier to ensure your store stands out from the crowd and has all of the functionality that you need it to have. It may not be as powerful as Magento overall, but the learning curve isn’t as steep and you only require some basic technical skills to get a standard store set up.

Other Articles You May Find Useful:

  • Best Shopify Themes? We Asked 58 Experts
  • The Best Ecommerce Books? (27 Ecom Pros Share Their Favorites)
  • Top Reasons for Cart Abandonment + Solutions
  • All Ecommerce Resources

TL;DR

1) If you’re not particularly technically minded and don’t have a developer on staff, you want to get up and running quickly, but you want a platform that offers the features and capability to grow with you, have a look at these:

2) If you want to get started NOW, are on a very tight budget, and a user friendly backend and a clean, attractive aesthetic for your store are top priorities, then give this option a shot:

3) If you want to make something that looks completely unique, need some custom functionality, and have some technical/programming skills or the budget to hire a developer, then these two platforms are likely your best bet:

Read What The Experts Said

Below you can sift through and benefit from the contributions of each expert that collaborated on this article and made it possible (huge thanks to you all!). There is tons of insightful knowledge in there that should go a long way in helping you land on the best ecommerce solution for your small business.

And if you’ve already got a platform in mind and want to see what established industry professionals have to say about it, use the filter to sort the contributions. We hope you find this information of some help!

{"filter_mode":"masonry"}
  • All
  • Adrecom eSuite
  • Bespoke
  • BigCommerce
  • bluCommerce
  • Brightpearl
  • EKM
  • iPage
  • Kooomo
  • Magento
  • Miva
  • Neto
  • PrestaShop
  • SAP
  • Shopify
  • Shopware
  • ShopyGen
  • Squarespace
  • SuiteCommerce
  • Volusion
  • VTEX
  • Weebly
  • Wix
  • WooCommerce

Danni Osborne

Danni is an ecommerce and digital marketing consultant working with a number of small businesses to launch their website and kick start their brand. She has extensive knowledge of the luxury fashion sector and previously worked for NET-A-PORTER.COM and MATCHESFASHION.COM.
www.do-digital-marketing.com
  • Shopify – “For any small ecommerce brand I would always suggest starting on Shopify. The easy to use platform makes it suitable for complete beginners and depending on your requirements, you can be up and running very quickly. It integrates with the major CRM platforms, payment gateways and marketing channels and is a cost effective solution to get started. Over the past few years it’s really come a long way.”
  • Magento – “If a brand has the funds to implement Magento correctly and has the growth plans to support this type of platform, then Magento is a great solution. I would opt for Magento for clients that have global plans, as the platform is set up to cater for this. Magento 2 is also a vast improvement on Magento 1 in terms of usability and features.”
  • WooCommerce – “For content led brands I would suggest using WooCommerce. The easy to use ecommerce channel means you have access to the extensive range of WordPress plugins and large range of themes that are easy to customise. The only downside to WordPress / WooCommerce is that you will need to find your own hosting provider too.”

Tim Davies

Multi-channel Online Retail Coach at ZELLIS. Recognised as Australia’s leading eBay Strategist and President of PeSA Australia. Working with small to medium online retailers to improve efficiency, effectiveness and grow sales across multiple channels including websites and marketplaces.
www.zellis.com.au/experience
  • Neto – “Recently awarded as “Best eCommerce Solution in Australia”, and backed by Australia’s largest telecommunications company Telstra, Neto is a full-featured and robust ecommerce solution for online retailers of all sizes.
    Unlike Shopify and Magento, there is no need for 3rd party apps. All the functions needed to run a website are built into Neto. Customer pricing groups, custom fields, multiple invoices and pick slips, multi-tier pricing, SEO, cross-promotion, fully customisable shipping rates and rules, plus a bunch of other features are all included.
    Neto includes powerful functionality for advanced inventory management, shipping consignment creation and label printing, mobile pick & pack, analytics, plus seamless integration with Google Shopping, Facebook, accounting software and popular marketplaces including eBay and Amazon. But Neto goes a step further with its built-in Point-of-Sale (POS) function. This means Neto is truly an all-in-one 360O commerce solution.
    Neto is a fully hosted solution, meaning you’ll never need to worry about hosting yourself, updating modules or forward compatibility. Whilst the basics of an ecommerce website are all taken care of by Neto’s built-in functions, the front-end website can easily be customised by a knowledgeable web developer.
    One of my favourite features of Neto is its data import and export function which allows efficient modifications of data in a spreadsheet, or uploading new products and categories in bulk.
    Whilst Neto is a true all-in-one commerce solution, its inventory, order processing, fulfilment and analytics features make it a powerful back-end solution for existing websites. Neto integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Magento for those who might not want to change their front-end website, but would benefit from the powerful back-end functions of Neto.
    Neto can also connect multiple websites and marketplaces together so all inventory and order processing is done centrally in a single flow. That makes Neto a super efficient way to structure complex and large businesses.”

Mark A. Ramdial

Mark’s previous history includes E-Commerce roles with Swatch Group, L’Oréal, Kaplan Test Prep, Daniel Wellington & Arezzo & Co. Mark is currently serving as an independent advisor and consultant for large & small E-commerce brands.
www.linkedin.com/in/markramdial
  • Shopify – “Absolutely love this platform! This is perfect for small business and even larger businesses. There is virtually no learning curve, if you’ve created an Ebay or Amazon listing before you have the ability to open up your own ecommerce website. There are no hidden costs! No Hosting Fees (usually a separate cost when having an ecommerce website i.e. rackspace) and no development cost – I call Shopify the great equalizer in an ecommerce world dominated by larger solutions like Magento and Demandware. Now a fashion designer can become an ecommerce manager, with their 24/7 customer support (they had support on Christmas day for me!!) to their robust app store – this honestly is your one stop shop for scalability. Clients include MVMT Watches and Kylie Cosmetics.”
  • Squarespace – “I would not call Squarespace an E-commerce powerhouse in the space, however their capabilities are solid (depending on what your industry is) if you’re a photographer that is looking to sell some of their art while showcasing your portfolio. I would not recommend Square Space for a high volume store – however, if you some higher value product and you want to show it off with a clean aesthetic and easy to use backend tools, you honestly can’t go wrong with Squarespace. The cost is similar to Shopify too.”
  • BigCommerce – “BigCommerce is a solid option as well if you are looking for inexpensive and easy to use ecommerce solutions. The Aesthetic of the B.C. Ecommerce sites defer from the previous 2 that were mentioned and offers a more “traditional” ecommerce experience. Usability is also very easy and it virtually does not have a learning curve. Costs are also in line with Shopify as well. Clients include Camelpak and Skullcandy.”

In the end Shopify wins out as the top choice for small business, the pros heavily outweigh the cons.

Pros:
1. Ease of use for non-technical users
2. 24/7 support
3. Great App Store for any ecommerce needs you have, just download and done!
4. Cost Effective Pricing and no hidden fees
5. Extremely scalable
6. The themes already have a mobile optimized feel to them, and since most online traffic comes from mobile devices this is a nice feature to have.

Cons:
1. The App Store could use some stronger players – some of the App Selection is limited.
2. There is virtually no support for a custom theme (a theme that is not available in the Shopify menu of themes – typically created by an agency or developer) so you will always have to go back to your developer or agency in the event you would like to make changes. Also, some apps are a mess to uninstall from the custom theme which could mess up things like checkout.

Another tip for the small business owner. Just remember, that even though you may have the premier E-commerce platform in the industry and you have a [email protected] website, marketing will always be the biggest expense you will potentially run into. So, be savvy with how you market and drive traffic to your website and the rest should be taken care of.

Cedrik Caron

Cedrik Caron is an eCommerce, CRM & Digital entrepreneur specialized in commercializing sports, gaming, retail, fashion, healthcare and technology products.
www.linkedin.com/in/webtraffiker
  • Shopify – “Shopify is by far the best solution for SMB. Keep in mind that, at the end of the day, you are not only managing customers’ expectations but also your employees’ expectations. Shopify is a platform that offers a user-friendly interface that only requires basic skills when it comes to creating and designing your website template, integrating your payment solutions or adding any of their hundreds of plug-ins options, which allows you to connect your Google Analytics account and Merchant account or even just to add a promotion planner. Their CMS is simplistic and their customer support is very pro-active. The only downfall is the limitations of working with their own unique code “liquid” which may irritate some programmers along the way. The pricing structure makes it affordable and scalable when your business is growing to the next level.”
  • WooCommerce – “For a SMB, WooCommerce would be an interesting solution to look into. They provide great options and features, however, I find their user interface not so friendly. The same goes for their website design tools, which may require a basic understanding of WordPress coding in order to design your website to your taste, although they do have ready-to-go templates. The main difference from Shopify is that WooCommerce is an open source plug-in and every additional option/feature you wish to add has a cost. In the end, Woo Commerce is a reliable affordable eCommerce solution that requires a bit more programming/coding skills.”
  • Magento – “I could suggest Magento as a third option. Some may disagree, stating that it is by far one of the most expensive eCommerce platforms on the market, but it is an open source, free to use solution. If you do it right and keep a simple online store, your hosting fee might not be as high as expected. This being said, when you wish to add features, the cost goes up quickly. They have the largest community of users that can provide support, ideas and solutions to your need. However, you need a good programmer or have decent base of coding in order to get your website up and running in a reasonable amount of time.”

Fleur Filmer

In the ever-changing world of business, communication and technology, Fleur is a small business expert who consults, coaches, mentors and freelances for both B2B and B2C enterprises. Fleur has founded, grown, bought and sold her own businesses in a range of industries and she specialises in strategic marketing, eCommerce and H2H (human to human) communications.
www.fleurfilmer.com

I am a visual person and have used analogies for simplicity all of my life. In the discussion around website platforms, I think that it is much clearer to use the analogy of building a house.

A website is just like a house – it has a foundation (the platform), it has walls (the structure), it has rooms (the pages and categories) and it is fully furnished (with your content and / or products). A little more on that later.

I started my first eCommerce business is 2010 and although it was such a short time ago, it may as well be in the Neolithic Age as far as the resources that were available then to small business.

My initial website cost me north of $20,000, was clunky, was run by a website design agency who were only interested in their monthly proprietary fees and had absolutely no interest in my business, its strategies or its growth. The initial build took me 5 months, I was overwhelmed with “geek-speak”, I couldn’t customise anything as I wished without outlaying literally thousands of dollars more and I had virtually no control over my own website back-end.

This eCommerce startup ended in tears (mine) and I put the whole concept to bed.

Fast forward a couple of years and I began another eCommerce business with the welcome knowledge that a new breed of website templates had been developed by genius techs who understood the pain points of small business – enter BigCommerce and later, Shopify. Both have their subtle differences and I will outline them a little later.

My second, and subsequent eCommerce sites have all cost me less than $80.00 per month, have taken only days from set up to launch, are highly customisable, easy to operate, change and manipulate and I have full control over my own website.

In terms of our house build analogy, these eCommerce and Shopping Cart website platforms are similar to a kit home building company who is happy to provide excellent customisation and support for you as the DIY website builder or your own contract builder and also continue to enhance and develop their systems to ensure your kit home was constantly modernised and up-to-date.

Benefits
• Inexpensive
• Made with the DIY business owner in mind
• Can eliminate the need for an external developer or designer
• An all in one eCommerce and shopping cart solution offering seamless integration with inbuilt applications
• Upgrades and changes to the platform are generally included in a monthly fee
• Although not designed by a community, there are many users and developers equipped to expertly use the platforms and therefore help is never far away
• If required, changing from one developer to another is quite seamless
• SEO friendly
• Easily scalable
• Designed for seamless import and export to and from commonly used payment (e.g. PayPal), accounting (e.g. MYOB), newsletter (e.g. Mail Chimp) and database (e.g. excel) programs
• Information on eCommerce and Shopping Cart website platforms and their capabilities is readily and publicly available
• Sophisticated in-built FAQ, reference and help sections

Drawbacks
• Assumes a robust level of web savvy for DIY (although there are many companies / developers who can do the work on your behalf)
• Customisation is limited to the applications within the platform (although, in general, these are vast and cover the needs of most website owners)
• Not designed for highly customised websites

Best suited to
• eCommerce businesses on a budget
• Business owners who prefer to control the project and DIY
• Businesses with quantities of physical products

Budget parameters
• Depending on the size and scope of your inventory and customer base, fixed monthly charges for eCommerce and Shopping Cart website platforms will generally range from $49.00 to $199.00 +

  • BigCommerce – “I love using BigCommerce – the customer service is fantastic, the choice of templates is robust, the BigCommerce community support is incredible and best of all – the fixed monthly fees are just that – fixed; they are not pegged to revenue so I feel completely in control.

    The integrations, APIs and the available applications that link with BigCommerce have grown exponentially over the past 2 years especially and many of the “cool kids” are adopting the platform – check out Skull Candy’s website for some inspiration!

    When you have a large inventory or number of options and SKUs, I believe that BigCommerce handle the categorisation of products better than any other DIY eCommerce platform. I also believe that their categorisation and optimisation of a combination of retail and wholesale sales on the one site is second to none.

    Although, like previously stated, DIY customisation definitely requires some web nous, the platform is relatively easy and user friendly to work with.”

  • Shopify – “Shopify is a beautiful eCommerce platform. Although, in my opinion, not as ideal as BigCommerce, it runs a very close second.

    I don’t like that monthly fees are pegged to revenue (unless you utilise their comparatively expensive payment gateway) and I don’t like their simplistic treatment of product categories. Of course, high level customisation would circumvent the latter issue but it is simply too complex for my liking.

    Other than those two gripes, the Shopify customer service is excellent and their available basic templates are arguable more attractive at first glance than those of BigCommerce”

Jason Greenwood

Jason Greenwood has specialized in eCommerce for over 15 years. He is currently eCommerce Manager for New Zealand's largest online retailer of natural health products, HealthPost. He also consults on eCommerce in the ANZ region.
www.greenwoodconsulting.net
  • BigCommerce – “I believe that BigCommerce would make an excellent choice as an eCommerce platform for your new online business. It has all the functionality you need to run a successful online business and BigCommerce offers subscription plans to grow with you as your business grows. It is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that is hosted by the vendor, so no upgrades, hosting, security, PCI compliance or other hassles to worry about.

    It also offers robust enterprise functionality like vaulted (saved credit card) payment gateways, store credit support and wide support for 3rd party systems via the BigCommerce app marketplace and API suite for custom integrations to other systems you may have.

    Recently BigCommerce has started rolling out native integrations with the likes of Instagram and Amazon that make selling on these platforms seamless and easy.

    Finally there is a wide range of off the shelf, 3rd party and custom themes/designs to choose from to get you up and running quickly.”

  • Shopify – “Shopify would also make a good choice of eCommerce platform for your new online business. Shopify also offers plans to grow with you as your business grows and it’s also a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that is hosted by the vendor.

    Shopify does not support vaulted (saved) credit cards or store credits, but it does offer a very mature, stable, robust & feature rich platform to build your site on. As one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in use today, it also has one of the largest offerings of 3rd party tools and services with native integrations through the Shopify App Store.

    Finally, Shopify has an even wider variety of themes and designs available for it than BigCommerce does.”

Ben Popplestone

With 20 years of experience with eCommerce solutions providers internationally, Ben enjoys pushing the boundaries of digital commerce. He has an in-depth understanding of commerce operations across multiple industries and has been engaged with start-ups right through to top tier organisations, uncovering specific business requirements and strategising for their success.
www.linkedin.com/in/benpopplestone

There are plenty of reviews available for ecommerce platforms comparing functionality in detail. Whilst this is informative, it’s important to understand your own requirements before getting sucked into features. Whenever I’m asked by small businesses for recommendations, I tend to put forward the following considerations:

1. How specific is your business model and operational processes? This will indicate the level of customisation and integrations required for your site.

2. How aggressive is your projected growth trajectory? Scalability for your future success is crucial, both in terms of traffic and new functionality requirements.

3. How digitally mature are you or your team? A realistic plan of how and who is going to manage your site once it is operational is important for gauging the usability.

  • Magento – “Magento has to be the top consideration for me given its maturity in the market coupled with rapid delivery on its development roadmap, vital in the constantly evolving landscape of digital commerce. With an open source architecture since its introduction over 10 years ago, and a re-engineered codebase (version 2) 3 years ago, it has the best of both worlds in market ubiquity among web developers and agencies the world over, along with a modern technology stack. What this means for the small business is a marketplace of (approved) extensions larger than other platforms, greater breadth of choice in developers who can build and maintain your site and a greater performance, usability and functionality, as well as experience for your customer.

    Magento really stands out for flexibility and customisation and this is the reason that creative brands and businesses with specific requirements favour this platform. It pays to select a developer that understands Magento well to ensure your site is built for performance and with the future in mind, but with a large developer network, there is plenty of choice.

    Pricing wise, Magento continues to offer their ‘Open Source’ edition which is free to download and use. This is ideal if you are a lean startup and it can be migrated to the ‘Commerce’ edition later when you need the support and additional functionality.

    I’m excited by the acquisition from Adobe earlier this year and looking forward to seeing this market leading commerce platform integrated with best-of-breed marketing and advertising suites for a true customer lifecycle digital experience. I would consider Magento in the majority of instances for my business and particularly if I wanted to stand out from competitors with a compelling experience.”

  • BigCommerce – “I like how BC have progressed recently. As a private company with the last of several funding rounds in the bank from earlier this year, they are building out their partner network globally and rapidly enhancing the platform. One of the leading SaaS platforms, they provide the full service with hosting included, and usability is a key strength. They have an open architecture philosophy and growing their integrations with other platforms including CMS platforms, WordPress and Acquia in recent months, which means you can develop your site with both content and commerce.

    Where SaaS platforms lack the customisation of Magento, they generally provide a speedy site setup and ease of use. I would consider BigCommerce if my business required little customisation and I wanted as little technical input on decisions as possible.”

  • Shopify – “Shopify has had tremendous growth over the last few years, building out their suite of platforms and services, integrations with 3rd parties and a very solid marketing campaign. As another SaaS platform, it has a similar offering to BigCommerce but focuses more on an extended suite of proprietary services (e.g. payment gateway and POS solution). Shopify also has an extensive list of plugins to enhance the functionality, however these can add to the fees considerably so it pays to be aware of the total costs.

    Shopify is promoted as a side hustle and I would consider it personally if I had a simple side project to set up with little time available.”

Abdo Mazloum

A computer science graduate, he picked up some white hat SEO tricks when he was working as a web developer. He then switched disciplines and became an SEO/SEM specialist for SSENSE and then moved up to team lead. He later held the positions of digital marketing manager at Beyond the Rack and VP at OPM Pros. After 10 years of experience, he made the leap from intrapreuneur to entrepreneur and he now leads the operations of Webtmize, his digital marketing agency.
www.webtmize.com
  • Shopify – “If I were to launch an ecommerce business, my first choice would be Shopify since it’s very easy to setup and use. The basic front-end and backend UX interfaces on mobile and desktop are very intuitive and straight to the point when it comes to e-commerce. It’s hosted on Shopify’s servers so you can feel good about reliability, speed and security. You have a wide range of themes and apps you can buy to customize your front-end. Their customer service team is known to be awesome! Shopify has different pricing packages starting as low as $29/month and it goes up as you start selling more and need more features.”
  • Magento – “Magento Open Source previously known as Magento Community Edition would be my second choice since it’s open source and you can self-host it on your own servers. Magento is widely used in North America and internationally and has a large community of app and module developers to extend the features of your basic site. It’s also a powerful and customizable platform made to support a large quantity of products and orders. You don’t have to pay a monthly plan and transaction fees to Magento. However, you’ll need a Magento professional or a web developer to help with customization, improving performance and service of your e-commerce site.”
  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce would be recommended if you already have a WordPress Site or Blog and you want to turn it into a shoppable platform, since WooCommerce is simply a WP plugin. WooCommerce is also very customizable with the hundreds of themes available on ThemeForest and WordPress.org. There’s also a wide range of paid add-ons to expand on the list of functionalities required. You can’t use WooCommerce without WordPress so you’ll have keep that in mind if you already have a website that is built on another CMS and you want to make it transactional. The WooCommerce plugin itself is also free.”

Isaiah Bollinger

Isaiah Bollinger is the Co-Founder and CEO of Trellis, an eCommerce solutions agency focused on platforms such as Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, WordPress, and much more.
trellis.co
  • Shopify – “This is an obvious choice. It’s the easiest platform to use and the cost of ownership is low because it’s a SaaS product that anyone can learn without a lot of technical knowledge. It is now being used on bigger and bigger sites and is a great fit for most small companies looking to grow with eCommerce. My recommendation is to use a theme and identify the apps you need and you should be able to get started easily even without a lot of third party help.”
  • BigCommerce – “BigCommerce is a slightly more enterprise product than Shopify, but is still great for small companies. It also has a low cost of ownership because it’s a SaaS product that anyone can learn without a lot of technical knowledge. This is a great fit for smaller B2B companies and companies that want to scale on a SaaS platform without having to re-platform as they grow. It has a lot of built in features that make it more powerful than Shopify out of the box and apps to grow with.”
  • Magento – “I would certainly not suggest a small company to pay for an expensive enterprise license. However, the Magento Open Source edition is designed for smaller companies looking to grow with the power of a leading eCommerce platform without the heavy license cost. I suggest Magento here because it’s actually a good eCommerce platform as opposed to the popular open source alternative, WooCommerce, because it has proven to scale. This is certainly a fit for more technical companies, but I feel it is a better fit than the alternatives, that although might be cheaper, will not get you very far. I see many business struggling with WooCommerce because it’s not really an eCommerce platform first and the plugins can be crippling. If you want to go open source eCommerce, I suggest Magento.”

Jason Ciment

I am formerly an attorney (Fordham Law School) and a CPA (with Kenneth Leventhal & Co.) and now co-manage a digital marketing agency. We consult businesses and nonprofits on designing and building websites, and then driving actionable traffic with SEO, PPC and other web marketing and online branding strategies.
www.GetVisible.com
  • Adrecom eSuite – “Adrecom is an aggregation of the American Dream Company because its founder always had the dream of moving to the USA. The system has been around for more than 15 years. The reason it’s called an eSuite is because it is far more than a mobile responsive, shopping cart system. It is a complete all-in-1 search engine optimized solution that includes the catalog, blog, events calendar, news archive, digital media gallery and a host of other built-in modules. The system is not a do-it-yourself product like Wix. The expert team at Adrecom becomes your online consigliere so that while they manage your website, you get to run your business. You have access to most everything under the hood but instead of spending $80-100k on a webmaster to tinker with your website, you spend a lot less partnering with the Adrecom team.”

Darren Ratcliffe

Darren is the founder of Digitl, a Manchester-based eCommerce agency. They work with a variety of platforms including Magento, Shopify and Big Commerce. Almost 20 years of industry experience in this sector, having worked with clients including eBay and JD Fashion.
digitl.agency

When we are working with small businesses, three main marketplaces we recommend are Magento, Big Commerce and Shopify. The rationale for all three are quite different – though some can make a huge difference in the long term.

  • Shopify – “The entry level platform that we tend to look at is Shopify – you may have heard about them through brands like GymShark and HERA that have rapidly grown on the platform.

    Shopify is great for startups as with a low monthly fee; no need for updates and you have fewer unexpected surprises than with other platforms. A lot of fast fashion startups use the platform as it has the right level of customisation, and you can easily extend the functionality.

    Where you do need to be careful is with two main areas – there are fewer customisation options with Shopify compared to other platforms such as Woo Commerce and Magento and this can limit creativity.

    The other thing to properly work out are the fees and charges you will pay. Starting at $29 a month, the costs may sound reasonable but the charges from ShopifyPay start at 2.2 percent – and if you want to use an alternative payment provider, you’ll be charged for this too.

    In addition to these fees, also consider how much plug-ins will cost you that help extend the functionality of the software. Often costing under $10 a month they do sound attractive, but this all adds up.”

  • BigCommerce – “Big Commerce is very similar to Shopify – in fact, you could probably copy and paste the benefits that I have written above and just switched the name – they also have a very similar pricing strategy.

    We tend to suggest Big Commerce over Shopify as it offers better flexibility with features such as being able to install WordPress to run your blog, which has benefits in terms of the different page layouts your agency can design for you.

    The next area is looking at the cost side of things – Big Commerce don’t charge you a fee for using your own choice of payment provider and this can bring huge savings as your business grows.

    Big Commerce isn’t as well known in Europe as it is in the US, but don’t overlook it – the platform is cost effective, very powerful and will continue to grow with your digital sales.”

  • Magento – “One of the best-known eCommerce platforms is Magento – it is used by many of the largest retailers in the country, and brands such as Ford, Nespresso and Samsung are examples of recent businesses using the platform.

    The biggest difference between Magento and the platforms I’ve spoken about earlier is that Magento is hosted separately, so whilst the software starts with a free version, you will have to pay a reputable hosting company to host the website. This gives you some independence – but it can become very costly.

    Because you host Magento yourself, you also need to keep on top of installing security patches – if you don’t and your website gets hacked, you could have a GDPR nightmare on your hands!

    That said, Magento continues to be a clear favourite by agencies and retailers because of the levels of customisation you can undertake with the site – both creatively and technically. It is often the case that you can achieve things with Magento that other platforms simply can’t.”

Richard Lazazzera

Richard Lazazzera is an online entrepreneur and founder of A Better Lemonade Stand. Formerly, Richard worked at Shopify on the Growth Team, helping grow the platform in the early days by helping new entrepreneurs make sense of ecommerce and the process of building an online business.
www.abetterlemonadestand.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify is the number one ecommerce platform we recommend to all ecommerce business owners because it just works, no matter what type of products you sell, what type of business model you use, or what kind of volume you sell at. For most ecommerce entrepreneurs, it will always be the right choice.

    Why we recommend Shopify as the ecommerce platform for small businesses is threefold

    • Ease of use
    • Integrations and apps
    • Scalability & flexibility

    First off, Shopify is super user-friendly and easy to get started with. You can set up a great-looking and highly-functional store without having to piece it together with code, which means you can get up and running faster and without any technical skills. Shopify is also a hosted platform which is especially ideal for entrepreneurs and small businesses who don’t have the people-power to constantly be keeping an eye on the backend of things to make sure everything is secure and running smoothly. Shopify handles all of that so you can focus on your store.

    Secondly, because Shopify is a top player in the industry, it integrates with almost all other relevant tools and services and nearly every app is made for Shopify first before any other ecommerce platform. It’s a priority, so when you sell on Shopify’s platform you have access to all the tools, services, and apps in the industry because everything’s made to be compatible with it.

    Finally, Shopify is capable of scaling with your store as you grow and their platform is flexible enough to work with your business no matter what you sell or how you sell it. Even if you’re just starting out and have less than 10 orders per month, Shopify is a great option for you, and if you’re scaling your store and growing to a million orders per month, Shopify can still stick with you every step of the way. They’re built for stores of any size, so you’ll never have to switch to another ecommerce platform. As for flexibility, they offer so many options so you can sell physical products, digital products, product subscriptions, or any combination in between and you can sell on your own store and on social media platforms, in-person, on Amazon, eBay, and more, all through your one Shopify dashboard. This gives you the means to be where your customers are so you’re never limited by what your ecommerce platform is capable of.

    In addition to these reasons, Shopify is also very accessible to get started with, price-wise. Back in the day, entrepreneurs had to shell out huge amounts of money to pay for their business venture which, if they financed through a bank, they were taking a huge personal risk. With Shopify, you can start your own small business right here, right now, for monthly payments that are probably lower than your cell phone bill.”

Abhi Jadhav

Abhi Jadhav is a digital marketing veteran of 14+ years, and is the co-founder of Bay Leaf Digital, a SaaS marketing agency for B2B. Bay Leaf Digital develops and executes growth marketing strategies for start-ups, as well as established SaaS companies from its base in Dallas, Texas.
www.bayleafdigital.com
  • WooCommerce – “For businesses that are just starting out or want to try to sell products on their existing site, our go-to solution is WooCommerce. Built for WordPress, this is a very popular and easy-to-use free plugin. Store designs are available through WordPress and number in the thousands. There’s no limit to the number of products you can sell, and the software provides reporting ability and support for multiple languages through third-party plugins. There’s also a great support system in place, with ticketed support, forums, and plenty of blogs. What’s more, WooCommerce supports hundreds of payment gateways, so you won’t be locked into one because of the platform. Before getting started, you’ll need to obtain a domain name, sign up for hosting, and pick a WordPress theme. Using WooCommerce may be more of a hands-on-approach, but you’ll benefit by choosing from thousands of designs and plugins to help extend control of your eCommerce store.”
  • Shopify – “If you outgrow Woocommerce, or simply don’t mind paying a fee to avoid dealing with setup, then our 2nd choice is Shopify. Shopify is an easy to use subscription-based service that has a similar set of features, although modifications to the store are limited by the platform. Setting up Shopify is a snap compared with WooCommerce, as the subscription already comes with hosting, a free subdomain, SSL certificate, and unlimited file storage. Shopify provides high-quality 24/7 support, with access to a customer adviser, and an extensive knowledge base. Expect pages to load rapidly on this hosted platform. What you give up with Shopify is the extreme customization that is possible with WooCommerce. But then again, you gain a LOT by using a stable platform that is supported well. For those of you looking for peace of mind on a budget, Shopify is a no-brainer.”
  • Magento – “Our 3rd choice is Magento. Magento 2 is a powerful and scalable eCommerce solution that offers both open source and an enterprise commerce cloud option. As your business and client demands grow, you may have a number of complex requirements that require custom solutions. Magento offers more features and advanced solutions than either WooCommerce or Shopify, however, the learning curve is steeper. Extensions are often an additional cost. There exists a large community of Magento developers who can provide solutions, but expect to spend more on developer costs. Magento is for the enterprise level store that needs a lot of options. That said, it is well worth the price.”

Lee Mullins

Lee is ex-Amazon and current owner of UK e-Commerce Consultancy Opal River Ltd. He has 13 years’ experience supporting multi-channel growth within Europe for both corporate and SME clients and is currently pursuing a MBA in his free time.
www.opalriver.co.uk

There are a variety of eCommerce platforms out there for small businesses. I believe due diligence is key for decision making and an organisation’s starting conditions, business objectives, budget and capability must be considered before locking down which path you want to take. I’m recommending 3 platforms as they are likely to cater to the distinctive needs and different type of SME customer.

  • Magento – “A highly customizable eCommerce platform that offers secure cloud hosting solutions, integrated order management functionality, decent business intelligence capability and the benefit of a global community of experts and peers that can help you through challenges. In my opinion, Magento Commerce is perhaps more suitable for small businesses with higher levels of maturity and larger starting budgets; more of an aspirational platform to utilise as ecommerce businesses scale and grow.”
  • ShopyGen – “A complete turnkey solution, again very affordable and specifically aimed at developing multi-vendor platform capability for small businesses. They have template options available, but can also offer bespoke store designs developed around Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. The analytical suite is robust enough to help small businesses grow, they offer SEO consultancy and dropship integration solutions if needed, the user interface is very intuitive for backend management and oncall support is fast and efficient.”
  • iPage – “One of my personal favourites for startups and solo entrepreneurs! iPage offers everything you need to get started in eCommerce, but this is reflected in the price and you will have to do all the work yourself. Servers are secure, startup costs are super cheap and you can create your own ecommerce website (fully mobile optimised) with free FTP locations and free SSL certificates using WordPress, Weebly or Website Builder. Analytics capability and email marketing tools are basic but adequate for micro companies and they also offer integrated solutions that tap into Mojo Marketplace, Google Adwords and Small Business Funding platforms. The support team is also very responsive and very helpful when called upon. There will be limitations as your business grows and scales, but this is a great starting point that doesn’t cost the earth.”

Chris Kostecki

Digital marketer with extensive paid search background. Recently left agency life to serve clients directly, bringing over 15 years of national brand and agency experience to small and local businesses in Central Mass and beyond. Father of three!
www.ChrisKosDigital.com

“Shopify would be at the top of my list, as there is very little lift to get off the ground with their standard package. The ability to scale up based on features is great for a small business.

A quick second would be Big Commerce, which also offers very customizable and scalable packages for small businesses.

Another option that is popular with entrepreneurs is WooCommerce, as it is built on the popular WordPress platform. While this does an adequate job of bringing eComm to a blogging platform, it would not be my first choice.”

  • Shopify – “Shopify in my experience to be the best “out of box” solution that can also grow with your business and not hinder it. It has intuitive processes to syndicate your product feed and track marketing activities through the cart. I have also found it to be very stable over the years.”
  • BigCommerce – “Big Commerce is a strong contender for shops that are poised to grow and want a solution that can enable their growth. While there are entry level packages, a more established store will benefit from the customizations that are available.”
  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce can be helpful if your business is growing out of WordPress, or if you want to explore eCommerce capabilities in addition to other goals. It can be a bit tedious to setup, though no more so than other WP Plug-ins.”

Isabel Mack

I’m an experienced ecommerce Product Owner specialising in digital strategy and change delivery management. With a background in UX design, I’ve worked for both large and small retailers selling a wide range of product types from bananas to video games.
www.linkedin.com/in/isabeljmack
  • Shopify – “Shopify is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that can scale with your business. It’s also a great way to test out a business idea before adding the risk of significant investment.

    It has a number of free and paid-for themes giving your store a basic look and feel, which can then be customised. Themes are responsive and optimised for tablets and mobile making it easy to get a good-looking and functional store launched quickly.

    The Admin tools are pretty straightforward and one of the best things about the platform; together with site configuration these include basic catalogue, product and content management and reporting as well as promotional tools, such as discount vouchers, as standard. There’s also an Admin app which allows you to manage your store from your phone.

    In general, Shopify is fairly easy to customise for technically-minded non-developers. There are lots good apps available to extend the functionality of the core platform. Many are free, some requirement a one-off payment or a monthly fee that scales as your demand grows. Even the most expensive are significantly cheaper than paying for the development of new features on other platforms.

    Shopify allows you to manage multiple channels from one place including Facebook stores, online marketplaces and provides a POS solution. But if you have multiple online stores selling across a similar catalogue this might not be the best solution.

    The platform is pretty fast with a mature CDN solution providing speedy page loads. Many order management systems and helpdesk solutions now come with plugins for Shopify.

    Shopify does have limitations. If you have a complex product type it may be tricky to work out the best way to structure these products and having complete control over the customer journey requires more technical knowledge and investment.

    For the basic package there are significant limitations on the customisations you can make to the checkout journey. However you can add some branding and configure delivery and payment methods, even adding new payment methods like Amazon Pay, very easily. Shopify handles all security including Level 1 PCI compliance meaning you don’t have to worry about the safety of your customers’ payment data.

    The community of store owners and app developers is global and large, which means that new features and apps are in demand and there’s often someone with experience who can help if you get stuck!”

  • Magento – “Magento 2 is a flexible platform which comes in many forms. I have only worked on a self-hosted implementation of the Community edition. There are options for cloud-hosting and a more feature-rich Enterprise edition available.

    There is a large collection of themes which can be used to provide the framework for your storefront which range in price. These can then be customised to achieve your desired store. Be sure to check the theme is fully responsive and has as many of the features you need as possible.

    The Magento platform allows you to control the entire customer experience. It can handle large catalogues and be extended to handle complex product types.

    Magento also allows you to easily manage multiple online stores from one place. If you plan to have multiple brands or specific international sites selling similar products this can save you a lot of time.

    The admin tools are very powerful and certainly the standard catalogue, product and campaign management tools are pretty advanced. There is basic content management and merchandising management but I’d recommend looking for addons if your site is content-rich and you have non-technical people running it.

    There is a large marketplace of addons which allows you to extend the core functionality of the platform. These range significantly in both price and quality so it’s worth doing your homework first. In my experience some addons can be installed by admin users and some need technical support to get running.

    The platform uses the PHP framework making it easy to build your own features and integrations if you have a couple of PHP developers to hand, but obviously this is generally more costly, both at implementation and for ongoing maintenance, than purchasing an addon from the marketplace. You should also be careful about how customisations are implemented to ensure that both the platform and theme upgrades can be done without major rework.

    I did find site speed performance an issue, but it’s difficult to know if this was down to hosting, configuration or the core platform, so I would definitely look at cloud-hosting for any new stores.”

Andrew Elliott

For over 22 years I have been fortunate to work with hundreds of SME's, charities, and Church organisations by designing websites. If you're looking to update your website or you need help with a new project, be sure to contact me at ACTISmedia.co.uk.
www.actismedia.co.uk
  • WooCommerce – “This is THE combination I would recommend. I’ve been creating eCommerce websites since 1996. I’ve worked for tremendously successful web agencies and over the 22 years I’ve seen some sharp practices.

    Agencies using their own bespoke, hand-written code to create an eCommerce CMS will boast about quality, speed, reliability, but in actuality, the customer is heavily played: paying much more for a website than needs be, needing to wait for new features, and each time an idea is needed to be implemented by the client, then barriers are hit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of quality coding, but not at the expense of the client, and certainly not when there are perfectly respectable alternatives.

    The combination of WordPress and the shopping cart WooCommerce has proven (for my business and my clients) an excellent tool. If one knows what they are doing, then one can create an effective Roadmap to help clients plan, design, launch, promote, and manage an eCommerce website. Choosing carefully which plugins to use, being extremely careful with the hosting platform, then a client simply won’t see ANY disadvantages from using this platform.

    With WordPress, one can easily create stunning designs, implement great CSS, create bespoke designs and user experiences. Websites can be made to work brilliantly on mobiles, tablets, and desktops (remember the difficulties posed by bespoke CMS frameworks in trying to get sites to work well on mobiles – how slow, how costly!).

    WordPress and WooCommerce are updated regularly. If an agency knows what it’s doing then ‘off the shelf’ tools can be used to achieve astonishingly complex tasks.

    Scalability is not a problem either. If you’re an SME with between £500,000 and £10,000,000 of revenue then this is the solution for you. It’s easy to use and can provide everything needed to make online sales. For example, we’ve recently launched a WordPress eCommerce website with over 90,000 products, from multiple suppliers, with bespoke customer tiered pricing, full stock-control and more.

    With Magento this would have cost in excess of £20,000, with a bespoke solution… well, much, much more. But with WordPress, well, let’s just say the client got the deal of the century.

    WordPress allows the web agency to use its skills and experience to help get an eCommerce website up and running quickly and to help clients start selling quickly… rather than being stuck in the quagmire of waiting for coders, CSSers, designers, and digital marketers to all complete their work first (and then more than likely be stuck with an out of date platform)!

    I cannot shout from the rooftops loudly enough just how effective WordPress is for an SME. Often SME’s don’t have the staff to learn about websites and eCommerce, but they can be taught to manage a website, especially if it’s been built with WordPress. Furthermore, if they get stuck then there’s a plethora of help and advice on the web (the same can’t be said for custom CMS’s can it?).

    Finally, if the client gets fed-up with the agency, as WordPress and WooCommerce is Open Source, then the core of the website is Open and GPL Licenced, meaning the website can be zipped up and given to another web agency, instead of being stuck in the hands of a web agency who can all too easily hold a website to ransom.

    I fully support the WordPress & WooCommerce combination.”

  • Magento – “Magento is good. But boy is it bloated. It takes quite some server resource to run it (it has so many modules, which requires better hosting and that of course means passing on the cost to the client).

    It also takes a long time to configure… it’s just not as flexible as WordPress. Yes WordPress isn’t as well thought out when it comes to the database structure, but does this truly matter to the client or their visitors? Certainly not! If the web agency knows what it’s doing then WordPress will beat Magento hands down. Some say Magento is great for reports, this is true, but we’ve managed to arm ourselves with a wide range of tools to help clients drill down through tonnes of data to understand what’s happening on their website(s)… whether it’s connecting to an older Sage Line 50 software, or to a modern Cloud based accounts package, WordPress handles this all too easily.

    Bottom line: Magento is good. But, the client will need to be charged more and it will take more time to complete. Why would anyone do that? Probably because they’ve been told that WordPress is the poor relation, but often I find that these comments come from coders who are effectively protecting their own jobs, their own purpose in the world. After-all, if WordPress gets any more popular then these very same coders (if they wish to stay in low-to-mid-level eCommerce development) will need to join the ranks of WordPress proponents or go and work for WordPress themselves!”

A third platform? Not going to suggest one. Oh, WordPress. Have I mentioned WordPress?

Andrew Walker

Andrew has 20+ years of experience in the eCommerce services industry. Founding Portaltech from start-up to award winning eCommerce business with a sale in 2014. He now advises on Commerce Platform selections. He enjoys kitesurfing and running on the New Forest.
www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmwalker
  • SAP – “I would have to recommend that any business consider what I’ll call the big 4 of eCommerce platforms such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, Salesforce. They have a long heratige in the eCommerce space and have very well developed features and functions with a long list of additional features that can be added via integrations / plugins to other packages. Originally these platforms were only accessible to large businesses, but they have all worked hard to start supporting the SME market with pay as you grow type revenue share models, as well as offering cloud based hosting and support. Don’t just assume they will be too expensive and be careful to evaluate these against the full cost of seemingly cheaper solutions. These platforms tend to leapfrog each other, but all have an unrivalled set of feature and functions which continue to be improved on and added to.”
  • BigCommerce – “I’d also recommend looking at the new breed of fully hosted platforms such as BigCommerce and Shopify, which have historically been aimed at very small businesses, but are now capable of supporting larger businesses. They also have the reputation for faster set-up and configuration times than the Big 4, while still offering a feature rich set of functions that can be expanded on using their app store.”
  • Magento – “No list would be complete without Magento (now part of Adobe). Magento was the original disruptor with an extensive and expandable feature list and very competitive pricing.”

Simon Morton

Once an e-commerce pureplay retailer and now founding partner of Supplyant, a multidisciplinary agency helping solve e-commerce problems for its customer.
www.supplyant.com
  • Shopify – “Over the past few years I’ve seen Shopify gain enormous traction. If getting set up quickly is the name of the game there is very little out there to compete with its base feature set. It’s not for everybody though, if there are complex requirements involving lots of plugins it can become an expensive beast to work with and if you are a retailer with low margins it might not be the choice for you.”
  • Magento – “A long heritage and a better starting point for complex project requirements. If you have something that’s a little more non-standard in terms of your requirement then Magento is normally our platform of choice. The fact that there are no built in fees means that there will generally be a better case for Magento with low margin products.”
  • Bespoke – “Sometimes only a bespoke build will do. At this point there are some great frameworks to choose from but we normally plump for a Laravelle & Vue/React setup.”

Jason Neufeld

Jason Neufeld is an eCommerce Marketing Solutions Consultant with 15 years of experience – as an eCommerce entrepreneur, corporate marketing executive and consultant. He is a full-stack digital marketer with knowledge of sourcing, supply chain, operations and more.
www.linkedin.com/in/jasonneufeld
  • Shopify – “Shopify is an excellent choice for new brands. For ease-of-use, plugins, integrations and speed-to-market, Shopify is the go-to if you’re starting a new online brand. With big-name brands like Budweiser and Tesla utilizing the platform – and a user base north of 500,000 accounts, Shopify use is growing rapidly.

    Other advantages to Shopify include easy theme installation and customization. Hosting and SSL are included in Shopify as well. Overall, Shopify represents the easiest solution for brands to get up and running quickly. Whether you’re an eCommerce beginner or advanced, Shopify has solutions, themes, apps and functionality to enable quick start up and rapid growth.

    Shopify is particularly strong in fashion, cosmetics and jewelry verticals and has traction in others as well. Recently, Shopify is making a big push for dropshipper accounts and offers easy integration with Oberlo and other integrators of dropship product data.

    There are few industries I would consider as “bad fits” for Shopify, but there are instances where it may not be the best solution. Large retailers, those with high SKU counts and those needing advanced CMS functionality may become frustrated with Shopify.

    Other potential drawbacks of Shopify include the lack of ultimate coding/design functionality in some cases, scalability concerns for large retailers and rising costs as business grows. A percentage of sales (2.4% & up) is paid to Shopify, but covers credit card/processing services. Consider that this is in addition to regular platform fees ($29 – $299/mo). The percentage of sales payment rate is ok for most start-ups, but many find the fees greater than other solutions at larger sales volumes.

    Overall, Shopify is great if you want a fast start-up or growth platform with a large selection of apps and integrations. The interface is user-friendly and there is a multitude of Shopify developers and consultants should the need arise for advanced functionality or customizations.”

  • Magento – “With stores like Coca-Cola, Nike & Ford using its platform, Magento is well-situated for larger, mature brands and multi-channel retailers. Magento has a higher cost of ownership at entry point (can be up to $20,000 for a commercial license), but its open-source nature, design flexibility and other benefits can outweigh the costs in large implementations.

    Magento is known for creating high ranking SEO pages and stores, enabling B2B commerce and for its development agility. The community of programmers with PHP (the coding language of Magento) is large also.

    There are integrations to major, enterprise-level solutions for email, analytics and other marketing and data providers. Most major PIM platforms also work well with Magento. The platform is known for good data management support and superior handling of large SKU counts.

    While there are advances in usability with Magento 2, the interface is not as friendly as Shopify. Some basic customizations require familiarity with PHP as well.

    As mentioned, licenses for Magento (other than the free “community” edition) can be expensive and the cost of design and development customization can be high. It is important to understand, though, if it is the platform or the business that is driving the need for customization. Those finding Magento development costs high might very well experience the same on other platforms as well. It’s important to compare total costs of ownership for each platform in apples-to-apples format.

    Unlike Shopify, Magento does not provide hosting and does not charge processing fees as a percentage of sales. Start-ups or smaller businesses are unlikely to secure much better rates for Magento than Shopify offers. As the business grows, this will change.

    All in all, Magento is a good platform if you’re looking for a larger, more flexible and scalable solution. It is good for brands as well as for high SKU count retailers.”

  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce is the most ubiquitous solution on the planet. WordPress.org estimates that a full 30% of online stores worldwide are powered by WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a free commerce-enabling plugin for WordPress. The availability of the plugin makes it easy for a site to add purchase functionality to any site.

    WordPress, like Magento, is known for its ability to create high SEO-ranking pages. It has a large community of developers also and offers plugins to most major integrated platforms (such as retargeting platforms, entry-level email service providers and more).

    Like Magento, WordPress does not “require” (or “compel”) you to use an internal CC processor. WordPress is open-source and quite flexible in terms of design and development capabilities. WordPress is not a commerce-first platform, but one advantage of using WordPress for commerce is the built-in CMS capabilities.

    Plugin conflicts and support are often-cited disadvantages of WooCommerce. Reliance on a developer for advanced functionality can increase the cost of ownership for WooCommerce and some basic customizations can be difficult to affect for those unfamiliar with WordPress backend functionality.

    WooCommerce is prevalent in the publishing industry, with stores like Spectator Shop and Men’s Health store utilizing it.

    An eCommerce store can be launched quickly and inexpensively with WooCommerce. For those businesses for which content is important, WooCommerce is a great solution. Control of code base and ability to perform well in search engines are compelling benefits for eCommerce businesses on WooCommerce.”

Mila Aldrin

Mila Aldrin is the Director of eCommerce at Moon Juice, the cult wellness and beauty brand that is bringing plant-based healing, juices — and most recently, beauty products — into the mainstream.
www.linkedin.com/in/mila-aldrin
  • Shopify – “Shopify is my recommended e-comm platform for small businesses, especially those with lean teams and limited development resources. If you haven’t used Shopify before, don’t worry – this platform is super streamlined and user friendly, with helpful recommendations and analytics pre-built into it.

    As a small but fast-growing company, Shopify helps us increase efficiency and reduce our reliance on developers while allowing us to remain agile with our site and site features. The Shopify app store offers hundreds of useful plugins (many of which have free versions or trials) designed to work right out-of-the-box – in fact, we recently launched our auto-replenishment service using just a few hours of front-end dev work to install an app and make design customizations.

    If you have in-house development or custom development isn’t of concern, Magento is a great open source platform where you can build out features exactly per your own specs.”

Jorian Bos

My 10-year background as a founder of multiple successful (digital) agencies started with a passion for kick-ass design and insight-driven business modeling. Currently I consult and manage digital business challenges from strategy to realisation with a focus on marketing, sales and software optimization with my freelance consultancy brand Intrinsic.
www.Intrinsic.com.de
  • Wix – “Differently, from Shopify (who provides, both for small scale and big scale e-shops), WIX is only serving small scale business purposes, and is even more user friendly. It also has hundreds of free themes and templates for you to use, so you can build your simple website very quickly. Other than that, WIX is super affordable, as their highest monthly price is $25. WIX offers a very convenient set of SEO tools – including alt texts, descriptions and customizable page titles, which will help your e-shop rank high in the Google search results. All in all, although WIX does not have as many apps and functions as let’s say Shopify and is more simple in the most ways, if you need something specific that WIX doesn’t provide you can always use a third – party app to compensate.”
  • WooCommerce – “Since WOO commerce is built on one of the most popular content management systems – WordPress – WOO powers around 40% of all the shops of the world and it’s no wonder, since with a free plug in you can transform any WordPress page into a fully functioning commerce store, and then build any type of website you wish. WOO is very flexible design wise, and super functional; it beats Shopify and Wix in these categories. It is also easy to use for most of the people who have used and worked with WordPress. Although if you are new to online store setup, it will take some time to master WordPress and WOO plug-in features, as it is not as user -friendly as the two other mentioned sites. WOO also suggests lots of free themes and plug ins, and also is very flexible in expanding and extending functionality, although It is more time consuming updating all the plug -ins than it would be in Shopify, where you have it already fully-managed. However, if and when you have big amounts of products to manage, I’d prefer Shopify over Woo. That’s why overall I grade it my #2.”
  • Shopify – “Shopify is one of the most popular business e-commerce sites and rightly so. No wonder it’s also my number 2 recommendation. Its highly user-friendly interface helps small business owners with little skill to build their own trendy and cool online stores. As stated I would not directly recommend it for single product or smaller shops. WOO Commerce is often more suitable for that because of its open structure and plugin functionality options. But when things get big and product collection matters get to be a thing I’d go for Shopify. It is a common step for e-commerce shop owners. You can generate your domain name with Shopify’s tool, design your business logo on their site, use the free library of stock photos or even buy an existing online store, it also provides top-notch themes (most of them are not free though). Shopify also offers 24/7 customer support and a mobile app to track your business, which makes it super convenient. All that said, it delivers the most complete, all-in-one online and multichannel sales solution, with an affordable price.”

John Lawson

John is the #1 best-selling author & IBM Ecommerce Futurist. He is regarded as a Platinum Ecommerce Powerseller who has generated millions through online selling. John is the CEO at ColderICE Media, a Cognitive College adjunct professor and he is celebrated as one of the Top 100 Small Business Influencers in America.
JohnLawson.com
  • BigCommerce – “BigCommerce is easy to set up, robust and connects to marketplaces seamlessly. They have been around a long time and are able to grow and scale for SMB’s.”
  • Shopify – “Shopify is “stupid simple” to set up as well. It has a very diverse community of developers and plug-ins to make your store mimic many of the things more robust ecommerce platforms have.”
  • Miva – “Miva is the platform that has been in the ecommerce space the longest going back to the 90’s. What I love about it, is the flexibility to do anything you can think of. It has a rock solid group of developers in the community and this platform can scale up into the mega millions as you grow. You will not need to jump off as you grow to enterprise level, like you might need to do on the other 2 platforms I mentioned.”

Jon Simmonds

Founder and MD of Rocket Science Digital, with over 20 years of experience in international eCommerce and digital marketing. Working with SMBs and startups as an outsourced digital marketing team and eCommerce consultancy.
www.rocketsciencedigital.net
  • Shopify – “Perfect for the needs of most small businesses, micro-businesses or individual traders. It’s fuss-free and easy-to-use, which is a key factor for small businesses. No need to spend hours trying to configure a platform or manage complex settings, when you just want to get on with the job. Customisation of the look-and-feel may not be as good as some other platforms, but it’s a small compromise. The Shopify app store is also a great bonus for extending the functionality without breaking the bank.”
  • WooCommerce – “Integrates seamlessly with WordPress, so if you’re amongst the millions of WP users, you don’t need to learn a whole new interface. It’s mostly quick and easy to configure, although some elements such as shipping options can be a little head-scratching at times. It’s also easy to customise quite extensively if you have a web developer or know your CSS well. It has many of the features found in much larger eCommerce platforms, without the hefty price tag or the need for an IT team to manage it.”

Mark Purdy

Mark has been working at board level in eCommerce & Marketing Director positions for the past 8 years, and in this time has taken small scale online operations and grown them into sizeable businesses, adding a high margin contribution to the overall bottom line. He has project managed multiple full website design and build projects and has also sourced and launched eCommerce operations internationally.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcpurdy/
  • Shopify – “There is no denying the popularity of Shopify, and it is for good reason. If you are just starting out in eCommerce you can be up and running with Shopify within days – even if you have limited or zero html, design or code experience. It is literally as easy as choosing a theme, adding some products and linking up your PayPal details – and away you go.

    Shopify has also done a lot of work recently on its more advanced eCommerce solution – Shopify Plus. So it is possible to start off at very limited cost to get your business up and running and then as you become successful you have the options of upgrading and adding more features. With Shopify you also have the added benefit that it is a SaaS product, so all hosting is taken care of as part of the cost, which is one less thing to deal with, especially when your website is growing and increasing in traffic.”

  • WooCommerce – “While Shopify is great for regular ‘shopkeepers’ just looking to sell, WooCommerce is a great option for people who are planning to create lots of content. WordPress is well known for being one of the easiest and most widely accepted platforms for bloggers – mainly because of how easy it is to create pages, drag and drop content and insert various templates and add-on’s with relative ease. So for anyone who either has a blog already and is looking to monetise it by selling product, or for people who plan on creating lots of content alongside their shop, WooCommerce could be the perfect fit. Unlike Shopify, you would be required to host the website yourself. However there are plenty of great services on the market for hosting WordPress, which are inexpensive in the early days when you have low amounts of traffic.”
  • Magento – “Now for the third option it was quite hard to decide. I could have easily gone for BigCommerce, WIX, Squarespace or OpenCart – as all have their pros. But I wanted to put a bit of a wildcard out there. Magento historically would not have been a platform I would suggest to a small business – because it was complicated and had lots of hidden costs. However, with the launch of Magento2 and its acquisition by Adobe, I think we will see a much clearer divide between the free version (open source) and the paid version (Commerce) and with this a simplification of the open source version to make it easier for smaller business to utilise the power that the platform has. I would also recommend Magento for any small businesses with ‘big’ ambitions, as if you invest well early on then Magento can easily sustain your business up to £30m turnover and beyond. Like WooCommerce/WordPress, you would be required to host Magento yourself, and because it is a bigger, complex system it will require more sophisticated and powerful hosting than WordPress, so I’d recommend finding a Magento hosting specialist and expect to pay more per month than the other 2 options.”

Branden Moskwa

Helping entrepreneurs CrushIT online, through modern technology and innovative thinking. “One of the Industry’s Brightest Minds” - IBM. “One of the industry’s Top Players” - Oracle. “One of 14 of the world’s leading IoT and consumer product industry experts” - SAP.
nadimo.com/hire-me

There are numerous solutions out there, and I choose to focus my efforts on Magento. My software developers are familiar with and work with other platforms which I will discuss momentarily, however, we find the best value and flexibility to be in moving forward with a Magento based approach.

  • Magento – “Magento is a open source solution that allows for most any level of customization and flexibility. While the backend is not as friendly as some of the more basic platforms, it is certainly one of the most powerful. The trick with deploying or moving to this platform is working with an agency or developer that is very comfortable with the platform. The sky really is the limit with magento, and you can essentially get started by hiring someone to setup and deploy a theme for a fairly low introductory cost.”
  • Shopify – “I am probably one of the few people out there that really is not a fan of this platform. This is simply because I do not believe in the “rent a home” approach to business. I believe there is a lot of place for SaaS level solutions however, when you are building your core eCommerce business on a solution that is extremely proprietary in nature and requires Apps with monthly fees in order to grow, you are in some ways increasing the monthly costs and becoming more entrenched in a solution which you are bound to. This is an excellent platform to start out on, if you are going to be a one man shop and plan to bootstrap the initial launch, while managing the designs and app implementations yourself. But please be sure to monitor your monthly costs as there will be a time when you will need to consider replatforming. *Just my thoughts.”

Fabio Schenone

20 years of experience in Italian and International digital projects. Started, managed and optimized eCommerce businesses in a wide range of industries, including tourism, FMCG, luxury, and food. Worked on projects for online retailers with a turnover between 0 and 50 million.
https://www.fabioschenone.it
  • Shopify – “Shopify is a extremely good start for small businesses. Especially for those who have little or no technical proficiency. It allows you to start an online business in a very short amount of time and keep your thought focused on merchandising and marketing. It has a lot of apps and themes that you can use to extend the functionality at will. Prices are very affordable. I love it and usually suggest it as the first move in the world of ecommerce.”
  • WooCommerce – “Woocommerce has the great value to be free and open source. If you or your team has some php programming skills, WooCommerce it is definitely a choice to take into consideration. It has an incredible number of commercial themes and plugins that can be used to customize it as much as you like. Given the fact that it is based on the well renowned WordPress platform, it is also quite simple to find support from the community for any eventual need.”
  • Magento – “Magento has been and still is my preferred choice when the business starts to grow and there is the need to scale rapidly. The only thing to take into consideration is that with this power comes the ownership cost. The platform is extremely powerful and to fully use it, good programmers are needed.”

Sophie Shiatis

Sophie offers more than 20 years of experience as a Marketing Executive and Strategic Marketing Consultant, driving marketing strategy, enabling operational efficiency, building e-commerce experiences and utilizing information and analytics to accelerate companies to new levels of success.
www.linkedin.com/company/shinyblue-marketing/about
  • Shopify – “Shopify is by far the best platform for SMBs in my opinion for the reasons below:

    • It incorporates a website CMS and Shopping cart capabilities into a single platform, that way you only have one platform to work with, which makes the learning curve much easier
    • It has an intuitive product catalogue and provides nice search capabilities
    • It has a strong reporting & insights capability, reports are shown in a dashboard like view and are easy to understand and take action
    • It has an easy to use user interface (UI) that anyone, without any technical experience can use
    • It has flexible, and customizable designs that you can pick from so your store can look as sharp as you want it
    • You can launch your website and ecommerce store in a few weeks, provided you are just starting and don’t need have a product catalogue that is too large.
    • It is affordable with plans starting at $10 a month and the ability to upgrade anytime as your store grows
    • Best part is that they offer a free trial, so you can take it for a test drive before you commit to using this platform”

  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce is my second pick for SMBs who are currently using WordPress for their website for the following reasons:

    • It integrates with WordPress which makes managing your store easy, as you are accessing the admin interface from within your WordPress website
    • It’s easy to use and create your online store, from the design to building out the product catalogue
    • You can customize your theme (design and layout) of your store and are not stuck with the themes they provide
    • It has several payment integrations so you can choose any of the payment options from PayPal to Stripe and anything in between
    • It is an open source system so you can modify and customize everything, add as many products and users and process unlimited orders”

  • Wix – “WiX is another great platform for SMBs for the reasons below:

    • You can customize your store’s look and feel, by either choosing the available templates and customizing to what works for you
    • Its easy to use for anyone without any technical experience, they have a drag and drop interface which makes building your store very intuitive
    • They offer multiple payment options such as credit cards or PayPal and the best part is that they don’t charge you for your sales (no commissions)
    • You can use the same platform for building your website and your online store making it more efficient for you”

Fraser Sullivan

Fraser has 15 years of experience in strategy, eCommerce and marketing. In addition to co-founding medico-legal firm Sullivan Nurse Consulting, he has started three eCommerce companies. The most recent in pre-seed funding stage for a platform of connected, niche marketplaces.
www.thecherrystore.ca
  • Shopify – “I highly recommend the Shopify platform for anyone looking to start a new eCommerce venture. Although the back end is not particularly intuitive for updating the site, there is a lot of help available, some great add-ons to unlock additional long term value of customers and it is extremely easy to setup payment methods, fulfill orders and update customers. There is also an app that can be downloaded from the Play Store/App Store that is a great tool for modifying inventory, order fulfilment, basic analytics and more. I only wish there was such a low-cost platform available when I started my first venture back in 2007 because an entry point of only $30 USD is affordable and appealing because you aren’t handing all of your client information and business being potentially shut down with little explanation with the likes of being just on a platform like Amazon.”

Joe Reichsfeld

Joe is an ecommerce consultant with 20 years of experience. Ecommerce Optimizer is his site for sellers to learn how to master eCommerce and dominate competitors. He started designing websites 20 years ago and is a partner with many platforms.
ecommerce-optimizer.com
  • Shopify – “When it comes to an ecommerce platform for a small business seller, you have to be realistic about expectations from the platform vs your own in-house abilities and where/how you prioritize different aspects of your business. Let’s face it, in 2019, it is not as easy as it has been in the past to run a viable, sustainable ecommerce business. With my clients, I recommend things based on what I would use myself if I were in their shoes, with their advantages and disadvantages taken into consideration.

    I would recommend Shopify first for several reasons, the most important of which being all-around flexibility and their commitment to staying on the cutting edge of new technologies. Shopify is a hosted solution. They have a legion of developers working to stay on top of their systems. Google requirements & other standards are hard to stay on top of for a small business with stretched resources. Shopify removes the burden of many of those worries as these items are built right into the system.

    Shopify is very easy to sign up to and go live. They do not have the largest selection of free templates, but their liquid code makes altering those templates very easy once you understand the process. I’ve gone live with stores in less than 5 hours in the past with no issues. The back-end is very useful and easy to use for anyone at any skill level. I had an older woman as a client for a long time who did extremely well on Shopify in a male dominated sector. She wasn’t doing any programming, but used the back-end interface with very few problems.

    Shopify has a large partner network with custom themes available, apps, integrating systems and support. It is very easy to find all of the functions that you need and plug them into the store. One important feature of Shopify that is unmatched is it’s flexibility and integration as a standalone POS. It gives the seller the opportunity to take payments like any brick and mortar store without the extra equipment like cash registers and payment readers. Shopify also integrates with Facebook, Pinterest and other platforms, extending its usefulness beyond just a website standalone interface. Shopify is an all-around solution both online and offline. This is unmatched among competitors.”

  • BigCommerce – “BigCommerce comes in right behind Shopify and appeals to the more technical entrepreneur. BigCommerce also offers many of the flexible solutions for selling on other platforms that Shopify does minus the POS. It also offers many of the backend capabilities that Shopify does. The backend of BigCommerce looks and functions similar to Shopify as well. Really for some the difference between the two comes down to personal opinion. However, from my point of view the POS offering that BigCommerce does not have makes it a close second place.”
  • Volusion – “If your eCommerce product offering is centered around a small group of sku’s, Volusion is quite easy to use and fairly flexible. They offer many of the same features as the others. Their setup interface is a little easier as it has video walkthroughs and there is a lot of hand holding with each new feature that you use. Someone experienced like myself finds that annoying, but for a new seller or user, it comes in handy. Volusion offers less themes than Shopify but they are all free and responsive. Volusion has been around since 1999. It used to come in two versions, now only one which is focused on ease of use. It still is a little clunky on the backend UI but navigatable nevertheless. Volusion has a cap of 1000 products, but no cap on amounts of orders or anything of the sort.”

Jeremy Vlcan

Jeremy Vlcan is the founder and managing partner of Conversion Insights. Jeremy has over 15+ years of experience across e-commerce, SaaS and consulting companies with a focus in online retail.
www.conversioninsights.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify has developed a very cost effective, simple yet robust ecommerce platform designed for the non-tech savvy business owner. They can easily construct, design, manage and promote their business in a way 5-10 years ago would have cost 10-20x

    In addition, due to the rapid growth of the company and customer base, a very strong support network of developers, freelancers and app builders has quickly developed – providing a pool of resources to solve the changing needs of retailers on the Shopify platform.”

Nathan Kelleher

A seasoned eCommerce Logistics Professional and a Strategic Advisor to multiple start-ups focusing on applications for business growth and eCommerce technology. In Logistics Nathan has been developing an expertise for close to two decades in all areas of the Courier, Express and Parcel industry.
www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-kelleher-35015213
  • Shopify – “Shopify is the platform with the most momentum at the moment and is certainly the cool kid on the block in the small business market. Shopify is focused on a lot of small businesses’ biggest challenges through solid offerings in product databases and inventory management system functionality; this gives ease in building channels across multiple websites and marketplaces.

    If you’re a business that has lots of inventory (congratulations!) you need a robust platform and Shopify delivers in spades. Consumers spend their time on the front end, but small business operators are in the backend and Shopify excels on the administration front.

    Unlike other platforms, Shopify handles payment gateways much more efficiently baking them into the offer without messing around with additional apps. And unlike open-source competitors, Shopify has a dedicated support team that can handle all aspects of the platform.”

  • Magento – “Magento has long been the leader in eCommerce platforms built off the open-source nature of the software appealing to developers across the globe. After the recent acquisition by Adobe, Magento now has endless riches sitting in the coffers to stave of competitors who have made up ground in recent years by focusing on user experience.

    A big selling point is the Magento Community version that is free and gives small business owners a chance to get their business live and trading at minimal cost compared to many other platforms. As your business grows it is not difficult to upgrade, although you will be needing to shift onto a payment tier and will need to employ a decent agency to assist with the build.

    Not that it will be hard to find someone to assist, as Magento has a village of capable partners that will help small businesses grow technically and connect you to a marketplace of third-party integrations that will handle most of what you could ever need.

    Magento has a plethora of built-in eCommerce features such as promotional pricing, newsletter management, multi-language support, virtual products, layered navigation, personalized products, etc. that essentially just leaves open source competitors for dead.

    Finally, Magento was the first platform to embrace the logistics market partnering with companies such as DHL and FedEx to deliver Magento Shipping, which takes away the pain of shipping for small businesses.”

  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce is competitive with leading enterprise eCommerce applications, but because it’s free, any small business can take advantage of this platform without fear of expensive support contracts or proprietary software licenses.

    The modular nature is attractive for any business and especially small businesses where you are learning who you are and may need to pivot at any time. Commitment is hard when you are growing, so knowing that WooCommerce has a raft of developers in the background to dig you out of any situation is comforting.

    Plugins can be your friend and WooCommerce has more than you’ll ever need. WooCommerce has WordPress as a parent so you know flexibility and functionality is at the heart of the platform. More than other platforms, WooCommerce has digital sales in its toolbox, so small businesses can theoretically sell anything from Jordan sneakers to digital games and everything in-between.

    WooCommerce is made for selling and will give you heaps of advantages. With over a 100 payment gateways that can be setup, shipping capabilities and inventory management, this platform will save you a heap on ‘additional’ requirements that you so often get hit with when you start a business.”

Joe Balestrino

Joe has over 15 years of experience in online marketing, SEO and paid search (SEM). He has worked with and trained many companies on SEO best practices. He is also the author of “The Definitive Guide To Local Search.
joebalestrino.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify is the most popular e-commerce platform, because it is relatively easy to use. There are a ton of plugins to enhance the user experience and upsells.”
  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce works on WordPress which is another popular platform. Many people are familiar with it and also has a lot of flexibility and customizations.”
  • Magento – “While Magento is a well-established platform and is very flexible and scalable, the reason it is not higher on my list because it’s expensive. Also, over the years support has lacked and is nowhere near the level of support that Shopify offers. ”

Dominic Smith

I am an Ecommerce and Internet Marketing Consultant with over 12 years’ experience driving growth for a multitude of retailers in the UK. From customer acquisition to retention, conversion to trading, Redleafdigital can help with all your Ecommerce needs.
www.redleafdigital.co.uk
  • Shopify – “Shopify is a great platform for SMEs for a number of reasons. Firstly you do not need much money to set it up or manage it, and in terms of order processing/handling it’s very simple to manage. There are lots of great themes to use plus there is a great network of Shopify developers should you want to customise.

    Shopify also supports all of the major payment gateways and is very easy to setup. There are lots of free apps to use and it’s simple to set up. For a simple platform which is easy to manage and customise, Shopify is the one.”

  • PrestaShop – “PrestaShop is also a good platform for small businesses and similar to Shopify, but is suited perhaps for larger turnover sites with bigger product catalogs. PrestaShop also enables you to expand in a multitude of languages whereas Shopify does not have this functionality. PrestaShop is open source meaning you can access the source code should you wish, plus it has a large community of developers.

    PrestaShop is fairly easy to use and has a wealth of add-ons and plugins, which can be easily switched on and off – plus is fully customizable.”

  • Wix – “For simplicity and ease of setup, I would look at an affordable Store Builder solution such as Wix. Very easy to set up and great range of templates, WIX websites can look very good indeed! A simple drag and drop set up means any one can set up in no time and it also has a range of add ons.

    WIX is not that great in terms of SEO and is not that customizable without the plugins it comes with, plus it is not a powerful ecommerce solution (eg if you have hundreds of product to manage).”

Relton Herron

We deliver Strategy and Implementation for Brands on & off line, enabling them to grow their bottom line and spheres of influence, by leveraging all appropriate Digital Marketing Channels in-line with your Brand.
www.reltonassociates.com
  • WooCommerce – “WordPress, and of course Woo-Commerce, cover almost every scenario, present and future…and this is why we like it. You’re practically future proofing your business! Unless you’re going truly Global with franchise stores then WordPress & Woo-Commerce will have you covered. You may argue WordPress is better suited to businesses that are no longer start-ups, and are in the SME arena. This is because it will be more expensive to set up and a little more complex, but that’s the price you pay for future proofing your business.

    Ideally you’ll set up a bespoke solution. This will make your website more secure and less likely to crash, but even more important than that is you will spend less time and money on needing to update templates etc

    Here’s some other good reasons to use WordPress:
    • Easy to use and navigate through the Content Management System (CMS)
    • Bespoke can mean both beautiful and unique designs
    • Arguably the best Search Engine Optimisable (SEO) CMS out there
    • Open Source and you own all the code
    • Has a 24 hour support team and equally as important it has thriving community of independent developers

    Here’s the downsides:
    • If it’s not a bespoke design, then you will need to keep on top of updates
    • It will take more development time and therefore cost then the Shopify or Big Commerce solutions

    If you have a little more budget and you’re certain of success then a bespoke WordPress & Woo-Commerce is a no brainer.”

  • Shopify – “Shopify is a great option for ‘start-ups’ for a number of reasons which include;

    • It’s very easy to use, not just in setting up but also for processing orders and the day-to-day running of a website
    • Cost effective
    • Looks professional and very smart
    • Has a 24 hour support team and equally as important it has thriving community of independent developers

    There are more plus sides than noted above, but these are the key factors you should take in to consideration. However, with all the plus sides there’s also some downsides too:
    • Shopify is not open source and as a result you don’t have complete freedom to do what you want. Ultimately, the site doesn’t truly belong to you
    • For products and main pages SEO is okay but you will have to deal with added terms being added to some URL’s, which limits some of your SEO

    I almost always recommend Shopify for ‘start-ups’ because you can build out a really beautiful online shop with ease. It’s easy to use from a back-end point of view as well. It will last you for quite a few years and depending on your business aspirations you may never need to change CMS. In the future you may feel you need to move to another platform like WordPress or even Magento.”

  • BigCommerce – “Now I have a confession, we mostly work with Shopify, which would be BigCommerce’s direct competitor. There’s not much between them so I’ll not go in to too much detail here. BigCommerce is a solid and simple platform, just like Shopify and you can have more Staff Accounts.

    However, Pricing is almost identical as are many other features. BigCommerce does not have a proposition to match Shopify’s cheapest offering ‘Shopify Lite’, but then if you’re serious about your e-commerce offering, you would not use Shopify Lite anyway – it’s too basic.

    Design options, User Experience and Extensions on both platforms are very good and in equal measure. Shopify’s just been around longer and is used by online retailers ‘considerably’ more often. These are the only real reasons why we lean towards Shopify over BigCommerce, but you won’t go far wrong with BigCommerce. We believe it comes down to a personal preference.”

Rory O'Connor

Rory is the founder and CEO of Scurri.com and is focused on connecting and optimising your online ordering, ecommerce shipping and delivery to be simple, effective and adaptable to your needs.
www.scurri.com
  • Magento – “If you are technically minded or have someone on your team, I recommend Magento Opensource. Magento has been on the scene for a long time and has developed into a very mature and stable product. Recently bought by Adobe, they are continuing to maintain the opensource version of the product.

    A lot of big and small ecommerce shops run on Magento, including tech company www.hpe.com, Gardening Centre chain www.gardeningexpress.co.uk and fashion brand www.hellyhansen.com.

    You will need to host and set up the product yourself, but you get complete control over all elements of the system and you can customise it to your needs. A healthy development community and ecosystem means you can get plugins and extensions to integrate with almost any system you need. While totally free, you will need some beefy hosting power to run the system efficiently.”

  • Kooomo – “Powering online brands like www.missbikini.com and www.butlerschocolates.com, Kooomo is a completely managed platform for ecommerce sites.

    Kooomo work with you to get you set-up and running, build your online brand and most importantly get you connected to over 60 global marketplaces so you can start selling around the world. It is obviously a more expensive system than Magento, however it sets up and manages the platform for you, freeing you up to focus on sales and growth.”

  • Brightpearl – “If you achieve any kind of scale, the back-office quickly becomes unmanageable. Shipping, returns, customer service, inventory, purchasing, and accounting begin to take over and limit your growth. This is where Brightpearl steps in. It improves your efficiency in your ecommerce business with back office automation and connects your systems. Of course, this is one of those nice problems to have. At which point you will have no problem investing in a system like this.”

Derek Chew

Derek Chew works with businesses of all sizes to create brand awareness, build audiences, develop content strategies, and drive website traffic and sales through practical marketing strategies in search and social media.
fullmoondigital.com
  • Shopify – “50% of our clients are on Shopify. I feel Shopify offers one of the lowest barriers to entry for small businesses who are ready get their feet wet in eCommerce. They take complicated things like analytics tracking pixels and integrate it directly into their platform. While there are endless customization options an experienced Shopify programmer can expand on, there’s no need for a small business owner to know how to write code to launch an eCommerce store. I really love the flexibility Shopify has to offer from launch to scale.

    In addition to Shopify’s friendly UI, there are 1,200+ apps for practically any eCommerce function you need to integrate with to run your ecommerce store. With a few clicks, you can connect your email software, social pages, and more.”

  • SuiteCommerce – “SuiteCommerce is not a platform that is listed on many recommendation lists for whatever reason. It might be due to its enterprise ties with NetSuite or implementation complexity.

    SuiteCommerce is ideal for small businesses of $5M and up because it consolidates all core business components under the same roof like order management, customer service, marketing, merchandising, and more – with the additional benefit of automatically integrating Bronto to deliver timely data-driven marketing in the customers’ lifecycle.

    We have a client who just migrated from WooCommerce to SuiteCommerce in July 2018 and the transition was seamless, thanks to the SuiteCommerce migration team.

    If you decide to migrate to SuiteCommerce, they have a team that handles the migration for you, which makes things a lot easier.”

  • BigCommerce – “BigCommerce is the close cousin of Shopify. With some light coding, small businesses could afford a developer to customize their website. BigCommerce has the ability to handle scale with their enterprise package – which adds more bells and whistles for any business that needs it.

    For the cost and features, BigCommerce does prove itself to be a viable competitor to Shopify. At the end of the day, it’s really a matter of preference and comfort level with the platform.”

Stephen Kidwell

An Independent E-commerce Consultant with a focus on delivering enterprise-level e-commerce solutions in the consumer retail (B2C) and business to business (B2B) industries. Provide expertise as a programmer, software architect, business analyst, and project manager in full life-cycle ecommerce development.
www.linkedin.com/in/stephenkidwell
  • Shopify – “If you are just getting started with e-commerce I highly recommend looking at a platform like Shopify. There are many things to consider when building a new e-commerce website such as PCI compliance, product and inventory management, and selling on other sales channels like Amazon and Facebook. A platform like Shopify handles all of this for you for a low monthly payment and a per-transaction fee.

    You can typically get a website up and running in just a few weeks versus several months on other platforms. The platform provides several starter themes that are easy to customize and align with your company branding.

    Shopify does have its limits. The first would be cost of the plugins to provide additional features and functionality. Shopify has many third-party plugins in its marketplace but many of them have a monthly fee, you may find over time it begins to add up as you continue to customize your website and add additional third-party plugins, something to keep in mind.

    The second limitation would be if your business model has a complicated sales process that requires significant customization to the traditional e-commerce sales process. For example, a custom sales configurator or the need to integrate with many third-party systems. You may find that it makes more sense to move to a self-hosted platform that provides you more control and flexibility for your business needs.”

  • Magento – “Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms with a strong development community and third-party plugin-support. Magento is offered in two options. The first option is a paid solution called “Commerce”, the paid solution can be hosted with Magento on its cloud platform, you can also host it on your own server. The second option is “Open Source”, this is offered free and you can host with any web hosting provider you like. The differences between the two is that the paid version offers additional features with respect to marketing, reporting, and order fullfillment.

    Magento’s codebase is completely open source, this means you can customize every aspect of your website to meet your unique business needs. Magento has a strong developer community which means it can be much easier to find a freelance developer or agency that has experience working with the platform. Magento has over 4,000 third-party extensions, the largest by far for any e-commerce platform.

    While all that is great with Magento there are of course things to be aware of. When hosting your own e-commerce platform you are responsible for making sure your website is secure and PCI compliant. The costs for web hosting, compliance monitoring, security, and on-going maintenance and upgrades can quickly add up.

    Given the higher investment costs for self-hosting, it is wise to consider whether you truly need the ability to customize your e-commerce platform or whether it would be better to conform to a hosted e-commerce platform and invest that money elsewhere in your business.”

  • VTEX – “VTEX is probably not an e-commerce platform you’ve heard of but they are one of the fastest growing platforms worldwide. VTEX, headquartered in Brazil, has a strong presence world-wide and is only now entering the North American market.

    VTEX is a hosted e-commerce platform. It provides many of the same features and functionality that you would find in any hosted e-commerce platform.

    VTEX differentiators would be that is has a much more robust application programming interface (API) that allows you to integrate the website with many different third-party systems very easily.

    VTEX is well known for its marketplace feature. A marketplace is a type of e-commerce site where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties, whereas transactions are processed by the marketplace operator. This can particularly popular for B2B website looking to aggregate sales between several partners in a specific industry.

    VTEX has also been widely used by mid-size and large corporations looking to provide a presence in a country without paying high-licensing fees with their main e-commerce platform. VTEX charges a fairly low subscription fee with additional per transaction fees.”

Siân Allmark

Hello. I’m Sian. I’m a Freelance Digital Marketing Consultant based in London. I work with Startups, Accelerators and Challenger Brands to drive strategic, effective and agile Growth by combining my unique Five Mark Marketing method and 8+ years of Digital Marketing experience with relentless passion, curiosity and collaboration, empowering you and accelerating your business.
www.thefifthmark.co.uk
  • Shopify – “Shopify has totally disrupted the eCommerce Platform market over the past few years by reducing complexity, championing usability and reducing time to market for eCommerce builds. Even those with little or no eCommerce experience can setup a stunning eCommerce store in a matter of hours by utilizing one of Shopify’s pre-built themes. The platform also has an excellent library of apps which allows you to add features (Abandon Basket emails for example) with ease. The Shopify online knowledge base is also extensive and, if you do need a helping hand, the Shopify Experts directory will help you source freelance support in no time at all.

    However, the real beauty of Shopify is the power under the hood and the platform’s excellent scalability. The solution is absolutely suitable for larger businesses or those planning to scale as it benefits from a large variety of advanced features and extensive customization options which can utilized by developers as a business grows.

    Watch out for: Before on-boarding, ensure you understand the fee structure. Unlike some other eCommerce Platforms, Shopify charges a fee per transaction in addition to a monthly service fee. This works well for small businesses as it requires very little capital investment upfront but as sales grow, so do costs.”

  • Magento – “Until recent years the opensource version of Magento (Community) was my go-to platform for eCommerce Startups with plans to scale. The core platform is a tried and tested eCommerce engine with a 19.64% of the top 1 million Alexa rated websites (https://pagely.com/blog/top-ecommerce-platforms-2018-compared/). Unlike Shopify, Magento community has no monthly fees attached, but beware, you’ll need to host the platform yourself and will most certainly need support from a developer to help with configuration, customization and integrations.

    With the right technical support Magento is super flexible, stable and powerful. Again, the platform comes with an extensive plugin library (tip: these can create security vulnerabilities, always check the suppliers thoroughly before installing) and a robust knowledge base.

    Watch out for: The key watch out with Magento is the lack of support and the vulnerabilities a self-hosted environment can present. Ensure you enlist a Magento certified agency or freelance developer before on-boarding to the platform to help mitigate these risks.”

Dimitri Stefanopoulos

Dimitri is a digital marketing strategist/e-commerce expert with extensive experience building and advising successful ecommerce businesses, and delivering consistent, profitable growth. Excels at forging partnerships with stakeholders at every level and managing a broad range of strategic global initiatives.
www.linkedin.com/in/DimitriStefanopoulos

Choosing an ecommerce platform is one of the most critical decisions a small business can make. Picking the wrong platform can be a costly mistake, severely limiting your ability to grow and scale your business. It’s something I’ve seen repeatedly in my consulting career and can be difficult for a company to recover from. Companies often weigh ease of use, name recognition, or a flashy UI over capabilities, which is a huge mistake.

Making the right choice requires careful planning and detailed requirements gathering. While it’s nice to have a visually pleasing interface with drag-and-drop functionality, there are several factors that are far more important to consider if you’re serious about building a successful e-commerce business. Some of the most critical are scalability, compatibility/integrations with other platforms, and standard features vs. those requiring custom development.

There are a large number of platforms to choose from, but the three that I most often recommend to small business clients are Miva Merchant, WooCommerce, and Shopify.

All three are solid platforms, and you can run a successful ecommerce business on any of the three, but each has strengths and weaknesses that should be considered before choosing the one that most closely aligns to the specific needs of your business.

  • Miva – “My top pick. I have built two successful ecommerce businesses and managed the development of several others on the Miva Merchant platform. Miva is an incredibly powerful, flexible platform, and is easily one of the most highly underrated platforms out there.

    One of Miva’s key differentiators is a robust set of standard, built-in features included in the base package. Basic features like wish lists, saved baskets, abandoned cart campaigns, and automated order tracking require costly upgrades or custom integrations to build on some of the more popular platforms.

    Miva’s base package also includes inventory monitoring, real-time shipping calculations, workflow automation, revenue tracking, reporting/analytics and pre-built integrations with popular third party platforms.

    At just $79/month, Miva’s feature-rich base plan is hard to beat, and the platform easily scales up to handle everything from high-volume drop shippers that require complex shipping/tax calculations, to the largest Enterprise accounts.

    Strengths:
    o Highly customizable
    o Well-designed starter themes
    o Large, experienced developer network
    o Highly Scalable
    o Excellent user interface
    o Great SEO features
    o Pre-built integrations with popular external tools and platforms

    Weaknesses:
    o Non-standard functionality can get quite expensive to develop, especially if custom integrations are required.
    o Not open-source. If you can’t find a module that does what you need, you’ll need to hire a developer or learn Miva Script.
    o Miva Script- Steep learning curve, but once you get it, you get it.”

  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce combines all the benefits of the WordPress platform with excellent e-commerce capabilities. WooCommerce is not a stand-alone platform. Rather, it is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress, which happens to be both its greatest strength and weakness.

    WordPress isn’t just for blogging anymore. It has become one of the most robust and well-supported web development platforms, with a large developer network and thousands of beautifully designed themes to use as a framework for building your site. There are countless plugins available, allowing you to extend the functionality of your site to meet business needs.

    The WooCommerce plugin allows you to turn just about any WordPress site into a fully functional e-commerce business.

    It’s easy to find well-qualified developers to build just about any feature you can imagine – which is important, because doing it internally can be a frustrating, time-consuming experience. If your business doesn’t have internal resources with the expertise to build or support a WordPress site, you’ll have to hire that work out, and that can get quite expensive.

    Strengths:
    • Built on the WordPress platform
    • Large developer network
    • Thousands of well-designed themes
    • Excellent SEO capabilities
    • Highly Scalable
    • Easy pre-built integrations with popular CRM, Analytics/BI, and Marketing tools

    Weaknesses:
    • Steep learning curve to master both WordPress and WooCommerce
    • May require numerous plugins, which can quickly become quite expensive
    • Large number of plugins can become cumbersome to manage”

  • Shopify – “Shopify is among the most user-friendly e-commerce platforms. If you’re looking for turn-key functionality, and are comfortable with a more basic feature set, Shopify is an excellent solution. Pricing plans to accommodate businesses of all sizes. Plans geared toward small businesses start at $29/month, making it easy to start small and scale up with minimal effort.

    The Basic plan allows you to sell across multiple channels, create an unlimited number of products, and offers basic marketing features like abandoned cart campaigns. More advanced features require an upgrade to a more expensive plan, but the process is instantaneous. Shopify does offers an Enterprise-level option called Shopify Plus, which is ideal for high-volume businesses, but quite expensive.

    While Shopify is an excellent solution for many small businesses, it’s far from perfect and has some significant limitations. There are some very basic features that will require an upgrade to the advanced plan – like the ability to display calculated shipping rates from UPS/Fedex at checkout, or choose a less expensive credit card processor.

    Strengths:
    o User friendly
    o Beautifully designed themes make it easy to design your site
    o Respectable set of e-commerce features

    Weaknesses:
    o Expensive credit card processing
    o Some very basic features require a costly upgrade.
    o Can get frustrating trying to tease out what should be standard functionality.
    o The themes are well designed, but everyone uses the same ones, which makes it hard for your site to stand out.”

Chrissy Millen

Chrissy is a Digital Marketing Consultant in Denver, CO. She partners with small business owners to optimize their sales funnels and develop marketing strategies. When she’s not crushing digital marketing, she enjoys hanging with her husband and 2 daughters.
www.westcitymarketing.com
  • Shopify – “I work with many entrepreneurs on this platform. It is a hosted solution, so you don’t need to worry about external hosting, uptime is reliable, and they use a CDN for media files, so the speed can be pretty good too.

    It is a simple platform, you could open a Shopify store without a developer if you needed. I don’t like the simplicity in the products and product management, they only allow for single products with a max of 2 product options natively and making bulk updates is difficult and time consuming without an app or the API.

    Shopify has great documentation, they make it fairly easy to add tracking pixels for Google (and to setup enhanced ecommerce) as well as the Facebook pixel with shopping cart events by default.

    I also appreciate the deeper level of integration offered with other platforms like Klaviyo for example. All of this comes at a premium, Shopify is known for being the most expensive and many of the apps actually scale in price depending on your Shopify level.”

  • Magento – “Magento is open source, so it is fully customizable and there’s a free version. One of the advantages of Magento is that they support various product configurations, so if you want to create groups or bundles or products with complex options, Magento can do this natively. I also like the filtering functionality for product sorting and organization on the front-end, I think they do a good job of this. They also have upselling and cross selling features that require adding on for most other platforms. In general, Magento is known for being more robust and better with SEO, so if you plan on having a large store with high sales volume, Magento might be a good fit.

    However, the complexity creates a steeper learning curve and I’ve found it requires more planning and organization to launch. I’d recommend taking a training course before you dive in.”

  • WooCommerce – “In my opinion, the clear benefit of WooCommerce is that it’s a free add on to WordPress. So, if you’re already running on this platform or you’re familiar with the functionality of the platform, you can fairly seamlessly add a shopping cart. Another bonus in doing this, is that you won’t have to migrate your content over which can drop your rankings and cause issues with SEO.

    WordPress is also open source, and there are endless options for plugins which make it very easy to add on the functionality you need.

    If you’re not comfortable with WordPress, you should plan to have a developer help you with the setup and management. I see many WordPress sites go unmanaged and often end up with viruses or other issues. Consider a hosted solution if this sounds like you.”

Daniel Marques

Dan Marques is a data-driven eCommerce marketer and entrepreneur. Dan is the co-founder and managing director of Trident Growth Partners, a digital growth agency founded on the basis of performance partnerships. He previously led eCommerce and Digital Marketing for Talbots, as well as Adidas Group.
tridentgrowth.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify is by far the best solution for small businesses as it is a complete e-commerce solution. It allows companies to scale their business to new levels of success financially. I have seen numerous clients scale from $0 to over $1M and some over $10M on Shopify successfully. I personally find that it is a solution that grows with you and your business, providing thousands of apps, and is cloud-based meaning you can avoid the headaches and liabilities of self-hosted solutions. We’ve seen dozens of businesses shift from other platforms to Shopify and have not seen any of our clients leave Shopify for another e-commerce platform.”

Jeanette Garner

Retail expert with over 25 years of hands-on experience; specializing in eCommerce since 2000.
www.etailmaven.com
  • Shopify – “What I like about Shopify is that they are a solid and stable template solution with an ever increasing network of plug-ins for best in class features and functionality. It’s a great low cost platform, particularly for the smaller online businesses.”
  • Magento – “I have found Magento to be the ideal stepping stone platform for smaller online businesses before they can make the leap to the more robust and costly Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud) solution. It is highly customizable with development resources, otherwise it can be overwhelming to manage. It’s great for flexibility but, must have both budget and talent for developer support.”

J. Andrew Keeler

Mr. Keeler is a digital marketing expert and owner of Search Solutions LLC – an outsourced digital marketing company focused on ROI from online and digital channels. He’s a husband, father and outdoor sports enthusiast as well.
www.searchsolutionsllc.com
  • Shopify – “For launching a single product and testing it, Shopify is still your best bet. The ease of set up and getting to market quickly to test can’t be beat. Again, this is for TESTING a SINGLE product only. I would not use your preferred/primary domain for this. Again, ease of set-up, payment gateway integration and getting to market quick is ideal.”
  • WooCommerce – “Once you have identified a winner, I would move to WooCommerce via WordPress for a full product line roll-out. There are great store experiences already made out-of-the-box with only slight modifications needed. There are fantastic plugins ready and waiting for one page checkouts, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, email marketing integration and even membership or community management. The universe of freelance support for all things WP is also quite large, and relatively cost-efficient as well if you can’t afford full-time in-house support.”

Nancy L. Bullock

Nancy Bullock is a senior marketing executive specializing in digital marketing since 1995. She has launched several consumer branded websites for major consumer brands and has written a book on being a woman in the corporate world, entitled, The Only Girl In the Room.
www.girlintheroom.com
  • Shopify – “Why? You don’t need a whole team of IT folks to get your site up and running and it is very scalable and user friendly. The support and customer service small companies receive from Shopify is also geared for non-tech people who are focused on selling their message and their products and not coding. I have many clients who are satisfied customers. I have also heard Shopify’s vision and strategy is shared by senior management and they are consistently focused on bringing a top quality to the small market business community. I have also been impressed by the quality of the staff that they hire, and their platform is scalable. Also, very affordable.”
  • Magento – “Why? Probably more geared out-of-the-box to medium sized companies, but starting with Magento will allow you not to have to change platforms for the life of your business. Magento is also investing in state-of-the-art technology improvements every year. It is a platform that will require an agency or in-house technical support (not your marketing department) but is a very robust platform that can play with the big guys, and has such a wide client presence, that many tech folks are familiar with the platform and you should be able to find IT support for fair and reasonable prices. It is “everywhere” for a reason. A pricier, but robust option.”
  • Weebly – “Why? A very solid “no coding” option to get your site up and running. From a company standpoint, they are making significant technology investments to keep up in the marketplace and the platform for my clients has proven to be very intuitive to update and navigate. There are scaled plan options at different functionality options and price points, so make sure you understand what you are getting.”

Nicola Paul

Nicola is the founder and co-director of Yellow Bird Digital, a boutique digital consultancy offering digital marketing and e-commerce services to small and growing brands.
www.yellowbirddigital.com
  • Shopify – “I’d recommend Shopify as the best e-commerce platform for small businesses. I think for some smaller brands, the idea of setting up an online retail store can be quite daunting, but Shopify is an affordable, easy to use option that can scale with your business. It’s also really user friendly, which I think is important as many small businesses don’t have a dedicated marketing team or web developer to build a site for them. Shopify invest a lot into their development – if there’s a new app or technology trend that you want for your site, it’s almost certain that Shopify will have it. I also really like the fact that there are so many themes and options available, so you can easily customise your site to suit your brand.”

Robert Deans

Robert is the former owner of an award winning digital agency and eCommerce website, the Coffee Tasting Club. Robert now works as an independent Marketing Consultant specialising in Conversion Rate Optimisation.
robertdeans.co.uk
  • WooCommerce – “Those of you who have used WordPress will love WooCommerce. Woo is a free plugin that turns your WordPress site into a fully functional ecommerce site.

    Although the standard functionalities of WooCommerce are pretty basic, it is built on an opensource platform and there is a vast collection of extensions that will enable you to customise your site to do whatever you want to do.

    If you have big ambitions, don’t be fooled by the fact that this is a WordPress site. WooCommerce is really scalable, I’ve overseen some big builds on Woo – 100k+ Products.

    WordPress/WooCommerce developers are pretty easy to find, so you should always have a good supply of people who can support you.”

  • Shopify – “Shopify is a very simple and easy to use platform that will allow you to get off the ground with relative ease. There are also hundreds of apps for Shopify, which makes it easy to expand.

    There are lots of shopfront themes available for Shopify, so you will be able to choose a design you like and that works for your business.

    Where Shopify falls short is on cost as you scale. This is down to the subscription and transaction fess involved. If you expand quite quickly, the costs can mount up and there will come a point where you will outgrow the site.”

  • Magento – “Magento is a really good platform for building a site that is scalable. It has a real solid base and there are some big sites that have been built on Magento. It’s quite user friendly behind the scenes and I would say it is the most powerful out of the three platforms I have suggested.

    Magento would be my suggestion to those who have a good budget and resources at their disposal. Because of its complexity it can be quite resource intensive. Magento developers are like gold dust, so you will need to consider this when making a decision. If you find a good Magento developer, pay them well and nail them to floor.”

George Ioannou

George Ioannou has spent over 25 years in digital, specialising in ecommerce, optimisation and growth hacking. His experience spans a variety of sectors with global clients ranging from small businesses through to Fortune 100 Companies.
www.linkedin.com/in/georgeioannou
  • Magento – “Magento for quite some time has been the open source platform that allows you to build your own local hosted ecommerce sites, as well as managed cloud deployment. One of the reasons I like Magento is the wide range of free and paid design templates, as well as many plugins to expand the core platform’s features & functionality. It’s a great choice for any business dipping their toes for the first time in ecommerce through to large well-known companies who are looking at open source options and fast turnaround deployments.”
  • Shopify – “Shopify – is another great, easy to setup, easy to use platform that will help you grow your business. Shopify is an out-of-the-box ecommerce solution for both small and medium/large online businesses, again with some great selections in template and plugins. It’s great for someone without development or design experience, who wants an intuitive user interface as well as a good selection of marketing assistance including Google Smart shopping and Facebook ads within the Shopify platform.”
  • Wix – “WIX is an ecommerce platform which again is very popular within the SME community. I think is great for a small to medium size business looking to have a professional store representation online. The drag and drop option makes WIX pretty easy and enjoyable to use. The features and functionalities are quite rich and should be adequate for most businesses starting off and growing their online revenue.”

Jeroen van Eck

Experienced Digital Strategist with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. Strong marketing professional skilled in Digital Strategy, Marketing Strategy, and Online Marketing.
www.linkedin.com/in/jfvaneck
  • Shopify – “What I love about Shopify is its simplicity. Everyone can start selling online within seconds. Managing a store-front is easy with a smooth design and user-friendly interface. Setting up and running a store-front doesn’t require any coding. There’s a marketplace available with lots of extensions and integrations with third-party marketing tools to boost your reach, user engagement and performance. But you’ll do fine at first with everything that comes out of the box with Shopify.

    Shopify’s target audience are small business owners that are looking for an e-commerce solution that just works. ”

  • Magento – “If you’re looking for something that’s more customizable to your specific needs, Magento is probably the go-to e-commerce solution. The platform is available in various configurations, so it facilitates growth. Magento is highly customizable through its development partners all over the world. Some of the largest shops run on Magento, and it’s amazing that as a small business owner you can tap into the same box of e-commerce power.”

Dennis Consorte

Dennis has been fixing, growing and launching ecommerce businesses and content websites for 20 years. He drives traffic with SEO, content & PPC, engages audiences with social media, nurtures & converts leads with email and other marketing strategies.
www.consortemarketing.com
  • Shopify – “Most small businesses can do well with Shopify. An ecommerce website can be set up easily, and the back office functionality is intuitive and well-documented. Apps to integrate with other platforms and to expand website functionality are generally easy to install and have low up-front costs. Where Shopify fails is with highly configurable products, where you’re limited in the total number of combinations of size, color, and other attributes. As it is a hosted platform, you’ll need to host your WordPress blog on a subdomain if you want more functionality than the very basic built-in blogging software. If you do go with Shopify, be sure to pay a little extra for abandoned cart recovery; it’s a nice feature. You’ll also need a quality developer who understands how to code in Liquid, and they’re a bit harder to find than most.”
  • BigCommerce – “BigCommerce is an excellent ecommerce platform for small businesses that want a bit more flexibility in building their websites than Shopify will allow for, and you get more functionality out of the box. It’s a little less intuitive, but you can get an end result that’s closer to exactly what you want, particularly when it comes to configurable products and SEO. BigCommerce does have a much smaller variety of apps available, partly because so much functionality is already built into the platform.”
  • WooCommerce – “Believe it or not, I would choose WordPress, enabled with WooCommerce over a more robust platform like Magento Community, when it comes to small businesses. Although the original intent for WordPress was as a blogging platform, it’s highly customizable both as a CMS and as an ecommerce platform. The back end isn’t what you’d expect with a traditional shopping cart, but WooCommerce is a breeze to learn, particularly if you already know how to navigate the WordPress back end. Unlike Magento, upgrades and bug fixes are relatively easy to perform and don’t always require the touch of a skilled developer. The one drawback to self-hosted WordPress websites is that you will be more responsible for maintaining website security than with a hosted platform like Shopify. If you have the means and discipline to keep your website updated and backed up, then it’s more than compensated for by the SEO benefits and other flexibility you get with hosting your own website.”

James Dorans

A 14-year expert in eCommerce and Digital Marketing in multiple industries and companies big and small.
www.linkedin.com/in/jamesdorans
  • Magento – “I have been managing eCommerce sites for over 14 Years and the majority of that time has been spend working with Magento. Why I like Magento the most is because it has the widest range of entry into the ecommerce space with the Community Edition (which is free) to an enterprise solution that at one time was owned by eBay and now is owned by Adobe, one of the top software companies in the world. Also, Magento has a wide range of professionals around the world that are available to help implement customizations within your eCommerce business. Additionally there are lots of plugins that can add a lot of great extra functionalities to your ecommerce website, even integrating with a lot of popular business software including QuickBooks. To be honest though, in spite of the robust functionality there are issues with Magento as it is a heavy eCommerce platform that can slow load speeds for the end users (you and your customers). Also it does get a lot of patch updates which is a mixed blessing.”
  • Shopify – “Another recommendation if you have limited resources is Shopify; a very popular platform with great features, although you are stuck with their hosting and it’s really hard to transfer the data if you move to more robust solutions.”
  • PrestaShop – “If you do want to enter at a lower level with a lot of flexibility, I would suggest PrestaShop. PrestaShop has great plugins and themes, but very limited and the only place I know that really backs their plugins is Presto-Changeo.”

Justine Wyness

An e-commerce specialist with 20 years’ experience in publishing and retail ecommerce & digital startups, launching and promoting customer-focused websites and developing teams to support and grow a business. I’m currently helping small businesses start their online sales journey.
www.justinewyness.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify is really easy to use and covers most of the aspects you’ll need to successfully run an online shop with the added bonus of it being very scalable, so it will take you from a small start-up to an enterprise-level business with affordable pricing plans. There’s also a whole world of apps and plugins for all the extras you might want, including subscription products, email marketing and product reviews functionality (albeit at additional cost). And when you get stuck there’s very reactive people there to help you, quickly. Their Experts Program gives you even more options of help and there’s developers available to build any customisations you might want.

    The liquid code isn’t too hard to master the basics of it you’re that way inclined – it’s not at all necessary – and you can use HTML in product descriptions and editorial pages etc. The feature I would find hard to live without is the ability to download all your products via a spreadsheet, make bulk amends and re-upload. This is handy early on when you’re learning what works and what doesn’t, and changing things around to get the optimum situation for sales. All code updates are done in the background so you don’t have to worry about updating for each new phone or operating system, which you may have to if you’re building it from scratch.”

  • EKM – “The “British Born & Bred” alternative to Shopify who now boast over 10,000 shops. Does most of the same kind of things as Shopify but they don’t charge extra for apps (or transaction fees), they’re all part of the service. And as they’re younger than Shopify, they’re ever evolving, so you will get lots of new updates and features as they develop them. There’s all the usual marketing features – you can upload your products directly to Google Shopping from the site, for example, plus email marketing, SEO and WordPress blogging. Includes bulk product management and you also get a UK Account Manager. One to watch. I’m a fan so far.”
  • Squarespace – “Actually, I haven’t worked with Squarespace but I know lots of who have and have only good things to say. There’s also plenty of Squarespace specialists out there who can help you if you get stuck. So that’s more of a ‘one to consider’ if the first 2 don’t suit your business.”

Fernando Lopez

Fernando Lopez is a Digital Marketing Leader who over the past 15 years has helped grow companies around the globe including the likes of eBay, PayPal and Kijiji. He currently provides consulting services for a range of companies from Start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.
www.linkedin.com/in/fernandolopezau
  • Shopify – “Shopify is the current defacto go to platform for software as a service (SaaS) online stores – Its intuitive and easy to use and offers a range of services that put it a step above its competitors. One area its particularly strong is in the area of Apps, which are becoming a much larger part of the ecosystem for these online platforms, allowing users to customise their offerings greatly. Additionally, as the biggest player, Shopify can offer significant savings in terms of fees for their platforms and for transactions – a real saving for smaller businesses where every dollar counts.”
  • BigCommerce – “The solid number 2 in the online store platforms is definitely BigCommerce – its offering is also very good and has most of the functionality that any store would need. Its cheapest plan is also cheaper than Shopify’s and has more features making it the best bet if you are just starting out and testing the waters online. It also offers a tonne of customisation features within its own platform (rather than relying on apps). Lastly its templates have better AMP integration (a Google mobile initiative) which in the long run may prove more beneficial from a traffic perspective.”
  • Volusion – “Volusion, similar to Shopify and Big Commerce is a hosted online platform that is specialised for ecommerce – and it has all the tools you require to run a successful online store. The one area that Volusion really shines is in analytics and reporting tools – They make is super easy to keep track of all the important metrics you need to keep an eye on to manage ROI across channels, as well as order funnels and consumer behaviours. Volusion isn’t as straightforward as some other platforms, but if a robust view of your data is your number one priority, it’s the best platform by far.”

Martin Price

Experienced eCommerce and Marketing Manager with a demonstrated history of increasing revenue, brand awareness and customer loyalty in the homeware, fashion, and service industry.
www.linkedin.com/in/martinkarlprice
  • Wix – “They’ve really gone above and beyond with the latest website and eCommerce offering. Even an eCommerce novice can create a slick mobile friendly site using their drag and drop service. It’s great knowing you’re not held at gunpoint by an eCommerce agency when you’re just a small business or a startup. You can now cut out the developers and bring in a digital content creator as a permanent fixture in your team to maintain and style your site. If you outgrow this model and need to bring in a developer for more custom modules/functionality on your site then you’ve at least got an idea of what works and doesn’t before you spend the big bucks.”
  • bluCommerce – “They’re a little more costly than a typical startup website, but blubolt (the agency that manages bluCommerce) will manage every aspect of your site… hosting, design, maintenance, support etc so all you have to do is manage the product catalog and content creation moving forward.

    They also have some amazing modules for customer retention, personalization, promotions and managing seasonal changes with ease. All can be included in your initial start-up cost or bolted on as your business grows.

    They also won’t shy away from unusual/unique warehouse integrations and proactively seek new ways to improve their platform and keep it current. This is all included in your standard monthly retainer! Because they own all aspects of the software they’re completely accountable for when something goes wrong so will deal with it swiftly…. Unlike the Magento’s of the world.”

Pamela Hazelton

Pamela has 25+ years’ experience in website usability, conversions, ecommerce, and online & offline marketing. She's worked with several brands, including AHAVA, TRX, Retro Planet, Casabella and Carrie D. Mader. She's is a contributing editor to Practical Ecommerce.
www.pamelahazelton.com
  • Miva – “I’ve worked with this platform since version 1. It has constantly grown with advances in technology and security. As a SaaS shopping cart, both green and experienced store owners and developers can get up and running quickly. It’s chock full of key features, like inventory control to the attribute/option level, synchronization with popular payment and shipping gateways, and integration with third-party tools. A great benefit, though, is Miva’s open-style environment. If a module or plug-in for a necessary feature or connection doesn’t exist, developers have the ability to “hook into” Miva to make it happen. So long as the script doesn’t compromise security or privacy, any functionality – especially unique ones – can be incorporated into one’s store.”

Ben Rush

Ben is a digital marketing consultant based in Singapore. He helps businesses of all sizes drive increased business outcomes via digital channels.
digitize.com.sg
  • Shopify – “Shopify is probably your best option if you want to get online quickly, but don’t have the expertise to either handle everything inhouse or manage external parties to build something for you. It’s a hosted solution, which means you pay a monthly subscription fee to have Shopify handle the server, security and various other technical aspects for you. There is a wide range of themes available, and the platform is generally well optimised for SEO.
    The only real downsides in my opinion is flexibility/customisation, and the fact you are tied into a monthly subscription model. Over time, this cost builds up, but even if you are selling in relatively low volumes, it’s a low cost to account for each month.”
  • WooCommerce – “WooCommerce bolts beautifully into WordPress, allowing you to combine the most popular CMS system in the world, with a powerful, opensource eCommerce platform. Whilst there are many benefits to WooCommerce, I would highlight a few main elements:
    1. The core platform is completely free to use, so no ongoing subscription fee to stay operational.
    2. The ability to customize the design and functionality is significant, so it’s far easier to produce something truly unique and connected to your brand identity.
    3. There is a massive pool of development talent and ‘plug and play’ addons that will enable you to extend functionality with minimum effort and cost.
    If you are happy to handle some basic set-up elements and/or manage internal or external developers to help customize and deploy for you, then this is a fantastic option for any small business looking to jump online.”
  • Wix – “In a distant 3rd position, and purely for very small operations, you could also consider Wix for handling your eCommerce store. Like Shopify, it’s a hosted solution that offers a cheap monthly subscription package to help you get up and running quickly, but for the price difference, I would really recommend you to pay slightly more and leverage Shopify if you wish to have a hosted solution.”

Martin Bispels

I'm passionate about helping companies grow! From one-off services to stepping in as a fractional CMO, I offer the deep experience you need to grow. I resigned from my executive position with QVC to start my consulting firm Vendre Innovations.
www.vendreinnovations.com
  • Shopify – “For consumer products Shopify offers the most flexibility, helpful 3rd party integrations, ease of use, and ability to scale with tiered pricing. Don’t make the mistake of building your site with custom code only your developer can change. Keep control and use templates. Think about it. Is it better to use a template that is proven to be effective or trust a developer who claims only they know the secret sauce that will produce a great site?”
  • Wix – “For B2B and brochure type websites Wix offers the best combination of customization and ease of use. Their GSuite integration makes it easy to manage your team and tools, and the UX is user friendly. Keep image sizes reasonable to keep page load times under four seconds.”
  • WooCommerce – “If you are 0.01% of the population that needs total flexibility, then WooCommerce/WordPress can fit your needs. But I would only recommend WooCommerce if you are doing the development yourself, never want to delegate that work to another party, and will stay on top of the plugins and inevitable conflicts that will arise. Stick to Shopify and Wix. You’ll thank me later.”

Daleep Chhabria

Daleep Chhabria is a Marketing Expert and Business Consultant. He launched and built the Call of Duty brand amongst other achievements during his two decades in marketing and business. He now helps transform businesses through strategy, with an emphasis on marketing.
daleepc.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify is the absolute best for small businesses, whether just starting out, or a growing business. I’ve personally used Shopify for one of my past businesses and I chose them for these reasons:

    Most importantly, Shopify is a platform that’s built for eCommerce. It has plenty of features an eCommerce store owner would need, and it’s ready-to-go. This means you don’t have to waste time and money building a store from scratch like the old days. But you can (and should) get a designer to customise the look and feel according to your brand and shop requirements (this applies whether or not you use Shopify). This doesn’t have to be expensive either – I paid a designer about £300 for excellent work.

    Getting started often means being on a budget. I started on the Shopify platform for under $30 per month (plus a small percentage of sales revenue). Pretty much anyone can access it at that price! Bear in mind that their cheapest plan requires your own hosting (which it did not when I started my store), but if you’re one of those that expects everything for free (or very little), then it’s going to have a negative impact on your business. They’re a business too! Also note, the commission you pay to Shopify depends on which plan you have. But as you grow, you can always upgrade your plan to get more features, which you’ll need as you scale. This gave me the confidence to focus on growing my business without worrying about outgrowing the Shopify platform.

    Small businesses often require the flexibility of being on the move a lot of the time. What I loved was the mobile app, enabling me to check on my sales and stats at any time and from anywhere. This meant I could focus on my marketing and use the app to keep tabs on effectiveness.

    Lastly, the support experience was important to me. Even on their lowest plan, I experienced a level of support I was happy with. If I were to launch another eCommerce shop, I would go right back to Shopify.”

Euan A Cameron

Senior digital marketing and eCommerce professional with 10+ years experience in leading large teams of marketeers, building startups and strategising. I benefit from a deep understanding of technology and infrastructure, which gives me an invaluable all-round appreciation of digital marketing from the ground up.
www.euanacameron.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify is a brilliant platform for any small business looking to launch an ecommerce site, which not only looks good enough to compete with the big online players, but which also packs in all the essential features. The number of add-ons and baked in integration with the likes of Facebook/Instagram/Google etc. make Shopify my number one choice for any small business looking for a reliable eComms platform. Its also super cost-effective which is important.”
  • WooCommerce – “Woocommerce is great if Shopify isn’t your bag, or maybe you already have a WordPress site. It is an incredibly powerful WordPress bolt-on, which enables you to build a fully featured eComms website within a WordPress environment. You won’t get the same level of hand-holding that Shopify provides, and it will take a bit of work with plugins to get tracking etc. but it’s a great alternative option. Plus it can be fun for those who like getting under the hood as the possibilities are endless.”
  • Wix – “If you are new to eComms and want a simple drag and drop store in which to sell your products, Wix is a nice option. They provide all the handholding you could ever need. Support is pretty good – not that you will need much, and they also have tracking baked in for Facebook, Adwords and Google Analytics. Its a great stepping stone into the world of eComms, but you will likely outgrow the platform which can cause headaches later on…”

Tony Matthews

An e-commerce leader, specialising in operational and commercial management, business development, client relations, strategy, and project management. I’ve worked in large businesses and start-ups and led international projects on sales, technology platforms, front and back end development, and supply chain.
linkedin.com/in/tonymatthews
  • Shopify – “Shopify is the market leader which makes it easy to get up and running quickly if you’re new to the world of Ecommerce. They are the fastest to get up and running and operate on a SAAS model (Software As A Service). They have a huge variety of options to choose from and there is a big community of users out there to help. And also a large number of partners who can help with creating the store and integrating it into your business.”
  • Magento – “Magento is free but you have to host it and build it, which is not what most people want to do so many Magento solutions are built by partners who will build it as per your requirements. This can be what many people are looking for to have some experts to hold your hand as you build out the ecommerce business line within your business. Magento does give a bigger range of options and may be better if your requirements are more complex.”
  • EKM – “EKM Powershop is a British company that powers over 50,000 shops in the UK and has dedicated UK account managers that can help you. As well as all the features you would expect the functionality is all built natively, so there are no issues with compatibility as you some time get with 3rd party developed apps as platforms change.”

Sophie Gonin

Sophie leads enterprise SaaS startups to shape and deliver scalable customer success disciplines to drive retention & evangelism. CEO at Alume Consulting. Ex Facebook & eBay.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiegonin/
  • Magento – “Great all-around ecommerce PaaS with perhaps one of the strongest ecosystems of solution and industry partners, which means a lot of support options and quite flexible and customizable. The platform can grow with your business and is scalable. Recently acquired by Adobe.”
  • BigCommerce – “Strong ecommerce solution and penetration is growing steadily. CPO is ex Magento. They have interesting offerings for SMB and MM with affordable monthly rates and can scale up with the business over time.”
  • Wix – “For people who have a worthy idea but know nothing about eCommerce and have zero development skills, and a tiny budget. Likely can’t scale with limited capabilities as it stands, but good testing ground.”

David Jaeger

An accomplished e-commerce executive, David has built a team that has managed over $100 million in advertising spend, developed software and strategies successfully used by over 100 ecommerce companies, and runs an ecommerce business. He is available for consultation and partnership opportunities.
www.resultkitchen.com
  • WooCommerce – “The architecture is extremely scalable and flexible. You can self-host, which at scale, can save you a lot of money.”
  • BigCommerce – “This is a VERY affordable hosted ecommerce solution. Also quite flexible and open, and has nice designs you can implement out of the gate without hard work.”
  • Shopify – “This is the Apple of ecommerce SaaS solutions. While not super expensive upfront, costs add up at scale, and limitations start becoming obvious. However, with that said, their designs out of the gate are highly conversion optimized, and their eco-system of apps are unrivalled in the ecommerce world.”

Daniel Pereira

With a background in Arts, Design and Communication as well as Software Engineering, Daniel Pereira cofounded and directs MindSEO.com, a consultancy company focused on Digital Intelligence. He is also a Google Trainer, and University Teacher on topics like SEO and Web Analytics.
www.mindseo.com

My recommendations depend on the type of company, its size and capability of dealing and managing an online store, and the scope and size of the catalogue. Depending on that, I can recommend one of these 3 platforms:

Shopify
WooCommerce
Magento

  • Shopify – “For me, Shopify is the best choice when you are starting something. As it does not have a high implementation value or high maintenance (if you stick with the basic features), it is the best platform to make a proof of concept and launch easily and quickly. So, if you want to establish your ecommerce business, but are not quite sure if it is going to work, or if you are able to handle it, Shopify allows you to put your ecommerce website online, without a high risk when doing so. Also, the fact that it is cloud based allows you to focus on your business, instead of worrying about hosting your website, and all the necessary precautions to keep your website up. On the other hand, when you are sure of what you want, and need to customize the website or have a lot of additional features, Shopify starts to get limited and costlier.”
  • WooCommerce – “After you know exactly what you want to do, you can choose to have your own ecommerce store. So, if you have a store that is not huge in terms of categories and articles, WooCommerce can be the perfect choice. It handles relatively well a store with different product configurations and allows you to be able to focus and optimize for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and UX (User Experience). Also, there is a plethora of available plugins (free or paid) to enhance the platform and build a bulletproof store that does almost anything. The problem with WooCommerce is that when you start to get really professional, and need to have hundreds of categories and thousands of products, and to be able to have different kinds of clients, with different price rates, complex shipping tables or integrations, it might start to be complicated to keep the platform optimized, or keep it cost effective. But if you have a small shop and need to control all the content in an easy and attractive way, WooCommerce is the platform to go with.”
  • Magento – “Magento is the most complex and robust of my 3 suggestions. In fact, Magento can be used by a small business, but it can also become an enterprise level solution. The fact is, when you start growing your ecommerce website, you will need to solve some issues that start to happen, when dealing with order management, logistics, or event stock and invoicing integrations. And that’s when you start realising that a simple ecommerce website is not realistic anymore. But you should keep in mind that complex is not equal to complicated. Magento allows you to implement many more features than a simple ecommerce platform and for that reason it has a bigger learning curve. But as you start working with it, it is just a matter of time to realise that you now have a robust tool in your hands that prevents future problems, and even allows you to scale your platform and strategy, considering integrations with Marketo for Marketing Automation, or with the whole Adobe Marketing Cloud, allowing for a completely automated platform, that profiles your users and even creates automated campaigns focused on user behaviour.”

Chelsea Huber

Digital Marketing Director for Assembly Supplies, Co. An expert in strategizing, designing, building, implementing, and optimizing technology solutions to move a business forward in the hot air equipment industry.
www.hotairtools.com
  • Shopify – “Shopify Plus is packed with a ton of features that help an online business grow fast in months. It’s affordable and doesn’t require any coding or tech savvy skills to get the ball rolling. The live chat feature is spot on and their customer service is on point.”
  • Magento – “Magento is the best open source ecommerce platform around. The flexibility and openness of the system is basically the result of this philosophy. When it comes to features for hotairtools.com, we customized nearly everything, and it’s showed in our increase in conversions. It’s no issue if you are not an expert web designer; since Magento offers thousands of freely customizable templates. With a huge community of dedicated volunteers and members they offer expert webinars monthly, hands on customer service and even supports SEO like a champ.”
  • Miva – “There are so many variables attached to an E-commerce website and Miva addresses most of them. You can design your platform architecture the way you want. This platform is scalable to any business size making it useful for large enterprises as well as growing businesses. It’s cost effective and offer useful community forums.”

Fadi Shuman

I’m an ecommerce veteran with over 20 years of ecommerce experience under my belt. I founded, led and sold a creative ecommerce digital agency, and have worked with some of the best brands and businesses around the world to help them create and grow their online flagship stores. An obsession with creating incredible customer experiences is always at the heart of everything I do.
inecommerce.com

For small businesses, I would always opt for the solutions that require the least manpower and costs to run. That means cho