More companies sell online every year, and the platform you build on is one of the biggest decisions you will make. It decides what you can customize, what you own, and what you pay in fees as you grow.
Watch the video below as Sam Silvey, founder and CEO of Spectruss, walks through the platforms we recommend for building an e-commerce business.
As Sam explains, there are many ways to move a business online. With so many e-commerce platforms on the market, choosing the right one can be hard. Here is how we still see it.
What We Recommend
WooCommerce builds on top of WordPress, which runs about 40% of all websites and nearly 59% of sites with a known content management system, according to W3Techs. You get full control of the site, you own the code, and you can customize it in ways closed platforms do not allow. For companies that want to own their store outright, it is the one we reach for first.
For companies that want a lower barrier to entry, we recommend Shopify. It is the next largest platform after WordPress, used on roughly 5% of all websites, and it gets a store live fast. The tradeoff is that you work inside Shopify’s themes, apps, payment processing and plan fees. For a business that wants to launch quickly on a modest budget, it is still a good choice.
Platforms such as Squarespace and Wix are marketed as the cheaper options, but they are more limited. Wix promotes a free, build-it-yourself plan, and we advise caution: selling online and unlocking the features professional platforms include as standard means moving to a paid plan. A store that looks and performs below par also costs you visibility and sales. As Sam put it, “I would personally not invest in Wix or SquareSpace.”
Cutting corners with self-build sites, smaller platforms or less secure software tends to create problems later. A store that reaches customers, scales with the business and gives buyers a smooth checkout is what pays back the investment over the long run.
In short, if you are starting a new e-commerce site or replacing an old one, build on WooCommerce or Shopify. If you want help designing and building it, see our website development work, then book a 15-minute call.
