Custom ecommerce solutions are not for every business. Local and small businesses often don’t have the budget to hire professional ecommerce website designers to set up their online store. Fortunately, there are a number of great options that small businesses can avail to start setting up shop easily and quickly. These hosted services and subscription-based web applications are perfect for small businesses who want to start an ecommerce store but lack the budget to do so.
Mashable gives 5 of the best DIY ecommerce solutions, offering the average cost, basic requirements, and main features that will help small businesses decide which one is best for their ecommerce store.
1. Big Cartel – Big Cartel prides itself in giving small business the chance to set up ecommerce stores and charges customers by the number of products offered online. There are a few reasons why ecommerce business owners would choose Big Cartel: monthly fees that start at $9.99/mo for 25 products without taking a percentage of online sales and links to PayPal or any bank account.
2. Shopify – Plans offered by Shopify start at $29/mo for 100 products and can cost up to $699/mo, at which the plan includes 50,000 product inventory, disk space and bandwidth scaling. Unfortunately, Shopify charges an additional transaction fee that ranges from 0.5-2% on top of the monthly plans except for the largest plan. The extra cost that comes with using Shopify is worth it, as the company has been around for a long time as compared to its competitors. The trust, reputation, and dependability make up for it.
3. Big Commerce – Less expensive than Shopify, Big Commerce is ideal for bigger ecommerce stores that have a high volume and large inventory as its monthly fees range from $49.95-$299.95/month. Bigger stores would opt for the top two plans as they are allowed unlimited products whereas the bottom three allows for 100, 500, and 1000, respectively. Other features that would make ecommerce stores choose Big Commerce include eBay and Facebook selling tools, marketing and drop-shipping support, reporting tools, and SEO services.
4. Volusion – Volusion is an ecommerce solution that even professional ecommerce website designers use. An all-in-one ecommerce provider, Volusion offers plans starting at $25/month and can cost up to $149/month. Volusion merchants are also given access to 24/7 customer service support, as well as the freedom to choose design templates to customize each ecommerce store.
5. Vendder – Vendder is ideal for small ecommerce businesses because it offers a free plan for those who have a maximum of 15 products to sell, though customization and theme options are limited. The two other plans, which cost $24 and $49 per month, are for those with products that reach up to 500. Customization tools and templates are available for subscribers and Vendder also prides itself in not charging for any additional transaction fees.
The list, as provided by Kelli Shaver of Mashable, is by no means exhaustive. While there are certainly other DIY ecommerce solutions available in the market today, the 5 solutions aforementioned should help small and local business get started. Aside from being inexpensive, they also offer custom plans that small businesses can avail of that suit their budget.
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*all images taken from ecommerce sites mentioned above.
