E-Commerce Tools Every Small Business Needs

. 6 min read
E-Commerce Tools Every Small Business Needs

There is no doubt that in recent years, the global eCommerce market has grown multiple folds. The industry has been booming with the advent of e-business tools. Whether you are just beginning to set up your small business or looking for opportunities to ensure that you can expand your target audience’s demographic, you will need various eCommerce tools.

These business marketing tools are essential to staying relevant and updated in the market. They also provide various benefits such as creating a website from scratch, integrating eCommerce tools in your pre-existing website, and much more.

Currently, the market is saturated with eCommerce tools that are available for businesses of a varying scale. As per the eCommerce data analysis, the tools listed below have a greater edge and come with varied features and customisation options.

1. Shopify

Any eCommerce business, let it be of any scale and targeted for any market and demographic, needs to ensure that they have a strong online presence. Shopify ensures that you can create a strong eCommerce website to market and host your product and services with ease.

Most businessmen and entrepreneurs are not biased towards technical knowledge and may not possess much information about website building and designing. However, the tools that are available at Shopify ensures that any person with little to no experience or background in website building can create a setup and begin hosting and selling their product or service. It also provides the option to create mobile-friendly and light-weighted websites that one can access from their handheld devices with ease.

One can avail of the features and services of Shopify at different rates, depending upon the plan that they choose. These plans range from $29 to $299. You can get the gist of services provided through a 14 days free trial.

2. Wix eCommerce

One of the most basic eCommerce tools for small businesses, Wix has been providing perfect services for those who have a small product selection. It provides aesthetically designed websites that can host as many as 50 products. Creating, designing, and implementing features in a website through Wix is straightforward and easy.

With drag and drop options and various other features, you can create a customised website for your product. If you need the inspiration, to begin with, you can access the thousands of themes that are available in the database of Wix. You do not need to know about the backend or frontend code required to create and design a website. For small businesses with limited products, Wix can be a great option.

e-commerce banner on orange background

3. Squarespace

Another prominent website builder, Squarespace, is popular among various businesses for its powerful features. It created aesthetic and beautiful websites and keeps track of the current trend to provide you with plug-ins and features that can make your website look modern and clear-cut.

This is one of the best small business tools that contains multitudes of templates suited for your business. Whether you are looking for a plant-based template for your business of florist, or you need a website with an acoustic feel, you can find one that suits your taste and needs in the template archive at Squarespace.

It also offers eCommerce inventory management software, shipping calculator tools, and various other plug-ins and business tools added to the website. Thus, the complete process of managing the website and business becomes much easier and straightforward.

You can get the services offered by Squarespace at various rates, the lowest being $12 and the highest $18 per month.

4. Magento

Offered by Adobe, Magento is another small business tool that needs to be highlighted for its multitudes of features. It is an all-under-one-roof eCommerce solution that provides the services best suited for small scale businesses. Such businesses do not have the resources or the labour to fulfil various functions required for seamless management of a business.

With Magento, you can create a website of ant scale, whether you need it to host numbered products or for B2B online sales. Along with essential website building and designing tools, it also offers other business marketing tools, including business intelligence, shipping solutions, order management, inventory management, and much more.

It provides customisation so that the website and its features can accommodate the needs of all kinds of businesses, irrespective of size and services offered. One can contact Magento and get a custom quote that depends upon their needs.

5. Ecwid

This eCommerce extension is compatible with WordPress. You can use the small business tool with various other services such as Tumblr, Squarespace, Wix, Blogger, Weebly, etc. Through the extension, you can sell your products everywhere, including online marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, and more. You can also provide a platform for your services and product on social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram.

Working with this extension does not require any background or experience in coding. It can be operated and integrated with in-person selling. Thus, you can integrate physical and online sales as well. However, you will not be able to sell your products on any other platform other than your website.

There are various plans available for Ecwid, including one that costs $15 per month. Higher than this entry-level plan, there are Business and Unlimited plans that cost up to $99 per month.

6. Selz

For small businesses that want to pursue digital marketing and hosting of their product, Selz can be a viable option as an eCommerce tool.

There are two plans available for Selz, one is standard and the other business. The standard plan and features included in it can suffice the needs of a small business. You will find various templates that are ready to use. You can either pick the templates for designs, or you can manipulate them by adding plug-ins and changing the features and layout as per your needs.

The process of creating and designing a website is made easy with drag and drop features. Anyone with no coding background can work with Selz with ease.

E-commerce written with a picture on background

7. Weebly

Another budget-friendly eCommerce tool for small businesses, Weebly packs in all the basic and most required features to create an eCommerce website in packs that can be afforded by newly set up small businesses. It is a good place to start if you lack the time, resources, and capital to invest in your website’s larger project. It is recommended for businesses that are out to sell a limited number of products.

It provides beautiful and professional themes and templates that can be used to build the site. You can choose to customise these themes as per your needs and product’s image. It also has a wide array of apps for small businesses integrated. Weebly also offers strong password protection and a seamless blogging experience.

When it comes to choosing a suitable eCommerce tool for your small business, ensure that you understand the theme of your product, your target audience, how much you can invest in the website building project, and other such factors. You should also look into the plans offered by a small business tool, scalability of the service, and its pros and cons compared with other similar services.

Also Read:

1) E-commerce Business Ideas: What Should You Sell?
2) E-Commerce Customer Service – 10 Best Practices [guide]
3) What are Some Ideas to Start an E-Commerce Venture?
4) OkCredit: All you need to know about OkCredit & how it works.

FAQs

Q. What are tools for eCommerce?

Ans. E-Commerce tools are provided to help business owners manage their online business more efficiently. It automated the process and includes services such as inventory management.

Q. What is the best eCommerce tool?

Ans. There are various eCommerce tools available that may suit one as per their requirements. However, the flexibility of Shopify makes it a leader in the market.

Q. What is the best eCommerce website builder for small business?

Ans. Squarespace and Weebly can be viable options for small business tools for their beautiful templates, affordable plans, and operation ease.

Q. What are eCommerce tools that a small business needs?

Ans. A small business needs a website-builder, shipping services, digital payment systems, social media management, customer relationship management, email marketing system, etc.

Q. What is the best platform to sell online?

Ans. One can create their platform online to sell their products and services. They can also choose marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay to sell online.