Top 5 Third-Party E-commerce Platforms

This article will guide you five best third-party ecommerce platforms, providing essential features to streamline online operations and enhance customer engagement. 

Top 5 Third Party Ecommerce Platforms

Let’s find out more about the top 5 third-party ecommerce platforms, examining their unique features and how they can benefit your online business.

Shopify

Shopify is a solid third-party e-commerce platform valued for its user-friendly interface and customizable features. Its seamless payment gateway integration and efficient inventory management make it a preferred choice for easy online store setup.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Robust and intuitive platform 
• Diverse collection of themes and templates
• Comprehensive app marketplace
• Smooth integration with multiple payment gateways
• Reliable customer support and resources for assistance.

Cons

• Transaction fees on top of regular payment processing fees can add up.
• Advanced customization may require knowledge of Liquid programming language.
• Limited control over the server and backend infrastructure.
• Higher pricing plans may be expensive for small businesses or startups.

Highlight Ecommerce Features

Checkout and Transaction Enhancements

• Efficient Checkout Process: Shopify boasts a checkout that outperforms other platforms, delivering a 15% higher conversion rate on average, leading to increased sales for businesses.
• Secure and Trusted Transactions: Shopify provides top-notch security features to ensure safe and fraud-protected transactions, instilling confidence in merchants and customers.

Purchasing Options and Flexibility

• Pre-Orders and Subscriptions: Shopify enables store owners to expand purchasing options with features like pre-orders and subscriptions, coupled with the flexibility to incorporate personalized discounts.
• Adaptable Shipping Solutions: Businesses can provide competitive shipping rates, personalized location-based pricing, and local delivery choices, catering to diverse customer preferences.
• Flexible Shopping Experiences: Shopify empowers merchants to deliver personalized service, flexible shopping, and seamless returns, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Analytics and Automation

• Robust Reporting: Shopify offers comprehensive analytics, seamlessly blending insights from both in-store and online sales, allowing businesses to adapt to evolving trends.
• End-to-End Automation: Leveraging Shopify Flow, businesses can implement automated custom workflows, streamlining tasks from identifying high-risk orders to generating shipping labels.

Payment and Order Management

• Customized Order Management: Merchants can efficiently organize orders across various sales channels by customizing columns, filters, sorting, and searching, facilitating faster order fulfillment.
• Real-Time Order Tracking: Shopify empowers customers to track orders in real time through the order status page or Shop app, storing previous orders for easy reference.

Optimized Order Fulfillment

• Smart Order Routing: Businesses can optimize order fulfillment by prioritizing and allocating orders based on different criteria, whether from their locations, a 3PL, or both.
• Inventory Automation: Shopify Flow automates inventory management tasks, including hiding out-of-stock products, receiving low inventory notifications, and more.
• Shipping Labels Page: The platform provides an efficient tool to manage purchased and printed shipping labels, create manifests, schedule carrier pickups, and track delivery status.

Returns Management

• Customer Self-Serve Returns: Shopify facilitates customer-initiated returns directly from the online store, providing visibility into incoming returned products.
• Return Management: The platform simplifies the returns process with easy creation, shipping tracking, inventory restocking, and automated customer notifications.

Starting From

Step 1: Sign Up for Shopify’s Free Trial

Firstly, you explore Shopify risk-free for 3 days, launching your online store and connecting with various sales channels. After that, you select a plan for fitting your business needs.

Step 2: Select Sales Channels

Next, store owners use Shopify’s quick-start wizard to integrate social media and in-person sales. In your dashboard, you have the opportunity to explore and customize various sales channel options to optimize your business strategy. 

Step 3: Set Up Payments

• To set up payments, you click “Setting” and choose “Payment.” Moreover, you can easily activate Shopify Payments or connect your processor with simple processing fees. 

Step 4: Create Collection Pages

• From the Dashboard, you select “Products” and then “Collection”.

Step 5: Add Items to Sell

• Add goods seamlessly by clicking “Add your products” under the Products tab.

Step 6: Set Up Shopify Store

Build your online store by selecting a theme, customizing settings, creating menus, and configuring SEO details.

Customer Reviews

• “Shopify is cost-effective, particularly with its initial affordability. There are no additional tech management costs, and the essential features for operating an e-commerce site come pre-built. Supplementary features can easily be incorporated through the Shopify Apps marketplace. Overall, it’s straightforward to implement and integrate additional features into this third-party e-commerce platform.” – Abhinav B. 
• “Utilizing Shopify since 2018, I consider it the top e-commerce platform. Its organizational structure ensures all necessary order-processing information is readily available. We rely on it to efficiently address customer inquiries about tracking, discounts, gift cards, products, and more, given its comprehensive information coverage.” – Jeleene May M. 

Squarespace

Squarespace, recognized for its sleek website design capabilities, extends its prowess to e-commerce functionalities. The platform’s intuitive drag-and-drop tools facilitate effortless product showcasing, ensuring a visually appealing online shopping experience.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• All-in-one platform for building websites and online stores.
• Beautiful and modern templates for visually appealing store designs.
• User-friendly interface for easy content management and product listings.
• Integrated blogging and SEO features for improved online visibility.
• 24/7 customer support for assistance.

Cons

• Limited customization options compared to dedicated e-commerce platforms.
• Transaction fees on top of regular payment processing fees can add up.
• Less suitable for larger stores with complex inventory management needs.
• Advanced features may require higher pricing plans.

Highlight Ecommerce Features

Payment and Checkout

• Offers diverse payment options such as Stripe, Paypal, Apple Pay, and Afterpay (available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), ensuring seamless customer experience. 
• Accepts in-person payments by connecting a Square reader to the Squarespace app.
• Keep customers longer on your site by browsing products, managing the cart, and purchasing without leaving your store.

Tax Tools and Order Management

• Efficiently manage your tax rates for various countries and regions to ensure local tax laws, including VAT, HST, and GST compliance. Our system supports setting prices inclusive and exclusive of tax and offers customizable invoices to meet your specific business requirements.

Shipping and Fulfillment

• Save time and costs by directly purchasing and printing USPS shipping labels within Squarespace, offering detailed tracking information.
• Provide adaptable choices with flat-rate, weight-based, and real-time shipping rates catering to diverse customer preferences.
• Customize product fulfillment with shipping rules, flat-rate costs, and defined shipping methods. Utilize profiles to set available countries by product.

Customer Profiles and Sales Expansion

• Leverage Profiles for insightful actions, tailoring strategies, and enhancing personalized marketing based on customer data.
• Cultivate customer loyalty and repeat business by offering monthly or biweekly subscription options, fostering long-term relationships.

Digital Content Sales

• Expand your product range by selling digital content like music and ebooks, allowing direct downloads from your Squarespace site.

Starting From

Step 1. Create a Squarespace Account

If you’re looking to create your digital products shop using Squarespace, your first step is to create a new account. If you’ve already done so, skip any optional questions during the setup. 

Step 2. Pick Your Squarespace Template

After setting up your account, your next step is to choose a template. There is a wide range of free options available, so select one that closely aligns with your desired website type. Keep in mind that full customization is possible with any template you choose, and there’s also the option to start with a blank template if you prefer.

Step 3. Add Your Online Store Page

Begin by removing any unnecessary pages and content from your chosen template. To customize your shop page, click on the plus icon, navigate to the store tab, and then select your preferred shop page layout from the popup options.

Step 4. Add Your Products

In the Dashboard, you click on your Selling and add your products. 

Step 5. Add Categories

If you have multiple products, consider adding tags and categories for easy customer navigation. 

Step 6. Publish Your Digital Product

After filling in product details, the last step is to save and publish it. Keep in mind that saving without publishing hides the product, so access the store page under the pages tab to make it available for purchase. 

Customer Reviews

• “One of the top-notch tools I’ve employed for my business. It’s exceptionally user-friendly, making it a breeze for my clients, who appreciate the autonomy to make edits on their own.” – Kristal J.
• “I enjoyed creating my platform on Squarespace. It’s a business-friendly platform that supports growth in a modern and suitable manner. The variety of templates they offer is impressive.” – Tonny S.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers a scalable e-commerce solution suitable for businesses of all sizes. Its flexibility with complex product catalogs and built-in SEO features makes it an appealing choice for a comprehensive online retail solution.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Feature-rich platform with robust e-commerce capabilities.
• Scalable and suitable for businesses of all sizes.
• Wide range of built-in marketing and SEO tools for driving traffic and sales.
• Extensive integrations with popular third-party services.
• 24/7 customer support and resources for assistance.

Cons

• Higher pricing plans may be expensive for small businesses or startups.
• Advanced customization may require knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Limited control over the server and backend infrastructure.
• The learning curve for beginners compared to simpler e-commerce platforms.

Highlight Ecommerce Features

• Efficient Operations and Management: Manage diverse storefronts seamlessly within your BigCommerce dashboard, simplifying operations across brands, customer segments, or regions from a single account.
• Customer Reach and Engagement: Integrate effortlessly with popular social channels like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to attract a broader customer base.
• Data Management and Integration: Use industry-leading APIs for swift and automatic data synchronization from third-party systems like ERPs directly into BigCommerce.
• Payment Facilitation: Facilitate customer payments with a range of flexible methods and credit authorization, enhancing transaction ease.
• Search Optimization: Enhance your store’s search capabilities with faceted search powered by Elasticsearch or integration with top-tier solutions for intricate search criteria.
• Cross-Border Operations: Enable accurate quoting for cross-border shipping seamlessly through native integration with ShipperHQ.
• User Authentication and Integration: Leverage the customer login API for customized single sign-on (SSO) or easily integrate plug-and-play partner solutions like LoginRadius or Okta.

Starting From

Step 1. Set Up Store Profile

Begin BigCommerce store development by configuring your store profile. The onboarding screen guides you through initial steps, customizing details based on your preferences. Once development is complete, this becomes your dashboard displaying store performance indicators.

Step 2. Create Products

The next step is creating products before configuring themes. This simplifies your perspective on store appearance and aids in theme selection from the BigCommerce theme marketplace. 

Step 3. Set Up Storefront with Themes

Next, you craft new pages and customize the design of your storefront. Moreover, you use BigCommerce themes to style and enhance the appearance of your eCommerce store, tailoring it to your specific brand and aesthetic preferences.

Step 4. Home Page Carousel & Store’s Universal View

You can make your offerings stand out by using the Home Carousel, which is the first thing visitors see. This section is ideal for showcasing promotions, new product launches, sale campaigns, and special offers. You can easily customize banners and landing pages in the Style section on the Themes setup page.

Customer Reviews

• “BigCommerce is substantial, offering vast possibilities, especially when collaborating with a development agency specializing in BC. BigCommerce demonstrates a clear commitment to empowering merchants for global expansion, providing numerous tools for seamless international selling.” – Luke R. 
• “Our e-commerce business experienced a significant growth spurt when our BigCommerce stores launched earlier this year. The SEO performance is notably strong, enabling us to craft comprehensive product listings enriched with high-quality photos and videos. The multistore platform is a favorite, facilitating seamless selling across our 5 websites through a unified backend experience. Notably, we’ve experienced no noticeable downtime, and our Customer Success Manager has been consistently helpful.” – Vanessa G. 

Amazon

Amazon, a global e-commerce giant, provides businesses with an extensive marketplace and unparalleled reach. Its vast customer base and efficient logistics network offer a strategic opportunity for extensive global market exposure.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Massive customer base and high visibility for products.
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service for easy order fulfillment and shipping.
• Integrated advertising and marketing tools for product promotion.
• Trusted and secure payment processing.
• Global reach for international sales.

Cons

• High competition and potential for price wars.
• Strict seller policies and regulations.
• Limited branding and customization options compared to standalone stores.
• Transaction fees and commissions on sales can reduce profit margins.
• Dependency on Amazon’s platform and policies.

Highlight Ecommerce Features 

• Massive customer base: Amazon has a massive customer base, which provides sellers with a large pool of potential customers. This increases the visibility and reach of products.
• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service: Amazon offers the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, which allows sellers to store their products in Amazon’s warehouses. Amazon handles the order fulfillment and shipping, making it convenient for sellers.
• Integrated advertising and marketing tools: Amazon provides integrated advertising and marketing tools that allow sellers to promote their products and reach a wider audience. 
• Trusted and secure payment processing: Amazon offers trusted and secure payment processing, ensuring a safe and smooth transaction process for sellers and customers.
• Global reach: Amazon provides a global reach, allowing sellers to expand their business internationally and reach customers worldwide.

Starting From

Step 1. Register as an Amazon Seller

• Sign up for an Amazon seller account by subscribing to one of two seller plans.

Step 2. Create Product Listings

• Amazon sellers can add items to existing listings or create new ones. 
• Manually add products to existing listings by searching for the item, clicking “sell yours” filling in product details, and hitting “Save and finish.” 

• For new listings, Amazon Professional sellers can create high-quality listings using keyword research, images, and detailed descriptions.

Step 3. Manage Inventory

• Choose a method to track inventory through Amazon’s automatic reduction for sold items or another solution if selling on multiple platforms.

Step 4. Set Up Fulfillment & Shipping

Amazon sellers can fulfill orders themselves, use Amazon’s FBA for packaging and shipping, or opt for a third-party fulfillment provider. 

Customer Reviews

• “As a business owner aiming for growth, I needed a platform to connect with a large audience. Global Trade Plaza showed me the potential to find valuable prospects worldwide, significantly boosting my sales. My clients worldwide are now satisfied with my products and services. I highly recommend Global Trade Plaza for genuine leads and quality service that won’t disappoint.” – Urvashi S.

Volusion

Volusion is an all-in-one e-commerce platform known for features like responsive design and marketing tools. Its commitment to providing a secure, seamless shopping experience and user-friendly dashboard positions it as an integrated e-commerce solution.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• User-friendly interface for easy store setup and management.
• Wide range of built-in features for inventory management, marketing, and SEO.
• Responsive templates for mobile-friendly store designs.
• Integrated payment gateways for seamless transactions.
• 24/7 customer support and resources for assistance.

Cons

• Limited customization options compared to some other e-commerce platforms.
• Transaction fees on top of regular payment processing fees can add up.
• Advanced features may require higher pricing plans.
• Limited scalability for larger stores with high traffic and complex needs.

Highlight Ecommerce Features

• Currency: Enable global sales effortlessly by displaying product prices in shoppers’ native currency through our integrated tools.
• Abandoned Cart Messaging: Monitor reports on abandoned and active carts, and dispatch practical reminder messages to convert potential buyers into customers.
• Integrated payment gateways: Volusion integrates with various payment gateways, making it easy for customers to make transactions. This ensures a smooth and secure checkout process.
• Cross-selling Functionality: Extend your store reach by handling orders across various shopping sites, all managed conveniently from your Volusion admin.
• ROI Tracking: Analyze investment values through comprehensive Return On Investment tracking for affiliates, ad campaigns, and newsletters.
• Built-in features for inventory management, marketing, and SEO: Volusion provides built-in features for inventory management, marketing, and SEO. This allows users to manage their inventory and promote their products.

Starting From

Step 1. Sign Up for Volusion

• Enter basic information to register for the free trial, saving the welcome message containing a link to your dashboard. 
• Click the link and select “Quick Start” to initiate your store setup.

Step 2. Quick Start

• Set up essential elements such as design, personalization, and adding a product in one screen. 
• Choose from featured templates, personalize your store’s name and logo, and add a product with a name, price, description, and image.

Step 3. Design Your Store

• Navigate to the full gallery of store themes under “design.” 
• Choose from 318 options, and filter by color, category, industry, and price. Once selected, activate your desired theme from the “Saved Templates” category.

Step 4. Add Products, Photos, and Videos:

• Under “Inventory,” select “Products” and delete sample info. 
• Add real products using the “add” button or edit existing ones. Customize the top navigation menu to add product details, photos, and videos.

Step 5. Decide on Customers’ Payment Options:

• Under “Settings,” choose “Payments.” 
• Configure a payment gateway, select accepted credit cards, and add more payment types like PayPal or cash to cater to various customer preferences.

Step 6. Choose Shipping Options:

• Under “Settings,” select “Shipping.” 
• Specify shipping destinations, fill out your address for rate calculation, choose a carrier, and configure advanced shipping settings. 
• Test shipping rates at the bottom of the shipping page.

Customer Reviews 

• “Volusion is an effective tool for verifying consumer updates. It provides a variety of robust e-commerce features, including product management, order management, payment processing, as well as shipping and tax calculators.” – Gabriel V. 
• “E-commerce for your ideal store. A notable aspect I appreciate about Volusion is the absence of coding requirements for website setup. The platform offers pre-built options, allowing you to select based on your preference and effortlessly complete all necessary tasks.” – Umang M. 

Wrapping Up

When it comes to choosing a third-party ecommerce platform, several options are available that cater to different needs and preferences. Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Amazon, and Volusion all offer unique features and functionalities to help businesses establish and grow their online presence. 

FAQs