The best social ecommerce platforms allow your business to set up an online store that suits your needs. There is a huge variety of ecommerce platform packages from which to choose, so building an online store has never been easier.

To begin, you’ll first need ecommerce web hosting, and, more specifically, hosting that will scale up with your business without interruption.  Next, you’ll need shopping cart software to run with your ecommerce site. This will probably include a payment gateway for credit card processing, though if you’re alrsocial ecommerce platforms eady established and have a decent enough credit rating you could apply for merchant services to reduce transaction costs.

As the market is full of hundreds of different types of ecommerce solutions, there are many opportunities out there. The plus side to this wide range of options means that the best solution for your specific situation is definitely available, you just need to find it.

Your ecommerce website doesn’t have to be expensive to design, either, as there are plenty of ecommerce themes available. Additionally, if you also have a bricks-and-mortar store then a Point of Sale (POS) system for mobile credit card processing can be particularly desirable.

Whatever ecommerce software is best for your business depends entirely on your specific requirements. If you’re an online-only outfit, then POS integration won’t be necessary, but you may get a lot of business from overseas, in which case foreign currency support would be a requirement.

Some of the best ecommerce platforms available right now include:

Wix

Wix may be better known for providing an all-purpose website builder, but it’s not just templates and logos that Wix can provide, they also provide a fully-functional ecommerce platform.

While other social ecommerce platforms are known for their complexity in being able to deliver an ecommerce platform for all needs, Wix offers a much simpler solution for small businesses that don’t need all the fancy displays of an online megastore.

Additionally, because of the suite of website building tools available through Wix, setting up an ecommerce platform is really simple and easy to do, and just as easy to manage, with no coding skills required. The result is a platform that anyone should be able to use without too much difficulty.

There are over 500 templates available to help you get the look and feel you need for your ecommerce site, and along with inventory management, you can also use Wix payments to choose from a global network of payment providers, including all major credit card companies, as well as other services such as PayPal and Stripe.

Overall, if you want a simpler alternative to some of the full-on web store building solutions, Wix delivers well. It’s highly user-friendly, yet there’s still plenty of ecommerce power available to create a suitably impressive online store.

Bluehost + WooCommerce

Rather than being a standalone ecommerce platform, WooCommerce is a free plugin that can turn any WordPress website into a fully functional social ecommerce platform. The basic WooCommerce plugin is easy to install through WordPress, and even better is that the plugin is free to download and use.

However, to get the most from WooCommerce  you will need to install a number of third-party plugins. This is to add features such as payment processing, inventory management, and stock control.

Bluehost simplifies the process by providing a read-made Woocommerce platform with everything you need already installed, including a shopping theme and essential plugins. Although two different plans are offered, even the Standard plan offers almost every feature you could possibly need.

Features include not just the online store with the store-front theme installed but also a blog, along with Jetpack free, payment processing, email marketing, and discount codes. The Premium plan adds online bookings and appointments, subscriptions, product customisation, as well as local and national tax management.

Of course, there’s web hosting underlying everything as well, meaning that you have a fully functional ecommerce platform already online as soon as you sign up to Bluehost – all that’s left for you is to add your products and set up marketing and you’re good to go.

All in all, Woocommerce is one of the best social ecommerce platforms for those looking to ease themselves into starting an online retail business, whether for physical products or even digital ones, and the web hosting platform deal provided by Bluehost makes it incredibly simple to get started.

Shopify

Shopify is perhaps the most well known ecommerce platform available. It was set up in 2006 by founders Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake who, as the story goes, felt that there wasn’t a simple-to-use ecommerce platform available and so built their own. The company claims that you don’t need to have any technical or design experience to easily create a beautiful online store.

According to Shopify, it’s possible to get one of its online stores up-and-running within minutes. Users can choose from a wide range of templates, or they can design the look and feel of their store themselves. It accepts a comprehensive range of credit cards, has Level 1 PCI compliance and 256-bit SSL encryption for security, and it offers 24/7 support via phone, instant messaging, or email.

The platform provides a full CMS which allows users to manage the functionality and layout of their online store. Users can manage their store on-the-go using Shopify’s mobile apps, and the platform itself is fully responsive, meaning the store will be optimised for visitors regardless of whether they access it from a desktop computer or a mobile device. A live chat function is available which allows you to have a real time conversation with your customers. There’s a built-in support for 3D models and video too. There’s also an option to create customisable storefronts on Facebook and Instagram. One of the newer features is the store speed report.

Shopify also offers users unlimited hosting for their stores, in-depth analytics of how visitors are using the store, and functionality for marketing such as SEO optimisation, a discount and coupon engine, gift cards and email marketing tools. You can test out Shopify with a 14-day free trial.