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Starting an online business in India? You are at the right place and at the right time! India is currently a hotbed for starting an E-commerce business. According to IBEF, India’s E-commerce market is expected to hit US$350 billion by 2030, propelled by rising smartphone penetration and increasing consumer wealth.
At the same time, starting an E-commerce business is quite exhausting – You need to source inventory, build a brand, and, most importantly, create your E-commerce website.
Luckily, building a website is no longer the back-breaking exercise it used to be a few years ago, thanks to modern E-commerce platforms. That’s one thing off your plate.
But with so many E-commerce platforms available, what should you pick? In this post, we’ll compare the top 10 E-commerce platforms in India and understand their key features, pros, and cons to help you make an informed decision.
E-commerce or Electronic Commerce is the process of selling goods and services through the internet. Some businesses sell products only online, while others use E-commerce as an additional channel along with physical stores to sell their products. Either way, E-commerce enables brands to scale their business and reach customers from any part of the world.
There are 4 basic types of E-commerce –
An E-commerce platform is a software application that helps in creating and managing an E-commerce website.
Running an E-commerce store is not easy. A typical online store involves multiple processes, such as designing a website, accepting payments, managing stocks, fulfilling orders, etc. Managing each of these aspects individually is often overwhelming and exhausting for business owners. An E-commerce platform allows you to manage all these activities from a single platform, with the possibility of automation in many of these processes.
Here are some benefits of using an E-commerce platform –
There are two different types of E-commerce platforms-
A hosted E-commerce platform works in Software as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model. You do not have to set up your own server or database to store and manage information. The hosted E-commerce platform takes care of everything from setting up your store, hosting it on the internet, and even offering technical support. You will be able to add products and customize most aspects of the store, but everything else is handled by the hosted platform.
A hosted platform usually charges a fixed monthly or annual fee based on the size of your business or the features you require. Some platforms even take a small percentage of the revenue generated every month.
Kartify by ANS Commerce is a great example of a hosted E-commerce platform.
In a self-hosted E-commerce platform, you handle everything, right from hosting to designing of websites. The entire ecosystem of your E-commerce website is built from scratch by you. A self-hosted E-commerce platform is more difficult to use, especially if you are not sure of what you are doing. You need developers and other experts who can use the platform to build a full-fledged E-commerce website.
On the upside, you have complete control over your online store. For instance, if you need additional features, you can either find plugins or extensions in the platform marketplace or even ask your tech team to create one.
Examples of self-hosted E-commerce platforms are WooCommerce and Magento.
Let us now look at the 10 best E-commerce platforms in India
The first on our list is Kartify, which is the best E-commerce platform in India. This robust solution from ANS Commerce, a Flipkart group company, can take care of all your needs while setting up and managing your online store. Be it website building, or payment processing, or even returns management, you do not have to look beyond Kartify.
Besides the capability to handle the entire lifecycle of your store operations, Kartify is also extremely scalable, as it has been tested to handle over 1 million concurrent users at any time. Kartify is the perfect solution for E-commerce businesses. This means Kartify is a great choice whether you are a growing business or want to handle sale events without any performance issues.
Platform Level Native Integrations: Kartify can seamlessly integrate with 100+ relevant tools and platforms. Some of the popular Payment Gateways, Marketing Automation Platforms, SMS and Email Providers, and Order Management Systems (OMS) feature in this long list.
Built-in Performance Marketing: Kartify comes loaded with performance marketing tools and automation features. The platform also offers a comprehensive view of all your sales, marketing, and traffic data so that you can make accurate data-driven decisions every time.
Easy-to-Use Website Builder: Build a responsive E-commerce website quickly with Kartify Lite, which offers a variety of customizable templates suitable for every industry, including cosmetics, apparel, personal care, accessories, electronics, and more. With Kartify Lite, you can effortlessly tailor these templates to align with your brand guidelines and personalize every aspect, from layout to navigation.
Promotions Manager: Effortlessly manage your discount promotions, and offers, and sale event strategies within Kartify. It takes just a few simple steps to set up offers like Buy One Get One (B1G1) deals, category discounts, and volume-based discounts, etc.
Hassle-free Returns: No need to find another solution to handle your returns and refunds as Kartify offers built-in returns workflows and an approval management system. Easily manage pickup updates and refunds through integrations with other platforms.
Must read: Strategies to streamline return management and reduce cost
WooCommerce is an open-source E-commerce platform that lets you add various E-commerce capabilities to your WordPress website. This cloud-based platform leverages the content management and website-building capabilities of WordPress to ensure that your website is a complete package for those looking to sell online without compromising on the quality of content.
WooCommerce is free to use. However, you need to pay for plugins if they have been created by third parties.
BigCommerce is a SaaS-based E-commerce platform that gives you enterprise-level features and integrations required to run multiple storefronts. They have two solutions: Enterprise catering to large businesses and Essentials catering to SMBs and startups. The platform has several built-in wholesale functionalities, making it suitable for the B2B ecosystem.
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There are three main pricing plans in BigCommerce. The Standard Plan, which costs $29 per month, lets you build 3 storefronts and manage 4 inventory locations. This is suitable for small brands.
The Plus Plan is priced at $79 per month and is suitable for medium enterprises. It lets you build 5 storefronts and manage 5 inventory locations.
The Pro plan, costing $299 per month, is suitable only for multinational businesses as this plan lets you manage 8 storefronts and 8 inventory locations.
Shopify is a complete E-commerce solution that lets you create a website in minutes and start selling from multiple channels with minimal effort. This subscription-based platform offers services like inventory management, payment processing, logistics, supply chain, and shipping, all of which are essential ingredients to run a successful E-commerce business.
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There are three plans in Shopify.
Dukaan is an Indian E-commerce solution that helps small businesses and solopreneurs create and manage digital storefronts. You can list your products, manage orders, and process payments within the platform.
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Dukaan offers three pricing plans:
Silver: Costing ₹500 per month, this plan is recommended for new businesses and influencers. This plan offers basic features like Discount Coupons and Dukaan Credits. It has a high transaction fee and might not be suitable if you expect too many transactions in a day.
Gold: Costing ₹834 per month, this plan is suitable for agencies, D2C brands, and growing businesses. This plan has a lower transaction fee than Silver and offers a host of other features like Store Analytics, Custom Domain, and Web Partner App.
Platinum: Costing ₹2500 per month, this plan is suitable for medium and large businesses. It has the lowest transaction fee among all the plans and supports 10 warehouses. The rest of the features are the same as the Gold plan.
Instamojo is a home-grown D2C E-commerce platform that offers capabilities like landing page builder and payment management. Instamojo primarily focuses on SME brands looking to set up and run an E-commerce business successfully.
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There are three pricing plans viz. Lite, which is free forever, Starter, which costs ₹3999 per year, and Growth, which costs ₹9999 per year. While the free plan offers basic features like an Online Shopping Cart, Cash on Delivery, Shipping Integrations, and Order Management, it has Instamojo branding.
The Starter plan does not have Instamojo branding on the website and provides access to 19+ Premium themes. The Growth plan offers a lot more features like SEO, Advanced Analytics, and WhatsApp Integration, to name a few.
Wix is a cloud-based website-building platform with a focus on E-commerce. Both individuals and businesses can easily create and manage E-commerce websites in Wix, thanks to a wide range of templates and features. You do not require any kind of technical skills to manage an E-commerce store on Wix.
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Under the E-commerce category, there are three plans. The most basic E-commerce plan, called Business Basic, is priced at ₹225 per month when billed annually. There are also Business Unlimited and Business VIP plans costing ₹300 and ₹500 per month.
The main differences between these plans are the storage space you get, video hours, the number of reviews you can manage, and the number of products you can dropship.
Squarespace is a simplistic and robust website builder with a great focus on aesthetics. It is a popular choice among bloggers, photographers, and small businesses selling products that require creativity. However, in recent times, owing to the vast number of E-commerce features offered by this platform, it has become a preferred choice among businesses in other domains as well.
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The most basic plan of Squarespace is called Personal, and it is priced at $16 per month when billed annually. This plan offers only templates and a free domain.
However, if you would like to have a fully integrated E-commerce store, you need to pick one among Business ($23 per month), Commerce Basic ($27 per month), and Commerce Advanced ($49 per month). Each plan offers a unique set of features over and above the previous one.
Adobe Commerce is a full-fledged E-commerce platform offering you all the tools required to run a successful online store. It was previously known as Magento Commerce before the tech powerhouse Adobe acquired the platform. It is one of the few E-commerce platforms that lets you create both B2B and B2C storefronts with relative ease.
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Ecwid is an E-commerce plugin from Lightspeed. In a few clicks, you can add various E-commerce functionalities to your existing website using this tool. The goal of Ecwid is to eliminate the process of building a new website from scratch and to extend your existing website to start selling.
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There is a forever-free plan with basic features. The most basic plan, called Venture, is priced at ₹889 per month when billed annually. In this plan, you can set up a store with only 100 products.
There is also a Business plan, costing ₹1649 per month, which lets you manage a store of 2500 products. In the Unlimited plan, costing ₹4990 per month, you can create a catalog of unlimited products.
Must Read : E-commerce Enablers
Here are the different factors you must consider while picking an E-commerce platform –
This is a key factor wherein you focus on different technical aspects of the E-commerce platform, such as the type of platform (self-hosted or hosted), security, website performance, etc. For instance, in the security category, you should prioritize a platform that supports SSL certificates and provides frequent security updates.
Kartify is a hosted platform that offers security features like VA/PT, Role Based Access Control System, SSL Certificate, encryptions, and customer data masking.
You must always remember that your E-commerce store is not going to remain the same as days pass by. The number of products will increase, and the number of users will multiply. The platform you choose must be able to handle any number of customers without putting too much financial pressure on you. The platform should also be able to handle traffic spikes during sales events without slowing down or crashing.
Kartify is built to scale and is ideal for growing businesses. It has been tested to handle over 1 million concurrent users at any time.
The idea is simple – the platform you choose must be aligned with your budget and offer you the returns within a few months. You must particularly focus on hidden costs like transaction fees and setup fees while picking a platform, as they can create a dent in your expenditure. Also, try to understand the maintenance costs involved in using the platform.
Kartify is one of the most affordable E-commerce platforms in India and has a tailored pricing plan for every business.
It is important to pick a platform that lets you tailor your online store to suit your brand and customer needs. For instance, the platform you pick must offer a wide variety of customizable themes or templates. Also, it will be great if you get access to the source code of the website so that you can make any changes that are not possible in a visual editor.
Kartify lets you customize every aspect of your store, right from navigation components to checkout steps. You can build a fully personalized store that adheres to your brand guidelines.
You need to pick a platform that offers integrations with other tools and platforms to streamline your E-commerce operations. For example, the E-commerce platform you select must be integrable with your preferred payment gateways or inventory management system. The ease of integrating with other essential solutions can considerably impact your efficiency.
Kartify offers integrations with 80+ Integrations, such as payment gateway solutions, loyalty program platforms, marketing tools, email and SMS Gateways, etc.
Lastly, the E-commerce platform you choose must have strong analytics and reporting capabilities. It should either have built-in analytics tools or support third-party analytics solutions. You must also be able to create custom reports that display all the key metrics for better decision-making.
Kartify comes with a dedicated analytics dashboard that gives you access to key insights about your sales, traffic, and products.
As you can see, Kartify is the only solution that satisfies all the above criteria. It is scalable, affordable, and highly customizable, making it the best choice for all those entrepreneurs looking to set up an E-commerce store today. If you need further details about how Kartify can help set up and manage your store, contact us now.
