5 Ecommerce Platforms To Consider For A Dropshipping Business

There are many good e-commerce platforms in the market, but only a few of them are popular with dropshipping businesses. This is because only a select few of these platforms provide the features necessary for drop shipping.

Top 5 ECommerce Platforms for Drop Shippers

The drop shipping business may sound like an easy way for a novice entrepreneur to test the waters in the retail business landscape, and it is. However, it still needs a lot of work and needs a good platform to run on.

The top 5 e-commerce platforms being used by drop shippers across the world are Shopify, Magento, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, and OpenCart. The biggest drop shippers use them and also the smallest. They provide many features needed for a dropshipping business, and also support a lot of free and paid drop shipping plugins.

Self-Hosted or On the Cloud?

When it comes to choosing an e-commerce solution, you first need to decide whether you want a Self-Hosted or a Hosted platform. That is, whether the e-commerce solution is deployed on-premise (Self-Hosted) or the solution provider hosts the resources themselves on the cloud (Hosted).

This depends on various criteria. Basically, if you have the resources to set up the IT infrastructure and the technical know-how, go for a self-hosted solution. Mostly, the e-commerce software will be free.

For the non-techie, and if you don’t have the resources to set up an on-premise solution, choose the hosted option. All the resources are on the cloud, in the solution provider’s premises. These do cost you, but so will set up all the needed resources for internal self-hosted implementation.

The 5 Best ECommerce Platforms

These are the top five platforms for drop shipping:

• Magento
• WooCommerce
• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• OpenCart

Magento

Magento is a free and very advanced platform, it has all the tools essential for building a full-fledged ecom store. It has an easy to use UI, to design your ecommerce site. However, it is not easy for beginners to use. You need some technical knowledge, and have to devote time and effort in design and development work to set up the store. Still, it provides full flexibility and control, you can design your website and all the features and functions needed, as you want it.

Magento is a very popular platform, so it has a large and established user community and resources including support forums and blogs where you can find help for any difficulty you are facing.

Some of the top e-commerce sites on this platform are Helly Hansen and Miss Guided

WooCommerce

WooCommerce, like Magento, is a free solution. As a plugin for the widely used WordPress CMS, it is easy to install and set up with all the features necessary for an e-commerce site. It has a user-friendly interface and there are many free plugins available to add more functionalities. As a well-established store development tool, it has a large network of users and developers, and you can access user forums, video tutorials, and other resources.

Top e-commerce sites running on WooCommerce – Ripley, Wool Couture Company, and Eukanuba Shop.

Shopify

Shopify is used by more than 500,000 e-commerce business worldwide. It is also a popular platform for drop shipping. It is a hosted solution and does not require any deep technical skills. It is very easy set up a fully functioning online store within a few hours. Being a hosted solution, all the resources are on the cloud. and Shopify Provides 24/7 help and support. This is a highly flexible platform, supporting ecom ventures of any size, from small stores run by an individual to large enterprises.

Shopify has a large user community, and help forums and youtube resources are available that new users can access to learn as they go. Users can scale this software and its features as their need grows, starting with just a basic plan. You can also find many plugins and add ons in the Shopify App store to extend the functionality of this platform.

Shopify has acquired Oberlo, the leading marketplace for drop shippers to find products and connect with suppliers. With the Obero plugin, drop shippers can find and import any number of products into their stores and it also makes order fulfilment an easier process.

Top e-commerce sites that run on Shopify include Taylor Stitch, Negative Underwear, UgMonk, Bremont, and Marc Wenn.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce, like Shopify, is a hosted platform and also offers all the essentials to easily set up an e-commerce business, of any size. It is very easy to use, and provides a large set of free and paid themes for your online store. It offers different plans and provides full help and support to clients. BigCommerce also has a good many resources like forums and videos on youtube, etc that can be accessed to solve any difficulties or new needs. Like Shopify, it can be scaled to meet your requirements as your business grows. You can also find numerous plugins and extensions for BigCommerce to extend the features.

Some of the top BigCommerce sites are Nine Line Apparel, Eartheasy, and Marucci Sports.

OpenCart

OpenCart, like WooCommerce and Magento, is a free resource that can be used to set up an e-commerce site of any size, but needs some technical knowledge. However, it has an intuitive UI and so it is easy to learn how to use it effectively. OpenCart also has a developer network and a strong user community. You can find help through forums and blogs. OpenCart also provides help tickets and email support to its users.

A few examples of OpenCart e-commerce sites – Welovefine, Wooden Posters, Cat & the Fiddle, and 6 Dollar Shirts.

These are among the best e-commerce platforms, and they also provide many features that drop shipping shops need. You can do some further research to pick the best fit for your needs from these five.