Last Updated on September 23, 2024 by admin
Best eCommerce Platforms UK: The UK eCommerce market size is anticipated to grow significantly in the coming years since people have shifted from traditional buying to purchasing goods and services online.
With the rise of social networking and mobile internet access, businesses will most likely invest in e-commerce platforms in pursuit of the never-ending value of money.
For small businesses that want to leverage online, there are multiple eCommerce platforms where they can sell their goods and services.
In this article, we will highlight the different eCommerce platforms and for small businesses in the UK and the advantages they will bring to their business.
What is eCommerce?
eCommerce is an acronym for electronic commerce, which refers to buying and selling goods and services over the Internet.
Transactions between businesses and consumers take place through platforms like websites, mobile apps, or online marketplace. So, when you purchase goods and services online, you are participating in the eCommerce economy.
What are the different types of e-commerce?
Business-to-Consumer (B2C): In this type of eCommerce, businesses sell products directly to individual consumers. An example is an online store where you buy beauty products.
Business-to-Business (B2B): It involves transactions between businesses where companies purchase goods or services from other businesses.
Business-to-Government (B2G): This is interactions between businesses and government agencies.
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): This is when individual consumers sell products or services to other consumers. Online marketplaces like eBay and Facebook Marketplace facilitate C2C transactions.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B): Individual consumers offer products or services to businesses. For instance, freelance platforms like Upwork allow individuals to provide services to companies.
Consumer-to-Government (C2G): This involves interactions between individual consumers and government entities. Examples include paying taxes online or renewing licenses.
What are the best eCommerce platforms in the UK?
8 Best eCommerce Platforms in the UK are:
1. ShopWired:
ShopWired is a highly regarded e-commerce platform in the UK, empowering thousands of businesses to sell online.
It comes with a good selection of features such as mobile commerce, insightful reports, and dispatch with click & drop.
ShopWired’s support team is rated “best-in-class,” ensuring assistance throughout your online store journey.
ShopWired is the best option for businesses who want an easy-to-use UK-based platform that is backed up by excellent support.
2. EKM:
EKM is also the largest UK-based eCommerce platform for dropshipping. It has a strong focus on the UK market. It has powerful features such as an all-in-one solution, evolution mode, and EKMPay.
EKM offers unparalleled UK support with a dedicated Account Manager.
3. Shopify:
Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform that is great for dropshipping. The platform offers robust tools dedicated to sales and managing your online business.
Shopify offers customisable templates to its users and businesses or entrepreneurs can design a website for free and launch their store seamlessly.
In terms of payments and shipping, Shopify takes care of everything from marketing to secure transactions.
If you are considering starting an eCommerce business in the UK, here is how it works:
- Create an account: Sign up for Shopify by providing your email address, password, and store name.
- Set up your store: Access your dashboard to configure your store settings, including products, collections, and inventory management.
- Customise your theme: Choose from responsive online store themes to showcase your brand across mobile and desktop devices.
- Add your domain: Connect your custom domain to your Shopify store for a professional online presence.
- Set up payments: Configure payment gateways to accept transactions securely.
- Publish your store and start selling: Once you have done setting up the store and connecting it to your domain, you can publish it and start selling.
4. Wix:
This is an all-round e-commerce platform that caters to small businesses. A versatile website builder, Wix offers features that benefit small businesses in the UK looking to establish an online presence and sell products.
Entrepreneurs looking to start an eCommerce business with Wix, can benefit from features such as customizable templates, SSL certificates to ensure secure transactions, unlimited product listing, multilingual versions for international businesses, eCommerce analytics, and abandoned cart recovery.
Though Wix has a decent app market, it mainly caters to those looking to grow their online presence rather than their sales.
In terms of marketing, Wix promotes its pick of the best tools to market your business using Google and social media.
The platform supports sales of both physical and digital products and services. It also supports all the main payment gateways.
5. Squarespace:
If design and creative control matter to you, Squarespace is an excellent option. Squarespace offers a powerful platform for small businesses in the UK to create expressive online stores by:
- Offering cutomisable templates designed to showcase your products.
- Transferring your domain name seamlessly.
- Showcasing products for sale and purchase.
- Connecting a payment processor for secure transactions.
- Setting up appointments through Squarespace scheduling.
- Website builder.
Squarespace Commerce is a user-friendly platform that offers small businesses an online platform to establish their business and grow their online presence through e-commerce.
6. BigCommerce:
BigCommerce partners with the UK Government to support digital transformation for small and medium-sized businesses. Through this scheme, eligible UK businesses can access BigCommerce’s ecommerce platform at subsidised rates.
Businesses can build an online storefront and create innovative customer experiences to boost sales and growth.
The core features of BigCommerce include pre-built templates, a drag-and-drop site editor, built-in SEO tools, and various selling features. The features make it easier for small businesses to sell directly from their code-free websites.
7. Square Online:
This is a free e-commerce site builder. This is a good platform for small businesses that are just starting.
The platform offers essential features such as a website builder with SEO tools, sync with Square POS, pickup, local delivery, shipping, and the ability to accept multiple payment types.
Its commerce features are seamless integration with Square hardware products, inventory management, and tracking. It also has integrated and advanced reporting and support for in-store pickup.
8. GoDaddy:
GoDaddy offers an eCommerce plan in the UK that starts at £12.99 per month with an annual term. It offers features such as;
Product listings: You can showcase your products effectively.
Flexible payments: Accept payments seamlessly.
Flexible shipping options: Set up shipping methods that work for your business.
Discount and promotional features: Run promotions and discounts to attract customers.
This is a great platform for businesses that are ready to delve into online commerce.
How BusinAssist can help you start an eCommerce business
Running an online business also creates a need to have a proper legal form to your business i.e. by registering your business with the Government in your preferred form such as Sole Traders, LLPs, Limited Companies, etc. Managing your customers, products and at the same time keeping your company in a good standing by being compliant with Government rules and regulations can be overwhelming for businesses.
Here’s where businesses can rely on companies like BusinAssist to make sure the legal part of the business is taken care of and focus on sales, customers, marketing themselves. We can help eCommerce businesses starting from the birth of the company to its end. We can advise on the best company structure that suits your business and help you set up a UK-limited company with our excellent UK limited company formation services.
For international traders, you can get an address to register your business through our virtual office services. We have a variety of prestigious addresses you can choose from at an affordable rate.
With our UK virtual address, you can register your business, acknowledge official posts, maintain privacy, and boost credibility.
Once you start trading, we can help you set up your business bank account. We have partnerships with banks such as Tide and Cashplus where you can get up to £70 cash back once you open a business bank account. New businesses are often turned away, especially by High Street banks after the introduction of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering checks and requirements. With our banking partners in the UK, BusinAssist can assist with opening a UK business bank account and do so online without a physical meeting for UK or non-UK residents.
We also offer VAT registration service for businesses that meet the £85,000 threshold. You must register for VAT if your company’s total VAT taxable turnover will be more than £85,000 in the next 30-day period. You can also register for VAT voluntarily even if your business has not met the threshold.
We provide VAT registration services to clients from around the globe and in the UK for all types of businesses. Our eCommerce clients include eBay sellers, Amazon sellers, and many more.
The list of the services we offer includes many other services like Company Name Change, Confirmation Statement filing, Annual Accounts and Corporation Tax returns submissions, Company Closure/Dissolution, Company Structure Changes, Voip Services and more.
For more information, contact us at [email protected].
FAQs:
Q: What is an ecommerce platform?
Ans: An e-commerce platform is an application where businesses can create and manage an online store. The platforms enable sellers to sell their products and services by listing products, managing inventory, processing fees, and shipping goods to customers.
Q: What is an e-commerce website?
Ans: This is an online platform that facilitates buying and selling of products or services over the internet. Through the website, businesses are able to showcase their products and services where buyers can explore and purchase whatever they are interested in digitally.
Q: Is Shopify the best e-commerce platform?
Ans: Shopify is considered the best e-commerce platform especially for businesses that sell physical products. However, whether Shopify is the best platform, depends on your specific needs and business model.
Q: How do ecommerce platforms work?
Ans: Once a seller has created a website and listed their product, a customer browses and chooses what they want to buy, placing the items in their online shopping cart. The customer uses a credit or debit card to pay for it. The e-commerce website may come with a payment processing service but if not, a business can come up with it. After the purchase, the seller arranges for the shipping process, and the goods are delivered to the address given by the customer.
Q: How to choose an ecommerce platform?
Ans: When choosing the right e-commerce platform for your business, there are factors you will have to consider such as:
- Types of products you are selling. Are they digital, products, or services?
- Ease of use for efficient customization of your online store.
- Easier integration with other tools.
- Subscription and transaction fees
- Performance and growth potential
- Customer support. Does it offer 24/7 customer support?
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