Today, eCommerce is a multitrillion-dollar industry and retail commerce sales could exceed USD 4.3 trillion by this year end. Apparently, there is humongous opportunities in this domain and as an entrepreneur you are eager to get a slice of the pie. But the road ahead is bumpy.
One critical challenge in creating your online storefront is the selection of the right eCommerce Content Management System (CMS) platform. Choosing the right CMS is crucial for your investment and building a robust scalable and secure eCommerce store.
The right CMS will help you easily manage your product catalog, simplify adding, updating, or removing content (like product images, descriptions, etc), enables you to launch seasonal offers or campaigns faster, and do other tasks without any hassle.
It helps you seamlessly manage hundreds or thousands of products from a single interface and provides best features to build a scalable, secure, and lightning-fast online store. In this blog, we have listed the ten most reliable, high-performance, and trusted eCommerce CMS that you can leverage to build top-notch websites.
Top 10 CMS Platforms for eCommerce Development
Making a choice for a CMS to build your eCommerce store can be confusing given so many options. However, selecting the right CMS is crucial to build a secure, scalable, and user-friendly eCommerce site that will attract customers, and drive conversions.
1. WordPress + WooCommerce
One of the best CMS and most popular options for eCommerce is WordPress with WooCommerce plugin. With more than 4 million eCommerce stores using WooCommerce and WordPress holding 60.8% of the CMS market share, the duo dominates the game.
As a user-friendly platform, WordPress allows you to create any website within a few minutes even with zero technical know-how. Plus, managing websites is also hassle-free with a simple, clean, and clutter-free dashboard. It’s a useful CMS for eCommerce development.
The bonus: a huge library of different website themes and plugins allows you to build engaging websites, and the open-source nature makes it highly customizable.
| Pros | Cons |
| Open source, no license fees | Too many plugins can affect performance |
| Highly customizable | Advanced customization requires developer support |
| Convenient admin panel | Not a dedicated eCommerce platform |
| Quick and easy installation on any web hosting | |
| Abundant resources for learning and support |
2. Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that also includes a CMS to manage content for all B2B and B2C websites. It is a proprietary platform for eCommerce development that was formerly Magento.
It is a suitable eCommerce CMS platform for large, enterprise-grade companies that need a flexible and customizable solution. As a cloud-native platform, Adobe Commerce enables you to build multi-brand, multi-lingual, and high-performance storefronts in the cloud.
Creating an eCommerce site is quick and convenient with its integrated tools and features. It offers content creation with Gen AI and prebuilt storefronts with integrated commerce functionality.
| Pros | Cons |
| Highly suitable for enterprise-grade storefronts | High costs of development and license |
| Adequate options for customization | Set up and website management isn’t beginner-friendly |
| Advanced features for B2B and B2C experiences | Costly integrations and extensions |
| Robust analytics and marketing tools | |
| Support for multi-currency, multi-language, and multi-store |
3. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is another popular CMS for eCommerce development that offers a freemium model – both free and paid versions. It is considered among the best CMS for eCommerce website for startups and small businesses.
With more than 250k eCommerce platforms using PrestaShop, it is a reliable choice to build your store with the best features and security. It is fully customizable with diverse website templates, modules, and extensions.
As a versatile and lightweight CMS, it is well-suited for small to mid-size eCommerce stores. However, it’s not beginner-friendly – building and setting up your eCommerce requires tech expertise.
| Pros | Cons |
| Both open source and premium version | Technical knowledge is required for customization |
| Full customization with themes and modules | Paid add-ons are needed for advanced features |
| Support for multiple currencies and languages | Not best-suited for large enterprises |
| User-friendly admin interface | Limited support |
| Wide range of payment plugins |
4. OpenCart
OpenCart offers everything you need to run, scale, and manage your eCommerce business. It is one of the top open-source CMS for eCommerce development. It is an ideal platform for those that are starting eCommerce business with a small budget.
With a variety of extensions and templates, you can customize your store as per your preferences. Additionally, the OpenCart marketplace offers a wide range of add-ons or modules for payments, shipping, and more.
| Pros | Cons |
| Lightweight and fast CMS | Limited built-in features |
| Many themes and extensions | Complex customization |
| Open source and free | Compatibility issues with multiple plugins |
| Multi-store support | Limited scalability |
| Multi-currency and multi-lingual |
5. Drupal
Now this CMS isn’t an eCommerce platform out of the box. It’s a usual CMS like WordPress. However, in a similar way, you can build pleasing and efficient eCommerce sites even on Drupal with extensions (plugins).
Drupal is a powerful and feature-rich CMS which is suitable for developing complex websites. But it’s not user-friendly and requires technical expertise to build even a basic site.
Moreover, as an open-source CMS platform, it is ideal for creating highly customizable websites. Since there aren’t any license costs, it is also suitable for small businesses and startups.
| Pros | Cons |
| Customizable and scalable platform | Steep learning curve |
| Open source and free | Extensive development |
| Strong integration capabilities | Limited prebuilt themes |
| Strong security | Relatively higher maintenance costs |
| Great headless development |
6. Joomla
Joomla is another CMS platform that you can use for creating eCommerce websites. Though it is also not a dedicated eCommerce CMS, you can build an appealing storefront by integrating plugins. It is an open-source CMS for creating web applications and eCommerce sites.
It is a free and open-source platform that is customizable with full coding possibilities. It is a flexible CMS that can be used to create a wide range of websites. Additionally, there is good community support to help website owners get solutions to problems.
| Pros | Cons |
| Versatile and flexible | Moderate learning curve |
| Strong user management | Dependency on extensions for advanced features |
| Multilingual and multi-currency | Limited templates and extensions |
| Built-in SEO features | |
| Thousands of extensions |
7. Shopify
Shopify is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that allows businesses to easily build and manage online storefronts. It offers a wide range of features including AI-powered store builder. There are lots of quality website themes that you can use to build top-notch eCommerce stores.
With its easy and user-friendly dashboard, managing content is no brainer and can be done without any technical knowledge. It provides a consolidated dashboard where you can manage everything from inventory to payment processing.
What makes Shopify stand out from other CMSs is its omnichannel and multi-channel capabilities that allows businesses to offer a consistent user experience across multiple customer touchpoints such as smartphones, desktops, social media, and in-personal shopping. It offers Shopify Plus which is an enterprise to build high-performance and scalable stores for large businesses.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy and user-centric interface | High subscription costs |
| Customizable themes | Extra transaction fees when not using Shopify Payments |
| Hosted solution, no need to manage servers | Some advanced features depend on paid apps |
| Strongest security and performance | |
| Scalable and extensive marketplace | |
| Multiple payment options | |
| 24/7 customer support |
8. BigCommerce
It is another eCommerce platform with an integrated CMS that allows users to manage website content easily. It is a flexible and powerful solution to build even complex eCommerce sites. BigCommerce is a SaaS platform with an open API.
It is possible to integrate BigCommerce with other platforms to easily sell on multiple platforms. BigCommerce offers basic website building features such as drag-and-drop page design that helps small businesses to create pretty websites.
| Pros | Cons |
| Smoothly handles large product catalogs and traffic | If revenues cross a certain threshold, plans upgrade automatically and cost more |
| Built-in features for multi-currency, product reviews, SEO, and other essentials | Advanced features aren’t beginner-friendly |
| No transaction fees | Limited themes and high-quality themes require a purchase |
| Strong security with HTTPS, automatic updates, and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance | Native marketing tools are limited |
| Flexible, customizable, and supports headless commerce | Backend could be a bit complex for non-tech individuals |
9. Squarespace
As an all-in-one SaaS-based eCommerce platform, Squarespace stands out with its unique functionalities and benefits. It offers an integrated CMS that allows businesses to manage their stores, product catalogs, payment gateways, themes, and everything without any hassle.
With drag-and-drop functionality, Squarespace allows you to build beautiful and functional eCommerce sites without any technical skills.
| Pros | Cons |
| Visually attractive and mobile-friendly website templates | Not very scalable and not suitable for very large enterprises |
| Its drag-and-drop platform makes it beginner-friendly | Supports limited payment gateways |
| No transactional fees like many other platforms | Challenging in international selling due to no multi-currency support |
| Built-in marketing tools | Limited customization |
| Round-the-clock customer support |
10. Magento Open Source
It is an open-source dedicated CMS platform for eCommerce. It is built to develop various types of eCommerce stores whether B2B or B2C. Currently, there are 100k+ eCommerce stores running on this platform.
A wide range of themes and extensions allow you to customize your eCommerce website easily to build engaging storefronts. As a free eCommerce CMS, Magento helps you avoid costly subscriptions and license fees to build and manage a full-fledged online storefront.
| Pros | Cons |
| Scalable for large online stores | Steep learning curve for beginners |
| Extensive customization | Costly development and maintenance |
| Robust options for managing inventory and products | Extensions can be expensive |
| Multi-language and multi-store support | Managing regular updates and patches isn’t easy |
| Tools for marketing |
To Wrap Up
Choosing an eCommerce platform or CMS isn’t just about creating an eCommerce store, it is more about ensuring frictionless growth, customer satisfaction, security, and ease of managing content. You can effortlessly run, manage, and update your website with a good CMS without any deep technical skills.
At Galaxy Weblinks we help you build feature-rich eCommerce websites choosing the best CMS that fits your business requirements the best. We build high-performance, intuitive, scalable, and secure eCommerce websites that complies with essential standards like GDPR, PCI DSS, and more.
Whether you want to build your website on monolithic architecture or a decoupled architecture with a headless CMS, we take care of your needs with our years of expertise and experience. With the right CMS paired with our exceptional skills, we help create future-ready eCommerce stores. Contact us to discuss your requirements now!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is a CMS in the context of eCommerce?
A CMS or Content Management System is a software that allows you to manage, create, and update content on your eCommerce site. For example, if you have to upload product images, add new features, or update product descriptions, a CMS makes it easy.
Q2. Why is choosing the right CMS important for my eCommerce store?
The right CMS not just makes it easy to manage content and features of your eCommerce site, but it also ensures hassle-free growth and expansion of your store over time.
Q3. Which CMS is best for large-scale eCommerce businesses?
There are many popular and reliable CMSs like Adobe Commerce), Shopify Plus, and BigCommerce for enterprise eCommerce stores as they efficiently handle large traffic and huge product catalogs.
Q4. How does a CMS improve store security?
The right CMS offers role-based access control, SSL, security updates, and other essential features to protect your customers’ sensitive data.
Q5. Can I switch CMS platforms later?
Yes, it is possible to change a CMS for eCommerce. However, switching later can be complex, costly, and time-consuming.
Q6. Do all CMS platforms support scalability?
Not every eCommerce CMS provides scalability on an equal level. Some CMS for eCommerce can have better scalability than others and vice-versa.
Q7. What features should I look for in a CMS for eCommerce?
The following are some essential features that you must look in a CMS for eCommerce to pick the best one:
- Tools for managing products
- SEO capabilities
- Mobile-responsive themes
- Support for third-party integration
- Customizability of templates
- Strong security measures and compliance.
Q8. Is open-source CMS better than a hosted solution for eCommerce?
Hosted solutions are simple and requires little or no technical knowledge to set up and maintain sites. On the other hand, open-source platforms offer high-level customization but they require technical expertise to manage and maintain eCommerce stores. So, it depends on your choice.
https://hygraph.com/blog/best-cms-for-ecommerce
https://www.shopify.com/blog/ecommerce-cms
https://www.siegemedia.com/creation/ecommerce-content-management-systems
https://meetanshi.com/blog/best-ecommerce-platforms
https://amasty.com/blog/best-ecommerce-cms-platforms
