Mas­ter­ing Ecom­merce Plat­forms: A Com­pre­hen­sive Guide

What are Ecom­merce Platforms?

This is the 101

Ecom­merce plat­forms play a cru­cial role in facil­i­tat­ing online trans­ac­tions between busi­ness­es and cus­tomers. You could say they’re the place where those trans­ac­tions ​“hap­pen” and their infra­struc­ture. With the rise of eCom­merce, these plat­forms have become essen­tial for busi­ness­es of all sizes, and key to reach­ing audi­ences and stream­lin­ing operations.

An eCom­merce plat­form is the soft­ware that runs your online store. It’s where prod­ucts, prices, inven­to­ry, cus­tomer accounts, orders, check­out, pay­ments, and ship­ping all come togeth­er. Some plat­forms are cloud-host­ed (SaaS). Some you install on your own servers (open source). Some sit in between (Open SaaS).

The impor­tance of ecom­merce plat­forms for busi­ness­es can­not be over­stat­ed. The glob­al ecom­merce mar­ket is expect­ed to reach $6.35 tril­lion by 2027. Run­ning an ecom­merce site is quite clear­ly a must.

But as we said ear­li­er, what’s even more impor­tant than hav­ing an ecom­merce plat­form is choos­ing the right one, and hope­ful­ly, doing it before going all in, get­ting the devs to cus­tomize your site and load­ing up your prod­ucts only to real­ize it runs super slow or learn­ing you need to spend some extra hun­dreds a month to keep your inven­to­ry in sync, or keep your site secure and your infor­ma­tion (and your clients’ infor­ma­tion) safe.

So, with­out fur­ther ado, here are the dif­fer­ent types of ecom­merce plat­forms avail­able, each with its own set of fea­tures and options. We’ll cov­er the par­tic­u­lars and you can decide which type is best for your busi­ness depend­ing on your spe­cif­ic needs and budget.

Types of Ecom­merce Platforms

Let’s take a clos­er look at the dif­fer­ent types of ecom­merce plat­forms and what sets them apart. 

Open Source

Open source plat­forms are free to install and open to the pub­lic, mean­ing any­one can access and mod­i­fy the source code. This type of plat­form is high­ly cus­tomiz­able, giv­ing busi­ness­es the flex­i­bil­i­ty to tai­lor their online store to their spe­cif­ic needs. Some pop­u­lar open source plat­forms include Magen­to, WooCom­merce, and PrestaShop.

These plat­forms stand as cham­pi­ons of flex­i­bil­i­ty and cus­tomiza­tion. They offer busi­ness­es the free­dom to access and mod­i­fy the source code, tai­lor­ing their online store to spe­cif­ic needs. 

But that comes at a price (although open source plat­forms are tech­ni­cal­ly free to use). Open source plat­forms demand tech­ni­cal exper­tise for cus­tomiza­tion. That means a strong Dev team and many hours. The com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven sup­port and a large pool of devel­op­ers con­tribute to their growth and pro­vide a valu­able resource for busi­ness­es but still, the cus­tomiza­tion jour­ney can be time-con­sum­ing, and secu­ri­ty risks loom. Open source plat­forms save you a sig­nif­i­cant amount of mon­ey on licens­ing fees. But they are not free. 

SaaS

Cloud-host­ed, sub­scrip­tion-based. The provider han­dles servers, secu­ri­ty, updates, uptime. You get up and run­ning fast, with­out a sysad­min. In exchange, you give up some cus­tomiza­tion depth and accept the provider’s roadmap as yours.

Exam­ples: Shopi­fy, Shopi­fy Plus, enter­prise offer­ings from Sales­force, Ora­cle, SAP.

These plat­forms are man­aged by the provider, mean­ing you don’t have to wor­ry about main­tain­ing servers or han­dling tech­ni­cal aspects. The provider takes care of every­thing, from secu­ri­ty to updates and main­te­nance in exchange of a month­ly or year­ly sub­scrip­tion fee to use the plat­form. This makes it a great option for busi­ness­es that don’t have a ded­i­cat­ed IT team or tech­ni­cal exper­tise. It’s also good if you need to get your site up and run­ning quickly.

Most of these plat­forms offer user-friend­ly web­site builders, mak­ing it easy for busi­ness­es to cre­ate their online store with­out any cod­ing knowl­edge. They also come with a vari­ety of cus­tomiz­able tem­plates and themes, allow­ing busi­ness­es to cre­ate a unique and pro­fes­sion­al-look­ing store.

How­ev­er, SaaS plat­forms have lim­it­ed cus­tomiza­tion options com­pared to open source plat­forms. Busi­ness­es may also face restric­tions on the num­ber of prod­ucts they can sell or the pay­ment gate­ways they can use. More­over, as busi­ness­es grow, the month­ly or year­ly sub­scrip­tion fees can become more expensive.

Open SaaS

Open SaaS plat­forms com­bine the ben­e­fits of both open source and SaaS plat­forms. They pro­vide an open-source code­base, allow­ing busi­ness­es to mod­i­fy their plat­form, while also offer­ing host­ed soft­ware as a ser­vice. These plat­forms offer the flex­i­bil­i­ty and cus­tomiza­tion options of open source plat­forms, while also pro­vid­ing the ease of use and man­aged ser­vices of SaaS plat­forms. Our favorite exam­ple is Big­Com­merce.

One of the main advan­tages of Open SaaS plat­forms is their scal­a­bil­i­ty. They can han­dle high vol­umes of traf­fic and sales, mak­ing them suit­able for grow­ing busi­ness­es. Addi­tion­al­ly, they offer a wide range of cus­tomiza­tion options, allow­ing busi­ness­es to cre­ate a unique and per­son­al­ized online store.

How­ev­er, Open SaaS plat­forms can be more expen­sive than both open source and SaaS plat­forms. They also require tech­ni­cal exper­tise to set up and man­age, whether in house or through an agency. It may be a prob­lem for small­er busi­ness­es on a tighter bud­get, but hir­ing an eCom­merce agency can make that prob­lem go away.

Mar­ket­place Platforms

This type of ecom­merce plat­form allows busi­ness­es to sell their prod­ucts on exist­ing mar­ket­places, such as Ama­zon, eBay or Etsy. These plat­forms are known for their large cus­tomer base and stream­lined sell­ing process. 

They pro­vide busi­ness­es with a ready-made audi­ence and the infra­struc­ture to sell their prod­ucts, mak­ing it an attrac­tive option for those look­ing to reach a larg­er cus­tomer base. One of the main advan­tages of mar­ket­place plat­forms is the built-in audi­ence and estab­lished trust that comes with sell­ing on a well-known mar­ket­place. Busi­ness­es also ben­e­fit from the mar­ket­place’s infra­struc­ture, such as pay­ment pro­cess­ing and ship­ping options. 

How­ev­er, mar­ket­place plat­forms come with their own set of lim­i­ta­tions and fees. Busi­ness­es may have to pay a com­mis­sion on each sale and may not have as much con­trol over their brand­ing and cus­tomer expe­ri­ence. It’s also impor­tant to note that busi­ness­es are com­pet­ing with oth­er sell­ers on the same mar­ket­place, which can make it hard­er to stand out and build a loy­al cus­tomer base. 

eCom­merce plat­forms by busi­ness model

Which plat­form fits also depends on who you’re sell­ing to.

B2B eCom­merce plat­forms — built for busi­ness buy­ers, with cus­tom pric­ing, quot­ing, bulk order­ing, tiered account man­age­ment, net terms, and ERP inte­gra­tion. B2C plat­forms can be forced into B2B work­flows, but they’ll push back. More on this in our B2B eCom­merce Guide.

B2C eCom­merce plat­forms — built for the indi­vid­ual con­sumer expe­ri­ence. Fast check­out, rich visu­al mer­chan­dis­ing, aban­doned-cart recov­ery, sub­scrip­tion options, social integrations.

Hybrid (B2B2C) — com­pa­nies sell­ing to both. One cat­a­log, one inven­to­ry, one cus­tomer data spine — with sep­a­rate pric­ing log­ic, check­out flows, and con­tent for each audi­ence. Not every plat­form does this well. 

It could be argued, and we often have, that ulti­mate­ly, all ecom­merce is B2P (Busi­ness to Peo­ple) but there are spe­cif­ic issues for B2B mer­chants that require ecom­merce plat­forms specif­i­cal­ly designed to cater to the unique needs of busi­ness­es sell­ing prod­ucts or ser­vices to oth­er busi­ness­es. Tai­lored to facil­i­tate the com­plex­i­ties of whole­sale, bulk, and enter­prise-lev­el trans­ac­tions, they go beyond the typ­i­cal fea­tures of busi­ness-to-con­sumer (B2C) plat­forms, pro­vid­ing func­tion­al­i­ties that specif­i­cal­ly address B2B require­ments. These include:

Cus­tom Pric­ing and Quoting:

B2B trans­ac­tions often involve nego­ti­at­ed pric­ing, vol­ume dis­counts, and con­tract pric­ing. B2B plat­forms pro­vide fea­tures that enable busi­ness­es to offer indi­vid­u­al­ized prices based on cus­tomer seg­ments, con­tract terms, or order quantities.

Cat­a­log and Inven­to­ry Management:

B2B plat­forms allow busi­ness­es to man­age exten­sive prod­uct cat­a­logs, includ­ing vari­a­tions, attrib­ut­es, and hier­ar­chi­cal struc­tures. These plat­forms also have advanced inven­to­ry man­age­ment fea­tures to account for large and fluc­tu­at­ing stock levels.

Bulk Order­ing and Integration:

B2B trans­ac­tions typ­i­cal­ly involve large quan­ti­ties and com­plex order process­es. B2B ecom­merce plat­forms stream­line the order­ing expe­ri­ence by allow­ing busi­ness­es to place orders in bulk, upload spread­sheets, or inte­grate with their enter­prise resource plan­ning (ERP) systems.

Cus­tomer Account Management:

B2B plat­forms pro­vide robust cus­tomer man­age­ment capa­bil­i­ties, allow­ing busi­ness­es to man­age cus­tomer accounts, assign user roles, and set per­mis­sion lev­els. This ensures a per­son­al­ized and secure expe­ri­ence for each busi­ness customer.

Check out our FAQs on B2B eCom­merce plat­forms for more on this.

A map of the plat­form land­scape for B2B and Hybrid

Not all ecom­merce plat­forms are cre­at­ed equal. And not all of them have the fea­tures and capa­bil­i­ties required by mer­chants to meet the intri­cate demands of their B2B and Hybrid busi­ness­es. Here are a few that do.

Oro­Com­merce

The mas­ter­minds behind Magen­to focused on the B2B eCom­merce mar­ket and devel­oped an open-source, mod­u­lar plat­form tai­lored specif­i­cal­ly for B2B busi­ness­es using the Sym­fony framework.

Oro­Com­merce boasts a wide range of B2B mar­ket­place and dig­i­tal com­merce fea­tures that come ready-to-use, such as per­son­al­iza­tion, local­iza­tion, an advanced pric­ing engine with cus­tomer-spe­cif­ic pric­ing, work­flow automa­tion, cus­tomer reten­tion tools, and inte­gra­tion with Oro­CRM. These fea­tures are designed to cater to the unique needs of B2B mer­chants, mak­ing it a promis­ing option for busi­ness­es look­ing to expand their online presence.

It may be a bet­ter fit for larg­er, more tech­ni­cal­ly-savvy busi­ness­es, while small­er com­pa­nies may find it more chal­leng­ing to ful­ly uti­lize its capa­bil­i­ties. Nonethe­less, with its expe­ri­enced founders and tar­get­ed fea­tures, Oro­Com­merce is cer­tain­ly a plat­form to watch in the B2B eCom­merce space.

Big­Com­merce — Best for B2B

Open SaaS. Strong B2B edi­tion with cus­tomer groups, cus­tom pric­ing, quote man­age­ment, sales-rep mas­quer­ade, and mul­ti-store­front. API-first, MACH-aligned, and the 2023IDC Mar­ketScape rec­og­nized it as a Leader for B2B.

We’ve been Big­Com­merce Experts since 2012, as one of the orig­i­nal part­ner agen­cies. It’s our first pick for B2B and hybrid mid­mar­ket companies.

→ Why Big­Com­merce is the best eCom­merce plat­form for B2B

Shopi­fy / Shopi­fy Plus — Best for B2C

The plat­form that made eCom­merce acces­si­ble to every­one. Shopi­fy is the undis­put­ed king of DTC — fast to launch, vast ecosys­tem of apps and part­ners, and a check­out expe­ri­ence that con­verts. Shopi­fy Plus has moved up into enter­prise and is a seri­ous option for B2C scale and hybrid brands with sim­ple B2B needs.

Where it’s less strong: com­plex B2B (cus­tom pric­ing log­ic, mul­ti-cat­a­log in one instance, high API through­put). B2B isn’t Shopi­fy’s strong suit — but writ­ing it off would ignore how much of the mar­ket runs on it, how good the devel­op­er expe­ri­ence is, and how fast the plat­form moves. For the right use case, noth­ing beats it.

WooCom­merce 

Word­Press plu­g­in, cost-effec­tive entry point, tight content/​commerce inte­gra­tion for media-led brands. Scales until it doesn’t.

VTEX

VTEX is a cloud-based com­merce plat­form geared towards medi­um to large enter­pris­es found­ed in Brazil in 1999. A key play­er in the MACH alliance, it’s flex­i­ble and scal­able to accom­mo­date increased traf­fic and expand­ed cat­a­logs and offers robust order man­age­ment fea­tures, which is ide­al for busi­ness­es with com­plex needs, as is the case of B2B companies. 

How­ev­er, the learn­ing curve may be steep. Imple­ment­ing VTEX may require some learn­ing, espe­cial­ly for busi­ness­es new to omnichan­nel strategies.

Largest Ecom­merce Platforms

It is a well-known fact that big­ger does not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean bet­ter, but in the realm of ecom­merce plat­forms, size often equates to exten­sive resources and capa­bil­i­ties, although some­times big things can get too com­plex too soon. Any­way, here are the big play­ers in the world of ecom­merce platforms.

Adobe Com­merce (Magen­to) 

Enter­prise-grade, B2B-native, huge exten­sion ecosys­tem. Right answer when you have inter­nal engi­neer­ing depth and roadmap com­plex­i­ty. Wrong answer when the team to main­tain it isn’t there. One of the most com­mon plat­forms we migrate clients away from.

Sales­force Com­merce Cloud

Best-in-class CRM inte­gra­tion, deep cus­tomer data, strong mar­ket­ing automa­tion. Expen­sive and complex.

Ora­cle Commerce 

Anoth­er big one, offer­ing com­pre­hen­sive solu­tions for large busi­ness­es. They pro­vide exten­sive fea­tures but often come with high costs and complexity.

Com­merce­tools 

Known for its head­less com­merce archi­tec­ture, it is ide­al for enter­pris­es need­ing a flex­i­ble, API-dri­ven approach. This plat­form is best suit­ed for large-scale oper­a­tions requir­ing cus­tomized user expe­ri­ences. How­ev­er, it may not be the best fit for small­er busi­ness­es due to its com­plex­i­ty and cost.

Spe­cial­ized Ecom­merce Platforms

Spe­cial­ized E‑commerce plat­forms cater to unique busi­ness needs and indus­tries. Here are some examples:

Plat­forms like Gum­road are specif­i­cal­ly designed for dig­i­tal prod­ucts. Gum­road sim­pli­fies the sell­ing process of dig­i­tal goods like e‑books, music, and soft­ware. It offers stream­lined pay­ment pro­cess­ing and file dis­tri­b­u­tion, mak­ing it a go-to choice for cre­ators and dig­i­tal entrepreneurs.

Social E‑commerce plat­forms allow busi­ness­es to lever­age their social net­work pres­ence for sales. They pro­vide tools for sell­ing direct­ly through social media plat­forms, enhanc­ing cus­tomer engage­ment and sim­pli­fy­ing the pur­chase process. Insta­gram inte­grates prod­uct dis­cov­ery and pur­chas­ing direct­ly with­in the plat­form where­as rapid­ly grow­ing Tik­Tok for Busi­ness uses its engag­ing for­mat to offer prod­uct pro­mo­tion and direct sales

Depend­ing on the indus­try, there are oth­er plat­forms tai­lored to spe­cif­ic needs like sub­scrip­tion ser­vices, event tick­et­ing, or niche prod­uct sales. These plat­forms offer unique fea­tures like recur­ring billing, event man­age­ment, spe­cial­ized prod­uct cat­a­logs, and indus­try-spe­cif­ic mar­ket­ing tools to cater to their spe­cif­ic mar­ket segment.

If you oper­ate on a spe­cif­ic and pop­u­lar ver­ti­cal with unique needs, chances are there’s a spe­cial­ized plat­form wait­ing for you.

Com­par­ing Ecom­merce Platforms

There are sev­er­al fac­tors that usu­al­ly dri­ve mer­chants to change ecom­merce plat­forms and those are the key things to look for and compare.

Read more about good rea­sons to replat­form here

• Key Per­for­mance Issues:

Issues such as poor cus­tomer expe­ri­ence, inef­fi­cient process­es, dif­fi­cul­ties in han­dling increased traf­fic, slow page load times, out­dat­ed web expe­ri­ences, fre­quent down­time, and increased secu­ri­ty threats are major per­for­mance red flags.

• Key Scal­a­bil­i­ty Issues:

The inabil­i­ty of a plat­form to evolve with chang­ing cus­tomer needs, such as lack­ing omnichan­nel sell­ing options or cus­tomiza­tion flex­i­bil­i­ty, restricts a busi­ness’s growth. When the cur­rent plat­form can­not sup­port the com­pa­ny’s expan­sion or becomes a road­block rather than a facil­i­ta­tor, it sig­nals the need for a more scal­able solution.

• Key Cost Issues:

Lega­cy plat­forms often entail high­er oper­a­tional costs, includ­ing main­te­nance, ded­i­cat­ed devel­op­ment resources, and the slow pace of devel­op­ing new fea­tures or updates. And then there’s the unfore­see­able: hid­den costs asso­ci­at­ed with ​“free” plat­forms, such as main­te­nance costs, expen­sive plu­g­ins, and high-cost cus­tom devel­op­ment solu­tions. When the cur­rent plat­form caus­es sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial bur­den or resource allo­ca­tion chal­lenges, affect­ing the abil­i­ty to inno­vate and devel­op new fea­tures time­ly, it’s worth con­sid­er­ing alter­na­tive, more cost-effec­tive platforms.

How to choose

Three ques­tions. Hon­est­ly answered, they nar­row the field fast.

1. What busi­ness are you run­ning now — and what busi­ness are you plan­ning to run in three years? 
2. What team will run this? Inter­nal engi­neers, agency, hybrid? Open source demands depth. SaaS demands less, but trades control.
3. What’s your real TCO tol­er­ance? Not the stick­er price. License + host­ing + imple­men­ta­tion + main­te­nance + exten­sions + the cost of changes six months in.

For B2B and hybrid mid­mar­ket, our answer is Big­Com­merce — that’s where we’ve built the deep­est exper­tise since 2012, and where we see the best TCO-to-capa­bil­i­ty ratio for the com­pa­nies we work with. For pure DTC with fast time-to-mar­ket as the pri­or­i­ty, Shopi­fy is hard to beat. 

If you’re not sure

Most peo­ple we talk to aren’t sure. That’s why they call us.

We did men­tion replat­form­ing was a major pain. But don’t wor­ry. If you pick a plat­form, and it doesn’t go well, we can help you migrate, with­out the migraine. No need to gnaw off your arm. Check out RevAmp, our vir­tu­al­ly pain­less, 90-day eCom­merce migra­tion service.