Last Updated on August 31, 2022
This is the list of the best eCommerce platforms available in Canada.
As more and more stores are coming online every year, choosing the right eCommerce website builder for your store has become a daunting task.
There are so many great options to choose from that it sometimes becomes overwhelming for a store owner to decide which platform to go with.
As a store owner, we understand that you already have a lot on your plate, so we have done the heavy lifting for you and have come up with a comprehensive list of the 7 top eCommerce platforms widely used in Canada.
The best eCommerce platforms in Canada
1. Shopify
First on the list is an eCommerce platform from Canada that is the most popular in the industry and is used worldwide by some of the top eCommerce stores and brands.
Shopify has the most significant number of online stores built using its platform.
Regarding the company, Shopify is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario.
It is a platform solely built for eCommerce to sell, ship, and process payments anywhere.
Shopify makes creating an eCommerce website easy for store owners with the help of its powerful tools and features.
The platform offers all the eCommerce and point of sale features that every e-commerce store needs to start, run, and grow its business online.
You can achieve everything from setting up a store to building an online presence to branding with Shopify.
You can get started with an inventory of 70+ customizable and responsive themes.
2. Wix
Wix is another famous website builder that helps you create free and professional websites and e-commerce stores using its drag-and-drop editor.
Designing an online store with a Wix eCommerce website builder is also super-easy.
You can choose from a collection of 500+ free designer-made store templates to help you launch your first online store overnight.
Wix offers multichannel sales capability that enables the store owners to take their products on different platforms and expand their product reach.
Wix is also an ideal e-commerce platform for dropshipping products and print-on-demand.
When you create your eCommerce website with Wix, you also get access to a store dashboard that is simple yet powerful and lets you streamline your store operations from one single screen.
With Wix, you can also access built-in marketing tools like email marketing campaigns, promotional videos, original or ready-made social posts, abandoned cart automation, etc.
You can list and sell your products on multiple sales channels and manage everything from your Wix dashboard.
The eCommerce platform lets you offer up to 50,000 products in your online store, and you can manage your inventory or source products from suppliers you work with.
With Wix, you can create an SEO-optimized, multilingual storefront and add a currency converter to display prices to customers in their local currencies.
Lastly, with the help of the Wix owner app, you can manage your site smoothly 24/7. You can add new products, track your inventory, fulfill or cancel orders, print packing slips, send invoices, etc.
3. Squarespace
Whether you’re just getting started or are an established brand, Squarespace’s powerful platform helps your business grow.
World-class designers craft Squarespace’s easy-to-customize templates to help create the web’s most expressive online stores.
And not just physical goods. You can even sell your services using the Squarespace eCommerce platform.
You can easily create a website that helps your business attract new customers and allows them to book your services on the go.
You can sell subscriptions, digital content, physical goods, and even trade-in people.
The Squarespace eCommerce platform allows you to schedule appointments, collect customer emails, announce your latest news, and even embed maps to help customers find your business offline.
And you can manage your online store, handling shipping and fulfillment, taxes, payments, and more, all in one place.
Squarespace also has a Video Studio App, using which you can make and share engaging videos to tell your story, grow your audience and drive sales.
Also, the Squarespace app helps you run your business from anywhere, track inventory, and connect with customers while you’re on the go.
4. Weebly
If you are an entrepreneur, Weebly eCommerce can be an excellent fit.
It lets you have the freedom to launch and grow your online store.
You can get started by choosing a unique online store design with a customizable theme, and the easy-to-use drag & drop builder helps you launch your online store quickly.
Like other eCommerce platforms, Weebly gives you access to their intelligent marketing tools like customizable email templates, like an abandoned cart or welcome email, to connect with your customers.
The platform helps you optimize your site for SEO to help search engines discover you, and analytics tools allow you to track site performance.
You can also use their 5-star app for mobiles and tablets that lets you launch, edit and analyze your business with the same ease and power as their website.
5. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is one of the oldest players in the industry and has been doing this for the longest time.
Though the company’s primary focus has been enterprise clients/stores, BigCommerce has recently offered eCommerce solutions to small/one-person stores.
This eCommerce platform has transitioned to an eCommerce platform for the new era that comes with the flexibility of open SaaS.
BigCommerce provides the industry’s most versatile solution for innovative eCommerce.
With the help of this platform, you can create a robust, differentiated commerce experience without compromising your online store’s security, stability, or scalability.
On the flip side, BigCommerce has a complex user interface, and you can sometimes find it challenging to navigate through the platform or use its tools.
The 24/7 customer support through phone or via email is stellar, though.
6. Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento)
Originally called Magento, Adobe Commerce is a non-hosted eCommerce platform solely built for developers and web professionals who want more flexibility and control over their stores.
You can build multi-channel commerce experiences for B2-B and B2C customers using Adobe Commerce on a single platform.
This platform is perhaps the most customizable and tailored among them; therefore, it’s complex and requires advanced coding and development skills.
Adobe Commerce has powerful tools to let you confidently launch, manage, and scale your business, including the ability to host multiple instances on one platform and cloud deployment, while native integrations with Adobe products like Analytics, Target, Experience Manager, and Creative Cloud help take personalization to the next level.
Whether you’re a B2B ready to go direct to consumer (D2C) or a B2C managing several brands in 10 different languages, Adobe Commerce lets you manage multiple sales channels and brands and expand into new countries simply from one platform.
7. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress.
You need to add the WooCommerce plugin to any WordPress site and set up a new store in minutes.
From subscriptions to gym classes to luxury cars, WooCommerce is fully customizable. You can add features and extend the functionality of your store with official extensions from the WooCommerce Marketplace.
You need to be more tech-savvy or should at least have decent web development experience to bring out the best from this platform.
With the WooCommerce mobile app, you can manage your business on the go and create products, process orders, and keep an eye on critical stats in real-time.
WooCommerce is developer-friendly too. Built with a REST API, WooCommerce is scalable and can integrate with virtually any service.
What is an eCommerce platform?
An e-commerce platform is a software or SaaS that helps create eCommerce stores or websites that can easily handle a business’s B2B and B2C needs.
These platforms enable the store’s visitors and customers to search for products and product pages, add products to carts, make secure payments or transactions, and manage/track their orders in real-time.
Additionally, you can manage order fulfillment, customer support, and returns using an eCommerce platform.
Conclusion
These are some of the best eCommerce platforms Canadians will love to use in 2022.
Every store or store owner has their own needs and requirements for building an online shop for their business. However, you can still consider some of the eCommerce store’s basic yet essential aspects as a baseline metric when choosing an eCommerce platform.
You should consider features like ease of use, design capabilities, UI/UX, security, responsiveness, backend support, multi-channel availability, speed, customizability, channel integration, etc.
Not every platform is perfect. You just need to make sure that the one you choose ticks most of the boxes for you.
