eCommerce The Best SaaS eCommerce Platforms Of 2024 By Riddhiman Roy eCommerce 1 comment Last Reviewed: September 16, 2024 In the world of eCommerce, keeping up with customer demands while managing the technical backend can be tough. Ignoring the website backstage isn’t an option, even though the spotlight is on the main show. Slow website speed? That’s a no-go for customers. This is where SaaS eCommerce shines — it’s like having a crew overseeing backend technicalities while you’re on stage running the show. Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders Best SaaS Ecommerce Platforms Product Shopify BigCommerce Adobe Commerce Oracle Commerce Cloud Optimizely Selecthub Awards Best Overall N/A Best for Catalog, Product and Order Management N/A Best for Marketing and Search Engine Optimization User Sentiment Score 89% 86% 83% 84% 87% Free Trial Yes Yes Yes No No Company Size S M S M L L M L S M L Pricing Model Monthly Monthly, Based on Annual Sales Revenue Monthly, Quote-Based Monthly, Quote-Based Annually, Quote-Based Shopify 100 Shopify PricingDemo Best Overall, Best for Catalog and Product Management Learn More & ReviewsOr request free trial Starting Price$29 Company SizeSmall, Medium, Large DeploymentCloud, On-Premise OverviewBenefitsKey FeaturesLimitationsResearcher’s Summary Shopify is one of the most comprehensive eCommerce solutions in a multi-tenant SaaS architecture. It can handle various business models, including B2B, B2C, dropshipping and private labeling. You can unify the online and offline shopping experience with Shopify POS, which supports curbside pickups and buy online and pickup in-store fulfillment strategies. An intuitive interface lets you personalize the website’s branding and set up custom backend processes for administrators. You can also access the app marketplace for more than 6,600 third-party connections to add functionalities such as chatbots, email automation, customer profiling, POS kiosks, barcode scanners and more. To top it all, Shopify offers a headless platform with its “Plus” plan, allowing you to use custom software to design storefronts and connect them to a centralized backend. Market Leader: Shopify is the top-rated eCommerce platform according to our research, outperforming competitors like BigCommerce and Adobe Commerce. With a 100 analyst score, it offers a comprehensive feature set that's ready to use right away.Effective Multiple-Channel Selling: Shopify excels at managing sales across different channels. It simplifies selling, distribution and wishlist management by letting you customize product catalogs, discounts and placement for each channel. You can automatically sync updates to ensure consistency across all your sales outlets.Easy Implementation: Getting started with Shopify is quick and simple. Its guided setup process helps you launch your store in minutes. Plus, 99% of key eCommerce requirements are available out of the box, eliminating the need for complex integrations.Scalability and Flexibility: Shopify grows with your business. Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, there's a plan to fit your needs. Enjoy a free trial to explore its features. Upgrade to higher tiers for advanced options like global selling, custom storefronts, headless architecture and unlimited staff accounts.Streamlined Inventory Management: According to our data, Shopify offers 100% of the features needed to manage inventory across multiple locations out of the box. This includes a barcode generator and scanner, stockout alerts, sourcing integration, multi-location inventory tracking, order management tools and more. Storefront Designing: You get a free customizable domain and a website builder with free and paid templates, along with CSS and HTML editors. It also lets you personalize email addresses with domain names and offers unlimited email forwarding. Shopping Cart: It helps build multilingual checkout pages and shopping carts. You can connect to shipping carriers and payment gateways to create an integrated checkout, payment and shipping tracking experience. The platform tracks abandoned carts and lets you send recovery mail to retrieve lost sales. Cataloging: Create digital products or assign multimedia to design attractive product pages. Sell multiple product variations and organize your catalog by price, season, category, availability and vendor. The platform also supports subscription-based business models and products. Marketing and SEO: You can customize sitemaps, headers, titles and meta tags to improve search engine rankings. You can create discounts and other promotional campaigns for social media platforms and add a review section to each product page. Order Management: Connect with multiple shipping carriers and define rules to choose the optimum shipping route based on the customer’s and your inventory’s location. Analytics: Design visualizations and dashboards to track sales, orders and traffic. You can also define rules to generate periodic reports and export them in PDF or Excel format. No email hosting features. The platform doesn’t allow access to its system code and requires you to hire a Shopify developer for in-depth customizations. It charges a 1-2% transaction fee for external payment processors. Shopify is a robust platform for every type of eCommerce business. During testing, I loved its “Markets” feature that consolidates wholesale, retail, B2B and D2C operations into a single view. You can tailor experiences for each market without creating multiple stores and get a bird's eye view of it all from a unified screen.Its analytics module is a strong suit. Unlike other platforms that typically involve a 24-hour waiting period to access current data, Shopify lets you stream your business’s data in real time. The drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, and pre-built reports provide a solid foundation. However, the platform truly shines in its ability to access and customize ShopifyQL code for advanced analytics.Shopify's scalability is also impressive. The platform grows with your business. Starting with a basic store and transitioning to a complex, multi-channel operation is seamless. The headless architecture offers flexibility for customization, allowing you to create unique shopping experiences using its native Hydrogen visual editor or other third-party solutions.The mobile app has offline image editing, AI image generation and website editing capabilities. Also, Shopify's native AI, Magic, automates routine tasks and provides data-driven recommendations.Shopify’s AI-powered virtual assistant, Sidekick, trains itself on your store’s data, customers and transactions. You can ask anything, from using a feature to understanding your business data, and it always provides helpful, contextual answers. It lets you generate customer segments, design marketing campaigns and optimize your sales funnel. Sidekick also identifies customer segments and offers tips to boost conversion rates, like targeted emails, discount coupons and cart recovery strategies.However, Shopify's cost structure can be prohibitive for some. As the business grows, so do the expenses. And reliance on third-party apps for essential functionalities can lead to increased costs and potential performance issues down the line.While the platform offers a high degree of customization, mastering Shopify's Liquid coding language is necessary for complex changes, creating a barrier for non-technical users. Lastly, the short duration of the free trial might hinder the evaluation process for potential customers.Overall, Shopify is one of the best eCommerce solutions that can adapt to evolving business needs. However, you should carefully consider the platform's limitations in terms of cost, technical complexity and app dependency before jumping into a contract. Learn more about Shopify Use intuitive drag-and-drop tools to design storefronts from scratch. Platform Analysis Highest Rated Modules Features Not Supported Catalog and Product Management 100 Our research didn’t uncover any unsupported features. Inventory Management 100 Marketing and Search Engine Optimization 100 Order Management 100 Reporting and Analytics 100 Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders BigCommerce 97 BigCommerce PricingDemo Learn More & ReviewsOr request free trial Starting Price$29.95 Company SizeSmall, Medium, Large DeploymentCloud OverviewBenefitsKey FeaturesLimitationsResearcher’s Summary BigCommerce is an enterprise-grade headless eCommerce platform that offers you a multi-tenant SaaS architecture for scalability, innovation and high performance. Initially, it was a headless CMS that allowed you to centrally store product data and content before publishing on multiple sales channels. But with time BigCommerce upgraded its platform to the all-in-one solution we see today. Now, you can either use its intuitive website builder to design storefronts or install the plugin to a WordPress site and start selling. It also lets you transfer existing domains and use the stencil framework for advanced customizations. Plus, unlimited API calls allow you to tweak and customize the platform to create experiences that stand out from other stores on BigCommerce. Market Leader: BigCommerce is one of the top-rated eCommerce platforms, according to our research. Our analysts rated it 97 rating, right alongside industry stalwarts like Shopify (100) and Adobe Commerce (96).Efficient Marketing Across Channels: According to our data, the platform scores full marks (100) for its marketing and SEO optimization tools. You get every key marketing feature required in eCommerce platforms out of the box, including a channel manager, A/B tester, branded domain, custom email addresses, sitemap generation, Google Ads account, SEO product tags and more.Organized Data For Easy Reporting: The platform offers 100% of key reporting requirements out of the box, including centralized data warehousing, a BI module and analytics tools. It helps you visualize data and understand how to grow your business online. Additionally, you get a customer data platform to create customer segments and design personalized shopping experiences for better conversion.Streamlined Shipping Management: BigCommerce is one of the best solutions for handling shipping, with a perfect rating of 100 based on our data. It offers real-time shipping rates from popular carriers, multiple shipping rules based on customer segment or geography and a shipping status tracker. Additionally, it doesn’t charge for shipping like Shopify. However, unlike Shopify, the platform has no transaction charges, further lowering the TCO. Storefront Designing: Customize your store easily with a drag-and-drop builder or by tweaking themes using HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Server-to-server API and SDK ensure a seamless checkout experience, allowing customers to make payments without leaving your site. All themes are mobile-responsive, and you can switch to a headless architecture for unique storefronts on different devices.Marketing: Recover abandoned carts with personalized emails and boost your site’s SEO ranking with a built-in blog. Build storefronts and catalogs for various customer segments and locations. Create shoppable ads for social media and preview them before publishing.Inventory Management: It helps keep track of your inventory across multiple warehouses and fulfillment centers using filters. Receive warning emails when stock levels get low and display stock availability on product pages to encourage quick purchases.Order Fulfillment: Manage all orders from different channels on a centralized dashboard. Use filters to track order status, origin and destination. Automate printing of invoices, labels and order routing. Get real-time shipping quotes and labels for popular carriers.Reporting and Analysis: You can access comprehensive business data from various sources for analysis. Automate reporting with a template library and export reports in Excel spreadsheets. Blogs don’t support RSS feeds. Limited free template designs. The vendor has a cap on annual sales for each pricing plan. During testing, I noticed right off the bat that BigCommerce is a feature-rich platform that needs a lot of customization to fit my exact needs. Plus, there aren’t guided onboarding experiences, making implementation time-consuming. You must manually explore the interface to learn how to create or connect a domain, add products, set up fulfillment workflows, connect sales channels and design a storefront.Secondly, what caught my eye was the platform's speed and operability. BigCommerce boasts a 99% website uptime, and I could see why. It automatically optimizes images, minimizes HTTP requests and uses browser cache to identify customers. Also, a global content delivery network allows visitors worldwide to view your site from the nearest server.I loved how intuitive it is to connect and manage sales channels using BigCommerce. You can set up differentiated experiences for each channel using dynamic pricing, multiple product views, product swatches and bulk pricing tools. A robust customer segmentation module automatically groups similar customer personas based on your rules and helps design personalized experiences.The storefront editor uniquely lets you design a carousel for the website header. However, I didn’t like anything else about the storefront editor. It has limited free themes, and paid ones are comparatively more expensive than what competitors offer. That said, the platform's headless architecture helps compensate by enabling custom storefront development.My only point of contention was its unique pricing model. It charges a base subscription fee and puts a cap on your business's annual sales. If you exceed this cap, BigCommerce takes a percentage of your revenue based on your subscription plan.Also, if you connect the platform to a POS, every POS sale is considered an eCommerce sale, leading to a higher sales volume and cost. This leads to complex TCO calculations for enterprises with large sales volumes and international customers.Overall, BigCommerce is one of the best options for growing mid-sized businesses that can offset the platform cost with their sales revenue. It's flexible and can adapt to multiple business models, including B2B, D2C and dropshipping, with separate storefronts for each.However, the platform can be overkill for small businesses and may require significant investments to unlock its full potential. That's because all the good features like multi-storefront, personalization, customer segmentation and headless architecture are available in higher-tier plans. Also, lower-tier plans are comparatively more expensive than those of competitors like Shopify. Learn more about BigCommerce Design mobile-optimized pages with cross-selling options. Source Platform Analysis Highest Rated Modules Features Not Supported Marketing and Search Engine Optimization 100 Multi-Location Inventory Supported With Integrations Reporting and Analytics 100 Quick Orders Supported With Integrations Shipping 100 Multi-Language Storefronts Supported With Custom Development Catalog and Product Management 100 Split Tenders Not Supported Sales Channel 98 Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders Adobe Commerce 96 Adobe Commerce PricingDemo Best for Catalog and Product Management, Inventory Management Learn More & ReviewsOr request free trial Starting Price$2,000 Company SizeLarge DeploymentCloud, On-Premise OverviewBenefitsKey FeaturesLimitationsResearcher’s Summary Built on the Magento platform, Adobe Commerce is a unique eCommerce solution operating in both single and multi-tenant platform-as-a-service (PaaS) architecture. The system segregates data via user-specific identifiers and offers each customer the flexibility of a single-tenant architecture, along with the convenience, security and economies of scale of a multi-tenant architecture. This headless platform with a native PWA studio helps you design custom storefronts for different web-browsing devices such as tablets, phones and gaming consoles. You can use the native AI, Adobe Sensei, to automate administrative tasks, analyze trends and unearth opportunities to grow and improve your operations. Market Leader: Adobe Commerce is one of the top-rated eCommerce platforms, according to our research. It received a 96 rating from our analysts, ranking just after industry stalwarts like Shopify (100) and BigCommerce (97).Manage Products Effectively: The platform got a 100 rating from our analysts for its product and catalog management toolkit. You can define multiple attributes, and the platform automatically assigns products to categories based on those attributes. It supports multimedia product pages and updates inventory automatically after order confirmations or returns. For digital products, you can set multiple pricing tiers, use watermarks to brand digital products and set up subscription plans.Streamline Inventory Management: Our analysts gave top marks (100) to the platforms’ inventory tracking and management module. It supports barcode generation, automatic stock level updates, out-of-stock messages and multiple inventory locations. All the features are ready to use, and there’s no need to connect with external solutions to manage your inventory.Improve Marketing Campaigns: The platform offers one of the most robust marketing toolkits with a 100 rating from our analysts. It supports A/B testing, Google sitemap generation, sales channel connections, discounts and coupons, and URL redirects. You can connect it to a Google ads account to launch and manage marketing campaigns without leaving the software interface.Optimize Shipping and Handling: Another standout feature is its shipping toolkit, which received a perfect 100 in our analysis. The solution shows you real-time shipping rates based on customer location and supports free shopping for high-value orders. You can define and set up shipping rules to automate shipping label printing upon order confirmation. Website Designing: You can design a branded website using pre-built customizable templates or create your own. Adjust page layouts from three-column to two-column and drag and drop content elements. Edit text directly on the page and use content editing tools for previews and scheduled publishing.PWA Studio: Build progressive web applications (PWA) with responsive themes and templates for all devices. Improve loading speed with performance optimizers on any network.Multi-Site Management: The platform helps manage multiple brands and products across locations from one centralized place. Set different pricing structures, customize catalogs based on customer segments, and adjust checkout and fulfillment options according to customer locations.Inventory and Order Management: Track inventory across locations and receive low-stock alerts. Automate procurement based on custom rules. Define preferred product configurations and implement quality-check workflows. Auto-select the closest fulfillment center based on customer location.Business Intelligence (BI): You can create dashboards and visualizations to track sales, searches and best-selling products. A native BI module turns data into visual insights for business growth and scaling. It doesn’t offer native mobile apps out-of-the-box and requires you to design apps using PWA studio. Adobe Commerce is a highly sophisticated eCommerce platform that offers a high level of flexibility and customization. Its headless architecture empowers businesses to design unique storefronts tailored to specific audiences and geographies.I found its native PWA studio to be a game-changer during testing, enabling the creation of high-performance mobile experiences. The platform's A/B testing and content staging capabilities are also helpful for optimizing customer engagement and driving conversions.One of Adobe Commerce's standout features is its robust personalization engine. By creating detailed customer personas and leveraging AI-powered pattern recognition, you can deliver highly targeted product recommendations and experiences.However, I found the platform's complexity to be undeniable. Implementing and customizing Adobe Commerce requires significant time and resources. While the vendor offers implementation services, gaining full proficiency with the platform involves a steep learning curve.Despite its high cost, Adobe Commerce is an excellent choice for large enterprises and D2C brands that demand a highly customizable and scalable solution. Its rich feature set can drive significant business growth. However, the platform's limited built-in integrations can be a drawback, requiring additional development efforts to connect with external systems.Overall, Adobe Commerce is a powerful tool for enterprises seeking to create exceptional online shopping experiences for multiple geographies. But, it can be overkill for solo entrepreneurs and medium-sized businesses, and they may find it tough to offset the platform cost with sales revenue. Learn more about Adobe Commerce Retain complete creative control over your storefronts with the headless architecture. Source Platform Analysis Highest Rated Modules Features Not Supported Catalog and Product Management 100 Accounting Supported With Integrations Checkout 100 Enterprise Resource Planning Supported With Integrations Inventory Management 100 Blogging Not Supported Marketing and Search Engine Optimization 100 Split Tenders Not Supported Order Management 100 Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders Oracle Commerce Cloud 95 Oracle Commerce PricingDemo Best for Order Management, Payments Learn More & ReviewsOr request free trial Starting Price$2,000 Company SizeMedium, Large DeploymentCloud, On-Premise OverviewBenefitsKey FeaturesLimitationsResearcher’s Summary Oracle Commerce Cloud is a headless solution that centralizes customer, financial and operational data to help you personalize customer experiences. It features a hybrid SaaS architecture. Core commerce services like shopping carts, order management, shipping and fulfillment are single-tenant for complete control. Other services like wishlists, recommendations and experimenting are multi-tenant to facilitate seamless updates and reduce maintenance costs. Its API-first approach allows you to plug and play external software for added functions and features. You can efficiently manage multiple brands and product lines across various locations through a centralized system, simplifying inventory, order and customer management. Implementation With Ease: According to our data, Oracle Commerce provides 89% of key B2B eCommerce requirements out of the box. This means you don’t need to configure and connect the platform with external solutions to get the desired features.Create Efficient Checkout Processes: The platform scored top marks (100) for its checkout and billing features, according to our data. It offers abandoned checkout recovery, customer accounts, guest checkouts and automatic tax calculation based on customers’ locations.Manage Orders Effectively: Our analysts found the platform excels in order management capabilities. It provides a centralized view of order history, status and notes for easy trackability. You can manage backorders, returns and exchanges, and in-store pickups. Customers get order tracking emails and can place quick orders or replicate an order based on their purchase history.Design Branded Storefronts Easily: Oracle Commerce got a perfect 100 rating from our analysts for its storefront designing toolkit. It offers an intuitive module with drag-and-drop capabilities to design websites, blogs and product pages. The platform equips storefronts with shopping carts and lets you manage multiple storefronts from a centralized backend with its headless architecture.Market Efficiently Across Channels: According to our data, the platform scores full marks for its marketing and SEO optimization tools. You get every key marketing feature required in eCommerce platforms ready to use out of the box. These include a channel manager, A/B testing, branded domains, custom email addresses, sitemap generation, Google Ads integration, SEO product tags and much more. Storefront: Design websites for multiple brands with a single Oracle Commerce subscription. Extensive search capabilities can help customers find the right products and offer personalized recommendations based on their history with your store. You can define rules to automatically expose more of your catalog to customers and suggest relevant cross and up-selling opportunities. Backend: You can edit the React API to create custom backend workflows, dashboards and features for administrators. Nontechnical users can use intuitive drag-and-drop functionalities to customize backend processes. Content Management: It offers a CMS to onboard content creators, provide them with role-based accounts and help them collaborate with other departments. The platform also supports content staging and A/B testing before publications. CPQ: Define rules to configure pricing, quotes and customer negotiations using self-service portals. You can enable product configurations, implement asset-based ordering and design user-friendly guided ordering for complex goods. Subscription Management: You can create digital products and offer customers subscription-based access to your catalog. The platform supports multiple subscription models and can help you develop hybrid models for dealing in both physical and digital goods. Monolithic traditional eCommerce platform offers limited customization opportunities.Developer documentation isn’t transparent or easily accessible.The platform uses a native database language and can’t connect with SQL solutions. Oracle Commerce is a robust platform designed primarily for B2B eCommerce. Its core strength lies in the ability to handle complex sales processes, including contract pricing, multi-step approvals and account-based selling.Features such as self-service portals, customizable product catalogs and integrated CRM enhance customer experience and drive sales. The platform’s integration capabilities with Oracle’s ERP, EPM and SCM solutions offer a unified view of business operations.However, the platform's complexity and high cost can be significant barriers for smaller businesses. While it offers deep customization options, implementation and configuration can be challenging and require technical expertise.Despite advanced features like AI-driven personalization and robust analytics, users criticize the user interface for being outdated. Oracle does offer strong technical support, but the learning curve can be steep.On the positive side, Oracle Commerce excels in scalability and performance, making it suitable for large enterprises handling high transaction volumes and complex product catalogs. The platform’s strong focus on security and data management is also a crucial advantage for businesses managing sensitive information.Businesses considering this platform should carefully evaluate their requirements and resources to determine if the benefits outweigh the potential challenges. Learn more about Oracle Commerce Get an overview of business performance with customizable dashboards. Source Platform Analysis Highest Rated Modules Features Not Supported Checkout 100 Mobile App Supported With Integrations Marketing and SEO 100 Sell on eBay and Amazon Supported With Integrations Order Management 100 Accounting Not Supported Payments 100 Punch-Out Not Supported Reporting and Analytics 100 Conforming Product Catalog To Google Requirements Not Supported Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders Optimizely 94 Optimizely PricingDemo Best for Payments Learn More & ReviewsOr request free trial Starting Price$36,000 Company SizeMedium, Large DeploymentCloud OverviewBenefitsKey FeaturesLimitationsResearcher’s Summary Optimizely is a multi-tenant SaaS eCommerce solution offering three individually deployable modules that you can install separately or as a package per business requirements.Firstly, the headless CMS, Content Cloud, stores and publishes your content and data on multiple channels. The Commerce Cloud includes shopping carts, PIM, order management, inventory and other store management features. Lastly, the Intelligent Cloud helps you personalize customer experiences, perform A/B tests, profile customers and analyze data. Most Popular Platform: According to our research, 90% of users recommend this product. Its user sentiment rating is higher than industry leaders like Shopify (88) and BigCommerce (86).Robust Marketing Toolkit: Optimizely received top marks (100) from our analysts for its marketing and SEO optimization features. It supports content generation using generative AI, A/B testing, feature and web experimentation, and product information management. You can centralize content creation, storage, distribution and marketing using its native digital asset management module.Efficient Payment and Checkout: Our analysts gave it a perfect 100 rating for its unique payment and checkout features. It supports partial payments, split tenders (accepting two or more payment types in a single transaction), zero-value orders and guest checkouts.Easy Storefront Management: Another key differentiator is Optimizely’s storefront editing and management toolkit. It got a 100 analyst rating right alongside industry stalwarts like Shopify and BigCommerce. You can manage multiple storefronts, publish blogs, oversee shopping carts and test website features before they go live. Content Management: Crop, rotate, resize and edit photos and pictures. Use drag-and-drop tools to edit site layouts. Create role-based accounts for content creators and standardize editorial workflows to ensure quality.Shopping Cart: Add your brand color and logo to the cart and use it across multiple storefronts. Allow customers to complete checkout without redirecting them to external websites.Order Management: You can centrally track orders coming through multiple sales channels and define rules to route them based on inventory location and customer address.Experimentation: A native CDN aids in A/B testing and large-scale experimentations without affecting website performance. You can also experiment across stacks, webpages, apps and OTT experiences. The platform supports mobile app testing, feature flags, omnichannel experimentation and targeted rollouts.Artificial Intelligence: It provides NLP for automated product and catalog tagging and smart recommendations and suggests next-best options for content, products and offers. The platform determines individual customer profiles’ intent, providing valuable insights to improve merchandising strategies. The native AI can also perform automated periodic audits to ensure optimal performance. It doesn’t support barcode scanning or QR code generators. There’s no option to sell on Facebook. Optimizely is a powerful tool for managing and optimizing digital shopper experiences. Its content management capabilities are particularly impressive. The platform offers a centralized hub for storing, editing and approving multimedia content, making it easy to maintain consistency across channels.Customers can quickly reach their desired location and find products with built-in search and navigation tools combined with AI-powered recommendations. The integrated customer data platform (CDP) is also a valuable addition, helping organize customer data for efficient support services and personalized suggestions.The platform’s real strength lies in its experimentation capabilities. It offers a robust set of tools for A/B testing, multivariate testing and feature flagging. These tools help you fine-tune your online store to better match your audience’s taste and test variations of designs, features or products to see how effectively they boost customer conversions.However, the platform is far from an all-in-one eCommerce solution. It offers basic backend tools to manage inventory, orders and shipping. For example, you can’t manage multiple inventory locations and set up packaging and kitting workflows.Also, it doesn’t support product bundling, contract-based pricing, purchase orders and complex promotional structures. This makes the platform less suitable for B2B businesses with complex needs.Overall, Optimizely is ideal for large enterprises and D2C businesses with an existing backend setup, looking to manage, personalize and deliver branded shopping experiences across multiple sales channels. However, SMEs and growing companies must consider other options in the market, as Optimizely can be a costly investment and may not cover the full spectrum of eCommerce store management needs. Learn more about Optimizely Track custom metrics to fine-tune inventory distribution strategies. Source Platform Analysis Highest Rated Modules Features Not Supported Checkout 100 Accounting Supported With Integrations Marketing and SEO 100 Order Replication Supported With Custom Development Storefront 100 Custom Fields on Product Pages Supported With Custom Development Payments 100 Store Credits Not Supported Catalog and Product Management 99 Conforming Product Catalog To Google Requirements Not Supported Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders What Is SaaS Ecommerce? SaaS eCommerce, or Software as a Service eCommerce, is a deployment strategy for tools and software that allows you to manage online stores from any web browser. These cloud-hosted platforms facilitate access from any location and device. They are typically fully hosted and managed by vendors, meaning you don’t need to: Invest in hardware to host the platform Maintain the software architecture Manage security updates and data storage You can use necessary eCommerce functionalities through a web browser without complex installations or maintenance. It’s ideal for businesses that want to build their online presence and sell products without heavy investments in IT infrastructure and personnel. It allows them to focus on core operations while relying on the SaaS provider to handle server management, software updates, security and technical support. Some of the main advantages of SaaS eCommerce are: Cost-Efficiency: SaaS eCommerce eliminates the need for upfront infrastructure costs, reducing expenses and making it affordable for businesses. Scalability: Businesses can quickly scale their operations up or down based on demand. Adding new features doesn’t require heavy hardware upgrades, and you can add third-party software using APIs. Accessibility: The SaaS model allows you to access the platform from any location with an internet connection, promoting convenience and remote management. Faster Time to Market: Rapid deployment and pre-built features enable you to launch stores faster and stay ahead in the competitive market. Automated Security: SaaS providers handle security updates and maintenance, ensuring data protection and reducing the burden on businesses to manage security measures. On-Premise vs. SaaS Ecommerce To better understand the ins and outs of this deployment strategy, let’s look at the key differences between SaaS eCommerce and traditional platforms deployed on on-premise servers: Aspect On-Premise Software SaaS Platforms Cost It involves higher initial investment for infrastructure setup, maintenance and software upgrades. It has a lower upfront cost as the vendor takes charge of most backend management processes for a monthly or yearly subscription fee. Data Storage and Software Hosting You store data and host the software architecture on proprietary servers, increasing IT complexity. The vendor is responsible for hosting software on the cloud and securely storing user data. Customization You can extensively customize the platform by accessing and manipulating the software’s source code. The vendor owns the software source code and doesn’t share access. You can make limited customizations through built-in options, integrations and add-ons. Frontend Designing Storefronts and website designs are fully customizable. Frontend customizations are limited to vendor templates as these platforms are designed for users with minimal technical knowledge to launch a store. Security and Update Patches It requires you to manage security measures, including timely updates and software patches. The SaaS provider handles platform updates and ensures the software meets security standards for payment processing and data handling. Note that this table summarizes the key distinction points between these two deployment models. Individual platform capabilities may vary from vendor to vendor, and you may find solutions with overlapping features from both options. Types of SaaS Ecommerce Models Depending on the tenancy structure, there are mainly two types of SaaS eCommerce models. In SaaS, tenancy refers to the ownership and sharing of computing resources in a public or private cloud environment. Single-Tenant SaaS Single-tenancy is when each client or user gets a dedicated server and supporting infrastructure to host, manage and maintain their eCommerce platform. In this architecture, you don’t need to share resources with other businesses (using the same platform) and can customize the software environment to suit your requirements. You can consider this architecture as a residential community comprising only single-family homes built by the same real-estate company. Each household has the flexibility to modify their homes while maintaining the security and conveniences of living in a community. Pros Each database is isolated, leading to lower chances of breaches. Individual upgrades don’t affect the overall architecture, ensuring an uninterrupted experience for other users. Database isolation makes it easier to access historical data and restore previous settings. Cons Involves a higher cost as you can’t share management and maintenance services with other users. Requires more time and resources to maintain the architecture. Can lead to wastage and inefficient resource utilization as each user individually owns servers, domain controllers and security patches. Multi-Tenant SaaS Multi-tenancy is when many businesses share the same software architecture to store data and power their online stores. It’s less technical than single-tenant architectures because the vendor owns the software license and takes charge of every backend management workflow. They usually offer access to the platform’s user interface only, not the source code. Following our previous example, multi-tenant architectures are like an apartment or a condo where multiple families inhabit the same building. Each family can lower the cost of living by sharing maintenance and utility charges but can’t make large modifications to the building structure. Pros Multiple users use every resource simultaneously, leading to optimum utilization and minimal wastage. Clubs maintenance costs into the subscription fee, and vendors don’t charge per case like in a single tenant structure. Multi-tenant SaaS providers have enormous computing capacity, and scaling your business can be as simple as upgrading to a higher subscription plan. Cons Vendors typically manage complex and large databases and servers, leading to higher maintenance time and platform availability issues. Hardware and software issues for a single user can impact the overall software performance and disrupt other users’ experiences. Offers fewer customizations and limited control over the software environment, making it harder to personalize experiences. Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders Software Comparison Strategy Now that you know what SaaS eCommerce is and identified the best platforms, it’s time to decide what’s best for your business. The first step is to identify your problem. Start by preparing a checklist of your major pain points and eCommerce system requirements. Factors To Consider Here are a few key points you should keep in mind while outlining the requirements checklist: Customizations: Examine the software architecture’s adaptability and the frontend’s branding options. Find software that seamlessly aligns with your operations and offers branding tools that reflect your business identity. Payments: Select a solution that ensures swift payment processing and cost-effective rates. Vendors charge different fee structures; some charge only external payment gateway fees, while others include additional charges per transaction. Features: Outline vital features required for inventory management, marketing, order processing and shipping. Prioritize platforms that accommodate your immediate needs and offer room for future expansion. Integrations: Assess the accessibility and versatility of the platform’s code and API. Opt for a system that either encompasses all necessary functionalities or permits integration with external solutions to add functions. Security: Prioritize platforms that uphold data encryption, SSL certificates and PCI compliance, ensuring a secure backend process and a trustworthy environment for customers. Mobile Responsiveness: Select solutions that provide customers with a seamless mobile browsing experience. Support and Documentation: Choose vendors that offer comprehensive documentation, tutorials and support tailored to your IT proficiency level, ensuring a smooth adoption and operational process. Questions To Ask Beyond the requirements checklist, ask yourself these questions to identify your needs and priorities: How big is our catalog, and do we plan to expand our product range soon? Do we need connections between our physical and online stores? How technically adept is our business at handling software architecture? What’s our fulfillment strategy, and how many warehouse connections do we need with the new platform? What are the major challenges in our order fulfillment workflows? Once your requirements are ready, you should contact the top software vendors to gauge their suitability with your operations. You can consider asking them the following questions to get the conversation rolling in the right direction: Do we need external integrations to connect with popular marketplaces and social media channels? How mobile-friendly is your platform? What are your payment processing structures and fees? Do you provide training, knowledge forums and troubleshooting options? Which security standards does the platform comply with? You can also try out our nine-step software selection process that ensures you tick all the boxes to find the perfect solution that meets all your needs. We call it lean selection, and we guarantee you success. Compare Top SaaS eCommerce Platform Leaders Next Steps Today, seamless customer experiences are non-negotiable, and SaaS eCommerce platforms ensure that you focus on frontend growth while the technical backend hums along smoothly. However, the catch lies in choosing the right tool, which not only does that but leaves room for you to grow in the future. Akin to driving a high-speed car with a dysfunctional pit crew, having a misfit solution can hamper performance, hinder customer engagement and ultimately stall business growth. To avoid such scenarios, consider using our free comparison report that you compare the most popular solutions in the market based on features, pricing and custom criteria to identify what’s best for you. Happy selecting! Which SaaS eCommerce platform resonates the most with your business aspirations? What are the potential growth avenues you envision with a scalable platform? Let’s start a conversation below. Analyst-Picked Related Content Comparison Report: An interactive analyst report with comparison ratings, reviews and pricing for eCommerce Platform Riddhiman RoyThe Best SaaS eCommerce Platforms Of 202408.14.2024