Explore the top ecommerce solutions for small business online stores in the UK. Discover which ecommerce platform is the ideal solution for your online shopping needs.
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The Importance of a Strong Online Presence for Small Businesses in the UK
In today’s UK business landscape, where 99.05% of the 5.6 million businesses are SMEs, small businesses are the lifeblood of job creation and economic growth.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute £4.5 trillion in annual turnover and support 27 million jobs. In 2024 alone, SMEs created 300,000 new jobs.
Recognising the significance of SMEs and aiming to position the UK as a top destination for starting and growing businesses, the UK government has declared 2024 the “Year of the SME”.
Now, let’s look into the UK ecommerce market. It is a rapidly evolving scene, driven by changing consumer behaviours, regulatory and technological advancements, and government initiatives like the Help to Grow campaign, which provides essential resources for SMEs to establish and enhance their online presence.
The market is highly competitive, featuring a mix of local businesses, international brands, and online marketplaces. The UK boasts Europe’s most lucrative ecommerce market and the third-largest globally, with a market size of $169 billion, trailing only China and the USA.
British consumers are tech-savvy and comfortable shopping across various digital platforms, aided by robust internet connectivity and widespread adoption of digital payment methods.
Mobile commerce is also on the rise. According to a Forbes Advisor Survey, 13% of consumers prefer to shop exclusively online, and 45% shop both online and offline.
The market’s maturity is evident with well-established consumer behaviour patterns and high online penetration rates. Hence, having a strong online presence where consumers spend their time is a no-brainer.
To cut through the noise, small businesses must stand out in this competitive environment. UK consumers expect user-friendly and mobile-optimised sites, ease in finding what they are looking for, exceptional customer service, fast and reliable delivery services, and compliance with consumer protection laws, including regulations on refunds, returns, and data privacy (GDPR).
On the flip side, businesses are keen on being easily discoverable, maximising conversion rates, ensuring a smooth checkout and shipping process, and managing tax payments. This calls for careful planning and compliance.
Choosing the right ecommerce platform can equip small businesses with the tools they need to flourish. A well-designed online store can set a business apart by offering superior user experiences and stellar customer service.
Moreover, a robust online store can streamline various business operations, enabling businesses to run like a well-oiled machine.
Discovering the Best eCommerce Platform for Small Businesses in the UK
An ecommerce platform is a software solution that enables businesses to operate online, managing product listings, payments, and customer relationships.
When choosing the right platform, crucial considerations include ease of use, scalability, customisation options, affordability, and dependable customer support.
The ideal ecommerce platform should be easy to set up and manage, able to accommodate increased traffic and product expansions without performance issues.
Customisation options are essential for standing out in a competitive market and meeting specific business needs. Pricing plans should be budget-friendly while ensuring essential features are included.
Explore the Top eCommerce Solutions for Small Businesses in the UK
We have reviewed five top ecommerce platforms for small businesses in the UK, each offering unique features and benefits tailored to various business needs. Curious about which one would be best for you? Keep reading to discover more.
Shopify: Empowering Small Businesses with Versatility
When it comes to selecting the best ecommerce platform for small businesses in the UK, Shopify consistently stands out as a top contender.
This platform offers features that reduce the barriers to swiftly establishing a strong online presence for small business online stores.
Currently supporting 2,341,364 live stores globally, including a substantial presence in the UK with 176,911 online stores, Shopify’s widespread adoption highlights its reliability and appeal to startups and established businesses alike.
Ease of Use and Scalability
Shopify features an intuitive dashboard that empowers business owners to set up and manage their online stores without technical expertise. As businesses grow, Shopify’s infrastructure supports increased traffic and expands product catalogues without compromising performance.
Customisation and Flexibility
Small businesses leverage Shopify’s extensive range of themes and design options to create a distinctive brand identity and professional-looking online stores effortlessly, even without coding skills.
The Shopify Theme Store features 205 professionally designed eCommerce website templates: 13 are free, while 192 are paid. Free themes cater to budget-conscious users, while the paid options start at a one-time fee of $140 and can go up to over $400.
The templates offer extensive customisation options, allowing technical users to fine-tune their stores to meet specific requirements through additional setup.
App Integration and Enhancements
As of January 2024, the Shopify App Store hosts 9,701 apps that enhance store functionality, catering to diverse business needs. However, integrating multiple third-party apps may require additional configuration and costs.
Pricing Plans
Shopify offers tiered pricing plans tailored to various budgets and different growth stages:
Starter: $1 for the first month, then $5 per month
Basic: $32 per month ($24 per month when billed annually)
Shopify: $92 per month ($69 per month when billed annually)
Advanced: $399 per month ($299 per month when billed annually)
Shopify Plus: Starting at $2,300 per month (based on a 3-year term)
While costs can accumulate, especially with larger plans and additional apps, Shopify’s 3-day free trial and low-cost initial month provide an opportunity to test the platform before committing.
Payment Options and POS
Shopify supports over 100 payment gateways, including UK-specific options like Stripe and PayPal, ensuring secure transactions.
Shopify Payments simplifies credit card processing, enhancing the checkout experience with a streamlined one-page checkout design that speeds up completion times and improves loading speeds by up to 95%.
Shopify’s POS system facilitates seamless management of both online and offline sales from a single platform, enhancing operational efficiency.
In the UK and Ireland, the all-in-one mobile POS Go enables retailers to scan barcodes, accept payments, and manage store operations from one handheld device.
AI and Innovation
Shopify integrates advanced AI features that benefit small businesses, including AI-enabled image editing to create professional product photos and AI-powered guided search to suggest the best apps and features to meet your needs.
The platform’s AI capabilities simplify complex tasks, offer personalised advice through the AI-powered Sidekick, and enhance productivity with features like Shopify Magic for content generation and Semantic Search for refined storefront searches.
Security and Compliance
Built-in tools manage privacy and compliance across markets, providing configurable privacy settings and guidance on regulatory requirements, including VAT calculations and compliance for UK businesses.
Shopify supports merchants with comprehensive VAT registration guidance, ensuring compliance for selling on various platforms.
Customer Support
Shopify offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, phone, and email, ensuring prompt assistance for any issues.
Verdict
For small businesses in the UK, Shopify offers a scalable and comprehensive eCommerce solution with an intuitive platform and robust features. It is ideal for businesses focused on simplicity and growth.
WooCommerce: Tailored Flexibility for Online Stores
WooCommerce is a compelling choice for small businesses seeking control and customisation in their ecommerce solutions.
As a free, open-source platform designed for WordPress users, WooCommerce seamlessly integrates with existing websites, transforming them into fully functional online stores.
With 43% of the web built on WordPress and 31% of the top 1 million ecommerce websites powered by WooCommerce, it is the most popular platform and a leading choice for online stores.
With 4,798,285 live stores globally and 182,155 online stores in the UK, WooCommerce’s market share underscores its reliability and adaptability.
Ease of Use and Scalability
For many businesses already using WordPress, WooCommerce is a natural extension, seamlessly integrating commerce with content. However, as a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce requires a WordPress website to operate.
WooCommerce’s scalability makes it suitable for both new online ventures and expanding businesses.
Users can add unlimited products, take unlimited orders, and sell anything from physical products to digital downloads, subscriptions, and appointments.
However, setting up WooCommerce requires more technical knowledge compared to platforms like Shopify.
Businesses need to find their own hosting, payment gateway, website theme, and custom plugins, which can be time-consuming and complex for those without technical expertise.
Alternatively, hiring a developer to assist with site elements can range from $10 to $100+ per hour or from $1,000 to $20,000 for designing and building the entire site from scratch.
Customisation and Flexibility
WooCommerce is distinguished by its robust customisation capabilities, boasting 850 extensions, 85 themes, and numerous third-party options.
This allows businesses to tailor their online stores to their specific needs without being constrained by default settings.
Such flexibility empowers businesses to customise virtually every aspect of their store and site.
However, many extensions come at an extra cost, which adds to the overall expense. When choosing themes, businesses should consider both free and paid options.
Paid themes often provide enhanced functionality, unique advantages, and dedicated customer support. Typically, WooCommerce themes range from $20 to $100 per year.
Additionally, essential tools for managing an online store, such as advanced shipping options, may require additional investment, sometimes up to $119 per year.
The Marketplace offers a favourable refund policy: extensions and themes purchased here are eligible for a full refund within 30 days of purchase.
Pricing Plans
WooCommerce remains one of the most affordable small business ecommerce platforms available today. The platform itself is free and open-source, making it the most budget-friendly choice right from the start.
However, it does require hosting, which can range from as little as $3.99 per month to as much as $5,000 annually, averaging around $120 per year (but costs vary widely).
Hosting providers like SiteGround, Bluehost, and Pressable offer a range of plans, often with initial free or low-cost periods. UK businesses can choose local hosting providers for better performance and support.
Domain registration typically costs around $15 per year, though premium domains can be more expensive.
For those on a tight budget, it’s entirely feasible to set up a fully-functioning WooCommerce store for as little as $135 per year, covering the cost of a domain name and a basic hosting plan.
Established or well-funded stores, however, might invest significantly more depending on their scale and requirements.
Payment Options
WooCommerce integrates with all major payment gateways, enabling businesses to securely accept online payments.
Recently, WooCommerce introduced WooCommerce Payments, an integrated payment solution that empowers store owners to oversee transactions directly from the WordPress dashboard.
This feature comes with no setup charges and competitive transaction fees, simplifying the payment process for customers.
WooCommerce Payments supports a wide range of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and contactless payments, thereby enhancing the checkout experience by keeping customers on-site.
UK small businesses can easily register as merchants with WooPayments and accept payments from customers worldwide in over 100 supported currencies.
Security and Compliance
While WordPress and WooCommerce are both strong, stable platforms, various WordPress security plugins are available, ranging in cost from free to $239 per year.
Advanced Features and SEO Capabilities
WooCommerce offers advanced features such as inventory management, shipping options, secure payments, and automatic tax calculations, making it a comprehensive ecommerce solution for small businesses.
Additionally, WooCommerce integrates with SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, enhancing a store’s search engine rankings and visibility.
Customer Support
While WooCommerce lacks dedicated official support from developers, it benefits from a large and active community. This community provides extensive peer-to-peer and third-party support, contributing to the platform’s ongoing development and offering valuable resources for troubleshooting and optimisation.
Verdict
For those familiar with WordPress and comfortable with some technical setup, WooCommerce offers unmatched flexibility and customisation at a competitive price.
BigCommerce: Scaling New Heights for Small Businesses
BigCommerce is a robust and versatile open software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that stands out for its ability to provide out-of-the-box services tailored for 13 languages and predefined markets.
Currently, BigCommerce supports 43,945 live stores globally, with 6.6% of these based in the UK, totalling 2,915 stores.
This platform is particularly favoured by smaller businesses, with 48.25% employing 1-9 people, 19.96% employing 10-24 people, and 10.66% employing 25-49 people.
This distribution underscores BigCommerce’s appeal to small businesses seeking comprehensive ecommerce solutions.
Ease of Use and Scalability
BigCommerce combines sophisticated enterprise-grade functionality with ease of use, making it an ideal choice for small businesses that may not have extensive technical expertise or design skills.
The platform features a user-friendly control panel and a straightforward setup process.
Renowned for its scalability, BigCommerce effortlessly handles large product catalogues and high traffic volumes.
It supports unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth across all plans, making it an excellent option for small and mid-sized businesses with ambitious growth plans.
Customisation and Flexibility
BigCommerce enhances site customisation with a user-friendly drag-and-drop page builder and fully customisable themes featuring built-in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
It offers a range of themes, both free and paid, with the latter typically priced between $145 and $235. The recently introduced Store Design tool further enriches theme customisation capabilities.
BigCommerce excels with a robust suite of built-in features that enhance the scalability and performance of your online store.
These include advanced product options, flexible pricing rules, and comprehensive inventory management tools.
The platform supports international selling, simplifies tax management, facilitates promotional activities, and offers a broad range of marketing and conversion tools.
BigCommerce supports extensive integrations and partnerships, providing ample opportunities for customisation and functionality expansion through APIs.
While costs for some applications can exceed $1,000 per month, these features collectively empower businesses to create professional websites.
However, compared to platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce may offer slightly less flexibility for highly unique designs.
Pricing Plans
BigCommerce offers several pricing tiers:
Standard: $39 per month ($29 per month if billed annually)
Plus: $105 per month ($79 per month if billed annually)
Pro: $399 per month ($299 per month if billed annually)
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Businesses can try BigCommerce free for 15 days before selecting a plan. All plans include unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth.
The absence of transaction fees can be beneficial for small businesses with high sales volumes, even though the platform’s integrated payment fees are relatively high.
Payment Options
BigCommerce integrates with major payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Authorize.Net, supporting over 65 pre-integrated online payment solutions across 230 countries and more than 140 currencies.
This variety allows businesses to choose cost-effective payment solutions that best suit their needs. Additionally, the platform features a user-friendly one-page checkout process to streamline customer transactions.
AI and Innovation
BigCommerce continues to innovate with AI-driven tools like BigAI Copywriter for SEO-optimised product descriptions and upcoming features such as BigAI Product Recommendations powered by Google Vertex AI and BigAI Predictive Analytics built on the existing native Google BigQuery integration.
These advancements are designed to help small businesses drive sales and improve customer engagement.
Security and Compliance
BigCommerce ensures robust security measures with features like free site-wide HTTPS and dedicated SSL.
Advanced Features and SEO Capabilities
BigCommerce provides seamless support for both B2B and B2C operations. It offers built-in SEO tools and multi-channel selling capabilities, integrating with Amazon, eBay, and social media platforms, making it an ideal choice for small businesses aiming to improve visibility and expand their market reach.
The platform’s multi-storefront capability allows businesses to manage multiple stores from a single account, enhancing operational efficiency and market penetration.
Customer Support
BigCommerce provides 24/7 customer support via phone, chat, and ticket, supplemented by a comprehensive Help Centre with extensive documentation, guides, tutorials, and a community forum.
This support infrastructure is particularly beneficial for small businesses lacking in-house technical expertise.
Verdict
While customisation options are somewhat limited compared to other platforms, and integrated payment fees can be high, BigCommerce’s ease of use, scalability, robust SEO tools, and multi-channel selling capabilities make it a compelling choice.
Squarespace: Elevating Design and Functionality
Squarespace, an all-in-one platform, enables small businesses to create visually stunning online stores that captivate customers and enhance brand image.
It excels at showcasing products through high-quality images and videos, making it perfect for digital products like downloadable files, courses, and videos.
Squarespace is also ideal for creating portfolios, showcasing projects in customisable galleries, and for designing logos.
This platform is perfect for businesses prioritising aesthetics and is particularly well-suited for small businesses in creative industries where presentation and visual appeal are crucial, including content-centric sectors like social media and blogging.
Globally, Squarespace powers several million websites, with 300,452 live stores currently utilising its ecommerce features. In the UK alone, there are 23,030 live Squarespace stores.
Notably, 14.7% of these stores sell arts and entertainment products, 10.2% sell apparel, and 9.5% sell food and drink, highlighting its popularity among visually driven sectors.
Ease of Use and Scalability
Squarespace stands out for its intuitive interface and straightforward setup process, making it accessible even for users with minimal design skills and no technical expertise.
Known for its beautiful, responsive design templates and intuitive design tools, the platform offers customisable layouts that adjust to any device and screen size.
The intuitive website builder boasts a range of top-class features, accommodating various business needs on a single platform.
However, compared to some other website builders, Squarespace may be slightly less user-friendly and faces limitations in scalability.
Customisation and Flexibility
Squarespace excels with its high-quality, award-winning templates that are perfect for imagery-focused websites.
These responsive templates make it easy to showcase products with great photography, and the comprehensive style editor allows for detailed customisation without requiring coding skills.
Squarespace supports unlimited products and offers mobile-optimised websites.
The platform also offers robust blogging tools, built-in SEO features, and analytics that provide insights into traffic sources, visitor behaviour, and top products.
Squarespace introduced Squarespace Scheduling, an integrated booking system that allows businesses to manage appointments, classes, and consultations directly through their website.
This feature is particularly useful for service-based small businesses, providing all-in-one appointment management tools to automate everything from payments to reminders.
Additionally, Squarespace Extensions allow for easy integration with various third-party services from one central location.
Pricing Plans
Squarespace offers competitive pricing plans tailored to different business needs, with a 14-day free trial before you choose a plan:
Personal: $25 per month ($16 per month if paid annually)
Business: $36 per month ($23 per month if paid annually)
eCommerce (Basic): $40 per month ($28 per month if paid annually)
eCommerce (Advanced): $72 per month ($52 per month if paid annually)
These plans include free domains and essential features without transaction fees on online store plans. However, Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee on sales made under the Business plan, which can add up for businesses with high sales volumes.
Payment Options
Squarespace currently supports Stripe and PayPal for payments. Stripe integration enables businesses to accept credit card payments directly deposited into their bank accounts.
Customers can also use Apple Pay and PayPal during checkout. Setting up Stripe and PayPal accounts is quick and straightforward, allowing businesses to start accepting payments instantly.
AI and Innovation
Squarespace AI streamlines the creation of compelling product descriptions, saving time in crafting captivating text. It generates on-brand copy that accelerates the launch of online stores.
Security and Compliance
Squarespace simplifies tax management through intuitive tools available in its app. Users can effortlessly manage taxes by setting inclusive or exclusive prices and customising invoices as needed.
Customer Support
Squarespace provides 24/7 customer support via email and live chat, ensuring excellent assistance. Users can access resources such as the Help Centre, participate in webinars, or connect with experienced web designers and developers for additional support.
Verdict
Squarespace is an excellent platform for visually-driven industries, offering a compelling blend of aesthetics and functionality.
Wix: Affordable Power for Small Business eCommerce
Wix, a leading free website builder, offers an ecommerce platform ideal for small businesses, particularly those with budget constraints.
It is designed to facilitate the setup and management of simple yet professional online stores without requiring extensive technical expertise.
Recent statistics show that Wix hosts 707,377 live ecommerce stores globally, with 71,570 in the UK, demonstrating its effectiveness as a small business ecommerce platform.
Ease of Use and Scalability
Getting started is straightforward: the platform is known for its user-friendliness, featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that simplifies website design.
Wix’s infrastructure is designed for scalability, providing free hosting capable of managing high traffic, high-volume sales, and up to 750 simultaneous transactions per second.
This feature-rich ecommerce platform enables users to create and grow their online presence effectively.
However, while Wix excels for simple small storefronts, it may not scale effectively for businesses with complex needs or significant future growth plans.
Customisation and Flexibility
Wix offers extensive customisation options with over 900 free templates tailored for various ecommerce industries, from fashion to jewellery.
These stunning templates can be fully customised to suit the needs of any business. Wix features beautiful product galleries, professional store management tools, and diverse marketing capabilities, including multiple sales channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Shopping, and eBay, all managed from a single dashboard.
Additionally, Wix ensures mobile optimisation to enhance the shopping experience on all devices.
Despite these strengths, Wix’s customisation options are somewhat limited compared to more specialised platforms like Shopify or WordPress.
Pricing Plans
Wix offers a range of affordable pricing plans tailored to various business needs:
Light: $17 per month
Core: $29 per month
Business: $36 per month
Business Elite: $159 per month
Wix’s budget-friendly pricing model makes it a low-risk option for many businesses and supports those with limited budgets. Wix does not charge commissions on sales.
All plans include a custom domain. Moreover, the platform recently enhanced its capabilities with Wix eCommerce Enterprise, offering features like priority support and enhanced security for growing small businesses. Wix also provides a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Payment Options
With over 50 secure payment gateways available, Wix allows businesses to choose the solution that best suits their needs and region.
Options include the native Wix Payments solution and third-party gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. Wix supports multiple secure payment methods, including major debit/credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other popular options.
AI and Innovation
AI in Wix enables free generation of tailored images, simplifies website creation and content generation.
The AI Website Builder facilitates interaction with the AI website creator to craft bespoke sites from business narratives. Users can fine-tune design elements, text, layouts, and more using intuitive AI tools.
Wix’s AI scales content generation, speeding up writing, adjusting tone, and maintaining a consistent brand voice across all platforms.
Security and Compliance
Wix ensures PCI-compliant payment processing, adhering strictly to industry standards for securely handling credit card information.
It prioritises secure checkouts with HTTPS/TLS data encryption and employs AI and rule-based systems to detect and mitigate fraud effectively.
Additionally, for EU card payments, Wix implements 3D Secure 2 authentication at checkout.
Customer Support
Wix offers 24/7 customer support and provides quick solutions through tutorials and articles available in the Wix Help Centre.
Verdict
Wix is a robust and cost-effective ecommerce platform offering a blend of simplicity, affordability, and essential features, which makes it ideal for quickly establishing a professional online presence.
Final Thoughts on Boosting Your Small Business Online
When it comes to ecommerce platforms for small businesses, each one offers unique advantages that cater to different business needs. Understanding these strengths is crucial for making an informed choice.
From what we have seen, Shopify appears to be one of the best options available for small businesses, thanks to its user-friendly interface, scalable infrastructure, robust feature set, and extensive ecosystem of apps.
What else is great about Shopify is the support you can get around it. If you partner with a specialised Shopify agency in London, they can really enhance your online presence.
They have deep insights into the local market and can optimise everything from your store’s design and functionality to its performance in search engines and user experience.
And here is another perk: Shopify monthly retainer service. This means you get ongoing support tailored to navigating the complexities of the UK market.
This service can be a strategic investment for businesses aiming to sustain growth over the long term.
To wrap it up, each platform has its strengths, so it is important to carefully assess your business needs. Take the time to evaluate which platform aligns best with your goals and vision.
Ultimately, the decision rests with you and should be based on what feels right for your business.
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