Template Comparisons of the Top Shopping Platforms

The template and the design of your online store are what help solidify a user’s first impression of your company. If you’ve got a site that is unique and yet still easy to figure out, then you’ve hit a home run. Otherwise, you’ll watch your business crash and burn in a short span of time. However, this can easily be avoided with a shopping cart software that offers the best templates and customization options specific to your business. That’s why prior to selecting a shopping cart, it’s important to figure out exactly what your business wants and needs out of it.

Go ahead and make a list if that’s what it takes! Once you have a clear picture, only then are you prepared to start figuring out which shopping cart you should choose. Beware, though, the task at hand isn’t as easy as you’d expect it to be. Many of the shopping carts offered today and great. However, fortunately, we’ve got your back and have personally selected some of the top shopping carts out there.

Ecommerce Templates Shopping Cart Software

Shopping Cart Elite

Shopping Cart Elite is notorious for their impressive set of features. They are most suitable for larger businesses, however, they are scalable, so small businesses can also easily work with them. Additionally, since they offer extensive functionality, companies are able to make their business work the way they want it to, on the contrary of how the technology wants to run.

They have nine premium templates but don’t let that stop you from customization. The models that are used for their unique design lies in their “master/live” template. These templates allow you to combine parts from individual ones in order to make an entirely brand new site. The master templates respond on mobile devices with ease and they are ensured to always work with any updates.

Additional ways to edit include using the WYSIWYG editor that’s located in administration or if you want to make significant changes, you have access to the CSS3/HTML5 source code. However, if coding is not your strong suit, they also provide users with Blocks, which is a drag and drop editor, allowing you to make changes on your site that will appear immediately upon every edit.

However, if you are someone who prefers to pay SCE in order to get the desired look, that option is on the table, too.

SCE websites end up turning out very stunning because of how well both the software and hardware work in unison. A few other features that they offer include:

• Predictive search, which helps users find what they want by making a prediction based on what they’re typing.
• Smart search, which utilizes an algorithm that was made on the basis of a ranking system. In other words, the keywords searched are then matched up to any keywords found in your items.
• Fast page load speed.
• True live inventory, which reserves products as soon as they’re being checked out.
• Intelligent live chat, which predicts what the user is trying to find prior to when they begin chatting.
• Social reviews, which emails the buyer right after making a purchase, asking them to review the item.
• Product bundles, which supports all sorts of bundles whether it be a combo, a kit, etc.
• Upsell, which allows the user to cross match categories, items, and similar products in bulk with ease directly from the backend.
• User-friendly, and so much more!

Shopify

Shopify is well known for their ease of use, their large number of integrations, nice templates, and powerful design tools. However, their number of features is limited and extra add-ons are often required.

Shopify offers 61 mobile responsive themes. Out of those 61, ten of them are free. The themes that they offer users are often professional, sleek, and make it easy for customers to use.

Editing them is doable on Shopify as well. You can use their WYSIWYG editor in order to edit on the spot. Their backend theme editor lets users make small adjustments such as the background, images, and colors, for example, all without the need for knowing how to code.

They’ve also brought in a concept called Sections, which is another way to edit. It’s very similar to a drag and drop editor and you can use it with a few themes that they’ve chosen. However, should you know how to code, Shopify does offer a code editor. The themes that they offer, though, are built with their own language called Liquid. Apparently, it’s not that difficult to learn or to use, but it’s definitely inconvenient to have to learn another language.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is well known in the ecommerce shopping cart community for its many features, appealing design templates, as well as their easy-to-use design tools. However, it is difficult to customize with this platform. Additionally, they are mostly only useful for smaller companies since they don’t offer enough bigger features for the larger companies.

This shopping cart offers two main kinds of pre-made templates. They’ve got legacy Blueprint ones as well as Stencil ones. However, the Stencil ones are the upgraded version, which is why it’s best to use them or switch to them, should you currently be using a Blueprint one. Stencil takes advantage of easier functions in order to make edits to your site. In other words, coding isn’t required in order to make changes.

Stencil offers 127 themes, with around 508 variations. 7 themes, so 25 variations, are free. Every single one of them is completely mobile responsive.

Verdict

Although each one of these shopping carts is quite similar in that they’re popular amongst users and have garnered a majority of positive reviews, I’d personally say that Shopping Cart Elite does stand out a bit more than the rest due to their scalability and features offered. Additionally, it’s great that they cater to every user due to the number of different ways that they offer users to edit the website.