Ecommerce entrepreneurs getting started in 2025 should look for easy-to-use platforms that won’t bust the budget.
The ecommerce industry is maturing. The first online shop — likely the Boston Computer Exchange — launched in 1982. Amazon and eBay turn 30 this year.
For the most part, the technology underpinning online selling, such as displaying products or accepting payments, is standard and reliable. Thus the difference in ecommerce platforms is not core functionality.
Bootstrapped and focused: launching an ecommerce business from the living room.
Key Elements
Entrepreneurs with limited capital and no technical help require ecommerce tools that work out of the box, grow with the business, and stay out of the way.
Thus new, bootstrapped ecommerce merchants should seek six platform characteristics, as follows:
- Easy to set up. It should be possible to launch in hours without hiring a designer or developer.
- Easy to maintain. Changing prices, updating products, and adding pages should be small tasks.
- Inexpensive or free. New entrepreneurs should invest in inventory and advertising. An ecommerce platform should be a marginal cost at worst.
- Comprehensive. The platform should perform all ecommerce functions with the stability described above.
- Able to scale. As it grows, a shop will need more features and throughput; the platform should be viable through a few million in annual sales.
- Easy to market. New stores depend on advertising. This means having good landing pages, email capture forms, or discount features such as coupon codes. Organic traffic from search engines and generative AI platforms is beyond reach, so startups require features that turn paid clicks into customers.
5 Platforms
No list of ecommerce platforms makes everyone happy. It’s especially true for the makers of the many capable software solutions not mentioned below. But here are my five recommendations for new ecommerce stores.
Shopify
Shopify, the leading industry platform, is built for growth. The Basic plan is $39.99 per month or $359 annually, plus transaction fees. That investment delivers a fully fledged online store with unlimited products, loads of payment integrations, and access to the platform’s massive app ecosystem.
It is reasonable to have a Shopify store up and running in less than an hour that can easily scale to the enterprise level.
Some parts of the platform may be confusing for a novice, but Shopify works for most ecommerce businesses.
Square Online
Ecommerce businesses sometimes originate from in-person experiences with point-of-sale software. This might be a business that sells handmade jewelry at local art shows, has an Etsy shop, and wants its own ecommerce site. Why not pick a platform from a supplier you already work with?
The Square Online platform is low-cost to start (just transaction fees) and integrates directly with Square’s POS system. The service is built on the Weebly platform, which Square acquired in 2018, and is simple to use and understand.
Ecwid by Lightspeed
The term “ecommerce platform” evolved with the software it described. Years ago, the industry called these tools “shopping carts,” and many could bolt on to just about any website someone had built.
Ecwid is both a freestanding platform and a bolt-on to an existing site, shopping cart style. So, the gardening blog turned organic seed seller doesn’t require a new website; it needs only to add Ecwid. The same is true for the social influencer selling directly from a profile page.
The Ecwid add-on is free for five products and remains reasonably priced as a store scales.
Wix and Squarespace
Drag-and-drop editors make it easy for some of the least technical ecommerce operators to produce functional and attractive online stores.
My final two recommended ecommerce platforms — Wix and Squarespace — are head-to-head competitors known for remarkable ease of use and clean website designs.
These platforms appeal to startup founders who want to prioritize branding, design, and speed to market without hiring developers. Ecommerce functionality is built in, and templates come optimized for mobile and desktop, although neither platform is ideal for scaling.
Both cost less than $30 per month to start.
Success
Every new, bootstrapped ecommerce entrepreneur would love to win the Google lottery and have hundreds of eager shoppers flood in, but organic search is not a viable way to drive site traffic to a new store.
A new shop, with relatively thin content, cannot compete for transactional intent keyword phrases against long-established ecommerce sellers.
Regardless of the ecommerce platform, success will come from paid or at least active customer acquisition.
