If there is one thing Covid 19 has taught us, is that brands now have a stong and viable channel to connect directly with consumers - and that channel is digital. With thousands of direct to consumer brands springing up, setting up your online store has never been more easy.
When starting out a new ecommerce venture, there are a lot of elements that need to be figured out - right from the ecommerce platform (which this post explains in detail), payment gateway to integrate with your ecommerce site, product photography, social media strategy, customer acquisition, customer retention, search engine optimisation & a whole lot more. There are a whole lot of specialists out there who can help you with each of these elements or you could buy a book on digital marketing to familiarize yourself.
The first step when starting out is the ecommerce platform and the number of such platforms and content management systems available has grown over the years. While they are plug and play, many of these offer custom software and platform solutions. In such a scenario, figuring out which platform to use when you’re looking to build your online store can be a fairly confusing task - especially if you aren’t from a technical/ecommerce background.  This post intends to make your research work easier by helping you choose the platform best suited for all your needs.
If you want to skip reading the blog and want our best recommendation, then head to Shopify. With over 38 lakh businesses leveraging Shopify globally its an ideal choice for most. You may also visit our D2C Centre of Excellence, D2Scale for more information.
There are two options available for building an e-commerce website – one can either use managed (hosted) e-commerce platforms like Shopify or open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) like WooCommerce or Magento.
As the name indicates, a hosted ecommerce platform is hosted on a server that you will not have access to, while CMS-based websites are self-hosted on server space (such as Bluehost) you will have to purchase. Which option to choose will depend a lot on your specific needs as well as your level of technical involvement. Below is a list of benefits of both which could help you make a choice between the two based on your business’ current requirements:
The server can also be an important aspect of how your ecommerce site is built and we usually use the Linux based servers being provided by Bluehost or Amazon Web Services. We usually refrain from using Windows based servers.
You could use this flowchart below (Click on the flowchart to enlarge) to help you arrive at a decision on whether you should go ahead with a hosted ecommerce platform or with a CMS, based on your requirements:
If you’ve decided that an online store creator would better suit your business, then below are the best platforms available for you to choose from.
Built to be a straightforward solution to building an online store, Dukaan offers an integrated package that comprises features and tools such as a website builder, various themes, payment gateway, email marketing tools, inventory management, and analytics.Â
Guiding all its merchants through every step, from setting to customization, Dukaan aims to help all kinds of businesses planning to get an online store up and running quickly.Â
While the intuitive interface and rich features tick most of your basic requirements, a few of the most powerful features of Dukaan include QR generation for your store and products, customization and rearrangement of your categories, and bulk export and change options. The best of all is that you can provide a tailored checkout experience for your customers.Â
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing**: Silver (₹2,999/ year), Gold (₹8,999/ year), Platinum (₹29,999/ year)
Shopify is one of the first names that comes to mind when one thinks of an online commerce platform. With close to 1.6 million sites using Shopify, it is the most popular hosted ecommerce platform (32,175 Shopify sites are live in India, as of 17th Jan, 2022).
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing**: Basic Shopify - $29/month, Shopify- $79/month, Advanced Shopify - $299/month.
More than 20 Lakh+ independent businesses trust Instamojo with their business. It’s one of the simplest eCommerce website-building platforms. The best part is you can set it up all by yourself in just 4 simple steps. You get a fully functional, easy-to-navigate online store that comes integrated with payments, shipping, and marketing tools. Instamojo can be used by all types of eCommerce businesses. It is your one-stop-shop for all things eCommerce.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing**: Lite (₹ 0/ year), Starter (₹3,999/ year), Growth (₹9,999/ year)
Wix has over 2000 ecommerce stores live in India, with 7% of ecommerce sites in India on the platform.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing**: Premium - INR 225/month
StoreHippo is a new entrant into the ecommerce market in India, starting in 2014.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing**: Professional - INR 2999/month, Business - INR 9999/month, Enterprise - INR 25,000/month
Bigcommerce is another popular platform, with 17% of the top 100,000 sites using hosted ecommerce solutions; and 51,977 sites overall*, being built on Bigcommerce.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing**: Standard - $29.95/month, Plus - $79.95/month, Pro - $299.95/month
Top 100000 websites using Hosted Solution technologies - Builtwith.com
If you’ve decided that a CMS is what will suit your needs best, then below are the 5 best ecommerce CMS available in the market at the moment. The most important factors which will come into consideration when zeroing in on the CMS would be the availability of extensions, availability of support, functionality, customizability and the cost of development and maintenance. All of them are open source and have free community versions and paid enterprise versions.
WooCommerce is a Wordpress platform used for building ecommerce websites and now almost 29% of the top 1 million ecommerce websites are hosted on it (and 55% of ecommerce websites in India - as of 17th Jan, 2022), making it the most popular platform in the country. A large number of Wordpress themes have the WooCommerce functionality built-in. The plugin provides almost all the features that are available in the other open-sources CMS’ listed here. WooCommerce might work out more user-friendly and cost-effective for smaller businesses as well as for those familiar with Wordpress. While it has a larger user base, entrepreneurs looking for a plug and play solution will find Shopify to be more suitable.
Pros:
Cons:
With nearly 8% of the world’s top 1 million ecommerce sites (in 2015 21% of the websites) are built on the Magento platform*, it used to be a very popular CMS. Its biggest advantages are the large number of plugins and extensions available which allow the addition of any new functionality, the ease of availability of experienced developers as well as a lower overall development and maintenance cost. Over time it has lost market share to Shopify and WooCommerce.
Pros:
Cons:
Opencart is another open source CMS for ecommerce. Though it has one of the easiest to use backends, its support systems are not as comprehensive as compared to the other platforms listed. 16% of all ecommerce websites in India use OpenCart.
Pros:
Cons:
osCommerce is one of the earliest open-source platforms available, it has a huge support base and a very active forum, though some users find that updates to the platform have not kept up with the times.
Pros:
Cons:
Top 1 Million ecommerce websites using Open Source technologies - Source - Builtwith.com
Drupal used to be a popular open source website content management system after Wordpress and Drupal commerce is the plugin for ecommerce sites built on this platform. Its seamless integration with Drupal makes creating a blog or forum much more convenient than most other ecommerce content management systems.
Pros:
Cons:
Every platform and CMS has its plus and minus points and choosing the right one depends on your business model and requirements. If you are going in for a hosted platform, Shopify might be the best option, while if you are looking for a Content Management System, then WooCommerce would most definitely work best. This, however, is based on our experience and we would love to hear what your experience says.
As the last word, switching platforms or content management systems after a store is up and running is not really a straightforward process and can truly be a nightmare. So, make sure you take a prudent and informed decision with a good amount of foresight. If you’re a retailer looking to get onto the e-commerce bandwagon, please feel free to contact us and we would be glad to assist you.
*Statistics from builtwith.com
** All price data is from the respective websites as on 17th December, 2020
Applemod2021-07-01 < Reply
Very interesting… good job. Thanks for sharing such good information.
Daler2019-08-12 < Reply
Yeah! Nice post. You have brought out the latest Indian Ecommerce Online Stores in one platform. Thanking you. I have gained much knowledge from this article.
alexdev2019-07-22 < Reply
Your blog is very nice... I got more information about your blog page... Thanks for sharing your information...
acrosoft webtech2019-04-04 < Reply
Nice Blog. Nice information share in this blog
Ayesha Rafeeq2019-04-22 < Reply
Thank you for the positive comment. Do check out our blog for more insight on Digital Marketing.
Parul Dave2018-11-05 < Reply
I would prefer Shopify if you want to create a website. Woocommerce - If you want to create an affiliate website. If you wand good functionality and features, for marketing and SEO purpose then you must try Buildabazaar
Binny2018-06-26 < Reply
The list is obsolete. Volusion and Drupal Ecommerce almost have no presence in India. Other top Indian platforms like StoreHippo, Martjack are not mentioned in the list.
keertika2018-05-28 < Reply
what is the difference between magento and magento enterprise ? aren't they both same company? how can we contact magento? is there a monthly rental charge for online store website ? pls help
Bharath2018-05-16 < Reply
I just started using BazarBit and its a customizable eCommerce platform for building your online business. Developed using the latest technology, the themes are extremely responsive and optimized for viewing on any device. With the online store builder, you can easily change your website’s UI.
Ashish Agrawal2018-01-17 < Reply
I have used Zepo and was unhappy with the platform. Its services are horrible, and customer support is also very bad. I used it, and from my 6 months experience i will recommend you not to go to Zepo
Avinash Rai2018-01-08 < Reply
Hi all, I have just looked in the offers Kartrocket, Shopify & Zepo are too expensive for me.. I would like to get one e-commerce website developed for me . I have decided to go with Magneto or Opencart. Kindly suggest me who is the best and cost-effective web hosting company and domain registrar compatible to host Magneto or Opencart application. and what is to be done to integrate my website to integrate to other market place with dynamic inventory management and shipment tracking ? please help me ..
Justine Paul2017-12-07 < Reply
why dont you guys consider messengerify? it will provide remedy for almost all cons of existing crms
Anamika262017-10-29 < Reply
Thanks for these best ecommerce platforms, I am also thinking of creating a product comparison website.
Jose2017-02-15 < Reply
I use woocommerce in my shop, is pretty fast but need a lot of works to make it run smoothly. Great post btw i'll share with my webmaster friends
Rishika2017-01-13 < Reply
Thanks a lot for this informative article. Your in depth analysis is really useful for potential vendors, who wants to start an e commerce store.
Deepak Jangra2016-12-28 < Reply
Sir, i jus created a e-commerce website in wordpress with woocommerce but i want to integrate sellers in website. So that they can sell their products by paying me some commission. Kindly please tell me how can i do this in my website.
Intlum2016-11-25 < Reply
Magento is far better than others. Simply because it is more SEO friendly. Always go for magento web developers.
LSNetX2016-11-22 < Reply
I love kartrocket, martjack and LSNetX as the best ecommerce platform providers in India.
avinash2016-10-14 < Reply
Very detailed analysis on the ecommerce platforms. Any of the new ones worth trying out?
Kumar2016-10-11 < Reply
We would like to develop a tour and activity marketplace. Can we develop on Magento or which platform is suggested. Any developers based in Chennai with experience in marketplace development would be preferred
Team Social Beat2016-10-03 < Reply
Definitely. Magento is one of leaders, though Wordpress/Woocommerce and Shopify are catching up.
Bikash2016-09-28 < Reply
There is lots of product comparison website in India. I tried woo commerce but they are good only for a niche website. But I want to make a big product comparison website. Can you tell me what things it need (I know web scrapping) something extra?
Rupesh Mishra2016-09-01 < Reply
How could you possibly miss Storehippo, I am using their Multi seller from last 6 months, and it works like a wonder.
Cynthia2016-08-02 < Reply
Magento is quickly becoming a favorite e-commerce platform.
Balaji2016-07-30 < Reply
Very Nice Article to decide which platform to choose for a online store.Great Work!!!. My Query: bigbasket.com is the current proven online retail store which is a very successful product.Is Magento Platform scalable upto the level of bigbasket.com If i use Magento platform can i scale upto bigbasket.com in below technical aspects: 1)UI/UX look & feel for customers 2)Speed 3)Features of a good ecommerce site 4)Customization Thanks in advance for your help. Regards, Balaji
Chhaya2016-06-10 < Reply
I need to extend my services online in addition to the current brick & mortar model. There is no physical product involved here & it's the service executed offline which will be paid for online. Clients to start would be about 5-10 to scale up to around 100 in about a year. Please suggest whether a custom platform or a hosted / CMS solution needs to be used with your recommendation
Paul Simmons2016-06-07 < Reply
Good work, You have properly explained all the shopping carts. I would prefer Magento as their are lots of free & premium Magento extensions & themes.
Aditi Giri2016-03-31 < Reply
Hey, You have shared some nice information in this post. Thanks for sharing the post.
Mihir gadhvi2016-03-30 < Reply
WooCommerce is best platform na ...???
Ahmed2016-03-12 < Reply
I would not recommend shopify specifically to indian business startups as it lacks basic functionality like availability of cash on delivery payment method based on pin codes. Moreover the options available for discount coupons are very less like no option to exclude already on sale products from the coupon. There is no peer for shopify cdn in India and hence it causes large loading times when they face any technical issues. New features are added taking into consideration of US ecommerce market and some of the features are not useful for indian store owners.
Mani2016-03-11 < Reply
Very good article explained in a lucid way. I have a query i am interested in starting an ecommerce website to book birthday and other parties andprovide service. Could you help me decide whether to go in for Hosted platforms or CMS , though after reading the artcile above feel CMS is an overkill for the kind of business i am looking forward doing. Thanks for the help
Rohit2016-03-06 < Reply
Social Beat... I see very little or no coverage of BOOSTMYSALES by Navsoft. Will be good to see a comparative report on that and others. Well, I am looking for a TEA marketing platform for India as well as global. Further, also want something that has a 2 level Affiliate Program module or option. Integration with Indian as well as major global marketplaces is required too. I see most service providers in India limiting international marketplace integration with just Amazon and EBay ---- there are others in Japan, China, Europe and USA too. Would appreciate a cost effective suggestion. I was till now looking into KARTROCKET, BOOSTMYSALES, ECWID, etc. Need a proper solution. SKUs will be below 100. Thanks.
zoee nora2016-03-03 < Reply
with 100 retailers having 5-7 products each one.total number of product is 500-700 .basically i will sell special type of ladies garments in mumbai only and the customers are also from mumbai(only).which will be best shopify or zepo? or any other platforms which will suit me .
Kunal2016-02-27 < Reply
Very informative article. I feel Magento is best e-commerce platform among various software platforms, frameworks and technologies.
Veenu2016-01-21 < Reply
Very nice post. But there are some more very known e-commerce platforms that are missing in this post can be added. These are: cs.cart, yo!kart and wix. These too are counted as top platforms these days as these are being featured in many magazines like fobes, inc etc.
Asha2016-01-15 < Reply
Hi, can anyone help me with selection of e commerce platform between Infibeam and Store Hippo
venkatesh2016-01-06 < Reply
which is best platform to create an shopping cart in open source product.
Jagpreet singh2015-12-21 < Reply
Hi, I am looking for a company to make a ecommerce website to sell ladies garments and manage for me as well. Please give me the best to start because we are direct importer of ladies western wear and now planing to expand.
Social Beat2015-12-22 < Reply
Thanks for reaching out Jagpreet. Our team has emailed with details to set up a call and take the discussion ahead.
prashant2015-12-21 < Reply
Hi , Currently i am selling products on eCommerce giants in India. Now i want to expand and have my own ecommerce website.Based on you above article, i have decided to go for 'hosted platform' . Can you please let me know what are some good options (in terms of low costs and reliability) available in India. Thanks . Prashant Singh
Social Beat2015-12-22 < Reply
You could try Shopify & Zepo and see how comfortable you are with them. Both are good options.
M. Sarkar2015-12-12 < Reply
Hello, I am planning to start an handloom apparel store soon, the total number of products will be below 100, but I am confused between Shopify and Zepo. Which will be a better option and also please comment on the cost factor as Zepo has increased its monthly prices and Shopify charges in USD (also the overall charges of Shopify are not very clear from their website).
Social Beat2015-12-22 < Reply
You can start with Zepo as its based in India and likely to cater better to your requirements but both options are good. Do look at the themes/designs each of them offer .
Ankit A.2015-12-10 < Reply
Hi, I am planning to start my ecommerce Tshirt store, so can you please suggest me which platform should i go for? Also i would like to know whether shopify provides COD facility? Any suggestions would be warmly welcomed. Thank you in advance. Regards Ankit Agarwala
Social Beat2015-12-22 < Reply
No, Shopify currently doesnt offer COD so you could opt for Zepo. They have partnered with AVN to help with logistics and COD facility.
Shweta2015-12-01 < Reply
Very useful information guys. I'm planning a website to list all service providers required by a mother. Which platform would you recommend?
Social Beat2015-12-01 < Reply
Hi Shweta, for a listings website, a custom designed Wordpress website turn out great. Let us know if you need any help and we would be glad to discuss the project with you.
Shaan Agarwal2015-11-26 < Reply
In addition to the above, COD will be the basis of the business, and i heave heard that shopify doesnt support that, is that true ?
Social Beat2015-12-01 < Reply
Hi Shaan, Shopify does support COD payments but they dont manage it for you. Zepo on the other hand has partnered with AVN to provide COD & Logistics. But you could partner with any third party logistics for COD and then enable the feature in Shopify.
Varun2015-11-26 < Reply
Hi Social Beat, a little late to the post, and yet still very relevant one feels. Would like your insight. I need to rebuild my website which is primarily a gadgets and electronics commerce site. Have all told maybe around 200 skus. But my main concern is that beyond ecommerce i have a few other requirements. Like we have a Support page (with a web form etc), news/press page (with cms of its own), also some additions like integrating a chatting service (like tawk.to or others) and a proprietary product registration service. Which platform do you recommend? Shopify seems closed off to customizations (like a product registration section). Magento i keep hearing requires more technical resource... so Wordpress/Woocommerce then?
Social Beat2015-12-01 < Reply
Hi Varun, Given you requirements for customization, WooCommerce or Magento would be the best options. Magento has more ecommerce functionality built in, but does require an experienced team to develop the website. Woocommerce is relatively cheaper and easier to develop and manage. So, based on your budget, you can take a call.
Janaki2015-11-19 < Reply
Hi, We are maintaining a site and we need to implement ecommerce framework and some integrations with it... but it will be in a small city and the expense is low.. which framework would i prefer to?
Social Beat2015-11-25 < Reply
Hi Janaki, Shopify would probably be the simplest platform to get started, if you purchase a theme.
reviewresults2015-10-17 < Reply
Does open cart or woocommerce has inbuilt plugin for caching machanism.
Divvya Prakash2015-10-16 < Reply
hi, Thanks for the info.. we would like to open our designer women gamrnets E Comm ..plz advice .. we are starting with some 6-7 categories with 10-15 design initially..and love to go beyond as per market neeeds.. looking forward for your reply regards Divvya Prakash
Social Beat2015-12-01 < Reply
Hi Divya, please drop us an email at team at socialbeat.in and we would be glad to discuss this further.
Parth2015-09-02 < Reply
hello, I am planning to have a startup based on idea somewhat similar to airbnb(dot)com. it needs to have 2 types of users, now who provides and one who uses the commodity, can you please suggest me a platform with which i can cater my needs?
Sree2015-08-06 < Reply
Hello, I need a cms solution that can build a classified site like craigslist, that can allow bboth the admin and the users to place the new content in the site. I have tried hard coding but I just wnat to try hands on a CMS tool. Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks..!!
Himanshu2015-08-04 < Reply
Hi kindly suggest as we wanted to launch a shopping portal just similar to loginkart (dot) com can u guide us on which platform it has been created and what will be the approx cost in running or operating such a site.
Manjunath2015-07-30 < Reply
Dear Social Beat, Greetings! We are to be launching a brand new ecommerce portal very soon on the likes of jabong and myntra. However, a few questions for you to comfort us. We've started with magento, and have the desired workforce ready and in place. Is Magento open source alone enough with workforce coupled with customisation for scalability or should we look at an enterprise edition of magento which costs almost as much as 77000 USD. We will start with 3000+ SKU and about 50 Categories and will ramp up to close to 30K + SKUs by end of year. Kindly suggest if we should forego magento and all other opensources but hire a strong PHP team to build our own cms which has no scalability issues? Thanks in advance, Manjunath
Social Beat2015-07-31 < Reply
Thanks for writing in Manjunath. The costs vary significantly if the platform is being built inhouse. Moreover, security, scalability and functionality upgrades become an issue. So most startups start with an open source or plug and play platform to keep the costs low.
Akshay Singh2015-07-22 < Reply
Looking for e-commerce consultant. Planning to launch our e-tail store /revamping our existing websites.
Social Beat2015-07-25 < Reply
Hi Akshay - Thanks for reaching out to us. Our team shall reach out to you at the email address provided by you while commenting on the blog.
bunny2015-07-16 < Reply
Hi, I am exploring various options for my website and mobile app. that has among other requirements social media integration, frequent content changes and quick speed for mobile users. While initial numbers and coverage is small, plan is to take it to several metros over 12-18 months time. One of the developers suggests Wordpress while couple of others say it is not appropriate given my requirements. Pleas advise!!
Sandeep Verma2015-07-02 < Reply
for Gold /silver price calculation , as gold/silver price changes daily so its not possible to change each article price manually. Kindly suggest some opensource e-com platform which have such feature to calculate. product will be around 300-500 initially, as of now i have decide opencart, but not sure of business logic implementation
Social Beat2015-07-02 < Reply
Hey Sandeep - This functionality is posibble in Magento with a custom pricing based on gold/silver rates. It requires some programming skills but your web development team should be able to accomplish that. StackOverflow Forums can be seen to understand this issue better.
Mudit2015-06-11 < Reply
I Want to Host a website with more than 12000 Products....And more than 500 Categories... Please recommend I Am Going forward with Prestashop...Would You Recommend Going with it or shall i move to magento...And what about the security Issues..i Want to host a website like Snapdeal or flipkart in future where sellers can sell their Products,,.. Please Suggest
Social Beat2015-06-26 < Reply
Hi Mudit, for such a large website Magento (or custom built platform) would be ideal. There are a few paid extensions which allow for supplier login.
Namita2015-06-10 < Reply
Fantastic compilation of facts. Keep up the good work. Reassuring to know that I picked the right partner - shopify. It is ridiculously easy and truly fun to upload my store. Now, I am waiting for the customers :) - any leads on h2 improve eyeballs, visitors to the site and enable me to understand h2 convert them into 'loyal' customers? Cheers N
akhil2015-05-06 < Reply
hi, thanks for the article. I like to borrow your infographic for my blog. Tell me about it
Social Beat2015-05-07 < Reply
Thanks for reaching out Akhil. Our team will reach out to you and send you the Infographic. Feel free to use it on your blog (but please do cite our blog as the source).
Mala2015-05-03 < Reply
Wow.. what a Comparison it clears my all question regarding this two platform for ecommerce. thanks. We are looking for WordPress Woocommerce theme for our Spiritual website
Ishita2015-04-08 < Reply
Hi, I'm launching a website for kids and baby products, with nearly 1000 products. Which platform would you recommend?
Ramesh2015-04-02 < Reply
But in general they say drupal is not advisable for ecommerce due to performance issues. Is that true?
MADHUSUDEN2015-03-26 < Reply
I want to sell my own brand of groceries online. Magento CMS have decided to go in for building website. I need to have payment options online as well. Initially my number of products will be around 50SKU's and gradually will build 100-150SKU's. Kindly advise, is it right to go ahead with the decision taken. I also want to know, if I can use Zepo for initial sales to see the growth and then go ahead with Magento website design. Need your opinion.
Social Beat2015-03-27 < Reply
Thanks for writing in Madhusuden - Since its just 50 products to start with Zepo or Shopify might be good options to try out the success of the business model. A magento installation also requires more technical expertise especially when hosted on cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services.
Gauri2015-03-06 < Reply
Hi, Planning to work on a knowledge based portal. I need to integrate an LMS (maybe Moodle) with a CMS. Which one would you suggest Magento or Drupal?
Social Beat2015-03-09 < Reply
Dear Gauri, for Moodle or other LMS it is better to use Wordpress or Bootstrap because Magento is predominantly for ecommerce and for sites which need to sell. Wordpress (with Woocommerce in case you are planning to collect payments) would be more apt. Do let us know if we can help in this regard.
Samskrita2015-02-28 < Reply
Thanks for the mention guys! Team Zepo
Rohit2015-02-25 < Reply
Can you please recommend the best platform for photography ecommerce?
Srijith S2015-06-05 < Reply
An eCommerce platform never depends on the kind of the product. Can you please tell the number of products, category, and customers. If product count exceed 1000 magento is the best option. No Other CMS has such a vast functionality. And the number of extensions and easiness to extend through custom module makes its more powerful.
Kathirvel2015-02-14 < Reply
hi i like to start up an online store for my apparels, i am a manufacture of apparels & can you please suggest me a best ecommerce platform for my business. i am having around 40-50 SKU's right now. awaiting for your reply
Social Beat2015-02-14 < Reply
Hi Kathirvel, considering its a small number of SKUs we would recommend going in for the one of the hosted platforms like Shopify or Zepo.
Sanjeev2015-01-28 < Reply
Hello team, It is really very nice side.. I wanted to have ecommerce site for multiple products.. Number of products would be 400-500SKU categories would be 10-12 need to update new catelogue of product on weekly basis or remove the product in case of stock out. hope you understand and suggest good options Thanks Sanjeev
Social Beat2015-01-28 < Reply
Thanks for sharing your inputs Sanjeev. Since its a mid size site we would recommend going in for a CMS. Depending on whether you are going to scale up the number of products in the future you can look at WooCommerce. Magento requires more technical expertise to set up but would be a better choice if you are going to scale to 1000 or 2000 products in the next 8-12 months. Else go for WooCommerce. On the other hand if you just wanna get started and try out ecommerce then check out Zepo.
Jitendra2015-01-22 < Reply
Hi, Could you please let me know which platform to use for developing a price comparison site for around 7-10 product categories with a few sub categories. Example - money.co.uk / kliki.com
Social Beat2015-01-23 < Reply
Thanks for reaching out Jitendra. Your requirement is a bit unique because its not direct product selling (which is what most of these platforms support). You could explore Magento or WooCommerce or perhaps even a custom platform of your own as price comparison (and crawling of other sites for information) is not a feature that comes built in. Hope that helps.
Amit2015-01-20 < Reply
Very useful analysis. I'm planning to start a jewellery ecommerce store - which platform would you recommend?
Pratyaksh2015-06-30 < Reply
I would suggest you to go with Presashop - It is easy to install, Free open source ecommerce software. You can use Hostinger for free/paid hosting. All this will be done at very low cost. After when you get settled up, you can expand. Thank you.
Social Beat2015-01-20 < Reply
Hi Amit, can you tell us the scale of your store for us to better understand. Number of products/categories along with extent of customization would help determine which platform is best suited.