The 8 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Large Companies

For larger businesses and enterprises, our extensive research and platform testing found Shopify is the best choice for setting up your online store – as well as being one of our top rated free ecommerce platforms –  closely followed by the ecommerce industry titan BigCommerce.

No matter how big your business may be, in this chaotic post-COVID era, you don’t have time to search for and test different software yourself. That’s why we’ve conducted extensive research into the best ecommerce platforms for large companies, rigorously testing them and creating unique overall ratings out of five for each one.

We finalised our ratings by hand-testing each platform’s sales tools and website functions, and examining their inventory management and marketing features, paying particular attention to their multichannel integrations. For large companies, these are the most important areas of ecommerce.

Below, you’ll find a quick overview of the eight platforms that topped our research results, followed by individual reviews and real life examples of large companies using that platform.

Shopify (4.6/5)

Best for inventory management

Shopify review

Currently supporting the websites for Heinz and The Economist, Shopify is a heavy-hitting platform. And its hits have only gotten heavier, with their score increasing from an already solid 4.3 to a stellar 4.6.

That’s no surprise when you consider Shopify’s powerful and user-friendly inventory management features. We particularly liked how you can upload multiple products at once, generate daily revenue reports, and view all your multi-channel sales in one place.

Shopify’s multi-channel selling is excellent – enabling you to sell via Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and more – but you will have to install additional apps to do so (in contrast to BigCommerce). You’ll also need to install an app if you want to sell subscription-based products.

While Shopify supports an impressive 100+ payment processors, making it easier for your business to make sales across the globe, you’ll need to pay transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments (again, unlike BigCommerce). You can get even more information in our full Shopify review.

Shopify pricing

Similar to BigCommerce, one of Shopify’s three price plans is aimed at large companies, while it also offers a bespoke plan, ‘Shopify Plus’, for businesses generating £1,500 or more per month in revenue:

BigCommerce (4.4/5)

Best for international growth

BigCommerce review

Used by household names like Ben and Jerry’s and Toyota, BigCommerce is clearly one of the best ecommerce platforms for large companies.

In our testing, we were impressed by its seamless integration with all the main social media channels, plus Amazon and eBay, which could help your store reach enormous audiences across the globe.

BigCommerce also provides lots of SEO (search engine optimisation) guidance while you’re uploading products, so you can improve your site’s visibility on Google’s results pages. Your business can scale even further by signing up to the bespoke ‘Enterprise’ plan, with pricing based on your annual sales figures.

Don’t forget, these are all in-built features that are being continually updated, so there are no unexpected costs to worry about – unlike with Shopify, which relies on third party apps for some ecommerce functions. Another plus for BigCommerce is that, in contrast to Shopify, BigCommerce waives its own transaction fees. 

Though it dropped points due to our research participants finding it difficult to use, and restrictive in terms of design flexibility, BigCommerce’s significant advantages mean it’s still the best ecommerce platform for large companies.

BigCommerce pricing

BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial period and three price plans, with the ‘Pro’ plan aimed at large companies. It also offers an ‘Enterprise’ plan for businesses earning over £300k per year, with custom pricing.

It’s worth noting that BigCommerce is the only platform that requires certain revenue brackets for your business to qualify for each plan.

Wix (4.4/5)

Best value for money

Wix review

Ensuring the success of your large business means cutting costs where you can, which is where Wix comes in. Its value for money also makes it an excellent alternative to Shopify.

Wix is far cheaper than BigCommerce and Shopify, and provides SEO guides, intuitive design tools, and access to the Ecwid app (costing £0–£99 per month, on top of your Wix subscription, depending on the size of your store), which gives your site powerful ecommerce tools to rival the more expensive platforms – all on a £20 per month price plan, which is actually Wix’s second-most expensive. You can read more about its pricing in our full Wix Ecommerce review.

Like Shopify, Wix relies on third party apps for most of its multi-channel integration, which will increase your monthly costs. It’s also worth remembering that you’ll be unable to switch templates after you’ve gone live, but you are able to preview your site before publishing.

Wix pricing

Wix offers a 14-day free trial period and three ecommerce-specific plans. The most suitable plan for large companies is the Business VIP plan (remember you can install the ECWID app for extra ecommerce functionality):

WooCommerce (4.1/5)

Best for building a store from scratch

WooCommerce review

WooCommerce is the ecommerce plugin that turns your WordPress site into a powerful online store.  As an open-source platform, it’s free to install and you can build a totally unique website from scratch, as long as you know how to code, or hire a web developer to help you.

Unlike using website builders (that’s every other platform on this article), you’ll need to source and pay for your own web hosting (we recommend Bluehost), security, and domain name.  You’ll also need to handle all your site’s updates and maintenance, but that should be simple work for your IT department.

That said, WooCommerce is not for tech beginners, but it does offer limitless customisation, which can help you create a truly bespoke website without relying on templates.

WooCommerce pricing

As an open-source platform, WooCommerce offers no set price plans. It’s free to install, but you’ll need to pay for different services in order to build a successful online store:

• Web hosting (we recommend Bluehost at £14 per month)
• Domain name (£10 per year)
• Security (£8 per year)
• Themes (£0 to £100+)
• Other plugins (£0 to £300+per year)
• Web developer fees (£70+ per hour)

Square (4.1/5)

Best for simplicity

Square review

In stark contrast to WooCommerce is Square, the all-in-one package that’s ideal for time-conscious users.

It’s the best ecommerce platform for large companies that need a new website built within an hour, and don’t mind using one brand (Square) to provide both the online store and payment processor. Square packs a punch for such a simple platform, offering multi-channel integration, abandoned cart recovery emails, and excellent revenue and traffic reports. 

However, it does appear quite restrictive when you consider its limited design options, and its single available payment processor (you can install PayPal on the most expensive price plans, though), which isn’t ideal for large companies.

Square pricing

While it’s one of the best free ecommerce platforms, we recommend that you sign up to at least the ‘Premium’ plan, which is aimed at large companies:

Squarespace (4.1/5)

Best for combining design with impressive sales features

Squarespace review

Squarespace is one of the bigger names in website creation, and is especially useful for those looking to combine sleek design with a bevy of sales features.

Squarespace has one of the better selection of plans when it comes to value for money, as it’s extremely affordable. And with its focus on sleek and eye-catching design comes a very easy-to-use builder.

Squarespace doesn’t offer the best stock monitoring capabilities, however. This means that it lends itself better to businesses like event planning or graphic design – businesses where you don’t sell physical products. It’s also not exactly known for its site speed performance.

Squarespace pricing

Our pick for the best Squarespace tier is the Basic Commerce plan, costing £23 per month. The other two plans on offer are the Business plan, costing £17 per month, and the Advanced Commerce plan, priced at £35 per month.

PinnacleCart (3.5/5)

Best for dropshipping

PinnacleCart review

At first glance, PinnacleCart scores our lowest score, but a 3.2 is still a serviceable platform, depending on what you’re looking for.

As far as positives go, PinnacleCart offers a great range of templates, meaning that you can design and customise your site to your satisfaction. There are also built-in email marketing and SEO tools, which, while not the most comprehensive, can save you money rather than having to buy another software for these functions.

On the more sour end of things, PinnacleCart’s pricing is steep, with even its lowest tier costing a fair bit more than other platforms’ middle tiers. It also has pretty limited storage and bandwidth, which is never what you want in a website. You also can’t use physical POS systems, meaning you’ll have to adopt PayPal or Stripe.

PinnacleCart pricing

Pinnacle cart offers three tiers.

Americommerce (3.4/5)

Best for operating in a B2B landscape

Americommerce review

Americommerce is one of our lowest scorers, but it still has something to offer for the right customer.

Americommerce comes packed with several useful tools, like a cloning tool. Customer support is known to be friendly and accessible, and it’s also nice that there is a wide variety of payment tiers on offer, meaning you won’t have to spend more than you want.

However, it scores low for a reason. The interface is notoriously difficult to navigate, and the backend features can be a bit lacking depending on what you’re looking for. For example, there is little to no documentation, meaning you’ll have to do this yourself.

Americommerce pricing

Americommerce is split into a whopping five tiers, each named after a precious metal, which is quite fun. The main difference in tiers, despite the price, is the amount of products users can have on their site.

Expert verdict

Following an extensive period of research and testing, we’ve selected and reviewed the best ecommerce platforms for large companies available in the UK. You may already know which platform is right for you, but let’s recap the top three…

Shopify is our top recommendation, with its powerful inventory management and robust selection of sales features.

In close second is BigCommerce and its superb international growth potential, followed by Wix and its combination of affordable price plans and impressive ecommerce features.

The main reason these are the best ecommerce platforms for large companies is because they provide multi-channel integration. This feature is crucial for your business in reaching new audiences across the world and boosting sales, which is what running a large company is all about.

How We Ranked the Best Ecommerce Platforms for Large Businesses