Creating an online store does not need to be hard. There are thousands of eCommerce stores created online every day. This is the new trend among internet marketers in 2016 and eCommerce stores are also now widely used for drop shipping and making money.

So what is eCommerce?

Ecommerce is setting up an online store to sell goods online, which involves listing of products to sell , managing inventory and payments gateways for processing payments. It’s normally an all in one solution rather than just a shopping website.

Different types of eCommerce platforms and options

There are different options available for eCommerce , you could go the cheap affordable way and build a website and add payment gateway options or then you can get a proper monthly eCommerce hosting option ( price range from $25 to 30 a month) and then get the whole eCommerce suite, that is Listing of your products , inbuilt seo and marketing options. Notifications on sale,   abandoned shopping cart notifications, email list management, inventory management and inbuilt payment processing options for many types of payment accepted.

The cheaper option a I told you is the setting up a word press website and adding payment options like the free woo commerce plugin, which is a more affordable option.

Choosing the right e-Commerce company helps in reducing may problems you can avoid in the future like Site's Performance, payment processing issues, user-friendliness and store design errors and support.

Top 5 Ecommerce platforms for 2016

To create an online shop , if you have a lot of products and need to manage inventory easily with your payments and refunds integrated , then you will need to go for a professional eCommerce hosting solution. Below are some of the top eCommerce providers.

1. Bigcommerce

Big commerce is an Australian based eCommerce shop provider that enables you to do everything from A TO Z including setting up your shop, marketing it & receiving payments for goods sold.

2. Shopify

Shopify is the big commerce competitor and   provides the same service, they both have trials for you to check out their service before you buy

3. 3d cart

This is a more focused shopping cart service that is now expanded to many more functions and if you got a website, you can just get this and start your online store.

4. Volusion

Volusion is also one of the big eCommerce providers that provide custom eCommerce solutions and has a wide range of pricing plans, just like the other providers.

There are many factors to look out for when you are creating an online store, does your hosting provider provide https and secure browsing , is payment processing integrated , do they have professional looking shop templates included, do they have a pricing plan to suit your needs, is it easy to set up and many more. Look for what you need and then choose the right provider to make you shop set up easy , so that you can focus on the more important tasks. Good luck!