Compare the best enterprise eCommerce platforms of 2020

There’s a vast selection of medium and enterprise eCommerce platforms in 2020 – all you want to know is which is the best for your business. 

With so many different features, functionalities and guides to choose from, it can be hard knowing what you need and who to trust. 

At Expandly, we integrate your accounting software, marketplaces, WHMs, 3PL and ERP systems with leading enterprise eCommerce platforms – making us perfectly impartial to advise on the pros and cons of each. 

So we have. 

This guide to the best medium and enterprise eCommerce platforms in 2020 gives you everything you need to begin making an informed choice about which eCommerce solution to use for your enterprise or medium-sized online retail venture.

Let’s dive in. 

Contents

What is an eCommerce platform?

What to look for in an eCommerce platform?

Medium and enterprise eCommerce platform – 2020 comparison

Comparison chart

Magento Commerce

Shopify Plus

Big Commerce Enterprise

WooCommerce

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

SAP Hybris

What is an enterprise eCommerce platform?

An enterprise eCommerce platform is a software system that powers you to run an eCommerce website and take online orders. 

Medium and enterprise platforms differ from standard platforms because they can:

-Handle high website traffic and order volume

-Assist you with advanced seller tools and metrics

-Integrate with your existing ERP software and sales channel(s)

-Scale with your business. 

They are also great for taking your business direct to consumer – allowing you to establish your brand online by yourself.

What to look for in an enterprise eCommerce platform 

The best medium and enterprise eCommerce platform is one that meets your needs now and in the future. 

Therefore, before searching for “the one”, it’s necessary to answer the following questions first:

-What are your short-term goals?

-What are your long-term goals?

-What are your current challenges?

-What are your future challenges? 

The eCommerce software best for your needs will largely come down to functionality vs price. Will a cheaper solution meet your needs and solve your problems? Or do you need to up your budget to benefit from functionality that will propel your business forward?

Medium and enterprise eCommerce platform – 2020 comparison

We looked at the current enterprise eCommerce comparison blogs out there and felt that you could do with something a little better to help guide you.

We’ve included a platform breakdown below of the pros, cons, existing users and price, but we’ve also included this:

This is your side-by-side comparison chart for comparing the top eCommerce platforms for your business. You’re welcome.

Now onto the comparisons.

Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce is a popular platform, thanks to its sophisticated functionality that allows enterprise and medium-sized brands to build one-of-a-kind shopping experiences. 

Pros

Key features of Magento Commerce include:

• Huge customisation potential, scaling with your business
• Customer-friendly design, with great product navigation
• An active developer community and app market
• Ability to handle up to five thousand products and thousands of transactions per hour.

Cons

Drawbacks of Magento Commerce include:

• Layered software and complicated architecture
• The difficulty of finding Magento developers
• Reportedly long wait times for support
• The requirement of ongoing development support.

Example brands

Magento Commerce is trusted by over 260,000 brands including HP Asia-Pacific, Helly Hansen, British Heart  Foundation, Tile Giant, Paul Smith and Loake. 

Pricing

Magento Commerce pricing is based on GMV but is rumoured to start from $22,000 per year.

Find out more here

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is an enterprise version of the popular eCommerce platform Shopify. It’s considered by some as the entry-level enterprise system, with a limited variety of advanced functionality. However, it’s helping big brands to deliver big shopping experiences, so it’s doing something right. 

Pros 

The stand-out benefits of Shopify Plus include:

• Exceptionally quick launch times – average 90 days
• Easy to set-up and incredibly user-friendly
• Hundreds of free and paid-for themes
• The best technical and third-party integration support.

Cons

Considerations of using Shopify Plus as your enterprise eCommerce platform, include:

• Gaps in native functionality, including some important features
• Limited content layouts
• API requests limited to 10 per second
• Very difficult to migrate from Shopify Plus to another platform later. 

Example brands

So who’s using Shopify Plus? Seven thousand brands to be exact, including Gymshark, Rebecca Minkoff, Leesa, Kylie Jenner, and Pepsi. 

Pricing

Pricing starts from $2,000 per month and is based on GMV. 

Find out more here

BigCommerce Enterprise

Much like Shopify, BigCommerce started out in the small-to-medium business market and has since become popular with mid- to enterprise-market businesses. BigCommerce Enterprise is known for powering big brands to build differentiated customer experiences. 

Pros 

BigCommerce certainly comes with big features, the highlights of which include:

• Exceptional in-build functionality including marketing and abandoned cart
• Great management tools for day-to-day business operations
• Wide range of apps and integrations
• International store and sales support
• Flexible APIs and webhooks

Cons

There aren’t many disadvantages of BigCommerce Enterprise, however there are a few things to bear in mind. 

• Little European presence and ecosystem compared with others
• Steep learning curve due to high-level or native functionality
• Themes can get expensive

Example brands

BigCommerce is very popular in America, with brand names including Skullcandy, Camelbak, Clarks, Gillette and Ben & Jerrys (mmmm).  

Pricing

BigCommerce enterprise pricing ranges from around $500 to $15,000 per month, depending on GMV. 

Find out more here

WooCommerce

While WooCommerce doesn’t have an enterprise-specific platform, plenty of brands feel that the platform is more than capable of handling the job itself – so we took a look. 

Pros 

There are many advantages to stick with WooCommerce as a growing brand, including:

• Completely customisable platform
• A lean system that you can build with the integrations you need and want
• A huge developer community

Cons

And onto the considerations of using WooCommerce as your enterprise-level platform:

• Very limited native functionality – reliant on apps and integrations
• The cost of using apps and integrations can add up
• Developers required to build and maintain

Example brands

There are a lot of big names using WooCommerce for enterprise functionality, including Weber, Singer, All Blacks and Ripley’s Believe it or Not!.  

Pricing

One of the biggest pros of WooCommerce is that it’s free, but you’ll need to pay for any app and integrations that you want to use. 

Find out more here

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Known as a CRM system, Salesforce also offers eCommerce functionality with its Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform. 

Pros 

Aside from keeping everything in one place, Salesforce Commerce Cloud has additional benefits, including:

• Extensive omnichannel capabilities
• Advanced customers insights
• High configuration
• Advanced merchandising options

Cons

Not being an ecommerce-first platform, there are some considerations for using Salesforce for your online sales, including:

• Customer support can be difficult to reach
• Some consider customisation to be complicated
• Approval is required for some customisations. 

Example brands

Obviously, some notable brands using Salesforce Commerce Cloud, including Adidas, New Balance, L’Oreal and GoPro. 

Pricing

Pricing in on a quote basis, but starts from 1% of GMV. 

Find out more here

SAP Hybris

Onto our final contender of eCommerce platform 2020, is SAP Hybris. For existing users of SAP, Hybris can be an attractive option for keeping everything in one place. 

Pros 

Other advantages of using SAP Hybris for your online sales include:

• Omni-channel fulfilment functionality
• Advanced scalability
• Multi-bran capabilities

Cons

Again, there are some negatives associated with using SAP Hybris, such as:

• A much smaller developer community
• Limited reporting and analytic functionality

Example brands

Brans reportedly using SAP Hybris include Bensons for Beds, Limen and Road Runner Sports. 

Pricing

Pricing is from $54,000 per year. 

Find out more here

Final thoughts?

As you can see, there’s lots to consider. Some brands might feel safer opting for what they know (Salesforce and SAP), while others will want to use eCommerce experts and opt for Shopify Big Commerce or Woo.

Whichever platform you pick, remember that Expandly can help you to easily integrate your existing systems and online marketplaces so you don’t have to find a manual workaround.

If you’d like to discuss anything mentioned in this guide in more depth, get in touch.

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About Expandly

Expandly eCommerce software integrates your sales channel(s), eCommerce platform, accounting software, shipping labels, 3PL, WMHs, ERP and CRM systems together – providing you with a unified back-office and a simopler way to sell big online.

Find out more about our existing capabilities and custom APIs by getting in touch or booking in for a demo.