Top 7 Best CMS For eCommerce

11 min readMar 8, 2022

By LitExtension

Introduction

Having reached 5 trillion dollars in 2021, the global eCommerce industry is expected to increase by 50% in the next four years. Thus, having your own online store in eCommerce is the first thing to do on your business checklist. However, the process of building your store site is not easy with a range of steps. One of the most strategic ones is deciding the best CMS for eCommerce websites.

This article will get you covered with:

What is a CMS platform?
Top 7 best eCommerce CMS;
How to choose CMS?;
Build CMS on Open-source eCommerce or Saas eCommerce;
Reasons why you need eCommerce CMS.

to assist you to opt for the best suitable content management system for eCommerce.

What is an eCommerce CMS?

You may wonder what is CMS website, here comes the answer. CMS stands for Content Management System. Basically, an eCommerce content management system helps users to generate and manage digital content. Having the best CMS for eCommerce will make it easy, especially for a large-sized content team and huge marketing workload.

For more details, a best CMS for eCommerce can offer the following features for users:

SEO Optimization: you need a CMS in order to have Google high-ranking articles. CMS offers automated functions so that your blog post can have high readability and SEO rankings.
Team Management: CMS allows your team to work together and co-produce impressive writing pieces. It also helps the managers to keep track of members’ workload.
Customizability: CMS users can modify most of the features visually displayed on the website (text, images, or promotion materials). This minimizes the Marketing team’s dependence on website developers.

7 Proven Best CMS for eCommerce

Too many eCommerce CMSs give you a wide range of solutions for your online store, but make it hard for you to choose only one.

Below is the winning CMS platforms list, including their own strengths and weaknesses. Hope you will find the best CMS for eCommerce business.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce Strengths:

No transaction fee is applied for any plans of BigCommerce. Even when customers use the 3rd party payment gateway, no extra payments are required.

Your store site will be useless if there is no traffic. The good news is BigCommerce’s SEO is quite good. BigCommerce allows store owners to freely edit the URLs of every product.

A wide range of reports provided is also one strength of BigCommerce. There are several analytical standards as below:

Customer reports (customers’ geographics and demographics; order value and so on).
Marketing reports (acquiring sources of customers, efficiency, and effectiveness of each marketing tactic).
Financial reports (money ins and outs, taxes report).

More noticeably, you will have a 15 days free trial with BigCommerce.

BigCommerce Weaknesses:

A multi-language store site is impossible with BigCommerce. However, additional plugins/ extensions can help to resolve this problem.
Undiversified free themes: there are several free themes that are similar to each other. Moreover, theme designs and fonts are not varied. Save your pennies with 8 dazzling BigCommerce themes under $200!
BigCommerce pricing is higher than other CMS.

If you are not using BigCommerce, move to BigCommerce now and check out our detailed BigCommerce tutorial to build a full-fledged CMS for an eCommerce store.

WordPress

WordPress Strengths:

WordPress is reputable for its user-friendliness so many people prefer it over other CMS platforms. WordPress users can be both newbies and experts in the field of technology. The back-end is simple and clean, and everything within the dashboard is easy to use.

The second strong point of WordPress is its powerful SEO capability. Yoast SEO is a commonly-used plugin helping WordPress users to control SEO even when they are novices.

There are two versions of WordPress for you to handle content management online.

WordPress Weaknesses:

Due to its popularity, WordPress is the target of hackers. Thus, security is one of the weaknesses of this eCommerce management software. It is reported that in 2019, WordPress is the platform where 94% of successful cyberattacks took place.

Non-verified third-party plugins are another security risk with WordPress. There are a variety of plugins available for WordPress. As a result, it’s hard to know for sure that every plugin follows strict safety guidelines and meets quality standards.

Joomla

Joomla Strengths:

The most noticeable strength of Joomla lies in the open-source system. Joomla users are free to add anything because the source code can be adjusted. Several developers also compliment that Joomla does not waste much of their time when coding.

An active community is one reason why Joomla is one of the best CMS for eCommerce. Sometimes, support from the customer care team is not as great as that from the more experienced users. In Joomla’s forum, you can find anything (tips, tricks, advice) based on the real experiences of professional store owners.

Joomla Weaknesses:

The biggest downside of Joomla is it costs more than any open-source eCommerce CMSs. Not only paying for the domain and hosting provider, but also you need to invest monthly more than $2000 in design and maintenance. On Joomla, users can not find advice from huge communities like WordPress so they have to pay for the development fees.

Second, Joomla will be difficult to adapt to if you do not have any technical background. Joomla’s interface requires you lots of time and effort to get used to a range of admin screens.

Nevertheless, check the best additional extensions for Joomla and find a way to cover these downsides. The full comparison of Joomla and WordPress also helps if you are on the fence.

Drupal

Drupal Strengths:

You have to consider the Content Management feature to check out whether it is the best CMS for eCommerce. Luckily, Content Management is great on Drupal. There is a variety of content displayed on Drupal. For example article, basic page, book page, poll, etc… Flexibility and customization are the main reasons why Drupal is one of the most popular cms platforms. Though there are plenty of content forms, users can develop their own content types on Drupal.

Drupal Weaknesses:

Drupal is hard to use, even for anyone having prior experience. This results in the following disadvantages: more time to get familiarized, difficulty in installing new plugins, and so on.

Despite being an open-source CMS, Drupal is quite expensive. There are several special requirements for plugins or extensions to be installed in Drupal. Thus, it is likely that you need to pay more for additional plugins if operating your store in Drupal.

Check the analysis of Drupal and another popular platform to have a more insightful perspective.

Magento

Magento Strengths:

Regarding the loading speed, there is no competitor who can outperform Magento. It takes only 1–2 seconds to load if your store site is managed in Magento. Quick speed will help a lot in improving the customer experience on-site.

Another high-performance feature of Magento is its mobile-friendliness. Magento provides a user-friendly interface in the mobile apps so that you do not have to worry about customer experience on a variety of devices.

Magento themes are noticeable features. There are both free and paid themes available in the Magento marketplace — a total of 500 themes. You may use them as pre-made templates that you can edit afterward. As previously stated, Magento gives you complete freedom to design your own content website.

Magento is also well-known for its massive extension collection. This platform allows you to add blog sites, create customer groups, use CMS page builders, and much more. Furthermore, Magento has built-in Google tools like GG Analytics, GG Checkout, GG Base, and others to assist you in tracking and managing your site’s performance.

Explore a comprehensive review of Magento CMS to make your own decision!

Magento Weaknesses:

Unlike BigCommerce, Magento charges the transaction fee if you use the third-party payment gateway. Besides, you need to pay an extra fee for a plugin in order to add more payment methods in Magento.

No support is provided for Magento users. If you have any problems, the most effective way is to ask and wait for answers in the Magento community. If you sign up for Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce), you’ll get more support through live chat and email.

Shopify

Due to the current popularity of Shopify, there are many questions on Is Shopify a CMS. We would like to answer that Shopify CMS is one of the best CMS for eCommerce with more than 2.1 million daily active users.

Shopify Strengths:

Shopify themes are well-known for their visuals and applicability. There is a variety of theme designs with different styles and vibes. Shopify themes receive many compliments because they also do well at customer navigation, helping customers quickly make buying decisions.

Another strong point of Shopify is its customer support. Responsiveness and dedication in customer service can be found in other CMS, but only in Shopify, the support staff has impressively high qualifications. Thus, clear explanations and quick solutions are what you receive when asking them for help. Additionally, diversified support channels are well-noted, Shopify!

If you are looking for a visual guide, check out our Shopify review video below to catch all the pros and cons of Shopify!

Shopify Weaknesses:

There are several inconveniences in Shopify. First, the transaction fees of Shopify are a little bit higher than others. Second, even with the Advanced plan, the maximum number of accounts allowed to manage the store is just 15.

Have a more insightful analysis of Shopify by reading:

Wix

Wix Strengths:

Among hosted CMSs, Wix is regarded as the simplest CMS platform to use. In Wix’s words, just “drag and drop” and you will have your own website.

Also, a wide community of users helps you more quickly get used to this platform. Sharings from other store owners who have used Wix for a long time even help you better than the support team.

Wix Weaknesses:

Wix has a similar weakness to other hosted platforms: high pricing. The most basic plan of Wix costs about $5 a month. While a same-priced web hosting will offer much more features. Nevertheless, if users have high requirements for the best CMS for eCommerce, this weakness is acceptable.

Another downside of Wix is its SEO feature. There are not many advanced functionalities that Wix can offer to the users. Thus, it is better for website builders to use Wix for CV/ portfolio creating and displaying, not for attracting traffic to your online store.

In case you are a Wix beginner and you need a tutorial on how to create a Wix website from scratch, check out this article.

If you are tired of reading a wall of texts, check out the below visual tutorial:

Two Types of CMS?

There are two types of CMS: Hosted SaaS eCommerce CMS and Open-source eCommerce CMS.

SaaS eCommerce CMS

The hosted eCommerce CMS can reduce lots of resources if you do not possess the technical expertise. A separate server is not necessary for a hosted eCommerce CMS. SaaS CMS will handle the eCommerce backend and provide you with an all-in-one service.

However, SaaS users can not access the source code. Thus, there are limitations in flexibility and customizability. Sometimes you can only design based on the functions that the available themes offer.

If your team does not excel at technology, choose SaaS CMS in order to get a full website as quickly as possible. We live in a highly competitive world where a delay in product distribution or improving customer experience can cause your company to fall behind rivals.

Open-source eCommerce CMS

By simply exposing the back-end code, open-source eCommerce solutions become dynamically flexible and expandable. Without limitation to any integrations, you can modify everything you want regarding functionality, style, or even create a completely new site from the beginning.

Why Does Your Store Need a CMS?

Available Integrations

CMS allows you to extend the business to other selling channels. For example, CMS can integrate Amazon, Google Shopping, or social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. You not only can one-time post the product information but also track all the channels’ orders.

SEO Optimization

Needless to say, SEO is of utmost importance to your website. If the content is the body, SEO acts as the blood of your store site. In any search engine, your site should be in the top 10. CMS helps store owners a lot in terms of search engine optimization. Let’s take Yoast SEO as an example. Users do not need prior knowledge, just follow the guidance of Yoast SEO in order to have a high-ranking article.

High-Security

If any platform claims itself as the best CMS for eCommerce, it must have high security. When it comes to security, most store owners have concerns about data leaking. To protect your users’ data, make sure your website is PCI compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a collection of security practices. It is created to guarantee that all businesses can receive, handle, and send credit card data in a safe manner. There are four levels of PCI compliance, with Level 1 being the safest. The level of compliance that your site requires is determined by the size of your company. Both hosted and open-source eCommerce CMS provide Level 1 PCI Compliant.

Ease of Use

Though open-source CMSs require technical knowledge for initial setup and daily operation, some hosted CMSs (Shopify, Wix for example) are easy to use for website newbies. With those types of CMSs, you are totally able to create a website from scratch.

FAQs

1. What does CMS stand for?

CMS stands for Content Management System.

2. Is Wix a CMS?

Yes, Wix is one type of CMS.

3. Is Shopify a CMS?

Shopify is one of the best CMS for eCommerce.

4. Is WordPress a CMS?

Yes, this platform is a CMS.

Conclusion

A CMS is a must-have component if you have the intent to build a website. Thus, choosing the right eCommerce CMS can save lots of time and money. Hope that the article will provide you with the most important criterion for finding the best CMS for eCommerce.

Though there are lots of CMS options available, I believe that you already have your decision of which is your best choice. However, if you are not, consider using LitCommerce — the multi-channel selling tool and try selling on your shortlisted platforms before the final decision.