The instantaneous transition, triggered by Covid-19 to online grocery from brick-and-mortar stores/supermarkets, has opened numerous opportunities for retailers. Capitalizing on the eCommerce wave, retailers are moving to online platforms for business growth as they can expand their customer base, build a 24×7 global digital presence, enhance client service through flexibility, and more.
As many customizable ecommerce software solutions are available in the market, retailers can take their businesses online with ease. Mentioned below are the top 10 eCommerce solutions for grocery and retail businesses to launch ecommerce stores & online marketplaces.
Growcer
Growcer is a standalone grocery eCommerce solution designed to deliver ready-to-launch online grocery marketplaces like Instacart, Walmart, Peapod, FreshDirect, and more. Enriched with user-centric features, Growcer is the perfect solution for businesses of all sizes.
Moreover, this multi-vendor grocery eCommerce platform comes equipped with robust mobile apps for both buyers and sellers (iOS and Android). It also has a separate dashboard for sellers and the admin. The entire marketplace can be managed with ease through the dashboard.
Growcer is a self-hosted solution that can be tailored to meet the business needs of clients. With a one-time licensing fee, no recurring payments, free installation, and 1 year of technical support at no additional cost, Growcer is a compelling online grocery solution.
Features/Benefits
- White-Label Solution that comes with Lifetime License
- No development time (ready to launch)
- Customization according to user’s requirements
- No extensive knowledge of technology is required
- Readymade grocery buyer and delivery staff apps
- 1-year free technical support
- Multilingual & multiple payment options
- Buyers can purchase from multiple shops as it is multi-cart
Disadvantages
- Growcer does not have readymade seller apps, but the same can be created under the customization package
Website URL – https://www.yogrowcer.com/
Yo!Kart
Yo!Kart is another popular choice among entrepreneurs that surpasses convenience and provides the best-in-class suite of tools for launching ecommerce marketplaces with ease. The platform is equipped with a set of impeccable features and an impressive design that provide a seamless user journey.
Yo!Kart is customizable and scalable and has separate mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms. The solution is self-hosted with an easy vendor management system. The installation is free along with 12-months of technical support and marketplace/website owners can easily keep a record and track the sales that are credited to the accounts of each vendor.
Features/Benefits
- A standalone solution to build multi-vendor marketplaces
- Completely customizable & highly scalable
- Multilingual & multi-currency functionality
- Fully owned license
- Lifetime license at just $999
- Flexible payment terms
- 12 months free technical support
Disadvantages
- Yo!Kart does not have delivery apps
- Themes are paid
Mercatus
Mercatus is a grocery eCommerce platform that empowers retailers to provide an entire shopping experience from store to door to their consumers. It offers a unified shopping experience supporting customer engagement that in return can increase sales and promote businesses to do more.
Features/Benefits
- Offers SEO management
- Offers templates
- Multi-store
- 24/7 technical support
- Highly configurable and scalable
- Secure and is fully PCI compliant
Disadvantages
- Free trial is not provided
- Mercatus is not free
- It does not have features to manage returns, reviews, inventory
CS-Cart
CS-Cart is a feature-rich eCommerce platform that allows administrators full control to accommodate new grocery vendors on their website. Each store retailer also gets a separate micro-store with a personal fully-featured dashboard. It has a responsive support team that helps with the setup of the marketplace and its running and the documentation is structured.
Features/Benefits
- Secure ecommerce platform
- Self-hosted
- One-time fee
- Built-in layout editor
- Built-in CMS
- Beautiful storefront themes
- Customer cart tracking
- CDN support
Disadvantages
- Compared to Yo!Kart, the platform is costly
- Mobile application is unavailable in the basic package
- Cost of customization, third party addons, and themes is high
- The technical support process is not effective
Shopify
Shopify is another eCommerce solution that helps entrepreneurs and startups to launch an online grocery marketplace with ease. It is a robust platform that comes with powerful features to set up an online grocery business seamlessly. Shopify also offers a wide range of third-party plugins that allow clients to expand their business.
Features/Benefits
- User-friendly
- 24×7 support
- Reasonable base fee
- Decent uptime record
- Includes SaaS benefits
- Easy drag and drop development features
- Robust app store for additional eGrocery features
- Offers beautiful mobile-friendly designs and templates
Disadvantages
- Charges transaction fees for using any other payment gateway apart from Shopify payments
- Limitation in expanding website’s customization
- Different parts of data are stored at several locations, which makes the updation less easy
- The built-in multi-currency option is only available to a Shopify Payments user
- The integrated payment processor only allows to sell from certain countries
- Professional reporting functionality is provided only on premium plans
Tribe
Tribe is a sophisticated online store software that is built using an open-source Laravel framework. The platform can be used by small and medium-sized businesses to start and scale their store. With intuitive UI, responsive mobile-ready design, this free ecommerce software has everything to start an online store for free. It also offers 3 months of technical support at zero cost.
Features/Benefits
- Unlike Shopify, it is free for lifetime
- Self-hosted ecommerce solution
- Zero Recurring fees
- Built on Laravel
- Offering source code ownership
- Multi-lingual & Multiple-payment gateways
- Unlimited products can be sold using Tribe
- Comes with pre-integrated APIs
- Inbuilt POS and drag & drop CMS builder
Disadvantage
- No free plugins and themes
- Not the whitelabel solution
Magento
Magento is an open-source ecommerce platform that offers various themes and a myriad of extensions to enhance businesses. With its excellent features, order management, inventory tracking, and sales metrics can be automated.
Magento is an open and customizable platform that can be deployed on the cloud. It provides solutions for large businesses by offering Magento Commerce, Business Intelligence Pro, Order Management, and a lot of extensions and themes.
Features/Benefits
- Catalog management
- Tools for advertising and marketing
- Fully SEO centered
- Mobile-friendly
- Complete site management
- Flexible third-party integrations
- Provides real-time data on inventory
Disadvantages
- It’s expensive compared to Yo!Kart or Growcer
- Need for Hosting
- 24×7 product support is not available
- Customization is free but complicated, a professional developer needs to be hired
My Cloud Grocer
My Cloud Grocer is another platform that helps users in building an online grocery delivery website and app. This solution comes equipped with features that are necessary for the smooth operation of online grocery businesses.
Features/Benefits
- Fully managed solution for your convenience
- Extremely customizable
- Highly secure data processes
- Order fulfillment & delivery modules
- Analytics with reporting
Disadvantages
According to FinancesOnline, there is:
- No free trial
- No live support
- No training
Prestashop
Prestashop is another innovative and efficient grocery eCommerce solution equipped with impeccable features to create stores online. It is free to download, access and offers two versions – cloud-deployed and downloadable software.
Prestashop has built an international community being open-source and troubleshooting solutions are easily available. Besides, a wide array of addons, modules, and themes enhances the online presence of the store and boosts the overall performance.
Features/Benefits
- Intuitive interface
- Customizable Themes
- Open Source
- Multi-lingual support
- Powerful Catalog and Site Management
- Useful SEO and marketing tools
Disadvantages
- Lack of customer support
- The platform is heavy, leading to multiple website crashes
- Most modules required for a fully functional shopping cart website are highly-priced
- PrestaShop is not very suitable for a full-scale shopping store
Shopurgrocery
Shopurgrocery is an online grocery ordering and delivery system that helps supermarkets and hypermarkets in building their grocery delivery platforms. Their easy-to-use grocery eCommerce platform allows store owners to connect with their customers easily.
Shopurgrocery has everything you need to start an online grocery store. It simplifies and digitalizes delivery and customer experience and effortlessly enables grocery ordering and delivery through online.
Features/Benefits
- Dynamic pricing setup
- Multi-currency
- Free support
- Customizable
- Live-support
- Multilingual support
- Inventory management
- Real-time tracking
Disadvantages
- No free trial or version is available
- According to Capterra, features like email marketing, multichannel marketing, and CRM are missing
Conclusion
As an ecommerce retailer, the step towards digital expansion might appear intimidating. But, with the availability of numerous eCommerce software solutions, as discussed above, launching your own ecommerce store or marketplace has become easier. With accessibility to ready-made solutions that can be tailored to your requirements, businesses can be scaled for growth.