Best ecommerce platforms for dropshipping

Based on our in-depth research and user testing, there are three clear winners standing on the podium for best ecommerce platforms for dropshipping:

1. Shopify – best for dropshipping beginners who want a simple and easy user experience, with expansive sales features
2. WooCommerce – the best choice for users wanting a free and easy-to-install plugin that will get them operating as quickly as possible
   
3. Wix – best for users that want an ecommerce platform offering high-level dropshipping product customisation and automatic inventory synchronisation

Each of these platform lets you integrate with a number of excellent dropshipping suppliers, letting you set up a complete dropshipping solution with surprisingly little effort.

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BEST ALL ROUND
Shopify	WooCommerce	Wix	Adobe Commerce	BigCommerce	OpenCart
Best for Dropshipping beginners who want a simple and easy user experience, with expansive sales features	Best for Users wanting a free and easy-to-install ecommerce platform that will get them operating as quickly as possible	Best for Users that want an ecommerce platform offering high-level dropshipping product customisation and automatic inventory synchronisation	Best for Advanced users who already have experience using an ecommerce platform to run a dropshipping business	Best for Using multiple channels to promote the products in your dropshipping store	Best for Dropshipping business owners with experience in website building, who want to get going with minimal outgoing and support costs
Price from £19 per month £1 for first month	Price from $6.59 per month (£5.33)	Price from £16 per month £14.40-£24.30 with code “TAKE10”	Price from Contact sales for a quote	Price from $29 (around £23) per month	Price from Free
Visit Shopify	Read Review	Visit Wix		Try BigCommerce

1. Shopify

• Best for: dropshipping beginners who want a simple and easy user experience, with expansive sales features
• Pricing: from £16 per month (billed annually)

Shopify

4.7

Shopify’s superb features and extensive app market give ambitious ecommerce businesses everything they need to scale rapidly.

Try Shopify for free

• FREE TRIAL 3-day free trial
• PRICE FROM £19 per month

• Preempts and predicts what a merchant might need next in all aspects of creating a website
• Best range of apps and extensions
• Perfect for dropshipping

Summary Shopify is perfect for users looking for that all in one online store solution. Its ability to predict what a merchant will need next when creating a website is a brilliant feature, and its countless apps give you complete control over your business, enabling you to grow through diverse multi channel integration options and automated SMS and email marketing. It is definitely better suited to store owners with complex, larger inventories and because there are fewer built in features, using the platform can get expensive compared to other feature-filled competitors like Squarespace and Wix.

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Shopify takes the title of the most user-friendly platform, particularly for beginners. In our recent round of in-depth ecommerce product research, Shopify earned second place overall with an impressive score of 4.6 out of 5. Of the dropshipping-specific platforms, it is certainly the most user-friendly and easiest to navigate – especially compared to the more complex platforms like Adobe Commerce.

Shopify dropshipping was also designed specifically to help you build an online store – it even suggests specific add-ons and plugins from its app market depending on the type of template you select when creating your website.

Shopify also has some of the strongest sales features available for users, which is perfect since the basis of a dropshipping business is to make it as streamlined and simple as possible for consumers to purchase products from your website. These features include multi-channel integration options for selling across a number of platforms, including Instagram, Amazon, and Facebook. There’s also customisable checkout, plus excellent sales analytics tools that provide granular data and actionable insights on your customers’ behaviour.

The key downside of Shopify is that it doesn’t have a specialist supplier network, which means none of the providers you’ll see are vetted. You’ll also have to deal with credit card fees that start at 2.9% + 30p for each transaction, which can start digging into your profit margins if you’re not making lots of sales. This means you’ll have to spend some extra time doing the research and background checks yourself. It’s also important to note that Shopify’s long-standing integration with dropshipping supplier Oberlo is no more, as of 2023. We recommend Shopify customers integrate their online store with DSers. For more information, read our review of the best dropshipping suppliers.

Features

🔨 Unlimited inventory allowance
🔨 Stock management
🔨 Revenue reports
🔨 Multiple product variants
🔨  Comprehensive fraud detection abilities
🔨 An impressive library of dropshipping apps

Shopify dropshipping: pros and cons

Pricing

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GET FIRST MONTH FOR £1	GET FIRST MONTH FOR £1	GET FIRST MONTH FOR £1
Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced
Price £19 per month £1 for first month	Price £49 per month £1 for first month	Price £259 per month £1 for first month
Features Unlimited products 10 inventory locations Customisable checkout Multichannel selling	Features Everything in Basic plan Five staff accounts	Features Everything in Shopify plan 15 staff accounts Improved checkout capacity Custom reports and analytics
Online card processing fees 2% + 25p for online purchases	Online card processing fees 1.7% + 25p for online purchases	Online card processing fees 1.5% + 25p for online purchases

2. WooCommerce

• Best for: users wanting a free and easy-to-install ecommerce platform that will get them operating as quickly as possible.
• Pricing: from £5.33 per month

WooCommerce WooCommerce is best for users wanting a free and easy-to-install ecommerce platform that will get them operating as quickly as possible

• Pricing from Free

• Dropshipping-specific extensions
• Mobile app
• Freedom and flexibility to tweak everything on your site

Summary WooCommerce is one of the most commonly used dropshipping ecommerce platforms worldwide. This is largely due to how easy it is to install the plugin and begin selling entirely for free. It uses a simple GUI (graphical user interface) that adds real value to a user’s experience. In other words, you don’t have to be a programming expert to make changes and add elements to your site. Because it’s built on WordPress, it’s also a solid choice for bloggers who want to become dropshipping entrepreneurs. A huge bonus of WooCommerce is that it's free, and as the appeal of starting a dropshipping business is keeping costs as low as possible, WooCommerce is certainly helping the cause. Keep in mind that, although the platform itself is free, WooCommerce is self-hosted. This means you’ll have to either be a tech whizz and set up your own server, or purchase a hosting account from the likes of Bluehost or HostGator.

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WooCommerce is one of the most commonly used dropshipping ecommerce platforms worldwide. This is largely due to how easy it is to install the plugin and begin selling entirely for free. It uses a simple GUI (graphical user interface) that adds real value to a user’s experience. This means you don’t have to be a programming expert to make changes and add elements to your site. The wealth of plugins also give you extra flexibility to customise your site just the way you like it, empowering you to scale as your dropshipping operation grows.

A big bonus of WooCommerce is that it’s pretty affordable compared to Shopify, whose lowest plan for ecommerce businesses start at £19. If you go for WooCommerce over Spotify, you could save £14 per month, which is great if you’re on a tight budget.

Keep in mind that, although the platform is affordable, WooCommerce is self-hosted. This means you’ll have to either be a tech whizz and set up your own server, or purchase a hosting account from the likes of Bluehost or HostGator – for this, you can expect to pay £2.44 to £3.17 per month.

Features

🔨 Woo Marketplace ripe with over 400 free and paid extensions, including dropshipping extensions
🔨 In-built blogging feature
🔨 Built-in payment processing through Stripe, Google Pay, and PayPal
🔨 One-click refunds
🔨 Inventory management including tracking stock levels and out-of-stock items

What are dropshipping extensions?

Dropshipping extensions are store management tools. They make selling easier by adding several tailored features to your ecommerce site, which help you manage your online store and improve sales. Check out Shopify’s ultimate guide to dropshipping for more info on extensions.

WooCommerce pros and cons:

Pricing

• WooCommerce platform = £5.33 per month
• Hosting costs = £90 annally (on average)
• Domain = £11 annually

3. Wix

• Best for: users that want an ecommerce platform offering high-level dropshipping product customisation and automatic inventory synchronisation.
• Pricing: from £14 per month (10% off code TAKE10)

Wix

4.8

Our top ecommerce platform gives you a full arsenal of fantastic features and bags of creative freedom, all for a very affordable price.

Visit Wix

• FREE TRIAL 14 day money back guarantee
• PRICE FROM £16 per month, billed annually

• Flexible pricing plans
• Perfect solution if you want more creative freedom
• Great additional features that support everything any up and coming merchant needs

Summary Wix is the most popular website builder in the UK and our top recommendation for small businesses wanting to sell online - especially if they have relatively small inventories (20 products or fewer). When we say Wix really does have it all, we mean it. Its largely improved sales features now support multi-channels including Facebook and other marketplaces. The Light plan, at only £9 per month, comes equipped with 24/7 customer support, unlimited product showcasing and the option to sell on social channels. If you want further insight into your ecommerce business and control of where you can sell, the £119 per month Business Elite plan comes with customised reports, marketplace selling capabilities and priority customer care. However, despite the product priding itself on its ease of use, a rather steep learning curve is required, particularly when navigating set "ecom" functionalities.

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Out of all the ecommerce platforms designed to let you get started with dropshipping, you’ll find Wix is the easiest to set up, especially compared to the complexities presented by Adobe Commerce and WooCommerce.

Wix’s automatic inventory synchronisation is one of its standout features. The function keeps close tabs on your inventory so that you don’t accidentally oversell on any sales channels – including your online store, marketplaces (such as Facebook Marketplace), and even on social media. You’ll also be able to integrate your Wix store with one of the UK’s top dropshipping suppliers, Modalyst. Boasting unrivalled dropshipping features, even on Modalyst’s free plan, Wix users can:

• Add products to their store in one click
• Receive real-time product updates
• Set automated markups

Another of the many things which make Wix a great dropshipping ecommerce platform is the outreach tools at your disposal. Wix’s SEO features are easily the best available compared to other platforms on this list, and they have even partnered with SEMrush to help push your content further up on the SERPs.

The downside of Wix is that you’ll have to pay extra for some third party apps that you may need to improve sales, meaning there’s hidden costs you’ll need to factor in as you’re piecing together your dropshipping budget. There’s also no option to change your template once you’ve published your website – if you decide you don’t like it, this could be incredibly tedious.

Features
🔨 Automatic inventory synchronisation
🔨 Integration with a top dropshipping supplier and one click product inclusion
🔨 Option to add print-on-demand products
🔨 Great SEO features and email marketing to reach your target market
🔨 Partnership with SEMrush to help boost SEO traffic

Wix dropshipping: pros and cons

Pricing

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Core	Business	Business Elite
Price £16 per month £14.40 with code ‘TAKE10’	Price £25 per month £22.50 with code ‘TAKE10’	Price £119 per month £107.10 with code ‘TAKE10’
Features Basic ecommerce Accept payments Basic site analytics Abandoned cart recovery	Features Standard site analytics Standard eCommerce Automated sales tax for 100 transactions per month Accept pre-orders	Features Advanced eCommerce Advanced developer platform Advanced site analytics Loyalty program by Smile.io
Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?
Try Wix	Try Wix	Try Wix

Check out our Wix ecommerce review for more information about the platform.

4. Adobe Commerce

• Best for: advanced users who already have experience using an ecommerce platform to run a dropshipping business.
• Pricing: varies – full breakdown in the pricing section

Magento Magento is best for advanced users who already have experience using an ecommerce platform to run a dropshipping business

• Pricing from Varies

• Platform is free to download
• Large number of payment gateway options
• Order management features

Summary It is safe to say that out of all the top ecommerce platforms for dropshipping stores, Magento is the most sophisticated and professional. Like WooCommerce, Magento is an open source ecommerce system. This means that it is constantly being improved by a community of developers, and can employ more advanced technical solutions compared to hosted ecommerce platforms that are updated a lot less frequently. This makes Magento great for creating a professional, slick online store with immaculate design functionality. If you want the flexibility to add practically any type of feature to your site, look no further than Magento OpenSource. It is the perfect platform for dropshipping businesses that are in it for the long run, and is certainly the most scalable platform on the market. This is pretty impressive considering it is free to download. Just keep in mind that, despite the platform itself being free to download, the costs of getting set up are very high compared to other platforms.

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It is safe to say that out of all the top ecommerce platforms for dropshipping stores, Adobe Commerce is the most sophisticated and professional. Like WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce is an open source ecommerce system. This means it is constantly being improved by a community of developers, and can employ more advanced technical solutions compared to hosted ecommerce platforms that are updated a lot less frequently.

This makes Adobe Commerce great for creating a professional, slick online store with immaculate design functionality. If you want the flexibility to add practically any type of feature to your site, look no further than Magento OpenSource.

Adobe Commerce is also great for dropshipping specifically thanks to its segmentation feature. You can divide customers into groups based on factors like their demographic, user activity, shopping cart, and previous purchases. This makes it easier to tailor content, pricing, and promotions to specific customers, which can lead to increased sales and customer satisfaction.

Just keep in mind that despite the platform being free to download, the costs of getting set up are very high compared to other platforms. It also might not be as user friendly for amateur dropshippers due to the sophisticated technical tools it offers. This is because, even when selecting a ready-made Adobe Commerce template for your website, you will still need to give the team of developers time to tailor the web pages to your preferences. On average, they’ll need to spend 40 hours adjusting the main pages, which could cost up to £1,300.

Features

🔨 Huge number of payment gateway integration options
🔨 An impressive set of order management features, including assisted shopping and customised order status
🔨 Impressive catalogue management for your products, including creating different price points for different customer groups, such as wholesales and retailers.

Adobe Commerce pros and cons

Pricing

Magento pricing is hard to calculate accurately, as the costs can vary when it comes to website design and development. But we have summarised the costs as well as we can.

• Hosting – £75–£350 annually
• Web design – £0 if applying a ready-made Magento theme. A custom theme can cost up to £3,600, depending on how long it takes Magento’s developers to create it.
• Minimum website development cost – £1,300

5. BigCommerce

• Best for: using multiple channels to promote the products in your dropshipping store
• Pricing: from $29 (around £23) per month, billed annually.

BigCommerce

3.7

With the most comprehensive range of sales features around, BigCommerce gives you everything you need to create a fully-optimised online store

Try BigCommerce

• Free trial 15-day
• Price from $29 per month

• Quality in-built sales features
• Excellent SEO support
• Great for scaling businesses

Summary BigCommerce is the big budget option for small businesses with big ambitions. Its plans range from £23/month to £240/month. Quite pricey, but for that you’re getting access to the most extensive range of high-quality, in-built sales features on the market. The costlier the plan, the more advanced the functionality, of course – you also increase your sales allowance. This ranges from an upper limit of $50,000 on the Standard plan to a maximum of $400,000 on the Pro plan. And if your sales are likely to be higher than that, BigCommerce offers custom enterprise solutions. Just get in touch with its sales team to find out more.

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Like Shopify, BigCommerce is a hosted ecommerce platform that excels in the sales features department. In our latest round of ecommerce research, it achieved an overall score of 4.2 out of 5, largely due to its multi-channel selling capabilities. For reference, Shopify scored a slightly higher 4.6 out of 5.

When using BigCommerce, you can look forward to no transaction fees, depending on the plan you select. It also has the most advanced SEO tools available in the ecommerce platform space, which is ideal if you want to help get your dropshipping store featured high up in customers’ SERPs. Keep in mind that the plan you choose will determine your sales allowance. This may not be a problem when you start out, as the standard plan gives you a substantial limit of $50,000.

The downside is that if you’re planning to scale and want to sell higher-end products through dropshipping suppliers, you’ll need to change your BigCommerce plan, which can become pretty expensive. This is in contrast to Shopify, which has no product limit regardless of the plan you choose. Unlike WooCommerce, BigCommerce also doesn’t have as many dropshipping apps and integrations. If you’re looking for a more tailored dropshipping solution, there’s better offers in the market than BigCommerce.

Features

🔨 A wide range of product sourcing apps that can connect you with some of the top dropshipping suppliers in the UK
🔨 Access to the Modayst app, connecting you to hundreds of vetted UK suppliers
🔨 Easy to import dropshipping products in just a few clicks
🔨 Comes equipped with ShiperHQ, a top-of-funnel solution connecting ecommerce platforms to carriers and logistics services

BigCommerce pros and cons

Read our full BigCommerce review here

Pricing

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	Best plan for small businesses
Standard Plan	Plus Plan	Pro Plan	Enterprise Plan
Price $29 per month (around £23)	Price $79 per month (around £64)	Price $299 per month (around £240)	Price Custom
Features Coupons and discounts Reporting tools Multi-channel selling	Features Customer groups and segmentation Abandoned cart recovery Stores credit card details	Features Google customer reviews Product filtering Custom product filtering	Features Express routing, priority support, and customer success management API (application programming interface) support Custom sales limit

See what BigCommerce could offer your small business Try BigCommerce for free

6. OpenCart

• Best for: dropshipping business owners with experience in website building, who want to get going with minimal outgoing and support costs.
• Pricing range: free

OpenCart OpenCart is best for dropshipping business owners with experience in website building, who want to get going with minimal outgoing and support costs

• Pricing from Free

• Solid range of dropshipping apps
• Unlimited products, unlimited categories and the ability to sell digital products
• Large number of payment gateways and multi currency capabilities

Summary OpenCart is another ecommerce platform that is part of the open-source, self-hosted gang. A complete ecommerce solution, OpenCart provides all the features you’ll need to create a successful online store. These include the ability to add and manage products, leave product reviews and ratings, and pay via more than 20 payment gateways. There are no limits on the number of products you can sell or manufacturers you can work with, which is great if you have lots of stock available from your dropshipping suppliers. Again, because it’s a self-hosted platform, OpenCart gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of website design and features – although you’ll need some coding skills and experience to get any new elements up onto your site.

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OpenCart is another ecommerce platform that is part of the open-source, self-hosted gang. A complete ecommerce solution, OpenCart provides all the features you’ll need to create a successful online store. These include the ability to add and manage products, leave product reviews and ratings, and pay via more than 20 payment gateways. This reduces the number of friction points your customers could experience during their purchasing journey.

There are no limits on the number of products you can sell or manufacturers you can work with, which is great if you have lots of stock available from your dropshipping suppliers. Because it’s a self-hosted platform, OpenCart gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of website design and features – although you’ll need some coding skills and experience to get any new elements up onto your site.

The downside is that out of all the ecommerce platforms we reviewed, OpenCart is the only solution that doesn’t come with any specific design templates. Instead, a generic store template is given to you when you install the platform. Moreover, as you start to scale – just like with Adobe Commerce – you’ll need to start buying additional dropshipping and sales features, which can become pricey.

Features

🔨 Solid range of dropshipping apps that can help you optimise your dropshipping store and connect with some of the top dropshipping suppliers in the UK
🔨 Unlimited products and categories
🔨 Ability to sell digital products
🔨 Large number of payment gateways and multi-currency capabilities. This means customers can make payments with zero hassle.

OpenCart pros and cons:

Pricing

OpenCart software – free
Hosting plan – around £2–£10 per month
A custom design/template – £80+

How to choose an ecommerce platform for dropshipping

It’s all well and good knowing the pros and cons of ecommerce platforms, but the most important thing you need to do is make sure the solution you choose will bring the best out of your dropshipping store.

There are a number of criteria you will want to consider when selecting an ecommerce platform for dropshipping:

Ability to support dropshipping plugins

Dropshipping plugins (product sourcing apps) are incredibly useful and will make your life much easier. These applications have been designed to enhance your store’s dropshipping capabilities and make the whole process more streamlined.

Choosing an ecommerce platform that doesn’t offer any dropshipping-specific apps will hinder your business’s growth.

Affordability

One of the primary reasons to start a dropshipping business is to keep costs down. If you are paying for an expensive subscription or web development fees, you will struggle to make much profit.

Dropshipping typically has low profit margins – so make sure you either use a free ecommerce platform, or one that costs very little but still offers all the functionality needed to scale and grow your business.

Ease of use

This one is important for businesses that don’t have any experience in coding or web design. The last thing you want to do is to try to build a dropshipping store using complex software with no prior experience.

Be sure to check what level of skills are required for each ecommerce platform. Typically, hosted platforms like Shopify are far easier to use, especially for ecommerce beginners.

Efficient customer support

24/7 support and multiple contact channels are what you want to aim for. You don’t want to be missing out on vital sales because you don’t have the support necessary to fix a problem.

What are essential features of dropshipping platforms?

• Inventory management → since you don’t physically hold the inventory, it’s crucial to have real-time inventory updated from your supplier. This ensures you don’t oversell products and disappoint customers with order cancellations. Features like inventory synchronisation are key here.
• Order fulfilment integration → this saves you time and effort by eliminating manual order entry and reduces the risk of errors. Automatic order routing features are green flags in this category.
• Product listing and management tools → this includes importing product data from suppliers, setting prices, and managing product descriptions and images. Look for platforms that have product import tools, bulk editing options, and the ability to customise product information to fit your brand.
• Marketing and sales features → consider platforms offering built-in marketing tools like email marketing, discount codes, and abandoned cart recovery features
• Payment processing → secure and reliable payment processing is essential for customer trust and order completion. Choose platforms that integrate with reputable payment gateways like PayPal.
• Security and scalability → choose a platform with robust security features like data encryption and compliance with relevant security standards.

How we test ecommerce website builders for small businesses

Our in-house research team conducts thorough in-depth testing of the ecommerce dropshipping platforms, with the process taking 5 months to complete. We go through a round of preparation, planning, data collection, and delivery to source you the best dropshipping suppliers so you can boost the chances of your venture succeeding.

We test suppliers more thoroughly based on these categories:

• Dropshipping features → from inventory management to product tracking, we look at how expansive the features offering of each provider is.
• Customer score → in addition to our first-hand research, we also wanted to make sure real-world customers are happy with their experience of each provider. We look at review websites like G2 or Capterra to get a feel of this.
• Help & support → we look at the offering of customer support so that if you run into a dropshipping SOS, you can mediate your expectations and get a feel of how useful each provider will be.
• Value for money → pretty straight forward – based on the features you’re offered, we determine whether you’re getting good value for your buck so you can feel you’re making a worthy investment.
• User experience → we do the testing ourselves to understand where you might experience some pain points and what parts of the interface are good or could be improved. This gives us an idea of how beginner-friendly the platforms are.

Next steps: choosing the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping

Your dropshipping store vision will determine what ecommerce platform is best for you. If you want an all-in-one ecommerce solution that does a lot of the hard work for you, look no further than Shopify. Not only does it have excellent sales features and functionality, but it also has dedicated dropshipping apps and extensions to help you get the most out of your new business venture.

WooCommerce is the ideal platform if you want to get going right now with minimal costs. It is simple to install and has great dropshipping extensions and sales capabilities.

Regardless of our opinion, you should always compare ecommerce platforms before making a decision. This where our quick and free comparison tool comes in – simply provide us with a few details and we’ll connect you with the best providers for your dropshipping business.

Dropshipping for eCommerce is what flexible working is to traditional work – a more dynamic, easy way to make your business venture a success. With the right tools and research, dropshipping could evolve from your side hustle into your full time job.

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