When choosing an ecommerce platform, one of the most important questions is: how much of what you actually need is already built into the platform?
Every ecommerce platform provides a different combination of core functionality. Some prioritise speed of setup and ease of use, while others provide a broader technical foundation for complex or highly customised stores.
This matters because functionality affects more than the initial build. If essential capabilities are missing, retailers may need additional apps, extensions or bespoke development. That can increase implementation costs, introduce more dependencies and make the store more complicated to maintain.
The right platform therefore isn't necessarily the one with the longest feature list. It's the one that provides the right foundation for your requirements, while giving you room to extend the store where there is a genuine need to do so.
Here's how some of the most widely used ecommerce platforms compare.
Shopify
Shopify is a hosted commerce platform designed to make launching and managing an online store relatively straightforward. Its plans include core functionality such as product and inventory management, online selling, checkout, multiple sales channels and analytics, with more advanced capabilities available as you move up the pricing tiers.
That makes Shopify an attractive option for retailers that prioritise a managed platform and a quick route to market. Hosting, security and much of the underlying infrastructure are handled by Shopify, reducing the technical work required to get started.
The trade-off becomes more relevant as requirements become more specialised. Shopify has a large app ecosystem, and additional functionality can be introduced through apps and integrations. However, retailers need to consider the cumulative cost and complexity of those additions alongside their subscription and transaction costs. Shopify's current plans also vary considerably in the functionality they include, so the capabilities available depend on the plan selected.
For larger retailers, Shopify Plus provides additional functionality including more advanced B2B, checkout, headless and multi-location capabilities, but comes with a significantly higher platform cost.
Functionality verdict: A strong set of core commerce features and a straightforward route to market, particularly for retailers that want a fully managed platform. More specialised requirements need careful consideration of plan limits, apps and additional costs.
Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source
Magento is now part of Adobe's commerce portfolio, with Magento Open Source continuing as the open-source edition alongside the commercially licensed Adobe Commerce platform.
Both provide a substantial technical foundation for ecommerce. Magento Open Source includes functionality for managing products, catalogues, stores, customer groups, currencies and multiple storefront configurations, while Adobe Commerce adds further enterprise capabilities.
The breadth of functionality can make the platform suitable for complex retail operations, but it also comes with greater technical requirements than a fully hosted platform. Magento Open Source is aimed at experienced developers and administrators, and its installation includes a substantial set of dependencies and services that need to be managed as part of the wider infrastructure.
That means retailers need to consider not just the functionality included in the platform, but the development, hosting, maintenance and upgrade requirements involved in running it.
Adobe Commerce provides additional capabilities and commercial support, but its licensing and implementation requirements make it a different proposition from Magento Open Source.
Functionality verdict: A powerful and highly configurable foundation for complex ecommerce, but its breadth comes with greater technical and infrastructure requirements.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce takes a different approach because it operates as an ecommerce platform within WordPress. This makes it a natural choice for retailers already using WordPress or those that want ecommerce functionality alongside a broader content-led website.
WooCommerce's core platform supports products, variations, orders, payments, shipping and other essential ecommerce functions, while its wider ecosystem provides a large number of extensions for additional requirements.
That extensibility is one of WooCommerce's biggest strengths. Retailers can choose from extensions covering areas such as subscriptions, bookings, product bundles, payments, shipping and marketing.
The consideration is that a store's functionality can increasingly depend on those extensions. Each additional plugin or integration needs to be compatible with WordPress, WooCommerce and the rest of the technology stack, while also being maintained and updated over time.
For retailers with straightforward requirements, this ecosystem can provide considerable flexibility. For more complex stores, however, the cost and management of multiple extensions needs to form part of the platform decision.
Functionality verdict: A flexible and highly extensible option with a large ecosystem, particularly useful for WordPress-based stores, but retailers should consider the long-term implications of building around multiple extensions.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a hosted ecommerce platform with a broad range of functionality built into its core offering. Its current platform includes features covering checkout, payments, digital wallets, promotions, abandoned cart recovery, returns, B2B commerce and multi-storefront capabilities.
It also provides built-in search capabilities, including textual and faceted search, helping customers navigate larger product catalogues without necessarily requiring a separate search solution.
One of BigCommerce's strengths is therefore the amount of functionality available without having to assemble a store entirely from third-party applications. Its promotional tools, for example, include more than 70 native discount options according to BigCommerce.
The consideration is whether the platform's existing functionality and architecture provide the level of flexibility a particular retailer needs. BigCommerce supports extensive APIs and customisation, but retailers with highly bespoke requirements still need to assess where native functionality ends and custom development begins.
Functionality verdict: A comprehensive hosted platform with a strong range of built-in ecommerce functionality, making it well suited to retailers that want breadth without managing their own infrastructure.
Aero
Aero takes a different approach to core functionality. Rather than trying to include every possible feature, the platform focuses on providing a lean ecommerce foundation with the functionality needed to run a sophisticated online store, while giving agencies the freedom to extend it where required.
Retailers get core ecommerce functionality from the start, while agencies can customise the platform and build additional functionality around individual requirements. Aero's developer documentation specifically supports extending core functionality through modules, custom fields and other development tools.
Search is one example of functionality that is built into the platform. Aero uses Elasticsearch to support fast product search, filtering and catalogue queries, with the platform designed to handle large product ranges efficiently.
Performance is another consideration. Aero's lean architecture is designed to minimise unnecessary dependencies and infrastructure overhead, while giving agencies access to the underlying platform so they can build bespoke experiences around the retailer's requirements.
This doesn't mean Aero is intended to be a DIY, plug-and-play platform for every type of retailer. It is designed around retailers and agencies that want greater technical control and the ability to customise the store without building the entire ecommerce foundation themselves.
The philosophy is relatively simple: get the fundamentals right first, then extend the platform where doing so creates genuine value for the retailer.
Functionality verdict: A lean, technically focused ecommerce foundation that provides essential functionality from the start while giving agencies the control to build and extend around individual retailer requirements.
Core functionality should come before additional features
Comparing ecommerce platforms by feature count alone can be misleading. A platform with hundreds of available features isn't necessarily the best choice if many of those features aren't relevant to your operation.
Instead, consider the functionality your store genuinely needs today and what it is likely to need as it grows.
Questions worth asking include:
Does the platform provide the core functionality your customers need?
How much additional development is required to launch?
Which requirements depend on apps or extensions?
What will those additional components cost over their lifetime?
How much control does your agency have over the underlying platform?
How will additional functionality affect performance and maintenance?
Can the platform adapt as your ecommerce requirements change?
The strongest foundation is not necessarily the one with the most features. It's the one that gives you the functionality you need, without creating unnecessary complexity, and provides enough flexibility to build what comes next.
Want to see what Aero provides as standard?
Book a demo to explore Aero's core functionality and see how the platform can be extended around your retailer's specific requirements.
