The range of eCommerce technologies and platforms for businesses to sell online has come a long way in the last decade. From software solutions that had to be painstakingly downloaded on a 56k modem to the do-it-yourself ‘what you see is what you get’ subscription based platforms we have these days that allow anyone with an idea to set up an online shop cheap.
Taking a walk down memory lane to what we were doing a decade ago in eCommerce, here is one of the first eCommerce websites I launched way back in 2004 which was built with osCommerce and looked…. well not that pretty, which you can see for yourself:
The functionality that eCommerce platforms and technologies of today offer are amazing compared to back then with the things I spent weeks and weeks building such as cart recovery emails now included in almost all eCommerce packages by default or with a simple plugin installation. Its been an exciting evolution so today I thought I would take a look at all of the eCommerce sites in New Zealand and the technologies they are using to run their shops to see how things have changed.
I did this research using a tool called builtwith.com and I found New Zealand retailers are currently using the following technologies (in the week beginning March 14th 2016). These statistics do not include companies that have custom built their own eCommerce solution but the vast majority of eCommerce sites in New Zealand are included.
| Technology | Market Share | Technology | Market Share | |
| WooCommerce | 27.75% | PrestaShop | 1.79% | |
| Squarespace Commerce | 12.39% | Zen Cart | 1.71% | |
| Shopify | 9.89% | VirtueMart | 1.39% | |
| Zeald | 8.80% | Ubercart | 1.31% | |
| Magento | 8.45% | nopCommerce | 0.54% | |
| OpenCart | 7.71% | Ecwid | 0.54% | |
| Weebly eCommerce | 4.39% | HikaShop | 0.53% | |
| WP eCommerce | 2.08% | Big Cartel | 0.40% | |
| BigCommerce | 1.82% | Beetailer | 0.33% | |
| osCommerce | 1.81% |
The results are very interesting to look at, and as a keen advocate of the WooCommerce platform which is a free, open source adaption of the WordPress CMS I am excited to see so many New Zealand retailers have embraced this technology. Along with the dominance of WooCommerce, the do-it-yourself website building platforms Squarespace, Shopify and Weebly have grabbed a big share of the market, with their low prices and significant marketing campaigns aimed at small & startup retailers having a big impact on their adoption – a trend which will likely continue.
Magento appeared a lot lower on the list than I would have thought although its a more powerful platform that is targeted towards larger eCommerce retailers. If I were to instead look at the number of sales generated per eCommerce technology it may be close to, if not the top platform.
I will be keeping a close eye on this list and the trends that follow and will report back on anything I find. If you’ve spotted a few names on that list you’re not sure about you can get a full comparison of all the eCommerce software available today here.
While you wait eagerly for updates (you can subscribe to my newsletter here) I recommend taking a look at builtwith.com. Its a very handy tool which scans the internet regularly and looks at what codes are on each website – from what email platform the site is using to what third party widgets each has. Along with showing which technologies are most popular, the tool has the ability to analyse competitors or to generate a list of prospects using a certain technology (for example if you are a Shopify developer looking for Shopify leads). They currently offer a free trial account which you can sign up for here.
