Want to cut right to the case? The best ecommerce platform for rentals right now is Wix and Nexcess WooCommerce.
Currently, we live in time where things are getting easier thanks to technology; with the spread of the internet, we are now able to sell and purchase anything via the internet thanks to online stores. But this is not the only service we can enjoy; nowadays there are plenty of websites whose main purpose is rental. People are able to rent plenty of services online, with no need of going out of the house, wait in line and sign many papers; thanks to the popularization of e-commerce for rentals, people can rent anything with just one click. From houses, bikes, cameras, etc., you can find a lot of options online to purchase the thing you need.
On the other side, the internet has helped not only customers but entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking to embrace their brands in order to gain ground and spread their services. Therefore, it is necessary for small businesses to create an ecommerce; online store that guarantees brand awareness and improves sales. This is the reason there are many platforms for rentals. So, if you are looking to settle a rental brand and want to enhance the traffic to your business, it is necessary to find the right tools, in the right platforms. Here below, we list the best e-commerce platforms for rental you can find online.
1. Wix (Best Overall)
You might have heard about this platform before; Wix is a very versatile e-commerce platform that helps small to medium-size business owners to create e-commerce pages simple, fast and customizable. Wix offers not only amazing marketing features like SEO optimization and social media additions but also helps you to create unique pages with its vast list of templates; this feature also allows you to showcase an unlimited number of products. This is a drag and drop platform, and its manageability is beginner-friendly.
In Wix, you do not have to worry about unique designs, since it offers the opportunity to save and recycle first-class media when it comes to renting season equipment. It is important to highlight that Wix offers a free trial; however, the most advanced plans might seem a bit pricey, but you will have to use them in order to have full functionality of the platform building service. Still, Wix provides great features to create great rental e-commerce, and allow users to escalate quickly in search engine results.
2. Nexcess WooCommerce Hosting
Hosting and managing your online rental marketplace is very easy on Nexcess WooCommerce hosting. Nexcess WooCommerce hosting offers automatic core and plugin updates for your rentals store, and it provides a 1-Click staging site and visual regression testing. You can choose from numerous themes and templates and customize them to your taste, such as Kadence starter templates and over 60 additional Beaver Builder Page Modules. Despite its host of premium features, Nexcess WooCommerce hosting comes at a very affordable price and even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
You can process up to 10,000 orders per hour, enjoy up to 800GB of storage space, and maintain up to 30 stores depending on your chosen Nexcess WooCommerce hosting package. As a rental business looking for a platform that provides better scalability, speed, security, and support, Nexcess WooCommerce hosting is your best bet.
The plugin performance monitor helps you stay on top of performance issues and hitches, while the Nexcess sales performance monitor gives quality insights into your store’s sales using Nexcess’ powerful eCommerce AI. You are also guaranteed super-fast loading speed and advanced caching. The best part is that you can manage and follow up on abandoned carts and enjoy high performance under heavy load. Round-the-clock security monitoring and support from WooCommerce experts is an added advantage of using Nexcess WooCommerce hosting.
3. Yo!Rent
Yo!Rent is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms for creating an online rental marketplace. This one is the predilection platform when people think about rental platform building. IT is user-friendly and comes with a ton of features, especially in the marketing aspect. It is a great option for businesses to escalate quickly in the market. With Yo!Rent, users are able to create pages within minutes, since its drag and drop functions ease the work. It is one of the most advanced rental platforms in the market, which is a plus considering design and customization. This platform offers strong SEO optimization, and also allows users to add advertisement, partnership, commissions, and more.
One disadvantage to mention about this platform is that the registration process might be a bit confusing to do since it requires many steps to follow, which can toughen its use. However, Yo!Rent offers a great diversity of templates for web design; in this way, you can create an eye-catching and professional website. This e-commerce platform builder is really affordable, which is great for any beginner with a small business. It is also important to mention that Yo!Rent offers a great variety of functions that allow you to add very useful tools to your rental e-commerce, such as order details, delivery address, shipping and payment status, ect.
4. Squarespace
Squarespace is an amazing ecommerce building platform that has been gaining popularity in the last couple of years. Although this site can be a bit limited in terms of web design, it surely offers great advantages for plugins and integrations which help to settle a rental ecommerce pretty quickly and quite functional. Its shortlist of templates still offers great chances to customize your web in a way to make it look modern, creative, and professional. It is important to remark that Squarespace offers an unlimited number of the products you want to provide on your page; also, the integrations ease the rental management which is an amazing plus for beginners in the field.
Squarespace is a bit pricey, so you better consider revising the list of plans and their prices before using this platform. Besides, if you want to include inventory tracking and other functions in your rental platform, you will have to go for the Basic Commerce plan or the Advanced Commerce plan. Despite the fact that this e-commerce builder can be expensive, it is a stupendous option if you want to enter all the way into a professionally settled platform, with strong SEO optimization and other marketing features.
5. Weebly
Weebly is very popular in the e-commerce platform market; it offers remarkable benefits when it comes to affordability, versatility, and customization. Its minimalistic templates are just great to give that modern touch to your rental website; it offers the drag and drop function and layouts to showcase all of your products. Among the most highlighting advantages you can find on this site, we can mention the inventory tracking, unlimited number of products, and a vast variety of payment methods to include. Weebly is pretty affordable as well in comparison to Squarespace or Wix, and although some options might seem limited compared to those two, you can still create great rental e-commerce that covers all of your needs, especially if you own a small business.
Weebly’s marketing features are very good when it comes to optimizing SEO, adding email marketing, and social media integrations. Another great benefit of this platform is that users have the opportunity to create coupons, gift cards, and discounts. You definitely can find amazing options for your rental e-commerce with this platform, especially for its cost-effectiveness and variety of features that will help you improve your small business.
6. Sharetribe
Sharetribe is less popular than the other websites we have mentioned so far, but it is a great option if you have a small business and are going for an affordable and flexible option alternative to Weebly. It is important to remark that this platform is supported by popular brands like Canon and Studiotime. It is an e-commerce platform destined to power P2P businesses; it is highly recommended for the rental marketplace since it offers great order management and multistore management. It also provides built-in SEO integrations and many more marketing features like email marketing, built-in payment systems, and advertisement additions.
When it comes to design, Sharetribe is pretty flexible with many templates to choose from; they all might seem very simple, but you can still create original rental e-commerce with these themes. This platform is also flexible in other aspects such as payment methods and plans; it offers a free month trial to enjoy some basic applications. It is also very responsive in devices like mobiles and tablets; which can help pretty well if you are on the go. Sharetribe is a reliable and diverse choice if you want to settle a small business you want to enlarge in the future.
7. Shift4Shop
This platform is one of the best in terms of customization of e-commerce platforms. It is highly flexible and offers plenty of themes to play with the design of your web. Its wide number of tools provide any beginner to create a unique web page; this platform even allows users to create their own mobile applications to improve rentals. Plus, it is an affordable choice, since any plan provides a great variety of features that allow you to showcase unlimited products, monitor your products, rentals, and inventory, and many more. Also, its order and shipping management is pretty simple and will ease all the rental work of your store.
Other great aspects Shift4 Shop offers, even in its basic plans, are its marketing features, and other built-in options like sales, automation, and many more. It might be considered a bit pricey if you are going for a simpler and more affordable platform; the Basic plan costs around $29 per month, the Plus plan costs $79 per month, and the Pro plan costs around $229 per month. If you are looking for a great e-commerce builder with spectacular benefits and do not mind spending a bit more, Shift4Shop is the perfect platform for you; but if you’re a beginner and do not want to go out of your budget, we recommend going for other platforms we have mentioned above.
8. Shopify
Now, we have Shopify; this one is very popular among merchants and is one of the favorites. Shopify stands out for its great customer support. It is a good option for beginners since it offers a drag and drops function, something that eases manageability. Shopify provides plenty of features that help users to customize their pages in a unique way. It is possible to showcase your products in good-looking and minimal designs. This is a very good option if you have very little or none of the experience with coding or website building.
One aspect to consider is that Shopify does not offer strong SEO optimization, so you might feel limited on that side. Besides, it is also good to take into consideration that Shopify charges transaction fees; so, at least you pay for built-in payment processes, it is definitely something to keep in mind. Still, Shopify offers a great app that allows you to enjoy integrations like email marketing and social media, as well as order and shipping monitoring, which makes it a great option for rental e-commerce.
In general terms, it just takes time and patients to find the right platform that works for you; just keep in mind that there is no need to be an expert on coding or website building. All the e-commerce platforms we have listed offer a vast landscape of possibilities that allow entrepreneurs to improve their brands and manage their rental stores easily and professionally. Take into account the benefits each of them provides and you will only have to sit and let your creativity make the work for you.