What is the best CMS for e-commerce website? It depends (and we’ll tell you what on)
Managing an online store is increasingly a matter of technological choices. And CMS is one of the most decisive, because the platform on which an eCommerce site is built influences everything: site speed, Google ranking, operating margins, and growth potential. Today, WooCommerce, the e-commerce plugin for WordPress, powers about 36% of e-commerce sites worldwide, followed by Shopify in second place, with a growing share that has exceeded 20%. Next come PrestaShop, Wix, Squarespace, and a series of hybrid or headless solutions, which are increasingly popular among companies seeking design freedom and advanced integrations. The bottom line is that there is no perfect platform for everyone, but there are more sustainable choices—and others that are costly over time. Understanding how an e-commerce CMS works and what real options are available is the first step toward making an informed decision.
What a CMS for ecommerce sites is
A CMS for ecommerce businesses is a content management system designed specifically to support the operational needs of an online store. While a traditional CMS allows you to create and manage text content, pages, articles, and multimedia sections, the e-commerce version extends these capabilities to the management of products, shopping carts, payments, shipping, and orders.
Some CMSs are already designed with e-commerce at their core (such as Shopify), while others require the installation of a dedicated extension—such as WooCommerce, which transforms WordPress into a complete online store.
Compared to an “e-commerce builder”—simplified tools that allow you to build showcase sites with basic sales functions, often tied to templates and closed logic—a CMS offers greater technical freedom and operational flexibility. Furthermore, unlike a management system, which focuses on warehouse administration, accounting, or logistics, a CMS also takes care of the structure of the site, product presentation, and user relations.
The most popular platforms integrate or allow you to add specific e-commerce modules: catalog, product sheets, payment methods, marketing automation, customer management, and advanced reports. The ability to deeply customize every element of the site makes these systems suitable for those who want to personalize the shopping experience, optimize performance, and have full control over their digital project.
CMS and e-commerce: a necessary combination?
Those who open an online shop can also start on a marketplace or with a ready-made platform, where the design, structure, and tools are already established. For example, hosted solutions such as marketplaces (Amazon, Etsy) or visual builders with preconfigured plans (Shopify, Wix) allow you to launch a business in just a few steps. However, these options offer limited flexibility: features are predefined, access to code is limited or non-existent, and often the entire infrastructure is tied to proprietary logic.
A content management system designed for e-commerce, on the other hand, becomes the hub of an independent, structured, and scalable project. It allows you to directly intervene in every aspect of the user experience: from page structure to checkout, from product pages to marketing actions. It also enables integration with external tools, content localization, SEO optimization, and advanced data management.
Above all, a CMS allows you to decouple the growth of your project from the technical limitations of the initial platform. When your shop starts to generate traffic and sales, it is essential to be able to expand functions, manage multiple languages or markets, optimize performance, and maintain strategic flexibility. It is at this stage that choosing a solid technological foundation makes all the difference—and often marks the line between an amateur endeavor and an e-commerce business that aims to last.
The main types of CMS available today
E-commerce CMSs come in many different forms, not only in terms of interface or design, but also in terms of operating logic, architecture, and level of control. To navigate the alternatives, it is useful to distinguish between four main models, each with specific characteristics, advantages, and trade-offs: SaaS, open source, PaaS, and headless.
- SaaS – Software as a Service
This is the most straightforward model to activate: the entire platform is provided “for rent” through a subscription. The user does not manage hosting, updates, or security: they only have to worry about adding content and selling. Well-known examples are Shopify and Wix. Setup is quick, templates are ready to use, and technical support is integrated.
- Open Source
This is the model that offers the most freedom and flexibility. The code is open and modifiable, but requires technical expertise or external support. The user is responsible for everything: hosting, security, maintenance, customization. This is the case with WordPress with WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and OpenCart. These solutions allow you to build tailor-made projects, but require more work (and often more budget) to be optimized.
- PaaS – Platform as a Service
A middle ground between SaaS and open source. The platform is provided as a service, but with full access to the code for advanced modifications. The infrastructure is managed by the provider, but development is free. A representative example is Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce), designed for structured companies and large volumes of traffic.
- Headless CMS
Here the logic changes: the CMS only handles content management, while the frontend is built and served independently. The connection between the “head” and “body” of the site is made via API. Solutions such as Hygraph, Sanity, Contentful, or Strapi allow for maximum flexibility, scalability, and performance, but require a customized infrastructure. They are often adopted by companies that want to publish the same content on multiple channels (website, app, smart TV, etc.).
What really changes between SaaS and open source
For those who manage an e-commerce business, the difference between SaaS and open source translates into a balance between simplicity and control.
A SaaS system such as Shopify allows you to start a shop in a few hours, with integrated tools for sales, payments, shipping, and reports. The environment is closed, stable, and automatically updated. But this convenience comes at a price: limited customization options, hosting restrictions, and recurring costs proportional to turnover or activated features.
With open source, on the other hand, everything is modifiable. Users choose where to host their site, can install plugins, change templates, access the database, and optimize every component. The platform adapts to the project, not the other way around. But you have to manage security, updates, performance, and backups yourself. And if the site grows, you need a solid technical infrastructure.
The choice depends on available skills, growth objectives, and operating margins. SaaS can be great for a lean, sales-focused shop. Open source is more suitable for those who want to build a tailor-made e-commerce site with a long-term horizon.
When to consider a headless CMS
A headless CMS is designed to completely separate content and presentation. The advantage is clear: you can use the same content across multiple channels—website, mobile app, interactive totems—while maintaining consistency and centralization. Content is managed through a dedicated interface and distributed via API wherever it is needed.
This architecture is ideal for complex, international projects, or when high technical performance is required. It also allows you to use modern frameworks (such as Next.js or Nuxt) for ultra-fast and highly customized frontends.
But a headless CMS is not the best choice for everyone. It requires developers, staging environments, a deployment pipeline, and the ability to maintain code and backends. In addition, content management can become more technical if not paired with a visual editor (or integrated no-code tools).
It becomes a strategic choice when:
- you work on multiple digital channels simultaneously
- you want maximum frontend autonomy
- you manage complex editorial or ecommerce projects with structured teams
In summary, it is a powerful solution, but it only makes sense if you have a mature project or a technical team capable of supporting it over time.
What are the best e-commerce CMSs today?
Now that we have clarified what distinguishes an e-commerce CMS and what the main models available today are, it is time to get to the heart of the concrete alternatives. Because in a market full of promises and solutions that are all “easy and complete,” only a few platforms have established themselves over time as truly sustainable options—from a technical, commercial, and strategic point of view.
Those who want to sell online in 2025 can choose from very different tools, but some names recur constantly in usage statistics, performance analyses, and market comparisons. These are platforms that have proven themselves capable of handling real projects, with variable loads, SEO requirements, customization needs, and growth.
In the following lines, we review the most popular and reliable solutions, analyzing their structure, potential, advantages, and limitations. The goal is not to “rank” them, but to understand which system can truly adapt to the needs of those who want to build a proprietary, efficient, and long-lasting e-commerce business.
- Shopify
One of the most popular SaaS platforms, Shopify allows you to create a complete e-commerce site without having to worry about technical management. The entire system is provided in the cloud: hosting, updates, security, and infrastructure are already included in the monthly plan. The interface is intuitive, the e-commerce features are robust, and the app marketplace covers almost every need.
Model: SaaS
Management: fully cloud-based, all-inclusive
Who it’s for: small and medium-sized brands that want to start selling right away without worrying about the technical side of things
Pros
- No server management
- Optimized themes, smooth checkout
- Rich app store
- Good mobile performance and Core Web Vitals
Cons:
- Limited customization (unless you use Liquid language)
- Transaction fees if you don’t use the proprietary gateway
- Closed system: difficult to migrate or expand freely (and even migrating to Shopify is complicated, as Giuseppe Liguori explained!)
- WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open source plugin that integrates sales features into a WordPress site. It is free in its core, highly extensible, and appreciated by those who want maximum flexibility. It allows you to build a fully customized ecommerce site, but requires attention to the technical side and constant maintenance, updating, and optimization.
Model: Open source (WordPress plugin)
Management: Self-hosted
Who it’s for: those who are familiar with WordPress or want a tailor-made e-commerce site.
Pros
- Complete control over structure and content
- Huge ecosystem of plugins, extensions, and themes
- Almost total customization
Cons
- Requires technical skills to manage
- Performance needs to be optimized (especially on shared hosting)
- Updates and security must be monitored manually.
- PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an open source platform designed natively for e-commerce. It is managed on its own server and allows for good flexibility in customization and catalog management, with numerous features already included in the core. The administration panel is designed for e-commerce, but the experience may be less intuitive for novice users.
Model: Open source
Management: self-hosted (with cloud option via partners)
Who it’s for: Small and medium-sized businesses with more structured e-commerce needs
Pros
- Rich in native features
- Suitable for large catalogs and multilingual management
- Extensive customization options
Cons
- Steeper learning curve than other solutions
- Some essential modules are paid
- Less community support than WordPress
- Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento)
Designed for enterprise projects, Adobe Commerce offers an advanced ecosystem for high-traffic, multi-store, or B2B e-commerce. It can be used in open source or PaaS mode (managed by Adobe) and offers great scalability and functional depth. However, it is complex to manage and not suitable for those looking for a plug-and-play solution.
Model: Open source / PaaS
Management: self-hosted or cloud managed by Adobe
Who it’s for: large companies or structured e-commerce projects
Pros
- Extremely powerful and flexible
- Multi-store support, multilingual, complex catalogs
- Extensive customization capabilities
Cons
- Requires a dedicated technical team
- High development and maintenance costs
- Updates and infrastructure complex to manage
- Wix eCommerce
Wix is known for its drag-and-drop site builder, but it also offers integrated ecommerce features. It’s perfect for those who want to start a small online shop without technical skills, thanks to a simple interface and pre-optimized templates. However, it remains limited for those with more advanced needs or who want to expand their project over time.
Model: SaaS
Management: fully cloud-based
Who it’s for: small shops or occasional sales
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Modern, customizable designs with just a few clicks
- Hosting and security included
Cons:
- Obvious limitations on advanced SEO and customization
- Few professional integrations
- Closed platform: difficult migration
- Squarespace Commerce
Squarespace is appreciated for its focus on design: it offers highly polished themes and a very intuitive visual interface. Its Commerce version integrates online sales features that may be sufficient for those who offer a few products, work in creative niches, or place a high value on the aesthetics of their site. However, it is still a closed environment with limited customization options and a system that can become rigid as your project grows.
Model: SaaS
Management: fully cloud-based
Who it’s for: creative brands, crafts, fashion, photography
Pros:
- Extremely simple interface
- Excellent design even without technical expertise
- Suitable for visual shops with few products
Cons:
- Limitations on SEO, checkout, and automation
- Limited integrations
- Not suitable for complex catalogs or B2B logic
- BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a solid alternative to Shopify for mid- to high-end e-commerce. It offers a robust cloud infrastructure, a good level of flexibility, and advanced native features (discounts, variants, B2B price lists). It also supports a headless configuration for those who want to manage the frontend independently. It remains less widespread in Europe but has gained ground thanks to its open architecture and ability to integrate with external systems.
Model: SaaS / headless-ready
Management: fully cloud-based
Who it’s for: growing projects with more advanced technical requirements
Pros
- High-performance APIs for headless use
- Good features for B2B e-commerce
- Scalable without switching to enterprise solutions
Cons
- Less intuitive interface than Shopify
- Less rich ecosystem
- Less visibility and localized resources for the Italian market
- Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS)
Hygraph is a headless CMS designed for content distributed across multiple channels. It is not an e-commerce platform in the strict sense, but it can be integrated with headless commerce engines to build composable architectures. Management is via API (GraphQL) and allows for maximum flexibility, but requires precise technical design and structured teams. It is the right choice when e-commerce is only part of a larger digital ecosystem.
Model: Headless CMS
Management: cloud-native, API-first
Who it’s for: advanced projects with multi-channel needs
Pros
- Total flexibility in content distribution
- Native support for GraphQL
- Great for editorial and omnichannel scenarios
Cons
- Does not natively support e-commerce functions
- No visual interface for the frontend
- Requires dedicated headless developers and infrastructure
- Duda
Duda is less well known in Italy, but has received positive feedback for its Core Web Vitals performance. It was not created as a pure e-commerce CMS, but allows you to manage online sales through simple modules and integrations, and is increasingly used by agencies and freelancers for agile projects. It does not have the flexibility of open source or the automation of an advanced SaaS, but it can be a lightweight solution for low-traffic e-commerce.
Model: SaaS
Management: full cloud
Who it is suitable for: small projects, agencies, or shops that focus on speed
Pros:
- Excellent CWV performance even without optimization
- Easy to manage for end customers
- Structure also suitable for multilingual sites
Cons:
- Limitations on advanced e-commerce features
- Few native extensions
- Closed system, difficult to expand
What the data says: which CMSs are most used for e-commerce
Talking about platforms is useful, but without data at hand, you risk remaining in the realm of opinion. To understand which CMSs are really used—and how they are evolving over time—we can rely on two solid sources: Web Almanac 2024, which analyzes technical and performance metrics on a large scale, and W3Techs, which monitors the spread of CMSs on the web.
According to aggregated data, WooCommerce is still the most popular e-commerce solution in the world today: it powers around 36% of the e-commerce sites analyzed, thanks to its ease of integration with WordPress and its huge open-source ecosystem.
Shopify remains in second place with over 20% share, growing steadily, especially in English-speaking markets, thanks to its simplicity, centralized management, and expansion into the POS and B2B segments.
Other CMSs such as Squarespace and Wix are growing mainly among small merchants, with good technical performance and very low barriers to entry. Magento (now Adobe Commerce) maintains a significant presence in enterprise projects, although it is declining in the mid-market segment.
Meanwhile, the headless and composable segment is gaining traction among companies with multichannel needs or complex architectures. Solutions such as Hygraph, Contentful, and Sanity remain niche in terms of numbers, but are increasingly being adopted in highly complex contexts.
Key trends:
- Shopify is the platform that has gained the most market share in the last two years, especially in English-speaking countries and among new digital businesses.
- WooCommerce remains the most widely used platform, but its adoption is stable or declining slightly in high-traffic segments where high performance is required.
- Wix and Squarespace show solid numbers on sites with good Core Web Vitals, but remain marginal for complex projects.
- Magento/Adobe Commerce continues to lose ground in the SME sector but remains strong in the enterprise segment.
- Headless CMSs are growing at double digits but still represent a small share of the global market.
The e-commerce CMSs with the best technical performance
But let’s go into more detail about the parameters that are useful for making an informed choice. Not all CMSs offer the same technical performance, and the differences become particularly evident on mobile, where much of the user experience takes place. The way a platform manages code, loads content, and responds to interactions has a direct impact on organic visibility and the site’s ability to drive conversions.
Data from the Web Almanac 2024 highlights clear gaps between the leading e-commerce CMSs, especially when we consider the three parameters of the Core Web Vitals — LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), INP (Interaction to Next Paint), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — which are used to understand which systems truly guarantee smooth, fast, and stable navigation.
In general, performance differences depend on various factors: CMS structure, native optimizations, caching management, approach to dynamic content, and use of external scripts. SaaS CMSs tend to have clear advantages in terms of initial setup and automatic optimization. Open source CMSs, on the other hand, can only achieve optimal performance with targeted technical work.
These data should not be read as absolute judgments, but as tools for decision-making: those who want ready-to-use performance will choose already optimized platforms; those who want total control will have to factor in the work and skills required to achieve the same result.
- LCP – loading of the main visual element
An LCP of less than 2.5 seconds is the basic requirement for Google. In this regard, cloud CMSs show clear advantages:
- Shopify is among the platforms with the best LCP pass rate on mobile, with an average of over 75% of pages compliant.
- Duda, although less widespread, performed even better, ranking among the fastest CMSs in technical terms.
- WooCommerce, on the other hand, has a much lower pass rate (34%) due to the high variability introduced by custom themes and plugins.
- INP – responsiveness to user interaction
Interaction to Next Paint measures latency after user interaction. The ideal value is below 200 ms.
- Most SaaS platforms achieve compliance rates above 75%.
- Magento and BigCommerce lag behind, with success rates of 49% and 67%, respectively.
- Here too, WooCommerce’s performance is inconsistent and highly dependent on local configuration.
- CLS – visual layout stability during loading
CLS measures how much the layout “jumps” while the page is loading. A good score is below 0.1.
- WooCommerce performs well on this parameter, achieving one of the best compliance rates among the CMSs tested.
- Shopify and Squarespace maintain very good values.
- Magento, on the other hand, is among those that struggle most to maintain layout stability.
What is the best CMS for e-commerce? It depends on the project
No platform is better than another, because every project has different constraints, objectives, and resources. A CMS only works well if it fits the business model, the skills available, and the type of control needed over time.
The right platform, then, is not the most popular one, nor the one with the most features: it is the one that lends itself to the real conditions in which a project operates—the available budget, the business structure, the type of team, the growth expectations, and the technical skills that are present or absent.
For some, it will be more important to get started quickly with a stable, worry-free solution, and therefore they will tend to prefer turnkey platforms, which reduce start-up times. On the other hand, those who are building a brand or a complex digital ecosystem cannot afford a closed system: they will need an extensible, high-performance, and scalable CMS that can support the business without becoming a constraint. For others, it will be essential to have control over the code, maximum freedom of customization, and a technological base capable of evolving over time.
In short, the answer does not lie in the platform itself, but in the compatibility between the platform and the project. And to make a clear choice, three fundamental aspects need to be evaluated: budget, operational management, and actual performance.
Budget and business model
Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace have gained ground because they allow you to open an e-commerce site with a low initial investment and a ready-made infrastructure. These are ready-made solutions, where hosting, security, updates, and support are managed by the provider. Shopify now has over 20% of the market thanks to this accessibility: it offers a complete, secure system with native tools to start selling right away. Costs increase over time (subscriptions, commissions, apps), but they are predictable and stable.
WooCommerce dominates as the most popular CMS, partly because the software has no initial costs and is part of a familiar ecosystem like WordPress. But it is not free to run: hosting, plugins, support, and development all affect the operating budget, as do the skills needed to set everything up securely. The initial budget may be lower, but maintenance and evolution depend entirely on the site owner (or their team).
Magento (Adobe Commerce) is another story: it is aimed at enterprises with large budgets and internal teams. Costs are high from the outset—both for infrastructure and development—but in return it offers scalability, multi-channel capabilities, and advanced management of complex catalogs.
The business model influences the choice: those who expect low volumes, occasional or seasonal offers may prefer SaaS systems. Those working with more complex logic (B2B, subscriptions, multilingual, vertical integrations) will find open source CMSs a more suitable foundation.
User experience and ease of management
Those who manage an e-commerce site on a daily basis need a clear interface, simple procedures, and tools that don’t complicate basic operations. Shopify is designed exactly for this: it offers a basic, well-designed back office with guided features and transparent updates. This is largely why it continues to grow, especially among new digital merchants.
Wix and Squarespace also follow the same approach: few clicks, zero configuration, immediate results. They work, as long as the project remains simple. On the other hand, there is less freedom to intervene, less flexibility on custom workflows, and less project extensibility.
WooCommerce and PrestaShop offer more complex environments, but also more extensible ones. Those already familiar with WordPress may find WooCommerce a flexible and powerful solution, but they must accept managing updates, plugins, potential conflicts, and performance.
Finally, Magento is not a platform designed to be “simple”: it requires training, staging environments, and a structured deployment process. It is a choice that only makes sense in contexts where clear digital governance already exists.
In all cases, the availability of plugins, documentation, and an active community makes all the difference in day-to-day management and troubleshooting.
Performance, SEO, and Core Web Vitals
The way a platform handles code, loading, and page structure directly affects two key factors: user experience and organic visibility.
Technical performance is one of the most overlooked factors in the selection phase, but it is among the most impactful in the medium term. According to data from Web Almanac 2024, SaaS platforms offer a structural advantage over Core Web Vitals — the set of metrics we now use as a benchmark for user experience and visibility on Google.
Shopify passes the LCP test on over 75% of pages analyzed on mobile, thanks to effective caching and rendering management.
Wix and especially Duda do even better, with very high compliance rates on INP and CLS as well. It is no coincidence that these platforms are growing among those looking for technical simplicity and “ready-made” performance. WooCommerce, on the other hand, stops at 34% LCP compliance: the worst result among the CMSs analyzed, caused by its dependence on third-party themes, plugins, and hosting.
Magento also struggles to ensure visual stability (CLS), unless very extensive technical interventions are made.
Those who have the opportunity to intervene at the infrastructure level can make up ground, but they must be aware that performance is not included by default. Technical work, attention to updates, and constant testing are required. And this can radically change the real cost of management over time.
From an SEO perspective, almost all CMSs now allow you to manage meta tags, custom URLs, and sitemaps. But only a few platforms allow granular control over code, markup, and structured data. The real difference lies in the ability to optimize in depth and maintain a fast, stable, and technically compliant site over time.
Outlook and trends: where are e-commerce CMSs headed?
Over the past two years, the e-commerce CMS market has shifted decisively towards flexible architecture. The most advanced companies are no longer looking for “a platform” to sell online, but a set of integrable tools capable of supporting omnichannel strategies, international growth, and increasingly sophisticated customization processes.
Four clear trends are driving this change.
The first is the growth of headless architectures, where the CMS ceases to be a monolithic block and becomes a node within a larger structure, managed via API. By separating the backend and frontend, you gain freedom over layout, devices, distribution channels, and development cycles. This logic has taken hold among brands with distributed digital presences, multichannel content, and a need to scale quickly.
This is accompanied by the composable approach, which goes even further: every component of the digital ecosystem can be chosen, replaced or integrated according to specific needs. In this context, the CMS is just one of many parts in play — along with payment systems, customer management, marketing automation and analytics. Platforms such as Hygraph and Commerce Layer are good examples of this paradigm.
At the same time, there is growing pressure towards truly omnichannel e-commerce. Content must be available on websites, apps, social media, newsletters, and marketplaces. Traditional CMSs cannot always cope with this complexity: they either become unmanageable or force compromises. The latest solutions focus on high-performance APIs, real-time synchronization, and centralized control.
Finally, artificial intelligence is finding its way into content generation, interface personalization, and operations automation. WordPress has already introduced AI tools into its core, and Shopify is testing AI for product suggestions and dynamic copy. But we are still a long way from truly widespread and integrated adoption. In many cases, AI is “grafted” via external plugins or separate services, which are often difficult to maintain over time.
In this scenario, the real differentiator is not just innovation, but technical sustainability: frequent updates, continuous security, maintenance costs, and adaptability become key selection criteria. Companies that have made solid investments in flexible architectures are already seeing the benefits in terms of efficiency, scalability, and operational freedom. Others risk finding themselves stuck on platforms that will soon be unable to keep pace.
A look at the digital market
It is clear that the choice of the best CMS for e-commerce is also influenced by transformations in the digital environment: today, channels are multiplying (social, mobile, marketplaces), behaviors are changing, and technologies are becoming deeply integrated, making it even more necessary to have a platform that can adapt without forcing you to start from scratch every year.
Once again, let’s look at the numbers.
2025 confirms the structural growth of global e-commerce, but with clear differences between markets, channels, and segments. Shopify estimates that global e-commerce revenue will reach $6.56 trillion, up 7.8% from $6.09 trillion in 2024. Statista provides a more conservative projection of $4.8 trillion, demonstrating the different methodologies used to collect data. What matters is the symbolic threshold: for the first time, online purchases account for over 20% of all retail sales worldwide. Growth is being driven by sectors such as consumer electronics, fashion, health, and beauty, while geographically, China remains the largest market in absolute terms, followed by India and Southeast Asia in terms of growth rate. Social commerce is also strengthening and will generate over $100 billion in 2025 (+22% on 2024), driven by direct channels such as TikTok Shop, Instagram, and Facebook Shops. Mobile commerce continues to climb, thanks to the spread of digital wallets and the optimization of the smartphone shopping experience. Purchasing behavior is evolving towards greater awareness: 29% of online users identify low price as the most decisive factor, but there is growing attention to the omnichannel experience and brand identity, with increasing interest in sustainability and second-hand products.
Looking closer to home, the Italian landscape shows signs of consolidation, albeit with lower penetration than the European average. According to the Netcomm B2C eCommerce Observatory – Politecnico di Milano, the Italian market will reach a total value of €62 billion in 2025, up +7% on the previous year. Product purchases exceed €40 billion (+6%), with sectors such as Food & Grocery and Beauty & Pharma expanding by 7%, and IT and electronics maintaining their lead in online penetration (43% of total purchases). Clothing is worth €6.2 billion (+5%), driven in part by the strengthening of the second-hand market.
In terms of channels, social media are becoming effective sales tools: the 2025 report by Casaleggio Associati shows that Instagram generates 44% of social sales, surpassing WhatsApp (37%) and Facebook (34%). E-commerce penetration of total retail sales reached 11.2%, still below the European average but steadily advancing.
Italian companies are increasingly looking to foreign markets: France (14%), Germany (14%), and Spain (12%) are the preferred destinations for expansion. In terms of technology and conversion, over 83% of companies offer multiple payment options, with an increase in the use of “Buy Now, Pay Later” solutions such as Klarna and Scalapay, which have now become part of the digital shopping experience.
AI changes everything: from operations to visibility
And then, of course, there is AI, which is increasingly becoming a concrete driver of transformation for e-commerce.
The global market for AI technologies for retail is worth $8.65 billion, and the market for supply chain alone is expected to reach $11.73 billion. Companies are adopting advanced solutions across the board: 80% of retailers use or plan to use chatbots, and by 2027, these tools will be the first line of customer service for at least 25% of companies.
Generative AI is already used by 60% of companies to produce marketing content, product descriptions, and promotional copy. Personalized recommendation engines are present on 71% of e-commerce sites: they analyze history, preferences, and interactions to offer targeted products and improve customer loyalty. On an operational level, AI optimizes demand forecasting, inventory, and logistics, reducing costs and inefficiencies.
But the most disruptive impact is on visibility. The introduction of AI Overview has redesigned SERP. In March 2025, these AI-generated summary responses appear in 13% of total queries, up from 6.28% in January. The result is a sharp drop in traffic from Google, especially for informational and branded queries: the “zero-click” effect takes visibility away from classic organic results.
Classic SEO is no longer enough. To remain visible, e-commerce sites must now structure content designed to “feed” Google’s AI: authoritative, in-depth, with data, reviews, optimized FAQs, and visual formats. What’s more, they need to focus on long-tail keywords, specific questions, and niches neglected by generic AI responses.
How these numbers influence CMS choice
The data not only shows that e-commerce is growing, it also shows that it is becoming more technical, more selective, and more integrated. And the choice of platform must reflect this direction.
Those focusing on internationalization, omnichannel, or operational AI need a flexible system that is open to integration and compatible with complex flows: WooCommerce, PrestaShop, or headless solutions are best suited to these cases. But they require expertise and technical governance.
Those working with simple catalogs, direct B2C logic, and social-first strategies may find a CMS SaaS such as Shopify to be a solid foundation that is quick to activate and more sustainable in the short term.
The pressure on Core Web Vitals, the centrality of structured SEO, and the arrival of AI in discovery also impose new criteria: a CMS can no longer be chosen solely on the basis of “what it does,” but on how well it does it, how quickly, and how easily it can be updated over time.
Frequently asked questions about CMS and e-commerce
Looking for the perfect CMS is an illusion. Finding the one that is best suited to the project you want to build is a practical choice. Every platform has advantages, limitations, and trade-offs: what matters is that it is consistent with your business model, available resources, and growth ambitions. Those starting from scratch may prefer simplicity and speed; those with a structured plan should focus on control, performance, and scalability. The important thing is not to think in abstract terms. A good CMS is not one that does everything: it is one that does not slow down the project.
We conclude with a thoughtful list of FAQs to clarify any remaining doubts on the subject in a more direct manner.
- What is the difference between a CMS and an e-commerce platform?
A CMS is a system designed to manage the content and structure of a website, while an e-commerce platform is designed to sell online. Some CMSs (such as WordPress) become e-commerce platforms through plugins, while others (such as Shopify) integrate content and commercial functions into a single interface.
- What is the most widely used CMS for e-commerce?
According to W3Techs and Web Almanac, WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce CMS in the world, with about 36% of the sites analyzed. It is followed by Shopify, with a steadily growing share of over 20%, and solutions such as Squarespace, Wix, and PrestaShop.
- Can I use WordPress for e-commerce?
Yes. WordPress, when used on its own, is a content management system.
But with the WooCommerce plugin, it can become a complete e-commerce solution, suitable for both small projects and structured sites, thanks to its flexibility and huge ecosystem of plugins and extensions.
- Which CMSs are free?
WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento Open Source, and OpenCart are free CMSs in their core form: there is no license fee, but the user is responsible for all technical management. SaaS CMSs (such as Shopify, Wix, Squarespace) require monthly subscriptions.
- How do you know which CMS a website uses?
You can use tools such as WhatCMS, BuiltWith, or the Wappalyzer browser extension. Alternatively, simply inspect the source code of the page and look for recurring elements (CSS classes, admin URLs, meta generators, etc.).
