Author: Bogdan Rancea

Bogdan Rancea is the founder and lead curator of ecomm.design, a showcase of the best ecommerce websites. With over 12 years in the digital commerce space he has a wealth of knowledge and a keen eye for great online retail experiences. As an ecommerce tech explorer Bogdan tests and reviews various platforms and design tools like Shopify, Figma and Canva and provides practical advice for store owners and designers. His hands on experience with these tools and his knowledge of ecommerce design trends makes him a valuable resource for businesses looking to improve their online presence. On ecomm.design Bogdan writes about online stores, ecommerce design and tips for entrepreneurs and designers.

How to Sell Digital Products in 2026

The internet has a habit of making selling digital products sound like the “easy” low-effort alternative to building a typical ecommerce brand and selling something physical. I understand that perspective.

If you sell ebooks, digital downloads, or templates, you’re not worrying about inventory, fulfillment, or shipping issues. Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any real work to do. You still need a specific niche, a product that people actually want, and a plan for how you’re going to pull in buyers, and hopefully keep them coming back month after month.

Underestimate all that, and you end up wasting a lot of time and energy on a business that seemed like a great idea at first, but never got to the point of giving you any consistent income.

I’ve seen that happen a lot, which is why I ended up putting this guide together.

It’s the step-by-step process I’d walk an ambitious seller through now, using one of my favorite platforms for digital sales: Payhip.

Payhip Review: The Creator Storefront I’d Pick Before a Lot of Bigger Names

 Payhip started in 2011 as a simple tool that helped creators sell digital files directly to their audience. The platform was founded by two software engineer brothers, Abs Farah and Kahin Farah, with a clear goal to make ecommerce accessible to everyone everywhere, while staying bootstrapped and focused on what benefits sellers.

By 2026, Payhip has grown into one of the most popular platforms for selling digital products.

While many know it as a free tool with no monthly fees for selling ebooks, templates, and more, there are far more features than most people realize. Its bootstrapped approach has kept pricing low and allowed the team to prioritize features that sellers actually ask for.

How to Connect HubSpot with Shopify: The Connection Every Store Eventually Needs

how to connect hubspot with shopify

If you’ve read many articles written by me before, you’ll know that personally, I love Shopify. It’s honestly one of my favorite ecommerce platforms, particularly if you’re looking for depth and scalability. But I’d be lying if I said that Shopify (just like every other ecommerce platform), doesn’t work better when it’s connected to other genuinely helpful tech.

For most companies, the first real “connection” you’re going to need (beyond a link to your accounting software), is going to be to a CRM.

HubSpot CRM is my go-to, and the top choice for a lot of smaller businesses because it’s comprehensive, easy-to-use, and perfect for aligning sales, marketing, service, and every other department your store depends on.

The Best CRM for Creative Agencies in 2026: Why HubSpot Reigns Supreme

If you’ve ever run a creative team, you know the strain. Feedback gets buried in Slack threads. The latest logo file is on someone’s desktop. Invoices sit in limbo because nobody remembers who approved what. It’s not that people aren’t trying, it’s that the tools we use were built for salespeople, not for designers juggling a dozen moving parts.

That’s why I started testing CRMs again. Not the old “enterprise” kind that treats every client like a lead, but the newer systems built with creative agencies in mind, where project tracking, collaboration, and sales automation actually live in the same ecosystem.

Over the past few months, I’ve run nine platforms through real client projects to see which ones hold up under real-world pressure. HubSpot CRM impressed me the most, but here I’ll give you an objective look at how all of them stacked up.

Wix Studio Review: The Ideal Site Builder for Agencies?

wix studio review

Over the past decade or so, I’ve built websites for everything from scrappy tech startups to polished ecommerce brands. I’ve worked with WordPress, dabbled with Squarespace, fell in love with Shopify, and even spent more than my fair share of time experimenting with Wix.

When Wix first launched “Wix Studio” in 2023, I’ll admit I was a little skeptical. Wix has a great reputation for being user-friendly, but it’s website building tools aren’t exactly “agency grade”. Editor X – Wix’s previous attempt at creating a more advanced solution for agencies and enterprises, didn’t quite stick the landing for me either.

Wix Studio, though, promises a different story: a sleek, pro-level design tool with real CMS capabilities, responsive design, built-in development tools, marketing integrations, and even some surprisingly clever AI features. Here’s my honest take after spending serious time with it.

How to Choose a B2B Ecommerce Platform: A Practical Buyer’s Guide

Picking the wrong B2B ecommerce platform is expensive in ways that go beyond the licence fee. You end up working around limitations instead of building on strengths, bolting on workarounds for missing approval workflows, fighting integrations that were supposed to be “plug and play,” and eventually re-platforming two years later.

The problem is that most buying guides compare platforms feature-by-feature without asking the question that actually matters: does this platform handle your specific buying scenarios, with your existing systems, at a cost you can sustain?

This guide walks through a practical process for answering that question.

Best Open Source Ecommerce Platforms for 2026

best open source ecommerce platforms

I got tired of paying Shopify fees for a store I couldn’t really customise without hitting some wall. That’s how I ended up going down the open source rabbit hole. Months later I’m still in it.

Some of these platforms are brilliant. Some of them wasted entire weekends of my life. One of them (I’ll get to it) had documentation so outdated I ended up in a Discord server at midnight asking strangers how to configure shipping zones.

I wasn’t super scientific about how I evaluated them. Mostly I cared about whether I could actually get a store running without losing my mind, how much the dev community could bail me out when I got stuck, and whether the thing would fall over if it got real traffic. SEO came up a lot too because I’ve been burned by platforms that technically work but Google basically ignores.

I looked at:

  • Performance and SEO capabilities
  • Ease of use
  • Customization and design flexibility
  • Support for developers
  • Community size and updates
  • Scalability

Square vs Squarespace: Which Platform Is Right for Your Business?

squarespace vs square

After years of helping ecommerce businesses launch and grow, I have tested more platforms than I can count. Square and Squarespace are two I get asked about constantly, mostly because their names are easy to confuse.

But these are very different tools. Square is a payments and operations platform built around POS and omnichannel selling. Squarespace is a website builder with ecommerce layered on top. Choosing the wrong one can cost you time, money, and flexibility you will not get back.

As you will see in this comparison, the right pick depends entirely on how you sell. Neither platform is “better” in a vacuum. The key is matching the tool to your business model.

Based on our analysis, Square is the better choice for in-person selling and operations, while Squarespace is the better choice for design-led websites and content-first businesses.

Shopify Pros and Cons in 2026: What Merchants Need to Know

Shopify is one of the most widely used ecommerce platforms in the world, but whether it’s right for your business is a more nuanced question.

Its strengths in sales features, multichannel selling, and ecosystem maturity make it a default choice for many brands. Yet its rising costs, content limitations, and customization guardrails mean it isn’t the right fit for everyone.

To help you decide, we’ve broken down Shopify’s biggest pros and cons based on thorough research and hands-on testing, so you know exactly what you’re signing up for.

How to change your Shopify domain

Changing your Shopify domain is one of those tasks that looks simple on the surface but has a few moving parts worth understanding before you start.

Whether you’re rebranding, switching to a more memorable URL, or just finally ditching the default .myshopify.com address, this guide walks you through every step — including what to do with your old domain and how to protect your SEO in the process.

Palo Alto Shopify Theme Review: Is It Worth the $420 Price Tag?

palo alto shopify theme review

If you’ve been digging through the Shopify Theme Store, you’ve probably come across Palo Alto, one of the most visually-driven and conversion-focused themes on the market.

At $420, it’s one of the more expensive options out there, so naturally, the big question is: Is it worth it?

I’ve spent hours analyzing how this theme performs, what it offers, and how real merchants are using it.

Whether you’re running an apparel brand, launching a high-ticket fitness store, or building out a lifestyle storefront with lots of visuals, here’s my full breakdown of what Palo Alto does right, where it stumbles, and who should actually use it.

5 Best Squarespace Alternatives for Ecommerce and Design

best squarespace alternatives

Squarespace is one of the most popular website builders on the market, offering sleek templates and easy setup for beginners.

It’s well-suited for portfolios, service websites, and small online shops. But if you’re running a serious ecommerce business or want more design freedom, Squarespace can feel limited quickly.

In this article, I’ll walk through five of the best alternatives to Squarespace and explain why you might want to look beyond it, especially if you care about design flexibility, SEO control, or scaling your store.