CMS stands for Content Management System. It’s like a tool that helps people create and manage websites easily without knowing complicated programming. With a CMS, anyone can add, edit and organize content on an eCommerce website, like text, images and videos. It’s like a dream system for website creation and maintenance for every non-technical user.
Though it’s designed for non-technical users, it’s your duty to hand the Best eCommerce CMS to your clients, as tons of them are available in the market.
I believe you have heard and tested Active eCommerce CMS and 6Valley, two of the most popular content management systems in the market. Today, I’ll be comparing these two solutions in this blog.
Read till the end to know the detailed comparison between these two CMSs.
Active eCommerce CMS
Active eCommerce CMS is like a super handy tool for anyone wanting to sell things online. It helps you create and handle your online store easily, no matter how big or small your business is.
With this system, you can manage your products, keep track of orders, handle shipping and deal with payments and taxes. It even has a built-in blog for promoting your products and services.
You can choose between two versions: one you host yourself with a one-time purchase and another, that’s hosted in the cloud and requires a monthly subscription. It works smoothly on all popular web browsers and operating systems, making it really convenient for users.
6Valley Multi Vendor eCommerce CMS
For business owners, 6Valley is a fantastic solution. It lets you create amazing websites and provide easy-to-use apps for your online store. You can customize everything, manage your products, and accept payments hassle-free.
No matter what device your customers use, 6Valley ensures a smooth shopping experience. It’s great for global expansion too, supporting multiple languages, various payment methods, and third-party shipping. This means you can reach more people and sell your products worldwide.
Moreover, the delivery management of 6Valley is very simple and easy to manage.
Read: Best eCommerce CMS Platforms
Must-have Features of an Ideal CMS
Nowadays, you’ll find new eCommerce CMSs in the marketplaces. But are all of them ideal contenders to be one of the greatest solutions in the market? I bet they don’t. Remember I mentioned earlier that Active eCommerce CMS and 6Valley are excellent solutions? They have all the essential features an ideal content management system must inherit.
Here are the must-have features of an eCommerce solution:
1. Clean & Customizable Code
When you purchase any eCommerce solution (unless it is a SaaS product), you get the complete source code. An ideal eCommerce solution has to have a clean code structure with maximum customizable flexibility. If the codes are scattered and aren’t customizable, you, as a developer, won’t bother to purchase that script.
2. Easy-to-Understand
It’s not enough to be clean and customizable, it must be very well-organized and comment-proof. As someone else wrote the codes, you have no idea what intention or logic he had in mind, let’s say, for a function. Everything has to be explained using comments (//comments) because any developer can read & understand this code. This is one of the biggest flairs of an excellent eCommerce code.
3. Customer Support System
Customers are the heart of an eCommerce business. Everything you do is only for getting more and more customers on your system. So, an ideal eCommerce solution must have a customer support section to provide the utmost assistance. This support section can have a calling, messaging or ticket system.
4. Separate Panels for Different Users
If an eCommerce solution has multi vendor business model, it should have different panels for sellers/vendors. Sellers from the seller panel can manage their stores, orders, deliveries, etc. Unlike the admin panel, which has the master settings for everything in the business, the seller panel will only have settings that are related to stores only.
5. Product Management
An ideal eCommerce CMS needs to have a solid product management system. Admin, as well as sellers, can manage their products right from their respective panels. All product-related features, such as product add, delete products, create SKUs, bulk import/export, manage categories & sub-categories, etc.
6. Order Management
An ideal eCommerce CMS must have an organized order management system. Everything related to orders must be in one place or nearby. It helps users easily navigate through necessary order-related sections.
7. Delivery Management
Having a strong delivery system is crucial for an eCommerce solution. If the delivery process isn’t reliable, all your efforts in ordering products will be in vain. So, it’s important to have a solid delivery system, whether managed by the admin or individual sellers.
8. Ratings & Reviews
Ratings & reviews are things that customers look for while shopping from an eCommerce website. If you find an eCommerce solution that doesn’t come with this feature, you should look somewhere else.
9. Promotion Management
Promotion is a crucial element of a business. It attracts more customers and brings more sales. More or less, every eCommerce solution has promotional management. However, check if a system has multiple banners, announcement sections, popup banners, coupons, different sale campaigns and push notification features.
10. Multiple Secured Payment Methods
Every eCommerce business must have multiple payment methods, as it ensures no customers return empty-handed just because of not having their preferred payment methods. Multiple payment methods include digital payments (with different payment gateways), virtual wallet payments, cash on deliveries, offline payments, etc. Not only are multiple payments enough, these payment methods must be 100% secured.
11. Attractive User Interface
A beautiful user interface with an excellent user experience is always welcomed by all. As attractive UI is soothing to the eyes, well-constructed UX helps users have everything within reach.
12. Compatibility
An eCommerce solution must be highly adaptable. What it means, any small or large business can easily fit within the CMS. Not only that, it should have the adaptability of different businesses like electronics, lifestyle, grocery, etc. As I mentioned about the electronics business, it should have the option to sell digital products, such as software, licenses, subscriptions, etc.
13. Report & Analytics
Reports and analytics are the data that show how a business performs. An eCommerce solution must have different sales reports, such as earning reports, sales reports, transaction reports, product reports, order reports, etc.
14. Supporting Mobile Apps
Having a separate mobile app for different users, such as customer app, seller app, deliveryman app, etc., is a great initiative. It ensures ultimate mobility for all users in the system. Not only that, all mobile apps should be cross-platform supported so that anyone from any platform can use those apps.
15. User Management
An eCommerce business has multiple users, such as customers, sellers, deliverymen, employees, etc. An ideal eCommerce system must have a proper user management system so the admin can manage them to provide maximum user benefits.
These are the must-have features of a great eCommerce solution. Both Active eCommerce CMS and 6Valley has these and even more additional feature. So what set them apart? How do you find the ultimate best solution for eCommerce business? Keep reading…
Read: Best CMS for Developers
Active eCommerce CMS vs 6Valley
As you already know, Active eCommerce CMS and 6Valley are both fantastic eCommerce solutions with top ratings. But you won’t purchase both of them, it doesn’t make any sense! Now, let’s compare these two solutions one to one and see which one achieves the “last man standing” title.
Here is the comparison between Active eCommerce CMS and 6Valley:
| Comparison Points |  |  |
| Built-in POS | Addon | Free |
| Multiple Payment Methods | ✅ | ✅ |
| Offline Payment | Addon | Free |
| RTL Support | ✅ | ✅ |
| Support Ticket | ✅ | ✅ |
| Analytics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cross-Platform App Support | ✅ | ✅ |
| Digital Products | ✅ | ✅ |
| Brand Category | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tax Settings | ✅ | ✅ |
| Return & Refund | Refund [Addon] | Free |
| Loyalty Points | Club Points [Addon] | Free |
| OTP | Addon | ✅ |
| Customer App | Addon | Free |
| Seller App | Addon | Free |
| Delivery App | Addon | Addon |
Table: Comparison Active eCommerce CMS vs 6valley
As you may see, both have the same or similar features, but the difference is that 6Valley offers most of them free. On the other hand, 50% of features (that are on the table) of Active eCommerce CMS are addon (paid). What about the price of these two products?
Price: Active eCommerce CMS vs 6Valley
You have seen the feature comparison between Active eCommerce CMS and 6Valley. 6Valley is offering important features without any extra costs. Now, let’s compare their prices to make the ultimate decision.
Note: I’ll be comparing prices based on the comparison table just used.
Active eCommerce CMS
| Core Product | Addons | Total |
| $59 | POS – $25 | $301 |
| Offline Payment – $25 | ||
| Refund – $25 | ||
| Club Point – $25 | ||
| OTP – $25 | ||
| Customer App – $49 | ||
| Seller App – $39 | ||
| Delivery Boy App – $29 |
6Valley
| Core Product | Addons | Total |
| $79 (includes POS, Offline Payment, Refund, Loyalty Point, OTP, Customer App & Seller App) | Deliveryman App – $29 | $108 |
6Valley is offering the same amount of features at one-third of the price of the full set of Active eCommerce CMS.
Active eCommerce vs 6Valley: Which One is the Best?
Based on the entire blog, it is clear that 6Valley is the best Multi Vendor eCommerce CMS in the market. Not only does it offer all the useful features to run an eCommerce business, it comes at a very affordable price point.
So, no more hesitations about choosing Active eCommerce CMS or 6Valley. It has been solved. Purchase your 6Valley license today!
Best of luck with your new business!