How to Find What E-commerce Platform a Website Uses?

It will not be wrong to say that you might have stumbled upon an e-commerce site, a font, or even a page and loved it. Perhaps you also want to use the same design but cannot find out what the website is using an e-commerce platform. Well, you don't have to be worried now. You can rest easy as next time you will be prepared.

But how, you might be wondering? How can you know what e-commerce platform a website uses? You are about to know the secret.

The most common search engine is Firefox or Chrome. If you are using one of these, right-click anywhere and inspect to know what platform the website uses by looking at the source code. Another method is to use websites like BuiltWith or extensions such as Wappalyzer.

What should you know?

Before getting to know about the platform, it is vital to know the purpose of the information you want to take. It helps you determine the best option. 

Some of the easiest ways to tell what platform a website uses are discussed below.

Various ways you can use

The number of ways to find the platform an ecommerce website designer uses are many, with the simplest being the google inspects method. However, if you need a thorough analysis, you might want to use a specialized tool or website. 

Sometimes, the above methods cannot work if the site has chosen to hide the information. In such a case, you have to do a little more digging. Let's look at some well-known websites you can use for this purpose.

• BuiltWith

When you want comprehensive data about the platform a website uses, BuiltWith is the right choice as it can help you get what you want. It is a specialized website that helps you determine what platform a site uses and other valuable information. The information might be utilized to generate leads or research on the market competition. 

Whatever the reason is, BuiltWith has got you covered. You need to enter the URL of the website you want to know about into the search field, and it will be analyzed thoroughly. All the retrieved data is broken down into categories. 

Using this website lets you know about the webserver and email services used by a website, their SSL certificate, and analyze the CMS (content manager system) that the website has in place. One of the best things about BuiltWith is that it goes into finer details.

This method is highly recommended if you don't know much about coding because it simply presents data in an understandable form. 

• Wappalyzer 

Although it is similar to BuiltWith, it works differently. You don't need to go to the Wappalyzer website every time you want to know what platform a website is using. Instead, you can install the Wappalyzer browser extension and check the data on the spot. 

Wappalyzer is effortless to use. All you have to do is install the extension, and after that, you can have information on every website only by clicking on the Wappalyzer icon. It opens a dropdown menu where what CMS, webserver, e-commerce platform, JavaScript libraries, analytics a website uses. 

The tool is straightforward and works on Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. It is a great choice when you need quick and specific data. 

Both the BuiltWith and Wappalyzer tools are updated regularly to give you significant insights into new online trends.

• W3Techs

You have to use this tool when trying to get more information about your competition. All you have to do is enter the URL of the site and get an organized review of the technologies used by the website. 

If you don't have complete knowledge about coding, this tool might be a bit overwhelming for you as it dives straight into sight elements, programming languages, etc. 

Using Google Inspect

To use Google inspect to its full potential, you must be familiar with a coding language. After right-clicking on Inspect, navigate the Sources tab; you will find extensions of the source code files. 

If you find cdn, Shopify means the website is made with Shopify's e-commerce platform. If you find wp-content, it means WordPress. If you want to get accurate data, always use Inspect on the Shop page of an e-commerce website. When you know HTML, you get incredible data with Inspect tool. 

Using Design Agency to find the platform 

If you are a novice in this area, it might seem like Rocket science. There exists a slower way to find what you want, but it might include some digging. 

In the footer of every website, you can get the detail about the design agency that made it with a link to their website. You can visit the website and learn about their platforms to make websites for clients. They might use a single website or multiple ones. You can decide for yourself which method you want to go with.