With eCommerce at a fast pace year after year, it has become critical for eCommerce merchants to have the best technologies to support their plan. As there are plenty of options for eCommerce platforms now available, how to figure out which eCommerce solution is the best for your company?
As we know that in the last 10-12 years, ecommerce has grown gradually in popularity. Online purchases increased by about 15% last year when pandemic broke out and this trend is expected to continue. If you are beginning a company and plan to offer services and products, an ecommerce platform is essential if you wish to capitalise on the exponential growth in online purchases.
Even though you can also hire a web developer to get your eCommerce business started, the costs associated with it will limit your opportunity to expand quickly.As we know that selecting an off-the-rack eCommerce platform can save you both, a lot of money and time.
But here comes the billion dollar question, when you have a plethora of choices available at your disposal, how to choose the right one for your business.
In this article we’ll tell you about things that you need to focus on while choosing an eCommerce solution.
So let’s begin.
Things you need to focus on while choosing an eCommerce platform
Pricing plans and payment methods
The first thing you need to consider while looking for an eCommerce solution is the price. If you’re starting a new business on a small scale or an existing brick-and-mortar company going online, you need to know precisely what you are actually paying for. There are plenty of web hosting services available in the market.
A subscription fee can be charged for almost every eCommerce platform. The costs can vary as it totally depends upon the type of platform you choose (hosted vs self-hosted). We suggest you should also consider and take into account the hosting costs that would be charged by the platform.
Don’t give up stuff you’ll certainly require for a lower cost. To get hold of the best offer for your money, consider the benefits as well as the drawbacks of each choice. The chart below shows only a handful of the top and best eCommerce platforms available in the market.
You need to also think about how the clients will spend. Some websites do not allow you to integrate third-party payment vendors like Square or PayPal payment facilitators. This can become a massive hassle for your clients, resulting in annoyance and shopping cart abandonment. Please don’t take that gamble; first consider which ways of payment you’ll consider and keep this in mind while you compare platforms.
Integrations
When evaluating on an eCommerce platform, you should also consider the plugins and integrations they offer. Most sites, including Shopify, will provide you with a plethora of resources to help you run your company.
When you’re choosing plugins for your eCommerce business you should consider your business goals and needs. Consider what resources you’ll use or already use for your company while looking at various channels. Checkout some of the most helpful and popular forms of plugins that you should choose for your online store:
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Accounting plugins to aid in the management of sales, fees, earnings, and expenses.
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An email marketing plugin so you can easily communicate with your customers and visitors
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A website that allows you to reward consumers who utilize your stuff.
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Apps that will make you ship your items.
SEO friendliness
Generally eCommerce companies are not immune to the need to improve their store’s SEO. In reality, seeing your store appearing in top search results can be extremely advantageous. As it makes it easier for your potential prospects to find you and buy from you.
The most critical things you should consider when looking for an SEO-friendly platform are:
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The platform should allow you to incorporate a blog into your eCommerce store
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The possibility of choosing your own domain name
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The option to collect valuable feedback from customers
Mobile friendliness
Almost 60% users use mobile devices to search for products and usually these mobile searches lead to a purchase. This suggests that you make your eCommerce store mobile friendly making it easier for customers to find your store and purchase your products.
Take a look at Shopify’s great example:
Customer service
One of the most essential and core components of every eCommerce business is its customer service. Offering outstanding customer service in a brick-and-mortar store is much easier than offering online.
Offering outclass customer service digitally can be pretty challenging. Server downtimes and programme outrages are beyond anyone’s control and they can leave a negative impression on your customers.
Servers can fail at any point, this will have an effect on your sale conversion rates as well as your reputation. It’s very important that the eCommerce solution you choose offer outstanding customer service so when you get into any such trouble, you can get help to get your store operations back on track.
Scalability
As a business owner your only wish is to see your business striving and prospering, but you cannot figure out how much. Nonetheless, it’s not easier to find a solution that can help you.
When you’re just starting out, you don’t want to pay for features and storage that you won’t need. As the business expands, you’ll want to be able to satisfy increased demand. Select a marketplace that helps you to scale to the size of the demand by not charging exorbitant fees to do so.
Key takeaways
Starting a new business is difficult, but switching from a traditional storefront to an online version can be daunting, especially when there are too many options to choose from, which is why choosing an eCommerce solution is so difficult for many business owners.
It’s difficult to forecast what your store will need as it grows and to keep up with trends, but it’s well worth the effort to create processes that align and scale with the market. Knowing what to look for ahead of time makes it easier to choose a network that can help you accomplish your goals!
