How to Identify the Best eCommerce Platform for Your Website? Quite rightly, the success of your online business depends on the success of your ecommerce store; so, if your online store lacks the features that customers nowadays look for, your customers will never visit your store. Choice of e-commerce platform to a large extent is responsible for the proper functioning and success/failure of your online store. Why Choose Wisely ? Selection of e-commerce store software is the preliminary step you take towards building your online store and hence its extremely crucial to get it right. Despite the plentiful e-commerce software solutions available these days, you may feel a bit confused when it comes to deciding the platform for your e-commerce store.
Taking wrong decisions in the beginning can bring a big set-back later. Possibly, at a later stage when you find yourself incompetent to attract customers due to limited features of your e-commerce store, you may wish that you could have spent a bit more time to identify the best e-commerce solution for building your online store.
So, How to Identify the Right e-commerce Platform ? Well, the big question that may keep you right on your toes for long is the platform to go for. A huge number of e-commerce platforms are available to choose from. But its better to analyze
your requirements first before selecting one. As per the popularity trends, Magento, WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Shopify emerge as the four most in-demand e-commerce platforms.
If you are a small to medium size business, then any of these three would be suited to your needs. Ideally, you should go for selecting an e-commerce solution that is open source, customizable, well-supported and comes with a huge number of add-ons. As per the hosting aspect, with a self hosted store, you will have to arrange for the web hosting on your own. Its better to go with hosted versions as they provide almost everything right from domain name registration to the applicable tools besides involving dedicated support. However, it will involve a monthly fee that may be pretty high at times.
Among the hosted e-commerce platforms, Shopify, Volusion and BigCommerce are the ones to consider; while WooCommerce and Magento would be the right fit as self-hosted versions. Most important aspect you need to consider is that with most e-commerce platforms, you will get the basics to get started; including customizable site templates, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, integrated shopping cart, inventory management and Analytics. You just need to pick the one that matches your online business requirements; while also keeping factors of pricing, functionality and popularity in mind.