When you are trying to decide which eCommerce platform is the right choice for your business, you are actually taking a decision that is key to your business growth and business interests. A pre-built eCommerce platform would probably seem more appealing to you. However, it is important to chalk out where you want to take your business to understand what kind of platform may work best. Also remember, your ease of use and your ability to work closely with the platform interface is crucial to your online business growth. In this article we take you through the thinking behind the decision on the right eCommerce platform for your business.
Ask yourself
Stock Size – How much are you dealing with?: Draw up a list of your stock and find methods of classification. This will help you ensure that you’re paying the least possible amount of money for the entire gamut of services that you may require. Businesses provide a range of alternative payment methods depending on the products.
Product Need– Digital or Physical: What kind of goods are you selling? Is it a physical good that needs transportation or is it the digital variety that just requires a download? Platforms that suit your product needs has to come upwards in your list.
Payment Processes – Your Preferred Method: PayPal is by far the most preferred payment process among e-commerce providers. In case you are looking for a different vendor, you would need to choose your platform accordingly.
Hosting – Self-Hosted or Hosted: Most eCommerce platforms give you the option to modify your store to a greater or lesser extent and always within a live environment. That said, you need to decide how comfortable you are with hosting and how good your coding game is.
Finances – Payment Plan: Most platforms offer different payment plans and you would ideally find one that fits your budget at all times. But, it makes sense to always explore opportunities that let you pay monthly amounts instead of sharing sale percentages. So choose wisely and think long term when you do if it is a long term business you are going for a platform for.
As an example, here are different niche areas that top 3 eCommerce platforms cater to, today.
1. Shopify
Shopify boasts a whopping number of customers and is financially one of the most well placed in the world of ecommerce platforms with a great reach to new markets and ability to develop and make most of new technology. It is a popular platform thus for selling clothing, furniture and e-books. What also makes it a winner is the widespread reach of Shopify and its concomitant community support. You will have an entire team always out there helping you sell and fix any bugs that make crop up.
2. Volusion
Volusion is styled as the ultimate platform for outdoorsy stuff including furniture, equipment and more. So whether it is bikes, food items or furniture that is your go to. This is because on Volusion you will find a series of features such as SEO (ofcourse) and product merchandising, online marketing, site design, order processing, mCommerce, Social store builders, affiliate and loyalty rewards and more!
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is for you if you are an explorer and are ready to put your mind to build your e-commerce platform from scratch although it does come power packed with some great plug ins and add ons.
There are of course a lot more out there and you might find one that best fits your need!
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