Choosing E-commerce Platform for Your Online Store and Business

Are you planning to take your business online? or Have you been considering to start an online store? If yes, then there are many things that you have to take into consideration. The first and foremost thing you have to decide upon is the platform that you would be setting up your online store on. This is perhaps the most fundamental and important decisions you have to make when you are just starting out.

Yes, you will surely find different options to choose from but you need to consider few things before choosing one – aspects including: Will the platform grow as your business grows. See this is very important in the event that you plan to take your business to the next level after a certain time period. Your platform should have the potentiality to accommodate the challenges that would come with your growing business over time.

The next aspect would be the budget to expend on a specific platform. Ask yourself whether you would be able to support the platform in the long term. The next and the most important aspect is user experience. No matter what platform you are considering to choose you need to keep your users at the center and then choose it. Your users are the one who will be using the platform and hence, it becomes essential that you choose your platform keeping your users in mind. The next would be to see whether it provides you the necessary tools and features you need for powering up your online business.

See setting and maintain an online store is no cakewalk. You need to make sure that your platform gives you the required features and functionalities to give your business the needed boost for both at the start as well as during the growing phase of your business. The next aspect would be to consider the support options you might need in case you are stuck with any issue relevant to your online store.  Make sure you have some backup support mediums – it might be support forums, online documentation, live chat, etc. The last but not the least aspect would be the security aspects of your chosen platform. As your users are looking for a reliable online business service provider make sure that you choose a platform that is secure and which can protect your customer’s sensitive data.

That being said, let’s look at top 5 e-commerce platforms for your e-commerce web development:

WooCommerce

• Price: Free (including paid extensions (optional))
• Type: Self-Hosted (WordPress Plugin)
• Scalability: High
• Powered up to: 41% of all online stores
• Suitable for: SMEs (small to medium-sized businesses)

When you choose Magento for your online store you would be getting site management, marketing, promotions and conversion tools, catalog management, catalog browsing, product browsing, checkout, payment and shipping, order management, analytics & reporting and beyond. By connecting to the leading Magento Agency in London, you will get to know more about the features of the same.

Magento

• Price: Free (open source) to Paid (enterprise)
• Type: Self-Hosted
• Scalability: High
• Powered up to: 5% of all online stores
• Suitable for: Medium to large-sized businesses

When you choose Magento for your online store you would be getting site management, marketing, promotions and conversion tools, catalog management, catalog browsing, product browsing, checkout, payment and shipping, order management,  analytics & reporting and beyond.

Shopify

• Price: Paid ($9-$299 (monthly))
• Type: Hosted
• Scalability: High
• Powered up to: 5% of all online stores
• Suitable for: SMEs (small to medium-sized businesses)

When you choose Shopify for your online store you would be getting a secure shopping cart, full blogging platform, social media integration, unlimited products, unlimited bandwidth and beyond.

BigCommerce

• Price: Paid ($29-$199+ (monthly))
• Type: Hosted
• Scalability: Medium
• Powered up to: 1% of all online stores
• Suitable for: For all business types

When you choose BigCommerce for your online store you would be getting a secure shopping cart, marketing tools, product options & bundling, inventory management, reporting & analytics and beyond.

Volusion

• Price: Paid ($15-$135 (monthly))
• Type: Hosted
• Scalability: Medium
• Powered up to: <1% of all online stores
• Suitable for: SMEs (small to medium-sized businesses)

When you choose Volusion for your online store you would be getting and responsive themes, rich content editor, custom domain, navigation editor, product category pages, CSS editor and beyond.