Everything you need to know before selecting the e-Commerce Website Development platform

Want to be part of the growing E-commerce industry?

Confused between the various E-commerce development options available in the market?

Before choosing the right E-commerce platform to build a successful e-store, it is imperative to understand the factors which make an E-commerce platform ‘right’ for your online business.

Consider the below points before selecting the eCommerce Website Development platform.

• The short and long-term business goals.
• Basic and advanced requirements of your store.
• Additional features for future needs.
• Decide the budget.
• Start Researching.

Let’s start with the different aspects to consider when selecting an E-commerce platform:

Digital goods OR Physical goods

This is an important point to look after. What products are you selling? Are you dealing with digital goods or physical goods?  It has a significant impact when contemplating shipping cost, which is going to be an important aspect of your online business.

Ease to use

Do you have technical skills?

Will you hire a professional to manage your store or you’ll manage on your own?

E-Commerce store owners are generally concerned about the Website Design Services, look and appearance of their E-commerce store on their customers end. However, an efficient E-commerce store should not only have attractive design but should also be able to perform the back-end operations smoothly. It should have the simple and easy to use Interface for handling and managing different work such as inventory management, order management, payment, and logistics, etc.

If you have good technical skills, you can go for the complex one, but if you are a non-technical person, choose an e-commerce platform whose management is not a headache for you.

Control VS. Convenience

More the no. of options and flexibility an e-solution offer, less convenient would be its managing and handling experience. Therefore, the balance of convenience and control should be taken into account while choosing the E-commerce website development platform.

Integrations & Plugins

The integration of third-party software’s, extensions, applications, and plugins to the E-commerce website is important for performing multiple tasks smoothly. The integration to third-party tools can provide advanced fulfillment and logistics features, accounting software, multiple payment gateways, omnichannel features, marketing and advertising tools, and so on. All these functionalities are important to stay ahead of competitors and grow the business in this highly-competitive digital world.

Hosted Vs. Self-Hosted

A hosted solution is a perfect solution for startup entrepreneurs with zero coding skills and limited budget, who are willing to set up unique identity and brand of the online store with a decent amount of control (not full control) over their e-store’s architecture and appearances.

The most popular hosted solutions are Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion.

The Self-hosted solution offers complete freedom and flexibility in building a personalized website with rich functionalities and integrating various extensions. This solution is best for entrepreneurs with a large initial capital.

The two most popular Self-hosted e-commerce website development platforms are Magento and WooCommerce.

Security

Security comes first when we think to build an online store. Although all the popular E-commerce website development platforms offer basic and advanced security features. But still, we would recommend you to make sure that the selected e-commerce platform supports HTTPS/ SSL and PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant.

SEO Friendliness

If you want the targeted customers to find what you’re selling, your store should rank high in different search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Select the e-commerce website development platform which offers in-built SEO features.

Scalability

Consider the short and long term mission and vision of your business while choosing the eCommerce website development platform. Choose the one which is good for today’s business requirements and perfect for future needs. The right e-commerce platform should have the ability and capacity to scale the business as and when required.

Finally the most important factor- Payment Plan

Last but the most important one; select the platform that best suits your spending limit. Obviously, each platform comes up with a different set of features and different pricing plans. We recommend you to choose the one which fulfills all your business requirements and also fits your budget.

Check out the 5 Best e-Commerce Website Development platforms to build your online store in 2019.

Conclusion

There is no such thing as the right or best e-commerce platform. Each platform has its own pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. The one which best suits your business goals and the future outlook is the right e-commerce platform. Avoid paying for the features which you don’t actually need today.

The experienced team of Critical Mission Computing will help you to make a smarter choice while selecting the e-commerce website development platform for your online business. Also, we will guide you more with the best tactics to boost your e-commerce conversion rates. Our experience and support will help you in building and growing your successful online business.