5 Things to Consider While Choosing An eCommerce Platform
It’s high time. Online shopping is at its peak. In fact, it is estimated that almost all the purchases will be made through eCommerce by 2040. Thus, if you’ve decided to establish an eCommerce store — that’s a venture worth taking.
But before you start your eCommerce website development, you should decide the platform you need for your business. With so many options available on the internet, you must choose the one that’s ideal for your business. The last thing you want is to pay for a platform that doesn’t fulfill your needs.
Throughout this post, we will be highlighting the factors you should consider before picking your first eCommerce platform. If you’re excited, let’s get going.
Customer Experience (CX):
“66 percent of customers say they’ll pay more for a great experience”
The overall CX is the cornerstone of any online store. And hence, you must ensure the eCommerce platform you choose delivers a consistent and engaging shopping experience across various devices.
There are several factors influencing the overall CX. For instance, the speed of your store, product accessibility, seamless navigation and mobile-friendliness of your site. And hence you must embrace a holistic approach while designing your customer experience.
Ease of Use:
The platform you choose for your business must be easy to operate. The last thing you want is to contact your developer or eCommerce development company for making even the tiniest changes. Consider taking a demo of the platforms you’re evaluating. These days, almost every eCommerce platform provider offers a demo of their software.
Check how easy will it be to create a new product, applying promotions, managing and tracking orders. Because these are the operations you may need to perform very frequently being an eCommerce store owner.
Pricing and Payment:
No eCommerce platform can be free. Because you may be paying costs of several services associated with the platform — either directly or indirectly. For instance, not all eCommerce platforms are self-hosted. This means you should also consider the price of your hosting service provider.
Some eCommerce platforms, like BigCommerce and Shopify, come with an annual subscription plan. On the other side, there are platforms, like Prestashop and WooCommerce, that only requires a one-time investment. You should evaluate based on your needs.
Scalability & Customization:
The platform you choose must be scalable enough to match your needs as your business evolves. Not just that. You should also check the ease of customization and integration of various add-ons you may need as your business grows.
For instance, you may need to integrate various extensions for payment, enhancing the UX and elevating your shopper’s journey. Are there ready-made plugins already available? How easy will be the integration? Keep in mind these points before investing on any platform.
Security:
eCommerce platforms must be highly secure as they are supposed to interact with customer’s most sensitive information. Because no user will transact over a website that seems less authentic and vulnerable.
While choosing your eCommerce platform, make sure it is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant. This will ensure that all your customer’s data is safely handled by your store. Having a secure eCommerce platform will not only boost your customer’s trust in your brand but also help you enhance the overall customer satisfaction.
Final Words:
Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are several other factors that come into play while choosing an eCommerce platform. For instance, the functionalities you require, your customer base, and the kind of products you plan to sell. However, you cannot go wrong if you check the factors we discussed above.
If you’re looking for a reliable eCommerce development company, we would be the right partners to collaborate with. Being into the industry for almost 21 years now, we have been offering end-to-end eCommerce website development services to leading brands from across the globe.
Thus, if you have an idea that you are passionate about, we can help you turn it real. Get in touch with our experts today to discuss more.
