Factors to Consider for Choosing an E-Commerce Platform

Introduction

Ecommerce has been steadily growing in popularity over the past ten years. Sales on the internet grew by nearly 15% in 2013 across all categories and are predicted to continue growing in the coming years. If you’re launching a new company and selling goods or services, having an online store is essential to benefit from this incredible online sales increase. The problem with this double-edged sword is that there are numerous options for you. How do you ensure that you’re picking the best option? This article provides a list of factors to be aware of when looking for the most effective e-commerce platform for your company.

1. Platform Price

While it may appear to be an ordinary idea, the reality is that each platform may provide different features at different costs. Specific platforms offer a flat fee, with no need to add on transaction fees. 

Others have the base rate and charges per transaction and require various apps to improve your site. ItChoosing an can increase quickly, and your total rate may end up being significantly higher than one of the other platforms.

Be sure to consider the features that each platform provides. Some may provide additional features within their prices and features that other platforms don’t offer. 

Before making a choice, it is crucial to determine what features you’re looking for and determine the platform that can provide those features at the cheapest cost.

2. Scalability

Likely, you don’t want to begin an eCommerce business to maintain a small size. It’s true that scaling up incrementally and with care makes sense, but you don’t want to become overwhelmed by your progress. 

However, growth is the name of the game for any company, and the different eCommerce platforms offer additional advantages in this respect.

The platform you choose must offer the best plans for establishing and running an online store even when the store is operating being in “rapid growth” mode. It is the case in all aspects of running your shop, including bandwidth on your server and cross-channel capabilities for selling.

In this regard, selecting the “headless commerce” solution – one that has native integrations and APIs that let you test different ways to sell and site technical configurations – provides the most flexibility to sellers.

3. Integrations, and Plugins

While most platforms provide an impressive amount of functionality in and of their own, integrations and plugins can dramatically enhance their functionality. 

The majority of platforms offer a variety of additional tools to help run your business more efficiently and more efficiently. But each eCommerce platform comes with various plugins. Before choosing the platform, be sure it comes with all the plugins you’re searching for.

If you already employ specific tools and are pleased with how they function, you should be sure to determine if they can be integrated into the platform or have feasible alternatives.

Remember that add-ons are often able to impact your costs drastically. Specific platforms could be free, such as WooCommerce, or reasonably priced, such as Shopify to start with, but when you have added all the best elements in the form of plugins, you’ll be paying more over time.

4. SEO Strategies 

The SEO Strategies process is just as essential for eCommerce websites like it is for any other site as well, if not even more. You can’t expect that visitors start their search specifically for your store, and you would like them to find you while searching for items.

One of the most important elements here is the option to connect a blog to the store, review capabilities, and the chance to make use of the domain you own. 

The more advanced SEO strategies options for eCommerce generally include editing specific aspects of your website, such as title pages, redirects, and robots.txt files. 

Meta tags on product pages and category pages aid in ranking organically. Be sure that your eCommerce platform is equipped with these features.

5. Security

If you’re conducting business through ecommerce, it is essential to ensure security is high-quality. The e-commerce industry has a duty to its customers to safeguard their personal information.

It means that you must ensure that your online store is PCI security, SSL, fraud prevention, and backups of data. Be sure that your online website is safe from data theft and hacks starting from day one.

6. Payment Methods

What your customers will be able to pay is likely to be among the top crucial aspects of your interaction with them, and it is why you should be paying close attention to this.

Since many platforms have their gateways for payments, these platforms might not provide as many payment options processed by third-party processors or digital wallets as you’d prefer. For instance, Volusion supports over two dozen payment gateways, and however, none of them is a digital wallet. BigCommerce, on its other hand, can support numerous credit card processors and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and Venmo.

Accessing many or incorrect options could result in an unpleasant surprise for your customers and you alike. If customers shop and discover that the payment method they prefer is not accepted, it is more likely to drop the cart rather than look for alternative ways to pay.

7. Features

Different platforms have various available features. Some platforms provide additional features in addition to the fundamental features of e-commerce, integrated marketing tools, such as emails for abandoned carts, newsletters, rewards plans, deals daily, and so on.

A platform for e-commerce should replace any of the built-in features by using App integrations, for example, Mailchimp or Shipstation. Although the built-in features could be tremendous, using applications that your staff is familiar with can build a consistent product essential for an expanding company.

8. Customer Service

One of the most important aspects of any company is customer service. Because the service provided by brick-and-mortar companies is built around an actual store, they generally have greater control over how their operation runs.

E-commerce is an entirely different game. Software outages and server downtimes are typically not your fault and can prevent your customers from accessing your website. There is a good chance that your servers will fail in the most embarrassing time at some moment, and it could affect your earnings and your brand image.

Contacting a customer service representative anytime to help get your business up and running is crucial when it comes to e-commerce platforms. 

Check out the customer support of each platform. Are they accessible at all hours of the day? What are the ways you can contact them? What kinds of support are provided, and how much do they cost? 

Please take a look at these questions and be sure to inquire about them before deciding about your platform.

Conclusion

Selecting an E-commerce platform is a crucial step to start your online shop. Be sure to do the necessary research before you start, as changing platforms for e-commerce can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly. 

Trying to set up your business’s online profile, import your inventory, and choose the theme you want to use can take moments away from more critical areas that your company is involved in. Make sure you make the correct choice the first time.

Using the right e-commerce platform to suit your business will make your day-to-day tasks of driving online sales more manageable. A platform for ecommerce that integrates all the aspects of your business can result in more efficient operations and allows you to expand your business.