How to Choose the Right Ecommerce Platform for Your Business

You envision an online store and have performed market research to confirm your ideas. Now, it’s time to start considering the e-commerce platform you will use to build the store, and this step is critical to your success. 

Most online stores utilize web-based e-commerce builders because they’re easy to deploy and customize. There’s little need to design a store from the ground up when e-commerce platforms already provide the infrastructure for this purpose. Below, we’ll examine what e-commerce platforms are and the critical things to consider when choosing one for your business.

What is an e-commerce platform?

It is software that allows you to create an online store with little hassle. It provides a content management system (CMS) to catalog your products and a commerce engine to let people order them. You’ll integrate the e-commerce platform with a payment gateway to receive money from buyers.

Unless you have specific and unconventional requirements, it’s always better to use existing e-commerce software to create your online store. These platforms provide the infrastructure to let you catalog items and receive orders while you focus more on design and branding. They handle the difficult part of setting up an online store, giving you more time and energy to promote it.

Considerations for choosing e-commerce platforms

1. Pricing

Pricing is the first thing to consider when looking for online commerce software. It is necessary to choose something you can afford in the long term, so compare different pricing options to see what works best for you. 

Most online commerce tools have transparent pricing. You pay a fixed monthly or annual fee for a specific package, making it easy to estimate your long-term costs. Some charge additional fees for processing orders, so check if yours falls into that category. Don’t hesitate to use any free trial opportunity to test the system before paying.

2. Scalability

Every online retail venture desires to expand and get more customers. Hence, you need software that scales effectively without sacrificing performance and quality. The platform should retain its speed and performance even as you serve many more customers than before. It should have resilient server infrastructure to meet increasing demand without hassles.

A non-scalable tool will likely cause problems for your business in the long run, so avoid it like a plague. You can check customer reviews to see if your desired solution has noticeable complaints about scalability. If so, it’s a sign to look for an alternative.

3. Third-party integrations

You’ll likely need third-party integrations at some point to add functionality to your website. For example, you might need an external tool to create and manage gift cards for your customers or another tool to manage your customer support system.

A good online commerce software should have an extensive library of third-party integrations that you can utilize. These ready-made integrations allow you to add features your customers need at a low cost. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay a programmer for custom integrations, and it doesn’t come cheap.

4. Ease of use

Your e-commerce site builder should be easy to navigate. Pick a builder whose dashboard you can easily understand and find the needed features. Things can seem complicated at first, but you should get a good grasp of the platform after using it briefly. User-friendliness makes you enjoy running your store to keep customers satisfied.

5. Customer support

Any worthwhile online retail builder should have excellent customer support options. First, you should have access to a Knowledge Base and detailed tutorials about the platform’s features. Then, you should be able to contact the support team via telephone, live chat, or email when things go wrong. 

6. Reporting and analytics

Analytics is an essential part of running an e-commerce business. You need detailed transaction data to identify trends that help your company stay competitive. Your chosen platform should let you track as many real-time metrics as possible. These metrics will help you always identify how to adjust your strategy for greater success.