In whatever business you are, having an eCommerce site is crucial for today’s market. To defeat each other, businesses stepped up for the online world. They are going digital to strengthen their business brands and reach the global consumer base with their products and services. The COVID-19 Pandemic forced everyone to change their working plans. The ones having eCommerce sites are still now hopping on the marketplace digitally, while the ones that didn’t have any, are facing issues like running out of the track, shutting down, etc., while running their businesses. Though nowadays it is necessary to have an online presence for any business, hiring a website designer for creating an eCommerce site costs more. And here comes the eCommerce platform, which lets one create sites using an online platform.
What is an eCommerce Platform and why is it necessary?
As a definition, the eCommerce platform is online software that allows a business owner to sell his/her products and services online and manage their online sales. If you have an established physical business that you want to move online to reach people globally then you must have an online store, and an eCommerce platform helps you to get it. All you have to do to choose a theme appropriate for your business, a logo for your brand, products you want to sell and display, and any other requirements if you have. Now you may think why choosing a platform when you can have an eCommerce site without using it, the answer is that creating an eCommerce site from scratch is costly. Having an eCommerce platform is necessary because it is cost-effective for the business owners of every level.
How to Choose the Right eCommerce Platform?
You have understood why having an eCommerce platform is necessary but there are plenty of platforms available online having different advantages and disadvantages, which make you confused to select the right one. Hence, I am depicting the following points that one should consider while deciding about the right eCommerce platform,
1. Pricing: It is the first and foremost thing one should check. Whether you are a startup business owner or an established brick and mortar physical store business owner, you should check the reasons you are paying for. Normally every eCommerce platform charges a monthly fee that varies with the hosting i.e. if it is self-hosted or not. Despite that, if there are any other processing fees, please consider checking that too. Always compare the plans and pricings between two or more eCommerce platforms, until you get the one you were looking for. Often you find that some of the most needed features are not included in a plan, in that case, I would recommend you not to sacrifice your requirements for cheaper pricings.
2. Previous Experiences: Sometimes we get fooled by the offers and pricing of an eCommerce platform and invest there blindly. To avoid these kinds of mistakes you should consider checking the previous experiences and expertise of the platform before finalizing it. Check the customer testimonials to know their reviews, along with checking the sales and growth of the sites they created previously. You can ask for a public review on the social media channels and on a public forum too.
3. SEO Friendliness: The primary step for doing online business is to have a good SEO ranking on the SERPs. And it is one of the most common considerations to check the SEO friendliness of your eCommerce platform. Platforms having comprehensive SEO features will give you the best opportunity to get higher ranks in Search Engines. To check the SEO friendliness of the platform is to check whether your site has blog options for publishing content, whether you can choose the domain names, and whether there are options for customer reviews on your site. If you find affirmative responses, then bingo you got a good SEO friendly eCommerce platform for your online business.
4. Mobile Friendliness: This is also an important feature to check for an eCommerce platform. As you know the maximum of the consumers are fond of mobile eCommerce, and they are likely to shop more from their smartphones than the computers. Using smartphones for checking products, and surfing shopping sites is more comfortable than sitting in front of a desktop. A mobile-friendly site is important for increased sales. Maximum of the customers abandon their carts on the site without purchasing the products, when the site is not loaded from smartphones.
5. Security: This is the most important thing to consider before selecting an eCommerce platform. eCommerce is doing online business and having all the financial transactions online, so you should check if your platform has the proper security system and maintain proper protocol to keep all the payment information in a safe and secure way. Because no one wants to share their payment information on a shady website. Also, consider checking if your platform supports HTTPs for checking out processes.
The above passages show you the ways to select the right eCommerce platform for your online business song with its importance in the eCommerce industry. It is necessary to consider all the points before choosing one and investing in it. There are lots of eCommerce platforms on the internet which offers different plans and packages including features suitable for your online business. But still, there are chances that you may not get the required features in any of those platforms, in that case, you can build your own eCommerce platform, just like Amazon has their own eCommerce platform.
Thank you for reading the full article. If you have enjoyed this then please share with your friends and colleagues and feel free to share your thoughts about the article in the following comment box. Need an eCommerce platform for your online business? Contact us, to get a ready-to-use website for your business within your reach. Team WinSquares cares for you and your business.
