How to choose the Best Ecommerce Platform for your Online Shop

There are various reasons why a pre-built ecommerce platform is a much better option than hiring a web developer to build a brand new one for you. Though, from experience, one of the biggest factors in its favour is ability to work closely with a fledging community of other online ecommerce website owners.

The Ecommerce platform market is really huge, and there are hundreds of options available. Some of them might have simple feel, but that’s not always enough, while others might be highly cluttered, but offer cheaper prices and rates.

So, How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Platform For your Store?

Choosing an Ecommerce platform is not difficult if you have a clear view of certain things. We’re discussing few of them below –

• Digital or Physical– This is an important question to ask. What are the types of products you want to sell? Physical or digital goods? It makes all the difference when thinking of shipping costs. So choose the platform that suits your needs.
• Stock Size– Consider the size of your stock, and amount of money you will have to spend to get the service. Some platforms offer alternative payment methods for just couple of products.
• Payment Method– If you’ve some issues with PayPal, you need to consider many things before choosing the right ecommerce platform for your business. Keep in mind that not all platforms favour third party payment processors.
• Payment Plan– You need to choose a platform that suits your budget. Opt for monthly amounts instead of giving a small percentage of your sale amount to the company hosting your platform.
• Self-Hosted or Hosted– If you’re confident about modifying the looks of your online store, choose platform that will enable you to have your self-hosted version of online ecommerce platform. Some Ecommerce platforms allow you to modify your store within a live environment.
• What’s it like for the end-user?-Today Ecommerce is a highly competitive field, and customers now expect simple, seamless experience when they shop online. If your online shop requires you to jump through hoops to complete their purchase, odds are they’ll head towards other web stores without spending a penny! A good ecommerce platform allows you to condense the checkout process down to just one page, and may even allow guest checkouts.
• Tools and Features– Selling online can be tricky and you need really powerful tools to succeed. Make sure popular e-commerce platforms you’re considering have functionality to power you to success. They should have necessary features to drive conversions-stuff like behavioural discounts, suggested products and more-you also need some ease of use from back end management perspective.
• Support– Even if you’re an ecommerce expert, you might need some support at some point. That’s why it’s important to look at various support options on offer before deciding on this platform. Ideally, support should be available through number of different mediums-such as online documentation, support forums, actual support tickets, and live chat.
• Security– Security is of utmost importance for you and for your customers. Your store handles sensitive data, so it is important to ensure that your ecommerce platform keeps it safe and secure at all times.

We all need more customers as they lead to more conversions, but that also places extra demands on your store. If your store is ill-equipped it may lead to slow speeds and unresponsiveness, which is sure-fire way to discourage buyers and send them elsewhere. For that reason, you need to future-proof your business by ensuring that scalability is the key feature of whichever platform you choose.