• September 25, 2020 3:48 pm
• by Deepthy

Building an e-commerce store has never been easier as now there are a number of excellent e-commerce platforms to choose from. Most of them deliver you with a comprehensive set of tools that assist you in E-Commerce Website Development. Also, different platforms have strengths and weaknesses based on the store you are planning to build. It’s also important to know that, not one eCommerce platform is going to be the best option for everyone, there is no one-size-fits-all solution in the case of e-commerce platforms. When it comes to buying a car, everybody won’t go for the same car type, some people buy a hatchback, other people buy a pick-up truck or a sedan, based on their needs and budget. So for the same reason, people want different cars, there will be different e-commerce platforms out there that are going to suit our varying needs. Some people want a simple website where they can sell their artwork or products that they make. Others out there want an online store that hosts products that are worth millions of dollars.

However, there are certain features to look for in all eCommerce platforms:

1. Ease of use and Customization:

   Make sure it’s a platform that you are comfortable using every day. Test the programs important features such as product updating, customer service, performance analysis, and promotion generation

2. Price:

   Don’t rush to the cheapest software since it is often true that you get what you pay for. You should also watch for the extravagant payment scheme that doesn’t guarantee you success. You must also keep an eye on your transaction fee as they can add up fast.

3. Technology:

   Always ensure that your e-commerce platform provider has up to date server technology that performs, otherwise, you are risking slower response time, faulty operations, and possible security breaches.

4. Marketing and Conversion tools:

   Promotions, coupons, and newsletters are all very useful tools to look for in an e-commerce platform. Also, look for tools like product reviews, social network sharing, one-page checkout, and product recommendation

5. SEO functionality:

   You can sell the finest products in the world, but if people can’t find them, how are you going to make sales? Always choose an e-commerce platform that assures better handling of SEO.

6. Feature availability:

   Good e-commerce platforms always provide a good selection of features for the subscription price. Make sure that they are not demanding more money on features that are very basic.

1. Magento

Magento keeps designers and developers in mind and there are well over a hundred thousand eCommerce stores that currently use Magento. It has a high degree of customization ability but beginners might get lost in the middle because of its steep learning curve. You can download its community edition for free but it has very limited support. If you want more help or more convenient features you have to pay a whopping $15,000 a year for their Enterprise edition.

Magento is open source, meaning that it’s really free to use but you will need a hosting service to host your website somewhere. Magento is a pretty inexpensive option you can consider if you want your online store to be inexpensive or you only have a few dollars to spend on your online store per month. Also, you can heavily customize it and deliver products exactly what your business is looking for. As we said in the beginning, there is certainly a learning curve for this platform and is not as simple as an expensive website builder, but with this, you’ll have so much more flexibility and customization ability for your online store. If you are looking for an eCommerce platform that you can build your own eCommerce store from scratch, Magento might be one of the best options. If you lack the technical skills or in-house resources who know Magento, it’s always better to consult a Magento eCommerce Development Company in India.

2. Shopify

Shopify is the first name that pops into our minds when we think of e-commerce platforms. Shopify takes the kick in most cases in terms of the number of people using it, but just because everybody chooses to use Shopify, it doesn’t mean it is going to be the best option for you. Shopify is famous for being one of the easiest to use, it’s super easy to build a great looking online store that looks cool across multiple devices, but with simplicity comes a lack of customization. You have to learn a whole new language known as “liquid” to customize it beyond its templates. You can access its plan from as low as $9 per month. Another advantage of Shopify is that It’s fully hosted, so you won’t have to worry about server maintenance and costs. However, Shopify charges additional transaction fees for using external gateways.

3. WooCommerce

Woocommerce has got the biggest market share in eCommerce usage and distribution, it has over 3 million online stores that cover 28% of all online stores. Woocommerce is technically not an eCommerce platform, but an open-source plugin that gives eCommerce functionality to your existing WordPress site. With multiple extensions and support for third-party plugins and integrations, you can add features such as inventory management, user analytics, payment processing, and much more. When it comes to building an online store, most of us start from small and will be on a tighter budget, maybe we don’t have $30 a month more to spend on something like Bigcommerce or Shopify and are looking for a budget-friendly option that can still get the job done. And that’s where something like WooCommerce could come in. However, it’s not going to be totally free as they won’t provide free hosting. If you are using a WordPress site, you can get hosting services for as low as $3.95 a month. WooCommerce may probably be the cheapest option on this list and will give you more flexibility for building your eCommerce website.

4. Bigcommerce

In a nutshell, Bigcommerce is an all in one Software as a Solution (SaaS) platform that gives you the whole package that includes hosting, inventory, payment, SEO, content, marketing tools, and much more. One of the biggest advantages of using this platform for your eCommerce store is its API support. Big-commerce has pretty good API coverage. APIs are important if you are considering a SaaS platform because you don’t have access to the underlying code. Big-commerce also has better SEO capabilities. Big-commerce is focussed on making a more flexible SaaS eCommerce platform and that’s evident in its SEO capabilities. Additionally, Big-commerce product catalog allows you to manage your products in a more traditional category to subcategory relationships. This makes creating complex navigational structures easier, especially if you are managing a large number of products. Big-commerce also automatically optimizes your product images to help improve your page load times.

5. 3D Cart

3DCart is an end to end eCommerce solution and is popular among millions of merchants across the world. On the whole, 3DCart provides you with all of the functionalities you need to kick start and run your e-commerce website. With this platform, you can choose from a wide collection of mobile-optimized themes and then customize your e-commerce website using HTML. Additionally, this platform also permits you to accept payments online, hosts an unlimited number of products and services, and supports many different payment gateways.