Choosing the Best E-Commerce Platform for your Business
01/09/2016 | Share:
When choosing an E-Commerce platform for your business, there is no hard-and-fast rule that you can apply to help you make your decision. There are hundreds of platforms out there, each with their own features that may or may not meet your criteria or goals.
Before choosing your platform, be sure to look into all the key categories for each platform option – pricing, features, customer support, ease of use and what the platform is best suited for. By carrying out this simple research task you can eliminate any platforms that aren’t going to meet your business needs.
Pricing
Choosing a pricing plan that meets your criteria is a big thing to consider, as some platforms take stock size into consideration. If you’re selling a physical product, make sure you research the delivery options extensively.
Once you’ve whittled the options down, it is a good idea to try out a few of the most popular ones to get a feel for them and see how well you get along. Do you like the layout? Is the site easy to use from a buyer’s perspective? Do the delivery options meet your needs? What are the payment options? These are all important questions to consider.
Tech Savvy
If you’re not that great with technology, then you’ll need to choose a site that has themes in place to enable you to create an online store with ease. If you’re a bit more au fait with technology then you may want to consider a bit more of a challenge with a platform that allows you to develop and install plugins and design your own themes.
What Happens Next?
Once you’ve chosen the platform, you then need to consider the parts that come after the sale – processing the orders, shipping, returns and exchanges. If your sales are high, it may be worth considering a fulfilment company to manage all these aspects and take the stress away from you.
The top three platforms out there at the moment are Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento. Each with their own benefits, features and pricing structures.
