The eCommerce industry has come a long way in 10 years and is projected to grow to USD 5.4 trillion in 2022.
Several traditional businesses are making a shift into the online world.
If you plan to sell products and services online, an eCommerce store is essential to achieve the maximum online sales growth in business.
However, opting for the best eCommerce platform is not painless as it seems. It is indeed the most significant decision of your eCommerce journey. There are several options available with their unique strengths and weaknesses.
This blog post will walk you through all the things you need to consider while choosing the best eCommerce platform to create an online store.
Importance Of Choosing The Best Ecommerce Platform For Your Online Store
An eCommerce platform is a comprehensive solution that enables online businesses to effortlessly look into the management of their website, sales, marketing, and operations. In other words, it is a quick and versatile cloud-based solution that provides ultimate customer experiences, smoothens the operations, and generates several growth opportunities.
The best part is that the cost of entry is not required to be restrictive. One of the primary benefits of the eCommerce platform is to create an online store on a budget. Hence, it is advisable to choose the platform wisely based on the following points:
- Expansion- The business is required to grow its product offerings and services rapidly.
- Customer Engagement- The built-in tools of the platform that are required for consumer engagement.
- Running Costs- The cost to build custom eCommerce store is minimal. However, the business needs to spend on ongoing maintenance costs.
- Service- Customer service is the highest priority to promote customer retention, loyalty, and conversion.
Things To Consider When You Choose The Best Ecommerce Platform
Now, you might have understood the importance of opting for the best eCommerce platform for your online store. It is time to look at some of the crucial factors to consider in any eCommerce platform you select from the market.
Well-Built Catalog
The catalog is the hub of your inventory. The business should ensure that the catalog is easy to update. However, the focus of the product catalog must be entirely on the requirements of the sector.
For instance, the product catalog of the clothing or fashion sector should have a feature that lets the customer select the color and size of the product. Cross-connection between product pages and product bundles also remains the best example of a sturdy catalog.
Mobile Friendly
It has been reported that 60 percent of all online searches are done from mobile devices.
These searches often result in actual purchases. You may lose these customers if your website is not mobile-friendly. A mobile responsive website allows the customer to interact with the brand and make prompt purchase decisions on the go.
You can ensure the responsiveness of your eCommerce business in the following two ways:
- Select an ecommerce platform that has a mobile-friendly theme or template.
- Select an ecommerce platform that offers native mobile apps.
SEO Friendly
The working of SEO is highly important to the eCommerce businesses as well. It will be great to rank your store high in the search results. The customers can easily find your store whenever they are looking for products like yours.
SEO friendly platform should include the following features:
- The ability to update a meta title and meta description to your blog on the website
- The ability to use a custom domain name
- The ability to customize image captions and descriptions
- The ability to transform into SEO friendly URL structures
- Accessing the update of XML sitemap
- Integrating API for Google Analytics tool
- The ability to add pagination in the product search results
Omnichannel Integration
It is the hectic work of managing your eCommerce store and your seller account on Amazon simultaneously. The focus of the business shifts while making considerable sales in the marketplace. It is where the omnichannel integration comes into the picture.
The eCommerce integration with a reasonable email marketing system is highly essential for customer retention. It will ideally help to load products and RSS feeds automatically. Similarly, the business can integrate all its seller accounts on several marketplaces to its website. In the end, you are selling your products on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and on your eCommerce store, without any additional work.
Security
Security is a fundamental concern for many consumers. No one wants to enter their bank details on a shady website. Since many software has a sturdy security standard, the business should always ensure that their platform supports SSL/ HTTPS for a secured checkout for customers.
The business platform should also opt for Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Another feature that makes the online store builder secure is Google Captcha. It protects the eCommerce platform from hackers and spammers, especially DDoS attacks.
Flexible Pricing And Shipping
To build a custom eCommerce store, businesses run sales, discounts, or promotions effortlessly. But it is not the limit. The eCommerce platform should also have multiple currency support with the ability to charge different fees from different geographical locations.
Customers want their products to be delivered on the same day or the next day of purchase. An eCommerce store with decent logistics and distribution support should be considered by the business while planning to create an online store.
Multiple Payment Options
The business should consider including multiple payment options like debit card, credit card, PayPal, etc. It is required to boost customer conversion. Digital wallets are the quickest and effortless ways to make the payment online.
If you are planning to build a custom eCommerce store internationally, you may want to consider local payment gateways to obtain the trust and confidence of local customers. Some platforms may even accept assets like bitcoin.
Scalability
Every business desires to scale its operations in the future but does not know to what extent. Hence, you should look for an eCommerce platform that will grow along with the business operations.
A new startup business does not want to pay for storage and features. It also wants to maintain its stock in case of high demands. So, it is advisable to opt for an eCommerce platform that has the ability to scale up to the size of your business, and you don’t even have to incur heavy expenditure for it.
Key Takeaway
Choosing an eCommerce platform is the fundamental step to create an online store. It is advisable to conduct a thorough research about the platform as switching between them can be expensive, frustrating, and time-consuming.
Hence, the business should think wisely while establishing the online store profile, importing inventory, and selecting the theme.
With the appropriate eCommerce platform, the business can focus on more sales on an everyday basis. Therefore, an eCommerce platform with complete integration makes the operations smoother and boosts the growth of the business.
