10 E-Commerce platforms for creating an Online Store

Why you need to open an online store: digital commerce in a few figures and trends

Let's start with the classic cliché: the internet has forever changed the way we live our lives and relate to the world.

Thanks to him, we inform ourselves differently, we spend our free time differently, we consume content in a different way and we buy more and more online.

For example, of those born after 1999, respectively the Z generation, only 9.6% buy things from stores, according to those from Big Commerce (of course, we are not talking about everyday shopping, for food and other indispensable items).

Moreover, the trend for other age groups is just as encouraging for online merchants: only 31% of millennials, 27% of members of Generation X and 40% of baby boomers still go straight to the store, which we it shows how permeable the generations we thought were much more reluctant are.

Naturally, these percentages translate into a spectacular growth of the e-commerce industry: in 2018, it increased by 23.3% compared to the previous year and will continue to grow at a similar pace in the next few years. By 2040, 95% of purchases will be made online.

Businesses that want to keep up with changes in consumer behavior have for some time opened online stores and moved a significant part of their products and activities there.

Those who are just entering the market are more inclined to sell directly online than to worry about all the costs associated with a physical store - staff, storage space, rent and so on.

Regardless of the field of activity, it is important to know how to choose the e-commerce platform because everything we do next depends on it: how we will sell, how we will relate to customers, on which online channels we will be present.

At first glance, it may seem extremely difficult to launch yourself as a start-up. But the internet has changed the rules of the game (for good, we believe): with a well-developed plan, a small initial investment and the right e-commerce platform you can go far, even dominate the game in your niche, which would have been almost impossible if you had fought with the giants in the field in the real world of physical stores.

What's more, it comes with a lot of advantages over the classic trade: the price of creating an online store is much lower than if you want to open a physical one, maintenance costs are low, you can sell much easier anywhere , anytime and to anyone, but, above all, you have the opportunity to gather valuable information about consumers, based on which to deliver a personalized experience that will conquer and retain them.

To begin with, we will discuss a few of the essential principles that any online business must follow in order to be successful in the long run, and in the second part of the article we will give you details about the main e-commerce platforms to make you more easy to orient yourself and take your business to another stage.

The art of selling online: what customers want and what features you need for it

Personalization is more important than ever: customers want to interact as much as possible with a brand, regardless of channels, so the experience you provide and the story of your business are more important than ever here in the world of e-commerce.

In their book on social media marketing, Tracy Tuten and Michael Solomon noted that in order to be successful in the online environment, a brand must build a "social currency", a kind of image capital "revised and added". ”, Which should be shaped by the way digital natives live their lives.

So, not only do we need to pay close attention to every detail on the site, as we have already explained in the article on UX, but we need to build a pleasant online presence for our digital buyers.

People also buy a lot on social networks, so a good e-commerce platform is one that allows us to sell elsewhere, not only from our online store.

Also, in terms of personalization, segmentation and wise targeting, accompanied by a design and a user experience that speaks beyond the words in the "About us" section are the key to success in internet sales.

Because today it is no longer enough to sell quality products - this premise is self-evident and has long since ceased to be a differentiator for a brand, as noted by Jacky Tai and Wilson Chew in Killer Differentiators: 13 Strategies To Grow Your Brand.

So you need to pay close attention to the features of the platform you choose: the ability to add a blog to your online store, the optimization services for mobile devices and search engines, the interface and themes offered, and the possibility to adapt them to your needs, but also functionalities for automated marketing, customer support and for distribution on social networks.

Even if you want to sell, preferably as much and as quickly as possible, you should not limit yourself to product pages, but it is necessary to add as much written content as possible, ie to have a blog.

Big Commerce tells us that Google favors informational content because, most of the time, it best suits the intention and searches of users.

For example, when someone is looking for the best phone for taking pictures, the most visible results will be the articles on this topic, not the product pages.

So, this kind of article is a more subtle way to advertise and help potential customers to discover you and buy from you. It's a pretty consistent extra effort, which is true, but you'll only gain in the long run.

E-commerce platforms: which is the best choice for creating an online store

E-commerce platforms fall into two broad categories: open source, which are mostly free, but for which you need people with programming knowledge to help you develop your online store and customize it, and those SaaS (Software as a Service), for which you pay a certain monthly amount in exchange for which the owners of the platform undertake to take care of the maintenance, security and performance of the servers, freeing you from this worry and leaving you more time do business.

Open source platforms have the great advantage of being able to do whatever you want them to do, if they are chained from behind by a good programmer, but if you can't afford to add another member to your team, it might be better to focus on those SaaS, especially since they come with tariff plans for any pocket.

A team from Ecommerce CEO closely studied the main e-commerce platforms and made a ranking based on the ratio between the strengths and weaknesses of each:

# 1 Big Commerce

In the first place is Big Commerce, with a friendly interface, suitable for those who do not have programming knowledge and who offer you themes that are easy to customize, so that you can make the most of your product, both in terms of sales, as well as marketing.

According to the reviews, it seems to be very good at search engine optimization and comes bundled with a team of designers and developers to help you when needed, and the price of the monthly subscription is not scary at all.

# 2 Shopify

Shopify is a little weaker in terms of SEO, but it offers a lot of applications and widgets that you can add to your online store.

In addition, you benefit from a very good loading speed, 1-click selling and the possibility to sell on several channels, including social media.

# 3 3dcart

3dcart is better for the company's blog than many of the other SaaS platforms and offers excellent user management tools for business, but the themes for the online store seem a bit outdated, and the platform is not really the best for beginners in virtual sales.

# 4 WooCommerce

Woo Commerce is a kind of extension for sites made in Wordpress that helps you turn any site into an online store.

It has the advantage of being very easy to customize in any way, and Wordpress is the best platform for SEO, so together they can be an unbeatable duo.

The main problem would be that you have to pay separately for hosting and that you don't get much assistance and technical support.

# 5 Volusion

Volusion is also very easy to use to build your site, which you can then arrange by drag-and-drop method, but it does not offer any functionality for blogging.

If you really need a blog, then you will need to use a few plug-ins to connect another site made, for example, in Wordpress.

In addition, you will have to pay separately for an SSL certificate, an option that is generally part of the basic plans for other platforms.

An SSL certificate is the guarantee of the security of your online store (translated by the padlock icon present before the URL of a site), and the sites that own it benefit from more trust from users, especially in the case of online payments.

# 6 PrestaShop

Presta Shop is available both in the open source version, which you can download for free and you can start customizing it at any time, but also in the SaaS version, Presta Shop Ready.

For the open source version, however, you will have to pay individually for the hosting, the SSL certificate and the other modules necessary to bring the store in the desired form.

Presta Shop Ready has all of them included, and the subscription has a decent price.

# 7 Weebly

Weebly, although intuitive and suitable for those who want simple and functional sites, without cumbersome and sophisticated details, but the basic plan does not allow you to sell products in digital format, such as music, e-books or audiobooks and limits you and in terms of the number of physical products you can add to the store: you are only entitled to 25 and you also have to pay a 3% commission for each transaction.

Instead, this platform also offers a mobile application from which you can easily manage your online business and which allows you to print your own labels for package delivery, which can be helpful if you are the one who packs and sends the products through Courier company.

# 8 SquareSpace

Square Space is still one of those platforms that uses drag-and-drop technology to help you customize your site, but it doesn't support any payment processor, or too many external applications to add extra functionality to.

# 9 Magento

Magento, from Adobe, is the choice of companies such as Coca Cola, Ford or Nike. It is, therefore, a very powerful platform, but which you cannot manage on your own, but only with the help of a developer.

Although you can enjoy the open source version for free, most of the features and themes you add will cost you quite a lot.

# 10 Wix

Ultimately, there is also Wix, good for beginners with small businesses, but which lacks many features specific to online commerce.

It can be good for the first steps in the world of e-commerce, but it remains more a platform for creating websites (either for presenting the portfolio for photographers or for bloggers), not virtual stores.

But it is not the best choice for SEO, especially because of the strange structure of the links.

Conclusion:

So, you have a lot of options, from the most generic to the most specific.

For a short recap and a comparative approach you can enter here, and here you will find a test that recommends an e-commerce platform based on specific details of your business.

In the hope that the information was helpful… we wish you more sales! (Don't forget the tips from the beginning, they will suit you at every stage of your business growth!)