To develop an eCommerce website, the sheer number of eCommerce platforms are available but finding one is definitely not a breeze. You need proper research and time for analyzing which eCommerce platform is more suitable for your project requirement.
But before you start searching for eCommerce platforms, you need to be clear with features, functionalities, budget, and other aspects to build a competitive site. After this, you can start looking for the most suitable eCommerce web development platform.
Let’s find out the pointers that will assist you in finding the best platform for developing an eCommerce website.
Third-party Integrations
Third-party integrations are one of the critical factors to consider while selecting the eCommerce platform. Not all platforms offer every integration you require for your project. You need to decide on what functionalities you want to integrate into the eCommerce website with third-party integrations.
So, check what third-party integration options an eCommerce platform offers as per your project requirements. You can hire an eCommerce web development company to integrate third-party plugins for:
Accounting
It assists you in providing financial information that includes profits, taxes, sales, and revenues.
Shipping and Payments
With this, you can quickly process payments and ship products.
Analytical Tools
Using this, businesses can track their sales and analyze profit margins.
Speed and Scalability
The eCommerce platform you select must offer a lightning-fast shopping experience. And this should remain the same as your business grows and scales. Evaluating the performance of the platform is not that easy. You must analyze several factors including slow load time, 404 errors, frozen pages, and other lagging performance indicators.
Additionally, it would help to consider factors such as how the platform can handle traffic at peak times, scalability, and analyzing its typical site speed. And to test and try these factors, you should conduct thorough research or use platforms that offer free trials, such as Shopify.
Product Management System
For any eCommerce business, a Product Management System is its lifeblood. Companies require advanced eCommerce product management to provide a compelling shopping experience. While evaluating store functionality, it is essential to consider functions and features such as categorization, bulk product upload, dynamic filters, and shipping options.
eCommerce platforms such as Magento, PrestaShop, and Shopify offer you a robust product management system. You can manage your inventory through advanced product and inventory add-ons in PrestaShop. Shopify also provides its built inventory management tools. Therefore, you can select the one that fulfills and aligns with your inventory management needs.
Also read: Which eCommerce Platform you Should Select: Prestashop vs Shopify?
Payment Gateways
Not all eCommerce platforms work well with every payment gateway. It is necessary that you provide multiple payment options to your clients to ensure smooth and fast transactions. It implies you need a platform that offers various payment gateways integrations. Thus using which customers can safely transfer funds from their bank account to yours.
With Shopify, you have the option to select from 1000+ payment gateways. Plus, you also have Shopify payment which is its own payment gateway. Magento and PrestaShop eCommerce platforms also offer integrations with secure third-party payment gateways. Therefore, you can choose which is a more viable platform for you. And hire a PrestaShop, Shopify, or Magento web development company accordingly to integrate payment gateways in your eCommerce site.
Order Management System
One of the significant aspects of an eCommerce website is a smooth and speedy order management system. Therefore when you look for a platform for eCommerce web development, you need an Order Management System to make the process accurate, interactive, and transparent. It offers shipping service APIs, email notifications, and order tracking features.
Various platforms, including Shopify and Magento, provide OMS to ensure your orders are ready to ship. An eCommerce web development company can help you by adding CRM and ERP solutions via plugin installation or API integration.
Security
Concerns related to website security are paramount in this tech-savvy environment. Because an eCommerce website has a vast amount of sensitive data. Hence, you must choose the eCommerce platform with the requisite security features. It is necessary to build customers’ trust for your business’s current and future growth.
Ensure that platform you select must offer an SSL certificate and should be Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant. Both Shopify and Magento provide you with a free SSL certificate. Additionally, almost every platform offers some or other security feature to make the site safe from vulnerable activities. For instance, Shopify offers built-in functionality of fraud protection to make entrepreneurs aware of suspicious activities.
Customization
To build a unique website for your business, you need a platform that offers a myriad of themes and plugins. Some of these themes and plugins are available for free, while you need to pay an additional cost for others. With PrestaShop, you get an option to choose from 5000+ themes and modules; therefore, you can build an appealing and interactive eCommerce site.
A PrestaShop web development company can add these features to your website to make it more competitive. With Magento open source, you can build a highly customized eCommerce website because it can be modified and customized to the fullest. In the case of Shopify, you can select the plan according to the level of features and customization you want in your eCommerce site.
Headless Commerce Support
Nowadays, customers can purchase from a wide variety of digital touchpoints, i.e., voice-assisted devices to intelligent wearables, etc. Therefore, delivering a seamless shopping experience across all devices depends on headless eCommerce.
Merchants can use platforms like Shopify and Magento to make use of headless eCommerce. Therefore, choose the eCommerce platform that can offer headless eCommerce through (API). A Magento or Shopify web development service can integrate API to develop a dynamic, fast, and interactive eCommerce website.
Wrapping It Up!!
While selecting eCommerce platforms, don’t be misled by adopting the most famous and tempting eCommerce platform or the one with the most bells and whistles. The only way of selecting a suitable eCommerce platform is to understand your requirements, features, and budget.
The right platform is the one that comprises the features and functions you require in your website. Additionally, it should offer you security, customizability, and scalability to build a market-ready eCommerce website.