I went over the procedures you should take before choosing an ecommerce platform briefly. I’ll walk you through six crucial considerations to consider when picking a platform for your business in the following paragraphs.
1. Simple to install and maintain
You should choose an ecommerce platform that is simple to use and maintain. If you’re a solopreneur, this is a crucial concern. Most prominent ecommerce platforms, thankfully, are user-friendly.
The majority of platforms make it pretty simple to set up a store. Many systems, particularly cloud-based ones, have easy-to-edit templates. The level of customization you desire is the area where you are most likely to run into problems. Hosting is also handled via a cloud-based ecommerce solution.
If you go with a self-hosted option, you may need to engage a developer to customise your design and add the functionality you want. Because good developers are costly, these expenses can quickly add up.
2. Search engine optimization
You’ll employ a variety of marketing channels to attract clients and expand your business. Organic search will be one of the most important marketing methods for many online firms.
You must consider specific usability elements if you want your website to rank well in search results. Page load time is one of the most important factors to consider. The higher the bounce rate, the longer it takes for your site to load. In Google, the bounce rate is a significant ranking element.
Usability is also affected by page speed. Customers and sales will be lost if your site takes too long to load. Amazon reportedly discovered that every 100 milliseconds of latency cost them 1% of their sales. It’s for this reason that the most popular shopping sites are speed-optimized.
You should, of course, test your ecommerce platform before deciding on a solution.
It’s simple to test server response times and page performance. Google Page Performance Insights and GT Metrix are the two most popular page speed testing tools. Both programmes will provide you a page speed rating as well as information on how long it takes to load a page.
You want to make sure your ecommerce store is quick to load. To set a benchmark for expectations, you should test the page speed of rival sites in your niche. Then, for your ecommerce platform, test the page load time.
If you’re utilising a self-hosted ecommerce platform, you’ll almost certainly need to employ a developer to improve the speed of your pages. You’ll need to invest in SEO web hosting as well. When it comes to hosting, I’d steer clear of shared hosting and instead invest in dedicated hosting, which would most likely cost $20 or more per month.
3. Mobile-friendly design
M-commerce isn’t just the next great thing anymore. It will be a crucial aspect in your store’s success. According to a study, by 2021, mobile shopping would account for nearly 73 percent of all internet purchases.
Themes that are suited for mobile devices should be available on your ecommerce platform. The appearance of your site is one aspect of mobile SEO. That means the design must be pleasing to the eye, and the site must be mobile-friendly.
You should also think about the speed with which your mobile device loads. Website load times on mobile devices are typically slower than those on desktop computers. Given that Google has been designed for mobile-first indexing since July 1, 2019, this is a problem.
4. Site safety
A crucial aspect of any ecommerce platform is site security. You must keep your customers’ data, especially financial information, secure. A hack can harm your business’s reputation and drive clients away.
You will be responsible for the security of your site if you use a self-hosted solution. You should be informed if your ecommerce platform or content management system (CMS) contains vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach.
If you’re using a cloud-based ecommerce platform, the company you’re working with will be in charge of site security. While this minimises your risk, you still want to know that you’ve chosen a company that is concerned about your digital security.
5. Level of technical assistance
There are few things more aggravating than being unable to solve a problem. Naturally, when choosing an ecommerce platform, technical support should be a top priority.
It’s simple to check the tech support for cloud-hosted solutions. Sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustPilot have product reviews for the most prominent internet platforms.
Because public evaluations are frequently negative, you’ll be able to spot a platform with a lot of customer service issues fast. You may also put their customer support team to the test by sending an enquiry and waiting for a response.
Customer assistance is usually more limited on self-hosted ecommerce platforms. To give support, you may need to engage a developer. If this is the case, think about where you can get a developer. When things go wrong, you’ll need someone to turn to who can help you solve the problem.
6. Integrations
Integrations are another thing to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform, as I said previously. You must select a solution that is compatible with the tools you already use or plan to use.
Your ERP, logistics, and accounting software are among the technologies you may need to interface with your ecommerce platform. You also have the front-end integrations that you could want. You might want integrations with your chatbot software or an optin form plugin, for example.
Consider which integrations are “deal breakers” and which are “nice-to-haves” when reviewing them. Your chosen ecommerce platform will need to work with your most crucial tools. If it doesn’t, it could lead to serious problems in the future.
Source: ecommerce platforms , online selling platform
