Choosing the Right Ecommerce Platform: Expert Tips from Development Companies

Do you want to grow sales of your physical store? Are you thinking of expanding your target market? Do you believe that increasing your store’s opening hours can bring in more customers? Are you aware of how much is your store’s customer retention rate? Are you exploring new ways to serve your market’s demands? 

If you find yourself nodding ‘yes’ to any of the above-mentioned questions, then this blog is for you. 

“Ecommerce” has answers to all of your questions. It’s the time when you can grow your sales by serving more customers. The entire world can be your target audience, and you can keep your shop open 24*7 without any commitment to opening multiple outlets in different states. You can boost your customer service experience, analyze the result of your marketing strategies and tweak them on the go. All of this is possible by opening your shop to a global audience via your very own digital store. 

When it was a point of debate for some of the traditional businesses whether to go online or not, in the wake of COVID-19, the perception of shop owners changed tremendously. The ecommerce market has shown progressive growth by about 85% between 2019 to 2022. Forbes mentioned in one of their articles that by 2026, 24% of retail purchases are expected to take place online, and the market is expected to hit a total of $8.1 trillion. 

Now that you are well aware of why you should take your shop online, the next concern is how to do it. If you are just getting started and have little to some technical know-how with permissible time to experiment, you can use DIY store builder platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, Wix, and a few others. However, that’s recommended only for newly rising business owners. To get a professional store setup, you can better count on any ecommerce development company to hire a team of ecommerce developers and launch your shop on the web.

Selection of the right ecommerce platform is vital for any business. To make this process of selection easier for you, we are listing the major factors on which you can compare and choose an ecommerce platform.

Expert Tips for The Selection of the Right Ecommerce Platform for Web Ecommerce Development

Web Hosting Services

Like the selection of location for your brick-and-mortar shop, your digital store needs space to host your digital store on the web. The ecommerce platforms you choose can be self-hosted or cloud-hosted. SaaS-based platforms that come with subscription models like Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, etc., have their cloud-based hosting, which is included in the package. However, here the monthly fees are levied to use the platform and per transaction charges on every product you sell. 

On the other hand, open-source ecommerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce needs additional hosting services. If you opt for self-hosted sites, you have to manage hosting, installation, and updating on your own. When you count on cloud-hosted platforms like AWS, Nexcess, Microsoft Azure, etc., the cloud platform manages your store’s uptime and upgrades. This cloud infrastructure offers plenty of services and is highly recommended for scalable businesses, as they offer a pay-as-you-go model, and you have the upper hand to widen your services per your choice. 

Pricing for web ecommerce development

Time and pricing are the two primary constraints to consider while comparing ecommerce platforms for your online store. Whether you are starting small or adding one more touchpoint for your customers building your digital shop, you need to decide on the budget for ecommerce platform development. If you opt for a SaaS-based subscription platform, a fixed monthly fee will go for using the ready-to-use ecommerce platform. However, as you add more features here, your billing will increase as well. One-time store setup and annual maintenance charges for ecommerce web developers will be in addition to these monthly fees. 

Contrary to this, if you count on any web development agency to design your online store on open-source platforms, the platform users will be free unless you opt for an enterprise license. You will be charged monthly hosting fees for whichever hosting options you choose. You will have greater ownership of your store and freedom to make customization and add features per your choice. Since everything is customized per your requirements, get the estimations for the development budget, maintenance services, and validity of the contract with the ecommerce development company. 

Ownership, Customization & Scalability

Among ecommerce platforms, you will find open-source, SaaS-based, and headless commerce platforms. Open-source platforms give you limitless ownership and control of your web store. Here you get access to source code and the power to modify it per the requirements. However, you can’t modify the features of your online store in other cases, as you won’t get access to the source code. The addition of any new feature otherwise brings additional expenses as it involves the integration of other APIs.

Take scalability into account when selecting an ecommerce platform. You may not need certain features for now, but make sure the platform you choose has support for the advanced features you may need later. Also, check for the community support platform provides and feasibility for business software integrations. Such integrations are very helpful in accessing and managing the overall success of your digital store. 

Ease of Usage 

You may or may not like to take entire control of your chosen ecommerce platform. But you will be using it to create new categories, add more products, map them in respective categories, update pricing, create offers, change header banners, and so on. You can hire a dedicated team to handle many of these operations, but understanding the backend of your store gives you greater power you can exercise. 

While selecting the ecommerce platform, check the admin panel, navigate through the options in their respective detailed blogs, and decide how handy that seems. The seamless navigation through the options and decluttered admin portal simplify a lot many day-to-day ecommerce tasks for you. Don’t forget to check the product-specific and category-specific features each of these platform have under their sheets. You can differentiate and decide on the right ecommerce platform for your store this way. 

Integrations for Personalization 

Whether you check for plugins or APIs or supporting software solutions for ecommerce businesses, you won’t find every platform supporting everything. You need to assess the requirements of your business and check for ease with which integrations are possible. Mostly all the ecommerce platforms support functionalities like linking analytics, AdSense, payment gateways, email marketing tools, CRMs, and SEO features for complimentary. However, the additions like accounting software, ERPs, integration of marketing automation tools, etc., will need API integration or plugins. Some of the platforms let you find the necessary tools and get integrations done with the help of ecommerce shopify developers. Some of these additions come with their price. You can know your audience better and personalize the experience of your customers with such integrations and win the hearts of more of your shoppers with such advanced features. 

Now that’s enough to get you started hunting the right ecommerce platform for your e-store. Sharing the list of best ecommerce platforms of 2023 listed recently by Forbes, you can check it out. To learn more about the essentials for custom ecommerce development, read our detailed blog. It will help you keep your queries ready when connecting agencies for ecommerce website development services. 

How Can WeDoWebApps Help You?

We ace the art of designing ecommerce stores for businesses from varying industries. If you are unsure about the ecommerce platform right for your business, schedule a meeting with our ecommerce experts right away. We are among one of the top ecommerce development companies, and we can help you access the roadmap to go ahead on your business’s digital transformation journey.