May 30, 2022
It takes more than just putting your product information on the internet to start an eCommerce business. It's far more complicated than you might imagine. Building and sustaining an eCommerce business requires the same amount of strategic planning and management as running a traditional store or production site. The big question plaguing the digital business owners currently is - How to start the best eCommerce platform?
Whether you're a startup or a scale-up, you'll need to think strategically about which eCommerce platform is ideal for you today and in the future. By the end of this blog, you'll have a solid understanding of the most important elements to consider when selecting an eCommerce platform.
What Makes An eCommerce Business Reliable In Today’s Age Of Digital Transformation?
There are certain features and tools you must be on the lookout for when it comes to the selection of an ideal eCommerce platform for your website. What are the markers of any reliable platform?
1. Domain Name
A domain name lends instant credibility to your company and places you in the same online platform as your fiercest competitors. Examine if the ecommerce platform allows you to purchase a domain from them to make things simple. Did you know that you can even hire an eCommerce website developer to get things moving quickly?
2. Web Hosting
It's common known that a website with bad web hosting will have problems because the host will not safeguard the site. If your website is down, you risk losing consumers, income, and their faith. Make certain that your ecommerce website provides a completely hosted solution.
3. Up-Time
The amount of time a website is available to customers in a given time period is called uptime. Although 100 percent uptime is the objective, 99.999 percent uptime is considered high availability in the business. Keep your uptime as high as possible and be available for your users.
4. Bandwidth
Most hosting companies measure bandwidth per month. Bandwidth is the quantity of "traffic space" your website uses. Make sure your platform can scale and has lots of bandwidth. Any good digital transformation agency will let you know what bandwidth is required for your business.
5. Intuitive Dashboard
Another thing to consider is how user-friendly the ecommerce platform is. It should be simple to use everything from the basic editor to change the appearance and feel of your store to adding new pages and so on.
6. Themes
The majority of ecommerce platforms should include a selection of free and premium themes and layouts that can be customized to match your brand. Choose a theme that is high-quality, ready-to-use, and modifiable.
7. A large app marketplace with ready-to-use integrations
As your business grows, you'll need a variety of marketing, sales, and advertising solutions, among other things. Instead of requiring you to seek third-party solutions that involve creating integrations, the ecommerce platform should come with easy-to-use plugins, add-ons, and apps. As a digital transformation services provider Webmantra recommends you to select a platform with a large app marketplace that comes with ready-to-use integrations.
8. Mobile-Friendly
Mobile-friendly websites enable more customers to be reached more quickly, which is extremely useful. One significant benefit is that it can improve customer satisfaction. You must verify that the ecommerce platform's features and templates are mobile-friendly.
9. PCI Compliant
It safeguards your clients' financial information and lowers the danger of a data breach. It assists eCommerce website development companies in detecting and preventing physical and network-based threats. Make sure your eCommerce platform complies with PCI standards.
10. Availability On Appropriate Sales Channels
A retailer that just started their online transformation journey can gain a competitive advantage over their competitors by integrating their sales channels effectively. Customer data is rapidly and correctly disseminated across the whole retailer's operation. You must be present on the appropriate channels to build your company.
11. SEO Tools
To put it in a simple way, good SEO boosts your online presence. This means that the more people who visit your website, the more traffic it will receive. You should be able to easily optimize your ecommerce platform for search.
12. Customer Support The Platform Provides
It's critical to be sure the platform you choose has a customer care team that is ready to help you and that has earned excellent feedback.
13. Scaling Ability
Even if you're just getting started, a solid ecommerce platform should be able to scale with you in every aspect. The platform should support your capacity to cope and assist you in doing successfully when your workload or scope is raised or expanded.
14. Checkouts
The eCommerce platform you select should be able to help you with easy integrations on checkouts and payment gateways. In your question of how to start the best eCommerce platform, easy checkout and payment interfaces should always be one of the answers.
15. Shipping Partners
The shipping partner will handle everything for you, from sending periodic messages to giving tracking information to delivering the items to their doorstep. Pre-built interfaces with notable courier service providers are available on a reputable ecommerce platform.
It's tempting to choose the most popular eCommerce platform. But don't be fooled: your business objectives and consumer needs are the most crucial considerations in your decision.
What About Traditional Brands Starting Their Online Transformation?
If you are just starting out in the digital world but would also like to retain the traditional business, your ecommerce platform should allow for seamless integration between the two. What are the things you should be looking for? Here is a list to guide you:
- Quick Setup
- Integration with Offline Store
- Management of Inventory
- Customer Service
- Analytics
What eCommerce Platform Should You Choose?
Remember that there is no particular solution when it comes to selecting the best ecommerce platform. You must select a platform that meets not only your current but also your long-term requirements.
Webmantra is the digital agency for you if you want to start an eCommerce business online Our expert team of digital marketers and strategists will provide you with all the tools required to build a profitable business, without all the hassle. From software development and content creation to marketing, we are here to guide you all the way through.
We help our clients increase sales, boost conversion rates and reach their ultimate goal of making money online. We know what it takes to establish an eCommerce business that works for everyone involved and this is why we understand your needs better than our competitors.
eCommerce Platforms For Your Business
Webmantra works with open source systems such as WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and others. With custom designs, our experts work with MVC.net / MS SQL, PHP Laravel - My SQL, and so forth.
If you require any additional assistance, please contact Webmantra!
