So, you have decided to finally quit your job and start making some serious money selling stuff online? Congratulations! You have made the first step towards becoming your own boss. By now, you already know that you can either have someone design an entire ecommerce website for you or choose one if the major ecommerce platforms. Since these platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify are much more affordable and simpler to use, in the end, almost everyone ends up choosing one of these.
But, how do you make the choice? What factors do you need to consider?
Versatility of the Platform
All of the major ecommerce platform will enable you to do the most basic stuff such as launch your ecommerce store and keep it running for as long as you are a paying customer. They will also provide you with POS integration, meaning that you will be able to handle sales on your website without having to involve another vendor.
However, not all ecommerce platforms are the same. Some, like Shopify, will also provide you with a domain name, various SEO tools, a whole slew of other add-ons and apps and much more, enabling you to really run a fantastic ecommerce store.
Third-Party Solutions
While the platform itself will provide you with plenty of features to run a successful ecommerce business, you should also ensure that the platform you choose has a strong community of third-party developers who come out with apps for the platform, improving it and giving you additional options that will make your store even more successful.
For example, most platforms will have third-party developed marketing tools that are easily integrated into the store and that help the owners know exactly how effective their marketing efforts are and whether something has to be changed. There are also analytics tools, various customer service apps and much, much more.
You should always consider these when choosing your platform.
Choice of Themes
When you use an ecommerce platform for your store, you are provided with a choice of a theme that you will be using. These are all pre-designed themes that can be somewhat personalized for the individual needs of a store owner.
Quite naturally, some of the platforms are much more varied when it comes to themes and they offer more choice to their users.
It should also be pointed out that there are always third-party designers who will sell their themes for a certain price, of course. Once again, you will discover that some platforms attract more of these independent designers and that you will be able to choose from a larger selection.
Ability to Scale Up
If things go well with your ecommerce store, before you know it, you will have the need to grow and some ecommerce platforms simply do not handle this too well. Their packages tend to be quite limiting and it can become a problem if you want more functionality all of a sudden.
In the end, the majority of them will gladly upgrade your account and provide you with all the help you need to grow your ecommerce business, but some will charge you far more than others and the entire process will be much more complicated.
You really need to research this before you commit to a single platform.
Customer Support
Finally, you also need to ask around and find out which ecommerce platform features the best customer support. Simply put, running an ecommerce business often is not easy and there are always things that go wrong.
With a good customer support, you can take care of those problems in no time, not suffering revenue-damaging uptime of your ecommerce store.