How to Choose an E-commerce Platform?

Choosing an ecommerce platform is a big decision for small business owners, and it’s important to pick one that fits your business’s needs. An ecommerce platform’s capabilities can vary significantly. This article that Juuga Marketing produces can show you some of the points where you should look for in an e-commerce platform, and what are some of the costs associated with building, maintaining, and marketing the e-commerce platform.

Who can benefit from using an ecommerce platform?

If you’re looking for a way to sell products online, you’ve probably heard about ecommerce platforms. These are websites that have been created specifically to make it easy for anyone to sell products online. They have built-in shopping carts, payment services, inventory tracking, and much more. A digital marketing company like Juuga Marketing can help you get set up in a few days, with no need to develop your own website, and they even make it easy to find products to sell. 

What should you look for in an ecommerce platform?

You’ve just decided your business will sell online, which is both exciting and overwhelming. While setting up an online presence may seem like a simple thing, there are a lot of considerations to think about.  

There are plenty of ecommerce platforms out there, but not all are created the same. Some platforms promise to have everything you need in one place, while others specialize in specific parts of the ecommerce process. For example, you can use a platform to create a shopping cart, but you might need a different tool to build your website. Another option is to use a platform for shipping, but you might be better off using a different tool to manage your inventory. The key is to find the right combination of functionality and pricing that fits your business and budget.

Also, f you’ve been selling for a while and you’re just starting to explore ecommerce, you may be wondering whether you should build your own platform or use a third-party solution.  For established online sellers, you may be wondering whether it’s time to switch platforms to something that’s easier for you to use.  Whatever your situation, here are some questions to ask yourself when evaluating ecommerce platforms to help you decide which one is best for your business.

What are the best ecommerce platforms for small business?

According to a recent study for online stores, the best ecommerce platform for small business is Shopify. As their customers will tell you, it’s simple to use and has a ton of integrations with other services you’re likely to need. Plus, it’s not all about the software: Shopify boasts 24/7 support and a host of educational resources, like a blog, podcasts, and ebooks.

Other leading ecommerce solutions on our list are BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce, there are a number of things to consider when choosing the best ecommerce platform for your business. If you’re a small business owner, you might also want to consider a platform that can integrate well with your website (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace), and your point of sales (POS), accepting credit cards using payment options, etc. The amount of transaction fees the popular ecommerce platforms take does not vary much.

What are the costs to build, maintain, and update your eCommerce platform?

Before we can start planning how much to budget for eCommerce software costs, let’s first make sure we have a firm grasp on what those costs are. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Development costs:   This is the cost to build the online platform and includes the ongoing cost of maintaining the software. For example, if you’re going to build an open-source platform from scratch, you’ll need to budget for the cost to build the platform and to make any necessary updates to your platform in the future. However, if you’re going to use a platform that already exists, you just need to be aware of what licensing fees are associated with the platform.

2. Maintenance costs: It takes time and effort to maintain a web store front – there are stocks and inventories, new product models that needs to be updated, sales and promotional banners.

3. Marketing and additional costs: If you build it, they will come – this unfortunately, does not occur on Ecommerce websites.  There needs to be budget for marketing – creating advertisements online and offline.  Some of the sources of advertisement may be Google Ads (both search ads and display ads), Facebook ads, and Instagram ads.  Original content creation and social media postings will help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and email marketing.  For all the marketing work, there will need to be performance monitoring.