What platform to use for my e-commerce?
This article is not a technical comparison between the different solutions that exist in the market, it is rather a list of the e-commerce platforms that you should take into account in 2021, because as you also know, it is no longer enough to have a single channel sale of your products. It is also not enough to just have your physical store – you want to be where your customers are.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce proclaims itself as the number 1 e-commerce platform on the market. The truth is that many reference brands currently use it, and it is the ideal tool in case you want to integrate easily, and have storefronts on Amazon , eBay , Facebook , or Instagram .
In fact, integrations with other systems are, indeed, one of the characteristics that make BigCommerce special and powerful, since, in addition to allowing you to configure the mandatory functions of an e-commerce, such as products, payments and shipments , the automation of your listings, you can use the platform as a SaaS solutions and use its API as the Backend of your e-commerce to work, for example, with your WordPress .
Shopify
Shopify doesn’t need introductions, I think. It is one of the largest platforms on the market with approximately 600,000 e-shops, and its basic version is slightly cheaper than the standard version of BigCommerce . Shopify allows you to use its tools to personalize your store, with your brand, in an easy and intuitive way. Its mission is “to make trade better for everyone .”
Shopify also helps you sell your products on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, or Houzz , and integrate a custom “add to cart” button for your brand on your website, or on your blog. And, as in 2019 there is no strategy without social networks. In Shopify you can also install social media services, such as Facebook, or Instagram as sales channels, allowing, for example, your customers to buy your products directly from Instagram posts or stories . In addition to these mobile applications, with Shopify you can connect with MailChimp , or with Facebook Messenger.
WooCommerce
If you have a website developed in WordPress it is very likely that you have heard of WooCommerce . WooCommerce is an open source and customizable WordPress plugin , very popular in the WordPress community. Thanks to this same community and the developer community, it is possible to add new functionalities to the plugin , as it has a significant number of extensions for this purpose.
Drupal Commerce
If your website has been developed in Drupal , or you plan to do it in the future, from my point of view the most mature, solid, robust and scalable solution for Drupal 8 is undoubtedly the Drupal Commerce , or Commerce module . With Commerce you will have “out of the box” the mandatory characteristics of an e-commerce, such as adding to the cart, the list of products and your own characteristics to manage catalogs and inventories. The Commerce module also allows you to integrate with different payment gateways, and take advantage of Drupal’s own CMS features , such as having support for a multi-language system. Like Drupal, Drupal Commerce is open source and free to use. As with WooCommerce, the costs will focus on hosting , support, or the customization you need, hiring a developer, according to your needs and the needs of your online business.
Magento
As we discussed last week, Magento no longer needs introductions. Magento, being part of the Adobe Cloud experience , is an e-commerce system in the cloud that wants to transform small companies into large companies, through a platform that provides measurable growth.
Magento has the expected characteristics of an e-commerce, just like the previous solutions, and it is flexible and scalable enough so that you can grow according to your needs, and integrate with third-party systems. Your community is also interesting and brings a lot of value to the tool. Magento also requires that you have someone specialized to configure and install the software and this is a part of the cost that you will have to pay to have this tool.
Other interesting options that you should check for e-commerce:
- BigCartel
- Squarespace
- Demandware
- YoKart
- Volusion
- VTEX
conclusion
At the end of the day, you will decide which platform is best for your online business, but it seemed like a good idea to review some of the most used platforms currently on the market. I believe that all these platforms are powerful enough for you to use them in your e-commerce depending on the phase of your project.
At the same time, I think it is important to remember that it is not the platform that will make your online business grow, that is why I invite you to access each of its web pages and confront what I say in this article to see if the platform The one you like the most is really adapted to your needs, your team, and your product.
You may have a simple product and process and don’t need to scale. This fact will influence your decision to invest in a basic and self-managed system, or on the contrary, in a robust and scalable system if you want to have profitable businesses.
What e-commerce platform are you using for your business at the moment? How is your experience?
