What e-commerce solution should I choose?

June 12, 2020

Regardless of if you’re starting out with your first e-commerce store or upgrading a current one, you’re going to want to pick a solution that best fits your needs.The good news is, there really are some great choices to consider when it comes to e-commerce, the not so good news is, if you’re not that knowledgeable on the many different solutions available, the task ahead may seem daunting and you’ll probably question if you’re making the right choices. Luckily for you, we’ve narrowed it down to what we believe are the real contenders and given our insight (backed by years of industry experience).

Before you start to compare, there are some basic considerations that you should address so you know you are choosing the right solution for your business:

• Your businesses objectives

• The budget you have available to allocate to an e-commerce solution

• The number of products you will be selling (and projected growth)

• Do you need social media integration (social commerce)?

• The level of customer support you will require

The Contenders

The contenders we have picked all take into account popularity, overall reputation, features, customer service, pricing, and ease of use.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform, offering a cart solution in addition to a brand’s existingWordPress and hosting. This standalone software offers extensive product and order management features, good design flexibility with thousands of (often free) WordPressthemes to choose from and is classed as the best from an SEO and content standpoint. It is also great when syncing your shop with Amazon, eBay, and social media sites like Facebook.

Although WooCommerce is essentially free, you do have to factor in external costs for it to be viable; at the very least you will need hosting, a domain name and an SSL certificate. Apositive of this way of working is that it is useable no matter what budget you have – you can either spend a little or a lot depending on your requirements.

Overall WooCommerce is the best single platform for people who want to run an ecommerce and affiliate site under one roof. It’s ideal for using content to drive traffic to products with extensive content management functionality and SEO tools.

Shopify

Shopify is a fantastic introductory solution for entering the world of e-commerce. It is popular with start-ups and sellers with sku counts less than 100. This platform is a SaaS(Software as a service) with hosting and SSL included and you can even buy a domain name through them.

There are a multitude of reasons to opt for Shopify:

• Great performance with proven fast load speeds

• Works with 70+ payment processors & gateways

• Easy to build and manage

• Product variants out of the box

• Dedicated support

• Amazon integration

• Multi-Channel selling capabilities

• Design flexibility with pre-made themes

There are some drawbacks to consider though, its SEO capabilities don’t stack up when compared to the likes of WooCommerce and if you’re likely to require bespoke functionality now or in the future you may find it restrictive.

If you’re looking for an easy to use, reliable ecommerce store with good customer support and highly flexible design we’d recommend Shopify as a platform. Because it is so easy to use it can be a budget friendly approach to selling even when outsourcing to an agency.

Magento 2

Magento 2 is a popular open source solution for brands and organisations of all sizes interested in its powerful capabilities and rich features offering 100% control of your own ecommerce. With thousands of developers across the globe, the platform has been extensively tested and improved over the years.

Here’s some great reasons to use Magento 2:

• It’s powerful – Magento 2 can handle pretty much any e-commerce demands from large product inventories through to mass order processing

• It is scalable

• Great customer persuasion features

• Advanced SEO features

• Backed by a huge community available for support, development and customisation

• Extremely secure

• Huge design flexibility

• Limitless customisations

The drawback to Magento is that it is a far more complex solution that requires coding and design knowledge resulting in longer project timescales. Magento is typically reserved for those with an adequate budget in mind and although it may appear a more expensive solution, in this case you really do get what you pay for. You should use Magento if you have aspirations to sell to a mass audience and want complete freedom and un-restricted e-commerce capabilities.

Bespoke ecommerce

A bespoke e-commerce solution is built to a specification to meet your businesses goals and objectives. Many agencies will push for this for the following reasons:

• Business specific – the platform will be built unique to your business giving greater control over design, functionality and content

• Precise features – with a bespoke solution you can satisfy all your needs. This also helps not to over complicate the user experience with lots of unnecessary bloated features that will never be used

• Scalable – with a bespoke option your ecommerce site can grow with your business

• Greater SEO and Social Media capabilities

• More Secure

• Better performance – with a bespoke site the sky is the limit when it comes to performance

• One of a kind – giving you the edge over your competitors

• Cost – Although initially the cost may seem higher than other solutions over time the investment will pay off as your bespoke site develops with your business

So, which do you choose?

The truth is, the best eCommerce platform is the one that successfully delivers the outcomes and objectives that are specific for your business. If you’d like to discuss your options in more detail or need help deciding which e-commerce best fits your business don’t hesitate to contact us.

What e-commerce solution should I choose?