How to Choose the Right E-commerce Platform for Your Business?
Published on June 26, 2024
So many brands achieve rapid online growth and success, how? Take the example of Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress, they have achieved high traffic and sales. Amazon leads with over 2.8 billion annual views, AliExpress attracts 952 million views while eBay gathers 872 million views. The secret lies in their effective use of the best e-commerce platforms. An e-commerce platform is a comprehensive software application that is designed to serve as the central hub for online businesses, whether they are small startups or large enterprises. Choosing an e-commerce platform, like Comverse by Ginkgo, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Shopify gives brands powerful features for website management, marketing, sales processing, and operations, all while integrating with common business tools. This integration allows businesses to centralize their operations, streamline workflows, and maintain a cohesive system, enabling them to operate smoothly and focus on growth and customer satisfaction.
Fig 1.1: Graph showing global retail e-commerce sales from 2014 to 2027
According to Statista report, global online shopping sales reached almost around $5.8 trillion, and are expected to grow by 39 percent, extending to $8 trillion by 2027. This is because businesses are gradually realizing the advantage of online sales and the significance of implementing advanced e-commerce technologies to build a feature-rich e-commerce website. There are so many e-commerce platforms to choose from for developing an online store. To opt out best you need to know a few things.
The following are the factors to consider in choosing an e-commerce platform:
Present and future business needs
Determine the size and scale of your business. This is because different platforms cater to varying levels of business operations. Next, define your short-term and long-term goals, including your expected growth. It will help to ensure that the platform can support your future needs and business expansions. Finally, determine your budget for the initial setup and ongoing maintenance, as costs can vary significantly across platforms. Evaluating these factors helps you in choosing an e-commerce platform that aligns with your business’s specific requirements and ensures sustainable growth and efficiency. You can utilize tools like Webappmeister to easily carry out online research and e-commerce platform comparison. These tools allow you to evaluate platforms based on various factors such as pricing, designs, features, statistics, security, and support.
Essential features
Here are some essential e-commerce platform features to see while selecting the best e-commerce platform.
User-friendly interface
A user-friendly e-commerce platform like that of Comverse by Ginkgo or Shopify helps to simplify the management of the online store. It allows businesses to easily update product listings, manage inventory, and track orders without the need for much technical expertise. This reduces the learning curve thus saving time and enabling businesses to focus on core operations rather than struggling with complex software.
Moreover, a user-friendly interface enhances the customer experience, leading to higher satisfaction and increased sales. When customers find it easy to browse products, add items to their cart, and complete the checkout process, they are more likely to make purchases and return for future transactions. It also contributes to lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates, as customers are less likely to abandon their shopping carts due to frustration or confusion.
Customization option
The best e-commerce platforms have customization options as it is essential to enable businesses to tailor their online stores’ design and functionality to match their unique brand identity, and requirements, and resonate with their target audience. Design customization includes modifying layout, color schemes, typography, and imagery, ensuring a visually appealing and cohesive storefront. Functionality customization involves adapting features such as product management, payment processing, shipping options, and marketing tools to meet specific business needs. This flexibility allows businesses to differentiate themselves, build brand loyalty, and stay ahead of the competition.
Scalability
An e-commerce platform must have the ability to grow as your business expands. It should be capable of handling increased traffic and expanded product lines. A scalable platform should support the addition of new features. This helps your business avoid costly and frequent migrations from one software to another, ensuring it runs reliably and efficiently. Choosing a scalable platform ensures sustained growth and long-term success of your business.
Security
It is essential to ensure that the e-commerce platform security measures are high-end to protect customer data and ensure safe transactions. Strong security helps gain customer trust, complies with regulations, and prevents data breaches. Key features to look for include end-to-end data encryption, PCI-compliant payment processing, advanced fraud detection, regular data backups, two-factor authentication, frequent security updates, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring with real-time alerts. These measures safeguard the business and customers, ensuring a secure and trustworthy online shopping experience.
Mobile compatibility
Fig 1.2: A steady increase in the percentage of mobile e-commerce worldwide
A large portion of customers prefer to make an online purchase via mobile phones. According to reports generated by Statista, mobile e-commerce has been ascending steadily from 56% in 2018 and this percentage is expected to reach 62% in 2027. Therefore, it is crucial to look for a mobile-friendly e-commerce platform because it ensures that your website is responsive and performs well on smartphones and tablets providing a seamless mobile shopping experience to customers. This includes having a user-friendly interface, fast loading times, and easy navigation tailored to mobile users. Almost 53% of mobile users reported abandoning a site that takes more than three seconds to load. A mobile-compatible platform enhances customer satisfaction by allowing them to browse, shop, and complete transactions effortlessly on their devices. By prioritizing mobile compatibility, businesses can capture a larger audience, improve customer engagement, and increase conversion rates, ultimately driving more sales and growth.
SEO and marketing tools
Find an SEO-friendly e-commerce platform that has built-in SEO and marketing tools to drive traffic and boost sales. These tools should include:
⦁ SEO optimization features to improve your website’s visibility on search engines, making it easier for potential customers to find your products.
⦁ Email marketing capabilities to engage with your audience through personalized campaigns and newsletters. It brings in customer loyalty and encourages repeat business.
⦁ Social media integration to connect you with customers on platforms they already use.
This will help to promote your products and drive traffic back to your site. By using these built-in tools, you can enhance your marketing efforts, reach a wider audience, and ultimately grow your business.
Multiple payment gateway
Multiple payment gateway integration is an essential feature to look for when choosing an e-commerce platform. Offering various payment options to customers, such as credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and other digital wallets, caters to their diverse preferences. This enhances their shopping experience and increases the probability that the customer will complete the transaction. By providing a seamless and secure payment process, you can build trust with your customers and reduce cart abandonment rates. Integrating multiple payment gateways also allows for greater flexibility in managing transactions and accommodating international customers, thereby expanding your market reach and driving business growth.
Shipping integration
Efficient shipping and delivery processes are vital for customer satisfaction and retention. An e-commerce platform such as Comverse by Ginkgo that integrates with various courier services (e.g. DHL, TCS, Leopard, and FedEx) provides you with real-time shipping rates, tracking information, and multiple delivery options, ensuring a smooth and transparent fulfillment process. This integration helps automate shipping logistics, reduce manual errors, and speed up order processing. By providing reliable and efficient delivery services, you can enhance the overall customer experience, leading to increased trust and loyalty, and ultimately driving repeat business and growth.
Omnichannel solution
An omnichannel solution enables seamless integration and synchronization across multiple sales channels, including online storefronts, mobile apps, social media platforms, marketplaces, and physical retail locations. With an omnichannel approach, businesses can provide a consistent and cohesive shopping experience to customers regardless of the channel they choose to interact with. This ensures that customers can browse products, make purchases, and access support services effortlessly across various touchpoints, enhancing convenience and satisfaction.
Moreover, it allows businesses to collect customer data and insights from different channels to personalize marketing efforts, tailor product recommendations, and deliver targeted promotions. This targeted approach helps improve customer engagement, drive sales, and foster brand loyalty. Additionally, omnichannel capabilities enable businesses to efficiently manage inventory, order fulfillment, and customer communications in real time, optimizing operational efficiency and reducing costs.
Furthermore, an omnichannel solution enables businesses to adapt and respond quickly to changing market trends and consumer preferences. By having a unified view of customer interactions and transactions across all channels, businesses can identify emerging opportunities, address customer needs more effectively.
Integration capabilities
Businesses should ensure that the platform can seamlessly integrate with their existing business tools, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and email marketing platforms. This compatibility enables smooth data exchange between systems, streamlining business operations and enhancing productivity. Additionally, businesses should look for platforms that offer robust support for APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and third-party applications. APIs facilitate the development of custom integrations and enable the platform to communicate with external software systems efficiently. Third-party app support extends the platform’s functionality by allowing businesses to leverage a wide range of specialized tools and services to meet their specific needs. By choosing an e-commerce platform with strong integration capabilities, businesses can optimize their workflows, improve data accuracy, and unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation.
Conclusion
Follow these tips and pick the best e-commerce platform to set up and run your online store operations successfully. Customers demand efficiency and it could be only fulfilled if your store operations are seamless and efficient.
Obaid Arshad
CEO & Co-Founder