Setting up a shop online? Well it’s easier than setting one up made of bricks and mortar. But it doesn’t mean that E-commerce is easy. The insane level of competition aside, your problems start even before you’ve begun to build your website. You start with zeroing in on an e-commerce platform for your business but the options are numerous and all seem to offer similar functionalities. It can be a bit confusing. This is not a comprehensive list but we intend to simplify the selection for you. So here are some factors like pricing, payment gateways supported, security, etc. to help you select the right e-commerce platform. 1. How secure is the platform? One of the first things that you should consider in your e-commerce platform is that the language it is based on. Because the platforms based on object-oriented programming language come with embedded security protocols and hence are considered safer. Magento and Shopify pay extra attention to reduce the vulnerabilities of websites with two factor authentication. And for platforms which do not have multi factor authentication to protect sensitive information, security plugins can provide that extra layer of safety. A platform is safe when- An e-commerce platform should conduct security audits for sustaining websites. It should safeguard sensitive data from breaches and attacks. Also, to prevent any monetary frauds an e-commerce platform should be PCI and SSL certified. 2. If it is SEO friendly 39% of e-commerce traffic comes from direct searches. This is a good reason for you to take SEO considerations into account. Popularity of a website depends on various factors with content playing a significant role in attracting the audience towards the site. To understand things better, ask questions like, does the e-commerce platform allow you to write meta-information about the product or is there Google site map support? These questions are important as they have a direct impact on SEO rankings of the site. Onveos is a perfect choice if you are considering SEO as a selection factor because it provides independent fields for SEO elements. Other than this you can also go for Magento, Woocommerce, and OpenCart as they play a significant role in inbound marketing initiatives. 3. Responsiveness A responsive web design helps in providing a great user-experience from a desktop to tablets and mobiles of various sizes and orientations. Having a separate mobile and desktop site requires having different marketing campaigns, product information & banners, catalogues, etc. Platforms like Magento and WooCommerce have various responsive themes and templates to make websites vertically stacked. Shopify even lets you edit HTML and CSS directly. You can change the colors, size, and positioning of any element on the page within the platform. 4. Multi-channel support Always prefer a platform that lets you sell product or service across different channels like Instagram, FB Messenger, Amazon, and others. It increases the revenue percentage on whole. The best multi-channel e-commerce platforms are Shopify, Big Commerce, PrestaShop, Magento, and Woo Commerce. As soon as you choose a platform, your next step should be towards understanding the audience. It will help you analyse what your end users are looking for and how do they buy things online. Adding more channels will increase the task of managing and tracking inventory system. Centralised management of the data creates diversified selling options in online marketplaces. Multi-channel selling increases the revenue of e-commerce sites. 5. Plugins and integrations Even though an e-commerce platform has all the things to run an online business, it still needs integrations and plugins to add crucial functionalities like Payment gateways, Tax calculators, Inventory management, etc. You’ll find a popular bunch of essential plugins and integrations that are common to all the platforms. But your platform of choice should be the one that has an active community and supports plugins and integrations relevant to your business. 6. Last but not the least, compare the price Price of an e-commerce platform depends on multiple factors like design, setup configuration, custom development, maintenance, and so on. The per month cost of Shopify platform starts from $9 and goes till $299 whereas Volusion starts from $15 and goes upto $299. Shopify is a perfect choice if you are looking for multiple features and add ons in your app. You can select Volusion for a more selling-focused experience. Big-commerce has the highest starting price of $29.5 followed by 3dcart at $29. Big commerce is one of the best platforms for SEO considerations. 3dCart is a feature rich platform that builds and manages online stores real well. Before you zero in on any platform, match your website’s specific needs with the platform’s features and estimated cost. E-commerce platforms can also utilize AI, VR, Chatbots, and Blockchain to help your online business stay relevant. We know how important is it for you to get things right as your business is in question. If you’ve any doubts related to e-commerce platforms and if you need assistance developing one then feel free talk to us here.