Christopher Moore — March 3, 2017 Follow @cjmooreIf you are tired of looking for the best eCommerce solution for your business, you’re not alone. Many companies feel the same kind of frustration in not knowing which platform to choose to maximize their business idea.
Choosing an online eCommerce solution is important because you need to be able to feel secure using the platform and it should be something you will stay with for a long time.
How to Choose the Best eCommerce Solution
There is no right or wrong way to choose an eCommerce solution. You have to consider what you need the platform to do for your business and base it on your firm’s needs.
You will also want to consider the following factors when choosing an eCommerce platform:
- Ability to integrate with your websites and social media
- Ease of navigation
- Payment method
- Type of products you are selling
- Mobile-friendliness
These five points are things you will want to consider when deciding on the eCommerce solution you need for your online site. You need to be able to integrate it with your website and social media platform quickly. It needs to be easy to navigate. It should include a payment method that you can trust and that you feel comfortable using.
In addition to this, you should consider whether you are selling physical products that you will have shipped to the customer or digital products that they will download online.
Mobile-Friendliness is Important
Your platform should be mobile-friendly to your mobile clients.
Statistics show that the mobile shopping crowd is only going to increase in the coming months and years.
So you need to be ready for that influx of mobile customers on your websites and make sure that you are willing to accommodate them on your shopping site.
Responsiveness is the Key to Return Visitors
Remember that creating excellent web responsiveness within your pages is important.
In fact, many experts agree that it is one of the most important reasons as to whether your customers return to your site or not.
Having a page that doesn’t load on some devices or is inordinately slow may discourage would-be customers from staying on your page long enough to make a sale.
Five Great Options for your Online Solution
Here are five of the best online shopping and eCommerce solutions for you to check out.
All of them have their perks, but you should just go to their website to see for yourself what they will do and choose the best one for your needs.
Some are ranked high for their popularity while others get the accolade of being in the top five due to their specialty features or price range.
1. Shopify.com
Shopify is one of the most popular online eCommerce solutions available today, and it has some real testimonials from principal business owners such as Mark Cuban and Daymond John of Shark Tank.
Both John and Cuban like the ease in which users can set up a shop, get their products uploaded quickly, and build an online business in no time at all.
It has a professional-looking interface and allows you to create a beautiful storefront without knowing one line of code. It also has a large number of resources such as podcasts and videos that will help you along.
Shopify Fees
The cost for a basic setup is $ 29 per month, but you can try if out for free for 14 days.
2. BigCommerce.com
BigCommerce is also an attractive choice if you are setting up an online business.
It allows you to create a beautiful store with a full store of products in a short period.
Like Shopify, it gives you several different theme-based templates to choose from, and you can choose the one that best fits your niche area and industry type.
Big Commerce Fees
There is a free trial with this platform as well, and you will pay $ 29.95 for the basic package. You can start with the most basic price offering first then move up as your business grows.
3. Volusion.com
Volusion states on their main site that their customers have made over $ 18 million over the past 15 years since they first opened their site for business.
This company has created a fine-tuned shopping and eCommerce solution that makes the shopping experience easy for the online visitor, and the design process is easy for the web designer or site owner.
There are a few more challenging aspects of this platform, but there is plenty of help from their online tutorials, videos, and other resources if you need help. Their customer service is also quite adequate to assist you with whatever you need.
Volusion Fees
Their basic package starts at $ 15 per month, which makes it an affordable solution to check out and see if it’s what you need.
4. Bigcartel.com
Big Cartel is a unique online shop that focuses solely on the artist.
This concept includes painters, designers, musicians, or anyone else whose business is creative. It caters to creative service entrepreneurs who wish to make their mark in the world in their niche.
Big Cartel’s attention to the artistic and creative service industry sets them apart from other online eCommerce platforms.
Bigcartel also allows you to set up an online store to sell your digital products like pdfs, videos, eBooks, and podcasts.
They use the Pulley App payment system to allow instant downloads, and payments go directly to your PayPal account. This setup opens up a lot of doors for the digital artist to share their work with the world in a digital-friendly platform.
Big Cartel Fees
Startup fee of $ 9.99.
5. 3dcart.com
3dcart.com lets users set up a store that you can easily integrate with all of your websites, blogs, and social media.
It also has all of the features you need to get started fast and start selling as soon as possible.
It features attractive templates that get your brand noticed.
3DCart Fees
The startup cost for this solution is $ 19.99 per month, but you do get a chance to test drive it for free.
How to Choose Your Ecommerce Platform
Once you have checked out and compared all of the perks of these top five eCommerce solutions, you may have a better idea of the one that will work for your business.
Keep in mind that there is no perfect solution.
You just have to think about how many products you have, whether you are selling physical or digital products, and if these solutions fit the budget that you have designated for your online shopping solution.
Conclusions: Which eCommerce Solution is Best for Your Online Business?
For artists and digital media producers, Bigcartel.com might be the best solution.
However, you may want to consider the fact that Shopify.com is still the most popular online eCommerce choice, and that may mean more traffic to your site.
It’s best to test drive these and several other services for a few days so you can see what they offer before signing up.
There is no best solution for anything when it comes to your online business; you just have to consider the factors that you feel are most important.
Choose the solution that not only satisfies your immediate needs, but also will grow with your business as you expand your product line and change with your customers’ needs.
Ultimately, the platform you use is not as important as knowing how to promote it well and integrate your shopping site within your main website, social media, YouTube, and other platforms.
Your branding is the most important aspect of your online business that will bring people to your site and entice them to buy from you.
Remember that the goal should be not only to turn a visitor into a customer but also to turn a customer into a brand loyalist.
These people often become brand ambassadors who share with others on social media and other outlets, and tell them how great your brand is.
As you shop and compare the different online eCommerce platforms, remember to make sure it works with your website.
Most online eCommerce platforms are designed to set up your online store for you, but many of them lack the other site elements that you might find with your primary web server.
One question you’ll need to ask in the end is whether you can use the online solutions in conjunction with your website or as an extension of your site.
First, check to see what your current web server will do; some platforms already have shopping cart features that you can use. When your web-hosting server has a built-in eCommerce solution, there may be no need to go outside of that to find a solution.
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