How to Choose an eCommerce Platform for a Webstore
Want to launch an online store? I’m sure you do, otherwise you wouldn’t read this post at all. Well, there are a number of ways to set up an online store.
You can hire a developer to build an eСommerce solution for you from scratch. While that sounds like a nice option (being a custom solution built specifically for your needs, that is) it is way too expensive and may turn out to be a nightmare.
Luckily, there are ready-made eCommerce solutions, dozens of them. Here lies another problem though – how do you choose just one of them? Let’s find out how to make that decision!
First of all, you should ask yourself these questions:
Digital of physical? There are ecommerce platforms that support both and those that support only digital or only physical products.
What payment method? Not all eCommerce platform support absolutely all payment methods, so if you plan on adding more payment options for your customers you need to check if the platform of your choice supports those options
Shipping services? This might be surprising but not all the platforms integrate with every shipping service you might want to use.
How easy is it to customize? Check if the ecommerce solution allows to make changes you might need to make via an admin panel.
Does it support templates? Designing your own online store seems like a great idea only for the first couple of minutes. How do you arrange the showcase? Implement the rating system? Add a hero header? These questions have already been answered by professional designers, why not utilize their knowledge?
Now, let’s take a closer look at the 4 most popular shopping cart solutions today’s market has to offer.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an open source platform, which makes it diverse and full of great tools, there’s more than 300 features available. PrestaShop allows you to sell both downloadable and physical products, there’s inventory management at your disposal, one-page checkout and much more.
Here’s a couple of designs from our premium PrestaShop templates collection:
Travel PrestaShop Theme
Asiko PrestaShop Theme
Magento
Another open source solution, hugely popular among store owners. Magento is very flexible and it has a huge community ready to help you out. One of the awesome Magento features – it allows to run several storefronts from a single admin panel.
We have a huge selection of Magento premium themes for every possible product type:
Business Card Printing Magento Theme
Home Furniture Store Magento Theme
WooCommerce
This one is my favourite. WooCommerce is basically a plugin for WordPress that magically turns your WordPress website or blog into a full fledged online store with a fully functioning shopping cart. Both digital and physical products are allowed, the most common payment gateways are supported plus there are extensions available to add any payment method you need. The one thing everyone loves about WooCoomerce – you manage your store directly from your WP admin panel.
A couple of our stunning WooCommerce themes for you to check out:
Perfect Gifts WooCommerce Theme
Sport WooCommerce Theme
OpenCart
OpenCart is another popular open source shopping cart solution. It supports multiple languages and currencies, allows unlimited number of products and can incorporate multiple shipping methods.
Yarn Online Store OpenCart Template
Popcorn Online Store OpenCart Template
Now that you’ve chosen the eCommerce platform, got the design for it, check out this guide on how to create the best shipping experience for your customers.
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