One of the very first forms of e-commerce tools needed to kick off an e-commerce career, e-commerce platforms may be the very key to the success of e-store start-ups, as they are both more affordable and they give you many aspects of an online shop ready-made, which not only cuts down on the hassle to a great degree but trims down on the many ways you can go wrong, as you are naturally a tad under-experienced with many aspects of it.
As long as you know what to look for in an e-commerce platform and don’t go astray in picking one that meets your specific set of needs, you can count on it giving you just the leg-up you need to make it as an online e-shop owner. So let’s see what e-commerce is and what features to look for when trying to pick one.
What Is An E-commerce Platform?
E-commerce platforms are large multi-shop platforms that basically rent out space and e-commerce shop equipment like search engines, shopping carts, and payment gateways to digital shop owners and rid them of setting up separate websites with independent domain names, hosting services, SEO optimization, and security measures. E-commerce platforms are three types: SAAS (Software As A Service), PAAS (Platform As A Service), and on-premise. Most e-commerce platforms we know, like Shopify and Magento, are of the SAAS type, and it is only in the form of software as opposed to PAAS, which also has a hardware component.
What Features To Look For When Choosing An E-commerce Platform?
Once you decide to launch your e-store on an e-commerce platform, you feel relief that you are going to be taken care of on many technical fronts, and you are not wrong too. But choosing an e-commerce platform that is just right for your needs is still a big stage that you may need somewhat technical knowledge to get through. Here is a list of some of the most essential technical features you should know about, and check off your list when choosing an e-commerce platform.
1. Backend Complexity Level
Some e-commerce platforms use integrated drag-and-drop website building platforms like WordPress, to help you design and customize, which do not require any coding to do, but some of them have more complex backends that require quite a bit of configuration that will end up needing coding knowledge. So you need to check that out not to run into pitfalls down the line.
2. Customizability
Some e-commerce platforms are pretty generous with their customization panel, and they give you a wide variety of options to customize. In contrast, some others are rather minimalistic with their customization features. If your merchandise and brand persona vision needs a broad spectrum of customization to come through, you may want to check how they stand on that front.
3. Scalability
The number of products an e-commerce platform allows you to catalog can be limited, and whether that is expandable or not is a feature some of them offer and some of them don’t. For example, Shopify is suitable for Smaller scale start-ups, while Magento is more suited to the ones with larger order volumes.
4. A User-Friendly Shopping Cart
One of the three essential elements of an e-commerce website is a shopping cart that is easy to figure out and aesthetically pleasing, and it should be one of the first on your checklist.
5. Search Features
When a buyer goes to a website to buy something, the very first thing they do is search for what they look for, so a well-coded, bug-free, and fast search engine is what you need to make sure an e-commerce platform provider hasn’t gone amiss on.
6. Payment Options
The third on the three essential feature list of an e-commerce platform, an option between using a credit card and paying through a service like PayPal needs to be there and work glitch-free.
7. High-Security Level
If the e-commerce platform has slacked on providing quality security, the worst thing can happen to the customers, and that is credit card information getting stolen. So you can’t be lenient with that and need to ensure the platform complies with the privacy rules of your country and state.
8. Integrability With Other Tech-Boosting Platforms
The absolute majority of e-commerce platforms don’t have all the features needed to run a perfect e-store, as almost every one of them has done well with one, and has kind of let up on others.
On the other hand, you’ll need to run your website’s conversion performance with CRO tools not too long after launching your business. In fact, it comes right after your main marketing campaign, which is usually an influencer marketing campaign, with the help of an influencer marketing platform.
So, being able to be integrated with other tools like CRO (conversion rate optimization), CMS (content management system) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) can help with the inherent shortcomings and it also makes sure your measures for maximizing your conversion rates aren’t hindered.
9. Database of Sales Details
Many transactions take place on an e-commerce website, and for accounting purposes. You will need to keep track of them, so a database of transaction details will be a huge help for staying organized and on top of your expense-revenue balance.
10. Inventory Management
Running out of stock or short on supply of a popular product can leave your loyal customers disappointed, and lose confidence in your competence and efficiency level in handling product supply. So, the right inventory management system that helps you keep track of the availability of your goods can go a long way in sustaining your success.
11. Customer Support
Your customers are bound to run into problems and raise complaints, so you need a neat ticket organization and response feature to keep that in check, and keep your customers pleased and loyal.
12. Order Management
An order management system makes sure a number of essentials on the buyer’s journey go smoothly, stages like registering product information like sizes, color, and quantity; order details like cancellations and refunds; and order processing steps like packing and shipping.
13. SEO Optimization
One of the main reasons e-commerce owners go for an e-commerce platform versus building their website is that an e-commerce platform is supposed to be well-optimized in terms of SEO, and they have no problem getting traffic to their stores. So, you need to make sure the platform meets one of its primary purposes and does not do poorly in its SEO setup.
Wrap Up
You need a variety of features to make sure your e-commerce platform is going to give you the maximum amount of conversions. For example, customizability is particularly important. So if your conversion rate is just not satisfactory and you use a website heatmap solution like Watchthemlive to figure out why, you need to be able to customize the parts of your UX that are losing your customers.