The Five Things You Must Consider When Building an eCommerce Site: The Platform

August 29, 2016Blog

All eCommerce sites aren’t created equal. And they shouldn’t be. Every eCommerce store is different in the products it offers, the design it uses, and the desired user-experience it delivers to customers. Many of the points we have touched on throughout this blog series have focused on how the front-end of the website affects the UX. However, the real motor for any eCommerce website resides in the backend and the platform it is built on.

For most business owners, the words Magento, Bigcommerce, and WooCommerce mean absolutely nothing. But for eCommerce web developers, these are the lifeblood of beautiful and profitable online stores. Each eCommerce platform has its own quirks and way of doing things that will either benefit or hinder the site based on what the business is trying to achieve.

Choosing the right eCommerce platform is similar to selecting the right commercial space for a brick-and-mortar shop. Selecting the right base to start makes everything much easier as your company and client base grows.

While business owners don’t need to worry about memorizing the user-manuals for each eCommerce platform, understanding what each one does will help them know which one best fits their businesses model and goals. Before you begin creating an eCommerce site, review the Internet’s most popular eCommerce platforms to find which one makes the most sense for your business:

Magento™

Bigcommerce™

WooCommerce™

Magento™

25% of the Internet’s top 100,000 eCommerce websites are made with Magento!

Magento is a leading eCommerce platform and for good reason. Thousands of businesses have found great success using its robust features and fully customizable front-end design to create fantastic user-experiences that are entirely unique.

Which type of business is it best for? Medium to large companies with 100+ product SKUs pursuing strategic goals that know exactly how they want to sell.

Unique Benefits

SEO: Magento automatically creates optimized URLs, meta for products and content page, and more to help your business rank higher in search rankings.
Simple Internationalization: Take your business international with support for multiple currencies, tax rates, and more.
Scalable: Magento allows you to seamless grow your eCommerce presence as your business grows.
Variety of Features: Whatever you want to do with your eCommerce store, Magento can do it. Hundreds of unique built-in tools and features make it easy to create the online store your customers expect.
Multiple Stores: With Magento, you can create different storefronts all under the same domain.

The Downside

Magento’s many features and custom designs can be difficult to navigate for someone not familiar with the platform.
An experienced eCommerce Magento developer must build the website. An everyday business owner would not be able to build a Magento site on his or her own.

Bigcommerce™

Bigcommerce is the simple and affordable way to bring your business online!

Boasting a user-friendly backend and intuitive templates, the Bigcommerce eCommerce platform offers an easy way for a business owner to grow their business. Sales monitoring features and product tracking tools make jumping into the eCommerce process a breeze.

Which type of business it best for? Small to medium sized businesses that desire an easy-to-use platform with and built in templates.

Unique Benefits

Facebook Integration: Bigcommerce allows you to sell products directly from your Facebook business page.
Affordable: Monthly Bigcommerce subscriptions start at $29.99.
Shopping Features: Easily set up gift certificates, coupon codes, wish lists, and more!
Inventory Made Easy: Quickly review inventory at a glance and manage orders and returns with a few clicks.

The Downside

Limited design templates to choose from.

WooCommerce™

Turn your existing WordPress site into a money making eCommerce machine!

WooCommerce is a powerful WordPress plugin with over 14.5 million downloads to date. Powering over 37% of online stores, WooCommerce’s open sourced software allows for complete customization and control to create a eCommerce website with the look and feel to match your brand.

Which type of business is it best for? Small to medium sized businesses that are currently using WordPress websites.

Unique Benefits

There are no monthly subscriptions to use the WooCommerce platform.
The layout of WooCommerce is very similar to the WordPress making it easy to adjust
Built in analytics tools and data tracking.
Creator WooThemes have a great support system and fantastic reputation within web development circles.

The Downside

Businesses not using WordPress to power their website cannot use WooCommerce.

Still not sure where to start? That’s where we come in!

Here at Brandography, our eCommerce developers have built many eCommerce sites using a variety of platforms and understand the unique benefits of each. No matter your company’s size, we can help you find the eCommerce platform that will set you on track to grow your business and achieve your goals.

Contact our Minneapolis digital marketing agency to learn which eCommerce platform will fit your business best!

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