So, let’s first readout that- 

What is an eCommerce platform?

Online shopping is the new normal after the pandemic. During Covid-19, most traditional shoppers and businesses switched to online platforms for buying and selling. Now, it comes into a habit for people to purchase goods online from websites and apps. In simpler terms, these are called eCommerce websites and apps. The platform that facilitates the business to develop these web or mobile applications is called the eCommerce platform.

In technical terms, eCommerce platforms can be defined as internet-based software applications that buyers and sellers are using. These can be mobile apps and websites. To shape traditional businesses into online ones, a brand can develop the app with the help of an eCommerce development company. If you are also a business owner and want to launch your eCommerce website or app, then it would be best to take the help of experienced developers.

Top-10 eCommerce Development Platforms 

It is clear that the eCommerce portal stands for buying and selling goods online. The eCommerce development platforms can help the brands or businesses such as small, mid-scale, and large-scale businesses to launch their web or eCommerce mobile apps. Here is the list of top-10 eCommerce development platforms that you can choose to develop the app.

1) Shopify

Shopify is one of the top choices when it comes to creating an online store in less time. It comes with powerful tools that help in boosting sales and managing day-to-day online business activity. It provides a fine eCommerce solution, including a secure checkout process. Whether you are a new business or an existing business and want to go online, then Shopify is one of the best options, as you can start with a nominal fee of $29/month.

2) OpenCart

Based on open source technology, OpenCart offers a powerful framework for eCommerce development. It is recognized as one of the best and most popular eCommerce development platforms. The simplicity of the platform has made it very popular among small businesses. A few of its best features include integrating shipping and tax calculations for international orders and securing payments using multiple gateways.

3) Magento

First of all, its name is changed now, and its new name is Adobe commerce, as Adobe Inc. acquired it. It is such a perfect option for developing multi-channel B2B and B2C eCommerce web apps. Magento works as a single platform for developing all types of eCommerce solutions and is one of the most widely used PHP-based open-source eCommerce development platforms available.

4) Woocommerce

Woocommerce is also an open-source eCommerce development platform that is based on WordPress technology. Due to its super compatibility with WordPress, the eCommerce website can be developed in less time with ample features and functionalities that a user can leverage for the best shopping experience. It is such a great framework for eCommerce website development.

5) PrestaShop

The PrestaShop is such a fantastic and innovative platform that the developers are using to create high-quality eCommerce solutions for the business. It allows developers to create an online shopping store with customization. As a business owner, you can easily manage your business. It also has good community support which makes it one of the best eCommerce development platforms.

6) Big Commerce

Bigcommerce is a cloud-based solution that provides a platform for the rapid development and deployment of an eCommerce website. It offers integration with Facebook, Google, and Twitter and access to over 200 integrations across multiple platforms, including MailChimp, Salesforce, and PayPal. It also supports SEO, which you can leverage to boost your business sales.

7) Squarespace

It is one of the leading platforms that support developing a customized eCommerce website. One of the best features of Squarespace is that it facilitates the brands to create a flexible portfolio. You will be surprised to know that it has built-in SEO tools that can help you to promote your products among customers.

8) Big Cartel

Big Cartel is one of the eCommerce development platforms specially designed for small businesses. The artists and makers enjoy selling their stuff with the help of it. Additionally, it provides affordable monthly plans, including a free plan that allows you to sell 5 products at no cost. Another great thing about Big Cartel is that it offers detailed analytics, making it easy to track traffic sources and get a feel for your target market’s behaviors.

9) Shoppica

When choosing a platform for an online store, it is crucial to keep your business goals and your future vision for that project in mind. Regarding the same, Shoppica is such a great platform that provides ample options to choose the features, functions, and themes to create your next online store where you can enjoy a great business ahead.

10) Wix

Wix is a fantastic option for less experienced people who want to create their online shopping store effortlessly. It is one of the toughest competitors of WordPress. Initially, it offers 72 free themes and facilitates a simple setup. While developing the eCommerce website with the help of Wix, you can choose several templates that suit your business needs. 

Steps To Choose The Best eCommerce Development Platform

Although you have gone through the information on top-10 eCommerce development platforms, which one will be best for you, it might be tough at the initial stage, so the following are some steps that you can follow for choosing the best-suited ones for your business.

Cost: For a startup, the cost is one of the biggest bottlenecks; so first, you need to find out the initial cost of the eCommerce platform that you are thinking about.

Integrations & Plugins: for creating the best user experience, plugins and integrations work fine, so you also need to determine whether a particular platform allows for plugin integration.

Themes: the first impression is the last impression applied to the eCommerce website or mobile app. The platform you are going to choose must provide options regarding themes.

Scalability: the success of a business depends on scalability. Regarding the future of eCommerce website development, scalability is a must. 

Security: One of the most required elements is to keep the online shopping website safe from cyber attacks. So the eCommerce platform you are going to choose must offer security.

The Final Thoughts

If you are looking to transform your existing business into the online one, then the only thing that can help you is – an eCommerce development platform. This platform allows brands to create their online store to engage the customer in the best way. This blog is dedicated to the best eCommerce development platforms and how you can choose them for your business. 

The best way to create an eCommerce website is to hire eCommerce developers with having proven track record in providing high-quality solutions. 

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The post What Are The Best eCommerce Development Platforms Available, And How To Choose Them? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

However, let us not solely rely on stats when deciding whether WordPress is an ideal option for building your eCommerce project.

The following factors get considered when determining whether a platform is great for creating a small or a large eCommerce portal:

• Platform Price: First of all, both WordPress and its famous eCommerce plugin WooCommerce are open-source and free to use. So, you can expect massive savings over the commerce portal development when WordPress is your choice.
• Maximum Security: No one wants to browse an insecure website, let alone an eCommerce platform. According to web development stats, 61% of UK shoppers proceed to payment when they are sure about the platform’s security. WordPress does not only come with secured admin features, including two-factor authentication, protected WP-Admin, etc. but also offers extended integration of security features.
• Multiple Payment options: High number of payment options lessens the rate of abandoned carts. With WP, you get hands-on 67 Payment Extensions. So, integrating the preferred Payment options according to the target audience demand is a piece of cake for the hired WordPress development company.
• Available Themes: No one buys a cake from a garage unless the theme of the cake shop revolves around it. Similarly, when choosing an eCommerce platform, the number of available themes plays a pivotal role. A higher theme count enhances your chances of creating that perfect store outlook resonating with the business products and target audience. Experts estimate WP offers nearly 20K themes to choose from multiple resources.
• Client Support: The client support service of WordPress is both fantastic and affordable, so issue elimination is convenient for the users.

Myth-1: WordPress offers limited functionalities affecting the eCommerce features

Well, that was a brief discussion about the top factors to consider for choosing the best eCommerce platform. However, choosing WordPress for eCommerce revolves around facing false criticism about Scalability, security, flexibility, etc. Let us resolve the critical ones.

WordPress was created as a blogging software in 2003. However, the software soon gained popularity for multiple uses. By 2013, WordPress controlled 59% of the CMS market. The blogging software has witnessed numerous updates in these years to stay up-to-date with the latest technology tools.

Mike Jolly and James Koster created the WooCommerce Plugin in 2008. It was when Magento was also released, and Shopify got introduced just two years back. Magento and Shopify got dedicatedly built as eCommerce platforms, so they don’t suffer from any eCommerce platform myths.

In contrast, WordPress gets labeled as a blogging site by users who have not explored its features. In Reality, the WordPress platform offers significant flexibility, customization, etc., allowing you to choose a suitable hosting provider.

The publishing capabilities of the software aids the admin with managing the latest updates and offers. You can also hire WordPress Developers to integrate multiple plugins that enhance the eCommerce functionalities of the software. 

Myth-2: Security features of WordPress are not sufficient for eCommerce platform

WordPress is open-source, so it allows users to access and read the source code of the software easily. It should not be confused with a security loophole. It actually offers greater transparency in the quality of coding you are getting with the software.

The developer’s team can easily integrate multiple security-based features for the eCommerce site. But apart from added security, the WordPress platform itself is pretty secure. Top security-based features available with it includes the following:

• You can install SSL certifications encrypting the communication between the user and the website for free. SSL certifications are among the standard parameters when verifying the security of the website. Google itself avoids ranking websites lacking SSL certifications.
• You can integrate third-party Payment Gateways. So, getting stuck with an undesirable option is not an issue faced by WordPress users. The choice remains whether to go for a custom solution or choose popular Payment Gateways like PayPal, Amazon Pay, etc. 
• Install plugins that offer strong password generation for the users. Such plugins can also validate the passwords created by the users.
• WordPress receives regular security updates for providing the users with maximum security over the eCommerce site. 

Myth-3: Websites of top brands avoid WordPress

There are tons of eCommerce websites using WordPress successfully. Top renowned brands like MTV News, Sony Music, BBC America, etc., have trusted WordPress for offering an intuitive user experience to tackle an ever-growing client base.

Similarly, WooCommerce (famous WP eCommerce plugin) also owns the trust of fortune 500 companies and simple startups. Have a look at the top eCommerce websites using the WooCommerce plugin:

• Henry J Socks: The eCommerce platform sells socks in a subscription box, earning a yearly revenue of $198K.
• BlueStar Coffee Roasters: The website selling hand-roasted coffee headquartered in Twisp, Washington, United States, has a yearly revenue of $1 Million.
• The Underwear Expert: The enterprise sells customized underwear in color, shape, rise, etc., via the WooCommerce based website and earns a yearly revenue of $6 Million.
• Sodashi: The Australian-based skincare product company generates annual revenue of $4 Million. 

I hope the above facts bust the myth about WordPress web development usage in top brands.

Myth-4: WordPress is not suitable for a large eCommerce site 

You can easily customize WordPress to deal with low and high traffic. The platform infrastructure can tackle from 1000 to 1Million users effortlessly. Worldwide renowned singers and musicians like Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Snoop Dog, and many more trust WordPress for handling their growing fan base.

The best practices to tackle massive traffic over a WordPress Ecommerce site includes the following:

• WordPress allows horizontal scaling of the website, which means you can integrate additional servers to enhance the platform’s Scalability. 
• When your eCommerce site sells tons of products, it will help if you integrate open-source, scalable search solutions for optimizing the search time to a few seconds. The standard scalable search solutions include Elasticsearch and Solr. They have a reputation for scanning billions of pages instantly. 
• Reverse proxies in caching can be used to reduce the load on the servers and maintain an excellent speed of the WordPress site.
• Installing a content delivery network also proves beneficial in reducing search time and handling a large client base effectively. 

Myth-5: WordPress eCommerce Plugins are not reliable in performance

WooCommerce is the most successful e-commerce plugin associated with WordPress. Moreover, it is open-source and free to install over your regular website. It holds a stunning 23.43% share of the eCommerce platform shares worldwide.

However, WooCommerce Plugin is not the only one you can trust while creating a WordPress-based eCommerce site. The platform offers many more free and paid plugins to enhance eCommerce website functionalities.

Following are the top WordPress plugins for eCommerce website development:

WooCommerce: We have discussed many aspects of WooCommerce already in this article. The Plugin allows you to tackle a large target audience effectively. You have the freedom to offer free or charge flat shipping rates for the users. 

WooCommerce plugin facilitates real-time calculation and lets you sell both physical and digital products online. Significant ease in using the Plugin has made it the first choice for big billion enterprises and simple startups. 

PayPal Shopping Cart: The PayPal Shopping Cart plugin lets you set up eCommerce functionalities and receive client’s payments via PayPal. The Plugin enables you to place the add to cart icon on every product page. The advanced ‘add to cart’ icon lets the users add, view, and delete product items from the cart. 

Like WooCommerce, it also lets you sell both physical and digital products or items. It also has an inbuilt discount coupon generator that facilitates strategizing seasonal sales. 

Ecwid eCommerce Shopping Cart: It is a multilingual eCommerce plugin available for WordPress websites. Using the Ecwid eCommerce plugin, you can translate your website into 45 languages. It makes the platform suitable for city audiences that have a mix of the global population. 

Ecwid eCommerce shopping cart also has the additional facility of Cloud storage. Cloud facility secures loss of data and enhances global accessibility of the eCommerce through WordPress. 

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Final Takeaway

That was all about the common myths relating to the WordPress eCommerce features and functionalities. I hope I have proved that all of them are far from the truth.

Let’s look at them in tabular form:

A WordPress development company can customize your eCommerce website according to the business needs and target audience. Trust them for gaining phenomenal success in WordPress-based eCommerce sites.

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The post WordPress is Not Meant for eCommerce: A Myth or Reality? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

1. Will you be hosting this yourself or on a host?

Hosting capital adaptively grows with your eCommerce store. As and when your portfolio expands or visitors increase hosting demands will shoot up instantly which means it needs something special to take care of fluctuations.

If you are hosting it on your own, 1000 USD is something which you’ll require to take care of the hosting duties on the cloud or through your own dedicated server. Amazon is the best one to go for if you decide to go with the cloud. Cost for hosting e-commerce store through a dedicated server completely depends upon the hardware specification and related technical expense on maintaining it. But if you know you have a small store and the products are going to be limited then you can go with the cheap but good web hosting or go with a starter hosting plan. What I mean to say is that you are not going to get the traffic overnight, it may take years or months depending on your hard work on the website.

2. How much does an eCommerce website cost?

This should be the exact development cost alone sans the support services like hosting, marketing, etc.,

E-commerce website design development cost depends on the following factors:

• Choice of platform – $250 per annum (approximate)

You have a sea of choices when it comes to e-commerce development platform. Magento tops the chart among the widely used e-commerce development platforms. Some of the widely preferred platforms including Magento are Shopify, Bigcommerce, Volusion, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, etc., The cost for development differ for each platform.

• Store design $144 to $360 per annum (approximate)

E-commerce store design and customization take a major portion of your development capital. Store design is not just an eye candy instead it determines the shopping experience quotient of your online store. Design helps you drive traffic, customer retention, and conversion. It can also provide multiple streams of revenue apart from vendor listing, product listing, and product sales commission fees.

• Others – Cost for developers

A common practice among e-commerce website developers is to charge on an hourly basis. Even if you go for a standard website development company, the development cost will be based on the man-hours spent by the development resource deployed.

Overseas outsourcing of developers from a development company might come around $15 USD per hour to $100+ per hour depending upon the standard of the company.

3. How can I best customize the overall look of my online store?

Design customizations are necessary not at the start but on the run. Customizing design of your store will help in accommodating the user expectations and improving user experience quotient.

Before you go for a design deal, make sure that there is enough room for customization and how much your web design partner charge for customization.

Design charges are quite similar to that of web development service providers. Here is a rough estimate of how much an e-commerce website design would cost you on an hourly basis:

• Freelancer: $15 to $100/hour
• Company: $20 to $200/hour

4. What kind of check-out experience are you thinking about?

Checkout experience is crucial as all the hard work pays here. A cumbersome checkout or a lengthy checkout experience might encourage customers to an abandoned cart. So make sure your checkout pages are not more than a single page.

PayPal, Authorize.net, Braintree are some of the most trusted and widely preferred payment gateways which most of the eCommerce development companies have no problem in getting integrated into your online store.

In case you have a specific choice of payment gateway to mediate your transactions double check with the development team you are dealing with about the flexibility to integrate any specific payment gateway.

5. How long will it take to sell my store?

Every e-commerce business aspirant loves to take off and start selling in minutes. After getting all the strategies right, it is of prime importance to calculate the time to go live and start selling.

A perfect timetable has to be made to achieve the complete e-commerce website development in a stipulated time. Additionally, periodical checks, testing of modules, server setup and a few other factors add to the time is taken for you to go live.

Well, by answering all these questions, you’ll end up with a perfect checklist of what your requirements are. So with that, kick off you’re your search for the perfect e-commerce website development partner.

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6. A Few worthy suggestions that could help

1. Contus – #1 eCommerce Design & Development Company

Contus is an 8-year-old eCommerce development company which has powered over 200+ startups and worked on customizations of eCommerce stores.

Bring in the experience of a strategical e-commerce development service over the years, Contus can get things done just the way you need them to. With a team of 60+ certified developers, Contus specializes in platforms like Magento, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, OpenCart, etc.

Customization, design, module development, plugin development and much more adds to its ecommerce development portfolio.

Additionally, you can enjoy the advantage of shaping up a branded, exclusive, native mobile app for your e-commerce store. And social commerce is yet another service which Contus can help you with in publicizing and marketing your products on social platforms.

2. Sparx – Best eCommerce Developer

A full-fledged platform-specific e-commerce development company for you to hand over the development duties. Sparx has a different approach in providing development services which is a dedicated team to serve for various levels of e-commerce requirements like the design, responsiveness, cart development, modules, customization and payment gateway integration.

Top of the line code quality follows standard security protocols and provides multiple customer communication channels to keep assisting them on various technical clarifications.

3. OuterBox – A Popular eCommerce Development Company

The outer box is more of a design company that also renders web development service for e-commerce stores. With Outerbox you can be sure that you’ll get the best looking website design that’s unique and reflects your brand.

Custom branding and content management is a specialization of Outerbox. WordPress, Magento Joomla are some of the platforms which Outerbox works on. This e-commerce development company can also get you preferred marketing tools and payment gateways integrated. By default, you get advanced SEO tools for e-commerce sites built into earn better ranking in SERPs.

The post 6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing the Best eCommerce Development Companies appeared first on Tricky Enough.