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E-commerce News South Africa

A guide to choosing the best e-commerce platform for your business

Online shopping is all the rage these days, and if you're stuck with older forms of business, you might be looking to upgrade...
A guide to choosing the best e-commerce platform for your business
© georgejmclittle – 123RF.com

With the right kind of help, you are looking at potentially the smartest business investment you’ve ever made. Let’s highlight ‘the right kind of help’.

By help here I mean hiring an e-commerce platform, and the right e-commerce platforms are sure to make your figures boost like never before.

What are ecommerce platforms, and why?

An enterprise e-commerce platform comparison is an absolute necessity while starting your online business.

These platforms aim to make your online store or website hit the right stride for your customers, for years to come. This will mean everything from getting a ‘good vibe’ from your website to actually maintaining and updating your website according to your needs.

Besides having to set up your website and getting it to work, e-commerce platforms do all the hard work too. This includes maintaining a ledger of online purchases, keeping track of the money and sending purchase information to the buyer.

You might be wondering if there is a possible workaround to having to hire an e-commerce platform. Well, there is. You can do everything by yourself if you have the right kind of workforce and skills involved.

And even then, producing the same organisation and clockwork precision that an e-commerce platform would involve would be difficult. I assure you hiring a suitable e-commerce platform for your online endeavors will be well worth the money you will have to pay for it.

How to choose the best e-commerce platform

Ask online store veterans and the same names of a handful of biggies in the e-commerce platform arrear will come up.

However, I implore you to check your needs and preferences over some very important factors (that I will mention later) and then proceed to lock onto one platform.

If you’re in doubt, you can still go back to the acceptance and acknowledgment of the well-known e-commerce platforms.

Here are some factors you need to keep in mind before choosing your e-commerce platform…

  1. Customisation and designing prowess: Do the old templates that an e-commerce platform involved in earlier projects satisfy your needs. Of course, making your online shop look beautiful, homely or smart, and suited to what you are selling is one very important factor in being successful as an online businessman. While most platforms do a decent job, make sure you browse through all the options to know which one is best for you. If you want to design the layout of your shop yourself, a customisable service is what you’re looking for.

  2. SEO optimised platform: This is another very important factor in trying to sell stuff online. You might have the best design or product on your website, but none of it matters if people do not hear about it. An SEO friendly platform ensures that people find out about your online store. This is done by making sure your site pops up often when people browse the internet.

  3. Cost: This is where we advise you to look long term. You might simply go for a less-take-less-give option and think that you’re all good to go. But if you make the smarter decision, and pay a little more for a better platform, you can be assured that you are set to making your business popular for a lot of years to come.

It is difficult to fathom setting up an online store without going through an e-commerce platform, and hence, I advise you to take the easier, though the costlier road to online success.

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