The digital environment is a cradle for businesses, as it offers sheer opportunities for development, global extension, and innovations. Starting an online business now requires an unconventional idea, an understanding of Internet marketing tools, a great deal of persistence, and a platform.
An E-commerce platform is your representative in the online environment, a digital ‘brick-and-mortar’ store, which apart from offering certain goods and services, delivers certain messages to its target audience. Considering such a load of value of the E-commerce platform, its choice is one of the most important steps.
Let’s learn the most significant features to look for when choosing the E-commerce platform, to help you choose the best variant.
What Is an E-commerce Platform?
An E-commerce platform is software that lets businesses settle the commercial process of buying and selling goods over the Internet; it meets the demands of both sides of E-commerce – business owners can track the performance of the store, while the customers enjoy seamless online shopping. In other words, an E-commerce platform is your entry permit to the world of digital commerce.
Considering an ever-increasing demand for E-commerce solutions, there are numerous platforms to choose from. While they all share the same aim – to organize an efficient E-commerce environment, they vary in their nature, features, integration possibilities, commissions, and cost.
What Are the Types of E-commerce Platforms?
All the existing E-commerce platforms can be categorized into three groups: SaaS, CMS, and framework development.
SaaS Platforms
SaaS, Software-as-a-Service, is a model that offers a website constructor with a pre-defined number of features and characteristics. The access (and its limits) are granted with different subscription packages.
SaaS is the best solution for small online stores that are only starting their way into the E-commerce business and have no financial means to create one’s website. With the readily available templates, every person can ‘design’ a shop and start selling services or goods.
Benefits of SaaS Platforms
- The simplest and shortest way into online business, as it only requires a subscription fee and a few hours for a design.
- Readily available templates – there is no need to hire web designers to develop the concept of the store and design its functionality, everything has been taken care of.
- Technical support helps to resolve all the issues almost instantly.
Downsides of SaaS Platforms
- The choice of functionalities and integrations is limited by the platform provider.
- The business owner does not actually own the online store but instead operates their E-commerce activities within a space leased from the platform provider.
- Low bandwidth, which is impossible to change. When the platform is highly loaded, its speed will decrease significantly.
- Limited SEO capabilities, which will leave the store unnoticed among the competitors.
- The safety considerations depend on the SaaS provider only.
- No personal touches.
SaaS is a good choice for the very first steps in the E-commerce environment, as its functionalities cover all the basic needs of a relatively small online store. The most popular examples are Wix, Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.
However, while growing, the store will require better technical characteristics, which will create a need for more functional and customized solutions, like CMS.
Content Management System (CMS)
CMS (Content Management System) is a new level of E-commerce development. It is a software that provides users with the ability to create, modify, and add content for the E-commerce website. CMS allows custom e-commerce development, and thus, more freedom for creativity and numerous customizable features to fit the needs of the vendor.
Benefits of CMS:
- The development of the store may take a few days, depending on the complexity.
- Independent ownership instead of renting.
- Countless opportunities for customization, yet, there will be a need for developers.
Downsides of CMS:
- Businesses may be required to buy additional modules to start the commerce.
- The level of customization varies across platforms; thus, it is important to seek professional advice, such as from a professional web developer, to ensure your specific requirements can be accommodated.
- Content Management Systems offer a different set of functionalities, which should all be reviewed to find the best-fitting one.
Popular CMS Opencart, Magento, Joomla, etc.
CMS is a popular way of starting an E-commerce business, as it offers a balanced approach to E-store development. While providing the owner with a specific set of tools and functionalities, it still allows them to personalize and customize the way the store works.
CMS allows the creation of a store that represents a certain conception and vision, delivers a message to its target group, and stands for some idea, apart from just selling the goods.
Regardless of a highly functional system, in tech terms, CMS isn’t always enough for a business that wants to start from scratch and build a whole new E-commerce universe of its own – that’s when the frameworks come to the stage.
Framework Development
A framework development is the choice for those who crave uniqueness; it is a set of solutions that create a software basis for a website or an online store from scratch, it only provides the skeleton of the store, yet everything else should be added by the developers, who choose the best framework for web development to meet the demands of the business owners.
The frameworks are all different – web/mobile application frameworks, frontend/backend frameworks, testing frameworks, game development and machine learning frameworks, etc. Every category is subcategorized according to the languages they use, and the type of functionalities.
Benefits of Framework Development:
- Webstore development from scratch is the ability to create a unique E-commerce unit, which will deliver the right message to the audience and every function will be created according to the requirements of the business owner.
- Flexibility of development and refined E-store as a result.
- Advanced forms of safety and security, absolute protection.
- Independent functioning.
- Limitless add-ons and plug-ins, and a possibility to change or replace them on demand.
Downsides of Framework Development:
- The cost – the freedom of creation requires significant financial investments.
- Complexity – the framework can only be operated by highly skilled developers.
The most common frameworks are Laravel, Zend, and YII2.
A framework-based E-commerce store is time-consuming and rather expensive, yet as a result, businesses claim their uniqueness and existence in the chosen niche, setting the right tone for its further development.
The Final Thoughts
E-store development will define its performance in the digital environment. There are three common options to choose from:
- SaaS – the E-commerce store is created with the available templates and functions, letting the owners start the commerce even the next day. However, the time-wise commodity will help to create an ‘invisible’ store, as there is a low chance of making it visible among the clients.
- CMS – the E-commerce store features a more personalized approach and aims to sell products while conveying the unique philosophy of the store. Though the CMSs are different, they all provide customizable options of some kind.
- Framework – the E-commerce store is a unique creation, that’s built according to the needs and vision of the business owner. The best variant to claim the world about your existence.
