One of the toughest decision you, as an entrepreneur, need to make is choosing which eCommerce platform to use for your online business. If the choice is made without the right information, you risk investing time and money into a platform that may not meet your needs; which can impact the success and longevity of your business.
We are here to help you with your decision by giving you advice on how to approach your online business. We analyze your needs and recommend the type of eCommerce platform that’s most suitable for your business.
[bctt tweet=”Two main types of #eCommerce platforms for business owners” username=”geniusflower”]In today’s market, there are two main types of platforms for eCommerce business owners:
- Fully-hosted eCommerce platforms
- Open-source eCommerce platforms
We work with both platforms. We have found that with most small business owners grossing over $3M a year, the open-source eCommerce platforms are great for their business. They are able to maintain the hefty costs that comes with these particular platforms. For opensource eCommerce platforms, there is a cost for each component that makes up a working site for visitors to come and purchase from your business. When companies reach this place in business, they are able to easily afford this level of technical freedom.
Open-source eCommerce platforms can run anywhere from $10K and upwards to build and customize, with the cost of hosting and SSL certificates annually. Fully-hosted eCommerce platforms includes hosting and SSL certificates that have monthy rates as low as $9 with a one-time charge of custom design starting at $3,500.
We have found that with most entrepreneurs starting out in their business grossing under $2M, fully-hosted eCommerce platforms have been the best route to take because it is easier and quicker to get up and going with their business, and it helps with the longevity and growth of their business. Most are still in business and growing each year based on the benefits a fully-hosted eCommerce platform provides, such as:
- The ease of building – it’s easier to build with. There are many challenges that come up when starting an online store and many entrepreneurs aren’t expecting. There are decisions on what hosting service to use, how to import products from existing storefronts. Fully-hosted eCommerce platforms offer a turnkey solution that removes many of these early stage barriers.
- The opportunity to sell quicker. Fully-hosted platforms offer a simplified store setup process and easy day-to-day management, through robust content management systems (CMS) that are uncommon when compared to their open-source counterparts.
- An all-in-one commerce solution. Merchants receive native hosting, shopping cart functionality, and sales channel integrations with no additional fees or integrations. This can save significant time and financial investment that would otherwise exist with open-source platforms.
- Ready for optimization. Store optimization is not only part of the launch phase, but it also an ongoing requirement for many online business owners. Fully-hosted eCommerce platforms offer several advantages for optimization compared to open-source options.
- Easy access to extensions. Easily build the store of your dreams with the functionality you need, through robust third-party apps and integrations.
- Simplified store maintenance. Fully-hosted platforms simplify store maintenance, so that entrepreneurs can focus on what really matters – running and growing their online business!
- Industry-leading security. Fully-hosted platforms look after SSL certification, security patches, and more, to ensure you can rest easy knowing your busisness and customers are secure. With open-source eCommerce platforms, all of the security measures are paid for separately.
For a fully-hosted eCommerce platform, we recommend Shopify. Why Shopify? Out of all of the other platforms we work with, Shopify has been one that our clients stay with the longest because they get better results from that platform.
Bottomline, Shopify was simple for them to get up and going which was something they didn’t get from other platforms. They were able to get their products and services over many social media platforms which spread like butter 🙂 smoothly. With our help, they were able to use every resource available for them to grow.
Try it out and see for yourself! If you’re interested in testing out Shopify, let us set things up for you to show you the ins and outs of the whole system.
Contact us if we can help in anyway.
