Hi everyone! Lately, I have bumped into a problem I haven’t faced before, and I thought it would be great to share some of my experiences with you all today. So here is the story. Not long ago, my friend asked me to help with his website’s development – he needed something basic for a small shop that he intended to start. My friend didn’t want to invest a lot of money in hosting and development because his project was more of an experiment. He wanted to make it using one of those online e-commerce builders that offer full-scale development, maintenance, hosting, and assistance in one package. Of course, those platforms have their severe limitations if we compare almost any of those to custom-made shops, and still, the price and terms are so favorable that it is hard to resist.
To tell you the truth, from the very beginning, I knew nothing about e-commerce platforms because I never needed them in my work. However, I decided to research to see which of these platforms seem to be the most powerful, understandable, and financially profitable. Here are the results of my research that I present to you, and I hope this blog will help some of my followers!
What Should a Decent Platform Do?
As I already told you, when I first decided to learn more about e-commerce platforms, I started from scratch. From the very beginning, I tried to figure out the most basic and universal features that a user should pay attention to when choosing between dozens of different soft providers. Here are they:
- An opportunity to develop a custom design for your shop. It is also essential to understand how easy editing is and if there are any pre-built-themes that you can use.
- Integration with third-party apps to process customers’ purchases. In this case, it is vital to find out how many payment systems you can choose from and what are the terms of use.
- Manage and host your store for a commercially-motivated price.
- Receive detailed and segmented statistics on all your purchases, views, visits, and operations. This may help you dramatically promote your website and set your priorities as a business owner.
- What other useful third-party apps you can integrate with your website.
List of Recommended Platforms
Shopify
This platform allows you to create web stores for iOS, Android, and the web. The platform is pretty easy to use, and it is very easy to start in practically no time. It took me around 10 minutes from registration until the moment I uploaded the first product. Maybe it’s just me, but I guess that the platform was designed for people who do not possess any sacred coding knowledge, so it’s going to be easy for anyone, I think.
Shopify provides you with all the needed integrations and a convenient drag-and-drop shop builder that allows users to customize the website in real-time. And if you want to get a more sophisticated theme for your webshop – just visit the local store. There you can buy a fancy website skin starting from $140. The monthly subscription starts at $29 a month + some minor deductions for using payment systems.
Square
Square is an ideal choice for those business owners who already own a physical store of any kind. Know why? Square features a pro-level payment system that allows it to receive both online and in-person payments and integrate them all in one place so you can get a comprehensive financial report on all your income almost instantly.
Regretfully, Square does not provide a website builder of their own. However, they offer to create one on Weebly, which is their partner company. One of Square’s greatest benefits is that you can use it almost for free – if you choose a free version, you only have to pay small deductions for using payment systems. The pro version is also pretty cheap – only $12 a month.
Selz
Selz is a modern, easy-to-use platform that allows you to create a fine-looking website in almost no time. The only major disadvantage of Selz is that it allows making native mobile shops only for iOS and does not support Android native. Still, the platform seems pretty comprehensive and offers a wide range of features, including a practical drag-and-drop builder and one of the easiest design tools that you can find.
Also, Selz offers a comprehensive security system and many practical features for those who sell digital products – the platform supports the useful feature that automatically generates license keys. The monthly subscription starts at $17 + some minor deductions for processing payments.
