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How to Choose a Proper Ecommerce Platform?

-- For online shop beginner

What eCommerce platform is?

  I guess you have heard marketplace before, e-commerce platform is something similar to a marketplace. An eCommerce platform or marketplace can give merchants a place to sell their products. Sellers can manage their shop's front-end and back-end on the platforms. The difference between eCommerce platform and the marketplace is the way products showing on the website.

  Marketplace takes traditional commercial model. All products from different vendors are shown on the same page. It’s convenient to compare the same products from different merchants. Different from the marketplace, the eCommerce platform takes the new one. Stores in the eCommerce platform are separated from the others. If you want to compare the same products, you need to step into stores firstly. Even it brings inconvenience to compare the same products, this model can help buyers to know the stores firstly.

Why you should use eCommerce platform?

  To build an online store, you may consider the following factors:

  1. How to build your store

  2. Where to choose products

  3. The payment options you could offer

  4. How to manage your store

  From the above factors, we can see, running an online store is a complex process. It’s very exhausting for someone to deal with so many things. However, what you consider is provided on some eCommerce platforms. They can help you quickly build and manage your store. Then, let’s see what they may offer.

  1. E-commerce templates

      Some eCommerce platforms offer free eCommerce templates so that you can build or decorate your store in a quick way. What you need to do is just to finish the template.

  2. Products from different suppliers

      Many products suppliers offer the integration service with eCommerce platforms so that you can find suppliers quickly through those platforms. It’s convenient for merchants to compare different suppliers. This also can help to choose various products in a short time.

  3. Payment options
      Different eCommerce platforms support different payment options. Some common payments include PayPal, credit cards, stripe, square, and so on.

  4. Dashboard to manage the store
      You can manage your products from the dashboard of eCommerce platforms. They will help to update or withdraw your products quickly. And if you integrate with some suppliers’ apps, they will sync their products with your products so that you don’t need to waste time describing the products again, and the logistics will be synced at the same time.

      All those services deserve your investment. So, choosing a proper platform is vital for an online beginner.

How to choose a proper eCommerce platform?

  Different eCommerce platforms have different features. It’s sensible to choose a proper platform according to your need. Then, how do choose a proper eCommerce platform?

  1. The scale of your business

  2. The price and service 

  3. The support service

  4. The payment options

  1. The scale of your business

  You may consider building a large one or a small one before opening a store. Some platforms are very easy to use and have a quick and intuitive setup. It is suitable for some small businesses. Those platforms usually provide some essential functions for opening a store may need. If your store is of big scale, maybe you need to do data analysis by some analysis tools, which will be provided by different platforms.

  2. The price and service 

  Not all platforms are free to use. Some platforms will limit the authority of the service you can use. Sometimes, they will provide an affiliate program. What you can be served depends on the program you choose. It can help save much money if you choose the proper platform.

  3.  The payment options 

  Different platforms support different options. Normally, some essential payments like credit cards will be provided. But if you use some other payment options like apple pay, you need to check this before you select the platform.

  4. The support service

  If you have any questions about the platforms, you must be anxious to get an answer. So, whether a platform has a live chat may be vital for you. Nobody likes the feeling of helplessness, right?

  Here, we will list several well-known platforms to help you choose a proper eCommerce platform quickly.

 Shopify

Basic description:

  Shopify was started in 2001 by a group of snowboarding enthusiasts. It’s one of the most popular platforms which has over one million stores and 2.1 million active users. It has a quick and intuitive setup and a user-friendly interface.

Suitable for: Small Business.

Price: 14-day free trial is available, no credit card is required.

  Get more details, you can click here.

• Staff account: Staff members with access to the Shopify admin and Shopify POS.
• Locations: Assign inventory to retail stores, warehouses, pop-ups, or wherever you store products.
• Shipping method: Competitive shipping rates from DHL Express, UPS, or USPS.

Payment Options: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Google, Apple Pay and etc.

Level of Support: Shopify has 24/7 customer support

Other Features:

• Unlimited product listings
• Analytic: dashboard, product reports, Google analytic/traffic reports 
• Integrated marketing tools: email marketing and social media distribution(for some countries)
• Store design templates

 Yoycol supports integration with Shopify. This can automatically sync your customers’ orders to us. Want to know how to integrate Shopify with Yoycol, please see here. 

 Woocommerce

  Basic description:

  WooCommerce is a customizable and open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress.

  Suitable for: Developers and small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress.

  Price: 30-day free trial, starting from 6.95$

  Payment options: Major credit cards, bank transfers (BACS), checks, and cash on delivery. 140 region-specific gateways to choose from and integrate with, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay. Subscriptions and deposits are also supported.

  Level of Support： No e-mail support or live chat. If you have questions, you can check FAQ or choose a topic and leave your questions, there would be someone answering you.

  Other features:

• Unlimited product listings 
• Powerful marketing automation
• Automated tax calculator
• Booking service: allow customers to book appointments, make reservations or rent equipment without leaving your site
• 30-day money-back guarantee

 Wix

Basic description:

  Wix is a leading cloud-based development platform with millions of users worldwide. 

Suitable for: small business, friendly to beginners

Price: starting from 23$ (website plans 4.5$, business& eCommerce plans 17$)

Payment options: credit and debit cards, PayPal, and Wix Payments

Level of Support： No live chat. If you have questions, you can check the help center or contact an agent. 

Other features:

• 500+ customizable website templates
• SEO tools - improve your visibility on search engines with a full range of SEO features.
• Custom domains - get a professional domain name that matches your business and brand.
• Logo maker - design your own professional logo and build your brand online
• Professional blog, create a blog with built-in features to grow your reach and build a community.
• 14-day money-back guarantee

 Squarespace

Basic description:

  Squarespace is the all-in-one solution for anyone looking for creating a beautiful website. 

Suitable for: artists, beginner

Price: 14-day trial, starting from $18/month

Payment options: major credit card payments

Level of Support： resources and 24/7 support

Other features:

• Online store management and reports
• Advanced SEO tools, optimize your site for search and for visitors
• Endless design options
• Logo maker - design your own professional logo and build your brand online
• Marketing tools, drive traffic to your website and measure your success with a powerful marketing and analytical tools

BigCommerce

Basic description:

  BigCommerce is a leading eCommerce builder, providing great scalability for online stores. It has more built-in sales tools than any of its competitors and combines these features with advanced SEO and fantastic multi-channel integration.

Suitable for: Big and medium businesses

Price: 15 days free trial, one month free when subscribing following plans 

  When it comes to BigCommerce pricing, one more thing that needs to be considered is that each plan has a threshold limit.

Payment options: Paypal, third-party payment processors(65 payment gateways integration), and square POS (for brick and mortar businesses)

Level of Support： resources and 24/7 support(via phone, email, or chat)

Other features:

• Simplified eCommerce management
• Selling channel integration like Aamzon, eBay, and Facebook
• Boost SEO strategies with customizable URLs and robots. 
• Sell in multiple currencies

Conclusion

  At the end of the day, there is no single overall ‘best’ eCommerce platform. Every business has its own combination of needs, budget, and manpower that dictates which online retail application works best for them. 

  Examine your needs and run a few trials to find the fittest solution. Choose it to open your store, go dropshipping and make money with Yoycol together. 

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Six Tips for 2021 Marketing Inspiration

Five Ways to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Store

How to Make Your Online Shops More Competitive?

How to Open an Online Store without Inventory?