How to Choose an Ecommerce Platform to Sell Online

Thinking of selling your products and services online but aren’t sure how?

Choosing the right eCommerce platform to sell online is difficult because there are dozens of options to choose from. Each promises to deliver, but nearly 70% of all shopping carts get abandoned.

Knowing what makes a great online storefront is essential before you decide on a platform. That’s why we’ve created this simple guide to help you choose the best eCommerce tools.

From customizable product pages to SEO mobile-friendly content, we breakdown what you need to be successful.

Read on to discover if the best free eCommerce platforms really stack up against their paid competitors. And which will increase your bottom line.

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1. Fully Featured Shopping Cart

At the heart of any eCommerce, the application is the shopping cart. It acts as a decision point when a visitor decides to become a paying customer.

You may think that all carts offer similar functionality. That is 2020; everyone copied the tried-and-tested Amazon model to streamline the cart process.

Unfortunately, you would be wrong.

When selecting an eCommerce platform to sell online, take time to analyze the cart functionality. And to help, we’ve listed three must-have features to look out for.

Customize Add to Cart

Your product pages contain Add To Cart buttons that take the current item and selected options and place them in the cart. But what happens next?

Traditionally, the customer would be taken to the cart review page to edit their order before checkout.

This process gives the impression that they’ve completed shopping and should leave after paying. And that’s something you want to discourage.

A customized cart button adds the item to the shopping basket but keeps the customer on the current page. Usually, a small pop-up appears telling them that their item is saved and they can check-out when they wish.

This encourages further browsing and acts as a powerful selling tool.

Save Cart Items

Cart abandonment can happen for various reasons, like customers getting cold-feet or not having the right delivery information on hand.

Whatever the issue, you want them to save their purchases to come back at another time.

Instead of having to refill their basket, everything’s sitting ready. And that should include up-to-date prices.

Fourteen percent of customers decide not to check-out because they’re forced to create an account.

By adding a guest checkout option, you open an easy path for infrequent customers to buy from you.

If they see that the process is friendly and unobtrusive, they’ll come back and sign-up. Then they’ll share their experiences online with their friends, which in turn restarts the process.

Payment Gateways

Some of the best free eCommerce platforms offer dozens of payment gateways. Just make sure the one you choose includes a gateway that you can use and afford.

The Magento eCommerce platform works with Worldpay, Sagepay, 2Checkout, and Stripe. Paypal is a popular choice for many small businesses as it’s easy to set-up and integrates with most shopping carts.

To stand above the rest, look for those that accept cryptocurrencies. 3dcart, for example, accepts Bitcoins as well as Visa and Mastercards, and eChecks.

2. Unlimited Product Pages

The best eCommerce apps give you full access to your product catalog.

You can add as many products as you want and edit their options. There should be no restrictions, and you can change the details as required over time.

Here are some of the essential features the software needs to allow:

Unlimited categories and subcategories
Keyword-rich description options
Customizable tabs
Dynamic images and video

Product option variants like size and color need to be flexible too. Each needs its own unique reference and should tie with your stock count.

Free eCommerce plugins like WooCommerce grant you full control over stock with its Global Inventory system. You can even choose how long to hold your inventory for unpaid orders.

3. SEO to the Core

An online storefront can offer the best shopping experience in the world, but what’s the point if no one visits?

Google leads the way in search, having 92% of the search engine market. And if your website doesn’t rank well in its listings, you probably won’t succeed.

The eCommerce platforms that offer SEO tools as standard will always lead the pack. Those search engine optimized features include:

Customizable title and meta tags
SEO-friendly URLs
Breadcrumb links
Schema.org markup and dynamic Google sitemaps
Canonical tags and page redirects

Google Search Console and Google Analytics should fit into the structure too.

They provide clear insight into how well your site performs on Google’s systems. And they analyze your sales funnels and measure conversions.

59% of shoppers say that being able to shop using their mobile is important when deciding who to buy from.

A responsive website works on any size of a screen. If your eCommerce store looks great on a laptop as well as an iPhone, then it’s a win-win for everyone.

The right platform also ensures pages load quickly and code is optimized to increase speed. Fast-loading sites get preferential treatment by search engines, so this feature is a must.

And if you want to edit your site’s appearance, make sure to pick a solution with in-built themes.

5. Data Integration

Product addition is a lot easier when you can take your existing catalog and upload it onto the web.

This bulk upload procedure varies on each platform, as are the options it provides. The most common format is CSV, which is similar to an Excel spreadsheet. Type in the title, description, prices, etc., and your full list can go live within minutes.

Data flows the other way too.

You should be able to export sales figures, orders, customer data, and analytics. Be sure that you’re covered legally to store this information, especially if you handle data within the EU through GDPR.