There are many E-Commerce platforms available in the market that can be used for your Business. In order to determine which E-Commerce software is best for your online business, it is essential to understand different characteristics and functionality of these E-Commerce platforms.
Therefore, you can pick the best suited E-Commerce solution for your website according to your business requirements like shopping cart, Ordering capabilities, User accounts, search, navigation, reporting etc.
Most popular E-Commerce platforms and their characteristics are as below:
Magento
Magento is the high performance, scalable e-commerce solution. It has class features and the flexibility required to create E-commerce solution.
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Pros
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Cons
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- Manage multiple store, multi-language & multi-currency support and is mobile and search engine friendly.
- The store is well organized and the administration area is user friendly.
- It provides template Architecture.Which enables to customize the site as required.
- Advanced SEO features that can be exploited to make all the difference, bringing organic traffic, reducing the costs of digital marketing.
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- It is an extremely large system thus requires expert developer to deal with.
- Magento requires dedicated servers to host otherwise it will run slow thus frustrating the user.
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- Magento provides 2 platforms
Magento Community: It is Free Edition. Its functionality can be extended by installing extensions.
Magento Enterprise: it is design for large businesses and charges annual maintenance fees.
Shopify
Shopify is an amazing platform for building an online retail business.
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Pros
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Cons
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- Provides complete integrated eCommerce platform.
- You only need to sign up and everything is handled in one place.
- Provides huge array of additional functionality.
- Provides iPad integration and payment processing which makes it complementary to a retail store.
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- Themes are not well-designed, thus proper coding knowledge is required for tweaking their appearance.
- Running cost is higher as compared to other ecommerce platforms.
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Virtuemart
Virtuemart is an open source E-commerce solution designed as an extension of the Joomla.
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Pros
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Cons
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- Virtuemart requires less technical knowledge.
- It allows you nevertheless to quickly put your shop online and maintain it easily.
- There are many extensions readily available so you don't have to program this yourself.
- It offers a catalog mode where the shopping cart features are turnoff.
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- Virtuemart has slow development process and lacks default advanced functionalities.
- Limited control over the platform.
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WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform that takes the form of a plug-in that runs on top of the WordPress Content Management System (CMS).
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Pros
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Cons
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- Woocommerce runs on WordPress and it’s completely free.
- The store’s look is clean and modern; it works in mobile device as well.
- It provides free plugging.
- Store configuration and product uploading is simple.
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- Technical knowledge is required, although the key skills are easy to learn.
- WordPress sites do require some regular maintenance in order to keep them secure.
- Updates are fairly frequent.
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The pros and cons of all the e commerce software are mentioned here. Choose the one that best suits your requirements. If you find this article helpful or if you wish to add something kindly let us know in the comment section.
What is e-Commerce?
Today, globalization has almost eliminated the concept of a physical market and has made everything online. You can purchase and sell anything online, no matter where you are. This is called Online Business, which is possible through commercial websites also known as e-commerce websites.
- E-commerce is the sale of products and services over the internet, and is the fastest growing segment of our economy. It allows even the smallest business to reach the global audience with its product or message at a minimal cost.
- E-commerce is the purchasing, selling & exchanging of goods and services over the computer network or internet where in transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically.
- It will expand the organization’s market to national and even international markets with minimum capital investment.
- The brand image of the Business can be improved worldwide with the use of e-commerce.
- It helps to automate the business processes and make them faster and efficient.
Why e-commerce over Traditional shop?
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Items
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e-Commerce
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Traditional Commerce
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Sales Channel
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- Enterprise → Internet → Consumer
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- Manufacturer → Wholesaler → Retailer → Consumer
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Sales Hour /Region
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- Restricted area
- Restricted sales hour
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Sales place/method
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- Market space (Network)
- Sale based on information
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- Market space (store)
- Sale based on display
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Customer information acquisition
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- Any time acquisition through internet
- Digital Data without no re-entry
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- Market survey and salesman
- Require information re-entry
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Marketing activity
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- 1:1 Marketing via bi-directional communication
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- One way marketing to consumer
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Customer support
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- Real time support for customer Dissatisfaction
- Real time acquisition of customer needs
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- Delayed support for customer Dissatisfaction
- Time different for catching customer needs
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Capital
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E-commerce is way more advantageous than the traditional market. With the advent of technology, you can buy and sell goods online with just one click. If you have a smartphone phone, all you need is a suitable application. The rate at which people are shifting to e-commerce is increasing exponentially and if it continues at this pace, in no time every little shop will go online.
If you find this article helpful and if you wish to share some information with us kindly let us know in the comment section. Your feedback is valuable to us. :)