It is now a requisite for any business to have an online presence with an ecommerce store front to offer their services and products to the customers all across the globe. There are feature rich e-commerce platform available in both open source and commercial e-commerce website solutions available in the market with simple basic features to fully functional robust feature-rich platforms. To find the right platform with all the feature and functions available for your business is a decision that must be taken with due appraisal of all the products available in the market.
Here Is a List to Help You Select an Ecommerce Platform  :
- Define your Goals:  Define your short and long term goals and make a list of features and requirements. Match your list with the features offered on all the products that are available in the market. To ensure you have covered everything required for an ecommerce website platform, discuss and meet with an ecommerce technology consultant to discuss your options before making such a big decision. This could save you significant time and money in the long run.
- Web Hosting Infrastructure: Outline the hosting infrastructure and integration requirements of your ecommerce site. Ensure that your hosting service provider can provide you with all the needed support for your ecommerce site.
- Customer Requirements & Key Features: Understand your customers and see if your ecommerce platform is able to cater to their expectations and supports key features desired by your customers. Is the interface easy to navigate, can they find all the offers you have on your website. Do you need to set up customized sections such as a rewards program or a coupon management section for sale and discount offers? Your ecommerce website must be set up with the customer in focus and  provides a great shopping experience.
- Scalable & Flexible Software: As your business grows and your needs change, your website platform should be able to grow with you. Scalability, usability and flexibility of your ecommerce platform would ensure that your platform remains cutting edge and grows as required over time. It must adapt to new technologies like mobile commerce, localization, responsive design and can be personalized for each user.
- Search Engine (SEO) Friendly: An Ecommerce website’s primary goal is to get customers to your website and to do that your site must be search friendly. Does your ecommerce software platform allow you control over the meta information on your pages, does it allow you to retain the search engine rankings from your previous platform.
- Management and Training Support: A major issue with ecommerce start-ups is that once initial support for launching is done, the management of the ecommerce store at the back end is handed over to owners and the complex operations leave the staff and operators helpless, ask about the after sales support and the training programs that your developer is offering. Support and training are two important aspects that you must have clear understanding on.
- Ecommerce Website Development Partner & Consultant : Choose a right service provider for your ecommerce setup, ask about their credentials, prior work experience on projects like yours. What other services they provide and any value added service they can offer to your project. It is important that they understand marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) besides website development & UI/UX design of your ecommerce platform.
Some popular ecommerce platforms include Magento, Oscommerce, Bigcommerce, Shopify, Volusion, Joomla, Drupal and WordPress Woo-commerce to name a few. In the end, it’s more than choosing the right eCommerce platform you must choose a right development partner for your business. You need a company that is experienced, proven and can help you grow your business beyond the launch of your website.
