We think of the eCommerce platform when the idea of building an online business comes to mind. Therefore, let us explain what the eCommerce platform is. The eCommerce web platform is an application that gives one the structure to have an online presence for their business. It determines that instead of you hiring a coder or writing codes for a shopping cart, product pages, buy buttons, and different additional elaborate web designs, the web program does it all with no significant technical skills from you.
For instance, building an online shopping store is secured with all the tools you need to make the eCommerce platform in the app. Creating the store is easily customized with preformatted designs, making your work simple.
There are themes to pick your choice. Also, built-in are different shopping cart styles to choose from for the feel of your store. The products’ buy buttons are of various types. Adding your selected products and any other information is straightforward. Building your online store is quick and easy, with no technical skills, because it has simple tools.
One of the most promoted eCommerce platforms is Shopify. You can question whether that platform lives up to the brand as the number one eCommerce hosting platform or whether one will find a more trustworthy solution in the same field. In short, let us review some of the top eCommerce platforms promoted today and discuss their disadvantages and advantages and how they stand up against their name.
eCommerce Comparison: Shopify Versus Others
Several eCommerce platforms are offering the same business to make a selection of your choosing. Shopify is considered one of the top and most widely used popular e-commerce platforms, but would that indicate it’s the most suitable? Together we look at four of the best eCommerce web hosting platforms and examine how Shopify will stack up against the others, offering the same platform. If in your reads, Shopify is considered the most suited, you should distinguish why and match Shopify’s platform somewhat against these other platforms to reach an unbiased decision. Therefore, let’s analyze each of them and come to a consensus. (Done)
Best eCommerce Platforms
Shopify is undoubtedly the most prominent name in eCommerce hosting platforms. To justify the Shopify name brand, we’ll select three other big eCommerce hosting platforms in the top five positions with Shopify. Bigcommerce, Magento, and Volusion, we’ll consider each one against Shopify based on the resulting factors: Design, customization, features, Pricing, security, reports, marketing, and add-ons, and we want to emphasize support.
We showed you the components of each framework on the eCommerce platforms we discuss in today’s eCommerce platforms market. Now that we looked at eight factors essential in selecting a platform, it’s time to decide how any of the other face-offs with Shopify. The final decision is yours to pick or make the final choice with the Shopify platform.
Design vs. Customization
Having a nice feel for your website is essential. Therefore design and customization are vital. The many design customizations to select from are based on the theme type. You can find free website themes, and there are also premium themes that have additional functionalities. While BigCommerce is not charging to select any of the 100 website themes, they are low in quality.
Magento also has free website themes, but most of the good ones are premium and can cost as much as $150. I pick Shopify and Volusion as the best of the four, and Shopify themes are more top quality. On Volusion, you will find about a dozen free themes and almost a hundred premium, and the quality is similar to Shopify.
Frontend Features
The four platforms are nearly equal in their frontend features. There are more features than any other platform to make up for; however, because the frontend layout is mobile responsive, you don’t have any worries. The only negative in this area lies with the BigCommerce platform, which isn’t very tidy.
The Back-end Features Advantage
When we look at the back-end features of the eCommerce platforms we are reviewing, BigCommerce is a big winner with its elaborate back-end features. The many customizations of BigCommerce allow you to make your store look and feel the way you want, and the interface is amicable and clean.
Magento and Volusion both have back-ends that have a very steep learning curve. Although Magento offers a much higher range of features, it is almost impossible for newbie users to make the back end and do what they want without learning much of the tutorial information. For Shopify, there is also a clean interface, relatively robust, although not quite as lovely as the interface of BigCommerce.
Is pricing a factor? Yes.
First, let’s examine pricing. Magento is free except if you want to upgrade to the Enterprise Edition, which is pretty costly. For BigCommerce, it’s the most expensive of the platforms we looked at, with four tiers of features, each one just about double what Shopify costs per month. Volusion and Shopify are very comparable when it comes to pricing.
Security in the Internet World
Shopify is the clear champion because of its class hosting and the fact that you have Content Delivery Network (CDN) and PCI compliant. BigCommerce is much more secure as well but doesn’t feature a CDN. Volusion provides hosting and has CDN and PCI compliance, but there is a cost for encryption, which Shopify offers for free. Magento requires outside hosting, which costs you extra per month, but the basic edition of Magento is free.
SEO/Marketing
If your website is to appear high in search engines, good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practice is necessary. Therefore, marketing will encompass several aspects, which include social media, SEO, and more. BigCommerce will take first place with SEO customization that is well laid out and robust. There are only basic SEO features for Shopify, and Volusion is even worse. However, Magento has everything built-in for SEO and laid out.
Social media play a significant part in your online business’s success when it comes to getting tons of free or paid traffic to your website. Hosting your site on a platform that provides social media options is excellent for your online business.
As for the eCommerce platforms that are our focus, Magento does not off social media integration, but Volusion, BigCommerce, and Shopify have social media options integrated into their system. Another feature that is necessary to have is the newsletter feature. Both Magento and Volusion have that feature built-in to their program. While Shopify doesn’t have a built-in newsletter, integrating the newsletter feature is easy using a third-party application.
The platforms offer the same essential promotion features, like coupon codes and discounts. They also have support for selling items through other channels. They also allow you to make use of their onsite marketing tools to get you started with getting traffic to your new e-commerce website.
Program Add-ons
What are add-ons? According to ComputerHope.com, add-ons are any third-party software program, script, or extension that will give additional features and abilities to the original platform. The website uses Adobe Flash as a reference for explaining add-ons. Adobe Flash lets surfers watch videos or play games within an Internet browser. This is an excellent example of what a software add-on represents.
Computer freaks, program developers, or organizations create a program referred to as an add-on not associated with the original developer program. You install the add-on or add-on on the platform using an available option or a third-party website.
The e-commerce platforms we discuss here have add-ons that can widen the platform’s usability and supply you with additional features not available in the original platform. Each platform has an app section making it possible to experiment first and then select how you want to extend your e-commerce store capabilities.
One thing to keep in mind, the apps are continually changing, and each one of the platforms is always moving beside the others, so you can’t pick a clear winner based on this. Instead, you must determine which one you will use and keep track of those add-ons as they become available.
Reports
Building reports for your business goes a long way in helping your business grow, and the platforms we are reviewing provide the same options. The stories and statistics features on these platforms are all alike and give you all the much-needed information—bounce rates, conversion rates, and a summary of the products you are going sell. Therefore, we can admit that there is no clear winner in this area as it relates to features.
ECommerce Platform Support
When we think of support, it’s that professional and technical assistance from your hosting platform provider. A provider with the best support gets by vote, and hats off to Shopify. Any of the packages on the Shopify platform that you select – including the Basic package for $9 a month, you will also get the 24/7 service. For BigCommerce, the company has a special education unit. Reaching the support department is 24/7 on weekdays, and there are limited hours on weekends.
Volusion has a live chat feature, phone service, and also support by email, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Magento severely lacks in the area of support. You must upgrade to the expensive Enterprise account to benefit from Magento’s assistance. However, you can always search in forums to get advice and guidance with the Magento platform.