How To Select The Right Ecommerce Platform

Choosing the right platform might be the most important decision your eCommerce business ever makes. Whether you’re launching a startup or switching over to a new platform, your platform will come to define everything about your business, from how it operates behind the scenes to a visitor’s perception of it.

The platform you choose becomes as much a part of your business as the products you sell. So, if selecting the right one is so important, what steps do you need to take to make sure you’re making the right decision?

Take inspiration from your favorite stores

Stealing isn’t clever, but taking influences from competitors and market leaders is a great way to develop a foothold as a new business. Imitating elements of these businesses is a great way of giving your fledgling business a head start. Their design choices, marketing strategy, and product presentation can all have a bearing on the way you choose to build your website, and the same can be said for their platform. It’s not stealing, it’s an essential part of your research.

Market leaders will have chosen their eCommerce platform for a reason. If you’re stumped as to where to start when researching which CMS to use, take a look at what the businesses you aspire to be like are doing. The simplest way to see which CMS your competitors and influences are using is to run their URL through a CMS checker. This will show you the name of the platform. If that fails, you can always send an email inquiring about which one they used, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be open to sharing.

Don’t think just because something’s been done that you can’t do it as well – or even better. Seeing the same CMS over and over being used by competitors can be a sign of which one to eventually go for.

Consider convenience

Choosing the right platform is so much more than a cosmetic decision. You need to think ahead and take into account any future frustrations this platform may cause for your team.

How the platform you choose handles your day to day operations should be at the top of your list of considerations. If the CMS can’t get the basics right, it’s going to be hard for you to operate and grow your business. It needs to be able to handle the everyday basics of an eCommerce store. How does this platform handle taking orders, uploading new products and changing content in comparison to the next? What about the elements that are unique to your industry, such as a clothes retailer being able to offer alternative colors without having to build an individual product page for each option.

Before making your choice, try and work out what a typical day would require of your platform and what extremities you would need to push it to during peak periods. From there you can work backward to find the most appropriate platform.

Does it match your brand identity?

A key part of brand identity is website design. In many ways, your website is the center of your brand. Your website doesn’t just need to have the right brand colors, it needs to replicate the style, audience, and ethos associated with the brand.

Something that feels contrived, forced or at odds with the ethos of your business will turn away or fail to attract the right customers. If you want to run a home-based business (for example, selling handmade crafts or print on demand t-shirts), customers won’t expect to see the polish associated with a big tech brand. In contrast, a larger business can look small time with a CMS that doesn’t allow for grander design elements such as a background video. Presentation matters, it’s part of what makes a shopper comfortable and helps them understand the brand.

The right CMS shouldn’t limit you to one kind of design, but should also offer the right level of customization and be able to tell your audience everything they need to know about you.

What support is offered?

Just because technology has such an influence in our daily lives, doesn’t mean we’re all proficient with it. Especially not the inner workings of a CMS. A product manager is not a technician, and will occasionally need help dealing with issues on their website.

How your ecommerce platform is supported after purchase should be one of your first considerations. Leading CMS now regularly include a support system as standard, operating either as a guide you can refer to or a technical advisor you can get in contact with. This is another decision you have to make with the consideration of your team in mind. If they’re technically minded, you may be able to survive with limited support. However, the majority of ecommerce teams are going to need some hands-on support available on the other end of a call or email. You can’t afford to let your website go down in the middle of an important campaign with no one around to fix it.

As well as technical support you need to consider the scope for community support. The CMS may be limited, but if there is an active community developing plugins and offering advice it may be manageable.

Are you ready to deal with bugs and system failures by yourself? If you’re like most website managers you’re not and need to go for an ecommerce platform with comprehensive support systems.

Take advantage of free trials

You might feel a little bit dirty while you’re doing it, but free trials are there to be exploited. Not exploring the options available to you can narrow the potential of your website and force you into a decision.

30 day free trials are common for ecommerce platforms, giving you the opportunity to sample how their system works and if it lines up with your business model and brand. Is this enough time to test every element? Of course not. However, it allows you to understand the basics of the platform and visualize how your store would work within it. The early days of your ecommerce business are the best time to experiment with it before you establish an identity and customer base. This is not the time for rash decisions.

Product managers have to put a lot of consideration into the ecommerce platform they choose. Their personal preferences, the convenience of their team and the presentation of their brand are just a couple of the early decisions they need to make quickly. Make these considerations whether you’re starting a new store or switching over an existing one.