Know The Top E-commerce Platforms & Tips To Avoid The Risks From Re-Platforming

Do you know one of the studies suggest that 51% of Americans like to shop at online stores? With more number of people inclined towards choosing online store over physical stores, the economy of eCommerce sector is seen to be increasing at a tremendous speed. This has led to the availability of a number of eCommerce platforms to develop the online stores. Again, the platforms are different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution available out there and based on what functionality you expect out of your online store you will find pros and cons for the platforms. So it is more about finding a solution that goes well with your requirements.

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To help you choose the platform that best fits your eCommerce business needs, here we are with a list of the same in detail.

Magento – the Perfect eCommerce Solution

Magento is the eCommerce platform which was launched in 2008 and is based on PHP. Today more than two lac businesses are built on it and its gross merchandise is worth $100 billion every year. Magento enjoys active community which consists of 150,000 developers as well as tech experts who constantly work towards improving the platform. Being the open source nature, it becomes possible to easily make use of the extensions that are developed by these developers and added to the community.

Magento comes in two editions: Magento Community Edition and Magento Enterprise Edition. For your eCommerce website design you can make use of right assistance from the community as well as use the paid extensions available. The former one is free and is available for small and medium sized businesses while the later one is available of huge enterprises at $18,000.

Pros

• Open source and flexible
• Availability of large number of extensions
• Feature-rich
• Free community version

Cons

• Takes time for customization
• To set up and maintain can be an expensive affair
• You need to purchase hosting
• Enterprise version is expensive

WooCommerce

WooCommerce which was introduced by WooThemes in 2011 became an easy solution for the development of WordPress websites. This open source project works for WordPress and so if you are not using WordPress you cannot use the plugin too. WooCommerce is said to power 380,000 online stores today.

You can start using WooCommerce for free but you will have to pay if you need to use the extensions. You can subscribe for them on monthly or yearly basis.

Pros

• It’s free
• Open source and flexible
• Easy setup
• Availability of large number of extensions
• Right for content marketing
• Works well with WordPress
• Easy to customize

Cons

• Customization not easy for new users
• Can be expensive
• Does not come with hosting facility

 Shopify

Shopify was introduced a decade ago by a computer programmer for building his own online store. Over the years the platform has grown and today there are more than 500000 online stores powered by this eCommerce platform. Since 2013 the revenue of the company has doubled every year and this one thing is enough to say how popular Shopify has become.

The basic package of the platform will cost $29 while the advanced one will cost around $299. 

Pros

• 24*7 support
• Feature-rich and extendable
• 100+ store templates
• It’s hosted

Cons

• Every sale comes with a transaction fee
• Some apps come with monthly costs
• You need expert to work on Shopify

Prestashop – An Advance and Feature Rich eCommerce Solution

PrestaShop is an open source eCommerce platform which is available for free. It was just a student project which turned out to become an effective eCommerce platform powering 250,000 online stores today. There are two free options of PrestaShop available for eCommerce store development. One is self-hosted while the other one is fully-hosted in the cloud.

You can use PrestaShop for free to build an eCommerce store but you will have to pay for the extensions.

Pros

• It’s free
• Community and support active
• Available in 60 languages
• Easy to install and configure
• Hundreds of add-ons

Cons

• It is not much scalable
• Expert support service is paid
• Add-ons come at a price
• Some features are not up to the mark

 VirtueMart

VirtueMart is an open source eCommerce platform which works together with Joomla. By the use of add-ons, you will be able to add in more features to this basic version.

Just like PrestaShop, VirtueMart is free to download and here again, you need to pay extra for the extensions.

Pros

• It’s free
• Amazing extensions
• Fast
• Easy to install and configure

Cons

• Requires Joomla
• No official support
• Lacks proper functionality
• Customization can be done with the knowledge of Joomla

OpenCart

OpenCart was initially an eCommerce tool based on Perl developed in 1998 later when the domain expired Daniel Kerr took charge of the project. He used the project for his PHP based eCommerce software and is now run by a small team of developers. Today 342,000 online stores are powered by OpenCart.

You can use OpenCart for free but will have to pay extra for the extensions.

Pros

• It’s free
• Comes with large number of extensions
• Comes with simpler user interface
• Fast and lightweight

Cons

• Customization is difficult
• Not completely SEO-friendly

Tips To Avoid The Risks From Re-Platforming

Re-platforming of eCommerce software is the process of replacing the existing software with a new one with the intention of making an upgrade. For any online business this is a very critical step.

Many businesses are not comfortable with this step for a number of reasons. Some of them like – the team is already well acquainted with the legacy system, there may be added costs for the change and the disturbance of hidden dependencies which worked for them over the years. If you want to grow your business, you need to be ready to embrace the change.

Like any other changes or updates you make towards your business, changing the platform of your eCommerce store comes with set of opportunities and risks too. Opportunities are good and accepted but risks are always dreaded. So here are some risks mentioned which you need to take care of during re-platforming.
 

Delays and Budget Overruns

For a business time is money. When there is delay in completing the re-platforming of the eCommerce store, the business owner has to suffer loss. Delays in the process can be caused due to many reasons. Some of the ways in which delays and budget overruns can be managed are:

• Come up with a complete schedule and allot time for unexpected tasks. Every team which handles the project in the best manner can also run into unexpected tasks. This means you need to be ready for the surprises and set proper expectations. You need to even have a small budget set aside to handle such unexpected things and ensure that the first version has the essentials.
  
• You need to keep on measuring the actual project progress with the earlier set ones. This will let you know whether you are working with the timeline or not. If there is any delay at any stage, discuss about it and try to find a solution.
• Whenever there is a change to be made, make sure the schedule is updated accordingly. Every stakeholder should be informed about the change and the updated schedule.
• In case of any new implementation or any unplanned last minute requirement, you can make use of the additional budget.

Incomplete Product Features

Businesses have unique requirement for their online store and this idea stays strong for the storefronts. Sometimes the storefront may look regular and simple and there may be requirement to add in or integrate some other software like Order Management Software, Enterprise Resource Planning, shipping software, and others. In case the project is not completed as per the deadline you can come up with the final product just with the necessary features. In order to launch the product with crucial features you need to –

• Come up with features and prioritize them at the requirement gathering stage and give them a serial number.
• You may find it difficult to prioritize the important features. So keep your calm and avoid any kind of confusion when listing it.
• If any priority feature is discovered during the implementation stage then you need to assign a priority number to it and rearrange your list of requirements.
• If you are having a fixed budget for re-platforming then you can have the low priority features set during the next release phase.

Indecision

During the re-platforming phase a good number of decisions have to be made. As the size of the re-platforming increases, more number of decisions has to be made. It is very important to take quick decisions and this decisive nature contributes towards project success. You need to take care of a few things to avoid indecisions:

• You need to make sure the stakeholders are easily accessible and offer them brief of decisions.
• You should also explain the need of ‘quick’ decisions and explain the responses that would come up when they are not taken within the defined time frame.
• To avoid unnecessary discussions and debate during the implementation stage, select a single stakeholder to be held responsible for all the decisions.
• To ensure transparency during the re-platforming, keep that single stakeholder throughout the loop and offer status regarding the decisions taken.

Always keep in mind every decision you take can be debated and discussed. Deciding to go on with a discussion at a later stage will cost the business more time as an ‘expense’ which will not justify the gains that come up when taken the right decision. In case of eCommerce business, decision making process will definitely depend on data.

Focusing on Perfection

Re-platforming all about improving the performance of the online store, add in more features and make it more effective. The new look of the online store will take the business to a new level. It will have better user experience, cloud enablement and yes, mobile responsiveness too. Trying too much on making the first version perfect can lead to unnecessary debates and even situations will arise when you will have to rethink whether to keep the features or not. These things may not be in the best interest of the store. Try to improve your eCommerce business from the knowledge of your data. Don’t try hard to reach perfection as it can ruin things and making you spend more time and resources.

• Come up with the list of enhancements and revisions that needs to be made during the future release.
• Have an understanding on how new requests will be handled
• The new requests should be heard as a team – agree on that.

Knowledge Gaps

Technology and legacy software makes it a point that organization lack behind having idea of new and efficient tools which can help them grow their business even though they have better idea of legacy systems. The issues with lack of knowledge can be tackled during re-platforming by:

• Let the merchant staff get familiar with the new eCommerce platform by setting up a sandbox environment.
• For all the staff that will be working on the eCommerce platform should have a training scheduled to have better understanding of the software.
• Take time to review legacy processes and then based on the new eCommerce platform update it.

Whether it is about an individual buyer or a business buyer, consumers have high expectations from the brand. With the barrier for getting into the technology of eCommerce is going low the competition in the space is moving high.

When done right the investments made on the eCommerce technology will have returns many times over.

Conclusion

Businesses needs to have better idea about different eCommerce platforms so as to know which one of them can prove to be useful for building their eCommerce store. Choosing right eCommerce website development company can take away the troubles you may face otherwise when dealing with amateur ones. eCommerce development comes with its set of risks too and so avoiding them is very essential to build effective and revenue generating online store.