Choose the perfect ecommerce platform for your business

Here are the most popular ecommerce platforms measured by ease of use, value for money, customisation tools, support and payment processing capabilities.

Every one of these platforms is excellent at what they do, but they all have such different approaches to cost, features and ecommerce capabilities so whether they will suit your business depends on your needs and resources.‍

Wix: Best for intuitive site design and value for money

Wix is a great place to start thanks to usability and low cost.

1. The platform also comes with some nice customer relationship management tools that allow you to get more attuned to what your customers need.
2. You can easily download third-party applications to boost your marketing and sales capabilities
3. Plenty of support and online guides to help you get started
4. Multiple payment methods such as Visa and Mastercard, Mobicred, Masterpass, EFT secure and Apple Pay,  through the Peach Payments payment gateway

However, Wix falls short when your business becomes more complex. Multiple product pages are difficult to maintain, and recurring payments and subscription billing isn’t available.

• Some examples of great Wix sites:
• https://www.baopod.co.za/

https://www.lwiconsulting.co.za/

https://www.melissaamitchell.com/

Shopify: Best for support and big budgets

Shopify is a well-designed and easy to use platform that includes plenty of features for the expert and beginner alike.

1. Shopify is easy to navigate and to use
2. They offers superb customer support
3. Payment processing capabilities – Shopify has its own point of sale application as well as excellent security, abandoned cart recovery, and multi-currency support
4. Excellent capacity to scale: your site can grow as your require more product pages, add-ons and APIs

However, Shopify is not cheap and is not recommended for those still finding their place in the ecommerce market. It can get expensive if you start to add on features like its Software-as-a-Service, designer themes, and vast choices of customisation tools.

Some examples of great Shopify sites:

https://flourist.com/

ttps://unitedbyblue.com/

https://blkandbold.com/

WooCommerce: Best for customisation and third-party enhancements

• WooCommerce is probably one of the most well-known and used ecommerce platforms on the market. This is for good reason. The platform is incredibly customisable with every option any business could want readily available.

1. Multiple language tools
2. In-depth analytics and SEO development
3. Many companies have developed third-party apps for the platforms that are designed to take an online business in highly specialised directions
4. Value for money – WooCommerce is free
5. Peach Payments provides it’s full range of features: subscription payments, multicurrency, and card tokenisation that store’s customer’s card details

However, It takes patience, technical familiarity and a willingness to troubleshoot to make this work. WooCommerce is free to use but it does need a WordPress site to connect to – it doesn’t help you build a website like Shopify or Wix – and the costs of hosting can become heavy as you add content and flesh out your business. You will also need to take care of hosting and security yourself.

Some examples of great WooCommerce sites:

https://porterandyork.com/

https://barefootbuttons.com/

Home

What’s best for you?

These three platforms cover every stage of an ecommerce business’s milestones. It’s up to you to decide where your business is in it’s development, and how quickly you expect to grow. Remember, prepare for your business to scale, and don’t put in energy in a platform that won’t serve your needs down the line.