Which Ecommerce Development Platform Should you Choose for your Online Store?

The internet has changed the way the world purchased products and services. Setting up an online store allows you to take your products to any desired market. But it is important to create a high quality store that offers excellent user experience, security, and an engaging environment. When choosing an Ecommerce Web Design Company, it is recommended to check that they are using the latest and most advanced platforms. Here are three of the most trusted and popular ecommerce development platforms you should know about.

1. Magento Ecommerce Development

Magento is a trusted open-source ecommerce platform that offers limitless integration and customizations. You can develop an online store that addresses all online shopping preferences, cart customizations, and security. Some of the main benefits of using this platform for Ecommerce Website Development are as following:

• Web Design Customization: Magento offers endless CSS customization options for web design.
• Faster Loading Stores: Some of the fastest online stores are developed on this platform. Faster loading web pages means better user experience and better search engine rankings.
• Custom Integrations: Magento allows third-party integrations and offers more space for custom integrations – from payment gateways to crucial web applications.
• Mobile & SEO Friendly: The platform is regularly updated with the latest web design standards and SEO ranking factors. It also offers excellent URL structure, analytics, and meta-implementation options.
• Hosting Options: With Magento, you have the options to choose any hosting service.
• Highly Secure Product Management & Order Preferences: The online store development platform offers high level of security with product management options. Custom reporting options allow you to view periodic transaction history, export reports, update product descriptions, add/remove items and images, and much more.

Magento can also support multiple websites on a single back-end admin, making it an even more popular ecommerce development platform.

2. Woocommerce Development

Woocommerce is an ecommerce development plugin developed by WordPress and offers its familiar environment and advantages. There are many reasons why it is a preferred online store developing platform among Ecommerce Website Developers.

• Free & Open Source: Woocommerce offers the ideal ecommerce development platform for small to medium businesses because it is affordable.
• Customizations: Despite being a free plugin, Woocommerce offers high level of customization using a wide range of themes. You can also download apps to achieve further level of customization.
• Flexibility: The plugin allows flexibility so that content can be changed easily. Templates can be modified for including new extensions. This means it is easy to grow your online store as your business and needs grow.
• Security: Woocommerce uses the latest security technologies to provide protection to your customer data and transactions. The plugin is regularly updated to prevent any potential security threats.

Woocommerce also offers a variety of analytics tools and has a large community support.

3. Prestashop Development

Prestashop is also a widely used ecommerce shopping cart program that is an open source ecommerce CMS. It is designed to for creating and managing a feature-rich online store without the need for paying any licensing fees. It supports a wide range of payment gateways, is highly efficient and easier to work with. Some of the main reasons why your Ecommerce Website Design Company will use it are as following:

• Free & Open Source: Prestashop offers the best of cost-effective, feature-rich ecommerce development.
• SEO Friendly: Prestashop allows easier changes to URLs and title tags, simplifying search engine optimization.
• Animated “Include in Cart” Feature: The platform simplifies online buying experience with this feature.
• Fast: Prestashop doesn't require multiple web servers to turn and is fast.

The platform offers free modules and themes and is growing at a fast pace due to all these benefits.

So if you are looking to develop an ecommerce store, these are some of the most popular platforms to choose from. All these platforms offer different features to address your specific needs and ensure that you have a successful online store.

A Guide On Choosing The Perfect Ecommerce Website Design Company

A successful ecommerce business starts with a well designed website. And that entails the need to find the right Ecommerce Web Design Company. If you start searching for a service, you will find dozens and dozens of them. So how do you determine which company offers the right solution to design and develop the perfect website for you.

Here are 4 steps to evaluate and find the right online store designing service.

1. Check their Portfolio

The right Ecommerce Web Design Company should have an impressive portfolio that will match your expectations.  You will learn about their previous projects and also evaluate their qualities including:

·         Development skills

·         Functionality

·         Usability

2. Experience

Learn about the experience of the Ecommerce Website Developers who will be working on your website. While having a great portfolio tells a lot about the company, you should also learn about the developers who will be working on your project.

An experienced developer will create your site while keeping different aspects in mind. This especially includes the SEO and other marketing strategies. A website isn't just about aesthetics. It is also about functionality and succeeding online. An experienced professional will know what works and what doesn't for SEO and for the long-term. If they have been developing ecommerce sites for long, they know what design and development strategies will be effective even after a decade.

Technical Expertise: When it comes to experience, you should also consider the technical expertise of the company’s team. Find out what types of websites they can design and the platforms and technologies they use.

·         Are they using widely used and accepted platforms that can stand the test of time?

·         Do they keep up-to-date with the latest changes and developments in the industry?

·         Can they provide update and maintenance services if you will need it?

3. Responsive Design

Choose an Ecommerce Website Design Company that emphasizes responsive design. As mobile devices become more and more important for reaching out to your target audience, you cannot afford to have an online store that is not responsive. More than 50% of search traffic now originates from mobile devices. So if your ecommerce site cannot render effectively on smartphones and tablets, you are missing a significant percentage of your potential customers.

There is another reason for having a responsive website. When it comes to search rankings, mobile friendly websites are given preference by Google and major search engines. You wouldn’t want to have a website that cannot rank high in your search engine results pages. So look for designing service that has experienced in creating responsive ecommerce sites.

4. Get Customer Feedback

Once you have evaluated a service for all the above-mentioned factors, you should learn about their customers’ feedbacks. Checking their website for testimonials is one way to get this information, but you should expect that the company would add only the positive feedbacks on their own site. So it is recommended to so some online search for reviews left by a website designing company’s clients. Check for any negative or average reviews and find out what those customers have had to say.

So make sure to follow all these steps when choosing the right Ecommerce Website Development company for your site. It is not just experience, you should also ensure that the experience is relevant to your needs. Find out what their customers have to say and also ensure that they use the most prevalent and future-ready technologies.