What are ecommerce platforms?

What are ecommerce platforms? What are some of the best ecommerce platforms which businesses should look to exploit and take their businesses to the next level? What should businesses look at when choosing the best ecommerce platform for their products?

Ecommerce platform

Ecommerce has become a force to reckon with and it literally is shaping the way we shop and sell our products and services. For ecommerce to be successful though, there needs to be some location or platform where the buyer interacts with the merchandise business have to offer. This storefront where buyers interact with the products and services on offer, is referred to as an ecommerce platform.

In other words, an ecommerce platform is a software or technology solution that facilitates the interaction of buyers, sellers and their products. Through the ecommerce platform, sellers are able to upload pictures of their products and give description of the said products, price them and make them available to the willing buyers. The buyers on the other hand are able to peruse through the advertised products, obtain information about the products and their prizes.

The platform must also provide an automated payment solution to enable the buyer to check out and pay for the product or service once he/she likes the same. The same payment should be able to get to the seller through the platform. Depending on the architecture of the platform, it should also be able to store important information regarding the sales and stock of the products-these are customizable features and not all platforms have them.

Best ecommerce platforms for businesses

There are very many ecommerce platforms available to business today. The choice of the ecommerce platform depends on things like the model of business, the type of product on offer, the target audience, location of the business owner and other variables such as budget.

There are two main categories of ecommerce platforms. These are;

• Open source platforms

In open source platforms, users can modify all aspects of the code and tailor the platform to suit your business. As such, users are responsible for PCI compliance, hosting of the website, securing the platform and including any other operation which your business may require.

• Software as a service platforms

These are ecommerce platforms which are provided by third party service providers at a fee. This means that businesses outsource for the platform and things like PCI compliance, security, hosting and any other task, is managed by the SaaS provider.

Now that we have seen the main classification of the ecommerce platforms, what are some of the most popular and effective ecommerce platforms? Here are the 5 best ecommerce platforms which businesses use;

Top 5 Ecommerce Platforms

Shopify

By far the most popular choice among businesses, it offers customizable themes, social media integration at a fee, mobile friendly shopping carts and technical support. It is very affordable and easy to use which makes it a popular platform among businesses.

Magento

This open source platform which has gained famed because of its reliability and scalability. It is one of the earliest platforms and is responsible for the growth of some of the biggest brands in America including Huawei and Burger King.  It is easy to use, has free social media extensions and is very cheap for businesses.

Yokart

Instead of having to create vendor stores in various channels, Yokart allows users to build an integrated storefront which can be used in the various social media platforms. This multi-vendor model is what really put Yokart on the map. Yokart gives its clients the source code of the website together with a lifetime license, inbuilt product catalog system, it is multicurrency and mobile friendly. For as low as $250 a year, businesses can get their online ventures started here on Yokart.

BigCommerce

Lauded as the best ecommerce platform in America, BigCommerce is responsible for the success of some of the biggest brands in the country including Toyota and Martha Stewart. It has many inbuilt features, has no transaction fee, has very responsive themes and allows easy social media integration. It is also very easy to use and cheap for small business looking to get started in online businesses.

Tictail

Tictail emphasizes more on the customization of the themes, usability and the aesthetics of the storefront. It is not surprising therefore to learn that it is mostly used by fashion designers and people in the creative industry. It is easy to set up and is very cheap to run.

Are you a business looking for the best ecommerce platform and are not sure of the best platform to use? Well, Runrex is here to help you understand the perks of choosing the various platforms available. Give us a call today and we will gladly help you get started on ecommerce and take your business to the next level.