10 Factors To Look for When Picking the Right eCommerce Platform
Choosing the right online store platform is a big deal for your business. It's like picking the best tools to build a house. Nice-looking tools that last a long time are what you need for making. This choice is super important because it affects how you sell things online how your store looks and how happy your customers are.
Before you decide you should think about a lot of things. It's not enough to have a nice-looking shop. It would be best to consider how easy it is to use how you'll get paid and how safe it is for your customers' information. Wix eCommerce is one option that gives you many fantastic features to make a great online store. It's like having all the tools you need in one place.
Here at TheNerdSeries we get how tricky this can be. We're here to guide you through selecting an e-commerce platform by outlining the key considerations. The ten most important things to remember will be talked about in this blog. We wish it were easy for you to pick the best choice for your store. Now let's look at how to make your online store the best.
Factor 1: Ease of Use
When starting an online store you want things to be simple. Imagine trying to assemble a puzzle but with clear instructions and all the pieces fitting perfectly. That's what we mean by "ease of use" in choosing where to set up your shop online. It's about ensuring you can manage your store smoothly without needing to be a computer genius.
Why It's Important?
Think of your online store as the front window of your store. If it's easy for you to set up and change things around you can spend more time making your products look great and less time scratching your head over complicated website stuff. This makes life easier for you and your customers who get a better shopping experience.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Ease of Use?
- Simple to Use: Wix is like using building blocks to make a website. You don't need to know how to code; pick up the pieces you like and put them where you want them.
- Move Things Around Easily: With Wix you can click on pictures or text and move them around your page just like moving stickers in a sticker book. It's that easy!
- Make It Your Style: Wix has lots of different designs you can choose from to make your store look just the way you want. It's like having a big box of crayons to color your store.
- Helps People Find Your Store: Wix has special tools that help your store appear on Google when people search for things you sell. It's like putting up a big sign that says "Come shop here!"
- Learning Tools: Wix gives you videos and guides to learn how to make your store even better just like a cookbook teaches you new recipes.
- Friends to Help: If you have questions you can ask others who use Wix in a particular online group. It's like having a team of friends who also have stores.
Choosing a platform that makes things simple means you can focus on the fun parts of running a business like creating excellent products and connecting with customers. Platforms like Wix eCommerce WooCommerce and Shopify are like having a helpful friend by your side guiding you through setting up your store without the headache.
Factor 2: Payment Gateways
Think about when you're shopping and ready to pay. If the store only takes cash but you only have a card it's a problem. That's why it's good for an online store to let customers pay in many ways. It's like having many checkout lines so everyone can choose their favorite pay method.
Why Lots of Payment Options Are Good?
Having many ways to pay is important because it makes shopping easy and comfortable for everyone. Some people might want to use their credit card others might like PayPal and some might use something else like Apple Pay. When a store lets customers choose more people are happy to buy things.
How does Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Payment Gateways?
- Wix Payments: Wix's payment system makes it easy to accept money from customers using different methods like credit cards Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- Lots of Choices: Wix works with over 80 other payment services from all around the world. This means you can choose the best way to get paid no matter where you or your customers are.
- Easy Management: With Wix you can monitor your sales give refunds and handle your money all from one place – the Wix dashboard.
- No Extra Fees: When you use other payment services with Wix they won't charge you extra fees just for using them. This means more money stays in your pocket.
Your online store becomes friendlier by letting customers use these different payment ways. More people can buy what they like because they can pay their way. This makes customers happy and can help your store sell more.
Factor 3: Customization Options
Think of your online store as your bedroom. It should show off your style. You can customize your store to look and work the way you want it to. You can pick the color of your walls or where to put your furniture. When your store looks special and feels easy to shop in people are likelier to enjoy visiting and buying things from you.
Why Make It Your Matters?
Customizing your store is like putting up your favorite posters or setting up your shelves just right. It makes the place feel like it's yours. You can pick your online store's colors how things are arranged and what extra cool features it has. This helps your store stand out and makes shopping a fun experience for your customers.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Customization Options:
- Easy to Design: With Wix making your store look great is as simple as playing with blocks. Move things around until they look just how you want.
- Make It Yours: Wix has many store designs you can pick and then change them up so it feels like your own unique shop.
- Product Page Fun: You can decide how your products are shown on their pages like where the pictures go and what the buy button says making shopping fun for your customers.
- Always Getting Better: Wix keeps adding new stuff to make your store even better even though some fancy changes still need to be made.
- Helpful Friends: Wix has a place where you can talk to other store owners swap stories and learn new tricks. They also have classes and shows to teach you more about making your store awesome.
By picking a platform that lets you play and experiment like Wix eCommerce Shopify or Magento you can make your online store a fun place that shows off what's unique about your brand. This makes your store more inviting bringing in more customers and making them want to return.
Factor 4: SEO Capabilities
Imagine SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as big bright signs that help people find your online store in a giant shopping mall called the Internet. SEO ensures that when people search for something you sell your store pops up in the search like a store in the best spot in the mall.
Why Good Signs (SEO) Are Important?
Good SEO is like having the best signs pointing to your shop. It tells search engines like Google about your store so they can show it to people looking for what you have. This includes having the right words in your shop's name and description and ensuring your store looks good on phones and computers.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in SEO Capabilities?
- Fast Photos: Wix makes your store's pictures load super fast. Fast websites are more accessible for Google to find and show to people.
- Pretty Pictures Keep People Visiting: When your store has nice clear pictures people like to stay and look around longer. Google notices this and thinks your store is an excellent place to send more people.
- Simple SEO Setup: Wix has a unique tool that helps you tell Google what your store is about making it easier for people to find you when they search for things you sell.
- No Slowdowns: Your Wix store can have many visitors simultaneously without getting slow. Google likes fast stores and shows them to more people.
- Tips to Get Noticed: Wix advises making your store more popular on Google.
- Learn and Grow: Wix has a particular area with lessons on making your store more accessible to find on Google.
Using platforms like Shopify WooCommerce and Wix you can ensure your online store stands out like a shop with the best spot in the mall. These tools help ensure that when someone is looking for something you sell your store is ready to welcome them in.
Factor 5: Scalability
Imagine if your online store is like a plant. Just like a plant grows bigger and needs a bigger pot your store needs to grow too. Scalability means your online store can get bigger quickly when more people come to shop and buy things without any problems like slow loading or crashing.
Why Growing Bigger Smoothly Is Important?
Scalability is like ensuring your store has enough room to welcome more and more customers without getting too crowded or slow. You want everyone visiting your store to have a fun and easy time shopping even when many people are shopping simultaneously.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Scalability:
- Pick a Plan That Fits: Wix has different plans like sizes of backpacks. You can start with a small one and get a bigger one as you need more space.
- Fantastic Features for Growing: As your store gets bigger Wix gives you neat tools like special deals for regular customers checking how well your store is doing and getting quick help when you need it.
- Take Payments from Anywhere: Wix lets you accept money in many ways so more people can buy from your store easily.
- Sell in Many Places: You can sell things not just on your website but also in real shops on big websites where people shop and on places like Facebook and Instagram.
- Make Your Store Great: Wix has many designs to make it look just right and you can change it whenever you want.
- Your Store Stays Open: Wix ensures your store is always ready for customers rarely taking a break.
Choosing an eCommerce platform like Shopify WooCommerce or Wix eCommerce is like picking a good pot for a plant. It means your store can grow big and strong ready to welcome more customers and make more sales without any fuss.
Factor 6: Customer Support
Think of customer support as a helpful friend who's always there when you have trouble or questions. Good customer support in an online store means you can quickly get help whenever needed making your shopping experience smooth and enjoyable.
Why Does Having Help Ready Matters?
When you shop online sometimes things go differently than planned. You need help finding what you're looking for or have a question about a product. That's where customer support comes in. It's like having a guide in the store who can help you find your way answer your questions and make sure you're happy with your visit.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Customer Service?
- Quick Answers: If you have a question Wix can answer fast with a chat or a phone call so you don't have to wait long.
- Easy Guides: Wix has lots of helpful guides and videos. They're like easy instructions to help you learn how to do extraordinary things with your store.
- Friends Helping Friends: On Wix you can talk to other people who have stores share tips and help each other in an online meeting.
- Show All Your Products: Wix lets you show all the different types of your products like if you sell a shirt in many colors or sizes and keep everything organized.
- Happy Shopping: Wix makes it easy for people to buy things from your store so they'll be satisfied and might return to shop more.
- No Lost Sales: If someone almost buys something but then doesn't Wix can help remind them so they might return and buy it.
- Watch Your Orders: Wix lets you and your customers keep an eye on orders so everyone knows when the exciting package will arrive.
By choosing platforms with solid customer support like HubSpot Service Hub Zendesk Document360 and Source Support you're making sure there's always someone there to help when you need it. This makes shopping online more accessible and enjoyable knowing that help is just a click away if you encounter any problems.
Factor 7: Pricing
When setting up an online store consider pricing like planning a budget for a road trip. You need to know how much it will cost to get there eat and stay. In the eCommerce world this means understanding how you can be charged for using an online platform to sell your goods like transaction fees or monthly plans.
Why Knowing Costs Upfront Matters?
Just like you wouldn't start a road trip without knowing how much money you'll need you shouldn't start an online store without understanding the costs. Some platforms take a small part of each sale (transaction fees) while others might charge you a set amount every month (monthly plans). Knowing these costs helps you plan better to keep your business profitable.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Pricing:
- Different Plans for Different Needs: Wix has many plans. The simplest one starts at $16 a month but this one is just for practice and doesn't let you sell things.
- Start Selling Plan: When you're ready to sell there's a plan for $27 a month. It gives you all you need to open your online shop.
- Growing Business Plan: If your store is getting bigger there's a plan for $32 a month with more helpful features for growing businesses.
- Big Business Plan: There's a top plan for vast stores for $159 a month. It has lots of extras like more help from Wix and unique designs just for your store.
- Super Big Stores: Wix also has a unique plan for super big businesses. The price depends on what you need and you talk to Wix to figure it out.
- Try for Free: You can start with a free plan to see how it works. Wix also lets you try the selling plans for free for 14 days to see if you like it.
Knowing these pricing strategies and models helps you decide on the best eCommerce solutions and choose a platform that fits your business budget ensuring your online store's road trip to success is smooth and cost-effective.
Factor 8: Mobile Responsiveness
Imagine you're using a map to find a treasure. Still the map keeps changing its size and shape depending on whether you're looking at it through a telescope binoculars or just your eyes. That's what mobile responsiveness is like for websites. It means that no matter if you're looking at a website on a phone a tablet or a computer it always fits perfectly and is easy to use.
Why It's Super Important?
More than ever a lot of people browse the web on their phones. So if you have an online store you want to ensure everyone can see everything clearly on their phones just like on a computer. This way people can shop easily no matter their device.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Mobile Responsiveness?
- Looks Great Everywhere: Wix's website designs are made to look fantastic on all devices whether it's a computer tablet or phone. Your online store will always look its best.
- Edit On Your Phone: With Wix's special mobile editor you can change your store from your phone. Add new items fill orders and keep an eye on your stock all while you're on the move.
- Run Your Store from Anywhere: Wix has mobile apps that let you take care of your store no matter where you are. You can manage everything from sales to customer messages anytime you need to.
Making sure your website is responsive means it looks great and functions properly on any screen size. It makes sure everyone can have fun shopping in your online store no matter how they're looking at it.
Factor 9: Marketing Tools
Think of marketing tools like a megaphone and colorful flyers that help tell everyone about your online store. These tools are like special helpers that ensure people can find your online store just like how a bright sign helps people find a shop on a busy street.
Why These Helpers Are Super Important?
Marketing tools are essential because they help people notice your store online among many others. They're like clues that lead people right to your door. These tools can put your store on social media help it appear when people search on Google and even send fun emails to tell people about cool stuff in your store.
How Wix eCommerce Solution Excels in Marketing Tools?
- SEO Made Easy: Wix helps you set up your store to be found on Google quickly with step-by-step guides to make your pages shine in search results.
- Clever Ads on Social Media: You can create ads for Facebook and Instagram right from Wix which helps ensure they reach the right people.
- Special Offers with Discount Codes: Wix lets you make discount codes to give customers deals helping you sell more.
- Stay in Touch with Emails: Send excellent emails to your customers about sales or new products without much fuss.
- Know Your Customers Better: With Wix you can learn what your customers like and tailor your store to fit their tastes.
- Manage Your Store Anywhere: The Wix mobile app means you can run your store from anywhere from adding products to chatting with customers.
- Get Social: Share updates and news from your store directly to your social media to keep your followers in the loop.
- Add What You Need: If there's a marketing tool you love that's not on Wix you can likely add it to make your marketing even more robust.
By using these platforms and their special helpers (marketing tools) you can make sure lots of people hear about your online store and want to visit just like ensuring everyone knows about a fun party. This way more people can come and see what you're selling and you can make your store a popular spot on the internet!
Factor 10: Community & Resources
Imagine you're part of a club where everyone loves the same things you do like building model airplanes or painting. Now think of that club but for people running online stores. That's what we mean by community and resources in eCommerce. It's about having friends online who are also running stores and you can all share tips ask questions and help each other out.
Why Does Being Part of a Club Helps?
Being in a community is like having a big team. When you're unsure how to do something or looking for new ideas you can ask your team for advice. These communities also have lots of guides videos and classes (we call them resources) that teach you about improving your store from making it look prettier to getting more people to visit.
How does Wix eCommerce Solution excel in Community & Resources?
- Fast Help When Needed: If you get stuck or have a question Wix is ready to help quickly with a chat or a phone call.
- Easy to Learn: Wix has many helpful guides and videos that make learning how to use your store fun and easy.
- Friends Who Help: There's a special place on Wix where you can talk to other people who have stores share tips and get advice.
- Your Store Your Way: With Wix you can show different kinds of the same product like a shirt in many colors or sizes so everyone finds what they like.
- Safe Shopping: Wix makes sure your customers can pay safely with many payment options worldwide.
- Keeping Everything Safe: Wix keeps your store and customer information secure so you don't have to worry.
Being part of these communities and using their resources is like having a treasure map that guides you on your journey to making your online store the best it can be. Both you and others who are just starting out on this journey may benefit from each other's knowledge and experiences. It's all about growing together and making each other's stores shine.
Conclusion
As we finish discussing the important things to consider when picking where to sell things online let's remember the big points. It's all about finding a place that's easy to use makes your store look just right doesn't cost too much helps tell people about your store and has friends you can talk to for advice. Choosing the right place to set up your shop is vital because it helps your online store grow well.
The Wix eCommerce solution is an excellent option for those looking to sell goods online. You will only need prior experience with computers to utilize it. It lets you change your store's appearance to how you like it. Wix also has tools to help you tell more people about your store and a friendly group of other sellers you can talk to.
Take stock of your store's special features and the features you need from an online marketplace. It's like picking the best playground to set up your lemonade stand. Somewhere that can hold both what you need now and what you might need later when your store grows. Take your time to look around ask questions and try a few out to see which feels suitable for your online store. Follow TheNerdSeries for more such guides on e-commerce.