8 Must-have success-oriented features of an ecommerce platform

8 Must-have success-oriented features of an ecommerce platform

Planning to go online?

Having sleepless nights putting down your ideas and working out the products, their sourcing and other operational aspects? Did you also choose your ecommerce platform?

Not yet?

Seems an easy task with so many turnkey options available in the market!

If you are also thinking so, you might be in for a bit of surprise later on.

Wondering why?

Well, despite the tall claims, not all the available options might be a good fit for your business. Also, many of these can have some hidden cost as plugins and additional features. If you leave this most crucial decision pending till the last moment, the chances are that you will end up opting for some ecommerce platform that might look very promising in the beginning but not be a right fit for your business in the long run.

If you want to avoid all the hassle of migration and buying additional features you should look for a well-rounded platform that enables you to start your business and grow rapidly. Here are the eight things you should check while analyzing the top ecommerce platforms for your business;

Easy to use and simple

Turnkey ecommerce solutions reduce the development time considerably. However, this does not imply that they might be simple and easy to use as well. Some of the popular solutions are designed from a developer’s perspective and if you are not skilled in coding, you might face a steep learning curve. Alternatively, you will have to hire a developer to launch and maintain your site which can take up your costs.

To avoid this scenario, go for a DIY ecommerce platform that offers simple functionalities that are easy to understand and intuitive. Additionally, look for the customization options which can help you create your flows as per your unique business requirements.

Hassle-Free Product and Order Management

Products and orders are what run your online business. Therefore, an ecommerce solution that makes it easy to manage your products and orders makes your everyday life simple. When these two aspects of your online business are streamlined, you can focus on business development rather than spending time in managing the core functionalities.

While checking the top ecommerce platforms do make sure that you go through their order and product handling capabilities thoroughly. With well-defined product management capability, you can make your products more visible and conversion oriented. Similarly, order management can help to improve your operational efficiencies significantly.

Easy Design Tools

The look and feel of your website leave a lasting impression on your customers. Also, in the cut-throat world of ecommerce space, you need to improve and change the look of your website to keep running your marketing campaigns.

This makes it essential that your ecommerce platform supports some simple design tools and offers you with a rich library of themes from which you can choose your own design layout. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you get the drag and drop feature which allows you to make design changes in an instant? Look out for these features to create a wow store loved by customers.

Mobile-Commerce Ready

Mobile commerce has long overtaken traditional ecommerce. By 2020 more than 70% of global online sales would come through the mobile channel.

(Source) This necessitates that your software solution for online business is built in such a way that it is ready to cater your customers on their smartphones.

So, choose one of the top ecommerce platforms for your business that offers a mobile-ready solution for your website. Having PWA (progressive Web Apps) capabilities would be an add on which can give your website an app like look, feel and functionality without the need to develop an app.

Quick Search and Simple Navigation

When your customers can discover desired products on your website within seconds, they stay longer on the site and also complete their checkout quickly. With easy navigation, customers can search for more products and keep adding them to their cart. This means quick search and navigation boost your conversions and ticket size.

Top ecommerce platforms consider this aspect and offer advanced search tools like faceted search and pricing filters that help to narrow down searches and find exact product matches. This makes a site stickier. Hence, look for all these in your ecommerce solution provider.

Multi-Channel Integrations

An ecommerce business works better when it is integrated with a host of services and tools that simplify everyday operations. These tools make it easy to carry out everyday activities that are needed for running the business smoothly.

While finalizing your ecommerce platform make sure that it has easy and quick integrations with multiple payment and logistics channels, social media channels, mass mailing software etc. to improve your operational efficiencies.

Easy Marketing

To grow your business, you need visibility and to build your brand’s presence you need to market your brand. This means that you need a set of tools that make marketing easy and quick. This helps you to experiment with your marketing mix and come up with a variety of marketing strategies.

When checking the top ecommerce platforms make sure that they have a strong discount engine, multi-tier discount functionality like product based, group based, location-based discounts, coupons etc. so you can run quick promotions one after the other.

SEO Tools

SEO always comes handy in building traffic for any online business. But SEO depends on lot many other factors and needs some tools to optimize the efforts and make the ranking on SERPs faster. This brings the right kind of traffic to your online store and helps you convert better.

When finalizing your ecommerce platform make sure you get features that help you define meta for pages, create distinct product URLs, creates a sitemap, lets you define canonical URL and more such simple yet effective tools.

Conclusion

Now that you know the top 8 features needed in a top ecommerce platform, check all your options on these parameters. Choose the one that offers a well-rounded solution and can grow with your business.

Also, before taking the final decision, check their free trial plans and explore the platform well during this period.

Posted by Binny Joseph

Binny Joseph
Binny Joseph is an ecommerce marketing strategist with 5+ years of experience at StoreHippo. He writes extensively about the latest ecommerce trends and encourages people to take up the new ways to make their online business a better one. His articles regarding ecommerce platforms come from the rich experience of strategizing and handling online business across industry verticals.Linkedin

Related Posts

Comments

comments powered by Disqus