Overview
Do you want to have a new online store created, but are you not sure what to look out for? What are the main pitfalls, and which ecommerce platform works best? Discover all the dos and don’ts below, and benefit from an online store tailored to your business!
Which Ecommerce Platforms Are Used Today to Create a New Online Store?
Creating a new online store, that’s something you better leave to a professional. Today, there are many different ecommerce platforms available. These are online shop software programs that allow you to sell products online, manage transactions, and provide customers with a pleasant shopping experience. Ecommerce platforms come in various forms. There is Shopify, WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin), Wix, Magento, Prestashop, and many more. All these platforms have their own qualities, but also some pitfalls.
Good software is crucial for a clear, user-friendly, and attractive online shop. Not sure which software to choose? Keep reading then! Below, we list the things you need to consider when having an ecommerce website built. This way, you’ll be enjoying a successful, new, customized online store in no time!
What Is the Key to Successful Ecommerce?
If you want your ecommerce website or online store to be successful, there are a number of things you need to take into account. First and foremost, a good online shop looks professional and well-organized. You want your shop to be user-friendly for everyone. In addition, functionalities can be expanded infinitely with plug-ins or extensions. This allows your ecommerce website to grow along with your business. That’s a good thing, since scalability is and will remain important for the future. You should also think carefully about your budget. How much does it cost to build a fully functional web store? Which payment methods will you offer? Of course, you want to ensure that customers have a choice of several options and that mobile payments run smoothly.
Speed is also very important. Nothing is more annoying than an online shop where you have to wait for minutes to complete your payment. You want to be able to navigate smoothly from one product page to another, add items to your shopping basket or wish list, without being slowed down by long loading times. But what is by far the most important thing to consider when building an ecommerce website? Security. An online shop that looks nice and well-structured is useless if it doesn’t handle your personal data securely. You need to be able to trust that all your financial and other sensitive data will remain protected. An experienced web developer knows which ecommerce platform suits your preferences best and will create an online store tailored to your business.
What Are the Pitfalls of Creating an Ecommerce Website?
Many of the ecommerce platforms you find online are not as reliable as they appear.
Wix
Wix, for example. It’s a very popular platform that offers users many web design options and features, and the interface looks user-friendly. However, this platform is not the best option for developing a good online store. Here are a few reasons why:
- Wix offers few SEO opportunities. The platform has many limitations that make it difficult to achieve a good SEO ranking in Google. This is a major pitfall when you consider that SEO or search engine optimization is incredibly important when building an ecommerce website.
- Wix has a slow page speed compared to other platforms. Not only is this annoying, loading speed is also one of the most important SEO signals.
- The possibilities for personalization in Wix are limited. It’s difficult or even impossible to customize the templates, which means your online shop will look very similar to other Wix online shops.
- The platform is more expensive in the long run. In the beginning, you can often enjoy free offers, but you will soon have to switch to a paid subscription.
- You don’t have full control over your own online store. It’s a cloud-based platform, so you can’t manage the technical aspects of your store yourself. You also can’t export the content, so if you ever want to switch to WordPress, you will have to start from scratch.
Shopify
In addition to Wix, there are numerous other ecommerce platforms that appear appealing but actually have many disadvantages. Shopify is another good example.
- Just like Wix, Shopify is much more expensive than the platform itself suggests. As a starter, you can develop an online store at an affordable rate, but as soon as you want to add an extra feature, you can easily end up paying €40 or more each month.
- The free themes in Shopify you can choose from are quite limited. The premium themes, on the other hand, are extremely expensive.
- Shopify is a closed-source platform. This means that you can only use the features and web design that Shopify has to offer.
- There are few opportunities to add blogs.
- It’s difficult to switch from Shopify, just like Wix, to another platform. You would have to rebuild your entire online store!
- Translating your Shopify ecommerce website is very time-consuming. You have to work with multiple translation apps, and the translations are not always reliable.
- Shopify does not offer email hosting. This means that you can’t create an email address with your domain name.
How Do We Create a Customized Ecommerce Website?
You now know the main pitfalls of creating an online store and which ecommerce platforms you should avoid. But what do we recommend? How do we create a new, professional, customized online shop? We certainly don’t rely on Wix or Shopify, but which ecommerce platform do we use?
WooCommerce
Our favorite platform is undoubtedly WooCommerce, the most widely used and user-friendly ecommerce platform in the world. With this open source plug-in, created for WordPress, you can create and manage a fully-fledged, customized online store for any WordPress website. Because WooCommerce is open source, you can modify every part of your store and easily add extensions.
The biggest advantage of WooCommerce is that, unlike Shopify, you have full control over the features and web design. Because the platform is open source, themes and plugins are unlimited. Choose from countless ecommerce designs and provide your online store with a personal touch! The WooCommerce plugin is very easy to install on WordPress and is available for free. Your costs will be significantly lower than with Wix or Shopify. Furthermore, WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, which means it has a large community. Want to build a beautiful and effective ecommerce website that you can personalize entirely yourself? Choose WooCommerce!
WordPress
WordPress is the most widely used content management system (CMS) in the world. It is an open source system and is used to easily build and manage websites, ecommerce websites, and blogs. What’s more, WordPress is free and requires no programming knowledge. It offers a wide range of features, themes, and plugins, allowing you to fully customize your website to your liking. Do you want to create an ecommerce website? Then WordPress is the answer, together with WooCommerce!
Ecommerce SEO
Why should you have your ecommerce website built by a professional? Quite simply: for a modern design and optimal functionality. The look of your online store determines your visitors’ opinion in less than a second. So, it’s crucial to make a good first impression. What’s more, you can also make a technically sound online shop SEO-proof. We provide efficient SEO or search engine optimization, so that your online store can receive as many visitors as possible! Would you rather launch an online advertising campaign for your ecommerce website? At Applic Group in Antwerp, anything is possible!
How Much Does It Cost to Have a New Ecommerce Website Created?
When you choose Applic Group in Antwerp, you are choosing a professional ecommerce website with a modern design and optimal security, at a competitive price! We offer a reliable and secure hosting package, so you can always count on uninterrupted service. Through regular updates, we guarantee the security of your online store and customers. Contact us and let us know your preferences, and we will create an ecommerce website tailored to your company at a fair price!
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