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Before you can begin selling your products online, you will need to choose an ecommerce platform and build your store. In 2020, there is no shortage of options to choose from. This can often be confusing considering the multitude of options available. However, some platforms have a lot more to offer than others.
Below are three of the most popular choices there are out there:
WooCommerce
It is very likely that your website is built on top of WordPress, seeing as it powers 35% of the web (you can see why it is so popular here). If you are using this specific CMS, you will be able to easily add the ecommerce functionality to your site by installing the WooCommerce plugin (which is free of charge).
Many WordPress themes already have WooCommerce support built in, which means that in a few steps, you can have an ecommerce store up and running that includes an ‘add to cart’ functionality and is able to accept payment via credit card and services such as PayPal or Stripe.
WooCommerce is also highly customisable, thanks to the extensive number of extensions available. This allows you to add additional functionality to your store, such as complex shipping logic, CRM integration and discount coupons.
Shopify
Some of the world’s largest brands such as Budweiser, Red Bull and Gymshark have used Shopify to sell their products online. However, even if you are a small business and just starting out selling online, Shopify could be a great option.
Some of the pros of using Shopify are its ease of set up (thanks to the drag and drop interface provided), blazing fast load times and the large number of customizable themes available. Shopify is an excellent option if you are going to be driving traffic to your site via PPC.
However, consecutive studies have found that Shopify sites do not perform too well when it comes to ranking in search engines. If SEO is your end goal, opting for WooCommerce might be the better option.
Magento
Magento is a truly powerful and customizable choice when it comes to building scalable and feature-rich ecommerce stores that are SEO friendly. However, Magento is not as simple to set up as WooCommerce and Shopify, since coding skills are required.
Magento is available for free, but there is also a paid solution for large ecommerce businesses. For the latter, the licensing fee can cost thousands of pounds, so Magento is definitely not a budget option like WooCommerce and Shopify are.
Conclusion
This article lists the 3 most popular ecommerce platforms out there. There are many other options to choose from, such as Wix, Volusion, PrestaShop and SquareSpace. However, our recommendation at POLARIS would be to use WooCommerce if you are just starting out.
Polaris is an award-winning B2B SEO agency in London specialising B2B, PPC, e-commerce and the healthcare industry.
