Twenty years ago, if you wanted to launch an eCommerce website for your business, you would have had just a handful of options to choose from. Most business owners used centralised marketplaces like Amazon and eBay to get their products online. Building your own independent store was an uncommon practice, often considered risky, expensive, and time-consuming.
However, today’s businesses have a lot more flexibility. The rise of eCommerce over the last two decades now presents business owners with a wide range of convenient and affordable eCommerce solutions to choose from. Instead of not having enough options, the problem is now selecting the most appropriate one for your specific business.
How do you pick the best eCommerce platform to use?
Choosing the right eCommerce solution can make or break your business. Some platforms might not be suited to your specific needs. In the worst cases, you might end up choosing one that could cost you more in the long run and prevent you from reaching your goals. With so many options to choose from, how do you pick the right one for your business?
To help you tackle such a high-level business decision, let’s break it down into six key factors along with some important considerations to examine.
6 Factors for Choosing an eCommerce Platform
1. Cost of Ownership
“How much does it cost to use the platform?”
The cost of ownership refers to the minimum cost you have to pay to legally use a specific platform. It can include initial licensing fees and recurring service payments, as well as the ongoing expenses associated with running an online store.
In terms of pricing, the range varies greatly across the different eCommerce solutions available. Small B2C retailers can find affordable options that cost a few hundred dollars (or less) every month, while large enterprise brands will likely need to shell out tens of thousands over the same period.
Types of Ownership
To a certain degree, the difference in pricing also influences how much control or “ownership” you have over a specific platform. The higher the price point, the deeper the level of customisation and integration a platform will tend to offer.
This is important to know because it affects how much mileage you’ll get out of investing in a certain platform. Deeper customisation means having the ability to design a store that functions exactly the way you want, which can lead to a superior shopping experience over the long run.
Greater ownership can also mean better agility when deploying new features that set your store apart from competitors. With fewer approval layers to your ideas, you can innovate your business at an accelerated rate.
Licensed
With this option, you purchase an eCommerce solution that you can deploy independently to build and maintain your online store. Licensed platforms often provide advanced customisation options, but you will have to handle development and testing on your own (or hire an expert to do it for you).
Ex. Adobe Commerce
SaaS, PaaS, or Cloud-Based
This means you are essentially “renting” the platform’s software and infrastructure to enable your own online store. You can take advantage of the platform’s features on a continuous basis, which usually comes with ongoing support and maintenance. For security reasons, these options are typically more rigid and have multiple approval layers when making changes to their native feature set.
Ex. Shopify, BigCommerce
Open Source
These options are typically free to use and modify. Since they are open source, they usually allow for deep customisation and have huge libraries of pre-existing plugins and applications to extend your platform’s functionality.
Ex. WooCommerce, Magento
Keep in mind that some platforms may provide any combination of these types. Evaluate your technical and timeline requirements against your budget so that you can narrow down your options to those most suited to your needs.
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Pricing Models
Pricing models vary across the different options available. To use your chosen eCommerce platform, you may have to pay a one-time or recurring expense. The amount can also be fixed or variable.
For example, Adobe Commerce charges a yearly licensing fee based on annual revenue. On the other hand, Shopify charges a fixed rate every month. Many services also provide added flexibility by offering separate pricing for specific features or upgrades. Below are a few of the most common pricing models you’ll encounter:
- One-Time Payment – Single purchase made upfront to the provider
- Subscription Fee – Regular payments made to the provider for continued use of the platform
- GMV-Based – Based on gross merchandise volume or value
- Usage-Based – Based on specific store metrics, such as site traffic or data use
- Per User/Seat – Based on the number of unique users or accounts
Other Inclusions
It’s also important to keep in mind that some platforms have inherent fees per transaction. Keep an eye out for this information, and be mindful of your price margins when looking at the overall costs. Some options may charge you up to an additional 5% per store purchase, which can impact your bottom line.
Additionally, the cost of ownership may or may not include other essential store requirements. Depending on which platform you choose, you may have to pay for your domain, hosting, server maintenance, and SSL certificate on top of your base costs. Study your options carefully and decide what you can afford.
Key Points to Consider:
- Do you need deep customisation from your eCommerce platform? To what extent, and how much are you willing to pay for it?
- How quickly would you need to deploy custom functionalities?
- Are you looking for flexible payment terms with options for add-ons and future upgrades?
- Are all the associated costs accounted for in your budget?
To help you compare your options and make an informed choice. Here’s a table overview of the most popular eCommerce options today:
| eCommerce Platform | Pricing Starts At*** |
|---|---|
|
Shopify |
$29 USD/mo |
|
Shopify Plus |
$2,000 USD/mo |
|
Magento* |
Free |
|
Adobe Commerce** |
$35,000 AUD |
|
WooCommerce |
Free |
|
BigCommerce |
$29.95 USD/mo |
|
*Formerly Magento Open Source **Formerly Magento eCommerce ***Includes basic online store setup, subscription cost, and any licensing fees |
|
Note that the prices here only represent the minimum costs you will have to pay to get a basic online store up and running. The total cost of ownership does not include custom store design and development that you might need to get your store to the level you want.
2. Out-of-the-Box Capabilities
“What are your feature and integration requirements?”
The platform you choose determines the features and functionalities you’ll get. Ideally, your choice should have out-of-the-box capabilities that closely match your technical requirements. Making the correct choice can mean time and money savings because you’ll be able to get your store up and running within a shorter time frame.
Choose a platform that readily supports the essential store features you need for the fastest turnaround. You’ll also want to make an inventory of your existing (and future) tool stack so that you can check for compatibility or integration capability.
For a top-level overview of your platform requirements, a good way to categorise your needs is to group them into different priority levels. Start with your absolute must-haves to establish a quick baseline for comparing your choices.
Bare Minimums
These represent non-negotiables. A few examples include industry-standard security to keep you and your customers’ data safe, optimised servers for reliable performance, and mobile responsiveness to ensure your store fits today’s market. Search engine optimisation features are also key since a platform must be SEO-friendly so that your products get seen organically.
Fortunately, all of the popular eCommerce services offer these capabilities at the bare minimum. Still, it’s important to bring these up with your team to ensure your bases are covered.
Core Features
Core eCommerce features include things like built-in PIM (product information management) capabilities and a CMS (content management system). These are essential to running an effective eCommerce store, but not all eCommerce solutions provide them.
WooCommerce, for example, is not designed with PIM functions, but you can use custom extensions to integrate it with a tool that does. Make sure to consult with your developers to figure out which of your options can readily meet your needs. If you go with one that doesn’t perfectly fit the bill, identify the appropriate workarounds and corresponding costs.
Also, some core features might be non-negotiable for you. For example, support for multiple storefronts can be a crucial consideration for some businesses. In that case, use it as an added filter when weighing your options.
Integrations and Ecosystem Around the Platform
Integrations aren’t only for extending the functionality of your eCommerce platform. They can also improve many aspects of your business. Order tracking, payment systems, marketing, and your CRM–all of these are important to running a high-performing business, and they’re typically handled with separate tools that should be connected to your store.
The most popular eCommerce platforms are all great options in this regard. Many provide seamless integration with all the business tools you’ll probably use. Additionally, they have large ecosystems around them, which means new eCommerce plug-ins or extensions are constantly being developed and old ones are continually improved.
Nice-to-Haves
Finally, a few important features you might want to consider are built-in analytics and advanced search functionality. Other examples include product promotion features, personalisation tools, and a built-in POS. While these functions are easy to enable with third-party integrations or custom development, it’s nice to have them baked into the platform for convenience and better reliability.
Key Points to Consider:
- What are the minimum, non-negotiable features you need from your chosen eCommerce solution?
- Will you be able to address any platform shortcomings with custom development or other workarounds?
- Does any specific platform offer products or features that cater specifically to businesses like yours?
Keep in mind that the features discussed above are by no means an exhaustive list. There is an endless number of possible feature combinations your specific business will likely need. That’s why it’s important to meet with your team to determine exactly what you need out of your eCommerce solution.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s always a good idea to choose a platform that has all the features and integration capabilities you need right out of the box. If not that, then at least as close to it as possible. This will translate to lower chances of things breaking in the future and less likelihood of having to migrate to a whole new platform, which can be quite complicated.
3. Cost of Development
“How much time and money will it cost to turn the platform into a store fit for your business?”
After identifying what you need from your eCommerce solution, the next factor to consider involves any additional development costs you’ll incur. These are separate from the cost of using or “owning” a platform, as there is usually a lot of work involved in turning a platform into a fully functional store that not only provides what is necessary for your eCommerce business but also satisfies your customers’ shopping behaviours.
Types of Development Costs
The cost of development can represent over half of your allocated budget. It can also include one-time or recurring expenses. A few examples that are common for most businesses include:
- Web Design and Development – Essential work that includes back-end and front-end eCommerce design, development, maintenance, and support
- UX Optimisation – Involves technical and non-technical elements that improve how users interact with your store
- Custom Integrations – Usually involves development work to enable data integrations that aren’t readily supported by your chosen platform
- Bespoke Solutions – Original, proprietary solutions that are designed specifically for your business.
Options Available
Development is usually carried out by either an in-house team or outsourced experts. Both options are viable and have unique benefits and drawbacks. Let’s compare:
- In-House Team
Having a dedicated, in-house team of eCommerce designers and developers can be beneficial for many reasons. With this approach, you can manage work better and more efficiently since communication will be faster. An in-house team will also have a better understanding of your brand, which makes it easier to address your needs.
However, this option is not for everyone. In-house teams are usually expensive to maintain and complicated to manage. Not only will you have to find suitable talents to round out your team, you’ll also have to train and lead them to ensure getting your money’s worth.
- Outsourced Experts
On the other hand, choosing to outsource your development needs will present an opposite set of pros and cons. It’s usually the simpler, more cost-effective route, allowing you to pay for only the services you need and adjust the size of your team as your demands change. It’s also a hands-off approach that can mean fewer headaches in terms of management and decision-making.
That said, outsourcing can have some drawbacks. If you hire the wrong people, it can lead to quality issues since you’ll sacrifice having granular control of the development work being done. It’s also possible that the team you outsource it to might not fully understand your business or have the skills to implement your vision. To minimise the risks and stay within your budget, make sure to work with a reputable, expert eCommerce web development agency if you go with this course of action.
Average Costs of Platform Development
Different eCommerce solutions have different corresponding development costs. Generally speaking, the more advanced a platform is, the more expensive it will be to work with. That’s the price of having greater flexibility and customisation.
To give you an idea of how much design and development might cost for your chosen eCommerce solution, you can refer to the table below for the typical amounts we charge our clients.
| eCommerce Platform | Development Costs |
|---|---|
|
Shopify |
Starts from $4,500 AUD + GST |
|
Shopify Plus |
Starts from $15,000 AUD + GST |
|
Magento* |
Starts from $15,000 AUD + GST |
|
Adobe Commerce** |
Starts from $20,000 AUD + GST |
|
WooCommerce |
Starts from $6,000 AUD + GST |
|
BigCommerce |
Starts from $4,500 AUD + GST |
|
*Formerly Magento Open Source **Formerly Magento eCommerce |
|
Key Points to Consider:
- How much work will it take to transform a certain eCommerce platform into a store that works for your business and customers?
- Do you have the capacity to hire an in-house team, or will it make more sense to outsource the work to a third party?
Again, it’s important that you consult with your team to figure out which platform is most suited to your budget and needs. The average price of development work varies greatly across the different eCommerce options available, but keep in mind that you will usually get what you pay for. If you choose an expensive option like Adobe Commerce, make sure you justify your choice by taking advantage of the platform’s versatility.
Moreover, note that development work takes time, which should be factored into your decision. The duration varies depending on the complexity of your needs and which platform you choose, but you can expect the average time to be directly proportional to the average cost.
4. Business Objectives
“Does the platform align with your business?”
Many eCommerce platforms are geared towards specific users or businesses. This consideration can include built-in feature sets, as discussed above, but it more closely relates to the type of product an eCommerce solution provides.
For example, Shopify caters mostly to B2C and small retailers. Compared to other platforms, its main strengths are its ease of use and that it offers everything you need to set up a basic online store. On the other hand, Magento serves a different market and offers very strong native B2B capabilities with supplier quoting tools, requisition lists, and so on.
When considering these factors, you need to think about how an eCommerce platform can help your business achieve its immediate and long-term goals. Examine your choice in terms of the features and support it provides, and compare those with your business objectives to see whether it’s a good fit.
Possible Business Goals
Goals are unique to every business, which underlines the fact that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution that can work for all eCommerce stores.
For example, if you intend to take your business into foreign markets, you’ll want an eCommerce solution that offers strong localisation with support for multiple languages and currencies. If you plan to sell products on multiple channels apart from your store, you’ll want something that connects seamlessly with the platforms you might use, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Amazon.
Key Points to Consider:
- Will your chosen eCommerce platform help you meet your immediate and long-term goals?
- Does the platform you want to use work for your specific niche, market, or industry?
- Is the platform you’re considering positioned for a certain type of business, and does your organisation fall under that category?
5. Extensibility + Scalability
“Will the platform help or hinder your growth?”
Similar to the previous consideration, extensibility and scalability help you determine the long-term viability of an eCommerce platform. These factors include the features and integration capabilities you might not need at the present, but will be necessary and advantageous for your business’s longevity in the future.
In a sense, this decision essentially means selecting an eCommerce solution that’s future-proof (or at least as close to it as possible). You need to consider whether a platform will remain well-suited for your needs as your business inevitably grows in scale.
A few key features you might want to look into include the following:
Level of Customisation and Flexibility
We discussed this briefly in the previous sections, but it’s important to reiterate and frame it within the context of the future. Generally speaking, the more customisable and flexible a platform is, the more opportunities you’ll have to tailor it exactly to your needs.
For example, we recommend Magento and Adobe Commerce for businesses that will operate at (or close to) the enterprise level in the foreseeable future. If your business is looking to expand its product lines, penetrate new markets, launch multiple brands, or grow internally, it needs a highly extensible system that can easily adapt to its needs.
The freedom you gain from such a system would ensure that your business will be able to maintain its leadership position in the industry, allowing you to innovate and offer a superior online shopping experience compared to your competitors.
Site Performance, Traffic, and Server Location
You will also need to consider the performance you can expect from an eCommerce solution. Remember, some platforms come with packaged hosting, which means you’ll be limited to the servers they use. As such, you need to ensure that the servers they provide are capable of handling surges in traffic and transactions.
Moreover, the physical location of the server should also be taken into account. Using servers that are too far can make managing your store needlessly frustrating and inefficient. It can also lead to slow loading times, negatively impacting the user experience and driving potential customers away.
If your top eCommerce platform option has server capabilities that don’t match your requirements, opt for a solution that you can deploy on your own. A good example is WooCommerce, which is a platform that doesn’t limit you to any specific server, allowing you to choose your server and web host freely.
Multi-Tenancy and Multi-Site Systems
Is your business planning to create multiple brands or storefronts in the future? If yes, you’ll want an eCommerce service that has multi-tenancy and multi-site functionalities. This will make it easy and cost-effective to manage multiple stores from one central platform, allowing you to get more value from your chosen solution.
Bulk Product and Order Management
The ability to manage products and customer orders in bulk is integral to any growing eCommerce business. Most eCommerce solutions have some form of bulk product and/or order management system, but some do it better than others.
For example, WooCommerce provides basic bulk product management features, but these are very limited compared to Magento’s. With the latter, you have all of the former’s bulk management features with additional support for API integrations, making managing large inventories much more efficient.
Automation Capabilities
Automation is growing increasingly popular these days. More and more business processes can now be handled autonomously by machines and software, freeing up resources for growing companies. When selecting an eCommerce solution, opt for one with automation capabilities so that you can streamline costs and focus on results.
What can you automate in your eCommerce store? Unsurprisingly, quite a lot. This includes day-to-day processes, such as inventory replenishment and order fulfilment, regular or seasonal activities, such as market segmentation and scheduled sales, and even one-off campaigns, such as sending automatic email sequences to new customers. The possibilities are endless.
For the most part, the most powerful automation tools available today are separate solutions that don’t typically come bundled with any eCommerce platform. However, these can integrate with many of the most popular options. Anticipate which tools you’ll likely use so that you can choose the eCommerce solution that readily supports them. This will make implementation faster and reduce the time and costs of further development.
Key Points to Consider:
- Apart from your immediate requirements, what other eCommerce features do you need to facilitate your business’s growth?
- Will your chosen eCommerce platform be able to handle increased traffic as your business gets more customers–without compromising the shopping experience or costing you more money?
- Which automation tools do you plan to implement in your store, and which eCommerce platform readily supports them?
6. Rate of Adoption
“How long will it take for your in-house team to adapt to the platform?”
The final consideration has to do with your eCommerce team. Specifically, how quickly can your team become familiar with your chosen solution? After all, a platform that is beyond your team’s capacity and comfort level leads to inefficiency, which negatively affects not only your team’s productivity but also the experiences of your valued customers.
There are several factors to take into account here, which include:
Initial Training Requirements, Team Preferences & Capabilities, and Workflow Adjustments
Regardless of which eCommerce service you choose, you can expect to go through an initial training period where your team will have to learn the ins and outs of the platform. The ideal scenario would be to use an eCommerce service that matches your team’s current preferences and competencies to minimise the length of this adjustment period and get your store operational as soon as possible.
Start by considering your team’s preferences and current technical skill level, then anticipate how much training and resources they’ll need to get comfortable with the platform you choose. If your business is already using an eCommerce solution and you’re simply looking for a better one to migrate to, remember to also account for any process and workflow adjustments your team might have to make to accommodate the new platform.
Platform Complexity and Regular Maintenance
Your eCommerce team will be handling the day-to-day operations of your site, so they should be proficient with the user interface and be able to navigate the different functionalities they need. This will help ensure that your team will be able to maintain your online store effectively by themselves, reducing your reliance on third parties.
For example, SaaS options like Shopify and BigCommerce may be better suited for non-technical teams. Compared to others, these platforms are relatively easy to use and maintain even without a high degree of technical skill. Their interfaces are intuitive and much less intimidating, granting your team better agility and autonomy.
Customer Support
As your eCommerce store should ideally be operational 24/7, it’s important that your eCommerce platform has the right customer support in case you encounter any issues during off-hours. There are generally two types of support available for eCommerce platforms.
- Official Customer Support – This type of support comes directly from the eCommerce solution provider. It includes dedicated support, such as live chat and email, and self-service options, such as a knowledge base and FAQ pages. Platforms that offer dedicated customer support often price their solutions at a higher cost.
- Community-Based Support – This type of support relies heavily on other community members and businesses using the same eCommerce platform. Questions and answers are usually addressed on a discussion forum where any member is allowed to answer a query or concern.
The platform you choose dictates the type of customer support you get. Some only offer one or the other, but the best options will likely have a combination of both.
If you feel you can manage with just the help of other platform users, you might be able to make do with a more affordable option. But if you need more hands-on help to keep your business running smoothly, go for a platform that offers dedicated customer support at the very least.
Key Points to Consider:
- Which eCommerce platforms have your team used in the past, and what type of work was involved?
- Does the platform you want have all the functions your team needs to do their jobs effectively?
- Will your team need additional training to adopt your selected platform?
- Does your platform of choice provide the level of support you and your team need?
Wrapping Up
As you can see, choosing the best eCommerce platform for your business can be a complicated process. There are plenty of factors to consider, but what’s important to keep in mind is that you would need the help of multiple specialists to make an informed choice. Among these include the development team, UX designers, SEO consultants, business analysts, and the IT department–just to name a few. It’s definitely a group effort that covers a significant number of variables.
Fortunately, you won’t have to hire all these specialists or do all the work yourself. By working with the right eCommerce agency, you get direct access to a team of experts to make the process simple, cost-effective, and headache-free.
Here’s a handy infographic to summarise what we’ve discussed:
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