Which e-commerce platform should you choose?

Erik B • 21 Jun, 2022 • 8 Min. read

If you sell products you should have an online store. The most important deciding factors are user-friendliness and what functions the platform can offer.

Choosing the right platform for your online store is one of the most important choices you make, not unlike choosing the perfect location for a physical store. One company can benefit from being located in Barnes, while another is a perfect fit for Hampstead. In the same way, online stores have different needs you have to meet.

If you are technically skilled and want to play with different options, you can use a website builder with open-source code where you can experiment. If you are completely new to the big world of e-commerce, it can be beneficial to choose a platform that is designed for beginners. Then you’ll be able to use built-in tools and intuitive solutions that are easy to get to know.

Shopify is the most popular solution

Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce platform that was initially launched for the English-speaking market. Today, it has become the world’s most popular solution, as it’s easy to integrate local payment options and integrate the language of your choice.

Shopify makes it easy to set up the online store, create a separate domain name, manage campaigns, and track which activities lead to sales.

Reasons why Shopify has become so popular

• Developed for e-commerce specifically and more optimized for this than anything else.
• Considerably less maintenance work than other e-commerce solutions.
• 1.7 million online stores in 175 countries. 
• User-friendly platform.
• The best integrations for Google and Facebook.
• Shopify is open source, which means that anyone can create integrations and applications for the platform (Shopify must approve anything that may be added to their “App Store”).
• Simple internal reporting options.

Shopify Plus

Shopify excels in the B2C market, and Shopify Plus has distinguished itself in the market with four key features:

• Tailored pricing options. You can give different business customers different prices based on the products and quantities they buy. It’s easy to set up price lists and discounts for business customers.
• Personal shopping experience. You can have different storefronts for the private and business markets without making things complicated. Orders and inventory are managed from the same central office.
• Self-service portal for ordering. Instead of taking orders manually by phone or email, business customers can shop in your online store 24 hours a day, with access to their own price lists and products.
• Can be easily integrated. Shopify Plus has many partners and can be integrated with various CMS options, marketing tools, customer service systems, and order management tools.

Journey Agency are Shopify experts

Journey Agency have developers with a high level of expertise in setting up and operating Shopify. Apart from providing setup and operational support, our experts are ready to offer guidance, and ongoing development, and implement new integrations. We also assist with marketing strategies and search engine optimization to drive traffic to your online store. 

Our customers often ask us which e-commerce platform is best suited for their needs. In many cases, the answer is Shopify, simply because the platform offers user-friendly solutions, as well as great options for SEO, SEM, and social media.

Getting started with Shopify

The two most important decisions you make for your business are what products you should sell and how your online store should appear. Actions you need to take in order to get started are listed below.

1. Add your first product

• From the admin page, click on products to get to the product page.
• Click “Add product”.
• Determine the title and product details. The product details change the way the products are displayed to your customers. They also make it easier to organize your products and help customers find what you sell. In addition to titles, you can add descriptions, images, prices, delivery details, etc.
• Click “Save product”.

2. Choose a theme

Shopify develops free themes that you can choose from.

• From the admin page, press Online store > Themes
• In the free themes section, click “Explore Free Themes” and you will see all available options.
• Click on any of them to read about features and available styles.
• Click “Add” on the theme you want to implement to your online store.

*It’s also possible to pay for themes by pressing “Try a theme”. Then you get a preview and can decide if you want to buy it after exploring a bit.

3. Set up a domain for your online store

Your online store’s domain is the URL, or website address, where customers find your online store. You can choose between buying a new domain through Shopify, or through a third party and connecting it to Shopify.

Buy a domain from Shopify:

• Enable auto-renew so your domain doesn’t expire by mistake.
• Set your Shopify domain as your primary domain so it’s what appears in browsers, in search results, and on social media.
• Set up your email so customers can reach you at …@mycustomdomain.com.
• Send a few test emails to make sure your customers are reaching you.

Buy a domain from a third party:

• Follow the instructions from Custom Domains.
• Choose the primary domain that should appear in browsers, search results, and social media.
• Configure the email so that customers can reach you.

Alternatives to Shopify

If you want to explore other platforms, you’ll find some options here:

WooCommerce

This platform is a plugin built into WordPress that allows you to implement an online store on your WordPress site in just minutes. WooCommerce is easy to tailor to your needs, with integrations such as Google Ads, Mailchimp, and various payment solutions.

Magento

This is Adobe’s e-commerce platform. They have made setting up and designing the store easy with their “drag-and-drop” functions. You can also tailor for specific customer segments.

Squarespace

The Squarespace platform lets you choose freely from one of their many website templates, fonts, and colour palettes, allowing you to set up the website the way you want, both in terms of functionality and design. Tools for emailing and social media marketing are also included.

Wix

This platform is a good option for start-ups that don’t have extensive experience running an online store. Their “Business Basic Plan” costs $23 a month and allows you to sell up to 300 products with user-friendly solutions for both your business and visitors.

Weebly

Like Wix, Weebly is created with simple, intuitive solutions that are best suited for companies with small inventories and little previous experience setting up an online store. However, the platform has some limitations, like the fact that you don’t have any tools to track inventory. You also can’t make changes to the shopping cart.

A plus is that you can get a free solution, which means you can sell your products without having to share the profit.

BigCommerce

This Australian e-commerce platform is one of the largest and has hosted more than 145,000 websites. They offer online store creation, search engine optimization, hosting, and marketing, as well as security for small and large businesses.

Square Online

This platform garners a lot of praise for its ease of use and price. It’s also easy to tailor the template to suit your business. The downside is that there’s only one template to customize, which means if you don’t like the one they offer, there’s not much you can do.

Journey Agency recommends Shopify

At Journey Agency, we work with Shopify every day – a solution that makes it easy to set up your online store, create your own domain, manage campaigns, and track which activities lead to sales. Shopify also has the best integrations with Google and Facebook, two relatively important players in 2022.

Contact Journey Agency if you would like a quote for setting up and operating Shopify, or marketing your online store.