The era of ecommerce
The health crisis that forced us not to go out and carry out all activities from home, accelerated the growth of electronic commerce, causing businesses, regardless of their size, to start promoting their online store in order to continue operating and selling.
This rapid growth led business owners to make initially confusing decisions, starting, for example, with the decision of which ecommerce platform to choose. There are several options and from VNS we want to help you when choosing the best platform for online sales for your business, always thinking about the best customer experience, correct inventory management and order processing.
There are many options that offer all the necessary features to launch an e-commerce website, let’s take a look at the main ones:
- WooCommerce : It is an option designed for beginners and professionals, it integrates with WordPress which is very intuitive for those who are just starting out. It has all the basics you need to get out there, from posting items for sale to processing payments. Furthermore, functionalities can be added with dedicated extensions. It connects with almost all payment methods and with the most popular email marketing tools.
If you are looking to make an online store based on WordPress, the ease of use of WooCommerce is the way. However, taking the platform to its full potential requires the addition and management of various extensions that can affect the performance of the site.
In addition, being a free open source tool WooCommerce does not have a phone, email or support. You will have to have a specialized implementation team that can help you solve the problems.
- Shopify: It is the most popular ecommerce platform worldwide, it powers more than 1 million businesses around the world, it stands out for being a stable and scalable platform. It has all the necessary tools to create a fully functional eCommerce site, focusing on performance without losing the essential features and easy to use, it has SEO tools and its functionality can be extended with an ecosystem of applications and extensions that developers put available .. Setting up the online store is simple, as it can be created in a matter of minutes by choosing from several free and / or premium design options, all thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. In addition, it offers several popular payment options to choose from, among them MercadoPago, PayU, Authorize.net, Paypal, among others, it has integrations with different sales channels: Facebook, Instagram and integration tests with TikTok are being done.
One great feature that is built into all Shopify plans is the abandoned cart recovery option. With this feature, users can reconnect with customers who leave products in their shopping cart without completing the transaction.
Shopify has 24/7 phone support, online chat, and email support, ensuring your customers can get direct help from the team in a matter of minutes.
Other available platforms:
- PrestaShop: It is a platform that allows you to set up a store quickly. Besides being easy to use, PrestaShop includes several of functions. It includes product management functionality, multiple payment options, and customizable checkout pages. You can also extend the platform through extensions and themes.
- Tendube: Its technology is ideal for brands looking to increase their income through internet sales. Among the functionalities offered, the more than 30 customizable theme options stand out, and the integration with other online sales channels, such as Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shops. The creation of the store requires only 5 steps: registration, choice of design, upload of the first product, configuration of means of payment and configuration of shipping methods.
- Market Shops: It was born from the hand of Mercado Libre a few years ago, as a complement to the marketplace, to give brands their own space. If we sell in Mercado Libre, you can import the products and have the store up and running in a few hours. The disadvantage at this point is that there is a lack of information to guide us in the creation of the store. On the other hand, it has few basic designs and can only be integrated with the payment methods authorized by MercadoLibre. The customization is very simple and allows you to add banners and image carousel on the main page of the store.
- Magento: It is an online commerce platform that has an open source version and another with a license for use, with which you can carry out medium to large-scale projects related to ecommerce. It allows you to build a custom site and have control over the functionalities of the sales channel. It is designed from its origin for a good search engine optimization. In addition to being able to control SEO, several tools are included to get traffic from the beginning. The new version allows adding videos from YouTube From day one, Magento is ready to integrate with third-party tools and services. Connect the store with PayPal, Google Analytics or Google Shopping, Mailchimp or Amazon. Most of the most widespread ERP programs, such as SAP Business One, can be connected with Magento, leaving the ecommerce channel integrated into the usual processes of the company. The Magento shopping cart allows you to add items while still viewing the catalog, making it easier for you to add more than one product.
- BigCommerce One of the most important aspects is the web design and Bigcommerce helps you at this point since it offers many templates to choose the one that best suits our business. Thanks to its online marketing tools, BigCommerce has strong SEO features to position our store in the most suitable search engines. We can enter keywords, refine our photos and change or modify the product name and / or description. The application offers all its clients continuous and immediate technical support both by phone and by email and chat. Bigcommerce does not force you to use its own payment gateway and does not charge anything per transaction, (except for fees for payment by credit card). It has more than 40 payment gateways among which we can highlight Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Square, Paypal …
- Vtex: It is an e-commerce platform for retail and wholesale brands. It allows building an online store, integrating with management and order systems and the creation of marketplaces and addressing omnichannel sales. It is a platform created in Brazil with significant growth in Latin America, it allows complete management of the online store and integration with the different means of payment, shipping and online sales channels.
CEO of VNS.
