An increasing number of retailers want, particularly now, to be on-line. However it may be troublesome to navigate the assorted varieties of e-commerce platforms obtainable, particularly should you’re simply beginning out.
Listed below are 5 that we have now prepared to put in as normal on our internet hosting packages, plus two WordPress choices.
ZenCart
ZenCart is simple to put in and arrange, with a good quantity of templates and some extensions. It’s additionally pretty simple to run, with nice inventory management options and straightforward gross sales choices.
Nevertheless, if you need your website to look up-to-date and well-designed, you’ll should know learn how to learn code and spend a whole lot of time cleansing out ZenCart’s HTML. In any other case, your website goes to look extremely dated. And if you wish to add a whole lot of new merchandise instantly, it’s a sluggish course of, which means that the preliminary setup will eat up a whole lot of time. It’s additionally troublesome to improve, and, as with most internet functions, upgrades are a significant a part of guaranteeing good web site safety.
CubeCart
Created within the UK, CubeCart is a flexible little e-commerce platform, with loads of options, together with social media plugins, limitless merchandise, classes, and orders, and a responsive template pores and skin that’ll look good throughout a number of gadgets. It integrates properly with third events as effectively, and many of the extensions are free, together with the fee suppliers.
Whereas it will probably scale for small to medium companies, it would battle with bigger outlets, particularly when you have 1000’s of merchandise and are planning a world promoting marketing campaign. And whereas the template is responsive, it may be a bit restrictive, particularly should you’re seeking to have one thing completely different than the generic storefront fashion.
PrestaShop
A relative newcomer within the e-commerce software program subject, PrestaShop has loads of choices for customisation, together with a big assortment of themes, detailed reporting and forecasting, and straightforward internationalisation for each entrance of website and admin.
It isn’t fairly as highly effective as a number of the different platforms on the market, nevertheless, and whereas it does provide the versatility to run worldwide shops, it may not address the assets wanted for a bigger operation. There are many further modules obtainable, however they will run a bit costly, and the prevailing advertising instruments are a bit missing, which suggests you would wish to spend extra to get the identical performance as different e-commerce platforms.
OpenCart
OpenCart is a simple to make use of platform that’s splendid for anybody who desires a world retailer – because it has multi-language and multi-currency choices built-in. It additionally has numerous addons which are pretty cheap, which makes it much more reasonably priced.
Nevertheless, it’s not very customisable, which suggests you’re just about caught with what you may get. It additionally isn’t maintained as actively as different e-commerce platforms, which may trigger issues additional on, particularly if exploits are discovered.
Magento
Magento is a powerhouse of an e-commerce platform, with a whole lot of options, a whole lot of choices, and a whole lot of customisation. Loads of huge names use Magento as their e-commerce platform, and it’ll simply develop with what you are promoting.
Nevertheless, as a result of it’s such a powerhouse, it is going to have points on most internet hosting packages. It’s typically advisable that should you’re planning on having a big e-commerce website, you’ll must run Magento solely on a devoted server. Plus, it’s not constructed for novices – it’s designed for individuals who have the time or assets to actually get into it and make it do what you need. And now that Magento is owned by Adobe, they may push you extra in the direction of their totally managed proprietary model should you need assistance.
If operating your personal e-commerce software program looks like a whole lot of work, there are additionally WordPress plugins that provide you with e-commerce performance on a WordPress website. These are nice choices for anybody who already has a WordPress website, or for somebody who desires to have greater than only a storefront (similar to a weblog, assist articles, or the complete web site).
With e-commerce plugins, you may set up them on the similar time you put in WordPress or add them on to an current WordPress website. WordPress is one other one in all our one-click functions that you could simply set up in your internet hosting package deal, or, if you need even higher WordPress internet hosting, you should buy one in all our Managed WordPress packages.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the massive title in WordPress e-commerce plugins. It’s free to obtain and set up in your website, however, like most WordPress addons, there are extensions and themes that you’ve the choice of buying. You’ll additionally must pay for whichever fee supplier you wish to use, however lots of them have extensions to make them even simpler to make use of.
Whereas WooCommerce is fairly simple, it is perhaps troublesome for somebody who’s simply beginning out with WordPress and WooCommerce on the similar time. Nevertheless, should you’re coming from an internet retail background (similar to shifting from one other e-commerce platform), the construction of WooCommerce will probably be straightforward to choose up and work with.
Straightforward Digital Downloads
Straightforward Digital Downloads is an e-commerce plugin constructed particularly for on-line outlets to promote digital downloads, similar to software program, e-books, or graphics. The construction is completely different than, say, WooCommerce, however there’s a whole lot of assist on the market for individuals simply beginning out. It’s free to obtain and set up in your website, however there are extensions you will have the choice of buying. The extensions are barely pricier than WooCommerce, however there are some nice choices that will make internet hosting on-line information a breeze, similar to integrations with Amazon Internet Companies and Dropbox.
With Straightforward Digital Downloads and the Amazon Internet Companies extension, you could possibly simply run a website crammed with giant downloadable information, similar to zipped up folders of pictures, with out having these information in your internet hosting package deal, saving you area, bandwidth, and cash.
So there are simply a number of the e-commerce choices on the market for you. If there’s one particularly you want, why not discuss it with us on Twitter or Fb?