COVID-19 and the worldwide pandemic in 2020 have put an end to any doubts about the long-term viability of eCommerce.
According to McKinsey & Company, the “great consumer shift” is as follows:
In fewer than a few months of COVID-19, internet consumer buying across various categories has expanded dramatically.
After the COVID-19 problem, US customers are still planning to purchase online, according to the latest survey results.
Businesses of all sizes, phases, and industries, including B2B, B2C, and DTC, are all affected by this remarkable digital transition.
The worldwide retail eCommerce sales are expected to rise from USD 3.53 trillion in 2019 to as much as USD 6.54 trillion in 2022, an increase of roughly 85 percent.
No matter where you are in the lifecycle of your company, selecting the appropriate eCommerce platform for your needs today and in the future requires careful consideration. Here are the 12 most important considerations to keep in mind when selecting an eCommerce platform. From start-up to scale-up, you’ll have all of the information you need to make the correct decision for your company thanks to our professional advice.
How Essential It Is to Select a Good eCommerce Platform?
Starting with the fundamentals. E-commerce platforms are software solutions that let internet companies manage their website, marketing, sales, and operations all in one place. A cloud-based solution that is quick, adaptable, and scalable provides a memorable customer experience, improves operational efficiency, and opens the door to incredible new revenue streams.
The best part is that the cost of admission isn’t exorbitant. For a relatively little price, you may have the ideal storefront for your company with the best eCommerce platforms. Consider the following four important aspects to help you make an informed decision:
You must be able to swiftly grow your product and service offerings.
The cost of developing your eCommerce platform is only the beginning; you must also account for recurring maintenance expenditures.
Are there any features integrated into the platform to help you better engage with customers?
Make customer service a top priority in order to increase client acquisition and retention.
Online commerce is a growing field, and its advantages are enormous, whether coming from a business or consumer perspective. Due to this creating the proper commerce solution not only benefit the scaling or growth of the company but also impact the search engine ranking of the affected product. According to statistics:
“More than 80% of the people choose to buy from an online store rather than a physical market.”
Ecommerce growth isn’t something new to us, but it’s been going on for a decade. Let’s take an example of Amazon; they had zero physical stores until 2021, and all of their business was going online for over a decade. And still, they are focusing on and promoting online shopping. Their physical stores are just an example of new innovations they want to test in the market.
Similarly, like Amazon, eBay is also doing wonders in the commerce market, and they are all reaching such milestones because of their specific, rightly curated commerce solution. Creating such methodologies that support your organization and its all parts, in the long run, is a pretty challenging task to perform. Therefore, it’s relatively easy to hire an agency to perform such a task than to create by ownself.
Creation of a ‘Perfect’ Ecommerce Solution
According to some statistics:
“More than 90% of the startups fail in their first year in the business.”
This happens because they start their company without having any proper planning and strategies. But only planning and strategies aren’t enough to get going; good team, execution, and a business solution are necessary to stand out among your competitors and effortlessly cleanse through the first ‘death’ year.
If you comfortably survive the first year of your business, then stopping you from any external menace would be next to impossible. History proves that only those eCommerce businesses survive easily in their launch year who are backed by robust strategies and an active commerce solution. Therefore, you must know the fundamental pillars of such techniques and how you can comfortably create one.
There are seven steps that you should consider before creating the right eCommerce solution:
- Define your brand
- Aligns your goals and objectives
- Design a perfect UI/ UX -> Your number one priority
- Fast loading speed
- Quality assurance of your product
- Deployment of your eCommerce solution
- Establish a support and maintenance system
Each step on its own has very powerful importance and can be divided into three to four subcategories; for the sake of explanation, we keep them as it is. Take an example of the last step:
Customer support is considered to be the backbone of your business body. If this isn’t working correctly, has slow speed, or has lousy UI, then it drastically affects the customer retention of your product. From this, you can assume that you have to carefully assign every aspect of the body in its place to avoid damaging your product’s reputation.
Therefore, for creating a commerce solution, hiring an agency would be the best bet you can make.
Is Deploying Your ‘Perfect’ Commerce Solution Worth it?
You have probably done with creating a solution for your business. Then what’s the next step? Do you have the right system? How to test it? Read along to get your answers.
The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that the first try at creating a commerce solution is rarely successful. It’s because the solution is so huge to be successfully developed and deployed successfully in the first attempt. Therefore, your eCommerce solution has to go through a lot of trial and error to be purposeful for the next 3-5 years.
Now, come to a question, is it worth it? The answer is: Yes, it definitely is. As we have explained above, the eCommerce solution serves a lot of purposes, from development to customer support; everything gathers under the same umbrella. That umbrella saves your business from the adverse effects of the market because it has the tools that are sufficient enough to combat all kinds of little mismanagements.
Your commerce solution absolutely diminishes your worries about how your eCommerce site is performing and what to do next. And you can use that time to support the content creation part of your store. Content is the next important thing you should be working on after the creation of a good commerce solution.
Asking your customer’s opinions about the working of your website is necessary because they are the ones for whom you’re undergoing challenging things. Your customer opinions should come first, and then your boss and managers. It may happen that the version of the commerce solution liked by your bosses isn’t pleasing enough to the customers. In this case, do what is necessary by opting for customer choice.
What to do After Deploying the Commerce Solution?
You will be seeing the results once you deploy the software for your product. But don’t wait for instant results and changes as growth doesn’t come at a breakneck pace on your product. It will take some time for the users to understand, grasp, and get accustomed to the latest innovation in your product.
Once they understand the changes you have made, they will come forward and tell you how they are feeling firsthand. You don’t have to conduct surveys or online pools just to ask users’ opinions. If they liked your newly designed product, you leverage that time to focus on other essential things. Otherwise, change what is problematic to the users.
To Sum Up,
A commerce solution is a thing that cannot be delayed or a thing to be ignored in your business. As we have said above, it’s your product’s backbone and provides everything that can make you a brand in your desired niche. Everything is related to this part of your business, from customer retention to user acquisition.
Therefore, as a product owner, it’s your job to set up a team, provide them with tools, and hire experienced staff and managers to successfully position yourself in the more incredible than ever eCommerce market.