The eCommerce platform you choose can impact how effective your business will be. This is why it is so important to remember that when doing eCommerce for business, you need to make sure to do everything attentively and get started the right way. Here are the top five tips that help you choose the right eCommerce premium web templates for business.
1 Start A Free Trial
Perhaps the best thing you can do when choosing a platform is to start a free trial. Free trials are specifically designed to let you get a better idea of what the product or service is like and help you decide whether you want to purchase the full version (and, of course, actually persuade you to purchase it).
Besides, what do you lose from starting a free trial and trying out the features a certain eCommerce platform offers?
But, of course, before you do start a free trial, you need to decide which platform you want to be trying out. On the other hand, you can always start a free trial on a different platform to truly understand how each platform works and which one you prefer.
This way, you will have a complete picture of all the options you have, and you will be able to make a smarter, more calculated choice.
If you don’t want to start a free trial and busy yourself with building a demo website, you can always try to find existing websites that use the platform you want to know more about it. Explore these websites and see what functions they have.
You can also look for videos on YouTube where people review different eCommerce PrestaShop Theme platforms while showing recordings of the features of these platforms.
2 Ask Questions
One thing you should definitely remember is that you must ask questions when something is unclear to you. If you can’t find relevant information about the platform, you doubt that the newest version has the old features, you want to know something specific about the platform, etc.
Contact the developers and ask them the questions you want to know about. It’s really not that hard and it will help you make a better choice.
For example, you might be wondering whether a specific plugin works on the platform you are currently considering. The information you found has a list of plugins, but this one particularly is not there because it isn’t a popular one.
Yet, there are no alternatives to it present on the list either. This is exactly the kind of situation when you need to contact the developers to find out whether this plugin is supported.
3 Compare Prices
Comparing prices is by far the easiest way to decide which eCommerce platform is best for you, especially when you are on a tight budget. That being said, when you compare prices, you should also be comparing value.
Different platforms might have valuable features that other platforms don’t have which is why they are priced higher. Deciding whether you need those features will help you make a smarter choice.
For instance, you might want to have the most basic eCommerce platform that doesn’t have any weird extra features that you won’t be using. You just want the basic stuff because you know that your website will probably load faster when there are fewer elements on it.
Besides, you don’t want to confuse your customers by offering them too many possible actions that they can complete on your website.
This is exactly when a relatively cheap eCommerce Shopify templates platform will be enough. It will have the features you need without offering any unnecessary options you won’t use.
Alternatively, you can use a popular platform, but instead of taking its premium plan with many features (and a much higher price), you can take a basic plan with the most necessary functions you will need to start your eCommerce store.
4 Consider the Basics
Obviously, price is not always the most important aspect of an eCommerce platform. All the features the platform offers will determine whether or not the platform is suitable for your needs. Here are some basic elements to compare:
- User-Friendliness: If you are new to building websites, especially eCommerce stores, it’s better to start with a platform that is user-friendly. This means that you will be guided through every step and given tips on how to make your website better.
- Navigation: Navigation is important for your site visitors. You need to be able to build a website where a potential customer doesn’t have to figure out what to click next to find what they are looking for.
- Security: If your website can be easily hacked, it will quickly gain a bad reputation. You don’t want to lose your site or the personal details of your customers.
- Integration: Plugins and add-ons can significantly improve the look and functionality of your website, so a platform that has good integration with these is preferable.
- SEO-Friendliness: SEO is crucial for your website, so you need to make sure that the platform you use allows you to optimize your website for search engines.
- Analytics: Tracking performance will help you determine how well your website functions, so make sure you can access in-depth analytics.
- Mobile-Friendliness: Mobile-friendliness is a feature that lets you build a version of your website for mobile devices.
- Payment Options: Customers should be able to pay for your products or services in different ways (e.g. credit or debit card, electronic wallets).
Design Options: If you already have a vision for the design of your website, you will need to choose a platform that will help you make that vision become reality.
5 Check Customer Support
Last but not least, you need to make sure that the platform you choose has a good customer or tech support. This is necessary for you to be able to get feedback when you need it and have errors corrected if they occur on your website. A good eCommerce platform will always have a customer support team ready to help you 24/7.
Moreover, you need to find out what exactly the team will be ready to help you with. Do they only answer customer questions concerning the platform or will they actively help you solve an issue if you ask them to? Do they reply instantly or will you have to wait for hours while your website is down and you are losing customers?
Final Thoughts
To sum up, choosing the right eCommerce theme platform may require a lot of attention from you, but it will be worth it in the end. After all, you do want your business to be successful, and an eCommerce platform can be instrumental for its success.