Sell online. Everything is online, everyone is online. Why not your products as well?
The easiest and most effective way for you to touch a large customer base from any location in one go is to bring your products online. You can do it either by building your own website or by listing your products on an e-commerce platform.
Building your website requires lots of technical tasks and skills, creating everything from scratch, setting up payment gateways, and also making an effort on search engine optimization. Why go through the hassle when there are Ecommerce platforms that come with all the aforementioned things already set up for you?
In an e-commerce platform, the only thing you need to do is list your products and let the platform do the rest. In other words, since the platform plays a major part in selling your products online, you need to make sure that you select the best one for you.
Here are some things you need to consider when selecting an Ecommerce platform.
Ecommerce platform pricing
In using an e-commerce platform to sell your products online, the first thing to consider is the cost. There may be several fees incurred depending on the specific platform. Some of the most common fees include a registration fee, monthly fee, a fee for listings additional to the given quota, payment gateway fee, sales commission, etc.
Different platforms have either one or a combination of these different fees.
Depending on your initial budget, you will need to do a price vs. features comparison of your preferred Ecommerce platforms.
Most platforms require a registration fee as well as a monthly subscription. However, there are also free e-commerce platforms that have no registration or monthly fees, but only a small commission from sales. If you are looking for a cost-effective place, this would be perfect for you.
Setting up payment gateways
It will be helpful if the platform comes payment gateway ready, and you only have to enjoy the profit that will flow in through them! This is important if you intend to sell internationally, because then it is essential that the platform supports most of the major internationally accepted payment methods including PayPal and major credit cards such as Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and JCB.
Simple e-commerce platform UI
The vendor UI (user interface) or the place from where you manage all your orders and customers should not be rocket science. It should be clear at a glance, simple, easily comprehensible, and user-friendly.
It should also provide you with a 360-degree view of all available functions and features as well, in one view, in a way that helps you perform several functions quickly and easily.
Customizing online shop website design
One aspect of your store that makes it unique is its appearance. Make sure that you are able to customize the eCommerce store information, details, and media such as images just the way you want, on the eCommerce platform of your choice. This will ensure that your store stands out, among many others, in terms of appearance in the way you prefer, helping you create a store identity of your own.
Product listings
You could be just starting to sell online and have no clue as to how many items you will sell online. Or, you could have a large number of products that you plan on selling online. However, some platforms will ask you to choose a subscription based on the number of planned product listings. The higher the number of products, the higher the package to be paid. In that case, try to choose a platform that has no limitations whatsoever when it comes to the number of listings. There are e-commerce platforms that let you create free online stores with unlimited products.
Order and shipment management with notifications
Your product and shipment tasks will be much easier to handle if they are manageable on the same dashboard. In addition, check if the e-commerce platform features a system that will automatically send triggered email notifications to customers during the different stages of the shipment process. This will help build trust in the customers and clear away any doubts about purchasing your products as well because the process is transparent to them.
Ecommerce customer support management
Customers need to be able to contact you for their various queries regarding any of your products and shipment information when you sell online. This is a must-have feature of any e-commerce platform as it ensures a stable communication method between vendors and customers, through the very platform itself, without the need for a third-party method or tool.
Publishing articles
Some e-commerce platforms let you publish articles from your product site as well. As content has become a huge marketing tool, this could be a beneficial feature. For example, if you are selling grocery items, you can publish different recipes that your customers can make using your products. If you are selling plants online, you can write how-to guides on caring for plants. This is an additional feature you can look for if you need to be extra creative and stand out online.
E-commerce analytics for sales
To keep improving your sales, you need to view and analyze sales data. It would be beneficial if the platform came with an analytics dashboard that displays a clear view of all sales data. The data analysis will be clearer if the data can be filtered and viewed based on different time periods, profits, order quantities, etc. You can also check if the system lets you print analytics for external use as well.
Customer reviews management
One important aspect on which the credibility of your online store depends is customer reviews. So, it is important that you are able to manage customer reviews on purchased products from the dashboard itself. Check if you are able to accept, review and reject customer reviews without any hassle.
Creating discount coupons for eCommerce
During special occasions and seasons, you will plan on offering discount coupons to attract new customers as well as satisfy loyal customers. Therefore, it will be much easier if there is a coupon-generating system on the platform itself, without the need to look for a third-party tool to get it done.
Income withdrawal
Check the withdrawal options that the e-commerce platform is offering, to see if any of them is convenient for you. Some platforms allow withdrawals only after a certain period, or monthly. Some platforms require you to have a minimum balance maintained in the account all the time. There are also platforms that let you withdraw instantly, to either an online payment option or a bank account.
Managing digital assets
As an eCommerce store, you need to display images of your products for potential customers. Due to the large number of images that will accumulate over time as you keep listing products, you need to be able to manage those digital assets easily. Check if the platform features facilitate that function as well.
Managing customer data
If the platform provides you with a bird’s eye view of all customers, you can get an understanding of each customer. It would be better if you could filter and analyze each customer’s behaviors to identify the highest spending customers, loyal customers, etc.
Refund management
Depending on the refund policies of your store, make sure that the platform features an efficient and reliable function to manage refund requests from customers. It will be much easier to handle if the function comes as part of the eCommerce platform dashboard itself.
Creating a ledger book for online stores
Recording daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual earnings and income withdrawals is important to understand your store’s performance and profitability. You can manage this data better online if the e-commerce platform features a ledger book option on the dashboard itself.
More and better e-commerce platform features for a cost that does not empty your pockets
The above discussed are some of the common and useful features that you will need to consider before deciding to start your store on a select eCommerce platform. Some platforms come with all these and more features for a much higher cost, while some others come with a limited number of features for a medium cost. You need to finalize the features and functions that YOU need for your store and decide on the platform that best suits you.
Did you read about all the above features and just wish that you found a platform like that for free? Well, your wish is going to come true. Check out the offline online commerce® e-commerce platform, which comes with all the above-discussed features and functions for free, and the only charge is a small commission from sales! I mean, who can beat that?
Sell online today! Hurry up and sign up for the ongoing 50% off spring sale.