Are you going to start your own eCommerce store? Or want to upgrade the existing platform? In all probability you will come across 3 big names while choosing the best eCommerce platform- Magento , Shopify and BigCommerce. A robust eCommerce platform can make your life easier by doing almost everything like managing inventory, margin, user account management , wish list, check past orders and what not!
So here is an analysis done by Fashion Metric that evaluates these 3 platforms that would help your decision making process easier:
The ‘easiest to use’ platform goes to Shopify and you can get your site up and running in no time . If you do not need much customization and not an expert in coding, then Shopify is the easiest way to make your store live through easy-to-use templates. However , one of the limiting factors is less customization scope. Shopify has their own programming language ‘liquid’ for customizing templates. Their template library does not have a vast collection. This means that there is a good chance your site built on this platform can look similar to many other sites.
Advantages:
- User-friendly
- Small customizations do not need coding
- Affordable and good support
Drawbacks:
- Limited customization option
- Limited template library
- Limited reporting option
BigCommerce is the biggest competitor to Shopify as both enables creating store easy and fast. Shopify themes are more attractive but chances of customization are more in BigCommerce . Also BigCommerce does not force to learn their unique programming language to customize.
Shopify mainly focuses on eCommerce companies within the USA, while BigCommerce gives good support for worldwide shipping
Advantages:
- Easy to use
- HTML/CSS can be used to edit the themes
- Worldwide shipping support
Cons:
- Built-in templates are not appealing enough
- Customization require more effort than Shopify
- Third party app support is limited
Magento
Magento – the eCommerce king and this fact is supported by global brands like Nike , Northface, etc.. Hosted solution of Magento – Magento Go Competes with Shopify and BigCommerce. Template library is also pretty limited in Magento Go, unlike Magento Community and Enterprise edition. Magento advanced version is pretty expensive. This is the platform by developers for developers, so you need to be pretty conversant with Html /CSS to customize
Benefits:
- The most advanced and comprehensive eCommerce platform
- Large collection of templates
- Large custom options
- Advanced reporting and inventory management
- Third-party apps and plugin library
Cons:
- Require extensive technical knowledge to fully explore this platform
- The learning curve is steep and is not user friendly to a non-technical person
- Mostly online documentation and limited support options
Hope , these points will make your decision better while purchasing or upgrading eCommerce platform.
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