13 Questions to Ask before building an Online Store or choose an eCommerce Platform
Are you planning to build your eCommerce store? One of the most difficult things here is to select the best eCommerce platform to build the store. We have made your work easier, here are 13 questions you can ask before you make your final decision.
How to Choose Best eCommerce Platform
1. What products/services you are selling?
By what product, we don’t mean to know about the category. Instead, you will have to plan the type of product. Whether it’s a digital product or a regular product. Will the order be placed directly or it needs confirmation from the admin side?
2. How do you want to create Online Store?
There are two ways you can create a store. The first one is the custom website where you can build it as per your requirements from scratch. Alternatively, you can use ready platforms like Shopify, ecwid, morecustomersapp. Here, you don’t require coding knowledge to create the website.
3. How much flexibility do you need in your Online Store?
Along with the regular features, you also need to see extra things. For example, do you want to charge different shipping rates based on zones or do you want the pricing to change based on the city? Do you want product variants or do you need inventory management?
4. What is your budget?
Deciding the budget is the next big thing. You need to set a budget and decide whether it’s for the website only or it should also include the Mobile app.
5. What should be the Mode of Payment for your customers?
Online Checkout is a prime thing for any Online Store. Depending upon your business needs and customer base you need to decide on Manual payments or Online Payments. You can decide on Payment gateways like RazorPay, Instamojo, Paypal, Stripe, Mpesa, etc according to your demographics.
6. Is my Store SEO-friendly and can I analyze the traffic?
SEO-friendly stores will get you, visitors, from Google and other search engines. You can analyze the traffic to know your progress. SEO plays a major role in displaying your website in top searches of Search engines.
7. Is my site Secure? Are payments secure?
Security is the most essential part if you are using a custom design. Customer data as well as the payments they make should be secure. On the other hand, if you only use COD, you can go with moderate security. Your website should be SSL secured.
8. How do I handle customer services?
When the customer places an order, will the order be directly assigned to the delivery boy or you will decide it? Further, you also need to see how can customer track their orders. Customer support, Live chat, email support are important for Online stores.
9. Does it allow customer product reviews and testimonials?
Reviews can increase as well as decrease your sales but your customers will surely trust your website if you enable reviews.
10. What different plugins and integration are desirable?
Whether you want to integrate email marketing service or the orders should directly be sent to your CRM. These are some of the questions that you should ask yourself.
11. What marketing options are available for eCommerce Platforms?
The store usually doesn’t have a marketing problem but you surely need to see marketing options if you are creating a mobile app. Further, if you are using the eCommerce platform, you need to make sure that you can run ads on Facebook and Google.
12. Is there a Free trial on the eCommerce Platform?
Again, this one is for the people using ready-made eCommerce platforms. You can see if there is a free trial or not. MoreCustomersApp has a free trial using which you can explore the store.
13. Is it a Mobile Responsive eCommerce site?
A mobile-friendly website will get you the most sales. More than 50% of traffic is from mobile devices. So, make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
Final Words
You can surely ask more similar questions and decide on the eCommerce platform accordingly.
