E-Commerce is booming and according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development e-commerce sales hit $25.6 trillion globally in 2018, an 8% up from 2017 statistics.
The current global pandemic COVID-19 most commonly know as the coronavirus has created the perfect storm that has accelerated the uptake of digital tools, solutions and services.
Fuelling this growth is the revolution in mobile technology which has allowed shoppers complete purchases in few clicks’ from the comfort of their mobile devices.
Facebook powered by Shopify has heavily invested in e-commerce industry and are now reaping the benefits of e-commerce exponential growth.
This growth has materialised in Shopify stock rising nearly 7% with GMV Gross Merchandise Volume from merchant customers jumping 119% to $30.1 billion, beating estimates of $19.9 billion.
E-Commerce Platforms
Squarespace – is an e-commerce platform popular for those who are looking for a simple site with few products and a high focus on design.
There is some degree of flexibility in this platform as you go up on the pricing package however, this flexibility is limited if you are looking to scale.
Squarespace is great for your baby steps at e-commerce, once you are ready to walk then there are other better suited platform and solutions to serve those needs.
WooCommerce – is an e-commerce platform/plugin popular with WordPress users and stats (over 3.3 million websites have been created WooCommerce WordPress plugin) shows that this is a simple yet powerful e-commerce platform.
WooCommerce is a great Platform due to its flexibility i.e. the platform can be configured to sell physical, virtual or downloadable products as well as its adaptability to suite various business models such as for example affiliate business models.
Being free and open source and most of its widgets and add-ons are free however, there are some needs such payment gateway, subscription services, inventory management options that will require a one of payment or a monthly fee.
Magento – is an open source e-commerce platform, with a growing community which is a big plus in terms of speedy support when troubleshooting.
With a wide range of features such as multiple store management, multiple location support, multiple language to name a few.
Magneto is one of the platforms to consider when your goal includes scaling, having said that magneto is on the highest price rage.
The lack of developers supporting Magneto has made expensive and hard to customise and its small community makes support poor and difficult to troubleshoot.
Shopify – is subscription based and is by far the most complete e-commerce platform.
It suits beginners starting their e-commerce journey as well as the needs of more established e-commerce brands.
Shopify has a wide variety of features and third-party integration makes it not just a platform but an operational machine.
Needless to say, that the synergic attributes of Shopify and Facebook gives Shopify an unfair competitive advantage i.e. 1.5 billion users at your fingertips.
No mater what platform you use they all have their pros and cons and here at GettoPreneur we are here to help you with the heavy lifting so that you can concentrate in growing your brand.
