E-commerce sales have continued to grow at a drastic pace. This would increase chances and make room for stores looking to have and expand their online presence since e-commerce sales promise to grow further in the coming years.
This growing industry attracts a good number of risk-takers and makes competition grow fiercely. When you think of being numbered among the e-commerce entrepreneurs, it is best to research the e-commerce CMS landscape.
Let’s explore the world of e-commerce content management systems. We will look into salient details about e-commerce CMS, the best e-commerce platforms, the cheapest e-commerce platform, and more.
What is E-commerce CMS?
A content management system is software that helps e-commerce entrepreneurs create, edit and publish digital web content without writing any code. It also allows users to change the look and feel of online stores, like changing product page outlook, putting promotional images, or adding new website sections with ease to promote products and sales.
An e-commerce platform can also serve as a CMS since it is an online shopping cart solution that allows you to manage products and make sales directly through your website. This suggests that it is a user-friendly facility that takes care of all the backend store management logistics of an online store.
E-commerce CMS can be categorised into two. They are SaaS and open source. We will look at their unique distinctions:
SaaS CMS: This hosted cloud-based CMS is a solution for online shops that don’t require a separate server. You only pay a subscription, and every other thing like managing updates and setting up data storage is handled by the software vendors. Examples include Bigcommerce and Shopify. These examples serve as both an e-commerce platform and a content management system.
Open Source CMS: Here, users have absolute control over the functionality of the website. This is usually easy to download and self-hosted. Here the admins are in charge of hosting the website, maintaining the server, and installing software updates when necessary. Although some open source CMS have cloud-hosted options, it doesn’t make them the same as SaaS since maintenance Is still the responsibility of the shop owner. WooCommerce and Magneto are prime examples of this category.
Which is the best platform for e-commerce?
No one goes into business to offer services on the average level. Choosing the best e-commerce platforms influences the success of your online store.
There are many things to consider, ranging from building your online shop, web hosting, inventory, and shipping logistics, to name just a few.
Since funds are likely not to be at your disposal at all times, you need to plan for building and maintaining a cost-friendly e-commerce store.
There are free platforms that you can use to build your online store, but they require a tonne of expertise and a management eye. Paid e-commerce platforms care of all these and are considered to offer the best options. We will take a look a the three best e-commerce platforms that offer the best experience in your online services.
Daalder
Daalder, a well-refined CMS e-commerce platform is the perfect platform for small businesses looking to compete favourably with bigger brands. Here are some of its special features that are worth looking at:
- It has a simple and functional API
- Quick search engine for a seamless shopping experience
- Omnipay payment processing software
- Language plugin that helps customers interact with the platform in many foreign languages
- Exceptional technical support
Daalder is one of the easiest and most affordable e-commerce platforms to explore. That is, even the least tech-inclined individual can use the platform with no fuss whatsoever.
Daalder’s pricing plans are also very budget-friendly compared to the long list of advantages it offers over its more priced competitors. You also get more support with Daalder than you would with bigger e-commerce brands. And trust us, when you’re running an e-commerce platform, you want to go with a brand that offers great support.
Wix
Wix gives direction to its users on a straightforward way to build an online store. This platform powers over 500,000 businesses and also offers cost-friendly hosting on an annual basis. Wix e-commerce platform offers unique features. They are:
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Customised checkout page
- Add to cart from the gallery
- Wishlists
- Loyalty programs
- Discount codes
- Customer accounts
Wix e-commerce platform supports sales through multiple channels like Facebook, Instagram, and eBay. They have subscription packages, namely: Business Basic, Business Unlimited, and Business VIP. They offer unique advantages to meet your desired business specifications at varying costs.
Shopify
Shopify has earned wide recognition as an e-commerce platform provider. It manages stores counting in their millions. This is not a platform suggestion for small businesses. Its limitless bound on products to be added gives it an edge and makes it serve the largest business with an appreciable monthly cost of maintenance. Below are the notable features of this platform.
- Abandoned cart delivery
- Gift cards
- Customer discount codes
- Integrated marketing tools like email marketing and social media distribution
Shopify offers three different subscription packages. They are the Basic Shopify plan, Shopify plan, and Advanced Shopify plan. They also offer a 14-day free trial without requesting card details.
Squarespace
This platform is preferred for building a successful online store for the sales of goods. They handle server management and provide tools for building and running your online store. Their subscription plans are quite friendly. Their unique features are:
- Customised promotional pop-ups and banners
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Automatic shipping rate calculations
- Customised discount rules
- Custom integration with APIs
- Limited availability labels for promotional use
Some of these futures are not available for all the subscription plan packages. The higher-tier packages guarantee you all these features.
Magento
Magento is a great platform for established retailers who wish to extend their sales online. Some of the world’s biggest brands use Magneto. This does not restrict use to only established stores but gives you a picture of what your growing store can evolve into.
The software is easy to download but will require the service of a developer to make something top-notch out of it.
Your customers can plan orders Online and pick them up in your store. You can equally add features that will help you navigate aspects of your business like accounting, content management, customer support, marketing, payments, security, and reporting with ease.
WooCommerce
This e-commerce platform is built on WordPress. Because of its integration with a known content management system, it is easy to work your online business into your content.
WooCommerce has plug-ins for your e-commerce sites. The platform has 300 official extensions in its store. These extensions cover payments, shipping, marketing, and accounting.
There is no one perfect e-commerce platform. You just need the solution that works best for your business. As you make your choice, cost, scalability, and mobile responsiveness are the most important factors to consider.
Does Shopify have a CMS?
Shopify was first known to be an e-commerce platform. Shopify offers users ease in managing products, variants, collections, tags, and shipping schedules and also keeping security at the fore. With simple integrations incorporating dozens of payment gateways, it has become the leading e-commerce platform choice for both small and large businesses.
Shopify has a cloud-hosted CMS, and it is user-friendly, offering the best shopping experiences to its users. Like all other CMSs, the Shopify page editor has a title, content, and basic SEO. Expanding the page content options beyond the basic features was not an easy task.
When Shopify secured a content management system, it introduced sections. This made it possible for theme developers to create editable interfaces for admins. This makes it easy for store owners to add, edit and record custom content. Updates are reviewed before they are published.
The block feature, which is also part of the upgrade, contributed to the functionality of sections. It made it possible for theme developers to create a group of fields that can be repeated.
Which e-commerce platform is the best for small businesses?
Once upon a time, selling goods and offering services without a physical store didn’t seem feasible. Then customers would drive all the way just to find your product or use your services. Recently, even small businesses have needed e-commerce platforms.
This allows you to put your products on the screen of a vast population of people and make many sales. In choosing the best e-commerce platforms for small businesses, these factors must be put to check:
- Cost of running an e-commerce platform
- SEO
- Scalability
- Mobile-friendliness
- Site speed
- User experience
- Software Integration
With these factors considered for small businesses, you can select from any of the platforms already listed above.
Other examples of e-commerce CMS
A content management system (CMS) is an important software for e-commerce businesses. Several examples of this software abound, but we will consider those examples under the different types of content management systems that exist. There are three major types of CMS software: open source, proprietary, and Software-as-a-Service CMS, in addition to cloud-based solutions.
Open-source CMS can be installed and managed on a web server. It is possible to customize this software to meet the specifications of your e-commerce website. You can employ tools that help you optimize content for search engines. Examples of software in this category are:
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Magento (e-commerce)
- PrestaShop (e-commerce)
Proprietary or commercial CMS software is built and managed by an individual company. Examples of software in this category include:
- Kentico
- Microsoft SharePoint
- IBM Enterprise Content Management
- Pulse CMS
- Shopify
- Sitecore
Software as a Service (SaaS) CMS manages web content, and web hosting and provides technical support with a single supplier.
Under this category, we have two types of cloud management systems: Fully cloud CMS and Partial Cloud CMS. While the former places restrictions on customisation, the latter allows flexibility for customisation. Examples in this category are:
- Acrobat.com
- Box.net
- Google Docs
E-commerce will continue to gain more ground with the passing of the years. A lot of technologies are springing up to make it run smoothly and offer the best experience to both users and owners. Gone are those days when you have to manually create content for your online stores.
With content management systems laced with SEO-friendly features, you can push your product to the frontier by optimising its search visibility with this software. Having the best e-commerce experience depends on the services your business is ready to offer.
There are platforms preferable for a particular kind of business, so choosing what platform to use largely depends on the needs you want your business to meet.
There is no particular platform that is best for e-commerce. Every platform has its unique services to offer and is considered as best as long as those services are concerned.
