With the global ecommerce market growing at a rapid pace, the number of ecommerce platforms and content management systems available has grown as well. In such a scenario, figuring out which platform to use when you're looking to build your online store can be a fairly confusing task – especially if you aren't from a technical/ecommerce background.
The most important factors which will come into consideration when zeroing in on the CMS would be the availability of extensions, availability of support, functionality, customizability and the cost of development and maintenance. All of them are open source and have free community versions and paid enterprise versions.
Every platform and CMS has its plus and minus points and choosing the right one depends on your business model and requirements. If you are going in for a hosted platform, Shopify or Zepo, Magento or WordPress, or you want your custom made E-commerce platform, then you are in the right place. Email or give us a call for more details.
Managed e-commerce platforms vs. Content Management Systems (CMS)
There are two options available for building an ecommerce website - one can either use managed (hosted) ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce or open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) like Magento.
As the name indicates, a hosted ecommerce platform is hosted on a server that you will not have access to, while CMS-based websites are self-hosted on server space you will have to purchase. Which option to choose will depend a lot on your specific needs as well as your level of technical involvement.
Benefits of using Hosted ecommerce platforms
Lower development and maintenance - There is no coding expertise required, thereby eliminating the need for a development team. Also, the hosting is shared, which lowers the server costs.
Better technical support - Most online store creators have a strong tech-support team to assist users with any issues that may arise.
Less complex to work with - The back-end for most of these platforms is user-friendly and is built for ease of use keeping in mind users with limited technical knowledge.
Benefits of using a Content Management System(CMS)
Better functionality - Multitude of plugins, add-ons and themes available for content management systems allow the addition of advanced functionalities that would not be possible in the case of self-hosted platforms.
Better customizability - Content management systems allow the freedom of adding/modifying features as well as building a customized design unique to one's brand.
They also allow for constant improvements and enhancements to the user experience on the site, which plays a major role in today's highly competitive ecommerce space.
Can support large stores and sophisticated websites - Content Management Systems, being self-hosted do not have a limit to the number of products or categories allowed, so they can handle much larger stores as well as sophisticated websites.
