This is one of the early and most important decisions that an e-commerce business must make. Which e-commerce platform should we invest in?
Indeed, it is an investment. Time, efforts and money will need to be invested in at variable quantities. Though, results will vary, greatly. It will be a decision that will not stay with you for a long time.
There is no right or wrong answer here. You can go with a commercial solution or an open source one, but there are certain rules to follow at the selection phase. We advise our customers to choose a platform:
- that they can manage with relative ease, or they will have easy and cost efficient access to resources that can manage it for them.
- that is popular and has a wide user base.
- that has been around long enough.
- that integrates well with third party solutions.
- that is cost effective at the start up phases.
- that uses newer technology that is also mature
- that is maintained by a large company or a large group of people that are financially motivated to continue.
Most of these items are self explanatory and obvious. However, we often see people choosing a platform just because they like the templates that come with that. This is more like choosing your bride to be based on a dress she has.