The article under consideration has been published in The Forbes dated from September 26, 2014. It is headlined “Which E-Commerce Platform Is The Best Choice For Your Online Store?” The article has been written by The Forbes Contributor, Haris Bacic. The main purpose of it is to provide the readers with the key information regarding the choice of Internet platform for future online start-up.
At the beginning, Bacic (2014) states that there are a lot of factors which are to be taken into consideration when someone is establishing an online store. And among the most important ones is the platform that will be exploited for powering e-commerce venture. The author warns the readers that the data that is contained in the article is fully based upon his working experience in marketing agency named ‘AdFicient’ which virtually carries out a lot of research for its clients in the sphere of e-commerce.
Basically, there are two platforms: self-hosted and hosted. Whereas in the hosted platforms an alien company hosts the entrepreneur’s stores, when it goes about self-hosted platforms, a start-upper is only provided with the software and one is to get one’s own web hosting alone. Bacic (2014) recommends using hosted platform since in this case; the entrepreneur can always count on dedicated technical support of another company. In addition, the chances that start-up will go down due to the problems with the Internet platform equals to zero. At the same time the price of software that is to be rented from another company might be rather high.
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In the next paragraphs the author analyses several kinds of online platforms, namely Shopify, Volusion, Big Commerce and others. According to Bacic (2014), the interface of the Shopify is ‘simply gorgeous’. However, it has certain limitations which are hard to overcome. Among them is the limited ability to modify the page of checkout. The control over it is minimal. Therefore, if entrepreneur wants to design the checkout page according to their preferences, then they should look for another e-platform. At the same time, Shopify has no competitors in the area of add-on and applications. There are hundreds of apps which could be downloaded and then installed on the store. Shopify costs at least $29 per month. If the entrepreneur upgrades to a higher plan, then he can count on lower per-transaction payment.
Volusion is similar to Shopify. However, the level of customization is lower and the number of operations which could be performed with the help of it is rather low too. The technical support is responsive but of no use. The month pay is $15. The author does not recommend using it. The same applies to the Big Commerce. It lacks the level of control that is available at the Shopify. In addition, it is more expensive that the latter. The author does not recommend using Magneto at all due to the difficulty of customization and slow rate of performance. At the same time, WooCommerce is great since it offers a high level of customization to its users. The actions, hooks and filters which are necessary for introduction of the enhancements are rather efficient. The available resources are endless. At the end of the article, the author advises to use either Shopify or Woo-Commerce. Bacic (2014) notes that if the entrepreneur is a big company with the diversified list of products offered, a wide number of clients and traffic then it is better and safer to use Shopify since it provides better technical support in comparison with other e-commerce platforms.
The presented article is of great use for me since first of all it is always easier to establish business online while you are a student or full-time employee. You can run it during spare time. Therefore, being a student I regard it as an opportunity to raise some money for my future education as well as living expenses. Secondly, due to the wide spread of Internet, online stores will become more and more popular and I am sure that I will open the one of my own and use the data from this article which relates actually to the choice of the best Internet platform.