How to choose a CMS for online store
Starting a business is sometimes easier than understanding e-commerce and choosing the best CMS for your future online store. Among dozens of popular services, only a few are actually of high quality and easy to use.
CMS is a management system for an online store or website, with the help of which all employees can fill pages, make changes, add banners / content. Systems differ from company to company and can even be developed individually. To understand and choose the best engine for an online store, we have created this article.
The main stage of launching an e-commerce site is the choice of an online store engine
A well-chosen CMS system for an online store will bring joy to customers, mental peace to managers and profit to the owner. Business automation is always beneficial because it relieves the burden on employees and minimizes errors in the sales process.
It is better to immediately choose a worthwhile platform that can be developed in the future, and not start with the first free or cheap CMS with limited features and bugs.
Ideally, an online store engine solves several problems:
- Admin panel for employees, from which you can quickly place orders, edit pages, add new products.
- A set of features for e-commerce: project administration, integration with external systems, marketplaces, opportunities for promotion and advertising.
- Convenient features for buyers. So that you can choose the method of payment, delivery, and it is easy to leave a review and receive a notification. At the same time, it is easy to navigate the structure of the site, which works quickly.
- Use reliable technologies to protect your online store from attacks and save user data.
- Opportunity to develop according to your business processes. This is important for the long-term operation of the online store without moving to another system. Explore whether it is possible to customize the solution in the future, add integrations with marketplaces and other services.
Consider each of these points at the beginning of choosing a CMS for an online store – and automatically free yourself from the problems that will arise over time.
Among which CMS for e-commerce will you have to choose
Looking for an engine for an online store? Then you will need a convenient search engine, the opinion of your team’s specialists and critical thinking. Write all your needs, expectations, budget – and compare CMS.
Critical thinking, however, is the most important component here. Free engines for online stores can suddenly turn out to be with a bunch of additional payments for new modules or more products. SaaS solutions can only be supported with the technical support of the developer company, while the online store will not be yours. Self-written engines can become obsolete and costly to maintain.
Criteria for choosing a CMS for your online store
We collected the main points of choosing an engine for an online store. You can supplement them with your own list of needs:
- Pay attention to the structure of the system, separate access for employees, adapting for different devices, the availability of the necessary functionality.
- Ease of setup, installation and use. If there are many functions, but it takes months to study them, everything is confusing, look at other options. CMS system should facilitate management, not complicate.
- Integration with external services. Are you targeting the Ukrainian e-commerce market or the Western one? Study the availability of integrations with the relevant payment and delivery services of the desired region.
- Customization (development). Check out the opportunity to expand the site with thoughts on how your business will grow in a month or a year. Find out how many products you can add, whether it is possible to modify the function/block/module for yourself and how much it costs.
- Promotion opportunities. Find out if the functionality for SEO and advertising is implemented, it is very important for success in e-commerce.
- Support and set of technologies. A self-written engine from a novice programmer may not meet your expectations at all. Check what technologies the developers use, how you will maintain and develop your online store for years, and whether it will become outdated too quickly.
The best CMS and Saas solutions for an online store: a list of the most popular solutions
To choose the best engine for an online store, be sure to compare the offers of different companies. We have collected brief descriptions of CMS systems designed for different types of businesses. Here are paid and free solutions, systems for rent and for the full development of an online store from scratch. Learn more about each and make the right choice:
1. WordPress + WooCommerce
WordPress + WooCommerce is an open source CMS system designed to create business card sites, blogs, and information resources. To create an online store on WordPress, you need the WooCommerce plugin.
2. Joomla!
Joomla! – Free engine for an online store or website. The basic version can be deployed very quickly, but its functionality is not enough to get started in e-commerce: additional modules are needed.
3. OpenCart
OpenCart – Free open source CMS for an online store. It is necessary to configure and select modules. Can be used as a basis for developing your own solution thanks to open source.
4. Magento
Magento is a multi-channel platform for online stores of any scale, owned by Adobe and built on a framework. This CMS is very popular in the world.
5. Tilda
Tilda – Online website builder, suitable for an online store with several products.
6. Shopify
Shopify is a Saas-based e-commerce platform that is perfect for a small online store or a medium-sized business. For large online stores, you need to buy Shopify Plus.
7. Horoshop
Horoshop is a Saas solution for an online store with the ability to choose one of the ready-made designs.
8. Mercurio CMS
Mercurio CMS is a CMS for an online store based on the Laravel framework with the possibility of customization. There is a version “out of the box” with a ready-made set of functions and a tariff on which you can create a completely unique solution.
What platform for an online store to order?
We analyzed the main criteria for choosing systems and examined the pros and cons of the most popular ones. If any of the platforms suits you perfectly, that’s great! Choose WordPress or Tilda for small projects, OpenCart or Horoshop for medium-sized online stores, Magento if you need very complex functionality and analytics, and Mercurio CMS for developing e-commerce platforms of any complexity without restrictions. Among other CMS systems, only this solution will cover all your needs in the subsequent development of the platform, technical support and page speed. Have you already made a choice?