Choosing the Best Ecommerce Solution for Your Store — A Checklist
B2B and B2C businesses across the U.S. and beyond are taking the leap towards ecommerce.
The move away from brick-and-mortar stores to ecommerce is inevitable. According to Nasdaq, 95% of purchases are likely to be made via ecommerce, by 2040. The coronavirus pandemic is only reaffirming these predictions, with consumers shopping online more than ever before.
To effectively compete in today’s market, anyone selling products online should have an ecommerce platform or B2B ecommerce store builder. By moving towards ecommerce or upgrading your ecommerce platform now, you can ensure you’re in the best position for the future, with optimum potential for growth, increased sales and revenue.
Getting started with ecommerce or moving to a new ecommerce platform should be seamless with the right team by your side. Read our checklist to learn how to choose the best ecommerce solution and make the most of online opportunities!
Prioritize Stability
Start by looking at the experts behind each B2B ecommerce platform. Choose a B2C ecommerce platform or B2B ecommerce store builder you can trust, built by experts with vast experience in the fields of ecommerce and web development.
Ensure Performance to Scale Your Business
Next, assess ecommerce solutions based on their scalability. Slow site speed can vastly increase bounce rate and abandonment. According to Annex Cloud, slow site speed can lead to a 75% increase in cart abandonment. Ensure the ecommerce solution you choose can enable customers to find what they need and check out seamlessly.
Ensure Extensibility
Every business is unique. Choose an ecommerce platform that enables easy extensibility to customize your site and best serve your customers. The best ecommerce solutions are easy to extend, enabling you to adapt your site as your business changes and grows.
Sell Everywhere
Whether you sell to consumers or businesses, select an ecommerce platform with omnichannel solutions that will allow you to reach your customers via their preferred channels. A study by Gladly found that 71% of consumers appreciate consistency across all channels.
Be Mobile Friendly
Shopping on mobile devices is becoming increasingly popular. Depending on what you sell and who you sell to, you may already receive more mobile traffic than desktop visitors. According to Statista, sales made on mobile devices will make up 53.9% of US retail ecommerce in 2021, and 72.9% of ecommerce sales worldwide. The best ecommerce solutions offer mobile ready features so that you can provide an exceptional experience to users on desktop and mobile alike.
Prioritize Security
Security is of the utmost importance to customers shopping online. Choose an ecommerce platform or B2B ecommerce store builder that takes security seriously and is well-equipped to protect your customers and your brand reputation. Your ecommerce platform should enable you to convert to or set up HTTPS for your site. When a URL begins HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) rather than HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), it signifies that a site has an SSL certificate, and can be considered secure. Many customers will notice whether the URL contains this vital extra letter. When browsing on Google Chrome, users will even see URL text that says “not secure” on a HTTP site, in comparison to the reassuring lock symbol displayed in the URL on secure sites.
Enable Integrations
All the integrations you need should be possible with the best ecommerce solution for your site, whether you run a B2B or B2C ecommerce store. The best ecommerce solutions are able to integrate with systems such as:
- Analytics platforms
- Marketing platforms
- ERP systems
- Payment processing systems
- Shipping and tax software
- Security and privacy software
- POS systems
- Apps
- Third party solutions
Learn from Analytics
The best ecommerce solutions will give you access to analytics to help you better understand your customers. You should be able to view reports and gain valuable information from your ecommerce platform or B2B ecommerce store builder, including information on which products are most popular, average order value and more.
Rely on Tech Support
A great ecommerce platform or B2B ecommerce store builder will be easy to use for everyone involved. The platform should be easy for your team to work with, as well as easy for your customers to use. Make sure to opt for a solution that offers reliable tech support for any questions or issues that arise.
Be SEO-Friendly
Choosing an SEO-friendly ecommerce solution can give you a head start in terms of optimizing your site for search engines. Ideally, your ecommerce platform should enable you to edit on-page SEO, create SEO-friendly URLs and have the ability to create your XML site map automatically.
Prioritize User Experience
A key goal for your site should be to provide a seamless customer experience to your users. Popular ways to achieve this include:
- Engaging customers with personalization.
- Enabling customers to find what they need and checkout with ease.
- Building a site that is attractive and professional in design.
- Creating a site that’s easy for your customers to navigate.
- Providing a streamlined checkout process.
Finding the Best Ecommerce Solution for Your Needs
Finding the best ecommerce solution can make all the difference to the success of your store.
B2C and B2B ecommerce store owners across industries have outstanding results with the ROC Commerce platform. ROC Commerce can meet all of your store needs:
- It’s the fastest ecommerce solution available.
- It’s stable. We have been developing and improving the platform for almost 20 years.
- It can support even the most complex ecommerce sites.
- It’s customizable, to meet your business needs as you grow.
- It can integrate with virtually any platform.
- It can enable you to reach customers across channels.
- It has multi-site and multi-lingual capabilities.
- It is mobile and SEO friendly.
- It has integrated search with personalized search results and merchandising.
ROC Commerce is an exceptional B2C ecommerce platform and B2B ecommerce store builder. To learn more about ROC Commerce, contact us today or request a free demo.