If you are a business based in Orange County, then it’s smart for you to be focusing on e-commerce. An SEO company will likely tell you the same if you choose to hire one. E-commerce, or people buying things online, has exploded in the past decade. There are now several options as far as e-commerce platforms that you can use on your website. Let’s take a look at popular ones.  

Shopify

This is a Canadian-based company that has its finger on the pulse of mobile shopping trends. Some features make this a good choice, including abandoned cart recovery and many themes, extensions and plugins that you can customize for your site. For only $9, you can integrate them with your Facebook account, making it into an e-commerce store. The negatives include an additional transaction fee that you have to pay if you don’t feature Shopify Payment, their checkout system. Also, there are some useful and practical extensions you may want for which they require additional investment. If you’re starting out as an e-commerce entrepreneur, you might want to consider it.

Magento

On the market for ten years, Magento is scalable and reliable. Some of their clients include the soccer team Liverpool F.C., Burger King, and Pepe Jeans. They have unlimited customization options, free social media extensions, and it’s usable and manageable even for the e-commerce neophyte. However, it might not be for you if you don’t have a team of programmers at your disposal. It’s also expensive. The basic version costs nothing, but if you want the enterprise version, it will cost you a minimum of $20,000 a year. That’s not exactly peanuts, so this is probably a solution if you have a big advertising budget and a lot of product volume.

YoKart

If you have a startup, this might be for you. They specialize in multi-vendor technology, meaning multiple sellers using the same platform, like Amazon or Etsy. There are built-in analytics tools, and it’s multilingual and has a multi-currency feature. If you’re going global, this is probably your best option. The main downside is that it’s not so easy to customize. You’ll need someone with extensive knowledge of PHP. If you want to test the viability of your business model, this might be your platform. The startup package is only $250, very reasonable considering all that you’re getting.

This is a topic where it is definitely to your benefit to get advice from an SEO company or someone with expertise in this area. Blindly picking an e-commerce platform could negatively impact your customers’ experience on your website. Do your research, and choose wisely.