How to choose an eCommerce platform

What is the best eCommerce platform for small- or medium-sized business?

What is the best eCommerce platform for enterprise businesses?

This is the million-dollar question (sometimes literally, depending on the project size).

But before I try to answer this, it is important to make sure we cover all aspects of this very important topic.

How many eCommerce platforms exist?

There are at least 200+ eCommerce platforms out there. This means there are probably a handful of eCommerce platforms that fit your business.

And their price varies from free to very expensive, with different purchasing models such as SaaS, PaaS, Open Source, etc.

Sometimes, technically speaking, the perfect platform for today’s business needs, may not be the best option down the road. Some platforms allow your business to grow because they are flexible and scalable, but some platforms are less scalable or is built on a model that limits what can be done in terms of personalization.

One big reason for a successful eCommerce website implementation is because a good amount of thought and research was done by merchants before they even chose which platform to use.

That’s why, even more important than determining which one is the best for your business, you need to make sure you know exactly what your needs and goals are.

What are the main differences between all the eCommerce platforms?

There are so many differences between platforms that it would make this article a very boring and pointless read if I were to list them all, but here are some of the main differences to consider…

SaaS

SaaS stands for Software as a Service and what best describes it is a fully-furnished house rental. You can live in the house, you may even add decorations such as that beautiful painting or vintage mirror your gramma gave to you, but since this house is fully-furnished, there will be some items in the house whether you like it or not.

Sometimes, renting a fully-furnished house is the best solution… for example, if you are a bachelor who just graduated and need your first home to be move-in ready so you can save money to invest in a sofa or bed (haven’t you heard about Ikea?)

Anyway, the important point here is that no matter how much you may dislike the furnishing and feel that some items are just wasting space that you prefer to use for that drum set you’ve always wanted, it is what it is, there’s nothing you can do about it.

And if you decide to move to another place, all the furnishing, appliances, etc. stays in the house, doesn’t matter if you grow to love your dining table, you can’t take it with you, and this is the same with pretty much all SaaS platforms and there’s a reason for that: to save costs.

A SaaS platform is like a big condo where all units are cookie-cutter furnished. Most units share identical products, this way it is cost-effective for the condo developer since they are purchasing in high volumes. They will also save on maintenance since they know all the furnishes and appliances, so if a dishwasher is broken, no problem, they know how to fix it (cuz they just fixed the same one in your neighbor’s unit last week) or have a plumber already on contract to do the work, which makes everything easier to maintain and ultimately more profitable for the condo owners.

Ok, so does that mean SaaS platforms are not good for my business?

Not at all! As I said, it all depends on your business needs and goals.

Most of the SaaS platforms are perfect for new businesses or existing ones that don’t have the resource or appetite to invest in a more customizable/tailored eCommerce platform.

All the maintenance, upgrades, support, security, etc. are done by the vendor, so you don’t need to worry about being dependent on an agency or developers to maintain your website, and instead, you can call upon them when a specific need arises.

Some examples of SaaS platforms are:

• Shopify
• Big Commerce
• Salesforce
• Netflix
• Zoom

PaaS

Following the analogy above, a PaaS platform works somewhat similar to a SaaS platform, but in this case, you are renting an unfurnished house with only structural items such as appliances, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and closets.

The good news is that you can now bring that animal-print sofa that you love so much!

In other words, you are free to decorate as you’d like because, despite the fact you have some structural things already in place, you still have all this space ready to receive your personal touch, in the way that works and suits you better.

You still don’t own the place, but if you decide to leave, you can bring your stuff with you to your next place!

So, for whom is a PaaS platform most suitable for?

For all organizations either willing to invest in in-house developers or hiring an agency (I know a good one: Brain & Code) and in most cases, merchants will not have to worry about hosting and the framework since this is usually provided by the vendor.

The flexibility and scalability of a PaaS platform are probably the most important factors because now you can customize the platform based on your business needs and not simply inherit lots of functionalities that you didn’t even want in the first place, in other words, you can have a tailored platform.

Some platforms such as Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce) also offer you the Open Source concept, where you have access to the core files of the platform, which allows endless possibilities for customizations and integrations.

Some examples of PaaS are:

• Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce)
• Oracle Commerce
• Hybris
• Sitecore
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Open Source

OK, I think I should have given it more thought when I started using rental housing as an analogy for eCommerce platforms, so let’s see how this will fit in an Open Source scenario (LOL).

Let’s say you are an adventure traveler who loves to be close to nature and you decided to buy a Bus and turn it into a Recreational Vehicle (RV).

You are free to do what you want in terms of decoration, customizations and adjustments, which can be very exciting but scary as well because as we all know “with great power comes… great development costs.”

The only thing is that, different from the SaaS and PaaS platforms, you don’t have the land to park your RV, so doesn’t matter how beautiful and well decorated your RV is, you still need to find a place to park at the end of the day, and most likely this will be an RV Campground where you will have to share with other campers. In other words, you need to choose where to host your website and just like camping sites, there are so many options that you could end up overwhelmed and feel like you’ve entered a rabbit hole.

And depending on the hosting company you choose, you can face many roadblocks such as speed performance, security, bad settings or management, etc. that could elevate your costs with hiring IT staff to maintain and upgrade your website.

So does this mean an Open Source platform is a bad thing? Again, not at all! There are 2 main reasons for a merchant to go with an Open Source platform:

1. Flexibility to tailor the platform as you want, and sometimes by using a user-friendly interface with thousands of free extensions.
2. Platform costs. Almost all Open Source platforms are free. That means all you need is someone with some technical ability to download the software on your server and install it.

An Open Source platform can be very suitable for small- or medium-sized companies with no previous eCommerce website and wants to test waters before moving onto a paid platform.

Some examples of Open Source platforms are:

• Magento Open Source (formerly Magento Community)
• WordPress
• OpenCart 

Things to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform

As you can see there are many platforms out there with different sales and implementation approaches, unique extensions, etc.

At the end of the day, what will determine which one is the best for your business is your website requirements.

You need to start asking questions about your business goals and where your eCommerce will/should be in 2, 3, and 5 years, in order to match it to the right platform to produce the results you want.

Having specialized in the eCommerce industry for almost 10 years, what I hear often from eCommerce merchants is “I want to start small, I just have a couple of products and that’s it for now.” Then, when I sit down to discuss requirements with them, they realize they forgot to consider the type of products they want to sell (simple, configurable, bundle, drop-shipping, etc.), shipping and fulfillment, merchandising, returns, international websites, multi-language, multi-currency, integrations with payment gateways, ERP, warehouse management systems, legacy systems, infrastructure, marketing capabilities, etc.

So, the best platform perhaps is not the most expensive (or free!) one, but one that can handle your current needs and is also ready to grow with you, otherwise, you will find yourself reading this article again in a couple of years because you have outgrown your choice and need to re-platform.