Building an online store: what to look for in a platform
The differences between hosted platforms, open source and custom software, and the questions to ask before you choose.
Choosing a platform is one of the most expensive decisions to reverse. The points below are the ones to settle before you decide.
Total cost is not just the monthly fee
Alongside the software fee you have to count transaction commission, integration charges, theme and development costs. On some platforms a low monthly fee is recovered through commission as your revenue grows.
Are the integrations ready, or does each need a project?
There are months between marketplace, shipping, e-invoicing and accounting connections arriving ready and each one needing separate development. List the systems you will use and ask about them one by one.
Is your data yours?
Make sure you can take your product, customer and order data with you in full when you want to leave. Without an export path, changing platform means starting over.
What happens when you grow?
You may not be doing B2B sales today, but you might in two years. The same goes for POS and physical stores, exports and API access. Being able to switch these on later saves you the cost of changing platform.
Five questions to ask before deciding
- Is setup and migration support provided, and is it paid?
- How many marketplaces can be connected — is there a limit?
- Is a carrier agreement provided, or do I arrange my own?
- Are my own domain and SSL included?
- What hours is support available, and on which channel?
