First, introducing an E-Commerce framework will be good to start the discussion, since the term should never be confused with programming language. HTML is the programming language used for creating all websites; it is a worldwide protocol to display content on the Internet. But, the E-Commerce frameworks are different from programming languages, since these are the platform placed above HTML.
From this discussion, you shall come across the different types of E-Commerce frameworks along with the best options available to the E-Commerce retailers, and the relevance of E-Commerce website development.
Categories of E-Commerce Framework
E-Commerce frameworks are available in different shapes and sizes befitting the specific needs of retailers. Now, these varying categories bring up suitable benefits along with challenges the E-Commerce retailers have to handle till their E-Commerce website is online. So, being among the ardent, dedicated retailer determined to operate an online E-Commerce store, you have to correctly decide for your business since the E-Commerce website re-platforming projects present a significant expense to the bottom line that is all yours.
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Software As A Service (SaaS)
Software As A Service (SaaS) means the pricing structure wherein the customer has to pay for having access to certain software on a recurring basis. The rapidly scaling businesses remarkably benefit from this pricing structure, since pricing scales with their business. Technical support is included in the subscription to the service which is the highest advantage of SaaS frameworks. -
Open-Source
The enterprise-level businesses have a good option in the Open-source E-Commerce frameworks. Herein, no cost is associated with this very software. Alternatively, Open-source E-Commerce frameworks need a complete E-Commerce website build-out from the scratch. These frameworks lack technical support, thus shifting to a new platform later is bound to be an expensive and long-term process. -
Headless
Headless E-Commerce stores influence the custom front-end and use the steadfast E-Commerce backend. Often, these E-Commerce stores are extremely complicated for building up and maintaining, so the businesses with extremely specific requirements benefit from them. Due to this complexity, complete user-interface customization is possible while a secured and tested backend is maintained. Building up a headless E-Commerce website on open-source platforms or SaaS platforms is possible.
The Highly Recommended E-Commerce Frameworks
With a little research, you shall come across a number of E-Commerce website frameworks. Due to excessive competition, all these E-Commerce website frameworks are implementing new features on a constant basis for drawing in new retailers. It might be one framework is momentarily offering a new advantageous feature, thereby influencing the time-tested operators in this space seems to be a safe bet for the businesses willing to have a reliable online store.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce has captured a significant market share from the legacy E-Commerce frameworks, thanks to -
i Integrated Sales Features
The industry-leading sales functionality is built into the platform directly in the BigCommerce framework. On being compared to other E-Commerce platforms where integrations from third-party vendors are needed, this feature set of BigCommerce is offering better cost savings to its users.The abandoned cart saver functionality of BigCommerce sends notifications to the customers about the products being back to stock, they are willing to purchase. It is an integration, like Klaviyo, needed for implementing the back-in-stock notifications.
Additionally, BigCommerce, by default, is offering customer support and chat functionality, thereby allowing the users to properly respond to customer questions as well as offer upsells without any interruptions. But Gorgias is the recommended customer service tool for the E-Commerce frameworks which are not offering by-default customer support.
ii No Transaction Fees
Operating online stores will definitely include transaction fees, which is the associated huge cost. The payment merchants like Klarna, Square and PayPal are charging a smaller percentage of each transaction to its users like many other E-Commerce frameworks, thus it costs upto 8% of the total price of products sold, to its users.But BigCommerce is different - it is offering its framework as SaaS, and refrains from charging the retailers per transaction along with the payment processor fees. Thus, business owners can reduce costs and take steps to maximize their profit margins.
iii Product Variations
Offering up to 600 variations per product listed, BigCommerce is a favourite among retailers. For instance, a t-shirt is being sold in 3 colours and 3 sizes - then the total variations, in this case, is 9 since the variants are calculated by multiplying the total options available for each attribute.For the most complicated products, the variations typically reach around 25 before being appropriate for creating a completely new product listing. For the ones with technical and complex products, the lifesaver method is to have the ability of offering 600 variations.
Shopify
Shopify has evolved and grown to be established as the single greatest E-commerce platform, owing to its standout features making it the go-to for several businesses.
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Themes and Templates
Shopify is offering both free and paid themes to worldwide users, which are fully customizable. Hence, the users can change the layouts, colour palettes and more. The industry-leading design tools it is offering helps the brands to create an ideal user performance on desktop and mobile devices. -
Huge App Integration Library
In the E-Commerce space, integrations are the largest point of focus. Through app installation, it becomes easy to implement the added functionality with a set of clicks. These applications are used for customer support, search, shipping, inventory management and product recommendations. All these abilities of applications can natively combine in customer and order information, the earlier technical resources associated with the business tasks are significantly lessened. -
User Interface
The easy-to-use user interface as offered by the backend is the greatest selling point for Shopify as the E-Commerce framework. Hence, the retailers can check out their orders, customers, revenues and more statistics in a graphically satisfying interface. So, the hindrances of entrance in E-Commerce is better reduced. Thus, small businesses can start selling online without any need to have a technical background as required earlier.
BigCommerce and Shopify are the two recommended E-Commerce platforms for business owners, for building, designing and growing business websites. Nevertheless, the best approach is to get in touch with professional E-Commerce website developers before starting a live site.
