Which eCommerce Platform is Best in Australia?Posted by Alice Perera on January 18th, 2023 These days everyone is online, whether it is for entertainment purposes, socialising or carrying out their day-to-day activities like shopping, making appointments etc. With smartphones and other smart devices becoming an essential part of everyday life for people, this new trend is sure to improve over the months and years to come, which is why for a business that is selling products and services, an ecommerce website is of vital importance. These types of websites can be quite complex, and the reason why you will need the help of a company with immense experience in ecommerce web development for Melbourne and Sydney businesses, if you are also thinking of taking your brick-and-mortar store to the online arena. Why is ecommerce so important for business? With the shift in consumer behaviour from physical shopping to online shopping, businesses have found the need to create a presence for themselves online if they want to keep up with their competition. This trend took a sharp upward turn during the global Covid-19 pandemic when many countries were under lockdown, and the only way that businesses could manage to stay afloat was if they sold online. People too began to see the convenience and ease offered by these online stores, and have continued with the trend, post pandemic as well. According to experienced companies who carry out web design and development for Melbourne and Sydney based businesses, there are many benefits that a business can enjoy by having an online store. These include: ● Broaden your horizons: While a traditional brick and mortar store limits a business’s operations into one specific geo location, with an ecommerce store there is no restriction on whom you can reach. Businesses can even reach global customers with an online store, increasing their potential to earn higher revenue and profits. ● Accessible to customers at any time: An online store is always open, and customers can buy goods and services at any time convenient to them. This allows for more opportunities in terms of sales, as there is no closing time, like in a physical store. ● Highly scalable: When looking to scale your physical store, you will need to consider the costs and time and so many other factors as well. However, with an online store, scaling your business with an enhanced product range is simple and easy, and costs just a fraction of what you would spend growing a retail store. ● Better marketing opportunities: An ecommerce website will open up more marketing opportunities for a business at just a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing techniques. How to get an ecommerce website developed? There are millions of ecommerce websites around the world, and one of the most important factors when getting one developed is that it offers a great user experience that will keep your customers coming back to it over and over again. This is why you need to hire a company that has a lot of experience in web design and development. A good web development company will understand your business goals, your industry, your products or services and will create an ecommerce website that suits your specific requirements. They will also give you a choice of how you want to get it done; whether you want it built from scratch or customise an existing website design according to your business specifics. In addition, they will also discuss with you and make recommendations for the most suitable ecommerce platform available for your website. What are the different ecommerce platforms available in Australia? Different ecommerce platforms available in Australia. According to Kosala Indrasiri, the Founder and CEO of Sanmark Solutions, “At Sanmark Solutions, we have helped many Australian businesses succeed online by building custom ecommerce solutions. While there are many great ecommerce platforms available, we believe it’s important for business owners to carefully consider their options and choose a platform that offers the features and support they need to achieve their goals. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade your existing ecommerce platform, we can help you find the solution that works best for your business.” So, what are some of the more commonly used ecommerce platforms in Australia? According to articles published by Ecommerce Platforms (Best Ecommerce Platform Australia (Jan 2023): Top Picks – Ecommerce Platforms) and Mobile Transaction (6 Best Ecommerce Platforms in Australia) the following are some of the best ecommerce platforms used for Australian businesses. Let’s have a look at each of them! 1. Shopify This platform offers many benefits, such as:
While there are so many benefits to using Shopify, there are a few drawbacks as well, such as:
2. BigCommerce Users can enjoy many features offered by BigCommerce, irrespective of which subscription plan they choose, which is why many businesses are favouring this platform. However, it is not for beginners, because they offer complex functionality and operating and maintaining your store means navigating both the backend and frontend. The pros of using BigCommerce include:
Some of the cons associated with using BigCommerce includes:
3. WooCommerce WooCommerce is essentially an ecommerce plugin for WordPress, that makes designing and creating your online store a simple and easy process. They offer many features that are extremely useful for businesses such as inventory control, secure payment options, shipping integration and even tax management. In addition, they also offer features such as order tracking, delivery updates etc. WooCommerce is open source and hence they offer fantastic customisation options for your ecommerce site, and the best part; it is a free plugin! In addition, it is very easy to learn how to use it, which makes it the ideal platform for anyone. Pros of using WooCommerce for ecommerce web development for Sydney and Melbourne businesses:
Some cons of using WooCommerce includes:
4. Wix Wix.com is a cloud-based website building platform that also offers design features as well as web hosting facilities. It is one of the most user-friendly platforms available with tools that allow for drag and drop features. They also offer hundreds of templates which can be used to easily design and create your ecommerce store. Wix is not only easy to use when it comes to web design and development, but is optimised for mobile as well, which is great for businesses that want to expand even further. This platform is ideal for both small and medium scale businesses and they offer three different pricing plans, with different features and storage. Their pricing is quite affordable for the features and options that they offer. Pros of using the Wix platform include:
Some of the cons of using Wix include:
5. Squarespace Squarespace is another USA based company that offers a very simple and easy to use website building tool. There is no coding required at all for this platform, which means anyone can use it to create their website or ecommerce store. This platform, although offering very simple tools, boasts on their ability to create fantastic websites that will stand out, and that are also SEO friendly. The design templates they offer are award winning and their platform has been used by celebrities as well, including UK fashion designer Sadie Williams and the site for Arch Motorcycle founded by Keanu Reeves (see article What is Squarespace? Everything You Need to Know – Ecommerce Platforms (ecommerce-platforms.com)). Advantages of using Squarespace:
Disadvantages of using this platform:
6. Square Online Square Online is another popular ecommerce platform for web design and development, that offers in built inventory management, POS system and online payments. These features help you to sync up your online store and physical store, especially in terms of inventory control and management. They offer a very cost effective and easy way to create your online store. Square online has an initial free package (although you will still be asked to pay for payment processing etc), as well as paid packages, but the features available on the paid ones are far better and more advanced. The paid packages however, can be a bit more costly than Squarespace. Pros of using Square Online:
Cons if using Square Online:
7. Weebly Weebly is a very easy to use website builder, which is now a part of Square. This platform allows you to create highly responsive ecommerce sites that are both attractive and engaging. They offer a starting plan that is free of charge, and if you need to upgrade, the paid plans are extremely reasonably priced. Creating an ecommerce site using Weebly is easy and flexible as they offer integrated ecommerce tools with a simple interface for building sites. Advantages of using Weebly include:
Some disadvantages if using Weebly include:
8. Sellfy Sellfy helps you to sell a diverse range of products online, and is very easy to use. In simple terms, you can build your site within just a few minutes (so they claim)! In addition, they offer in-built marketing tools that keep track of performance as well as providing incentives to customers to spend more on the site. All these features and the fact they offer very simple website building tools, have made Sellfy quite a frontrunner when it comes to popular ecommerce platforms. Some pros of using Sellfy:
Some cons of using Sellfy include:
Conclusion As you can see, when it comes to ecommerce web design and development for Sydney and Melbourne based businesses, there are quite a few options of suitable platforms that are available, each with their own pros and cons, and choosing the right one for you can be quite an overwhelming decision. This is why it is always best to consult with and hire an experienced web development company like Sanmark Solutions, because we have the right expertise and know-how when it comes to all things related to web design and development, and we will consider your requirements deeply, prior to recommending the best ecommerce platform for your Australian business. There is no doubt about it that an online store is essential for your business if you want to enjoy enhanced reach, traffic and sales. So, speak to one of our friendly representatives today, and let us see how we can help you get the best services in ecommerce web development for your Melbourne or Sydney based business! Like it? Share it!More by this author |