E-commerce is developing rapidly, and the pandemic gave a special impetus to the growth of the market: in 2020 alone, the e-Commerce sector grew by 58% (source: Data Insight.). This means that the business associated with trade can no longer grow without its own online store. But before you start selling online, it is important to understand how such platforms are created.

To begin with, we will highlight a few basic characteristics of a good online store:

• safe;
• optimized for SEO;
• fast;
• comfortable;
• adaptive for mobile devices.

These are the basic points that support any successful online shopping website. And now we will consider two options for developing such a portal: this is a ready-made solution and custom development.

What is a ready-made solution?

A ready-made solution is a software product (in our case, a platform for an online store) that does not need programming. Recently, the editors of YuSMP Group published an article in which they spoke in detail about ready-made solutions for the site. This time we will look at the contract platforms and how they are suitable for an online store.

Online store on WordPress in conjunction with Woocommerce

WordPress is a well-known CMS, which has developed many sites, including portals for online shopping. The most successful is considered to be a combination of WordPress with the Woocommerce add-on, which is created specifically for online stores. With the help of the constructor, you can collect all the necessary elements: order forms, personal accounts, product cards, and so on.

The advantages of WordPress are that it is free, and there are many specialists on the market who know how to work with this CMS. On the platform, you can choose a ready-made design, and use plug-ins to connect the necessary functions.

However, when choosing WordPress in conjunction with Woocommerce, it is important to remember that all add-ons are likely to be paid. And you will need add-ons: link the site to 1C, set up online payment, connect logistics, and much more requires additional costs. Also, this CMS is not very suitable for large online stores — thousands of products will make the site heavy, and therefore slower.

In addition, WordPress has a lot of weaknesses, in the best case you will be regularly attacked by spam, at the worst-the site can be hacked. Thus, running an online store with the WooCommerce plugin turns into a constant fight against viruses and the consequences of hacking.

Online store on Shopify

For more than 15 years Shopify makes creating online stores simple and affordable. With the help of the service, you can create an excellent online store without a technical base.

There is no need to worry about programming, hosting, or buying a domain through intermediaries. Shopify hosting is safe and fast, the service updates the software itself.

Shopify templates are not only stylish but also adapted to mobile screens. So you don't have to worry about the design.

 Shopify is dynamic and designed with the potential for business scaling in mind. It has built-in tools for SEO and marketing.

However for the minimum set of functions, the owner will have to pay $ 29 each month, plus the service collects commissions.

Custom development for an online store

Custom or individual development is a unique solution that is created for the customer's tasks. There will be no problems with the connection of payment and delivery, integration of 1C, linking logistics. In fact, the online store will be created specifically for a specific business and its needs with great scope for further scaling.

The design is also developed for the project, taking into account the UI and UX and adapting to mobile devices. Specialists will take care of all technical issues, the site will be better visible to search engines, and adding new features will not be a problem.

If the web studio has a technical support service, then the owner of the online store should not worry about anything but business.

Custom development solves all the problems of ready-made solutions, but, of course, it costs more.

Before that, we talked about the online store only as a portal, but now more and more purchases are made in mobile applications. Through push notifications, users instantly receive information about discounts, promotions, promo codes, and just reminders to go in and make a purchase. And here custom development is the only option for a full-fledged application.

What to choose

The choice will always depend on the tasks and the scale of the business. For small stores, ready-made solutions are suitable: not only on WordPress and Shopify but also on other, simpler designers. This will be an inexpensive and quick option to start with. For stores with a large number of products, complex integrations, and scaling — it is better to choose a custom development, only such a solution will give the necessary flexibility and quick adaptation to new functions.