What should you look for in an eCommerce website builder?
With so many website builders on the market today, it can be a real headache to try and figure out which would offer the most for your business. The first step is to eliminate website builders that aren't primarily for eCommerce. If a site builder has blogging, photo galleries, or a different feature as its main purpose, with eCommerce tacked on through addons, it won't be enough for your business in the long run.
Once you've narrowed the field down to eCommerce software platforms, you need to understand what to look for. Not all eCommerce website builders are equal, nor do they all offer the full range of advantages you'll need to make your business thrive.
Each of these features is necessary for your business, by making it easy to get your website off the ground, reducing your expenses, helping you reach (and serve) customers, and more.
Included hosting
If you can build, run, and host your eCommerce website on one convenient platform, you've eliminated the need to find and pay for reliable web hosting. This will save you time and money.
Unlimited bandwidth
Every time a visitor accesses your website, some bandwidth is used. Many eCommerce platforms limit bandwidth, restricting the amount of traffic you can get without your site slowing down or incurring overage fees. High-traffic days should be cause for celebration, not punishment via decreased performance and surprise charges.
No product limits
Some platforms restrict you to small numbers of products unless you move up to a higher-tier plan. Look for a platform with minimal restrictions so you won't have to pick and choose which products to sell. Even the lowest-priced plan should allow you at least 100 products.
Full-featured product pages
Your product pages need to include all the information customers want, including descriptions, specifications (technical or otherwise), customer reviews, and high-quality images. The best eCommerce website builders provide an easy way to add these through dedicated sections.
Unlimited categories and subcategories
Categories are a necessity for organizing your products so customers can find them, and your category structure should rely solely on a sensible approach for your products, not an arbitrary limit.
Unlimited content pages
Your business website will benefit from additional pages like an About page, policy pages, a Contact page, and other pages as you see fit.
Built-in SEO tools
Search Engine Optimization is necessary for getting your pages and products to rank high in search engine results. SEO is much easier with built-in tools for applying these optimizations, otherwise you'll need technical knowledge.
Customer management tools
These are your means of tracking purchases and interacting with customers to build loyalty, while keeping records of these interactions. The more capabilities you have for performing customer service, the better — you should be able to handle returns, edit orders, communicate via email, and more.
Abandoned cart recovery tools
When a customer puts items into their online shopping cart and doesn't complete the purchase, they are said to have abandoned their cart. You need built-in tools for reminding customers to return and finish their purchase.
A complete administrator dashboard
You should be able to run every aspect of your online store, from initial website creation to inventory management to customer interaction, from a single dashboard accessible via login and password, without needing to install software on your computer.
Unlimited tech support
If you have issues or questions regarding your eCommerce website, it's extremely helpful to be able to contact someone for help 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. If all support is in-house, even better.
Scalability for growth
You don't want your growing business to be held back by your online store's infrastructure. You need a platform that works for any size of business without sacrificing speed or quality.
