If you want to start a new business online today, thankfully there’s many platforms to choose from. Gone are the days where you have complex software to install on a web server. Nowadays, starting an online business for new entrepreneurs is so easy you can do it yourself.
All the big providers offer cloud-hosted SaaS products, full of features which mean the plan of attack you’re considering for world domination, likely requires just a credit card and your time. The best part of using these platforms is that they charge very little in contrast to the cost you have to bear for conventional business ideas.
Unlike moving banks, shifting between one online store platform to another is possible and often possible in a matter of minutes thanks to export/import migration services.
Shifting from one eCommerce platform to another, such as Magento vs. Shopify Plus often happens when your businesses reaches an infliction point of success and outgrows the old technology platform.
Thanks to the power of the cloud, scalability is as simple as scaling out the site and incrementing your costs, something that should easily be accommodated in the profit from increased sales.
Below are some eCommerce platform options you should consider when starting a new business idea which may help get you on the right provider from the start.
Shopify
Shopify is one of the most well-known eCommerce platforms. It was started as a snowboarding business platform in 2004 called SnowDevil, and it gained a lot of attention from people around the world.
Later on, Shopify expanded its ideas and its dynamics and began to cater to niche online stores and new platforms for a variety of business ideas just like they did at the time for snowboarding. The Shopify store now comes with different variants and versions some of which are Shopify Plus, Shopify Advanced, and Shopify Pro.
These are the three tiers of Shopify that are most popular in the market because they have a great reach for the audience, and with that, they are reliable and look professional and modern, helping to retain customers rather than scare them offer with home-brew solutions.
If you start your new online store with Shopify, then you have to pay from around nine dollars to around $250 every month depending on your sales. Additionally, Shopify deducts a very small percentage as a commission on your sales. That percentage is around 2% in total.
As you can see, the cost of an eCommerce platform is nothing in comparison to the costs of setting up a conventional business. But some people don’t want to pay even this small amount, and for them, there is the next option.
Magento Community Store
The Magento community store is very famous for providing new business ideas related to technology and gadgets. It is completely for free, and you don’t have to pay anything to set up your online store with Magento. You can even design your own themes and outlook for your Magento store and can execute new products absolutely for free.
The Magento website is a bit expensive, and if you are starting a new business, then you don’t have to go to the website right away.
You can use the community store for two to three years and then shift to the website option when your business is mature enough to bear all these expenses. Just like Shopify, Magento will also charge you a small amount of commission per sale.
There are many more stores like BigCommerce, WordPress, and more, but these two are the top two most accepted in the online marketplace.
