You’re obviously looking for sound advice before starting an e-commerce business. The first few decisions that you will take as owner/manager of an online storeare crucial: this includes domain name check and listing of thepotential domain names, where to host your store, and so on. One crucial decisionand the most confusing partis thee-commerce platform tochoosethat willhelp you power up your online store.

There are so many platforms to choose fromas well as countless features and functions you can use. The number of choices can get you overwhelmed pretty easily. It can also be difficult to tell whether or not the platform you want can offer you the features you need, or if it will scale or even be cost-effective as yougrow your store.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important features your e-commerce platform should have:

Payment gateway option integration

Your chosen platform should be able to accept payments and integrate with your country’s payment options. Your online store needs to link into a payment gateway, a processor that securely transfers funds from the client’s bank accounts to your own. Ensure that your chosen payment gateway is supported as part of the core platform or through an add-on or extension.

Take note that not every payment gateway is compatible with every e-commerce platform.

Multiple design options

You might already have an existing idea about your store’s design. You might want a storefront that is simple, neutral, and sleek. Or perhaps you want a store that’s filled with bright colors and big images to show off the remarkable details of your products.

Manye-commerce platforms and service providers offer themes that can simply be used to adjust the look and feel of your store. Using them can be as easy as clicking and dragging elements in the web app, or it may need uploading a file to your server. Many platforms provide only a few themes, while others offer dozens of options.

Security

A secure website is a happy website. The security of your store as well as customer information are very important to safeguard, andthe platform youchoose has a huge impact on this factor. You will need both PCI compliance and SSL certificates. If the platform you want doesn’t offer both of these, you may choose to purchase them with additional features.

Room to grow

You should choose a platform that lets you scale up and down your plan as necessary, or give you the flexibility to add extensions or new features through a marketplace. Both these options can give you the ability to add supplementary features without the need to migrate to a different platform, which is very costly, time-consuming, and stressful.

That’s it! These are the elements of a good e-commerce platform, use it so you can choose wisely. What other factors do you consider equally important? Share it with us in the comments below.