The 5 best platforms to create your e-commerce

E-commerce continues to grow around the world. Specifically, in Spain it exceeded 48.800 million euros in the year 2019, almost a 25% more than the previous year. Faced with these spectacular figures, It should not be surprising that more and more companies are opting for some of the best e-commerce platforms to create their online stores.

Anyway, having an optimal online store takes a lot of work– You must process payments, you must deal with customers, you must manage the inventory, etc. Despite this, The first thing to face is choosing which online sales platform to use. Thus, in this post we will analyze the first five with their pros and cons.

What characteristics to look for in an online sales platform?

needless to say E-commerce is a great way to make money online.. In online stores you can market both products and services, whether they are subscriptions, physical or virtual products. Almost absolutely everything can be traded online with an e-commerce.

Any online shopping platform worth its salt must include, at the same time as previously mentioned, different basic options like the following:

• Information analyticsAnalytics refers to the process of collecting, Measure and analyze data to gain valuable insights that facilitate decision-making. In various fields, like business, Health and sport, Analytics Can Identify Patterns and Trends, Optimize processes and improve results. The use of advanced tools and statistical techniques is essential to transform data into applicable and strategic knowledge....: Knowledge is power, so the more you know about your customers, more you can get the most out of your online store to get more sales.
• Support for multiple payments: Each customer has their preferred payment method (PayPal, Credit or debit card, etc.), so it is recommended to offer several ways.
• Opportunity to include promotions and discounts: Deals are a powerful and engaging weapon to use with customers.
• Product page customization: Each product must be able to have its own personalized page with complete information.
• Product configuration in categories: If several types of posts are sold, the ideal is to have categories for a correct organization.

Logically, each business is a world, so an ideal e-commerce platform for a startup might not work as well in a more conventional business. You must do a preliminary research work to be able to select the most convenient, at the same time to see how the competition works.

Comparison of 5 best ecommerce platforms

First, it should be noted that there is no perfect online sales platform, since each of them has peculiarities. This is why the particular situation of the business must be carefully analyzed before selecting one of them.. Let's get started!

1. DNN en Azure

DNN (previously known as DotNetNuke) is the web content management system (CMS or Content Management System for its acronym in English) .Most popular open source NET more than 800.000 websites all over the world.

This platform offers a .NET-based content management ecosystem with more than a million members and hundreds of developers, agencies and ISV (independent system vendors).

With this CMS you can easily manage the products and orders of any online business. Among its main advantages are the following:

• Multi-device portals: The platform can be accessed to manage it from anywhere and with any device.
• Third party integrations: Thanks to the connection with third-party APIs and widgets, CMS functionalities can be easily extended.
• Easy to use: With the wide range of templates available, easy to create and manage the web portal.

The adaptation we make of one of the best ecommerce platforms such as DNN with Azure, Microsoft's public cloud, makes it possible for you to enjoy numerous web adapters and modules to skyrocket your performance and features like the following.

• Azure AD authentication: Proveedor de autenticación que utiliza Azure Active DirectoryAzure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management service, offered by Microsoft. Enables organizations to manage users and control access to applications and resources across on-premises and cloud environments. What's more, Azure AD offers advanced security features, such as multi-factor authentication and privileged identity management, thereby improving data protection and regulatory compliance.... OAuth2 para autenticar usuarios.
• DNN Drive: module that allows easy access and administration from any mobile device.
• Redis cache provider: proveedor que posibilita usar un clusterA cluster is a set of interconnected companies and organizations that operate in the same sector or geographical area, and that collaborate to improve their competitiveness. These groupings allow for the sharing of resources, Knowledge and technologies, fostering innovation and economic growth. Clusters can span a variety of industries, from technology to agriculture, and are fundamental for regional development and job creation.... / Redis cache server with an in-memory hybrid approach to increase performance.
• Application insights: module that enables the use of Azure Application Insights, whose telemetry includes pageviews, web requests, tracking information, etc.
• Adapter for App Service: módulo diseñado para ajustar un portal web al entorno Azure PaaSPlatform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides a complete platform to develop, Test and deploy applications. PaaS offers tools and services that allow developers to focus on building software without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. This approach streamlines the development process, reduces operational costs and facilitates collaboration across geographically dispersed teams...., including scheduled task management and a Service Bus-based cache provider.
• Azure AD B2C authentication: authentication provider that uses Azure Active Directory B2C OAuth2 to authenticate users.

2. PrestaShop

PrestaShop it is one of the most used e-commerce platforms thanks to its ease of use and its interface. At the same time, you don't need extensive technical knowledge or experience to install the plugin and start creating an online store. Among its advantages are the following:

• Customizable: Hundreds of out-of-the-box predesigned themes offer high levels of customization.
• International: The more than 75 Languages ​​offered that this platform supports facilitate the sale of products or services, regardless of country or currency.
• Powerful: This platform based on the Symfony framework has more than 600 functionalities and hundreds of modules and templates to create an online store.

3. Shopify

Shopify It is one of the most used e-commerce platforms in the world, especially for its ease of creating a virtual store. Their great organization and customization options both the products and the store in general, as well as the different payment processes it offers or order tracking are some of its strengths.

• Easy to use: Creating an online store by dragging items is a reality. Its over 70 professional topics, with a multitude of colors, images and fonts are proof of this.
• 100% receptive: This platform is fully responsive, so it adapts to all devices.
• Optimized platform: Con su panelA panel is a group of experts that meets to discuss and analyze a specific topic. These forums are common at conferences, seminars and public debates, where participants share their knowledge and perspectives. Panels can address a variety of areas, from science to politics, and its objective is to encourage the exchange of ideas and critical reflection among the attendees.... de control completo, sales are better understood, orders and audience. At the same time, its built-in SEO features, marketing automatizado y Shopify Payments (for fast and secure payments) they are an advantage.

4. Magento

Magento is an online sales platform used by hundreds of companies around the world. Despite this, It is very advanced software that will make newbies in this field a bit lost. It is advisable to have previous experience in web development to use it.

• Optimized for SEO: This platform is ideal for organic positioning strategies, since it has native extensions and solutions to boost SEO.
• Loading speed: Even though it is one of the most complex e-commerce platforms, offers spectacular performance thanks to its cache plugins.
• High voltage: With this CMS you can do almost anything. At the same time, Magento works great with large product catalogs.

5. WooCommerce

About 32% of Internet websites are made with WordPress, so it should not surprise us that WooCommerce, its free open source plugin, be one of the most used online sales platforms.

This platform allows you to handle all the basic aspects of an electronic commerce. in addition, its functionalities can be increased through hundreds of extensions available.

• 100% free and free: There is no charge to install it, while offering many free tools to use right out of the box.
• Multilingual support: Even though it is absolutely translated into Spanish, there are plugins that make it possible to internationalize the online store in different languages.
• Social media: This platform is fully integrated with social networks, so visitors can easily share products or services.

E-commerce platforms for all types of online stores

Creating an online store is easier than it seems if you choose one of the best e-commerce platforms on the market like DNN, PrestaShop, Shopify, Magento o WooCommerce. Even when they have common ground, all have special characteristics that make them unique. And you, Which one do you choose?