Find the right support for every stage of growth – how to choose the right e-commerce platform for your business

Choosing the right e-commerce platform has a major impact on your profitability. It needs to work well for your customers so they buy more, and for you so you do not have to spend too much time managing the platform. The most important part of choosing a platform is thinking long term. Your e-commerce business will grow and evolve, so you need to look at your future needs and choose a platform that can grow with you. Here is how to weigh up key factors such as scalability, features, integrations and total cost of ownership when choosing a platform. We hope it helps you choose an e-commerce platform that increases sales and reduces friction. 

Think about your strategy before you look at the technology

When you start looking for an e-commerce platform, you will quickly notice that there are different types available. For example, ready-made all-in-one solutions with everything in place from day one. That kind of platform is easy to get started with, but usually harder to adapt. If you want a more flexible platform that can be shaped around your needs, headless and composable solutions are often a better fit because they make integrations easier to build. Instead of a fixed setup, you use the platform as your foundation and create the full solution by integrating several systems with specific functions. For example for CMS, payment solutions and more.

What matters most when choosing an e-commerce platform is not the technology itself. It is your needs. Always start by thinking about what you want to achieve with your e-commerce business. What are your goals, your conditions and your plans for the future? Will growth mean higher volumes, more sales channels or expansion into new markets? In the end, your choice of platform needs to come down to the long-term value it brings to your business. If you want the freedom to adapt the platform as your business develops, a flexible solution that can be composed around your needs gives you more room to grow.

Think long term and choose a scalable e-commerce platform

Choosing an e-commerce platform is, of course, about more than features alone. As with any investment, the price tag matters. In other words, the total cost of ownership (TCO): the full cost of buying, implementing and using a product or service across its entire lifecycle. Taking the time to assess and calculate TCO properly when choosing an e-commerce platform helps you make sure you choose one that supports your business goals without costs spiralling over time.

Budget for an e-commerce platform that supports you for the long haul

What matters in both your budgeting and your platform choice is how well the platform supports you over time. A good place to start is with a platform that can handle high volumes as you grow. Choosing a platform that is simple and cheap to get started with can, in the long run, become far more demanding in both time and cost when you need to expand it later. A quick solution that makes it easy to create a polished site design can also become heavily dependent on consultants as soon as anything needs to be added or changed.

Avoid locking yourself into complex ecosystems

Relying on consultants to manage integrations, or building complex integration ecosystems that are difficult and expensive to replace, often means that a platform with a low upfront price becomes very expensive over time. It can also turn out that the low-cost platform that was so easy to get started with cannot scale to meet your new needs. Then you are forced to choose a new platform all over again just to keep growing.

Choose an e-commerce platform that keeps time spent to a minimum

Other factors are easy to overlook, such as how much of your time the platform demands. Depending on the solution you choose, the same tasks can take a week or just a few hours. If the platform depends on several separate integration providers, the setup can become so complex that you end up spending a lot of time just trying to keep track of how everything fits together. 

Choose support for your entire growth journey

Scalability and the ability to support you throughout your growth journey are probably the most important factors when choosing a platform. After all, they affect both your long-term costs and your ability to grow without unnecessary friction. Choosing a platform that can handle higher volumes across all your flows gives you a stable foundation to grow freely. If it also has an open API that makes it easy to add and replace integrations, your growth potential is even stronger. And you can do it without bringing in expensive consultants to rebuild your system. One useful way to assess an e-commerce platform’s scalability is to look at how other retailers use it. How have those businesses grown in recent years, and how has the platform supported that growth?

But this is not only a technology question. A good provider gives you more than the technology to succeed. You also get the insight that helps you go further. So it is worth looking at the knowledge a provider can bring as well. For example, how they can help you develop your e-commerce business, build competitive advantages and reach more customers. A flexible e-commerce platform gives you strong conditions for selling more, but you should also set aside resources for marketing and operations that drive sales and growth. That combination gives you the best possible conditions for growth. 

Which features matter most for your e-commerce business?

In short, choosing an e-commerce platform starts with the needs of your business, but also with how you plan to grow over time. Choose a platform that not only meets your current needs, but also remains cost-effective in the long run. Think about what your target audience expects and how you will create a customer journey that attracts and satisfies them. Also look at how the processes in your e-commerce business work. Which features do you need to support them as efficiently as possible?

Some important features to consider are:

• The ability to add new technology. 

Technology is moving fast and is hard to predict. AI, for example, will shape how e-commerce develops, but we do not yet know exactly how. If you want to future-proof your e-commerce business, it makes sense to choose a platform with APIs that make it easy to add new third-party systems.

• Content management and SEO. 

It is not enough to have great products. Your customers need to be able to find you among all the alternatives. To create strong content for your e-commerce business, your platform needs a CMS (Content Management System) that helps you get seen and increase sales, including technical SEO that improves your chances of ranking well and driving traffic to your online store.

• Performance. 

A key part of the customer experience is having an online store that is fast and easy to use. Especially on mobile. Long loading times are a common reason why shoppers abandon a purchase.

• Security. 

How do providers work to prevent breaches, downtime and other incidents that can cause problems? Look for platforms that support SSL encryption, are PCI compliant, meet the payment card industry’s security standards and offer reliable security features.

The Viskan E-commerce Platform grows with you

The Viskan E-commerce Platform is a scalable platform that can adapt to your future needs. It has a flexible CMS that lets you create an attractive site and a strong customer experience. An open API makes it easier to integrate with other systems and to build integrations with the platform. Automatic upgrades ensure that you always have the latest features and a high level of security. We also work closely with you. Both in the day-to-day flow and when new needs arise. Our Online Growth Team is also there for you if you want help improving the shopping experience and reaching your business goals. We do not just want to give you the best possible e-commerce platform. We want to help you succeed.