How do I know which is the best e-commerce platform for me?

Why use an e-commerce platform? Embarking on an e-commerce journey allows small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand to unlock unparalleled opportunities, especially in widening customer reach and accessing international markets. 

Employing the right online shopping platform not only acts as your virtual storefront but also streamlines various aspects of your business, from sales to international priority shipping. 

Opting for cloud-hosted platforms, like Shopify or BigCommerce, can offer SMEs a plethora of benefits that specifically cater to diverse business needs and expand their horizons beyond borders. 

So how do you choose the most effective e-commerce platform?

1. Try a free trial

A trial period is a brief window to validate the e-commerce platform against your operational and customer-facing requirements. SMEs should make the most of this period, exploring the breadth and depth of the platform’s functionalities. 

If you’re setting up your shop on a site builder like Shopify, there are free trials you can leverage. Here are the free trial periods for three of the top e-commerce website builders.

On marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, registering for a seller account is typically free, though there may be product listing charges and seller fees. 

Whether your platform choice is a site builder or a marketplace, your checklist during the exploration should include:

• Ease of navigation: Understand whether the website design is intuitive for the user.
• Product listing: Analyse the simplicity and efficiency of listing products.
• Payment integration: Ensure multiple payment gateways are supported and test them.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) tools: Identify tools that can optimise your site for search engines.
• Security features: Explore the robustness of security features and protocols.
• Customer support: Engage with customer support, checking responsiveness and efficiency.
• Shipping integration: Check for seamless integration with shipping partners and manageability of international shipping rates.
• Social commerce: Explore integrations with social media platforms for selling.
• Analytics: Check the availability and comprehensiveness of sales and visitor analytics.

2. Compare different platforms' cost

Aligning your budget with ensuring you secure access to the best e-commerce platforms can be a delicate balance to strike. For SMEs in Thailand seeking to expand their horizons overseas, understanding the financial commitment involved in each potential platform is crucial.

When looking at costs, a straightforward glance at monthly or annual subscription fees won’t suffice. Increasing transactions, for instance, can refer to higher sales volume. This might elevate your transaction fees (especially if your platform takes a percentage of sales) and potentially require you to upgrade your subscription plan to handle the increased traffic and sales data.

Similarly, as your business grows, there may arise a need for additional features like:

• Advanced analytics: To deep dive into customer behaviour and purchasing patterns.
• Multi-currency support: Especially vital for SMEs aiming to expand overseas, offering transactions in multiple currencies can enhance the customer experience.
• Language support: Enabling your platform to cater to multiple languages enhances global usability.
• Higher-level security protocols: To safeguard against potential data breaches as your customer base expands.
• Inventory management integrations: Sophisticated tools to manage stock levels, orders, and suppliers as your SKU count grows.
• Advanced SEO tools: To optimise for an increasingly diverse product range and customer base.

Ensure you account for your current position and future growth, offering enough room to evolve without significantly upscaling costs. The chosen e-commerce platform should not only meet your present requirements but should also cater to the foreseeable future, considering your strategic business goals and anticipated technological advancements.

3. Ask your team

Your team is your first set of users; their feedback on the platforms under consideration could provide invaluable insights. 

From the ease of managing orders to integrating international shipping rates, their day-to-day interactions with the platform will be crucial in understanding its functionality and user-friendliness.

Ensure to collect feedback from varied departments — from those who will oversee the inventory to those who handle customer queries and manage shipments. You should also speak with those in charge of setting up the e-commerce platform.

A collective nod from your team not only ensures smoother adoption of the platform but also guarantees that it aligns well with your operational flow.