The era of free business and a huge number of startups creates the demand for Internet promotion. Even the older generation has become less likely to turn to newspapers in search of the necessary goods and services, many are looking for information on the Web. Young people can’t do without the Internet for a day, and some are on social networks and on various resources without any problems. That is why it is important to create a memorable and most convenient site for the project.
Online Store Requirements
The site will generate revenue only if the buyer does not have to bother with the search for the necessary information, and the transaction can be completed in a few clicks. I went to the site - I saw the right product - put it in the basket - paid.
Here are some important requirements:
- the most simple and convenient transition from one section to another;
- sorting of goods and services, giving the buyer the opportunity to select the right one, based on his preferences for manufacturers and needs;
- systematically updated news on the latest news and announcements of the company;
- placement among the news flow of posts about current promotions and special offers;
- the convenience of throwing the desired position into the shopping basket, as well as the work with this basket;
- clear design and payment of the order;
- an offer to register in the system, which gives its advantages for both regular customers and the site owner.
Creation of a corporate website
To create an online store you need an engine that ensures the achievement of tasks. How to choose a convenient engine for an online store? In professional circles, such a platform is called CMS, which stands for Content Management System. Simply put, this is something that will allow you to create a skeleton site, lay out the necessary information and edit it as necessary.
Every year, developers offer more and more CMS for online stores, as doing business through the Web is gaining popularity. The primary task of a web programmer is to choose the best from a large volume of offers. An overview of the engines for the online store will be presented later.
Types of CMS for an online store
All CMS can be divided into three types:
- Commercial nature, or boxed. Such designers are designed to further sell licenses for their use or technical support services. Using this engine, you can create your own site without resorting to the help of expensive specialists.
- Programs that are freely available, also known as Open-source CMS. They can be used not only at one’s discretion, but also be modified to your liking and again uploaded to the Internet.
- CMS with limited access. The product is intended only for local use based on the developer's studio. Get a program for a regular user does not work.
Obviously, the first two species are best suited for a wide audience.
Rating engines
For the online store, business continuity is important. If the site constantly lags and falls, no one will want to deal with the seller, even if he offers the most favorable conditions.
Within each type, you can highlight the popular engines of online stores:
- In the commercial category, 1C-Bitrix comes first, followed by UMI.CMS, NetCat. In total, there are about 22 paid engines for online stores. Of these, CS-Cart, Shop-Script, DataLife Engine, ImageCMS Shop, AdVantShop.Net are gaining momentum.
- Among free access programs, WordPress stands out against the general background. Joomla !, PrestaShop, CMS Made Simple also praised users.
Briefly about 1C "Bitrix"
Consideration of the engines for creating an online store should start with the widespread Bitrix 1C program. This program has a mediocre relationship to the 1C family. The prefix "1C" appeared due to a joint project organized in 2008 by the owners of the two companies. From June 16, 2017, as a result of the transition of the subsidiary to Ukraine, Bitrix 24 is also allocated.
Advantages and disadvantages
In search of an answer to the question of which engine is better to choose for an online store, the availability of training material will be an important factor. On the official site 1C-Bitrix posted special online courses on working with the program. In general, there are pros and cons in absolutely any product, it all depends on the mood and loyalty of the developer.
1C Bitrix is the best engine for an online store if:
- there is a need to integrate a site with a list of products from 1C;
- the site developer carefully studied the simplest and most affordable options and is ready to apply them without inventing new techniques (at least at the initial stage);
- there is a need for strong protection against hacking;
- work is carried out with hosting services that can withstand a load of more than 10 thousand visits per day;
- The budget allows for a paid system upgrade.
Despite the negative reviews about this program, perhaps this is the best engine for the online store.
Introducing WordPress
The second most relevant CMS for the online store is WordPress. Thanks to openness, this program can be redone based on your own preferences. In addition, WP is a free engine for the online store.
The advantages of WordPress include:
- easy to learn interface that does not require special skills in site building;
- the simplicity of finding a solution to a problem or question arising when working with the program;
- the ability to register keys for search engines and teletexts;
- a set of modules that allow you to customize the site template "for yourself";
- programming the source code of the site in order to increase its uniqueness.
Cons of working with WordPress
When you need to choose a reliable engine for an online store, it is useful to know what tricks can be from the program. Frequent complaints about WordPress arise for the following reasons:
- the design and functions of the site may be somewhat limited over time;
- not all educational literature is available in Russian, in some cases you will have to remember English;
- in comparison with the engine of the 1C Bitrix online store, WordPress does not have a high degree of protection against hacker attacks.
Designer issues
Among the so-called shortcomings of the program, there are simply complex moments that periodically arise during the development of the site:
- Using a large number of plugins overloads the site, as a result of which a server reboot is necessary, and hosting owners simply turn it off for a while.
- The high traffic of visitors leads to the suspension of the site. The problem can be resolved if we come to grips with optimization.
- A quick introduction to WordPress may make it difficult to submit a site to a search engine. However, it is enough to delve into the study of the functionality of the designer, and the first lines are provided.
- Updates should be carried out only after preliminary backup copies of the site. Otherwise, you will have to work completely without engine updates.
- Despite the fact that this is a fairly simple engine, it is only suitable for an online store if you do not use too large arrays of data and plug-ins.
CMS vs FullHosted
Which engine to choose for an online store - Wordpress or Bitrix? Neither one nor the other satisfy the demands of modern virtual supermarkets to the fullest.So, which engine to choose for an online store? Most often, users choose Magento CE and WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, MagentoEE, VirtueMart share the second line of the top. Do not forget about the leaders of e-commerce sites: Drupal and Joomla!
There is also a decent alternative to CMS - FullHosted. The designer offers an almost ready site, on which you only need to place your contacts and a catalog of goods and services. Easier than simple, but at the same time, the site may be lost among their own kind.
Differences between CMS and FullHosted are in the following principles of the device and operation:
- Unlike the usual engine, with FullHosted it is more comfortable for beginners or those who do not want to spend time deeply developing the site. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the seller’s virtual business card is lost. A competitor can also use the same template or the same image.
- Budget savings thanks to the free hosting or technical support that Wix, Prom.UA and Ucoz usually offer are undoubtedly a big advantage over Joomla! and others. But there is a flip side to the coin: the reluctance to spend money on hosting makes it impossible to change it at any time.
- Advertising is also an important factor that you should pay attention to when choosing which engine is best for an online store. Full-featured assistants offer the prospect of adding a site to the list of resources created on their basis. CMS will put all the cares about promotion and advertising on the shoulders of a businessman.
Magento for shopping
Which engine to choose for an online store? First place in the ranking of popular CMS is Magento. The program is divided into two use cases: as a paid and free engine for an online store. Mastering the work with the engine is not difficult thanks to the official forum, but only if a person knows English. The program itself has a Russian-language version. Nevertheless, working with a designer will not cause trouble for a layman. It includes conducting sales, placing orders, tracking the status of their execution and delivery, invoicing, concluding contracts, and tax accounting.
The internal analytics service will tell you from which link buyers came to the resource, which buttons they were most interested in, what information they open more often, and which ones they don’t look at all. Setting the visibility of active customers will allow you to create a schedule for laying out the latest news and new products. The pluses include the ability to sort goods into categories, setting the search button for the desired among the general list and including comments on goods and services.
WooCommerce as part of WordPress
Exchange of experience with this designer is possible both in Russian and in English, since he has two official forums. Perhaps these are all the goodies that WooCommerce gives. Without the integration of special applications on the site, it will not be possible to compile analytics of conversions and customer activity. The choice of plugins and other development tools is very limited. In shopping mode, the customer can only form an invoice and arrange delivery.
Marketing at the first engine is more developed due to options for setting price rules for the catalog and basket, ready-made newsletter texts, the presence of a Google map and the management of URL rules. The WordPress add-on cannot boast such an arsenal. All that can be done on its platform is to add an information post, make a coupon or post a permalink.
Go for the penguins!
A friendly penguin meets the guest designer developer on the official website, who will be happy to talk about all the benefits of working with PrestaShop. The site builder offers absolutely free to use the services of analytics, marketing, all kinds of settings and plug-ins, without limiting himself in anything. The penguin will show how to analyze the flow of customers, record their favorite tabs, present the most popular products, calculate the average cost of the basket and many other economic operations.
For effective trade in goods requiring delivery, the formation of freight bills, invoices, returns, a list of carriers, tax accounting, and tracking of goods on the way are provided.Just like Magento, PrestaShop took care of sorting the goods in catalogs, quick search, setting price rules for the basket. You can get acquainted with like-minded people and chat with them on the Russian and English-language forums. Who likes more.
Shopify
Which engine to choose for an online store? Noteworthy, but not unlike Magento, Shopify guarantees you the development of the basics of English, since there are few Russian-language forums, they are poorly developed. In addition, it will also have to be administered in English. There is no free version of the constructor. If, when choosing an engine for an online dream store, the focus was on Shopify, you would have to put at least $ 29 per month into the budget expenditure item. There is also a trial version for 14 days.
Buying a profile on Shopify allows you to change the name of the store, domain, payment system, customize the navigation as you like, as well as access to a wide selection of free plug-ins.
Pitfalls CMS
Fast, cheap, lightweight, with a huge number of plug-ins, CMS has gained popularity among users due to its positive qualities. You do not need to have a programmer’s education to deal with the site’s settings: all the colors in the templates are already combined, and the most frequently used sections are distributed on the site’s pages. A couple of days in front of a computer monitor - and anyone can take to process orders received via the Internet.
Any flaw at the right angle turns into an advantage, but the rule also works in the reverse order. For a beginner, the abundance of plugins offered by the popular CMS is often completely unnecessary. It would be nice to deal with at least a couple. In this case, you must be extremely careful when using this or that extension, as one incorrect movement will lead to serious damage.
Difficulties arise in the promotion of sites built on trendy engines. The fact is that the resource is perceived as an unreliable source, undesirable for broadcast to the masses. With the safety of sites, too, everything is pretty sad. Hacking a resource whose architecture even a schoolchild knows is easy.
Weighing the pros and cons
Depending on the goals and future plans for the electronic supermarket, the way of its design is chosen. Having examined the shortcomings of CMS, we can conclude that it’s better then to develop the site yourself and not puzzle over how to get into the tops of search engines. But not so simple.
Yes, there are privileges. The full owner of the site can dispose of it as he pleases: transfer from one hosting to another, change domains, rename. Installing an additional plug-in on such a site will not create any headache. And the architecture of the site does not cause a desire to break for the sake of interest, and in case of an attempt to hack it will be very difficult to do.
The disadvantages of writing an author’s site include:
- Mandatory learning languages PHP, JavaScript and others. It will take a lot of time to figure out how everything works and to find out the features of program linguistics.
- A lot of time will be required to think over the structure of the site, as well as writing the code itself.
- The cost of developing a website for the needs of an entrepreneur can cost quite a tidy sum if the entrepreneur himself does not want to delve into the intricacies of the art of web programming. Master’s time is expensive.
An author’s site (if only it is executed qualitatively and at a fairly high level, and also meets the needs of users) is almost a 100% guarantee of success, but there are enough drawbacks of such a design. Each entrepreneur will have to decide for himself whether to order the development of an online store site on a “proprietary” engine or whether it is better to choose a less individual, but proven option in the form of a ready-made content management system.
In addition to the development of the website of the online store, by the way, it is worth paying considerable attention to filling the resource. The goods sold must be in demand, otherwise the idea will burn out, and the purchase or development of the engine will cost a pretty penny to a novice businessman. It should be convenient for the user to use the site, think over the algorithm for searching for products, filters, place a block on the product’s card with similar, recommended additions to the purchase, reviews, ratings. We should not forget about the content filling of the resource - you should fill out the product cards as fully as possible.