Survey of U.S. Census Bureau in the last quarter of 2016, showed that sales made via Internet exceeded $ 80.3 billion. This shows that e-commerce has become a key sales channel. It has been observed trend many companies to operate in first phase online creating online stores and later to open physical stores. Showing us the importance of e-commerce today in terms of corporate strategy.
Although it seems easy to create an online store with the number of technological options available today, choosing the right platform is a difficult process. Open source platforms (open source) are the ideal solution for the following reasons:
- Zero cost
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Large developer community
- Plenty of plugins, themes and templates
Below, we have listed the most popular open source e-commerce platforms which can meet all your business plan.
Woocommerce
WooCommerce which is actually an eCommerce plugin for WordPress platform which is one of the easy open source content management system. The WooCommerce used by 42% of the entire web which ranks the most popular eCommerce platform in the world (BuildWith). All you have to do is download the plugin on WordPress and the function package offered to you to create your store. It is the best choice for the creation of small shops. The platform is supported by a very large community of developers with frequent updates about superior service. You can choose between at least 2000, freely available topics (themes & templates).
Magento
Magento platform which belongs to the group of companies eBay. It provides a flexible and adaptable to the needs and requirements of your online store. One of the biggest advantages is the flexibility and expandability. It allows you to customize almost everything, so you can create your site exactly as you want. The management environment (administration area) is one of the most user-friendly compared to what we encountered. It includes a simple back-end with easy navigation and well organized management capabilities. It is also built to scale in order to sell the same power from 10 to at least 10,000 products. With the new version (Magento 2.0) encountered significant problems such as cumbersome management platform and sophisticated architecture. All these features bring it in second place worldwide with the utilization rate to 13% and in the first place in the big e-shop.
Presta Shop
PrestaShop is a leading e-shop software with many businesses to opt for the advanced functions. It is our favorite platform. With roots in France in PrestaShop is considered as the European answer to Magento as approaching the Magento application rates as it is in third place with 9%. The PrestaShop can easily be customized according to the preferences of the store owner after support from very small to very large stores. The administrator can add or remove any of the built-in functions within the management table (administrator panel). It is available in 40 languages, so the community support is efficiently, consistently and duration. The platform gives businesses the comfort to “build” an economic, but also modern and updated e-shop.
OpenCart
One of the top choices for the construction of small e-shop catalog. Because of its simplicity, good design and the range provided for products and categories. Can be accommodated satisfactorily even on shared hosting servers making it a very economical choice, has a very active community which is constantly growing. Also, plugins and extensions are cheaper than those of Magento. New users will go through easy platform learning process, which means that it will start using OpenCart directly. This is due to the fact that the procedures offered are comprehensible and straightforward. There are many templates and modules of high quality, some of which are free. It includes an easy to use admin panel which is one of the major advantages of the platform.
We should note that our article would not have referred to other known platforms e-shop software like Shopify and BigCommerce. Given that an open source solution and provide them as a service rather than as software.
If you are in the selection process for the most suitable online store platform, you must choose carefully and under your plan. To determine the needs and functions that you want to have your online store so you do not find yourself surprised. H choice of platform on which to build your online store is an important process. Some factors that determine the type of platform is the size of the store, the product catalog, the provided interconnection services, the need for adaptations and extensions like the anamenomenos number of visitors.
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