E-Commerce or e-Commerce or simple ecommerce stands for electronic commerce that again stands for buying and selling of products and services by businesses or consumers over the Internet or the World Wide Web. People generally use the term to define the process of searching for, selecting and then ‘checking out’ products or services (through online catalogues) using credit card and encrypted payment procedures.
To transact business electronically, you need a platform or an ecommerce website which may be created in some of the following ways.
- Hosted shopping cart software
- Self-hosted open source shopping cart software
Out of these two, Hosted shopping cart software enables you to create an ecommerce store (ecommerce website) even if you are not so conversant with technical and/or electronic issues. The best part of it is that it provides you with a fool-proof package that takes care of all the technical aspect of website building so that you could start business right away. However, it has its drawbacks, too – one of them being lack of flexibility.
Nevertheless, it ‘hides’ all codes, etc and create easy non-technical user interface for anyone to build his or her website, upload products and connect it to a payment processor and start selling pretty quickly.
Hosted shopping cart software also provides you with professional, free ecommerce templates to create an attractive storefront without any hassle.
Apart from the above, here are a few ecommerce software sites for beginners.
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Shopify:
It is a powerful ecommerce software solution which allows you to sell online by providing everything you may need to create an online store. Some of its features include:
- A professional-looking ecommerce site up and running in minutes
- Standards-compliant, fully customizable templates provided free to use with your account
- Complete control over your website’s HTML and CSS
- Flexible layout of dynamic content via the Liquid templating language
- Media assets linked to individual products or your shop as a whole
- A network of fellow Shopify designers eager to discuss new tips and strategies on our forums
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Big commerce:
It is another well-known ecommerce website builder which allows you to build your store sans any technical tentacles. Features include the following.
- A very comprehensive set of “out of the box” e-commerce tools to help you build your store
- Leverages on different social channels to help you grow your sales
- You can add more advanced tools through their App store (just like Shopify)
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Wix eCommerce:
It is a ‘pure’ drag and drop website builder that enables you to literally drag and drop content anywhere on your website. You get even more freedom in terms of content placement than Squarespace and Weebly, as those website builders don’t give you as much precision as to where exactly to insert your images, slideshows, text, etc.
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Weebly eCommerce:
It is considered to be one of the most friendly and intuitive drag and drop website builders whose ecommerce features are exhaustive and encircling, enabling you to quickly build a full-featured online store.
While ecommerce platforms can present consumers with a wide variety of offerings (online-only coupons, exclusive items, express shipping), there is a significant lack of focus on building personalized relationships with shoppers and providing the interactive experience that comes with in-store shopping.