eCommerce website design
                     Top 3 eCommerce technologies to choose for your small 
 business
toggloid.com/blog/top-3-ecommerce-technologies-to-choose-for-your-small-business/
June 4, 2020
Reading Time: 7 minutes
Sydney and Harvey, a recently married couple of New Orleans, are enjoying red wine  
along with a romantic lunch and hitting off lockdown negativity. Harvey is a hotel  
manager while Sydney is a full-time home baker. Sydney checks her phone and jumps  
with joy. She tells her husband that an event planner of their city saw her bakes’ pictures 
 that she posted on her Instagram and is willing to make her a permanent cake supplier  
for parties, conferences, conventions, etc.
Harvey’s brain starts racing like a Formula One car. He tells Sydney, “It’s time we make  
use of your first major payment from the event planner and invest in an e-commerce  
store for your beautiful and delicious creations that will certainly bring more  
customers!” Sydney agrees with her husband and they both do the math and find out  
that if they can get at least ten orders per week, they could easily bring in $14,000  
annually! The mere thought of this gives Sydney chills and rushes her adrenaline.
And so the journey begins. The next hard part that comes up for the couple and  
anyone, in general, looking to start is, ‘how do we build an e-commerce platform?’
Taking the baby steps
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You will have to register a domain name. And keep this in mind, it will be for your 
 customers who can be anyone so accordingly, find the most suitable one which  
should be as close as possible to your business name and related to the products  
and services you offer.
You will also require an SSL certificate which ensures the secure connection 
 between your customer’s web browser and the server hosting your website.
All of this will work only when you have got a server that will host your website.  
High speeds, reliability, and uptime are the key players here. Hosting can be done 
 as a self-host or via the cloud. Being a self-host, you would have to do the  
maintenance manually and for that period of time, the website may get offline,  
hence uptime would be lesser than the cloud service but you would have more  
control over it. Confused about which way to choose? Well, it can be found out by  
critically analyzing the needs of your business.
You will also need to set up a bank account for your online business 
which  essentially called an IMA or Internet Merchant Account.
When you open an IMA at your bank, you may be advised of a PSP (Payment  
Service Provider) by them. PSP is the payment gateway for your website. You  
should consider their proposal but it is a good idea to look around for better deals.
Choosing the right platform
It is very important and necessary that your E-Commerce platform is able to reflect 
the  main motive and meet the needs of your online business. While it depends on your 
 needs, you can keep these following tips in mind when choosing the right platform:
1. Budget.
The platform you choose should lie in your budget range for maximizing the returns.
2. Flexibility.
Once you bring your business online, there is a great chance your business will expand 
 tremendously and thus your chosen platform should be able to cope with all the  
changes that it will bring.
3. Tools and features.
Make sure the platform you choose should be able to provide basic necessities like PCI  
DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Protocol). It ensures security while hosting 
 data for accepting credit card payments.
4. Themes and templates.
Remember, your first and last impression is judged by the looks of your site. In the  
current era, customers are used to excellent web design and UX. Most of the designs are 
 free, while some are paid. So, act accordingly.
5. Ease and comfort.
Ultimately, you would like to choose the platform with which you should be able to do
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your job without having crazy technical knowledge and coding.
Moving further, the following are some of the recommended services which will surely 
 help you decide the best:
Shopify
This Canadian company has built up its name over time in the field of retail point-of- 
 sale systems and e-commerce platforms. Shopify is a cloud-based, in other words, an 
 SaaS (Software as a Service).
Pricing
The plan starts at $29 per month where you can 
 of course save some money, about 10% if you  
take up an annual plan. Moreover, if you sign  
up for two years, you’ll save 20% which is like
$190 less per year, and this saved money you 
 can invest somewhere else.
Shopify also provides a chance to its customers 
 to get used to the services it provides by  
offering them a free 14 days trial.
Click here for all your Shopify-based needs!
PROS
SEO. Shopify has an SEO score of 98-
100
which is comparatively good. It uses page URL optimization, alt tags, title tags, etc  
to boost the SEO.
Reviews. It is known for its high rate of customer satisfaction due to its user- 
 friendliness.
Security. Shopify offers first-class security. On several reputable platforms,  
customers have given no less than 5 stars when it comes to the security provided 
 by Shopify.
Themes. Shopify gives you 10 free themes, other than that, you’ll have to pay for 
 other themes. The most basic ones start at $140.
Customer Support. No matter what you pay, all customers are treated the same 
 way and the aim is to provide you the service satisfaction you deserve.
App store. There is an extensive app store within Shopify where you can make  
use of over 3,200 apps, more than any other e-commerce platform. These apps  
will help you to put a lot of functionality to your site. It includes the popular app 
 like an abandoned cart saver.
CONS
Too expensive? As it may seem, the hosting service is quite costly on Shopify. 
 The same is for the themes and plugins that it provides. 3/6
Not so reliable. When you are using a dropshipping app, it is quite hard to be 
 sure about the products that you are selling are ethically produced.
Transaction fees. Shopify is the only platform to impose transaction charges  
while using the third-party payment gateway. However, it can be waived off if you 
 use its payment gateway, Shopify Payments. In some cases, you’ll be forced to 
use  the third party gateway since Shopify Payments is not available everywhere.
Unnecessary purchases. Adding textboxes or fields for uploading files, though 
 sounds simple, in Shopify, you may need to purchase apps for it which will  
eventually lead to high expenditure
BigCommerce
One of the most scalable e-commerce builder and popular for its feature, the ability to 
 sell your products under various other names: Amazon, eBay, Google, etc,  
BigCommerce is an all-in-one e-commerce builder, less reliant on apps, like Shopify  
does, which means it helps to keep the costs low.
Pricing
It comes with a free 15 days trial with plans starting from $29.95. Currently, 
 BigCommerce is offering 3 months for free when you choose a plan.
Desserts of Bigcommerce
Equality for all. No matter which plans you choose, you will get unlimited file 
 storage, bandwidth, and products that you can sell without worrying about your 
 business exceeding its limits.
No transaction fees. Yes, it is your money, and you should keep it. 
 BigCommerce does not charge anything on the sales you make.
Single page checkout system. This feature smoothens the checkout process 
 for the customers, thus boosting up your sales.
Can we downgrade the plan? Yes. If the monthly subscription to  
BigCommerce is affecting your profit margin, you need not worry, you can always 
 switch back to cheaper plans. However, you will be required to ask them first as  
your sales can get further affected.
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We’re awarded as best for what we do. Click here for support regarding BigCommerce.
Veggies of BigCommerce
Not beginner-friendly. You’ll need to devote a lot of time to it before your  
online business gets live. Also, there are a lot of advanced features for it which can 
 only be applied by an experienced developer.
The subscription cost will increase. Even though there are no transaction  
charges, but as your sales go up, so your plans will, and your monthly subscription 
 payment will elevate.
Squarespace
Based in New York City, this privatized American company is famous for its drag-and-  
drop quality. Squarespace is an SaaS and lets customers use pre-built website  
templates.
Pricing
Squarespace provides a trial period of 14 
 days. After then you are required to  
choose from 4 plans, for which you have  
two options to either pay monthly or  
annually. And of course, you will save  
more if you choose the annual payment  
option (up to 30%)
Advantages
Positive customer support.  
Squarespace is known for its  
expertise in solving your problems.
You can get help from the support team via live chat or ticketing system. They 
 make use of screencasts to show you all the steps you need to follow to solve 
a  particular problem.
All-in-one cost. Squarespace provides you speed, security, and hosting, all in 
 the monthly price you pay. Yes, the cost of hosting is included!
Designing on our fingertips. There are 4 apps in total for Squarespace, the  
most useful one, currently supported only by iOS, lets you design your website on 
 your phone. However, there are fewer features on it.
Dynamic background. Squarespace lets you add a video in the background of 
 your webpage, which attracts potential customers.
Disadvantages
Expensive? There is no hiding the fact that if we compare Squarespace with its 
 competitors, it is exorbitant.
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Can’t go beyond the limit. Many customers have reported in reviews, the 
 restricting nature of its navigation. That means you can’t use it for a website 
 having lots and lots of content.
Taking the final steps
If you are hiring a developer, it is better to create a list that contains everything you  
need for your online business. It is way better than rushing to your developer and  
simply say that you need your business to come online. This will cost you a lot of time 
 and eventually, a lot of money.
Still confused about what way to choose? Can’t apply everything you have in your mind 
 for your business? Do you think you don’t have what it takes to get your business  
online? You need not worry! You are in the right place, yes, right here! Toggloid.com!
We, the team of 15 certified developers with expertise in e-commerce, will help you in 
 giving your business the appreciation and major boosts in sales that it truly deserves. 
 And we not only help you in developing a new website for your business but also help 
 you in upgrading to a better e-commerce platform.
You just dream the way your online business looks, we will reshape it into reality!
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