Choosing the platform is not an easy task. From the viewpoint of developers, in designing platforms two objectives should be addressed:
– the implementation of the requirements and the upgrade to meet future needs;
– Easy interface and use.
From the point of view of the beneficiary, the choice depends on the allocated material resources, on the functions they can perform, on the experience of the staff that will have to do the maintenance and, last but not least, on the size and specificity of the site.
Characteristics of e- commerce platforms
The characteristics of the e-commerce platforms refer to both the elements that are available for clients and visitors as well as to the elements by means of which the products are presented. The analysis of the best platforms in terms of features is based on the identification of the mandatory elements: logo, product offers, news and the top selling products, the shopping cart and the registration form; product; search options and the filtering options depending on category, subcategory, manufacturer, price and product specific options, the product catalog, links to social networks; the symbol of the payment systems that are used, the transport options, the contact forms and the phone numbers.
The characteristics of the presentation of the products covered in the analysis of the statistics refer to: the quality of the presentation image of product, available alternative images; the zooming function, possibilities of comparing the product, reviews.
In general, all of the characteristics have positions that were studied.
WordPress has always been versatile enough to be used as an ecommerce solution but now there’s more shopping cart plugins than ever it’s even a viable alternative to the many eCommerce CMS tools such as Shopify or Magento. Adding cart functionality to your WordPress install makes it easy to build simple online stores with the familiarity of the WordPress template system. Let’s take a look at the best shopping cart plugins available, with some examples of how they’re currently being put to use on live sites.
WooCommerce from WooThemes has grown to become the number one eCommerce tool for WordPress. It has been comprehensively developed and tested and is backed by a solid collection of developers. The core WooCommerce functionality is free but it can also be built upon with various paid-for extensions. There is plugin which also used for dropshipping Alidropship plugin review with coupon code. Dropshipping is a supply chain management model in which online retailers partner with wholesale suppliers to directly fulfil online orders. Instead of keeping their own product inventory, ecommerce retailers transfer customer orders and shipping information to the dropship wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer (and generally deal with returns).
Jigoshop is a feature packed eCommerce plugin built upon WordPress core functionality. One of the enticing features of Jigoshop is its ability to support various product types, including physical goods, downloadable products and variable sizes (S,M,L etc).
Cart66, formerly known as PHPurchase is a premium WordPress plugin available for $99, although its array of features does include some functionality only available as a paid extension to other alternatives such as WooCommerce. Cart66 covers every base when it comes to selling digital goods and services, allowing you to collect payments as well as recurring subscriptions or membership fees.
GetShopped.org, also known as WP e-Commerce is one of the original WordPress cart plugins by Instinct. While its core functionality is free, some crucial cart features are reserved as premium extensions. Still, some of its boasted features such as 100% customisability keep it competitive against the new school options.
Shopp is another fully loaded premium shopping cart plugin for WordPress. It seamlessly integrates with WordPress to provide unbranded functionality that makes use of WordPress widgets, post types and shortcodes.
Easy Digital Downloads, as the name suggests, is an easy solution for selling virtual goods via WordPress. While other cart solutions often combine the ability to sell digital goods alongside physical goods, the lack of bloat and specialised features are particularly useful for anyone looking to sell digital goods.