Online stores have now become mandatory for small or large-scale business owners, the existence of a CMS website makes it easy to reach consumers widely and can also facilitate transactions between consumers based on an online system.
But sometimes you are confused about what CMS or platform you want to use in starting an online store business, we will recommend some online store CMS that you should try.
1. Opencart
Opencart is a web-based E-Commerce CMS application, where users can manage their content using a CMS system that is easy to use and has excellent features.
Opencart uses PHP as the language used and this CMS includes Open Source. Opencart is now widely used by online shops in various parts of the world, some of the reasons why it is widely used are:
Multiuser
Opencart supports multiuser which means it can be managed by more than one user, of course this will make it easier for owners to manage their online store, to manage products, orders, and more.
Affiliate
Affiliate program is a collaborative program aimed at obtaining mutually agreed benefits whether carried out by individuals, business entities or other organizations, with the help of this affiliate, marketing can reach very broadly and opencart already supports this.
Themes and responsive design
Of the themes provided that are free or paid, most of them support a responsive design display where the appearance of the application can adjust to the device used by the user, with this plus value it can increase engagement with users so that they stay on your online store website for a long time.
Easy management
With easy-to-understand admin navigation, you can easily manage such as products, product categories, discounts, currency used, themes to be used, incoming orders, and much more and also has a modern admin dashboard display equipped with charts.
Multivendor
Opencart supports multivendors where online stores can be transformed into marketplaces, where registered users can create their own online stores, simple examples like Bukalapak or Tokopedia, but this feature is not included in the default opencart, where you have to buy these addons in the provided opencart marketplace.
The features provided by Opencart are very powerful and diverse, when compared to other CMS, Opencart is very complete, of course this is a distinct advantage for online stores that use this CMS. Another important thing is, this CMS can be customized, if you want changes as you wish that do not depend on the default Opencart default.
Customization is the best choice, customization plays an important role so that the user interface is not cluttered and can attract visitors, if the customization can be done well then more visitors will come, opencart supports this customization and also has settings for customization.
2. Shopify
Shopify is a web-based E-Commerce application that can be used to create an online store that has several features such as product management, pricing, payment and delivery. Shopify is perfect for online shop owners who want an online shop without basic coding. Users only need to register and choose a package that can be used to start an online store.
Shopify has three packages provided, namely basic, standard and advanced, if you are curious to try this platform, you can try a trial for 2 weeks to test whether it is suitable for this platform or not, if it feels suitable you can use one of the packages provided .
The basic package is perfect for those who want to try Shopify for the first time with a fee per transaction of 2%, then the standard package where the subscription fee is quite high and the difference is that the cost per transaction is only 1% then the last one is advanced, which is the highest package on this platform , the subscription fee is quite high and of course the rich features offered and the transaction fee is only 0.5%, this package is only suitable for online shop owners who have big businesses.
Some of the advantages of Shopify are:
Drag and drop builder
Different from other CMS, Shopify offers a drag and drop feature for creating an online store, this is very suitable for owners who do not have basic coding at all and everything can be built very easily.
Theme variants and customization
There are so many diverse themes that are present at Shopify, where the theme is an important element to increase engagement with visitors to linger in your online store, has hundreds of diverse themes and can be customized according to paid or free themes.
Please note that Shopify is a hosted service where the data you upload to Shopify goes into the Shopify server itself. you only need to think about the domain name that will be used which will later be associated with shopify.
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is actually a plugin in wordpress that activates additional online store features, WooCommerce is open source where users can tinker as they wish. many people started their online business starting from this WooCommerce.
For those of you who want a flexible platform for managing online stores, want full control in monitoring performance, visitors and managing products and abundant additional features, you can use this wordpress plugin to start an online store.
Some other interesting things contained in this WooCommerce are
Plugins
WooCommerce actually has standard plugins that you can use directly, the interesting thing here is that you can create your own plugins as you wish, to do this... you must have basic coding especially in PHP because wordpress uses PHP as the main programming language them and also you can use your own plugin for your online store or you can also resell it.
Analytics
WooCommerce offers many analytic tools that can be used by users to easily monitor sales data, stock items, turnover, profits, etc. which is very important for online stores to have.
Community
WordPress users are almost spread all over the world, including WooCommerce, with the massive number of wordpress users, this platform will not fade over time.
When you have trouble using this platform or looking for something related to WooCommerce you can easily find solutions on search engines or social media.
WooCommerce has the motto "The most customizable eCommerce platform for building your online business" in other words, this platform can be customized according to the owner's wishes supported by thousands of extensions that complement your online store to be extraordinary.
4. Magento / Adobe Commerce
What is Magento / Adobe Commerce? Magento which has now changed to Adobe Commerce is a web-based eCommerce application system that provides features for online stores that are quite complete, ranging from product management, payment arrangements, shipping arrangements, order management to shopping systems, all of which are available on this platform, on a small or large scale. .
Magento is suitable for use as your choice to create an online store, modern website design that is user friendly and optimization for search engines such as SEO. Magento includes self-hosted where you yourself manage this application from database settings to installation.
Extensions that are available more than thousands of extensions make it easy for you to start an online store using magento, the extensions provided are available from various categories ranging from themes, systems, payments, shipping and many more.
Many large companies have used the Magento platform in their online stores which of course have received millions of dollars in transactions. it can be concluded that Magento is indeed suitable for large-scale online stores that can handle thousands of transactions every day.
What are the advantages of this Magento?
Complete admin dashboard
An important feature in managing an online store is an admin who can control the content in our online store, in Magento itself it has a pretty slick dashboard in managing content such as product management to consumers and has detailed sales reports including order reports, registered customers, everything can be done. managed only through the admin panel.
SEO friendly
It is no longer an open secret that SEO is a very very important element in a website including eCommerce, Magento is an SEO Friendly platform where targeted slugs can be adapted to our products into search engines, and add each meta to our products such as meta titles. , meta descriptions etc., in addition to SEO this is to prevent duplication of our product content.
Language and security
Megento supports various languages to expand the scope of our consumers and also in terms of security, Magento pays enough attention to this by regularly updating their security system to avoid DDoS.
Community
Because magento is an open source application, there are lots of developers who contribute to improving performance and updating software, so you don't need to be afraid if you get into trouble when there is an error in magento, because they will help you to solve magento online store problems.
5. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a web-based eCommerce application that is open source and can be developed as we want, prestashop is self hosted using PHP in the language used and MySQL for data storage.
There are also many online stores that use Prestashop in their online stores. One of the reasons why this Prestashop is in demand is the many themes that are scattered around.
The system is easy to use, free and has abundant features, which has thousands of communities ready to help you in dealing with problems in using this prestashop. when you are looking for what online store platform I can try, prestashop might be one of the lists.
Prestashop is also very easy to install on your hosting and if you have basic PHP you can edit the source code as you wish. Prestashop has proven that they are the best platform by getting awards as best open source solution in 2010 and 2011.
So what are the advantages of this PrestaShop?
Modules
Prestashop supports a module-based system, where when you want to add new features dynamically according to the needs of the online store.
SEO optimized
SEO Optimized is another feature found in PrestaShop, which supports SEO friendly slugs, meta titles, meta descriptions that allow online stores to be good in search engine rankings.
Sales report
Sales report feature that helps in managing the store in analyzing seller statistics, real time and you can check anytime at any time.
Payment
And also provides various types of payments that are provided in the form of bank transfers, paypal, stripe, credit cards or third parties that can be integrated into your online store system.
For those of you who have an online store for the first time, the process of adding products to PrestaShop is not difficult, and you can also write complete and detailed descriptions because Prestashop does not limit the number of characters in their descriptions.
6. Joomla!
Joomla is CMS to create a website quickly and easily, Joomla! completely open source that can be changed as you wish and develop for the better for free
Joomla is very easy to learn even though it doesn't have basic IT, this fact can be seen from the many other people who use Joomla in using it into blogs, or other websites.
Please note that this CMS has a lot of available extensions that you can use, one of which is the Online Store extension, eCommerce extension packages generally consist of modules and plugins that are free as well as paid ones, several Joomla extensions that you can use to become this CMS. become an online shop that is
VirtueMart
VirtueMart is one of the Joomla extensions that has been available since 2006, with a very long journey and experience, this extension is getting more mature and many are already using it, a lot of functionality and also the main strength that makes this extension so strong is its massive community.
HikaShop
HikaShop is an e-commerce extension for Joomla CMS that was created by bringing its simplicity and flexibility, helping product management and also providing management including taxes, languages, currencies that suit your needs, this extension is one of the most widely used extensions because it's free.
JoomShopping
JoomShooping is an eCommerce extension from Joomla that is responsive, lightweight and user friendly, and also provides a forum on the official website regarding updates, issues related to this extension, this extension is also suitable for small-scale online shop owners, this extension is free but will incur a fee. additional if you want to use other functionality.
Closing
Here are some online store platforms and extensions that you can try before you find a platform that is suitable for an online store in the long term, with various features provided, functionalities and a helpful community.
