How to choose a CMS for an online store

If you are going to open your own online store, you first need to think over the details that play a big role in the further success of the site. Domain registration and hosting rent are standard, simple procedures, so we will not consider them. And one of the important tasks to be solved is which CMS is better for an online store .

Now on the Internet there are many articles, user recommendations and forums in which this issue is often discussed. These are mainly reviews of free platforms and descriptions of users' personal experiences. But each online store is a separate, individual project, so it is very important to understand which engine is right for your case. And in this article we will look at how to choose a CMS for the needs of your business.

We will talk about full-fledged electronic stores that are hosted on their own hosting. It does not take into account various online services, constructors and other sites, which, in principle, can be made for free. Such sites do not belong to their creator, and there is no full access to them.

When developing your online store, keep in mind that a site that was created on someone else's hosting without the ability to transfer it to your hosting will not technically be yours, and all possible consequences follow from this.

Why choosing an engine is a very important step in creating an online store

The further operation of the site depends on a reliable engine, its speed, functionality and ease of use. Please note that in the future, if you are not satisfied with the selected CMS, you will need to switch to another. It is possible to do this, but it is difficult, since you need to master the new admin panel, transfer data and re-configure all the parameters. And this is a waste of time and money. Moreover, when “moving” to another engine, you will have to hire an experienced programmer, since an ordinary user cannot cope with such a difficult task. In the best case, if any difficulties arise in the work, they will require considerable improvements, and this is an additional cost. In the worst case, it will be necessary to completely replace the CMS, which means that you will have to delete the old site and develop a new one.

Therefore, at the very start, you need to choose the best engine for the online store, which will suit all indicators, will be convenient for both the owner and the users. It is the right platform for your online store that will help you save money and time.

We will give a brief overview of the various engines for the following parameters:

• functionality;
• design;
• advantages and disadvantages.

We will also try to save you from common mistakes that beginners make when creating their store.

What to look out for first

A wide range of products, attractive prices and colorful page designs are certainly very good. But all efforts may turn out to be useless if from the technical point of view the site is made illiterately, and in order to make even some minor changes, you need to rewrite almost half of the code.

The aspiring online entrepreneur is faced with the dilemma which of the following is the best fit:

• choose a free engine for your online store to launch your business faster;
• opt for a more demanding, complex, but also more functional engine;
• or find the so-called "golden mean".

Let's understand this issue together.

Immediately I would like to emphasize that the development of the site itself will not bring you profit. Of course, it affects the success of the business, but it is not a product that can be sold and instantly received income. This means that you need to make an online store on a platform that will allow you to save as much as possible on development. In other words, all the functions necessary for an online store must be implemented in CSM so that paid improvements are not required in the future. Let's move on to considering these same functions.

Basic Editing (Admin Panel)

If you are not a programmer and, in principle, are far from this question, to manage your site you will need the simplest admin panel through which you can easily edit the content on the pages, change or add blocks. Basic editing ability is very important for beginners who are not familiar with the code, are not familiar with HTML and PHP.

At the same time, there are such complex elements in the site code that still require edits and improvements. Therefore, the platform must be able to correct the code using the admin panel. In this case, you can invite a programmer and make the necessary edits.

Design and arrangement of blocks

The attractive appearance of your site is one of the stepping stones to success. When choosing an engine for your future site, consider whether the basic template will be convenient for you and whether its design suits you.

Many engines allow you to work with blocks through the admin panel, have banners provided by the template, as well as blocks for placing promotional products and bestsellers.

Here are examples of CSMs that allow you to independently edit blocks.

• OKayCMS . This platform is very comfortable to use, has an intuitive admin panel and even in the basic configuration allows you to create powerful online stores. Without resorting to the help of specialists, you can easily edit and design blocks using the admin panel. Promotional and most popular products can be added to the appropriate blocks. They will be visible to visitors only if the products are added. If there are no such products at the moment, the blocks are automatically hidden. Pleased with a wide selection of templates for various types of business. You don't even have to order an individual design, because among the options offered there will certainly be a suitable template. Another significant advantage is that the engine is absolutely free. But you can always order a ready-made store , and if you have any questions, technical support will help you figure everything out.
• WordPress. It is the most widely used blogging platform. And in order to create an online store on this engine, you need to additionally install plugins. In the basic configuration, you can make changes to the template, swap blocks or add new ones. But such a package allows you to do well only a business card site, since most extensions are paid. If you want to improve the design over time, you will have to pay a lot for it.
• Bitrix . Users love this engine for its good basic package. Even the cheapest version has enough plugins to create an online store for the average company. Here you can change blogs and design as you like, play with pictures and texts. In addition, there is the possibility of integration with 1C and adaptation of the site for mobile devices. But with all these advantages, Bitrix is quite difficult to manage, therefore, in many issues, paid help of a specialist will be needed.

Russified version

Many engines for online stores were created by foreign companies or freelancers, so they do not have a Russian-language version of the admin panel. And this moment is just very important, because it is more convenient and faster to make edits in the russified admin panel. Moreover, with it you will have to pay much less to the content manager, since working with the Russian version does not require a highly qualified employee. You can hire a freelancer or student for this job site.

Payment and delivery methods directly to CMS

The main task of an online store is to sell your product. Also, the site should display the availability of goods, the current price and accept payment from the client through different channels.

Acceptance of payment and calculation of the final cost of the order, including delivery, are the key points in the functionality of the online store.

It is desirable that these moments were initially provided for in the engine. If the CMS lacks the most necessary payment and delivery methods, it is not very convenient. You will have to buy additional modules or even develop them to order. This, of course, increases the cost of creating an online store.

When choosing an engine, immediately look at the one that contains its own modules of common payment systems and delivery methods. Also, a good engine should leave it up to you to add new shipping methods. When you expand your sales geography, this option will come in very handy.

SEO optimization

It will be extremely difficult to achieve the desired result without promoting your site in search engines. And SEO optimization is needed just for the competent promotion of resources. Of course, to a greater extent this moment depends on you, and not on the engine. Unique selling descriptions, good video reviews, your own photos - all of this content influences the promotion. But without the functionality of the engine, there will be little sense either.

Now, despite the enormous importance of SEO, there are still platforms that do not make it possible to adapt the site in such a way that all the requirements of search engines are taken into account. Omitting any detail, the owner of the online store ends up receiving less traffic, potential buyers and, of course, sales. And at this time, competitors are not asleep, actively moving to the TOP of search results, leaving you far behind.

Considering all of the above, it becomes obvious why it is so important to choose an engine with SEO optimization in the admin panel. With it, you can easily promote your resource, and to do this work, you can hire a remote seo specialist who will tell you what data you need to enter to promote the resource. Thus, you will be able to save on this employee's salary.

If your engine has such a feature, you will reach good positions in the search channel much faster. By filling in the required fields, you will already take a huge step towards optimization. And while you write selling texts, shoot videos and photograph the product, search engines will already see your resource and its subject matter, will add it to the search results for key queries, which means that your positions will gradually increase.

Leading CMS platforms provide users with this opportunity. Here is a list of popular engines that include the SEO optimization option.

• OkayCMS. The functionality for SEO in this engine is implemented in accordance with all the requirements of search engines. It is possible to generate a URL for each page. Also, the meta tags Title, Description, and Keywords are generated automatically. Product filter pages can also be optimized for search engines. In addition, CNC is formed in the filters.
• 1C-Bitrix. This engine has excellent SEO module functionality that allows you to solve a lot of optimization tasks. For example, you can manage titles and meta descriptions, look at the promoted words on the page, and index the page itself in search engines.
• JOOMLA. This platform has SEO modules, but the engine itself will have to be configured. If you want to create an online store based on JOOMLA, you will need to additionally install a plugin. In addition, you will need to configure seo modules for this plugin. Among the disadvantages of the engine is the fact that not all pages can be assigned a Title.

Ability to add users and administrators

If the engine does not provide for the ability to add other administrators and give them certain rights, you do not need such an engine.

Only at first it seems that one administrator will be enough - you. But this is a misconception. It is better to entrust many crucial moments to a professional in their field. And your concern as an owner at the first stage will be in such moments: assortment expansion, traffic increase, conversion. If at this time you are also distracted by current issues - communicating with clients, processing orders, and so on, you will quickly burn out, since this is a colossal amount of work.

Another important argument: one person cannot do all the work equally well. And if shortcomings arise in working with clients, this will negatively affect your bottom line. Poorly advised potential buyers - missed the order. Slowed down with order processing - missed the sale. They did not respond to the client's wishes to return the goods - they lost their reputation. And this list can be kept for a very long time. But the essence remains the same: you need to be able to delegate, and for this, your CMS should be able to add new users and administrators.

You don't have to give other employees the rights to edit descriptions, prices, order statuses, or the ability to view statistics. Full Control is a privilege of the owner. You can clearly define the rights and responsibilities of other users and indicate this in the admin panel. So you can sleep well, knowing that your goods will not be removed and the price will not be reduced.

With the development of the online store, new directions will appear in it: the delivery department, receiving orders, returning goods, working with the assortment. The employees you use in these areas will have completely different responsibilities and different rights in the admin panel.

Convenient and optimized shopping cart

It often happens that potential buyers disappear at the final stage during the checkout process. And the reason for this is very commonplace: they simply do not understand how to complete the purchase. Or a client needs to fill in a lot of fields to place an order.

Think about how convenient it is for your customers to fill in the checkout fields. It is more appropriate to place it in one country so that users are not frightened by the lengthy checkout procedure.

As practice shows, the user is more comfortable if the checkout is located in one list and the duration of the procedure can be immediately estimated.

It is also imperative to optimize the shopping cart. After selecting an item, a pop-up window should appear that notifies the user that the item is already in the cart. After that, the site offers the client to choose one of the options: place an order or continue shopping. This simple trick improves website conversion.

It is advisable to stop the choice of CMS for an online store on a platform on which you can configure all these parameters yourself, without calling a paid programmer every time. You will not understand from the first day which format is the most convenient for your clients, so you should be able to “play” as much as you like with all the settings.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Free CMS for an Online Store

Many novice users prefer free engines in the hope of saving money at the first stage of developing an online store. Is this the right choice? Let's take a look at the pros and cons of this savings.

There are a huge number of free website building platforms on the market right now. They differ in a set of functions and appearance, but they have a number of such advantages:

1. User-friendly interface for administrators.
2. High quality usability.
3. Easy to learn
4. Ability to quickly back up data
5. Simple site administration
6. Open source access

Obviously, free engines have many advantages. They have an impressive set of features, are intuitive and easy to use, easy to use, you don't even need to have a lot of experience on the Internet. And you can download and install a free engine within a few minutes.

But, despite the large list of advantages, free platforms also have a lot of disadvantages that negatively affect the operation of the online store and profits in general:

• Such engines do not have technical support. In case of any failures or questions, you will have to figure it out on your own or pay the programmer for help.
• There is a need for regular updates.
• Free engines may become paid over time. That is, some functions are disabled, and in order to activate them again, you will need to pay extra.
• Often, such platforms do not provide an opportunity to fully implement their ideas, since they have a limited set of functions. And additional plugins that extend these functions are not cheap. To upgrade your online store to the desired state, you will have to spend well.

As you can see, the disadvantages of free engines are significant and they override their advantages. Already in the process of working with their online store, the owners understand that the money saved on buying the engine will still have to be spent on improving the site. In addition, you will have to spend a lot of time and lose profit, which could have been received from the first days if the resource had been fully functional from the beginning.

Considering these points, now many people prefer paid engines. In particular, the OkayCMS platform has proven itself well. It does not have the disadvantages that are present in free engines. Since this platform is designed specifically for the needs of online stores, it contains all the necessary functions for adding and selling products, marketing tools are implemented to increase conversion and SEO-promotion. In addition, the platform is multilingual, multicurrency, integrates with various payment and search engines and has responsive templates.

It is also important that the engine provides technical support in both free and paid versions. Also, for a fee, experienced specialists will work on the site, creating the resource of your dreams. By the way, to test the usability of this platform, you can first install OkayCMS lite. This is a free option and is a great start. You can get money from online sales without much investment and upgrade to the paid version whenever you see fit.

Let's summarize the choice of an engine for an online store

When deciding what to build an online store on , you need to take into account a lot of points, weigh all the pros and cons, get acquainted with the possibilities offered by each platform, calculate the approximate costs of creating a website. Please note that not all engines are equally well suited for ecommerce. Some are better suited for blogging or single page sites. It is quite difficult to implement a full-fledged, successful online store on them, because in the process of doing business there will always be a need for improvements, and this is an extra waste of time and money.

To avoid difficulties in the further work of the site, pay attention to the following points:

• The platform should provide the basic ability to edit the resource in the admin panel.
• It is necessary that the engine has an attractive design and block editing function.
• Practice shows that the Russified version is extremely important, because it is very convenient and effective. A novice user who does not thoroughly speak English will be able to more easily understand the functions of the admin panel, and, therefore, develop his own website faster.
• The engine should initially implement such functionality as delivery and payment methods, since it will be very difficult and expensive to implement them in the future.
• Equally important is the SEO optimization option. It will make it much easier to promote your site in search engines, which has a positive effect on sales.
• Make sure the engine allows you to add new users and administrators to whom you can delegate certain areas of your work.
• Make sure that the shopping cart of your online store is convenient and easy to use, and the checkout is placed on one page and contains few fields.

Many novice users who are just thinking about choosing a CMS make the same mistake. They only look at the site's façade, that is, the design. But the point is that redesigning is not a problem. Moreover, most online stores update the design of their resource in about 3-5 years. But the site engine, its basis, is very difficult to change if it does not suit you with something. Conclusion: the choice of CMS must be approached responsibly, because this is the foundation of the future business.

Let's take a quick look at the TOP engines for an online store:

1. OkayCMS . Free platform. It is easy to learn, has an impressive set of functions, constant technical support, and the best part is that it is tailored specifically for online stores. OkayCMS Pro is a free engine that gives users a lot of useful features. They ensure the smooth, streamlined operation of the online store across all channels.
2. WordPress . This is perhaps the most widely used free engine today. Although it is not tailored to the needs of an online store, but if you just want to understand whether your product is needed by customers, to "probe a niche", so to speak, this option will do quite well.
3. OpenCart . It is also free and suitable for small businesses, as the set of functions is very limited. If you are not yet ready to invest in the development of your website and are just taking your first steps in ecommerce, you can stop at this option.
4. Drupal . It's also free, and here the set of functions is more generous, so the platform is suitable not only for small, but also for large businesses. But to understand these functions, it will take a lot of time and skills, since the admin panel is complicated to use.
5. 1C-Bitrix . It is a paid and powerful engine that users love for its wide range of features. Here you can add a huge number of products and play with the design. But the admin panel is complex, oversaturated with unnecessary options and it will take a lot of time and patience to figure out all the buttons. Many people point out the high cost of this engine.