B2C eCommerce has emerged as a revolution in the retail industry. We cannot certainly deny that the User's preference for online shopping on B2C eCommerce platforms are becoming a popular choice for businesses that are now planning to go online. The annual growth rate of a B2C business is 17%. It has also been estimated that the B2C will be striking the global sales market, with a sales of over $29 trillion by 2020.With continuously increasing sales figures, the B2C businesses, who were dependent on their brick stores are now transforming themselves into the online world of eCommerce. There are another few that are listed below, that will surely interest you in B2C eCommerce platforms for your business. 

Why an eCommerce platform critical for B2C eCommerce?

The first and foremost step towards transforming your B2C eCommerce dream into online is to decide on the right eCommerce solution for your business. This is the most critical decision. An ideal eCommerce platform is what provides the right solution that can shape the future of your business.

You have to analyze your strength, weakness and business opportunity for your idea. Then, you need to search for a technology partner, who can unite with your vision to give solutions that can help your business become successful. The right B2C eCommerce platform provides an exact solution for your business.

Keeping all these in mind, here are the 10 tips for you to find the most suitable eCommerce platform that offers an ideal solution for B2C business.

Modern and Latest Technology that is reliable for next 10 years

This is a constant race. In fact, by the time you adopt a technology, a new upgrade happens to that technology. And, with most of the technologies, upgrading may not be easy. Your main aim here should be to pick a technology that not only results in a high performing ecommerce application, but also upgrading to the newer version should be easy. Many successful eCommerce platforms have used NodeJS ecommerce for their B2C online stores, which has proved reliable in terms of performance and upgrade. And, NodeJS is supported by the Community that will help NodeJS thrive, assuring reliability for at least next 10 years.

Speed

This is perhaps the only determining factor for the success of a B2C eCommerce website. Speed and quicker load time of the eCommerce website plays a significant role for conversion rates and sales. An impatient Customer would not wait for more than 4 seconds on your website. Ideally, the load time of an eCommerce website should be 3 seconds. NodeJS,  with its asynchronous features, can build a website that can result in a 10 x speedier eCommerce website with quick load time. A NodeJS based B2C eCommerce platform will be the best choice for your B2C eCommerce business.

Mobile Compatibility - The future of eCommerce is Mobile App

The ease of online shopping with just a few taps and without having to open a laptop is the future of eCommerce. So, when it comes to choosing a platform for  online store, is it Mobile compatible and does it come along with a ready solution for Mobile App should be one of the criteria. You may lose out on a lot of Customers if you do not have a Mobile App for your Online Store, because 83% of the Internet Users are Smartphone users today.

Responsive Design for a user friendly experience

Customers are the key to the success of any online business. The more the traffic to the website, the greater the conversion rate. The most important factor that determines the potential of traffic to a website is its responsiveness and user-friendliness. Customers prefer to visit a site and stay for longer in a site that is responsive enough to fit all the screens competently. So, it is highly important to check if a B2C eCommerce platform offers the responsive feature that increases the potential for traffic and conversion rates.

Easy Check out

The primary reason for cart abandonment is the complex check out process. A single page checkout option will give a seamless check out experience to the Customer. A B2B eCommerce platform having an easy check out or single page checkout feature will give you an edge to reduce the potential for cart abandonment.

Payment Gateway with Multiple Payment options

The key to any eCommerce business website is payment gateway with multiple payment options including Debit card, Credit card, Net banking, PayPal and more. By offering multiple options for payment, you will be increasing your potential for more conversion rate and sales as you will be catering to a large number of Customers, all across the world with convenience and security.

Data Security

A B2C eCommerce website should ensure 100 percent security to its Customer data. Your Customers are putting in their complete trust and giving their information on your website. It is your utmost duty to keep their data safe. So, you need to take the best steps to prevent any vulnerabilities. You should surely check with the solution provider if the solution has all the provision for keeping the Customer data safe. In addition, you need to have SSL for your eCommerce site.

Customer Support - With multiple support channels

Another key feature of an eCommerce website is customer support, through various means like, chat, call and email is highly important. Since your Customers are buying products online, without any face to face interaction between you and them, a thorough support is an absolute necessity. A good Customer support will bring confidence among your Customers to buy from your website and return to your website. So, a B2C eCommerce platform with provision for Customer support should be another important criteria.

Easy Customization - B2C eCommerce platform should come with complete source code

Every eCommerce business is unique, with different needs, structure and function and goals and objectives. The right solution gives complete flexibility to tweak the front end and the backend according to the requirement and business scalability. The architecture of the most suitable eCommerce solution will support your business growth with a scalable set up. It gives you complete liberty to either expand your business or to minimize it, as per the market trend. So, you need to go for a B2C eCommerce that comes with complete source code.

Easy registration Process

Your eCommerce website's registration process should not be tedious, discouraging the Customers to leave the website without registering. Along with registration with the website, an option for Google login and Face book login will open a doorway for your Customers to quickly enter into your website and start shopping instantly.

Easy Product Management with Admin Control Panel

76% of B2C Customers choose a website that has an easy navigation and search flow. The right platform empowers Customers with categorization up to 4 levels. This not only ensures smooth search in the system, but also provides ease in product management and product categorization at the backend. Availability of multiple filters can help Customers narrow down their search for finding the appropriate products. Also, the person managing the website from the backend, will find it easy to add products under the right category that rightly appeals to the Customers' searches.

The Crux of Online Business - SEO friendliness and provision for digital promotions

Promotions and Marketing have always been an integral part of online Industry, for its success. It is highly important how Customers perceive your product. According to a survey, about 85% of success of a brand depends on the marketing solution. So, you need to decide on a B2C eCommerce platform that has features for implementing offers, discounts, promo codes, free shipping and other schemes like that. Also, the platform has to have features for making the website SEO friendly.

Cost Effectiveness

An open source eCommerce solution supported by a Community is certainly the best choice that works out in a cost effective manner. If you are looking for something more than this, with a good technical support and a team who can support you completely from the backend, then you may opt for a solution that also has option for long term support on a monthly fee model or one time installation and set up cost with long term support and more such options. You will have to do a good research to find one such solution provider.

Conclusion

The right B2C eCommerce platform will always have these features that are mentioned above. If not, the team behind the eCommerce platform, will offer customization services, along with the important features that can become a game changer for your Business. Spurtcommerce is one such platform. Although their Community version comes only with the basic features for B2C eCommerce,  and their pro version comes with the standard features of a full-fledged B2C eCommerce website, the team behind Spurtcommerce offers customization with comprehensive B2C features, exclusively for your eCommerce business. The team will understand your requirement and your B2C business objectives and then come up with a solution that will match your vision. The team will also offer you long term support to make sure that your website will sustain speed and performance, with your fast growing business. Spurtcommerce will give you a solid base through the right eCommerce platform for your B2C eCommerce platform.