E-Commerce Development Comparison

Which CMS to choose for your e-commerce site?

If you are thinking about implementing an e-commerce project, do you know the different platforms you can use?

You wish to realize your project?

It is indeed difficult to choose an e-commerce CMS suited to your company's needs without knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each! To find the right platform, you have to take into consideration several determining criteria that will ensure the right compatibility !

First of all, if you are a large company requiring advanced technologies, it's best to use Magento, which remains the essential content management system for e-commerce websites, or Drupal Commerce, the e-commerce module of Drupal!

The Magento CMS, acquired by Adobe in May 2018, allows a fast production start-up thanks to its ease of use. It also offers a greater richness in terms of its functionalities. With a high capacity to support a large amount of traffic, it can manage international business under the same platform! Positioned at the 7th place of the most popular CMS, Magento equips 1% of all websites in the world! Esokia has referenced large companies such as Hager and Christofle using this technology for their sites.

As for Drupal Commerce, it requires a longer appropriation time because the CMS is presented as a model framework that allows you to build a site closer to the customer's needs. Yet, it has customization capabilities that are more important, faster and easier to use than those of Magento. With a community of over 22,000 expert developers and more than 66,000 sites to its credit, it is one of the key CMS for e-commerce! Our agency used it for the creation of the Cour des Créateurs website.

Since Magento and Drupal Commerce require major investments, there are other alternatives e-commerce platforms recommended for smaller companies. So, if you want to do online commerce at a lower cost with rather easy-to-manage webmastering, we advise you to use platforms such as Woocommerce, Prestashop or Shopify!

Do you know the advantages of each in terms of your project?

As 70% of French websites have been created with Wordpress, it is preferable to use its e-commerce plugin Woocommerce which is extremely easy to use! In total, more than 2 million e-shops in the world have been created with it! For an overview of the sites that can be created with this e-commerce extension, you can visit the sites of Tuitionline and Cerise sur le chapeau!

One of the main advantages of Prestashop, created by a French company, is that it is a free open source CMS, very complete and easy to use. It now has more than 250,000 users, the majority of which are French-speaking! 
Its main advantage is that it offers hundreds of very rich features, in the form of extensions or native, and which can be free or paid.

Unlike open source solutions, is based on SaaS. It is Shopifya solution for companies lacking any knowledge in digital! It is true that in terms of performance, design, content and SEO, it is an e-commerce must-have!  It is one of the CMS with the most users with a number exceeding 500,000! However, the disadvantage it has compared to its competitors is that it is the only platform that takes commissions on sales!

Based on the criteria detailed below, which open source CMS would suit you best?

Magento : The Power

• You are focused on a powerful e-commerce platform however you do not need to publish multimedia content.

• Your company's business model requires end-to-end control and configuration of the e-commerce workflow.

• You want to keep functionality in-house and don't need any subscriptions or third party systems.

• You have the management of a warehouse that has a lot of inventory and references that needs an advanced shipping process.

Drupal Commerce : Content management

• You are an online shop that communicate strong stories about your products on an integrated buying and publishing platform.
• You are looking for an extensible platform that provides flexibility and integration points with other systems to integrate e-commerce functionality and APIs.

Woocommerce : ease of use

• You are a company that would like to manage its shop and Internet presence independently with a limited budget.
• You already use WordPress and you want to continue to benefit from its SEO advantages for an efficient site.
• You would like to create APIs in order to add other solutions and functionalities more adapted to your business.

Prestashop : a multitude of associated functionalities

• You are looking for a platform that has a large catalog of themes to facilitate the design of your website.
• You need a CMS that provides analysis tools that can help you understand what's going on in your online store in order to make quick changes to increase your traffic and revenue.

Shopify : a simple and intuitive interface

• You are looking for a platform with many features to enhance the design and options of your e-shop.
• You need an educational CMS, leaving you in total autonomy, for the creation of your site because the functionalities are guided.

Take into consideration that there is no better CMS than another! Indeed, you will have to make your choice according to the one you find the most adapted to your project! If you have any questions about your project, ask our team of experts who will help you clarify your doubts!

We have designed a table to help you take a more global look at the differences between the different e-commerce management content systems.

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