This article provides you with information regarding the two most common eCommerce sites used for building online stores.

Things You Should Consider When Starting an eCommerce Business

• Who is going to build your eCommerce platform, and what are their capabilities and skills?
• Will you require long term maintenance services and who is going to provide them? How easy or how hard is it to find programmers or agencies for your chosen platform?
• How hard is it to modify the basic template or flow of the platform (for example the checkout page and flow)
• How much support is available online for your desired platform? How big is the community around it in terms of solutions and extensions?
• Are you looking to have a flexible custom solution or would you rather go for more standardized settings?
• What additional features and functions will you want to integrate into your online store, on top of the obvious default ones?
• Which eCommerce platforms best support the features you require?
• Are there any known performance issues with the platform/solution?
• Do you want to sell outside of your own country?
• How do you plan to tackle SEO performance and social share-ability and are they a top priority for your business?
• Will you be running multiple stores?
• What is your e-commerce content strategy? Do you need to integrate your eCommerce store with a WordPress blog?
• How much will you need to spend on licensing, hosting, extensions, etc, and does it fit in with your budget?
• Based on your answers, you can now begin to eliminate options and narrow them down to your preferred one.
• Need Help?
• If you are overwhelmed with so many things to consider, we can help you.

Magento Vs. Opencart – Similarities

Generally, Magento and OpenCart actually have a lot in common. They are both open-source platforms that are ultimately designed to facilitate eCommerce activity.

Both are developed in PHP and use templates to upload products, so they can be maintained by non-programmers. They are also rich in resources such as extensions, add-on products, and plugins that can easily be added to them to support new functions.

One of the greatest advantages that both Magento and OpenCart users enjoy is their ability to support multiple languages and currencies, making them a global solution that can suit businesses all around the world.

Besides the selection of the e-commerce platform, the quality of the web hosting service you purchase will also make a big difference in the performance of your online store. Bear in mind though that Magento tends to consume a lot of resources, which means you will need a stronger hosting plan to support your store performance. Forget about shared hosting as it will most likely be outgrown before you notice it. You may also receive recommendations such as hosting your back-end on a separate server.

Opencart in this case will be cheaper to host thanks to its lightweight and will tend to work better for small to medium-size stores. Magento performs better in hosting medium to large-sized business websites.

The one major difference between Magento and Opencart is rooted in their uses and features. Magento has been gaining worldwide recognition for its ability to do just about anything you like and build the store of your dreams. It offers highly customizable shopping experiences, unlimited design options, powerful SEO resources, and unlimited plugins and integrations.

OpenCart on the other hand is a lot easier to program but has a smaller community basis.