How to Choose the Right eCommerce Platform for Your Online Clothing Store

Clothing & apparel domain has evolved over the last few years. It has become the largest and most representative sector of the fashion industry today. Therefore, retailers are seeking adequate solutions to provide flexible and low-cost apparel designs with quality & speed to market. This desire has changed the dynamics of the fashion industry.

As part of this, many companies have invested in building efficient eCommerce platforms to help retailers open online fashion stores. However, you should select the right option that can help to scale your business and fit in your business model.

Read on, as, through this article, we will see the top eCommerce platforms today as well as tips on how you can pick up the right one from them to open your online clothing store.

Best eCommerce Platforms for Clothing Web-Store

1. Magento
Magento is the best choice if you are looking for a highly scalable and customizable solution. It can handle enormous traffic at once. Its extensive list of features for building and marketing online store along with improving customer segmentation makes it a perfect choice for big projects.

Magento provides several editions to help businesses get most out of it.
    • Community Edition: It is an open-source platform and ideal for small to medium businesses.
    • Enterprise Edition: This is a paid version. It comes with numerous advanced and secure features. Many eCommerce giants power their digital sales using Magento EE.

The Magento eCommerce platform comprises several in-built features, including:
    1. eCommerce SEO
    2. Mobile commerce
    3. User segmentation
    4. Multi-store management
    5. Persistent shopping cart

2. Shopify
Shopify is another great platform to start an online eCommerce business. Retailers can expect a great customer and m-commerce support when they choose Shopify. It comes with a variety of excellent selling, shipping, and theme options that help to design the online store as per the business requirements.

Shopify comes with three plans:
    • Basic Shopify: It comes with all the essential features to start a new online business.
    • Shopify: With some advanced features such as gift card, professional report, and more, it is suitable for a growing eCommerce business.
    • Advanced Shopify: It includes all the advanced features with third-party app integrations and suits large-scale business requirements.

A few notable features of Shopify:
    1. Comprehensive Dashboard
    2. MailChimp integration
    3. 24/7 live chat & phone support
    4. Over 100 free, fully responsive store themes
    5. Powerful community forum

3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a simple and effective platform for beginners in the industry. Its various pricing plans, a considerable number of apps, and excellent design options make it one of the preferable options to open online clothing stores.

BigCommerce offers four plans:
    • Standard: It is available for $29.95/mo and suitable for basic online store needs.
    • Plus: It starts at $79.95/mo and comes with marketing tools to increase business conversion simplistically.
    • Pro: You can get this plan for $249.95/mo and get a comprehensive set of BigCommerce features.
    • Enterprise: BigCommerce claims to provide this custom plan at a lower price than Magento and Shopify.
 

BigCommerce facilitates eCommerce business process by offering:
    1. User-friendly admin panel
    2. 80 plus free & paid themes
    3. In-built options for shipping quotes, product reviews, gift certificates, and other components
    4. 15-day free trial
    5. 24/7 Email & chat support
 
Tips to Select the Perfect eCommerce Platform for Your Clothing Brand
Every business is different and so as the needs. However, considering some best practices can help to choose the best platform for your online clothing store. Let us have a look at them.

1. Your target audience
Analyze the behavioral habits of your target audience. To create a custom store design according to user interests, you require total control of the backend. Moreover, look for the mCommerce options provided by the platform, as buyers today prefer smartphones for their online purchase.

2. Theme options
It is crucial to pick up the right theme that meets your business needs as well as attracts your customers. Review the opportunities provided by the eCommerce platform and look at what other online stores are using. It will help you to get a clear idea.

3. Customization
Check what customization options you will get in a particular eCommerce platform. To create a unique, enhanced buyer experience, you may need to customize shopping cart, checkout page, product detail page, and more. However, if your clothing store doesn’t need too much customization, then it is not a wise decision to pay thousands of dollars for a full custom package.

4. Integration
An eCommerce online store integration with systems such as ERP, CRM, or others streamlines business processes and boosts productivity. Platforms such as Magento and Shopify come with real-time integration capabilities, which can save your costs in the long run.

Conclusion
Selecting the right eCommerce platform can help you to succeed in your online clothing business and sustain for a long time. Remember that regardless of the platform you choose, you can switch to another eCommerce platform at any time if you want. Toward this, an experienced fashion website design company can assist you in developing, deploying, and maintaining your apparel web-store. Please make a list of all must-have features for your brand-specific online store, as it will help to pick up the right option as per your budget and requirements.