The time to digitize your business is now. Whether you are moving an old business online or starting a new one, it is paramount that you choose a cloud ecommerce platform. This is an online solution with tools and engines to manage your business online, connect it to an online marketplace, process payments, and fulfill other options.

Online businesses such as B2B or B2C are connected to the buyers through an online marketplace. This is a website or app that lists products of the different sellers so that customers can pick what they want and buy it. If you are introducing a new business to this kind of environment, we will guide you on how to go about it.

Assessing Your Business Before Selecting a Cloud Ecommerce Platform

Before you can choose the platform that you need, assess your business to understand it. Is it a B2B or a B2C? Does it sell goods or services? Is it targeting local customers or international clients? These questions will help you understand the needs of the business.

If you are not sure of what you need, it will be good to hire a consultant, especially for a big business to avoid making costly mistakes. They will professionally assess your business needs and advise on the best cloud ecommerce platform to choose or, at least, the features you need to check.

Choosing a Cloud Ecommerce Platform

This is the hardest yet most crucial part of this project. But now that you know the needs of the business and have this guide, you will have an easy time. All you need is to narrow down your list to popular cloud ecommerce platforms such as Virto Commerce, Shopify, NopCommerce, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce among others. The top features to check include but are not limited to these helpful capabilities.

· A website or webpage builder – This enables you to build a website or a webpage with customized themes, add products and manage them, and interact with your clients among other things.

· Market integration – If the cloud ecommerce platform is not offering a vibrant marketplace, it should integrate your products with a popular marketplace for immediate sales.

· Payment integration – As mentioned, customers buy and pay online for products, so when choosing a cloud ecommerce platform, ensure it has a secure payment platform integrated into it.

· Marketing tools – Well, you need to regularly market your products even though they are on a reputable and popular marketplace. Hence, the platform should have SEO tools and multichannel integration so that you can promote your products on social media and other platforms.

Creating a Website and Launching the Business

If you have selected a cloud ecommerce platform, the last step is creating a website or a webpage on the platform and adding your products. How to go about this depends on each platform. But you can rest assured it is a straightforward process you can do on your laptop at a café or in your home office.

It might take several days to add all your products, their images, descriptions, and prices, but doing it correctly will help you sell immediately after the business is launched. Then, the platform will process the order, and your warehouse should be ready to dispatch it without wasting any time.

With this, your online business will be fully operational, courtesy of a cloud ecommerce platform. And you can manage it from any part of the world as long as the warehouse team is ready.