How to choose the right E-Commerce Platform for your Business?

06 October 2022

The current situation demands that “your customer” gets easier access to their needs. By offering easy ordering, ensuring safe distancing, and enabling online payments, customers can save time and enjoy a hassle-free experience. The best way to overcome this challenge today is to go online and make your customers!

The Decision

The decision to choose the right e-commerce solution for your business is never easy!!

The E-Commerce industry is currently worth $4.8 trillion, projected to increase to $5.4 trillion by 2022. Business owners planning to start their E-Commerce business often imagine a website where they can list products and expect revenue to start rolling in. To drive traffic and boost sales, it takes strategic marketing, user engagement, and ongoing optimization. Creating a digital presence requires the same level of strategic thinking and planning process.

Business owner looks for the best E-Commerce platform, where they can operate core features, integrate new features, and 3rd party tools seamlessly.

There are a variety of options available in the market to help you sell your products online. Look for options that can delight your customers, run flawlessly, and fulfill orders in the fastest and most affordable way possible.

Choosing the right development approach to align with your business strategy is essential for success : 

  1. Cost of solution: Cost of solution is not just the cost in which it would be developed. There are Direct & In-Direct cost like Cost of Upgrades, Infrastructure, Maintenance, Support etc.

  2. Time to Develop: Solution development time should correlate with your Time to Market strategy

  3. Solution Scalability: Can the product grow as your business grows? There should be option for starting small, yet a facility to make it big.

  4. Solution adapts to Business Model: The solution should adopt to your Business needs and not the other way around. 

  5. Data Ownership: Who owns the Data? Ownership and Compliance of Data & Privacy is very critical in this age.

  6. Control over Technology: How much control you have over the technology in your business? As your business grows, control over the product becomes critical if you want to scale effectively.

  7. Ease of Operation: Does the solution allow for Ease of Operation & Inter- operability? A solution has multiple type of users and platforms it can be used from. The user experience for all user group becomes critical.

  8. Integration with 3rd Party Tools: Does the solution have the ability to integrated with 3rd Party? Integrating with existing or new external system like POS, Inventory, Book keeping etc is critical. The solution should allow for such an openness with other systems.

  9. Solution Support & Upgrades: Does the solution provide for Support, Upgrades? Development is just a beginning. A great post development support and continuous upgrades is necessary for growing business.

What are the different types of E-Commerce solutions available in the market?

  • Bespoke Solution
  • Open-source Solutions
  • SaaS Platform
  • Clones
  • White-Label Platforms

These platforms come with their own set of Pros and Cons. Look below at the comparison:

  Bespoke Open-source SaaS Clones White-Label
Definition Custom Development Solution like WooCommerce, Magento Platform like Shopify, Yelo etc Companies offering Clones of solutions Product which has the ability to White-Label / Brand the solution as per Business
Pros Best possible functionality

Ownership of Source code
Lot of themes and plugins available for quick development and cost effective

Highly Customizable
Tried and Tested model

Lower entry cost

Lot of features to adopt

No infrastructure cost
These companies will offer you such clone at a very low cost

Ownership of the Source code
Branded Solution

Ownership of Data

Low Cost
Cons High Cost

Longer Time to develop
No readymade mobile solution

Hidden cost

Issues with GDPR/ Data compliance

Not customizable

Mobile App will not be a branded solution

No ownership of Source code and data
Usually such firm download these clone code from open-source/ Github repository and add a UI wrapper around it

Outdated versions / technology

No customization available
No ownership of Source code
White-Label Platforms

 

Look at the below Decision Matrix and find a solution which is a good fit for your business model,

No Parameters Bespoke Open-source SaaS Clones Lokaly
1 Cost of solution Cost of solution will be very high Web cost will be Low as themes & plugins available. Mobile App would be costly Hidden charges for transaction, and other activities Low cost of solution No hidden cost, Low to Medium cost of solution
2 Time to Develop Very long development time Low to medium time to develop Low time to adopt Low time to adopt Low time to adopt
3 Solution Scalability Yes Yes there would be different pricing models No as it would be one time sale Yes, we have modular approach
4 Solution adapts to Business Model Product adopts to your Business Model Product adopts to your Business Model Business adopts to the Product Business adopts to the Product Product adopts to your Business Model
5 Data Ownership Customer Customer Mostly the SaaS platform would own Customer Customer
6 Control over Technology Full control with the ownership of the source code & data Full control with the ownership of the source code as per Open source license & data Least control of all model. Saas will not offer any customization & you will not own the code Full control with the ownership of the source code & data IPR/Source Code with Lokaly. 
7 Ease of Operation Yes Yes Yes efficiency is low Yes
8 Integration with 3rd Party Tools Yes Yes Limited as per their list Yes Yes
9 Solution Support & Upgrades Yes Yes Yes No Yes
  Upgrades          

Lokaly

  1. we focus on these differences to create a distinct experience for every user.

  2. Product should be offered at an affordable cost and quick turnaround
  3. Should be able to fit a small to larger venture using modular approach

  4. Product should have an openness to integrate with existing/ new tools

The code developed for Lokaly is from scratch with no open source or copied code base which gives us complete knowledge and control over the development.

What do we cover:

 

Aggregator Business Model (Marketplace with Store listing enabled)

   

 

Single Brand Store (Single or Multi location)

   

 

Pure Ecommerce Flow (3rd Party Courier Delivery Integration)

   

 

Hyperlocal Ecommerce Flow (Self Delivery, 3rd Party Delivery)

   

 

Dark-flow Ecommerce (Fulfillment WH, Multiple Suppliers)

Applications

 

Customer Application

Business Application

Point of Sale

Driver Application

Picker Application

Dine-In Application

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOBILE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLET

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Lokaly Offers?

• Complete White-label Solution with customized & branded solution on App Store
• Your own Marketplace subscription model
• Business Hours, Order Settings, Delivery Settings
• SMS Alerts on Order receipt & processing
• Custom offers & discounts at store level
• Online Payment Integration
• Flexible Licensing model: One-Time License / Subscription Monthly Model
• Modular Functionality to allow solution to grow as your business grows
• Wide variety of store type

Core Modules

 

Add-On Modules

 

 

Pricing Model

 

Clientele

 

Welcome to Lokaly!