The most crucial decision for someone who is starting a new online business is to choose the best among a host of ecommerce platforms available in the market. With so many players catering to the requirements of Enterprise clients as well as SMEs it becomes imperative to make a detailed comparison of eCommerce platforms in India so one can choose the most suitable one for their need.
Although, flexibility is the key concern for SMEs and Enterprise clients alike it becomes a crucial factor when considering a turnkey solution for enterprise online business. These businesses usually have high volumes and complex workflow making it essential to look for additional inbuilt functionalities in the chosen platform.
With platforms like StoreHippo, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, SAP Hybris, Shopify Gold and Shopify Plus in the market, an ecommerce entrepreneur has lots of choices. To make the selection process simpler, we are offering a list of the 5 non-negotiable features needed for enterprise eCommerce platforms.
Table of Contents
Additionally, we are also giving a comparison of Shopify Gold Vs StoreHippo to help you make an informed decision;
1. Simplicity and Flexibility
Who does not want to keep things simple? An easy to understand platform is a must-have when you are handling a complex business with multiple facets. The backend of your platform should be easy enough and offer a simple learning curve.
However, simplicity should not be offered by compromising the flexibility of the platform. The platform should offer the ease of adding new entities easily and allow you to play with backend as well as the frontend to accommodate the requirements of an enterprise business.
StoreHippo and Shopify Gold both offer solutions for enterprise business. However, when you compare them you would notice that the backend of the latter requires a certain level of technical knowledge. In contrast, StoreHippo dashboard is very easy and can be handled by people with basic knowledge of internet and computers.
Shopify offers a certain level of flexibility but yet again it requires someone with good enough technical understanding to be able to implement these according to the business requirements. Also, the flexibility is limited to very few features when compared with StoreHippo.
2. Technological Edge
Evaluating your enterprise ecommerce platform on the basis of the technology is crucial to ensure that you are choosing a stay on
A future-ready technology can not only give you high-performance site but can also save you the pain of migration in near future. Also, the platform should enable you to take advantage of mobile commerce by creating a website that is built from scratch keeping the small screen in focus.
Progressive Web Apps(PWA) and mobile-ready technology are used to design the StoreHippo architecture. These give it an edge over other ecommerce platforms in India as it allows you to take full advantage of the mobile commerce boom. These were the design goals and were not added to the platform as an afterthought. The whole platform is designed in a manner that it is not just an ecommerce platform. StoreHippo is a comprehensive application development platform with beyond ecommerce capabilities.
On the other hand, Shopify has introduced mobile readiness as an afterthought and this makes a key difference in the basic architecture of the two platforms. StoreHippo mobile user experience is far superior to that of Shopify. Also, Shopify is primarily optimized for selling products, working on real enterprise and B2B solutions can be cumbersome in Shopify.
3. Comprehensive Functionalities
The enterprise ecommerce platform of your choice should have inbuilt functionalities not only to handle core ecommerce workflow but for a more complex workflow. Also, these functionalities should not be glue on but instead be a part of the basic design so they work in tandem.
This is a point where you can find a huge difference between StoreHippo and Shopify. If you go for Shopify gold for your business you will have to depend on a number of apps for achieving complex workflows. Usually, these apps are built and supported by third parties with different costs and quality levels. Achieving a streamlined functionality and flow can become a bit complex and the end result might not be what you were looking for.
StoreHippo, on the other hand, offers a smooth flow even for complex processes as the platform has undergone multiple iterations to make diverse use cases of ecommerce an integral part of the platform. It does not rely on multiple apps and the apps that it offers are really out of the box and built to add some unique functionalities needed for special use cases.
4. Out of the Box features
An enterprise ecommerce platform should not only be limited to basic ecommerce features for B2C businesses. It should be offering features to make more complex online stores for B2B and other enterprise business models. The platform should have inbuilt capabilities to handle multi-vendor marketplaces, multiple storefronts, multiple languages and currencies etc.
StoreHippo has incorporated all the above features along with many more B2B features to enable seamless setup of a B2B wholesale online business. Features like IP based currency, multi-seller, multi- storefront cum multilingual sites are easily implemented which help in taking the business
Shopify Gold, on the other hand, is still not naturally flexible enough to handle complex international B2B stores which are the biggest strengths of StoreHippo. There are definitely some third-party apps and add-ons to include these features but it is tricky to implement and use them.
5. Seamless Shipping
Even the best-planned business can face doom if the products fail to reach the clients on right time. Seamless shipping is the backbone of online businesses and the platform you choose for your enterprise business should have the functionality to integrate a variety of shipping solutions with domestic as well as global coverage.
This is where StoreHippo enterprise ecommerce platform gives you a clear advantage over Shopify by offering their very own shipping aggregator platform ShipKaro. With ShipKaro the whole shipping process gets automated and you get the benefit of choosing the best logistics provider brands at discounted rates.
Along with that, you can calculate rates of shipping using various shipping partners to arrive at the most economical rates. It is a multi-carrier shipping solution that offers seamless shipping for any volume and industry type.
Shopify Gold, on the other hand, offers shipping integration with an app. However, this was primarily meant to meet the requirements of small and medium scale businesses and the complex orders of B2B and wholesale environment need further third-party apps to automate the shipping process. The real-time cost calculation is a pain and you will have to develop another app to achieve this for your enterprise business.
Conclusion
Choosing the right platform for your enterprise business is definitely going to be a time taking
A comparison of StoreHippo Vs Shopify Gold clearly shows that StoreHippo scores better for enterprise solutions on all of the important pointers. Along with these StoreHippo also offers a highly secure platform with more than 99.99% uptime. Flexible data
So, what are you waiting for? Book your StoreHippo demo now to explore more exciting features of the platform.
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