What is an E-commerce CMS? Know The Best CMS for Your Online Store and Why You Need One

Despite ongoing global economic uncertainty, e-commerce sales are experiencing robust growth, representing 14.3% of all retail sales worldwide. More notably, eMarketer projects that the e-commerce share of total global retail sales has reached 23% in the last year. This presents a significant opportunity for businesses aiming to establish or expand their online presence.

A thriving industry naturally attracts many risk-takers, leading to increasingly fierce competition. If you aspire to become an e-commerce entrepreneur, exploring the e-commerce Content Management System (CMS) landscape is most suitable.

So, without ado, let us learn about e-commerce content management systems. We will look at what they do, whether you need one for your online store and the best CMSs for your e-commerce store.

What is an E-commerce CMS? 

A content management system (CMS) is software that allows e-commerce shop owners to create, edit, and publish digital content for their websites without writing any code. It allows users to customize the appearance of their online store, including changing the layout of product pages, adding promotional banners, and creating new areas on the website to showcase products.

An e-commerce platform is an online shopping cart solution that allows you to manage products and sell them directly through your website. Some e-commerce platforms also function as content management systems (CMS). These platforms provide a user-friendly infrastructure that handles all the backend store management tasks required for running an online shop.

Features of an E-commerce CMS 

Now that we know what a CMS is, let us know what features you should consider when choosing CMS portal development. 

Analyzing every feature in detail can lead to analysis paralysis. Instead, focus on the essential features that can help grow your store. After that, weigh the pros and cons of your selected content management systems (CMS) to identify the best fit for your needs.

1. SEO-friendly 

On-page SEO for e-commerce sites focuses on effectively placing your keywords to communicate with web crawlers and achieve high rankings in search results. It’s like smooth-talking for the internet. However, if you’re not an SEO expert, don’t worry—a reliable e-commerce content management system (CMS) can assist you in implementing best SEO practices and optimizing your product pages.

2. Easy to Use

A content management system (CMS) does not add stress to a store owner’s responsibilities. Depending on the developer resources available, it is good to pick a platform that is easy to set up from the beginning and does not require a lengthy onboarding process. 

A good CMS should empower e-commerce entrepreneurs to quickly make content updates, integrate plugins, modify page layouts, and optimize for search engines. This allows them to experiment with new ideas and enhance user experience, regardless of their technical expertise.

3. Integration

Not all content management systems (CMS) are perfect. So, for specific functionalities in the CMS platform or to keep your options for future requirements, it is essential to assess how easily the system integrates with other tools and plugins. 

Ideally, you should aim for seamless integration with your existing tech stack, such as your email platform or analytics tools, and have the flexibility to install and activate plugins as needed. The range of available integrations can also indicate how popular and API-friendly the CMS is, making it a crucial factor to consider.

4. User Experience Optimization 

Modern shoppers have reasonable expectations for e-commerce websites. And, when you fail to provide a smooth UX, your visitors will drop off before completing a purchase. 

The UX features to look out for in an e-commerce CMS are as follows.

• Optimized Mobile Content 

Mobile shopping will overwhelm e-commerce. If you want the mobile commerce bandwagon, choosing content optimization for mobile should be your UX priority.

It means focusing on website loading time, mobile navigation, mobile check-out process, and visual and other user experience elements that impact the user experience on mobile phones. The e-commerce CMS should facilitate optimization efforts to achieve high conversion rates without custom code.

• Flexible UX design

When users start their shopping journey on your website, everything matters. Design, edit, and organize content structure on every single page of your site for a tailored experience.

An easy-to-use CMS is necessary for web stores with limited coding skills. It will allow you to quickly update your store design and layout to react to industry trends, occasions, and promotional events. 

CMS platforms also provide integrations to let store owners run store-wide marketing initiatives.

10 Best E-commerce CMS Platforms 

This list curated by the skilled e-commerce developers at the leading e-commerce development company in Bangalore can be a great place to start your search for the best CRM platform for your online business.

• WordPress

WordPress is the most prevalent CMS in the online industry but is not an e-commerce platform. Choose a WooCommerce plugin to convert a WordPress site into an online store.

The open-source WooCommerce platform is popular for its free extensions and themes. WooCommerce plugins can help with missing functionalities within the core product at a button click. The disadvantage is that adding several plugins leads to excessive complexity and affects website performance. 

• BigCommerce 

BigCommerce is one of the leading e-commerce platforms, supporting over 60,000 merchants of various sizes and types. It offers a wide range of built-in features and CMS capabilities to promote the growth of e-commerce businesses and is intuitive enough to empower e-commerce beginners. The platform caters to the needs of the e-commerce industry. 

BigCommerce is popular for its APIs and SEO integration, allowing business owners to connect to leading software and other CMS solutions and leverage the BigCommerce shopping cart in the backend.

• Magento

Magento is a widely used open-source content management system (CMS) for e-commerce solutions. Owned by Adobe, it has built a strong reputation and currently supports over 260,000 online stores globally. Magento offers huge features and has a diverse marketplace for extensions, enabling integrations with various tools, including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), chatbots, and other enterprise-level software. 

While it serves all types of merchants, it is favored by fast-growing and larger businesses due to its comprehensive setup, flexible pricing options, and development requirements.

• Shopify

Shopify is one of the most well-known SaaS e-commerce platforms in the world. Its user-friendly interface and affordable pricing make it popular for startup merchants and small businesses. However, it is also suitable for larger brands. 

The features you get will depend on the desired plan, so review the features list before signing up. Shopify provides free 24/7 support, web store templates, and a dedicated POS system. One disadvantage of Shopify is its transaction fees if you use payment providers other than their own.

• Drupal 

While Drupal is not specifically designed for e-commerce, it can be enhanced with various plugins and frameworks to provide e-commerce functionality. It is one of the most widely used open-source content management systems, nearly as popular as WordPress and Joomla. Unfortunately, Drupal is not particularly user-friendly for those lacking substantial development knowledge, although this aspect is gradually improving.

Drupal CMS offers flexibility. And, if you combine it with the BigCommerce plugin, you get the best- a personalized frontend and a hosted backend.

• Wix 

Wix is a leading website-building platform, that uses a drag-and-drop interface, ideal for online businesses. While it isn’t specifically designed as an e-commerce content management system (CMS), users can add a commerce module if needed. Wix offers a variety of templates and built-in features, along with a no-code approach, that is appealing to beginners who do not know coding. 

If you have a limited range of products and want to launch your business quickly, Wix could be a suitable option. However, it’s important to note that once you choose a template for your store, you won’t be able to change it later.

Advantages of Using CMS Platform for Your E-commerce Business 

Here are a few examples to show why pairing an e-commerce platform with a separate CMS can improve the website performance.

1. Easy-to-upgrade Website

Creativity and speed are crucial in e-commerce. Have a modern, polished website that provides excellent customer experiences and is easy to manage and update. To stay competitive and respond to new trends, allow stakeholders to implement their ideas and drive the business forward. 

Combining a content management system (CMS) with an e-commerce platform can help you gain the tools and flexibility to manage your store’s content and products effectively.

2. More Shoppers 

One significant advantage of content-first e-commerce sites is their ability to generate substantially more organic traffic. This increase in traffic reduces customer acquisition costs and helps online stores cultivate a community around their brand. 

With enhanced on-page SEO capabilities and user-friendly content features, store owners can attract more potential customers, gain insights into their preferences, and focus on producing and selling more products that clients desire.

3. Easy Management of Inventory 

Content marketing and demand generation are the best business decisions. But make sure the e-commerce side of things is smooth and is built to scale. 

With advanced abilities with e-commerce platforms, there is no need to worry about centralized inventory management across various channels, shipping, and payment methods. This helps you grow your business with confidence. 

4. Turn an Existing Website into an Online Shop

If you already have a successful blog and a thriving community, you might be considering how to provide more value to your audience and potentially monetize your site. This could be the perfect opportunity to combine ecommerce with your existing content management system (CMS). 

Since you already have a CMS, there is no need to disrupt what you have. Instead of moving everything to a separate ecommerce platform, you can integrate with a solution like BigCommerce. This will allow you to add a shopping cart feature and facilitate sales directly through your current website.

Conclusion 

These days, when we “go shopping,” we ask Google to search for a brand for us or spend time on social media platforms looking at what fashion influencers are sporting. The world of e-commerce is changing regularly. That is why a great ecommerce CMS is essential considering everything from marketing to design to technical capabilities and future needs. 

Remember that customers expect high-class online experiences, creative product descriptions, and brand purpose of all types and sizes. 

So, choose a CMS platform that combines selling and storytelling to succeed. To seek more help selecting the right CMS, connect with us to avail the best e-commerce development services in Bangalore at Indglobal.