Which platform to use for their D2C website?
I see many businesses grappling with the question.
The general approach is to first go to website development companies - who mostly end up suggesting going for a custom website which the businesses also find exciting because the story is that you can customise it to your liking and give a unique experience to the customers like none other. Till now all sounds good but often the website takes months to develop and multiple iterations and still you end up being with a website which does not have everything you need. Further any changes to the website would require the support of the web development company and things will not be under your control.
What we have seen work best -
Go with Shopify - a platform that is made for e-commerce. There are a lot of themes available, pick what you like and has most of the features you are looking for. Most importantly the platform is designed keeping in mind the best practices for e-commerce and a lot of plug and play apps are available that help your business and improve customer experience.
Some common apprehensions about using shopify -
It’s expensive - it charges a fee which comes down to .5% when your business scales, which you would have paid anyway to host and maintain your website with some technical support. Upfront development costs are minimal and you can have the website up and running in a week. You can manage the website on your own so no technical resources are needed and it saves a lot of time. No hacking issues as it is hosted by shopify servers which are constantly updated.
It cannot be customized - Lot of customizations can be done based on your needs and a lot of apps are available to add features you may need.
Analytics is limited - Most of the data you need can be pulled out from shopify, GA and ad platforms you are using with easy integrations.
It is ok if you have limited no of orders a day - I have not seen issues with even 500+ orders a day till now
So if you are a business owner looking to sell on your website and you don't have an in house technical team Shopify is the way to go.