Which e-commerce platform should you choose?
Do not choose by comparing features: choose by the constraint that blocks you first. Magento handles large catalogues and customer price lists; PrestaShop and WooCommerce cover medium volume cheaply; Shopify is the fastest to launch. The question that comes first is how the shop will talk to your ERP.
An online shop is judged on a few things, and almost none of them are about looks. Below are the features that make the difference between a shop that sells and a shop window, and the four systems most often used to build one.
The features that matter
Internal search. On a large catalogue it is the main sales channel, and it is almost always the worst-built part. If searching a product code returns nothing, you have lost the order.
Product pages. Real photos, dimensions, availability, delivery times. On a technical catalogue you also need the datasheet and the reference codes: that is how your customers search.
Speed. Every second of waiting is paid for in lost orders, and the place it is lost is almost always image weight.
The phone. Most traffic arrives from it, in B2B too, and especially the first contact.
Checkout in as few steps as possible. Every extra field is people leaving. In B2B you also need deferred payment and purchase orders.
Shipping costs declared early. The surprise at the last step is the first cause of abandoned baskets.
Correct tax rules per country, if you sell abroad.
The connection to the ERP. Stock, prices, customer records and orders moving by themselves. Without it somebody retypes them every day, and sooner or later gets it wrong.
Real-time stock. Selling something you do not have costs more than not selling it.
Customer-specific price lists, which in B2B is not an optional feature: it is the reason a standard shop often is not enough.
Returns handling, which in B2C is half the work.
Measurement. If you do not know where orders come from and where people stop, you cannot improve anything.
Security and personal data. Encrypted connection, regular updates, a real privacy notice.
The four most used platforms
Magento (Adobe Commerce). The most capable on large catalogues, multiple price lists and B2B. Also the most expensive to run: it needs a serious server and somebody to look after it. It makes sense above a certain volume.
PrestaShop. Widespread in Italy and France, with many modules and a low entry cost. The downside is the modules: a shop with forty extensions from different authors becomes fragile at update time.
Shopify. The quickest to launch and the least demanding to maintain, because they run it. You pay a fee and a percentage, and you accept staying inside their rules: deep customisation and some integrations with local ERPs are where people stop.
WooCommerce. The WordPress extension: worth it when a WordPress site with content and organic rankings already exists and must not be lost. On large catalogues it needs watching or it slows down.
How to choose, in practice
Not by comparing features: by the constraint that blocks you first.
- Large catalogues, customer price lists, B2B → Magento.
- Medium volume, contained budget → PrestaShop or WooCommerce.
- Launch fast, little maintenance, simple catalogue → Shopify.
- Existing WordPress content and organic rankings → WooCommerce.
And one question that comes before all of them: how will it talk to the ERP? In most projects we see, that is where the real cost sits and the reason a shop works or stays a window, not the choice of platform.
When you need something different
When the sales process is yours and looks like nobody else’s: product configurators, quoting on complicated rules, customer discounts depending on variables only the ERP knows. In those cases the platform stays for the catalogue and you build custom only for the part it does not cover.
Get in touch, or read when custom software is worth it.