What Is Ecommerce CMS? Why Do You Need It?
An Ecommerce CMS (Content Management System)can be defined as an eCommerce content management tool. Here the business owners can create their website content, edit it, and publish it without any need of coding. A great example of the best CMS for E-commerce is WooCommerce.
Besides content management, there’s a lot that you can do with an eCommerce CMS. For example, it allows you to tweak designs by which you can change how your content looks and feels. Moreover, you can do further modifications like changing page layout, adding additional banners to the page, or even adding new pages to your website with great ease.
In simpler words, CMS’s user-friendly infrastructure can handle all the eCommerce backend for your business while you can sell your products directly on the website with ease.
Typically, you can break Ecommerce CMS into two major categories – SaaS and open source. Let’s talk about them.
1. SaaS CMS
SaaS Ecommerce CMS works on cloud technology. It works on a subscription-based model where you have to pay a monthly subscription fee, and the vendor will handle and manage all the updates and set up your data storage. The software vendor would also provide you a customer support option to address your problems and requirements in real-time.
2. Open Source CMS
Unlike SaaS CMS, you have total control over your website’s functionality in an open-source CMS. Even though this software is often free to use, complete control means that the owner is responsible for hosting. You’ll need to maintain your software and execute updates when required.
There are open-source CMS platforms where you can avail of cloud-hosting technology. However, in this case, the owner is responsible for the maintenance. Some great examples of such eCommerce CMS include Magento and WooCommerce.
When Do You Need A Separate Ecommerce CMS?
If you’re not from a technical side, there’s a high chance that you might not have considered having a separate CMSfor your eCommerce site, not to mention that you don’t always need to have one. A great example could be eCommerce stores that do not always have to publish timely and real-time content on their websites.
However, if you regularly publish and update content on your site, having a separate Ecommerce CMS is your way to go.
Having a separate CMS for your eCommerce site would benefit you in multiple ways. Let’s talk about some of them.
1. They Are User-Friendly
The most important advantage of having an eCommerce CMS lies in its usability. Even with minimal technical knowledge, you can create, edit, and publish content, and meet goals like running marketing campaigns and update products with great ease.
2. No Need to Rely On Developers
Another great advantage of leveraging a modern content management system is that you don’t need an additional developer to look after operations like updates, which significantly drops down development time and costs.
You can spend this additional amount on other effective initiatives such as marketing and further expand your business.
3. Writers Are Better Streamlined
There’s a lot that goes into creating top-quality content like proofreading and proper formatting. Having a CMS, your writers can work directly in the system and use smart features to improve their content quality.
Moreover, the writers’ team gets on the same page, ensuring better-targeted content and optimized audience experience.
Now that you know how a well-chosen CMS can benefit you let’s talk about some features you need to consider when choosing a CMS.
4 Features To Consider When Choosing An Ecommerce CMS
1. A CMS Should Be SEO-Friendly
On-page SEO is an essential element for any eCommerce store. It mainly includes the proper placement of keywords on your site pages. A good eCommerce CMS would help you implement best practices of on-page SEO on your website, ultimately improving the overall traffic and reducing bounce-off rates from your website. To determine how functional a CMS is in terms of SEO, look out for these features.
· Page URLs
Keeping your page URL concise and to the point is encouraged by Google, and it boosts your website’s overall performance. You can do this easily by removing unnecessary subfolders from your URL.
However, it is worth noting that including the primary keyword in your URL and ensuring excellent readability can significantly improve your Google search rankings position.
· Page Title And Meta Description
A page title is the first thing that your audience sees when they visit your website. Incorporating your primary keyword in the page title will boost your chances to rank the content. Also, having a primary keyword in the introduction part of your content is no less than icing on the cake.
Meta descriptions are short pieces of content that appear below your page title in the Google search listings.If you manage to optimize it, you can significantly improve your Click-Through Rate (CTR). Try to add your primary keyword in the meta-description and optimize it for better results.
Before choosing an eCommerce CMS, it is essential to determine that it allows you to modify page URLs and Meta descriptions. It would be great if they offer automated generation of these elements, saving a significant amount of time.
2. Easy UX Customization
In 2021, any website’s user experience is an essential element, let alone an eCommerce store. If the UX of your website cannot keep up with your audience’s expectations, you’ll see them bounce off your website and start looking for alternatives. Moreover, your sales would be badly affected, and your search engine rankings would decline. A great eCommerce CMS should offer
· Customizable Design Options
Design is the main factor that determines how the content on your website looks and feels. For Ecommerce website owners with no technical knowledge, having a CMS is crucial as it allows them to design and manage content layout without any coding.
Such owners can quickly tweak and update their website designs based on the industry’s latest trends and other factors such as special events like flash sales.
· Content Optimization For Mobile
There’s no denying that mobile is the future of eCommerce. A study from Oberlo suggests that mobile eCommerce sales are projected to reach a massive $3.56 trillion in 2021. Hence, it would be best if you made your eCommerce store mobile-friendly.
Optimizing your website content for mobile devices, especially in UX, should be your primary goal. It includes your site’s loading time, navigation, check-out process, and how your content looks on a website.
Choosing an eCommerce CMS that offers mobile optimization and website design can significantly boost your conversion rates.
3. Usability
Usability is one of the essential factors that you need to consider when choosing an eCommerce CMS. Since a majority of eCommerce store owners don’t have top-tier tech knowledge, it is crucial to remember that you need to select a CMS that is easy to set up and use.
Updates, integrations of plugins, or even UX customization should be more accessible regardless of your technical expertise.
4. Significant Room Integrations
No matter how good a CMS is, there’s always room for modifications. If there’s a dedicated functionality that doesn’t come with your CMS’s core platform, you’d most likely need to integrate that functionality via a plugin.
Therefore, when choosing a CMS for your eCommerce site, it is essential to check how easily you can integrate plugins and functionalities. Moreover, a good CMS must offer various integrations to meet your functional needs of the website.
Now you know about all the features that a perfect CMS should have. So now let’s read about the 10 best eCommerce CMS.
Let’s begin.
10 Best Ecommerce CMS Platforms
Here, we’re going to go through eCommerce CMS comparisons to determine the best eCommerce CMS out there.
1) WordPress
WordPress is hands down the best CMS for eCommerce sites out there in the industry. However, it is not dedicated to Ecommerce solely. To convert your site into an eCommerce store, you need to integrate it with the WooCommerce plugin.
It is a trendy platform with a wide array of themes and extensions to choose from, and most of them are totally free of cost. Just think of the functionality you want your eCommerce site to perform, and you can get an extension for that. However, you need to be cautious when integrating functionalities, as adding too many extensions can slow down your site’s speed and affect its performance.
2) BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a perfect example of Ecommerce platforms that support a full spectrum of the E-commerce industry. It boasts its massive directory of built-in features and Ecommerce management capabilities. In simple words, BigCommerce can easily handle the fast-growing e-commerce websites and even facilitate beginners in the E-commerce industry.
Moreover, the platform is heavily focused on SEO and flexible APIs, making it easier for you to scale your site’s functionality and improve your ranking in the Google listings.
The most significant part of having BigCommerce is that you can integrate a WordPress plugin with it – which technically means that you’re clubbing the backend benefits of BigCommerce with the front-end flexibility of WordPress.
3) Drupal
Drupal is a great Ecommerce platform. However, it is not designed primarily for Ecommerce but could be changed by integrating frameworks or plugins to enable Ecommerce. Even though Drupal is closely as popular as WordPress, but the biggest problem lies in its usability. Especially for those with minimal technical knowledge, Drupal could be a nightmare.
4) Joomla
Joomla is also considered one of the best CMS for Ecommerce, even though it is not specially made for Ecommerce. It is open-source CMS in which you can enable the Ecommerce functionality by integrating free extensions available.
5) Sitecore
Sitecore is a CMS platform for Ecommerce management that allows you to create some of the most sophisticated Ecommerce websites. Moreover, this fantastic CMS lets you enjoy stacks of unique features such as marketing automation, personalizing design, and editing tools that you can leverage to personalize buying journeys for your prospects.
6) Magento
Developers consider one of the most powerful open-source CMS platforms for Ecommerce sites. It accounts for powering up over 250,000 Ecommerce stores worldwide.Since Adobe owns it, it has an excellent reputation as well. That’s not all; Magento is utterly stuffed with features and functionalities that you can easily integrate with your Ecommerce websites like Chatbots, ERP, and other enterprise-level software.
However, it is still a more popular choice among bigger and scaling merchants due to its extensive setup and pricing.
7) Shopify
We all can agree on how popular Shopify is when it comes to Ecommerce. In the category of SaaS, Shopify is perhaps the best CMS for Ecommerce stores.It is a popular choice among startups and beginners in the Ecommerce industry due to its user-friendly interface and flexible pricing.That’s not all. Many established brands out there are using Shopify as you can avail of enterprise-level features based on the pricing plan you’re using.
Since it is a SaaS CMs, there’s a 24/7 support system available as well.The only drawback of using Shopify is that it will charge you an extra amount if you’re using a third-party payment gateway.
8) HubSpot
HubSpot is counted in among the pioneering Ecommerce CMS. Though it is not primarily made for Ecommerce itself, integrating with other Ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce can enable this functionality.
Serving as an Ecommerce CMS is not the only great thing about HubSpot. Once you’ve integrated it with your Ecommerce store, you can tap into customer behavior insights. Moreover, you can easily automate your marketing campaign using HubSpot and generate technical reports on revenue streams.
9) Wix
Wix is yet another great CMS for Ecommerce platforms. The platform follows a drag and drops website-building approach that mainly targets merchants with no technical knowledge. Like HubSpot, Wix is also not explicitly made for Ecommerce. But again, you can add this functionality by adding an Ecommerce module.
One major drawback about Wix: if you choose a template for your store, you can’t change it back in the future.
10) OpenCart
OpenCart is CMS for an ecommerce store which is a popular choice for those who budget restraints. It is an entirely free platform with a user-friendly interface and a great plugin directory.You can choose from default templates and quickly set up your online store for those with average tech knowledge. Moreover, OpenCart offers the integration of over 20 different payment gateways and 8 different shipping models.
These were the 10 best CMS platforms for an Ecommerce store that you can choose.
Now, let’s talk about 5 advantages that you can avail of by pairing CMS with Ecommerce.
5 Advantages Of Pairing CMS With Ecommerce
1: You Can Easily Convert Your Existing Website Into An Ecommerce Store
If you already own a successful blog, you might be thinking about monetizing your services. Instead of creating a store from scratch and shipping your entire content, you can pair up your site with an Ecommerce CMS.
In this way, there will be no need to create a brand new website. All you have to do is add a shopping cart and start earning through your existing audience on an established website.
2: Updating your Site Is Much Easier And Quicker
Adopting the latest industry trends is critical, especially in the eCommerce industry. By pairing your existing site with a CMS, you can quickly implement and manage updates on the website to provide a stellar UX and better buyer’s journey with great ease.
3: It Helps You Become A Thought Leader In Industry
When you’re an early adopter of changes, people in your industry will start looking towards you as a thought leader. This would eventually build up your brand reputation within the industry and the audience, ultimately driving up your brand and products’ public interest and demand.
4: Managing Inventory And Order Becomes Much Easier
Ecommerce CMS comes with advanced features and capabilities that you can leverage easily to manage your inventory and orders across different channels. Moreover, the integration of secure payment gateways in these CMS would reassure you about the audience’s security.
5: Integration Of Secure Payment Gateways
Security is personal data is a big concern for people who purchase online, let alone their credit and debit cards’ safety. With an Ecommerce CMS, you can integrate secure payment gateways in your website, ensuring your prospects’ security and boosting your brand’s credibility.
Over To You
Ecommerce industry has skyrocketed in recent years, and its parameters are regularly changing. Perhaps this why choosing the suitable CMS for your ecommerce site has become quite a hassle. You need to consider each factor, including your technical expertise, design, user interface and ease of use, etc. before you can come up with a final decision. With that being said, consider these Ecommerce CMS platforms mentioned above and choose the one that fits your needs the best.
And by the way, if you’ve enjoyed reading, also read our guides on subjects like “Fixing WordPress White Screen of Death” and “What is White Label” to raise your knowledge on the subject.