Now of course before we jump directly comparing the two prominent eCommerce platforms, it’s time to focus on each one of them on an individual basis.

Introducing Magento

The numbers never lie! As per different stats, more than 250,000 eCommerce shops are developed using Magento. So yes, definitely, it turns out to be one of the leading online store building platforms across the globe. Of course, there are several other options such as BigCommerce, Shopify, WooCommerce but here in this segment we will explore why Magento should be your go-to option especially when you want to gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing eCommerce realm.

Now we all know that Magento is one of the leading eCommerce platforms that is vouched for by a plethora of small, medium and large-scale organizations for selling a wide range of products online. Some of the most amazing and mesmerizing features offered by Magento is:

• Integrated Checkout, payment, Shipping
• Mobile Optimized Shopping
• Global Selling
• Product Management Category
• Client Account
• Instant purchase
• Site Search
• BI Dashboards
• Customer Service
• Seamless Payments
• Advanced Marketing Tools
• Content staging and preview
• Order Management
• Customer Loyalty Tools
• Visual Merchandising
• Business Intelligence Dashboard
• B2B functionality
• Analyze and quick reporting

Now, here comes the fun part! Why must one be using Magento? Further below I would like to mention what are the benefits offered by Magento.

Benefits of Using Magento

• OpenSource – One of the most obvious yet crucial benefits of using Magento is that it is an open source platform. Yes, the platform is available for free and you can even pay for using more advanced features and functionalities. However, being open source certainly doesn’t mean that it is not flexible, scalable enough to deliver high-end solutions. On the contrary, the platform has the ability to adapt quickly and seamlessly to any kind of change. And of course, it can be modified to meet different requirements of shop owners as well as end users.
• Mobile-friendly Website – When you are developing an eCommerce store using Magento get ensured that you are all set to receive a mobile-friendly website that certainly has the power to enhance your ranking to a great extent. No wonder, some eCommerce websites tend to load quickly on mobile devices and some simply don’t. And since these websites are mobile-friendly, they aren’t just loved by Google but also by the end users.
• Easy Integration – Of course, you are developing an eCommerce website that will expand eventually and for that you need seamless third-party integration, add-ons and modules to your existing store. This is done so that any modification can be done without any restrictions and hurdles. In fact, it may quite interest you to know that Magento enables business owners to add or integrate well with Google analytics and other relevant third-party integrations such as eBay, Paypal, Mail Chimp and so more for generating quick and relevant data. All you have to do is find the right gadget for your store and sit back and relax.
• SEO-friendly – Another major advantage offered by Magento is SEO-friendliness. Basically, this one is quite an SEO-friendly content management system that comprises a wide range of features such as Search friendly URLs, Sitemaps, Layered navigation, keywords, meta tags, meta descriptions and a lot more! Now I am sure you are not creating a website or an eCommerce store just for the sake of it! You want it to be seen by Google as well as your end users. With great URL structure and Meta-implementation options, Magento turns out to be the best possible option around when you are willing to up your SEO game! 
• Highly flexible – Another interesting benefit offered by Magento is that it is highly flexible and offers a wide scope of experimentation and innovation. From the developer’s perspective, Magento provides them complete authority over several functions in regards to enhancing the eCommerce store. From the end users point of view, Magento tends to offer nothing less than unique experiences.

Some of the top brands that have become advocates of Magento include Classmate, VolksWagon, Nissan, Lenovo, Hp, Nike, Samsung, Canon, Coca Cola, Land Rover, Pepperfry, and so forth. Not to mention, apart from these benefits Magento turns out to be the best option in regards to security. In fact, the platform keeps on releasing upgraded versions every now and then. Also, there is a large Magento community around ready to assist.

Enough being said about Magento, now it’s time to focus on our next contender; Big Commerce.

Introducing BigCommerce

Big Commerce is a paid-for, hosted eCommerce platform enabling more and more business owners to set up an online store and sell a wide range of products with the help of the web. Big Commerce is more like a Software as a service (SaaS). In other words, you are not owning the software but paying a monthly fee for using it. The platform comes with a wide range of customizable templates for assisting you in designing your online store seamlessly. Whether you want to sell physical products or digital products, BigCommerce is the best solution to consider. Some of its big clients include Gillette, Fujitsu, Ben and Jerry’s, Skull Candy, Carolina Panthers, Ted Baker, Tucker Blair, Clarks and Harvard University.

Earlier there was a time when BigCommerce was considered as an important alternative to Shopify. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case! The eCommerce platform seems to have made its way into the mainstream world and why not since this one is a full-hosted platform that requires less to no technical knowledge for setting things up. If you see from the outside, you won’t find any difference between BigCommerce and Shopify but the inner details are something that makes a huge difference. Some of the crucial aspects that make BigCommerce worth considering include:

• Fully-hosted platform
• User-friendly Interface
• You can sell an unlimited range of products
• A wide Range of Themes and Drag and Drop Page Builder
• No Transaction fees
• Multiple payment Methods
• Seamless Third-party Integration
• Blogging
• Robust Management Tools
• Leverage to use features that are even out of the box such as product review, discount coupon, analysis and reporting

Further, I would like to mention some of the most crucial benefits of using BigCommerce for your upcoming eCommerce development project.

Benefits of using BigCommerce

1. High Customization and Functionality – Big Commerce’s platform is designed in such a way that when you use it, it ends up enhancing every aspect of your online store in a pretty short span of time. One of the best advantages offered by the eCommerce platform is that it offers customization to a great extent. Since not every business and its needs are not the same, you need to tweak your website according to your personal preferences every now and then. Apart from high-end customization, BigCommerce comprises a unique bunch of features that drive immense amounts of traffic and revenue. Yes, whether you are in B2B or B2C business, it doesn’t matter, the features incorporated in the eCommerce platform are more than enough to drive your sales. As from the end user’s point of view, here you will find a wide range of templates and customizable features that offer nothing less than a streamlined and an amazing user experience. No wonder why more and more companies have started vouching for BigCommerce as well.
2. SEO-friendly – Much like Magento even BigCommerce turns out to be SEO-friendly. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is pretty much at the peak these days and why not since it offers a lot in regards to driving an insane amount of traffic and increasing visitors. Optimizing your site means, there is a possibility your site gets ranked on search results in a pretty short span of time and more and more people will end up finding your product quickly. Right from ratings to pricing, brand, stock level everything is well taken care of here. In fact, once you optimize URLs here, it becomes very easy to make your website rank without risking 404 errors. Apart from being SEO-friendly, Big Commerce websites are often capable of handling higher volume of traffic.
3. Security – The next amazing benefit offered by BigCommerce is high-end security. With so many security breaches happening around, it has become extremely important to choose an eCommerce platform that comes with an exciting range of security features and functionalities. Well, it may quite interest you to know that BigCommerce comprises unlimited bandwidth, fast content delivery, various domain names, and a shared SSL certificate. Here you get multi-layered security, which means your store is seamlessly protected. Perimeter and server-specific firewalls, file integrity scanners, intrusion detection software, and 24/7 human monitoring are some of the core aspects here that makes BigCommerce a cut above. Apart from all this, you can even add HTTPS:// just to make sure that your entire site is protected from unknown and unwanted sources.

And now comes the final Showdown!

Magento Vs BigCommerce – The Best eCommerce Platform to Consider 

Now it’s time for a detailed comparison!

1. Popularity

One of the most crucial aspects or factors to take into consideration is high-end popularity. And Magento and BigCommerce are pretty much popular as well as effective. Now even if you check some of the top million eCommerce sites, you will see that around 14% of them are successfully run on Magento whereas when it comes to BigCommerce it’s 4%. So if we see in regards to popularity, Magento is way more popular than BigCommerce.

2. Easy to use

Another crucial aspect that must be taken into consideration is easy to use. Well to be precise, BigCommerce is way more easy in terms of use then Magento. Yes, here you require no knowledge of programming or any other kind of technical aspects. Now here you will find that the admin dashboard is successfully split between the two – storefront and inventory. So you don’t need to edit the whole, two areas can be edited on a separate basis.

Whereas speaking of a Magento based store, building a Magento store is quite tricky and it requires ample technical knowledge and expertise. So you need to hire the best Magento developers who have gained experience in dealing with HTML, CSS, PHP, Java, and JavaScript programming languages. Whereas, speaking of Magento, the admin dashboard here is pretty complex and complicated. However, once you are well acquainted with the terminology, there is no looking-back. Everything here from SEO settings to product page view, order analytics is well-taken care of and this makes website management an amazing adventure.

3. Features and Functionalities

Magento and BigCommerce come with a wide range of features and functionalities. Some of the most exciting, payment and inventory management, SEO and analytics optimization, product catalog, social media marketing, products and merchandising, mobile-optimization, in-store search, Google AMP, Selling seamlessly on eBay and so forth. Whereas speaking about Magento, we have different marketing, promotions, conversion tools, site management, Search Engine Optimization, Catalog Management, Order Management, Amazing customer Service, Analytics and reporting, mobile commerce and a lot more!

And we are done!

I hope the following post turned out to be helpful. There is no winner here! The answer is it depends on overall needs and requirements. For example, if you are on a tight budget and do not need to hire a development team then you can definitely consider BigCommerce whereas if you want one-of-a-kind web design & functionality, where you have thousands of products to display then look for Magento. 

If you liked reading the post, feel free to share among your peers and help us out in spreading the word.

The post Magento Vs Bigcommerce: Which one is the Best Platform for eCommerce? appeared first on DesignCanyon.

Otherwise, if someone were to hack into your systems and steal your data you could find yourself slapped with an eye-watering fine under General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Not to mention it could cost you your reputation as a safe and trustworthy business – it’s just not worth the risk!

The good news is, there are steps you can take to improve your website security and reduce the risk of a cyberattack. Follow our tips below to protect your e-commerce site and make sure you’re ticking all the boxes on your cybersecurity checklist.

1. Choose the right host

First and foremost, you need to make sure you’re choosing the right web host for your site. Some platforms are designed for hosting blogs and general sites, while others are aimed at hosting businesses and e-commerce websites. The latter will often have better built-insecurity measures to help protect your site and the data within.

Of course, it’s likely that your e-commerce site will already be hosted somewhere (unless you’re starting from scratch) but remember, it’s never too late to switch hosts if you want to move to a more secure platform. Spend some time doing your research and you’ll be able to choose the safest host for your business.

2. Make sure you’ve got effective security systems in place

One of the best ways to defend your site fro attackers is by ensuring you’ve got all the basic (but nonetheless important) security softwares in place. This means making sure you’ve got a strong firewall in place to help protect your devices and your site from viruses and malicious content. Similarly, it pays to have anti-virus and anti-malware systems installed for additional protection.

3. Encrypt all your data

There are a number of different techniques that cybercriminals use to attack websites and one of these is by intercepting the transmissions when data is being entered, shared or transmitted through your website – it’s a sort of digital eavesdropping. They then have access to this sensitive data, such as a customer’s financial information. But by encrypting your data using SSL certificates, this ensures that only the recipient is able to read the information they’re inputting.

It’s also a good idea to encrypt all data that you have stored from your site so that it cannot be stolen from your server. This could be any data that is stored locally or any that is backed up to a cloud-based platform.

4. Make sure your network is secure

There are several ways you can make sure that your network is secure but one of the most effective is by installing an intrusion detection system (IDS). This can alert you if and when a cybercriminal is trying to get access to your systems. It will also alert you if a web user is trying to gain access to information that is restricted to them and that they do not have permission to view. This will quickly make you aware of the issue so you can solve it faster and stop the unwanted visitors from getting into your systems.

Other ways to ensure your network is secure include having strong passwords in place for anyone logging into your network and updating all security software regularly. It’s a good idea to make sure you have a strong password policy in which all users change their passwords regularly. Similarly, you should run regular checks to see if more up-to-date security systems are available.

5. Regularly test your systems

Once you’ve got all the relevant systems in place, particularly your security software, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re regularly testing these systems. This way you can identify any areas of weakness in your security and address them quickly. This also gives you a chance to check that all tools and platforms are working as they should be. There are a number of tests you can run such as firewall and penetration testing and you can either do these yourself or hire in a professional to check your website for you.

6. Make sure your employees are clued up

Unfortunately, human error is one of the biggest causes of security failures and could be the reason that hackers are able to get into your systems. Of course, this is not malicious intent from staff or users, but rather a lack of understanding or a simple mistake. So in order to reduce the likelihood of this happening it’s a good idea to educate all employees or anyone that has access to your systems on the basic cybersecurity measures.

Teach them about password best practices and how to identify suspicious downloads or phishing emails. All of this can reduce the risk of them accidentally giving attackers access to your data or website. It’s also important that they understand the ‘disaster recovery plan’ should something go wrong. They need to know who to report the problem to and how to act as quickly as possible to get ahead of the cybercriminals.

7. Don’t collect or store data that you don’t need

Finally, though it may not directly stop an attack, it can certainly be a blessing should someone try to access your systems, you should keep your data collection to a minimum. This means only collecting and storing data that you absolutely need to be able to offer your services. This means things like credit card details should never be stored. It’s also a good idea to regularly update and clear out your database to ensure you’re not keeping unnecessary information on record longer than needed.

By keeping lots of information stored on your website you become a bigger target for attackers and increase the risk of upsetting customers if their data is somehow stolen or lost. As such, it’s best to keep data collection to a minimum.

The post How To Protect Your E-Commerce Site Against Cyberattacks appeared first on DesignCanyon.

In this post, we’ll discuss five e-commerce sectors that have been most transformed by Covid-19 and any emerging opportunities.

Grocery markets

Grocery e-commerce was the quickest to soar shortly after WHO proposed lockdown to contain the virus spread. Local grocery stores closed alongside other businesses as governments imposed the lockdown. Notably, a spike in demand for foods that could be stocked was high, owing to the uncertainty of the duration of this unprecedented situation.

During this time, thousands of grocery businesses have established online stores, most of which are powered by either Shopify or WooCommerce. These two giant e-commerce platforms are known to offer simple solutions for building professional shopfronts, and the reason a lot of small businesses prefer them today.

Surprisingly, some foods and fruits that were previously in low demand before the lockdown are now being sought after more. A good example is lemons, which are an active ingredient in concoctions that alleviate the symptoms and effects of common colds. Grocery stores operating online report that its demand is a lot higher now compared to pre-Covid 19 days.

Product markets

People are quickly changing buying preferences in product markets owing to the shift in the global and local circumstances. Border restrictions, for example, have forced countries that hitherto relied on another to make adjustments. This has seen small and medium enterprises do more online transactions to pay and receive stock supplies.

On the consumer side, market research conducted by Nielsen shows that there’s an increase in health-minded buying. Put otherwise, people are spending more on items that offer or promise protective, wellness, and health benefits. For example, products like masks and hand sanitizers are in more demand than ever.

What’s more, the product market is in a dilemma between making contingency plans or providing the sought-after supplies. The disruption caused by the pandemic on the demand and supply systems has created an unforeseen gap in the market. Today, a significant number of key players are still stuck unsure of whether to go online fully or stick to traditional platforms.

Health markets

There is a surge in e-commerce of health products and services. Currently, the online stores selling quarantine drugs and protective equipment are emptying their shelves faster than before. Surveys on health markets report that hygienic and medical mask sales have risen by at least 300% since the pandemic started.

The service industry is also booming with people seeking online medical care more than before. For example, the demand for travel nurses is on the rise as well as medical experts who diagnose patients over the internet. As a result, websites offering medical supplies and information about Covid-19 are receiving more traffic than was the case previously.

Social media markets

Ecommerce has always had a special place on social media markets even before Covid-19 became a worldwide pandemic. However, businesses that previously depended on location are now turning to social media to reach bigger markets.

Today, more businesses are now viewing platforms such as Twitter and Facebook differently, and it’s a little wonder that the number of sponsored ads has increased exponentially over the past few months.

Digital streaming markets

Social distancing measures have seen more and more people opt to seek indoor entertainment. As a result, digital streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu are reporting an increase in subscriptions. Further, movie studios are releasing titles sometimes earlier than the scheduled release dates to take advantage of the increased viewer numbers and consumption.

Conclusion

Covid-19 is quickly revolutionizing how business is conducted over the internet. Sure, it’s tough to predict what the future holds, but chances are high that most of these changes may just become the new normal!

The post How Ecommerce Changed During Covid-19 appeared first on DesignCanyon.

 Many people liken microservices architecture to the next evolution of SOA (service-oriented architecture). As the topic becomes popular, it is time to check what Microservices development services for eCommerce can do for you.

But before that, what is a microservice?

It is a single-purpose application which you can assemble to create a large-scale software system. The microservice has to be built depending on your business capabilities and can be deployed independently.

It derives a lot of benefits which make it quite enticing to use. However, like any technical strategy or technology, their use will not be appropriate for every business or organization. Using it for the right project, microservices can offer your enterprise a variety of benefits. Here are the main benefits to expect.

Ease of Developing and Maintaining Apps

Simplicity is the primary principle of microservices. Splitting applications into smaller and composable fragments makes them easier to build and maintain. Further, it makes it easier to manage the code, as you know, every microservice will be a different chunk of code.

Using this strategy allows you to implement the services in different code languages, software environment, and databases. With this, it is easier to deploy, rebuild, re-deploy and manage them independently. So, the failure of an individual microservice does not affect the performance of the entire system.

Ability to organize them Around Your Business Capabilities

With microservices, you are able to build products rather than projects. In fact, its architecture invites people to build business functionality rather than developing glue code.

Here, you will organize the development teams around business capabilities, not technologies. With this, it is possible to adapt the service for use in various contexts. You can also reuse the service in different processes over various business channels depending on your need. Every team member will be responsible for a specific service resulting in the development of a smart and cross-functional team.

Helps Improve Speed and Productivity

Microservices decomposes applications into smaller and manageable applications that are simple and faster to develop. This helps in tackling the problem of speed and productivity. For instance, you can have different teams working on various components simultaneously without waiting for one team to finish the project before embarking on theirs.

As we’ve said, having separate microservices makes them easier to modify and locate. The process helps speed up quality assurance as you can individually test the developed components as the programmers work on the others.

Conclusion

Microservices will offer various benefits to your firm; it helps increase productivity, offer flexibility, and make big solutions easier. It is, therefore, an ideal option when you have a large project that needs quick or autonomous delivery. If you need to scale your solution, or to update various parts of the system, this is your best bet.

The post 3 Ways in Which Micro Services Development Service Impacts on E-commerce appeared first on DesignCanyon.