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Are you looking for the best eCommerce platform for your business or website? With so many options available, it’s difficult to know which one is right for you. In this article, we will discuss what to look for in an eCommerce platform, popular eCommerce platforms, the pros and cons of each platform, and how to choose the right one for your business. Additionally, this article will explore why selecting a suitable eCommerce platform is essential to the success of your business.

What to Look for in an eCommerce Platform

When selecting an eCommerce platform, there are several factors that must be taken into consideration.

While all e-commerce platforms offer the same foundational features such as selling products and being able to have your own online store, if we take a more in-depth look we will find that there are many important differences and factors to consider.

Does it offer a comprehensive set of features that meet your needs?

Does it include things like customer accounts, shopping carts and payment processing?

Customer Support Options, Ease-of-Use, and Scalability

Different platforms offer varying levels of customer service and technical support in order to make sure that users have everything they need when running their store.

What customer support options are available on the ecommerce platform?

How user–friendly is the ecommerce platform?

How easily can the ecommerce platform scale with my business growth?

Does the ecommerce platform offer any additional features that could be beneficial for my business?

It’s important to ensure that the payment processor and shipping provider you choose are reliable so that customers can trust their data is secure when making orders online.

Do they have integrations with existing or preferred payment processors?

Are there built-in shipping solutions or do you need a separate provider?

Different e-commerce platforms have different pricing structures depending on features offered. Make sure you understand what you’re getting for your money before making a decision, as this can have a major impact on your bottom line over the long-haul.

What features are included in each e–commerce platform‘s pricing structure?

How can I ensure I‘m getting the best value for my money when choosing an e–commerce platform?

What long–term impacts should I consider when selecting an e–commerce platform?

There are two main types of eCommerce platforms: hosted solutions and self-hosted solutions. The decision between a hosted or self-hosted solution should depend on your needs and budget; hosted solutions tend to be more costly but take care of all technical aspects while self-hosted options can be cheaper but require more technical expertise from those managing the store.

 provide a fully managed service with everything taken care of by the provider while self-hosted solutions require more technical knowledge as they are built on open source software such as Magento or WooCommerce.

 solutions also require users to manage their own hosting services which can be time consuming if not done correctly.

There are many popular eCommerce platforms available today. Some of the most popular include 

. Each of these platforms offers different features and functionality at varying price points which makes it easy to find one that meets both your short term needs as well as long term growth aspirations.

 is a great choice for those who want a straightforward solution with plenty of features at an affordable price point. It is easy to use with built-in payment processing, analytics tools and marketing tools included in their plans making it ideal for businesses just starting out who don’t yet need advanced features like loyalty programs or custom checkout flows, yet still want access to powerful tools like abandoned cart recovery or email campaigns.

 is a popular e-commerce platform that allows users to customize their stores with advanced features such as abandoned cart recovery and loyalty programs included in their plans making them suitable for larger businesses who may have more complex requirements.

 is often used by larger businesses due to its robust capabilities but can be more complex than other options due to its open source codebase which means additional development work may be required if customizations are desired.

 is great if you want to integrate with 

 but may require more development work than other solutions so make sure developers are readily available before committing.

 offer easy-to-use solutions but may not offer all the features or flexibility needed for larger stores so make sure these limitations are taken into account when selecting them.

Pros and Cons of the Most Popular E-Commerce Platforms

When deciding on an eCommerce platform, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each option carefully in order to ensure that your business has access to all the necessary features while still keeping costs low enough so that they don’t become prohibitively expensive over time.

 is one of the most popular e-commerce solutions, known for its intuitive interface and reliable support.

Limited scalability for larger businesses

 is a powerful platform with scalability and a wide range of features.

Expensive pricing plans compared to competitors

Can be confusing due to all customizable options

 is an open-source platform known for its flexibility and extensive features.

Flexible payment options with no transaction fees

 is an open-source solution built on WordPress, offering ease of use and integration with plugins.

Free open-source platform with no transaction fees

Lack of comprehensive customer service options

Difficult interface for non-technical users

Expensive pricing for additional features

 is an all-in-one website builder with an online store platform.

Intuitive design tools and professional templates

Best Ecommerce Platform in 2024

Your BigCommerce store allows you to generate API keys that can be used to manage your storefront programmatically. Whether you're building a custom BigCommerce app, or your BigCommerce design agency has requested your API key, we've got you covered in this article. Let's get your key!

Follow the steps below to get your API key

On the Settings page, scroll to the very bottom and click 

On the Store-level API accounts page, click 

Ensure V2/V3 API Token is selected, and 

To assign full permissions to the API key, go down the list and 

click the rightmost button for each permission

, and your full API key information will download as a text file to your computer

Congratulations! You have successfully retrieved your BigCommerce API Token / BigCommerce API Key. 

It is very important that you keep the API key in a safe place, as it can control your entire ecommerce store.

 This token is for both the BigCommerce API V2, and BigCommerce API V3 and can be used for a wide variety of BigCommerce API integrations. To send this to your BigCommerce Development Agency, copy the contents of the downloaded text file and send it to them via email or project management software.

A BigCommerce API key allows you to manage your BigCommerce store programmatically. It is essential for building custom apps or integrating with other platforms.

How do I log into my BigCommerce Dashboard?

 to log into your BigCommerce Dashboard using your store credentials.

Where do I find the option to generate an API key in the Dashboard?

Once you're logged in, click on 'Settings' in the sidebar on the left. Scroll to the bottom and click on 'Store-level API accounts'.

On the 'Store-level API accounts' page, click the 'Create API Account' button.

You can name your API key anything you like, such as "Ventura".

To assign full permissions, go down the list of permissions and click the rightmost button for each one.

Click the 'Save' button, and your API key information will download as a text file to your computer.

What versions of the BigCommerce API does this key work for?

The generated API key is compatible with both BigCommerce API V2 and V3.

How do I share my API key with my BigCommerce Development Agency?

You can copy the contents of the downloaded text file and send it to your development agency via email or project management software.

What can I do with my BigCommerce API key?

Your API key can be used for a wide variety of integrations, including custom BigCommerce apps and third-party services.

How to Get Your BigCommerce API Key

Posting on your business’s Instagram page is only half the fun, the other half is looking at your insights and measuring the success of your posts and ads, and adjusting as necessary. In this blog, we will discuss Instagram insights, how to create an Instagram ad, and how to measure your success.

Instagram business accounts are great because they let you track the success of stories, posts, and promotions. Here’s how to see those insights:

Select the post, story, or promotion you would like to research

Track the insights of a particular post by going into the Insights page and clicking on the post you’d like to research. Once there you’ll find helpful metrics for your post like:

Impressions- this is how many people took an action from your post like visiting your profile or using the call/email button attached to your post

Likes- how many times people liked your post

Comments-how many comments the post received

Saves-how many times your post was saved to a user’s Saved folder

Discovery- how many people found your post from the Discovery page, how many users found your post from their home feed,

Follows- how many new followers were gained from the post

Instagram tracks audience insights as well. It tracks a user’s age demographics, gender, and location. The location can be set to a country or a specific city, so small businesses can find this feature extremely useful. This audience insights page also contains:

The hours your followers are most active each day

The Activity tab lets you track weekly Interactions, Reach, and Impressions. This can give you an idea of how well your page performs. Some other helpful features you can track in the profile analytics page include:

Profile visits- how many times users visited your profile

Website clicks- how many times people clicked on your website from your profile

Call/email clicks- how many times people clicked the call/email call-to-action buttons on your profile

Mentions- how many times people mentioned you using your Instagram handle

The quickest way to gain a following on Instagram and start achieving your goals is to place paid ads. You should be targeting your demographic with these ads to increase sales and brand awareness. Here’s a quick rundown of how to create an Instagram ad:

If you don’t have one already you will need to create a business Facebook page since the apps are connected and the Ads Manager is run through Facebook.

In the Ads Manager select the ad objective, target audience, and ad format. You can also select a post you’ve already created and tap Promote. Instagram will do the work for you of selecting an audience to view your ads. This is recommended unless you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable about your target audience and how to use the Ad Manager.

Choose your maximum budget and how long your ad should run.

Publish your ad, once it is reviewed and approved you will get a notification that indicates it’s ready to run.

When measuring success on Instagram it’s important to remember why you created it. Was it to gain followers, get more bookings, build brand awareness? Here are three important metrics to consider when measuring success on Instagram:

Brand awareness ties into previously discussed topics like posting high-quality content, posting consistently, and targeting the right audience. When you do these things well a following comes naturally. These are the metrics for measuring brand awareness:

Followers- Watch your follower count over time. This will grow slowly at first then exponentially when you start posting more frequently and running ads.

Reach- Reach tracks the accounts viewing your stories, posts, profile. The great thing about this metric though is that it only measures new accounts viewing these things. So the same account viewing your profile more than once won’t skew the data. Over time your reach should improve steadily.

Impressions- Impressions are similar to reach in that it measures how many users view your stories, profile, and posts. The only difference is this metric can be skewed because it counts the total number of impressions, so if someone views your profile more than once it will count multiple views. It’s still a helpful tool if you want to measure how your posts are affecting your profile views or how your stories are affecting if people are looking at your profile, but reach is a better metric to measure how many new people you’re reaching.

Placing paid ads is a crucial part of a business’s success on Instagram. Track how your ads are performing with the following metrics:

Website Clicks- It’s likely if your advertising a product you’ll place a ‘Shop Now’ button on the ad that brings an Instagram user to your website. Track these metrics to figure out how well your ads are doing. Visit the Activity page in the Insights to see how many website clicks you’re getting

Email/Call Clicks- If your goal for creating Instagram ads was to receive emails or calls track how many of these are coming from Instagram with your Activity tab in the Insights page.

Success of ads- What ads are generating your desired results? Ask yourself if its the content that’s accompanying your ad, the copy, the time of day you posted it. Figure out what ads work for your business and replicate that.

Follower counts and leads are great, but are you building a genuine relationship? Brands that build a genuine community have the most success long term. Here are some important metrics when considering your community engagement on Instagram:

Comments- This shows people are engaging with your content. You want to build a community and have a dialogue with your followers. It’s crucial that you have people commenting and that you respond to these comments.

Story replies- If a user is invested in your business they are likely to watch your story and reply. How many replies you get is a good measure of how good of a relationship your building with followers

User-generated content- Are people frequenting your business or using your product/service and creating content based on it? This is one of the biggest factors to look at. If a customer is really invested in your product they will advertise for you. This shows you have a quality business. It’s very important to engage with these users when they post about your business since it opens a dialogue and creates a deeper relationship.

We touched on the importance of engaging with your community earlier. It’s also important to engage with other businesses in your area and industry. Being active and commenting on other’s posts is not just showing your support, but it’s getting your business out there in another way where potential followers or customers could see it. Instagram’s algorithm also favors people who exchange DM’s, comment, and like other’s posts. So if they’re following you you’re more likely to appear at the top of their Home page. This is crucial for engagement rates.

If you would like to outsource your social media advertising to experts contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa location is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.

How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram

Give someone access and permissions to manage Pages in Meta Business Manager.

You must have full control of the Business Account to add people to Pages.

The person you're assigning Pages to must be 

To add people to Pages in Business Manager:

Select the person you want to give access to.

Select the Page you'd like to share access to. Toggle on the tasks you'd like to grant permissions for. Or give them full control of the Page.

Give Someone Access and Permissions to Manage Pages in Meta Business Manager

First, log in to your BigCommerce account. In the left side menu, go to 

On the new page that loads scroll down to the API section and click on 


Click on Create API Account, and then - Create V2/V3 API token.

After this, you will need to give your account a name.

Next step - select OAuth scopes, which will be needed for your account. You should set these permissions:

Storefront API Customer Impersonation Tokens: None

After you set the permissions, save the account and you should get a pop-up window with your Client ID, Client Secret, and Access Token. Please make sure to save this information somewhere because there is no way to find this information again. If you are using Edge, Chrome, or Firefox, a text file containing this information will be downloaded to your computer.

Please provide this access token to connect your online store.

How to Create a BigCommerce API Access Token

If you are a brand or retailer advertising on Facebook, your agency may ask you to share your Meta pixel. By sharing your Meta pixel with your web agency, they can better serve you by optimizing your ads and improving your results.

Adding the Meta Pixel to your website allows you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. This piece of code provides valuable insights that can help you improve your advertising efforts and ultimately get better results.

What are the benefits of using Meta Pixel?

 to your website allows you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. This piece of code provides valuable insights that can help you improve your advertising efforts and ultimately get better results.

How do I share my Meta Pixel with an agency?

How to Share Your Meta Pixel (Facebook Pixel) with an Agency

Are you looking for ways to speed up your website? If so, you're not alone. Many websites suffer from slow loading times, which can be incredibly frustrating for users and lead to a decrease in traffic. In this blog post, we'll cover 10 factors that could be slowing down your website loading speed and how to fix them.

One of the most common culprits of a slow loading web page is unoptimized photos. When uploading high-resolution images (which is always advised) and then scaling them down, it causes your web page size to increase significantly and thus take longer to load. To combat this issue, use JPEG images as opposed to PNG or GIF files since they have smaller file sizes - never use files that have a file size of 1 MB or more! Additionally, there are websites available online that will analyze any link and tell you where slowdowns may be coming from if you're curious about testing your site's speed.

JavaScript is great for plugins but if not used correctly can actually hurt your website's loading speed instead of helping it. To avoid potential problems with JavaScript plugins audit them regularly or contact us for our web design services.

Flash content was popular in the past but has become outdated over time due its slower speeds when compared with HTML5 content - this could be causing your website to load slowly. To fix this issue, either perform an audit of all Flash content on the site or switch over completely to HTML.

If there are too many JavaScripts, CSS stylesheets, and images on one page it can cause an overload on requests sent from the browser which slows down the entire process significantly - try using Sprites instead which reduces HTTP requests by combining multiple images into one image file! Additionally consider pairing down all files including images, JavaScripts & CSS stylesheets as much as possible without compromising quality/functionality.

Caching helps store data so at later requests they load faster taking some burden off the server so it doesn't have to process information multiple times - enable browser/HTTP caching & server-side caching ASAP for improved site speeds.

Excessive styling & whitespace can cause unclean code which increases page size leading directly into slower load times - remove these unnecessary things whenever possible & compress code almost always.

gZIP compression allows users compress file sizes like those found in large objects such as images/CSS/JavaScript making them easier (and faster!) for browsers requesting information from servers - enable gZIP compression ASAP if haven't already done so already!

Ads are great sources of extra revenue but having too many ads means more HTTP requests especially when dealing with media-rich display ads - reduce clutter & improve site speeds by reducing number of ads displayed whenever possible without sacrificing revenue goals, obviously. ;)

A CDN service is basically a network made up independent servers located in different geographic locations designed specifically deploy information quickly based on user location closest server available at time request made – using CDN service will dramatically improve overall site speed.

If all else fails bad hosting service could also be causing issues – try switching hosts company provides optimized speeds within their hosting bundle.

10 Components Slowing Down Your Website

We’ve seen social media change the way we go about marketing and advertising our businesses to the world. Social media is an incredible avenue to maintain top of mind awareness with your shoppers.

Influencer Marketing has taken the internet by storm. While it was once a trend, it’s more common than ever before. Influencers are typically experts on the platforms you see them on, they already have an engaged audience, they know what kind of content their audience is interested in, and they know that they can influence their audience with the information they put out.

Many micro-influencers have a relationship with their audience that mimics the “regular guy/gal” brand archetype, making them more relatable and leading their audience to trust their opinions and recommendations. This is a great way for a business to leverage brand awareness and grow their audience even more.

Short-form Video Content will Continue to Rise

Many of us heard of TikTok at the start of the global pandemic and vowed to ourselves that we would never download it. As we’re over a year into the global pandemic, many of us can’t stand by that statement anymore. We’ve been consumed by the hilarious, relatable, and educational videos that are widely spread across the internet.

Short-form video content takes less time and space to create and it also falls in line with the current fast paced attention spans of online audiences. Long-form videos can offer much depth about a product, brand, or service to your audience but ask yourself….who has time to watch one five-minute video when they could watch 15 short videos in the same time and take in MUCH more?

Mobile Optimization will be EVEN MORE Critical

Consumers spend more and more time on mobile devices every day. As buying power continues to grow amongst Millennials and Gen Z audiences, mobile friendly websites will generate more revenue than slower, non-optimized online stores.

Mobile optimization not only encompasses your website, but also things like email marketing, for example. Consider ways that you can deliver a mobile email experience to subscribers.

Social Responsibility will be Prioritized

We are all aware of the global pandemic that started in 2020. This along with other world events, caused social responsibility, ethics, and transparency to matter much to consumers more now than ever before. Consumers care about brands that care about them, their employees, and shared causes.

You may see that some businesses have already begun to shift their social media marketing strategies to focus more on inclusive initiatives, promotions and offerings all while highlighting causes or missions they support.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to how discoverable your website and content is. SEO is not new in the slightest, but you can expect to see SEO be ingrained within much, if not all of your marketing tactics and strategies.

We’ve had the entire year of 2021 to work through the kinks of what business will look like in 2022. As we saw many virtual events in 2020 and 2021, 2022 will be more of a hybrid approach. Expect to see businesses using more physical opportunities for their audience in 2022. Although there may be less virtual events, that DOES NOT mean that virtual events are null and void.

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

We all want the best website that ranks number one on search engines but how do we get there? There is an important metric to look at when evaluating your website called domain authority. In this blog, we discuss what domain authority is, how to find your domain authority score, and how to improve it.

Domain authority is a score that is assigned to a website that identifies how well that website will rank on a search engine results pages (SERP). Like page authority, domain authority is scored on a 0-100 scale. The higher your score the harder it is to improve, but it’s also hard for anyone to have a score above yours.

 provided by Moz of the top 500 most popular websites. These are the top 10 listings.

Copy the URL of the domain you want to find the score for

View your domain authority score in the box below the search bar

Since the domain authority score is complex and takes many factors into account a good domain authority score depends on the sites you’re comparing it to. You may only have a domain authority score of 40 for example but the similar pages on the SERP may only have a 30. This will be favorable for your site as yours will likely be ranked above the others.

Remember your domain authority score will likely increase just by being on the internet for over one year.

An audit of your link profile will give you an idea of the backlinks associated with your website. Ideally, you only want link traffic from high authority, credible websites. Search engines will interpret your website as valuable by having links from other high authority websites.

Create content that keeps people interested

There isn’t an easy solution to raise your domain authority. You should create awesome content that keeps users coming back and gets new users hooked.

Your domain authority score is impacted by total traffic, organic traffic, direct traffic through Chrome, time on site, bounce rate, and SERP click-through-rate (CTR). So the only way to drive these metrics is to create engaging, valuable content worth consuming and sharing.

As mentioned earlier receiving link traffic from other authoritative sites is extremely important. The search engines will favor you more if you have these.

A good tip for getting high-quality links is to offer value to another company. Make your content better to earn the links, write a guest blog, or create some other type of content that can be used on their site but also drive traffic to yours.

Domain Authority: Explained

Importing and exporting files on Big Commerce can seem like a daunting task at first but with the steps and video listed below you should be able to import and export with ease. 

 To import and export on Big Commerce you will need access to a program like Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets that supports CSV and XML files. CSV is recommended due to the fact that it is needed if you plan to import exported data back into Big Commerce. The CSV requires certain fields for import. Creating new products requires:

Image files that are either JPEG/JPG, GIF or PNG.

For other common issues visit the Big Commerce 

 Big Commerce provides two export templates. 

 (recommended) - This template allows you to skip steps in the import process since it prefilled headers that are the same as the ones Big Commerce uses. 

 - this template only has basic fields like name, weight, description, and price. You can make your own 

 and decide which export fields to include. 

Optional- Check Save export to the server for later download (this will save progress in case any interruptions happen while exporting

Check the box next to Bulk Edit Re-Import

Edit the Link Import Fields to match the headers in your CSV spreadsheet (if you used the Bulk Edit option this isn’t necessary)

Options will come up click More Information to check for any warnings found during the import process

 When adding a new product there are some things that are required. Required fields for a new product:

Leave this field blank otherwise the product will not upload correctly

To ensure import runs smoothly do not import more than a couple hundred items and use the Bulk Edit CSV if possible. 

 To create product variants tied to product options, you will need to add sub-product SKUs or Rules with those attributes. The easiest process is to create the base product first, export it, then add the SKUs or Rules. 

Resources

Best Ecommerce Platform in 2024

How to Get Your BigCommerce API Key

How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram

Give Someone Access and Permissions to Manage Pages in Meta Business Manager

How to Create a BigCommerce API Access Token

How to Share Your Meta Pixel (Facebook Pixel) with an Agency

10 Components Slowing Down Your Website

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

Domain Authority: Explained

How To Import And Export On BigCommerce

How To Manage Orders On BigCommerce

How To Edit BigCommerce Orders

How To Set Up A Business Instagram Account

How Google Quality Raters Affect Site Rankings