How to Choose The Right Ecommerce Platform For Your Shop in 2023?

With the rise of online shopping, launching an own online shop seems to be an upsurge for many people. However, opening an online store is definitely not an easy task. You should not only decide what products to sell, but also need to consider different aspects, including daily operations, storage and logistics management, as well as payment network, etc. Truly, it can be very challenging for you to manage the whole store on your own, and can also be very costly if you hire staff to help with this. If you are owning, or planning to launch your own business online, having not enough budget or manpower can be the largest obstacles.

Are you curious about how to run your online store more efficiently? Or are you looking for a smart way to start your own business? Good news, with the emergence of the eCommerce platform, it has never been easier to start your own shop online! One of the eCommerce technologies “Software as a Service (SaaS)” has been taking a leap forward to provide all-in-one services to online businesses. These SaaS platforms remove the complexity from running an online store, and assist many independent online shop owners to easily manage their sales, marketing, operations and logistics.

In a SaaS eCommerce platform, users just need to pay a regular fee, such platforms will help to store and manage all important data, including product details, logistics information, marketing materials, etc. With some simple clicks, you can utilize professional functions provided by these eCommerce sites to manage your website design, online payment settings, logistics distribution and even customer relationship management. In other words, you can treat these SaaS eCommerce platforms as the hub of your online business. Whether you are a small-scale merchant or an individual seller, you can always manage and operate your online stores anytime and anywhere, which can greatly increase the convenience of operating an online store. More importantly, you can now easily link your eCommerce sites to your social media accounts, such as Facebook and Instagram. This means that you can boost the reach and clicks of your online stores by approaching and engaging with your social media followers. In this sense, these online store platforms can be regarded as indispensable business tools for managing your shop! In Hong Kong, there are six most common eCommerce platforms, which are Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopline, Kopapro, Boutir and Shopage. They offer different solutions for online merchants to improve their operational efficiency, according to different scales and aims. If you are interested in launching your own online store, and wondering how these eCommerce platforms can assist with your operations, follow this article and explore these four eCommerce sites with us! Let’s see which platform will suit you best!

Shopify is a Canadian-based eCommerce platform, which was launched by Tobias Lütke in 2016. Shopify aims to provide all-in-on services to small- and medium-sized enterprises as well as individual merchants from all around the world. Shopify offers comprehensive functions, ranging from barrier-free payment settings to diversified marketing tools. Shopify’s features allow users to improve and expand their online store business, whether they are beginners or eCommerce experts. At present, Shopify has expanded its business in 175 countries and regions from different parts of the world. More specifically, there are more than 1 million merchants who have selected Shopify and jointly create more than $ 20 billion in cross-border sales. Apart from different foundation operation tools, Shopify also provides high-quality website design and templates for users to create a satisfying website that aligns with their brand image. Moreover, Shopify supports 1000+ expansion software which allows users to connect their stores to third-party marketing tools and social networking sites, which assist users to achieve more efficient operation and management. In terms of price, Shopify provides three solutions for users to choose from: Basic, Shopify and Advanced Shopify. The monthly fee ranges from HKD $ 255 to HKD $ 2328. For most small and medium-sized eCommerce, the basic solution is considered sufficient and cost-effective enough, as it includes most of the necessary online operation functions. However, it is worth noting that although Shopify supports most common payment methods, such as PayPal, Apple pay and ATM transfer, it does not include the most widely-used local payment methods in Hong Kong, such as PayMe, FPS and Alipay.

WooCommerce is another well-known e-commerce platform. More specifically, it is an online store management plug-in developed by WordPress, which is specially designed for users of WordPress services. Speaking of WordPress, it is a web page production and website management platform that is highly recognized in the world and popular with e-commerce. In 2011, WordPress launched the WooCommerce plug-in to improve the website management functions. As long as users install the WooCommerce plug-in from WordPress, users’ websites or their personal blogs can be immediately transformed into a professional online store. The biggest advantage of WooCommerce is that this plug-in service is open to the public for free. It is extremely suitable for small e-commerce or individual small businesses that do not have much budget. As long as you are a WordPress user, you can easily install it. Combined with WordPress's powerful cloud content management system, users can easily decorate online stores with various functions and manage their business more efficiently. Remarkably, although the download and installation of WooCommerce are free, users still need to pay for storage space for decorating and developing the website. Fortunately, the price of this storage is very affordable, ranging from only HKD $38 to HKD $116 per month.

Founded in 2013, Shopline is the first e-commerce platform in Hong Kong. Shopline offers a series of website services to assist online shop owners improve the efficiency of management and operation through simple clicks on the websites. Today, Shopline's business has expanded from Hong Kong to major Asian markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. Shopline offers comprehensive operating functions. It not only integrates the most commonly used payment tools (such as PayMe and FPS) and logistics system in Hong Kong, but also provides very simple and convenient online store design and typesetting functions. Through simple drag-and-drop, users can easily create a personalized online store to match their brand image. In addition, Shopline supports one-click linking towards Google and social media such as Instagram and Facebook. This means that users can easily generate automatic shopping advertisements to quickly attract customers on various channels. More importantly, users do not need to understand any website functions or knowledge of design, Shopline can help them to achieve professional, convenient and fast-paced online store management. In terms of charges, Shopline currently provides four schemes to users, with monthly fees start from HKD $199. Users can choose the most appropriate scheme according to the scale and operation needs of the online store. However, it is worth noting that Shopline's basic scheme limits the quantity and cash flow of goods. In addition to the monthly fee, users also have to pay a one-time fee when first setting up their opening online stores.

KopaPro was developed by Multiable, a Hong Kong-based company that has been established for over 30 years and has over 6,000 customers across Asia. KopaPro’s platform-building process will not be limited by any preset theme, and you will be able to change the website structure by yourself. KopaPro can help you go global without any mortar-and-brick investment. The functions of KopaPro are also well developed. KopaPro supports three languages, English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese for website development, as well as 20 currencies. Businesses can easily create their marketing strategy. Even the most basic plan includes features such as discounts on purchases over a specified amount, product discounts, free shipping discounts, and social media sharing discounts. In terms of payment, KopaPro accepts not only Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, MasterCard, AE, Paypal, etc., but also the Hong Kong local payment method PayMe for Business. However, it is worth noting that Alipay is only available for the most advanced plans. In KopaPro, you can choose to pay a monthly or annual fee. Both of them are with four levels: basic, advanced, advanced, and enterprise flagship. Both plans include a 30-day free trial. The Monthly plans range from $199 to $2,399 per month, while annual plans range from $2149 to $25,909 per year, with no transaction fees. Businesses can decide which plan to join based on the number of items they want to list on their website. However, the cheapest plan does not support appointment services. KopaPro facilitates easy logistics. The platform offers a variety of freight calculation methods, including weight, region, and number of pieces. Businesses can also connect to the logistics company system online directly to save time and cost.

Boutir is another eCommerce platform launched in Hong Kong. Its market is mainly concentrated in Asia Pacific regions such as Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia and Thailand. Just like its Chinese name (Manage Store on Palm), Boutir aims to help users to manage their online stores on the palm at any time. Its platform is very simple and easy to use. Compared with other online store platforms that provide diversified layout and design, Boutir provides merchants with a unified and fixed website layout. Although this seems to lack freedom and flexibility in the perspective of store design, such a simple and clear interface indeed enables users to easily operate and regulate the online store. Without spending time-solving design issues, users can just easily showcase their products and other necessary information. As a result, Boutir is highly suitable for beginners who are not good at computer programming and design. In terms of price, Boutir provides three business solutions, namely Starter, Business and Business Plus, with a monthly fee ranging from HK $148 to HK $688. Even the lowest price scheme already covers the most important online store business functions, which is very suitable for small individual merchants who try to open online stores with lowest costs.

In a word, although these four online store platforms have different prices and characteristics, they pursue the same purpose, that is, to enable users who are not familiar with computer technology or network programming to establish high-quality online stores through all-in-one services provided by these SaaS platforms. By using these services, users are able to plan and operate their own online stores more efficiently and effectively. Moreover, the above platforms will provide different discounts from time to time. If you are wondering their latest discount details, please check and contact these platforms directly. In sum, you can choose the most suitable online store platform according to the size of the online store and personal budget. Of course, you can choose the most appropriate online store platform according to the size of the online store and personal budget. Now, if you are a Pickupp user, Shopify and WooCommerce seem to be the best choices for you. You can not only attract customers quickly from your social account, but also improve the quality of your online store services by offering reliable delivery service provided by Pickupp.

If you finally choose Shopify as your eCommerce site, you can find Pickupp plugin in their App Store and easily download it for free! Using Pickupp delivery service when you are managing your orders in Shopify, you can easily manage each order without spending time to review and sort out massive customer data manually. Click here to learn more about how to link Pickupp with your Shopify platform! If you decide to go with WooCommerce, you can also directly find WooCommerce Pickupp Plugin from their page. Simply link your web stores with Pickupp, your products will be delivered to customers safely and punctually. Whether you choose Shopify or WooCommerce, our Pickupp service can always help you to polish your online store with a high-quality delivery experience. In addition to the above platforms, you can also consider join Pickupp Go to open your own online shop in a more professional way, and create high-quality shopping and customer experience for your customers! If you are interested, feel free to contact our email: hk@pickupp.io .