Which platform should I choose as an online sales website?

With the explosive development of e-commerce, there are many website platforms born to meet everyone's online sales needs. That's why it will make it very difficult for you to choose the right website platform for yourself.

There is no solution that is 100% perfect and suitable for everyone. You will be overwhelmed by the prices ranging from a few hundred thousand to several tens or hundreds of millions of Website design services. Of course, you get what you pay for, but I will help you choose the platform that best suits your business.

You should read the article: Tips for selling online for beginners to know which sales channel is suitable for your products and services.

Which platform should I use to design my sales website?

Let's learn about the pros and cons of some outstanding website building platforms today to make your own choice!

1. Ladipage – Landing Page design.

If you are selling Services or selling key individual products such as: Credit loans, Real estate projects, Functional foods,... especially sales types, you only need customers to fill out the form. For advice, I advise you not to waste time creating a sales website.

Making a landing page will save money, be simple and create better conversions for your products! That's why I put this section first because if making a Landing Page meets your needs then you don't need to read the following sections anymore.

Currently, the platform I find the best in Vietnam for you to use is Ladipage with the following advantages:

• No need to know code.

Ladipage helps you design a drag-and-drop landing page without knowing code. In addition, Ladipage is a system landing page platform, so it is already running without you needing to buy hosting or complicated installation. Just point the domain name and you're done (or you can use the subdomain created by Ladipage)

• Save time, money.

Unlike before, when writing a Landing page, you had to hire a designer at an expensive cost for each Landing page. Ladipage allows you to create landing pages extremely quickly with available interface templates and edit with simple drag and drop and create as many landing pages as you want without worrying about cost.

Additionally, you can duplicate your Landing pages with a few mouse clicks. This is great because you can create a Landing page for each ad group to suit your customer audience. For example: Customers who search about price can point to the landing page with the price right at the top. Customers who are interested in product features can duplicate the landing page and move this feature to the first place to match. suits them. I have applied it and seen a much better conversion rate -> reduced advertising costs.

• High speed.

Ladipage is well optimized so the page loading speed is extremely fast, almost instantaneous. This is both good for user experience and good for SEO.

• Connect with many other platforms

Ladipage is connected to many different platforms that help you export landing pages, store data, and measure conversions, so it will be very convenient for you to optimize conversions. Especially for those of you who want to create a Landing Page to run ads.

• Constantly updated.

The founder of Ladipage is Mr. Binh Nguyen (founder of iSocial community) who is very talented and highly reputable in the Marketing community. Mr. Binh Nguyen also sells Dropshiping products in foreign markets, so I see that every time there is something interesting abroad, Ladipage is updated.

Ladipage is also a system-based website, meaning the website will be placed on a server in the cloud, with the database editing and doing all operations on it.

When registering, you will be given a separate subdomain name on the system and can point your own domain name to use. Because it is already running on the server, you will not need to buy hosting anymore, SSL security certificate will also be provided for free if you register to use.

You should test it first to get familiar with it and see if it suits your business needs or not. Ladipage allows users to register for free for 30 days HERE

You can read my new article about Landing Page: “Review of the best Landing Page design platforms” to choose for yourself the appropriate Landing page design platform

2. Opencart

Opencart is an open source e-commerce code that is also quite famous in the past and is used by many Shops for their websites.

Opencart It also possesses all the features for an e-commerce website such as Purchase, Promotion, Inventory, Tax Calculation, Shipping, etc. And has the advantage of very fast page loading speed.

Previously, in the early stages of selling, I also used a few websites using Opencart. However, after using it for a while, I found some disadvantages that made me no longer want to use it:

• Data entry is difficult

You will see this after using other platforms. Input section of Opencart not optimized, no matter how long it lasts. Many sections such as product links, product names, etc. are not automatic and have to be filled in manually, which is very time consuming.

The photo import section is very annoying when having to select photos and find photos because it is not arranged in the order of the newest photos to the top for easy selection.

If your website has many products, it is a nightmare.

• Few Plugin Support & High Price

Opencart's plugins are not diverse and the price is very high. It is also very difficult to use if you are not an expert in coding.

• Small user and developer community.

This causes the source code to be poor, when you need it there will be very little for people to support you. The code is also rarely updated or has new versions. This causes your Website to not be updated, it is actually very disadvantageous if it is a sales Website because tools to increase customer conversion rates and connect social channels are almost essential.

Therefore, if you make a new sales website, I advise you not to use Opencart because there are many current source codes that are more optimal for you.

3. Own CMS source code.

Currently, there are many website designers using specially created CMS code sets to create websites for customers with costs ranging from several hundred thousand to tens of millions of dong. Many people enjoy showing off their website with their own code, mistakenly thinking that after investing several million dong, they must have their own code, not open source code. This to me is wrong because:

• Your own code will be great if you invest tens of millions or more to hire senior programmers to code for you. Otherwise, it is very error-prone because it is rarely tested when running.
• Do you think private code will be difficult to hack? Mistake, because garden programmers will not be able to code security for you when your website costs only a few million dong. As for why there is a perception that open source code is easy to hack, I will talk about it below.
• Your website will never be updated. First, because when needed, that programmer may not still be able to work for you to hire, the cost of adding this or that feature will be very high. Find someone else to do it, most programmers don't have the time to sit and study the code written by someone else to update you. They will advise you to redo the Web. That's it! Surely no one wants to build a website that will be out of date 1 or 2 years later. Looking at a competitor's updated and optimized website for sales makes you drool, right?
• Cannot link with other channels. Omnichannel sales are a trend in recent years, because you don't want to depend on just one sales channel. Wherever there are Potential Customers, we will be there. However, for multi-channel sales, your website needs to link channels together to reduce time and effort for managing channels. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of management time, spend a lot of money to hire employees and have difficulty avoiding errors or data entry.

4. Magento

Magento is developed by Varien Inc company based in California, USA with support from the community. Magento was once acquired and developed by eBay, but at present Magento is a member company of Adobe.

This is a very powerful and professional e-commerce website platform. Currently, there are many large e-commerce websites and multinational companies using this source code thanks to its superior features for sales websites.

Magento will have 2 types of versions:

Magento Comunity Edition – free version

Magento Enterprise - Professional version of Magento integrates the most powerful features for "huge" websites of large shopping stores at very "expensive" prices.

In Vietnam there are also a number of large programming companies specializing in Magento.

Previously, used Magento quite difficult because this source code is quite picky about hosting and very heavy. The original installer is about 300mb. Magento extensions and themes are also very expensive.

So:

• If you need a professional e-commerce website with many products, large scale and abundant budget, you can use this source code because it is really powerful and professional.
• If your need is just a Website shop to sell goods, easy to use, and your budget is not abundant, then you should not use it because it is no different from holding a pig's scalpel to cut chicken's blood. It would be wasteful and unnecessary.

Personally, I don't use Magento because when I learn and do it myself, it takes a long time and is more complicated than other source codes. Another thing is that I'm a small business and a small store so I don't need to use it. haha. And there are other platforms with reasonable prices that are more suitable for me.

5. System website (Bizweb – Sapo, Haravan)

The question many of you are probably wondering is whether to use Sapo or Haravan. However, I want you to first have an overview of both of these platforms compared to other platforms.

***Note: On April 16, 2018, Bizweb merged with Sapo to become Sapo multi-channel sales platform, so here, when I write Bizweb or Sapo Web, they both refer to the same product. 

These 2 platforms are similar so I will combine them. Basically, these are all system websites (that is, all websites run on the same set of pre-made system code and the same database).

When you register to use, you will be given a subdomain name that does not change on the system. You can then point your own website domain name to use as you wish. (similar to Ladipage – but Ladipage specializes in Landing Page)

The strengths of these two platforms are:

• Easy to use, Pre-made modules and drag and drop editing.
• Get support when needed and updated regularly. Most of the time, when there is something new in the market, they update it.
• Multi-channel sales are very good with linking with Payment Gateways, Social Networks, E-commerce platforms, shipping units, POS (in-store sales), so inventory management and sales are very effective. Simple and precise. Helps you eliminate many costs of hiring employees and avoid data errors,...
• There are many support tools such as: Sending email marketing, Managing FB fanpage, Zalo,...
• Websites are more difficult to hack because the system is well secured.
• No need to worry about losing traffic or website congestion when your website traffic suddenly increases. Because it uses large servers from Haravan & Sapo (but sometimes it is also a disadvantage, you can see below)
• Researched by experts, the website is optimized for sales very well.
• Get support from staff throughout the usage process.
• They all have convenient sales and management support apps on Mobile.

Disadvantages are:

• The website is system-based, so there will be many limited parts that cannot be customized like when using a separate website.
• Loss of website if service is stopped because the system cannot hand over the code.
• Dependent because you have to sign a contract over time. It is not possible to switch suppliers because then the Website will have to be rebuilt.
• It's easy for Haravan or Sapo's opponents to play bad DDos, making it slow and inaccessible.
• When installing some additional applications, there will be a fee, and most of them are charged on a monthly basis, not permanently.

These two parties are both developing an open source system similar to Shopify with additional installable apps creating an open environment for programmers.

So when should you choose to use Sapo Web and Haravan?

If you don't have much knowledge about programming or website editing, this should be your choice.

Instead of worrying about wasting time creating a website, you can let the staff of Sapo Web and Haravan help you with this and spend time on sales and website development.

Online selling is a trend and increasingly competitive, so you should focus more on finding and taking care of customers. When using these platforms, you will also be optimized and compatible with a number of marketing and shipping channels in Vietnam.

Each platform allows customers to use it for a trial period of about 15 -30 days. You can register to try and experience. During this time, Sapo and Haravan staff will enthusiastically support you.

However, be careful with offers like: automatic SEO optimization to the top of Google, keyword commitment to the top... All are just references, use your own experience to see if it is suitable. ? Because once the contract is signed and you can't take advantage of it, it will be a waste because of high costs.

You can sign up for a trial Haravan here and use the promo code HPKYOZRFRD to increase the trial period to 30 days and experience the highest package (Go to your Haravan website administration page, go to Configuration and use the above promotional code) 

You can sign up for a trial Sapo here.

There are a few other parties that also make a system website like this, but I recommend that you only choose 1 of these 2 providers because of their reputation and large scale in the market. This is probably also the worry of many people when using the system website because they are afraid that the company will go bankrupt, or stop providing services, and they will lose the website they have built.

To decide whether to choose Sapo or Haravan, please read more articles: Comparing Bizweb and Haravan, which one should you use?

5. Woocommerce (WordPress) – I'm using it

Woocommerce is essentially a sales support plugin for the WordPress platform. However, with the advantage of a large development community and users, after a period of development, Woocommcerce is now no different from a sales source code with many advantages.

Advantage:

• Very easy to use, and cheap.
• Back up the source code to retain or transfer hosting when needed.
• Large growing community. Several tens of thousands of WordPress Plugins support you. You just need to use free Plugins and it's great. When asking questions, there are many forums and websites to support you.
• Because of the large development community, you will not have any difficulties when you need to hire someone to upgrade or edit your website.
• Inheriting the advantages of WordPress: good SEO, news is also professionally supported because WordPress was originally a blog and news website platform.
• Continuously updated for free.
• Huge interface warehouse: Free, Paid, Null. The paid themes you can buy at major theme markets such as: Themeforest, Envato,... are customized and optimized very well. You can adjust Website color, edit Website with very simple selection, drag and drop operations.

When you use it, you will see its great convenience and expansion. When you install the necessary Plugins properly and completely, you will want to throw away all the Websites you have used. Believe me! Because every now and then, I learn more great plugins for my Website.

Defect:

• Many people believe that WordPress websites are easily hacked. This is partly true because most people are hacked because they or the website designer uses themes or plugins shared online that are infected with malicious code.
• You will spend more time taking care of your Website. And you need to know a little bit of coding knowledge if you want to do it yourself.
• If there are too many products the speed may be slow. (about 1,000 products or more because I have made nearly 1,000 products for some of my friends and they still work fine)
• It is possible to link with a number of payment gateways and shipping units in Vietnam, but the number is not large.

After a long time of learning and using many different platforms, all the websites I later made were using WordPress. Really, only after using it will you know its great features. As of now, I still haven't been able to explore it all because the number of plugins is too much.

You can do it from the ticket booking website, Forum, Product introduction, etc. from WordPress using Plugins.

SEO or data entry is also very good thanks to powerful tools like Yoast SEO, ...

Because I am a user and a Marketing person (not a coder), what I need is ease of use and good support for sales, so I often buy themes and fix them myself. The cost is cheaper than the cost of at least 5-7 million to have a similar website that is quite usable.

Thanks to that, I have now built a sales website process for myself that is quite easy and quite good to use: data entry, SEO, interface compatible with all devices, email system to notify orders when customers place orders. , customize simple ordering features to suit Vietnamese people so you can check orders on your phone and provide customer support almost immediately.

***

Thank you very much for everyone's interest recently. 

My personal opinion is that the e-commerce fever has decreased a lot. Gradually, unprofessional units that do business by stealing and defrauding customers will no longer have porridge to eat. So if you have this mindset. Change before it's too late, focus on building your brand, building good products and services, improving customer relationships, especially taking advantage of customer data to reduce advertising costs.

You can refer to the article for more information: How to avoid having your business affected every time Facebook sneezes?

Build your own website, don't rely too much on Facebook. Turn it into a money-making channel, not a slave to paying advertising money. The website represents your home, while Facebook or social platforms are just like a rental kiosk, they can kick you out on the street at any time for accepting to play on their field, complying with the rules of the law. Surname.