In Today’s Busy Hong Kong Market, What ECommerce Platform Should You Use?

In Today’s Busy Hong Kong Market, What ECommerce Platform Should You Use?

There’s no denying that Hong Kong can be such a huge market for many industries. Given Hong Kong’s strong economic status and being a hub for young professionals and big names in business alike, one might eye Hong Kong as a prime market for any venture.

If you’re looking to do business in Hong Kong, this means potentially getting a lot of revenue as well. Unfortunately, this also means potentially competing with a lot of other businesses.

If your business lies in the realm of ecommerce hong kong, then you’ll likely have to compete with other huge names such as Amazon, Alibaba, and others as well.

Of course, just because you’re entering an industry doesn’t mean you’ll automatically “compete” with “The Greats.” However, it does help to be prepared. So to begin, just what ECommerce platform should you use – especially if you want to do ECommerce in Hong Kong?

Are You Looking For Open Source, Self-Hosted Platforms?

If you want the most flexibility and customizability out of all your platforms, then you might want to opt in for an open source and self-hosted ECommerce platform.

This essentially means you can grab any of these platforms and retrofit them to suit your tastes. As open source, you can easily extend and change these systems to suit your requirements, thanks to their handy sets of widgets and accessories that you can grab or purchase from creators, or create your own sets of features unique to your site and your platform.

Magento

• Makes waves in the ECommerce industry for a good reason. Some of the largest companies in the world rely on Magento because of its many capabilities as an ECommerce platform.
• Some argue it even has the largest set of features among all ECommerce platforms, as it can be customized to fit both small stores and big stores with complicated workflows.
• Of course, this also means there’s a ton of functionalities in the tool that might never even be used. Users can be overwhelmed by the sheer number of features the tools have, and some might even call this overcomplicated. Our main advice is if your business has a complex workflow, or if you have a huge inventory, Magento might be a tool to rely on.

Craft Commerce

• Serves as the core extension of the Craft CMS framework, which might be the reason why it can be familiar to a lot of people. Given it’s already based on a CMS framework, a lot of users accustomed to Craft CMS might notice some design similarities with Craft Commerce.
• Craft Commerce isn’t cheap and can cost USD 1,000 for a one-off license, but it acts like the majority of open source platforms in that it can be modified and extended.
• Business who want to have websites and platforms customized to their ECommerce needs will likely be able to find their needs in Craft Commerce.
• If you’re looking into a multilingual store that won’t disrupt workflow, then Craft Commerce might be apt for your needs – especially if you’re looking into a multilingual experience for a local Hong Kong business.

Woocommerce

• Will be a godsend for WordPress fans, as it’s an ECommerce plugin you can install in a WordPress site.
• A lot of business don’t generally rely on WordPress-based sites, but Woocommerce is handy if your business has already established a name through a WordPress-based platform.
• Woocommerce allows you to set up your WordPress site with ECommerce capabilities, which is good for small business looking to expand to a more professional ECommerce horizon.
• This can work if you’re just starting a business in Hong Kong, but some might recommend switching to other platforms once you expand, as WordPress isn’t necessarily designed for ECommerce in general.

Are You Looking For Hosted Platforms?

Likewise, if you have the budget, you can also opt to just get a hosted ECommerce platform so you have a quick yet secure way to sell your products online.

The catch here is that there’s less customizability in terms of appearance, and there’s a bit of restriction in terms of flexibility of features. If your ECommerce business doesn’t have a complex workflow, a hosted platform can take a lot of loads off and let you focus on selling your products much easier.

Shopify

Will likely head the top of the list because of its popularity. A lot of small business rely on Shopify for their ECommerce needs, and for good reason. You can easily set up an ECommerce store with just choosing a theme, and with a bit of customization you can make a unique store with Shopify.

You can even make a Shopify store with typing little to no code, and you can customize your code to add handy more features and knick-knacks. The disadvantage here is that Shopify does have an app store for handy widgets, but they tend to be expensive. And being an app store, some features might be useful, very useful, or not useful at all. 

Volusion and BigCommerce

Are Shopify’s direct competitors, and they largely offer the same features. The difference here lies in their pricing models. Like Shopify, Volusion and BigCommerce can charge you big or small depending on the volume of sales, or payment methods you want to use. 

Considerations, Risks When Setting Up

If you do want to push through with an ECommerce platform, always remember that there are things to consider and risks to take to heart before choosing a suitable platform. For instance, it’s important to remember these before choosing a platform:

Budget

It’s important to know what your budget is before even choosing platforms you want to consider. It’s extremely important to be aware of just how much you can spend, willing to spend, and even willing to loan to make your ECommerce platform work.

This platform will be the backbone of your sales, so you can risk your budget by choosing the wrong ECommerce platform. It’s better to be aware of what budget you have so you can choose precisely what features you want your ECommerce site to have.

Features

It’s also important to check just how flexible the offerings your platform considerations have. If you’re paying a lot for an ECommerce platform because of its feature offerings, the feature offerings better be tools you can actually use for your site. If you’re paying a lot for features you don’t even use, then you might want to consider switching.

Purpose

Most important, don’t forget to really take note of the purpose the ECommerce platform will have for your website. A lot of brands and companies have ECommerce stores, but not all of those stores have the same purpose. If you’re primarily a store, then you’ll likely have an ECommerce shop for offerings.

If you’re a brand that relies on a blog but has a store on the side, then your ECommerce platform wouldn’t necessarily have to be intensive. You need to consider these factors as well. 

ECommerce Success Depends On How You Use A Platform

If you can recall the above points, we’ve emphasized not just the good side but also the bad side of popular ECommerce platforms. It helps to understand as early as now that platforms – especially for ECommerce platforms that are built for business – can share their own sets of advantages and disadvantages.

They have flaws in the same way they have useful features, and as such business that tends to be successful don’t necessarily have a “best” ECommerce platform.

If the above are to be considered, each of these platforms offers quite the similar basic features, but also their own set of diverse and flexible additions that add “flair” to their overall appeal.

This means no two ECommerce platforms are the same, which also means the business doesn’t have the “best” ECommerce platform for everyone. 

Rather, they have a platform they can “rely” on despite its potential flaws. Meaning, they can find ways to work around said flaws in the same way they can take advantage of a system’s many perks.

Remember, once you get to choose a platform of your liking, always assess not just the benefits it can bring you, but its potential risks as well.

Teams like Pnetform Web Development

Can help your brand and company access the right kind of ECommerce platform apt for your needs and budget, and especially one that can adapt to the way you want to get into the local Hong Kong market.

Stick to the right tools and manage your platform’s risks efficiently, and you’ll sure to jumpstart your ECommerce business in Hong Kong in no time.