Off-The-Shelf vs. Bespoke E-Commerce Website — It’s Time To Decide
In today’s digitised world where everyone uses online sources for almost everything, an online presence for your businesses is indispensable. Studies have shown that approximately 95% of potential buyers use online sources to research products and services. So, if you do not maintain an online presence, you will be losing out on potential customers.
However, having an off-the-shelf or Bespoke E-Commerce Website is not the guarantee to get customers flooding your inbox. There are several other factors that need to be taken care of aside from simply having a live website. The website has to be user-friendly in terms of navigation and transactions. Buying and selling processes must be smooth. Moreover, the website must be mobile optimised. This is due to the fact that there is a higher chance of a customer having his first interaction with your website on a cell phone.
A shabby website is just as bad as not having one, if not worse. So make sure that you provide the best user experience on your website.
Off-The-Shelf Or Bespoke E-Commerce Website
There is a general confusion within business owners about the difference between an off-the-shelf and bespoke website. Before going any further, let’s understand what they both mean.
An Off-The-Shelf E-Commerce Solution
Understand this as something you pick from a shelf or take out of a box. In other words, these are the readymade or pre-built solutions that come with a number of themes and templates. Off-the-shelf solutions are open source tools that can be accessed by millions of users.
Most popular off-the-shelf solutions are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal etc. According to recent statistics, approximately 19% of all websites are built on WordPress. So, you can see how popular these sources are.
The major Pros and Cons of this type of solution are as follows:
From the cons listed above, it’s quite obvious that the concerns an off-the-shelf solution raises are serious. So, this leads us to Bespoke E-Commerce Websites.
A Bespoke E-Commerce Website Solution
A bespoke or custom e-Commerce website is the one purely curated for a specific business. It keeps in mind the particular goals and objectives of a business. Ranging from design to e-Commerce features, everything can be customised for your business. Every e-Commerce website solutions agency prefers a bespoke solution for businesses. The reasons why are discussed below:
1. SEO And Social Media Readiness
One of the major benefits of a Bespoke E-Commerce Website is its social media readiness and built-in SEO features. These two features are integrated from the beginning of the website development. This gives your business an edge over the other basic sites that lack these built-in features.
These features come within the original price and without any need to pay for additional plugins. Extra plugins have a monthly fee which is not a cost-efficient way of having a website.
2. Business Specific
When it comes to web development and design there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. With each business come specific requirements that can only be fulfilled by a Bespoke E-Commerce Website. A bespoke website is built to address your business specific needs.
In bespoke solutions, you have the ability to select what features to include and what not to include. This gives a better sense of control over your content. You decide how you want your business to be seen by potential customers.
3. One Of A Kind
A Bespoke E-Commerce Website gives a business an upper hand on its competitors because of its unique design. The innovative and modern design of a website is a sure way to attract more customers.
Unlike an off-the-shelf website, a bespoke website makes sure that you stand out amongst your competitors. This can be in terms of its visuals as well as its practicality. You can make the user experience as improved and smooth as you like. Moreover, a visually enhanced website is always a plus point when it comes to e-Commerce websites.
4. Cost Efficiency
Many people have expressed a concern over the cost of bespoke e-Commerce solutions being high. However, this isn’t as bad as it might seem. With the readymade options, you get features that won’t even be used by your website. This isn’t the case with a Bespoke E-Commerce Website. You get tailored features that fit your business needs and requirements. So, you pay for what you’re getting, and not any additional features that may be of no use to you.
Moreover, a bespoke website may seem expensive in the start, but it tends to have more worth over time. It has more flexibility which makes it evolve with a growing business. So, your money isn’t wasted.
5. Security
A Bespoke E-Commerce Website is more secure than other options. The coding and development are done systematically with fewer plugins. The third-party plugins make a website vulnerable because of their poor maintenance. Bespoke websites tend to be more securely crafted, minimising the risk of data and security breaches.
Intelicle offers bespoke e-Commerce website solutions for several businesses. If you’re searching for a new e-Commerce website, then we’ll provide you with a service that is substantially better than any off-the-shelf option.
