If your business allows building a shop on the Internet, that's luck. Running an online shop, you can do the same as what is done in a physical one: create a design, pay for a platform, and create a range of products. An advantage of an online shop is that you can sell products being at home. The coronavirus pandemic has shown us the importance of online business.

eCommerce platforms provide a pre-built interface that can be designed according to your tastes and needs. The platforms let you upload products, descriptions, and prices; implement payment methods; and even manage some marketing tasks, like sending emails. Today, on the Short.io blog, we'll consider some eCommerce platforms and determine how short links could help in promotion of the e-shop.

What advantages does an e-shop platform give you?

Here are some features and tools that you get from using an eCommerce platform:

  • Offers a pre-built interface that you can adapt to your needs
  • Provides purchasing via a built-in shopping cart
  • Offers a reasonable price for managing an e-store
  • Provides tracking for the delivery of orders

Some famous platforms for eCommerce are:

  1. Shopify
  2. Woocommerce
  3. Square
  4. BigCommerce

Shopify (Web, iOS, Android)

Shopify is an easy-to-use service for users launching an online store without the proper experience. It is perfect for entrepreneurs who want to build an online store in an easy way at a reasonable price.

shopify

Shopify offers an all-inclusive package of services. Usually, a user needs to buy a domain and a hosting for an e-shop and make settings, which requires some technical skills. Shopify offers to host this. Also, Shopify supports hundreds of payment methods in a pre-built shopping cart.

Shopify provides both paid and free themes. The user has ten free themes and a lot of paid templates at approximately $140.

Pricing: 14 free trial = > $29/mo and 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

WooCommerce (Web, iOS, Android)

If you already run a WordPress site and the only thing you've missed is a shopping cart, WooCommerce is the best solution. Instead of transferring the website to a new eCommerce platform, WordPress provides the WooCommerce plugin.

woocommerce

The WooCommerce plugin uses both physical and electronic products in any shape and size to sell in the online store and offer product variations.

WooCommerce gives you complete control over the online store, from tax calculations and inventory levels to user account management. It allows you to add and remove extensions, change the design, and change your online store's settings.

WooCommerce accepts most bank cards and PayPal. If you need more options, more than 140 gateways integrate with WooCommerce, including Stripe, Authorize.Net, and Amazon Payments.

Pricing: Free, but additional settings like themes and domains have costs, starting from $12 + 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Square (Web, iOS, Android)

The system allows you to sell anything: physical and digital goods, tickets to events, and much more. You can even accept donations.

square

If you have a physical store, let your customers order online and pick up their order in the physical store—if you have set up integration with Square Point of Sale.

Pricing: Free plan; paid plan, starting from $12/month + 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

BigCommerce (Web, iOS, Android)

BigCommerce is a leading e-commerce platform that is perfect for moving beyond tools like eBay and Amazon. It provides excellent management tools, including order management, product management, reports, and analytics. BigCommerce is great for managing your store daily.

bigcommerce

BigCommerce offers many marketing tools that provide sales on multiple platforms, such as Amazon Marketplace, Facebook, eBay, Pinterest, integration with email providers, and more.

Payments via Stripe, PayPal, and Apple Pay are available on BigCommerce.

Pricing: Free for 15 days, starting from $29.95/mo + 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

How does a URL shortener help in promoting an online shop?

Short.io is a URL shortener that is rich in integrations. For online shops, Short.io provides integration with Zapier and with analytical services.

Short.io Integrations

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But let's do that by numbers:

1. Integration via Zapier

Zapier is a glue between Short.io and online shops. The idea of the integration is that when a new item is added to your online shop, a new short link for the item is created. For advanced users, triple integrations can be created. For example, after a short link is created, it is automatically sent to social networks or via SMS marketing (Twillio app). In such a way, your customers can be notified about new items or special offers.

Here's an example of a Short.io and Shopify integration via Zapier:

Short.io & Shopify Integration

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2. Integration with analytical services

Statistics is a way for improvements. Thanks to it, you can consider your targeting audience, strengths, and weaknesses. Short.io worries about customers and does its best for successful short URL management.

Short.io provides some integrations with analytical services:

  • Google Analytics. It's a direct integration that you can configure straight from your Short.io account. On GA, you track the success of short links.

Short.io direct Integration with Google Analytics

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  • Heap, Mixpanel. Short.io provides integrations via the third-party service Segment. Thanks to it, you can connect your Short.io account with Heap, Mixpanel, or any other analytical service. After that, Segment gets data about clicks from Short.io and transfers it to Heap/Mixpanel.

Short.io Integration with Mixpanel

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What did you learn?

  • e-shop ecommerce
  • how to run an e-shop
  • how to shorten links for online store

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