Choosing an e-commerce platform for a small business is one of the first big decisions you make when you start selling online, and one of the hardest to undo. Moving a live store later means moving products, customers, orders and search rankings, often while sales continue.
Feature lists and demos do not help much, because every platform looks good in its own demo. A better approach is to bring your own questions and ask every candidate the same ones. This guide gives you those questions, grouped by area, with notes on why each one matters.
Step 1: Write down what your store actually needs
Before you look at any platform, spend half an hour on your own business:
- How many products do you have, and how many sizes or colours per product?
- Do you keep stock in one place or several?
- Do you sell in one currency or several?
- How do you ship, and do buyers pick up in person?
- Who will work in the store with you, now and in a year?
- What do you do today in spreadsheets or separate tools?
Your answers turn a vague "which platform is best" into a short list of must-haves. A platform that is excellent for digital downloads may be a poor fit for a shop with three warehouses.
Step 2: Questions about cost
Cost is more than the monthly price on the pricing page.
- Do you take a percentage of my sales, on every plan?
- Which fees come from the payment provider, and are they separate from yours?
- Which features need a paid add-on or a higher plan?
- What happens to the price as my product count or order volume grows?
- Are there setup fees, theme costs or charges for staff accounts?
Write the answers into one simple formula so you can compare like with like:
Monthly cost = subscription + platform fee % × monthly sales + add-ons + separate tools you still need
For the full cost formula and a break-even example, see Transaction Fees vs Flat Subscription: How to Calculate the True Cost of an E-commerce Platform.
Step 3: Questions about the catalog
- Can one product have variants such as size and colour, each with its own stock and price?
- Can I add structured characteristics (weight, material, dimensions) instead of free text?
- Can I prepare a product as a draft before it goes live?
- How are photos handled: do I need to resize them myself?
- Can I show a "was" price for a sale, and is there a page that lists products on sale?
Step 4: Questions about stock and orders
This is where many small stores feel the difference between platforms.
- Is stock reduced automatically when an order is placed?
- Can I keep stock in several locations and move goods between them?
- Is there a history of stock changes, so I can see why a count is wrong?
- What order statuses exist, and can I see the history of each order?
- How are returns handled, and does returned stock go back on the shelf?
- Can I pause orders during a holiday or a stocktake?
Step 5: Questions about customers and discounts
- Is there a customer card with order history, notes and tags?
- Can buyers create accounts and see their own orders?
- What kinds of discounts are possible: promo codes, automatic rules, both?
- Can discounts stack by accident, and how do I control that?
Step 6: Questions about your data and growth
- Who owns the product, customer and order data?
- Can I connect analytics tools without a developer?
- Can I give staff accounts with different roles, rather than sharing one password?
- Which languages and currencies are supported for the storefront?
- Is the core system one database, or several connected apps that need syncing?
The last question matters more than it seems. When the catalog, stock, orders and customers live in separate tools, someone has to keep them in agreement, and that someone is usually you. The Future of ERP: Why All-in-One Platforms Are Winning explains what one data model changes day to day.
Comparing two platforms: an example
Here is an example with made-up numbers to show how to compare. A shop with 80 products in 3 sizes each, 2 storage locations and 150 orders a month (example figures) compares two hypothetical platforms.
- Platform A: low subscription, but a second location, staff accounts and automatic discounts each need an add-on. In this example the add-ons are 3 × 15 = 45 a month, on top of the subscription.
- Platform B: higher subscription, with locations, staff roles and discounts included.
If Platform A costs 20 plus 45 in add-ons and Platform B costs 50, Platform B is cheaper in this example, and it has fewer moving parts. The numbers are hypothetical; the method is what matters. Score each platform against your must-haves first, then compare the full monthly cost.
A simple scoring sheet to compare e-commerce platforms
Make one row per question and one column per platform. Mark each answer as:
- 2 = built in;
- 1 = possible with an add-on or a workaround;
- 0 = not possible.
Add up the scores only for your must-haves. A platform with a lower total score but every must-have covered is a better fit than one with a high score built on features you will never use.
Red flags to watch for
- Answers like "you can do that with an integration" for core needs such as stock.
- Pricing that depends on how much you sell.
- No clear answer on how to get your data out.
- Important features described only as "coming soon".
How RedCart fits these questions
RedCart is built on one ERP core: catalog, orders, stock and customers live in one shop database. RedCart takes no commission on sales; payment provider fees are separate and not included.
In practice that covers products with size and colour SKUs, typed characteristics, drafts, photos and a video per product, prices per currency with compare-at prices and a deals page, stock per warehouse with transfers and a movement log, stock written off in the same transaction as the order, eight order statuses with a history, returns into a chosen warehouse, customer cards with notes and tags, promo codes, personal discount rules where only the highest-priority match applies, staff accounts with roles, and analytics pixels connected by ID. Ask us the same questions you ask everyone else.
Summary
List your must-haves, ask every platform the same questions about cost, catalog, stock, customers and data, score the answers and compare the full monthly cost, not the headline price.
If RedCart matches your list, create a RedCart account and try it with your own products.