Most of the online shop owner are actually they are the die-heart friends of the product they are selling online. This time, I will share and compare several e-commerce platforms that are famous in Hong Kong. I will also talk more about the platform I would choose in my daily life.
In Hong Kong or around the world, the most frequently heard e-commerce company is probably Shopify. More online shops have been emerging during the epidemic, and Shopify should be the website that everyone might have come into contact with. It is also one of the most mature platforms that offering payment gateway, and pre-set or personalized website design. If you want to create and add different Shopify extensions step by step (such as dropshipping, connecting to different social media platforms, multilingual conversion, SEO settings, and updating shipping progress), there are built-in App Store in Shopify for you to choose from.
But of course, the price will be a bit more expensive than some local e-commerce platforms. However, it can add unlimited products to the back-end, while the back-end settings are not too complicated for newbies. If you target on international customers, this is one of the inevitable choices for online shop setup.
*It is worth noting that if you want to use commonly used payment methods in Hong Kong e.g. FPS/Alipay for the online store created by Shopify, additional methods is required for connection. Of course, Airwallex is recommended as the service provider that can collect universal payment tools (including Hong Kong).
Shopline is a local based e-commerce platform. Although so, Shopline is able to support a lot of functions, including inventory management, charging systems, membership discounts, etc. If you need some other function upgrades, you can purchase them separately.
It is worth mentioning that when connecting to payment platforms, thanks to Shopline developed by a local company, the localization settings are relatively completed. Therefore, you don't need to connect additional extension functions to utilise the FPS/Alipay/Octopus and other payment methods, which is more direct and convenient.
Shopage is another locally launched e-commerce platform, but it is considered to be a more basic e-commerce platform. Its flexibility of website design will be relatively lower than Shopify and Shopline. Website design can only developed from pre-set templates, and there is no application store for users to adopt in the back-end system.
Notwithstanding, it offer the cheapest fee with well-established basic functions (including product setting, email order, membership system, etc.). It is very suitable for entry-level users to handle store management.
Of course, there are many different choices when choosing an e-commerce platform. The very first consideration is to determine the type of your target audience, whether it is local or international. If it is local, Shopline/Shopage are both good choices as the settings are not that complicated, as well as the price is more affordable. While Shopify will be the best choice for international and local businesses because of its design flexibility.
Mattty
