Beyond the hardware for your ecommerce site, you need to make some decisions about your ecommerce shopping software. Here are some things to keep in mind as you conduct your ecommerce software comparison.
There has been a flurry of open-source ecommerce shopping software options, but does that make them the right option for your business? While open-source options initially appear to be more cost-efficient, they are pretty barebones. Often a technical background and/or programming knowledge is needed for customizing the software to meet your business’s needs.
In contrast, hosted ecommerce shopping software often comes with a complete package that includes a number of options so you wouldn’t have to worry about them. These include technical support, security updates, hosting, automatic upgrades and more. So when choosing which software option is best for you, you should investigate the technical resources you have or are willing to bring on, as well as what you want your company to focus on.
For our customers, Blueport Commerce handles all the details of hardware and software hosting, upgrades and security. We worry about keeping your ecommerce shopping software up and running, so our retailers can stay tuned in to their key business.
If you are looking to add an ecommerce component to your business, you need to conduct an ecommerce software comparison. With so many ecommerce software providers out there, this may seem like a daunting task.
Mighty Merchant offers 13 techniques for evaluating which companies might be right for you and your unique business needs. Here is a quick look to help you get started with your ecommerce website software comparison:
1. Look at and use real websites powered by the ecommerce software you are considering.
2. Note the visual design of these sites, including whether they all use the same template or if there is customization.
3. Does adding items to cart require creating an account?
4. Check the sites’ Google PageRank.
5. Look for the sites using major search engines.
6. Evaluate which features come with the base package and which are add-ons.
7. Carefully examine what is included in the setup costs.
8. What merchandising tools are available?
9. What are the administration tools like?
10. How easy or hard is it to add additional pages and make site changes?
11. Is this solution hosted by the provider, or do you need to manage that?
12. Get references on the ecommerce website software provider.
13. Call the provider to gauge customer service and support.
At Blueport Commerce, we create ecommerce website software solutions that specifically meet the unique needs of big-ticket retailers. You can learn more about our solutions here.
Any retailer setting up an ecommerce store or considering replatforming their current offering, knows the choices in
ecommerce shopping software are endless. The landscape is wide, with numerous vendors offering ecommerce software packages.
The big-ticket retailer often finds their ecommerce shopping software choices to be even more complex. This is because their needs are inherently different. They go beyond setting up a basic online shop, to require more sophisticated merchandising capabilities and fulfillment, and an ability to understand their unique business models. Performing an ecommerce software comparison seems an impossible task.
So where do you start in your decision making process? Here are two initial points to consider:
1. Start by evaluating your current ecommerce shopping software or the retail systems you use to run your business. Many big-ticket retailers find their systems are not ecommerce ready, and that they may pose a barrier to going online. Make sure the ecommerce software packages you are considering are able to seamlessly integrate with your current systems. At its best, your online ecommerce solution should be able to extract the data found in your current systems, augment for e-commerce, then return completed ecommerce transactions to you that are indistinguishable from orders placed in your stores.
2. Make your ecommerce store an extension of your bricks and mortar store, not an island in itself. Look for an ecommerce software package that treats your SKUs, prices and your product information exactly like store orders from a fulfillment and service perspective. This is a fundamental difference between ecommerce shopping software for mass merchants, and that which is geared towards big-ticket retailers. The result is less work, higher customer satisfaction and a reduced need to develop separate staff or procedures for online sales. E-commerce becomes another store, seamlessly integrated with your strategy, operations and reporting.
Finding an
ecommerce service provider that meets these inital criteria is the first step in setting up your ecommerce store and capitalizing on the advantages of e-commerce.
Do you have Operations QUESTIONS? We know that operations is where the rubber hits the road. Fulfillment and customer service are your passion, and unlike some retailers, you don't have the luxury of just dropping a product in a UPS box. We suspect marketing and merchandising efforts, like ecommerce, often mean headaches for you.
That's why we're different than any other ecommerce software solution. Blueport Commerce's
Custom System Integration is designed to make e-commerce a closed loop that begins and ends with your existing systems. Our
platform extracts your SKUs from your system, and returns orders to your system in a format identical to an order written in your stores. We've done this with any number of systems, from home grown to major commercial packages, with the end result being ecommerce orders that are no different to fulfill than store orders.
We share your passion for efficiency and service — in fact, we believe that ecommerce can't succeed in a category like yours without it. We cut our teeth in furniture — arguably the most challenging of fulfillment problems. Our platform and processes are designed to make shipping a sofa — or your product — as easy as calling UPS.
We were recently in the final year of a five-year contract with one of our existing e-commerce clients. We assumed that (like any company that's smart about its technology), they were in discussions with other major vendors in the multichannel retail software space - Oracle, Escalate, GSI Commerce, ATG and the like. But at Blueport we knew the client had one overarching need: to simply find the best B2C ecommerce platform for large order value (AoV) purchases. That's what we call Big Ticket retail - and it's our sweet spot. How does the story end? Yes, they re-upped the contract:
http://www.blueport.com/news-events/.
We earned their renewal because we are confident that our e-commerce solution is the only one that meets the needs of big-ticket multichannel retailers. Blueport Commerce has the
technology, knowledge and expertise to capture the strategic opportunity for your business online.
We know the complexities of big-ticket retail and we have the answers to make it work for you. We know how this transformation impacts each aspect of your business and we'll guide your team through the process step by step.
The number of B2C e-commerce applications starting to play in the big ticket retail category continues to grow. But, since your goods are larger dollar value purchases, they are typically more complex to move around the country and generally don't fit in the standard e-commerce package or platform built for commodity items. The
Blueport Commerce solution was built for retailers like you, and that's why it works.
We've made other folks lives easy — let us do the same for you.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
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