An eCommerce platform is a software application that allows businesses to conduct their online operations including website management, marketing and sales. The choice of right eCommerce solution can have major impact on the success of an online business. However, in order to make the right choice, it is important to understand the types and features of eCommerce solutions.
The available eCommerce solutions can be broadly classified into 3 categories:
- Open-Source: In case of open-source platform, businesses can modify all aspects of the code. The business stays responsible for PCI compliance, hosting, manual patch/update release from the platform provider, security, and QA for additional applications. Additionally, the responsibility for building new tools for the site including discount/promotion engines, also lays on the business itself.
- SaaS: SaaS stands for Software as a Service. Instead of building or developing a custom solution as in case of Open-Source solution, the businesses rent the SaaS solution from a provider. So, the tasks such as product update, security, hosting, and PCI compliance are managed by the platform provider.
- Headless Commerce: It is a type of Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) eCommerce solution. In this type, the shopping cart is decoupled from the Content Management System (CMS). The business makes use of a Design Experience Platform (DXP) or a CMS and then plugs in the decoupled shopping cart solution. This results in lower overall cost and reduces the timeline in which the solution can be made available to the market.
For choosing a suitable eCommerce solution, organizations need to consider some basic features in addition to the type of eCommerce solution:
- Hosting environment, domain name, average uptime and bandwidth
- Unlimited API call volumes
- Website builder with free and user-friendly themes
- Numerous applications with built-in integrations
- Mobile optimized and fully customizable site and checkout process
- PCI compliance
- SEO features and fully customizable URLs throughout the site
- Built-in basic eCommerce features including catalog management, analytics, etc.
- Social media integration
- Easy scalability to include different payment gateways and options
- SEO tools
- Easy product search
- Integrated ratings & reviews
- Multiple product photos
Customer experience is an important factor that governs the success of an eCommerce business. So, make it a point to ask the eCommerce solution provider for features such as ability to handle subscriptions, recurring product orders, real-time shipment tracking, reward points program compatibility, and ability to send abandoned cart emails.
At Scope7, we utilize our experience to analyze your business requirements and help you choose a suitable eCommerce solution.
