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Ecommerce Modules - Selecting from the Options
Lately, and, more and more, it seems that we've been educating prospective clients around Ecommerce options, but specifically, sharing our views on shopping cart vendors and features on the market. We try hard to convey that all potential products aren't created alike, and that a great deal of the decisions needing made come from an organization's philosophical projection of their current requirements, as well as planning for their future. So, we thought an article on the topic might be useful to the worldly, far-reaching masses that regularly check back to the BlueBolt Solutions website. The items and topics listed are really just answers to the most common questions, and the points of interest most often discussed...
- Commercial, Open Source, Enterprise, Hosted, or 'build-your-own'? ... Well, it's true there are many options available. Here is a simple breakdown:
- Commercial ecommerce products usually are purchased per license or per user, and, can become costly, depending on the product and the way the software is sold. At BlueBolt, we do like, and have deployed some of the commercial products that are best supported, have proven themselves to other credible, marquis clients, and that offer to sell their source code, so that we can customize as necessary.
- Open Source modules are often offered, but we have found most of them to be simple solutions. Some are also those which require stand-alone, hosted shopping carts. They can be difficult to integrate, but, sometimes can prove to be great options for a client wanting to implement a "pure commerce" solution (those offering little more than an online catalog, and, the ability to purchase an item).
- Enterprise Level Ecommerce is offered by large agencies that have mega-brand clients and develop their own ecommerce modules. They are likely to be able to, or prepared for, deep integration into existing backend inventory and warehousing systems. These are usually the Ecommerce solutions that cost the most, require the most customization, and are expected to take the most overall development time.
- Hosted Shopping Carts are becoming more and more pervasive in the form of Website Management Solutions. Even BlueBolt offers shopping cart solutions in the form of a SAAS (Software As A Service) model (with the recent introduction of its new Bingway product ( www.bingway.com ). These storefront solutions usually attract clients that start as templated sites, instead of custom design and integrated solutions. Often, they require monthly fees and other transaction agreements for the use of the software and hosting accomodations. Sometimes considered to be glorified hosting, some of these products have robust features, offer intense service and support, and are truly an affordable option for a startup organization.
- Build Your Own? ... Well, as anyone can imagine, there is so much to consider in architecting and developing software. We understand why a good developer might find value in starting from scratch, but, unless there is a compelling reason, we feel that this rarely, if ever, makes sense. It's easier, and, maybe more prudent to choose a richly-featured commercial product and just customize it as needed.
- What technology should be chosen?
- BlueBolt standardizes on, in large part, Microsoft-origined technologies, and, our developers mostly write in ASP.net. That said, there are certainly other options, like PHP, Java, Cold Fusion, Perl, Classic ASP, and others. We found ASP.net to be an easy choice because of several reasons:
- First, there is no shortage of ASP.net coders (that is not to say that they are all coding experts, but they can be found, if you look hard).
- Second, most growing organizations we find are already making use of SQL Server and other Microsoft-centric products, which is generally required by a coder punching out business rules in ASP.net.
- Third, we found that organizations choosing Microsoft products generally seem professionally geared and serious about their online future...we recognize this as a strength and choose to work with clients who can be defined this way.
- Last, we mostly develop around, and implement one Content Management System, which is built in ASP.net. We thought we would avoid the hassle of having multiple integration points and different hosting entities by supporting one written code.
- We do find some very creative products and features offered in PHP, Java, and Classic ASP, so, we don't feel they are unworthy of consideration...we just find that many of these solutions require more customizations, more integration, and offer fewer options for quality hosting and overall support than the solutions we've reviewed that are written in ASP.net.
- Another big discussion is always based around standard features already built into the engine. Of course the ecommerce module chosen should be found to easily integrate into the most popular online merchant providers (example...Authorize.net), have the simple ability to control and manage the online product set, and be a solid platform that will support product growth. Still, not all ecommerce engines are built the same, and not all have the same flexibility around skinning and dealing with look and feel issues. Also, advanced features like built-in mobile applications, kitting/grouping, product item comparison features, Gift Certificate and coupon management, Gift Registries, and, upsell options, aren't always part of a standard solution. For this reason, it may be wise to do a full discovery around your actual needs before fatefully choosing an Ecommerce product.
- Integration Items - This is a big one. Unless the client is a true startup, almost every client has an existing solution of some kind, and those usually require some sort of back-end massaging when they have a new tool such as an Ecommerce module with which to integrate. The best case is when little actual coding is required, and simple integration into the existing user base will suffice. The deepest case is when existing marketing, inventory control, CRM solutions, multiple channels, user categories, internal forces, and more, all require intense consideration. Some ecommerce engines will work well around these kinds of edifications, but others are poorly geared to deal with such challenges.
Other items discussed: hosting the shopping cart, taxonomy and organization options provided by the tool, the product's ability to scale into future technical generations (and be upgraded to newer shopping cart versions), workflow and approval options, included reports and possible options for analytics data, customer service and support options around the creators that sold the ecommerce engines (are they credible, responsible, and top notch coders?).
We hope this helps, but expect that we are probably only scratching the surface of a real conversation. Still, maybe this list can act as a starting point, no matter who is fielding the questions and providing the answers.
David R.
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