Ecommerce Software Evaluation
Ecommerce software selection is a complex process that
requires you to carefully research the topic before finding and selecting
the software.
There are several main features to be considered in ecommerce software vendor selection such as:
Inventory
Management (How you control your inventory)
Order Management
(How you control and process orders)
Customer
Management ( How you control the information about your customers)
Supplier
Management (How you control the information about your suppliers)
Product
Management (How you display and control your products)
Publishing
(Uploading your website to your hosting Space)
These can be broken down into the following (in alphabetical order) ...
- Customisable Notifications and Receipting
- Multiple Shipping and Payment Options
- Customisable Templates for Product Display
- Offline Credit Card Processing
- Ease of Entry of New Products
- Order History
- Ease of Image Manipulation
- Password Control
- Ease of Navigation
- Product and Client Discount Functionality
- Ease of Navigation with Breadcrumb Trail
- Product Variations (Colours/sizes, etc.)
- Ease of Registration
- Promotions Management/Specials
- Easy Checkout
- Provision of Customer's Favourites List
- Easy Integration with External Systems
- Repeat Customer Recognition Functionality
- Flexible Product Search Functionality
- Security Satisfactory
- Good Help System
- Shipping Controls
- Good Inventory Controls
- Simple Order Management
- Good Inventory Updating Features
- Support for all Major Credit Cards
- Good Shopping Cart and Checkout Features
- Support for Required Payment Gateways
- Good User Support
- Support for Search Engine Optimisation
- Handling of Coupons and Gift Certificates
- Support for Wholesale Clients
- Hierarchical Product Category Organisation
- Support for your Payment Service Providers
- Import of Catalogue from Database
- Variable Tax Rates Including Exemptions
When you have completed the generic factors in the Ecommerce Software Selection Spreadsheet you can have a look at the list above and choose the items that are of importance to you for scoring. Add these to the Software Evaluation spreadsheet and commence your software comparison.
Go to the Ecommerce Software Selection Spreadsheet
