If only it was as simple as having a web store that checked out with a secure SSL certificate and a merchant account. No, we have much more to think about when choosing a solution.
1) Where is inventory and pricing managed? In-house database with Web Store tie in? What drives a product to display on the web? Where are images and product descriptions housed?
2) Does it sell virtual products too? Can MP3s, Video files, PDFs be delivered? From what server?
3) Can I pre-sell? Can I offer free products? Gifts?
4) Where does my Web shipping chart come from? Is it dynamically driven or from a static chart?
5) Do I have language or currency options? Can I prevent visitors from shopping in the store I don't want them in?
6) What value added or best practice options are available? Shopping cart abandonment reports? product survey feedback? Customer rating and testimonials?
7) How does an order get from the web to my fulfillment center?
8) What type of reporting do I get?
If anyone has any feedback to a good e-commerce solution or have feedback on a solution your organization is currently using, please comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
One beautiful word: Magento. (http://www.magentocommerce.com)
It's free, feature-rich, open-source, secure, stable, extensible . . . everything that organizations wanting a high-end e-commerce solution could ever dream of.
Magento is a PHP-based strict MVC application, is built around the Zend Framework, and requires PHP 5. It's built on SEO best-practices, and also features built-in reporting mixed with the ability to use Google Analytics for a higher-level view into site traffic.
One of the things that has impressed me the most about Magento is that it's free and it doesn't stink (lets be honest here, after all). OsCommerce/ZenCart (and pretty much all the other open-source e-commerce solutions out there) have always lent themselves primarily to "Mom and Pop" stores--not the extremely customized, enterprise-quality e-commerce sites that most large organizations need.
Here's some context for my review:
I'm a Zend-Certified Engineer, and I've been using Magento in production enviroments as far back as the 0.6 beta (current version is 1.2.x) with almost no issues. I can say that the source-code--and maybe more importantly, the architecture--is nearly flawless, and customization is extremely easy for an experienced PHP programmer. Built-in classes can be easily overwritten, and custom modules can be added. Layout is all in well-formed CSS, and the admin interface is extremely easy to use (and to train others to use).
Magento is memory and CPU intense (as most high-end carts are), but offers a very compelling feature set as a trade-off--a set of features that to me competes with 95% of all commercial e-commerce solutions.
Integration with major shipping APIs, payment processors, etc. is already built-in, and you're also able to use static shipping/tax tables if you need to for compatibility with in-house systems. On top of that, the community is adding additional third-party integration on a daily basis.
The community is also extremely active, and is generating excellent extentions and documentation. Magento recently won the "Best New Project" award in the SourceForge CCAs, and "Best Open Source Enterprise E-commerce Application" in InfoWorld's BOSSIE awards.
These are what I see as cons/prerequisites:
* You need an experienced PHP programmer to build custom modules or handle integration correctly (hobbyists beware!)
* There is currently no "official" support for the Windows server platform because of the filesystem access issues common to PHP on Windows. (I have, however, seen fairly easy workarounds to this.)
* You need to have good web-hosting (and PHP 5 and ZendFramework are required).
* This is an open-source project--as good as that is, it means that not all the development will be around your specific needs: that is what your technical staff is for. When you build something that might be helpful to other organizations, be sure to make it available to the community--helping each other helps us all.
When I first noticed the hype about Magento early in its development, I thought it was too good to be true. Now I think it's a must-see for any business or organization looking for a best-of-breed platform.
Bottom line: I can't recommend Magento enough--especially to organizations that can't spend $75,000 on a comperable commercial system.
---
Some useful links:
* Feature List
* Demo Store
* Development Roadmap
Cyber Coin fulfills a growing need for consumers to purchase lower-priced and impulse items on the Internet-especially digital goods and services that can be instantaneously downloaded to your computer, such as software, articles, research, games, and music, said Bill Melton, user of Cyber Cash. "Internet merchants must offer consumers the ability to make spontaneous, small denomination payments on the Internet to take electronic commerce to the next level. When a consumer wants to purchase an item on the Web, he or she simply clicks on the Coin icon next to the goods. The entire process takes only seconds. http://www.infysolutions.com
Post a Comment