I’ll tell you why guys – it is.. And I feel that I can qualify as an expert in eCommerce, having had software that was so far ahead of the pack in 2000 we ended up retiring it because we spent so much time explaining what ecommerce was. .. Note to self, that marketing book that said don’t be more than 2 years ahead of where the market is at.. where you were in 1999 when the software was written.
So I digress for a moment and back to the topic. Have you ever tried to really compare shopping cart solutions?
Good grief, it’s a nightmare!! I’m saying that on behalf of all the wasted time by people trying to get their business online, for the developers who have released software without having a clue on what is needed from a business point of view and for the shop owners who have no idea on the reality of running an online business.
I can tell you now that in my many years of building websites and either building a new site which is then transformed into a store, or buildling a store from scratch, apples are not always apples when it comes to getting your online store working.
Because I’m part of a business that has diverse development skills, and because we write in different languages, and because we have access to our infrastructure at a level that most web designers do not have, we are able to dig deeper and actually test many, many store solutions before we even considering developing for clients.
You should be aware that just because the packaging looks great, and because the demo stores you’ve seen online work, and even some of the showcase stores look great, it’s fair to say that most of them have got a level of infrastructure that you do not when starting out.
It’s also interesting to see how accepting people are to settle for solutions they see online because they look good on the screen, without giving any more thought on how it will apply to them in the real world.
I think also, the hype around some products, particualrly by companies that can buy template themes and just sell a look without the real functionality is something you, as a business owner will need to look out for at all times.
And you know, no software is perfect, and very, very few people have the budget required to build a solution that is tailored especially for them to sell online. I can tell you I’m not one of those people who can afford to have something completely customised from scratch and most software has evolved over years and has thousands of hours in development by a wide range of technical specialists to allow us to do certain tasks online which result in a desired outcome.
While it’s not practical to show you all the software available, I have decided to go through a few solutions that in my opinion, which is based on staff dicsussion, tecnical expectations, ease of installation, ability to style, mobile capabilities, product import fuctions and in general, how useable it is to manage and we will be building out actual demos, out of the box with the same products, categorie and images.
I decided to take this approach because whilei we can’t compare apples with oranges, eg.. your needs across different products, we can compare as close as possible.
My next blog will be about outlining the parameters in which we’re going to build the stores on. They will be available for comparison after they have been completed and you can be the judge.