2015 October 02 Archive - EXEIdeas – Let's Your Mind Rock

Entrepreneurs who want to set up an online retail store have a lot of things to take into account. There’s managing the store’s inventory of goods, measuring cash flows, and mounting marketing campaigns to engage the target market. But when it comes to powering the online store itself, the most important consideration is knowing the right ecommerce platform to use.There are literally scores of vendors out there selling their own ecommerce solutions. While entrepreneurs may find the sheer number of products to choose from quite intimidating, the variety is probably a good thing. Each business has its own set of needs, so what works for one online store might not necessarily work for another.Whether you are still in the planning stage of setting up your online retail store or you are hoping to update your current ecommerce platform, studying each product in detail and knowing your options can help you avoid costly mistakes that could hurt your bottom line. Before buying an ecommerce platform, here are some points you might want to consider.Ease Of Use:Overly intricate ecommerce platforms could be counterproductive for your organization. A platform should be easy enough to use so that you or your associates won’t feel the need to call the developer for support every time.Performance:Find an ecommerce platform that is optimized for high performance and quick delivery of content. Having a slow-loading website is one of the easiest ways to frustrate and lose customers, so be very careful when choosing an ecommerce product. On the other hand, the performance of your cloud platform can also affect the speediness of your website, so that’s another consideration you need to keep in mind.Reliability:A lot of online retail store owners have no idea how much traffic their website can deal with. There could come a time when your site receives so much traffic that it just conks out without warning. Having a broken website could hurt your profits severely, and it’s also bad for your company’s image. Prevent such problems from occurring by conducting load tests to determine your site and chosen e-commerce platform’s behavior under normal and peak load conditions. If your current set-up proves to be inadequate, upgrade your system accordingly.Multi-Channel Compatibility:The ecommerce platform should be able to work in multiple browsers and devices. Smartphones, in particular, offer a lot of opportunities for online retail store owners. Almost 75 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. now have smartphones, so having a high-performance and easily navigable website with integrated ecommerce functionality for mobile devices can really prove to be beneficial to your business.Integration And Scalability:Your ecommerce platform should be able to grow alongside your business. It should be easily upgradeable from the developer’s end, and ideally, it has to be able to accommodate third party integrations to help you streamline your expansion efforts. Furthermore, launching additional ecommerce sites should be no trouble for you in case you decide to launch new brands or new websites in the future.Partnerships:Lastly, if you are not very familiar with ecommerce platforms or are not sure how to go about developing or upgrading your online retail store, you might want to consider hiring a solutions provider who can help you select the right ecommerce technologies and assist you with your planning efforts.During the development of your ecommerce site, your chosen partner should also be able to help you assess third-party software deliveries, discover compliance issues, and provide insights into creating and managing high-scale systems.