When you go about choosing how to run your online shop, you’ll need to keep in mind several things. First on your list: You’ll need to know what kind of shop will fit the products you want to sell. The golden rule of choosing eCommerce Software is to do your research beforehand.
1 ) Focus on what’s important to You
– When choosing your software, choose based on the factors that are important to you. Whether it is price, layout, customizability, integration with your current web site or support, it doesn’t matter what you label as important. Know that the choice you make is an important one, since choosing wrong eCommerce Software could set you back a significant amount of time and money.
2) Look at Similar Stores
– You should check out stores that you want to model your store upon, and find out which software they’ve chosen. You may even want to get in contact with them (if you feel comfortable doing so) and find out if they’ve had any major issues with their choice of software. Was it easy to set up? Have they had any downtime? Is it a hosted or self-hosted solution? Find out all of these things before you make your decision.
3) Remember the cost
– Make sure to remember that most instances of this type of software costs money. Factor that into your monthly and yearly cost projections. If you forget, your potential profits will not be as big at the end of the year as they could have been.
4) Make sure the software is customizable and has a great backend
Most types of this software come with trials. Try it out in a limited fashion and ensure that you can figure out both the setup and the backend management. There should be some sort of stats and reports function built in or else you’ll find yourself searching for another solution or third party plug-in.
5) Shipping and Payment options
In the area of shipping and payment processing, you want the freedom to choose the best options for you. If the software you are looking at limits the options, look elsewhere. Options are always better than no options at all.
6) How’s the support
If this is your first time, you’ll probably have problems. Make sure the company you are thinking about using offers premier support. Check out their BBB rating and do a search on reviews of their software. Chances are, any problems you’ll have will have occurred before with someone else, and you’ll be able to see if the company supported their customers or left them stranded.
The first, most important, rule that can be given to anyone looking for software for his or her store is to do the necessary homework. You would rather fall behind on your time-frame than choose wrong and be stuck with terrible software.
Do as much research as you can until you feel comfortable that you’re making the right choice. Which eCommerce Software do you use ?
Image Credit: Bettybl
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