eCommerce Software

Understanding eCommerce Software

Ecommerce software (sometimes also called an ecommerce platform) is a specialized type of software that allows individuals and companies to set up and manage their online store. These software packages are sufficiently comprehensive to allow for all aspects of store setup, product or service descriptions, marketing and advertising of products and services, customized branding and logos, payment verification and processing, digital security tools and more.

In the same way that a brick-and-mortar store owner designs a specific look and layout for their store, ecommerce software permits the ecommerce business to do the same thing in an online format. ecommerce software today can support either B2C or B2B business setup or both, depending on the customer's needs and goals.

In its infancy, ecommerce focused almost completely on selling physical (tangible) products online. But today, services and digital products (such as downloadable printables, streaming music and e-books) are equally popular with online customers. Today's ecommerce software supports selling one-off (individual) digital as well as tangible goods and services, and can also offer digital product subscriptions for businesses who wish to offer these.

The sales, product management and marketing/advertising departments of larger companies find ecommerce platforms particularly useful to streamline business and store management operations, track inventory, measure the success of promotional campaigns, keep connected with customers and encourage repeat sales.

One under-reported fact that is important to know about ecommerce platforms is that they are not the same as so-called "shopping cart software." The former provides a complete business solution for setting up, managing and growing an online store of any size. The latter simply sets up an online storefront to populate with products to sell.

For B2C sales needs, today's full-featured ecommerce platforms can even integrate brick-and-mortar and online store operations, allowing customers to order online and pick up in-store, check inventory at stores near them, keep up to date with special online-only deals and more.

For B2B ecommerce needs, these full-featured platforms help to unify, maintain and scale all aspects of running a successful, profitable and streamlined company. To do this, they are built to integrate with popular accounting and bookkeeping, payroll, ERP, CRM, logistics and supply chain software.

eCommerce Software Benefits

Ecommerce software gives businesses the ability to quickly create and launch a digital store to start selling products and services - often the very same day.

Here are some of the most popular benefits and features of this type of software that can help a business of any size launch an online store and start selling quickly:

Turnkey setup

Ecommerce software offers all kinds of turnkey setup features such as storefront themes and customizable templates, easy product setup tools for pricing and shipping and plenty of bells and whistles for cart, checkout and payment.

Self-service on demand

The software can move as fast as the business is ready to go. The portal is always there for adding new products, recalculating shipping or taxes to factor in changing rates or costs, running sales and promotions, keeping up with customers and sending out product invoices, confirmations and shipping notifications.

Full automation options

For busy owners who need to automate to scale, modern ecommerce software programs provide full automation tools for everything from special emails to customers on their birthday to automatic alerts when inventory gets low to preparing regular analytics and metrics reports.

Inventory tracking

Inventory tracking used to be one of the most time consuming and difficult aspects of managing a business. But with ecommerce software, you can automate many routine inventory tracking processes to save time and money. For example, when stock runs out, the software can automatically remove those items from the inventory list.

High-end SEO, marketing and promotion and analytics tools

With built-in SEO/SERP optimization, ecommerce software can also impact visibility in the greater general ecommerce marketplace. This software can also integrate quickly and easily with social media, email list management and promotional campaign software and other promotional and advertising tools.

Features of eCommerce Software

In most cases, ecommerce software will provide these high-value features as a standard part of the package.

Shopping cart

Without a shopping cart it is going to be hard to run an online store. Yet it is all too easy to get ecommerce software and shopping cart software confused. Savvy business owners already know it takes a lot more than just a shopping cart and some products to run a successful, profitable store, whether brick-and-mortar or online.

This is why ecommerce software also includes all the other tools to integrate the shopping cart with the other features required to run a successful store. But the shopping cart feature is the foundational piece and it needs to be intuitive, fast, secure and simple for customers to use.

Product information and data management

Managing product and service information is what makes running any kind of business potentially complicated. The more products and services being sold, the more complicated things can get. ecommerce software makes it easy to track sales and revenues, create bundles and packages, move items into and out of inventory, schedule re-orders and more.

Catalog creation and management

Catalog creation and management (or lack thereof) can make or break a growing business. Having the ability to create and manage customized catalogs helps drive sales from specific customers or customer groups. This can be especially beneficial for B2B sales where there may be several customer segments with different product or service needs.

Cart and check-out features

At some point, the entire viability of an ecommerce operation boils down to what happens when the customer heads to their cart to check-out and pay. Like the shopping cart feature itself, the ability to quickly, securely and intuitively complete the transaction is an essential part of ecommerce software. Many software packages also allow retrieval of abandoned carts to boost sales.

Full-featured online payments tools

The global ecommerce marketplace has removed barriers to international sales success. But this only works if the online payments tools are set up to accurately reflect sales tax, shipping costs and timelines for every area where that business could attract customers.

Personalized customer recommendations

Personalizing the online store sales experience is a key facet of encouraging repeat business. From pop-up messages to add-on product suggestions to prompts for joining an email newsletter or opting-in to a special offer, these personalized touches build brand value for online customers. Product recommendation engines are designed to analyze shopper behavior and recommend products that are more likely to sell. Beyond recommending products, some ecommerce personalization solutions will help ecommerce stores personalize the entire ecommerce visitor experience, including custom content, promotions, messaging, and more.

Product marketing and merchandising tools

Marketing and merchandising makes the online store experience attractive to customers. Making it easy to see what is on sale, claim special offers, use coupons or codes and similar actions boost buyer experience and encourage repeat business. To help shoppers find the products they're looking for, it's important to provide intelligent ecommerce search functionality.

Reviews, feedback and testimonials

From satisfaction surveys to product reviews, these tools drive sales by allowing new customers to read feedback from past customers.

Subscription services

For companies that offer subscription-based products or services, these tools support automated reminders, re-orders, billing and overall subscription management.

eCommerce Software Trends

• AI - As AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology continues to develop, ecommerce software is integrating these tools to help safeguard the customer experience, guard against fraud and data breaches and improve overall profitability.

• Online/offline price comparison - The majority of shoppers head to their smart device first to do product or service research, regardless of where they make their actual purchase. Integrating online and offline price comparison and product comparison tools is increasingly important for ecommerce stores today.

• Subscription-based sales - The option to set up regularly timed repeat orders, or subscriptions, is a value-added option customers expect. 

Understanding the Difference Between Cloud-Hosted and Self-Hosted Ecommerce Software

1. Cloud-hosted - A cloud-hosted ecommerce software platform is similar to SaaS (software as a service) models that allow customers to access the software via an online portal for a fee. No downloads, setup, updates or software management is required.

2. Self-hosted - A self-hosted ecommerce software platform requires the business to purchase, install, update and manage the software that is running their online store. For example, most open-source software is self-hosted.

Choosing Your eCommerce Software

These features add value to your ecommerce software platform:

• Unlimited new product additions - Add new products anytime in an infinite variety of categories with appropriate tags.

• Unlimited new customer accounts - Register and save customer information and payment data for an unlimited number of new shoppers at any time.

• Unlimited open sales - Accommodate as many open shopping carts as needed at any given time.

• Unlimited traffic volume - Accommodate as many shoppers as wish to visit your online store, browse and buy at any given time.

• Unlimited fast loading and website up-time - This one will simply make or break an online store - the ecommerce software should guarantee fast load times and website up-time, especially during high-volume shopping time periods such as holidays.

• Unlimited product types - Physical, digital, services, drop-shipping, subscriptions.

• Many payment options - Credit cards, Stripe, Paypal, proprietary store cards, national and international options.

• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) - Many customers simply will not shop with online stores that do not provide an extra level of security for entering sensitive financial data.

• Full-featured inventory and sales reports, analytics and metrics - Real-time tracking and reporting for store sales, inventory levels, promotional and sales campaigns, inbound traffic flow from paid and organic search engines, et al.

• Promotional options - Discounts, coupons, bundles, abandoned carts, gift cards, et al.

• Turnkey store design and setup - Fully functional industry-specific templates with rich customization options, including social media and email integration.

• Easy to use - No advanced software or programming knowledge required to set up and run the online storefront.

• Drag and drop functionality - No programming knowledge or coding knowledge required to edit products or storefront in real time. 

• Easy editing tools - Color, font, type size, multimedia options, tabs, headers, windows and more to fully customize the storefront with existing company colors, branding, slogan, logos and look/feel of the main website.

• Plugins and extensions - Design your own plugins or apps or choose integrated third-party apps and plugins to extend the usefulness of the ecommerce software.

• Integration with existing software - Accounting or bookkeeping, payroll, inventory management, CRM and sales database, email software and list groups, et al.

• First-rate customer support and service - Not only the customer service you provide to your customers, but the customer service and support you may need to get the full functionality out of your ecommerce software, troubleshoot, debug or integrate the software with your existing tools.

• Robust help center with email, phone, live chat, product documentation options available 24/7 - Help should always be available regardless of when you may need expert assistance with your ecommerce software.

• Social media and sales channel integration - Link to Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, business pages and other online tools that can serve as sales funnels to drive new customers to you and encourage current customers to positively review, share and promote your products.

• Mobile-friendly - Ensure that customers can shop and complete their transactions from small and large-screen smart devices, switching between devices as needed and select the view that matches their device type.

These types of tools are no longer considered "bells and whistles" for ecommerce software platforms today. Each tool is a requirement to get the full value of ecommerce software and maximize store sales and profitability.

Choosing an ecommerce software platform is a big decision and isn't always an easy one to make. Knowing what to look for in terms of product tools, benefits and features will ensure the ecommerce platform you decide to go with will be able to serve you seamlessly to grow your business for years to come.