ECommerce Shopsoftware

Ecommerce Shop Software - what should it be?

The market for eCommerce store software systems is huge and hardly any layman understands the difference between a system that costs 0 euros and one for several tens of thousands of euros.

We explain what you should pay attention to.

1. What kind of company do i fit to?

The providers for ecommerce store systems can be roughly divided into commercial - in the sense of, for example, a corporation with dozens of full-time programmers - and private associations of freelance programmers, who often offer free further developments.

The advantage of a commercial provider can be that the system is up to date in terms of programming code. However, you must keep in mind that such providers usually have outside capital in the company and depend on generating a certain profit. Developing a new store software quickly costs 1-2 million Euros. The costs for the sales team also have to be recouped. You pay for all of this, either in the purchase price or later when you want to make changes.

It is also important to note the difference between open source and closed source. Open source systems are completely open source, i.e. any programmer can access the data and change it for you. With closed source systems, parts of the store are encrypted and only the provider or its licensed partners have access to it. This also drives up the price (keyword: license fees for partners).
 

2. For which market was the store system developed?

Many systems were developed for the us market - things like cancellation policy, shipping costs in the shopping cart or essential item features in the checkout are completely unknown here. Caution: first find out about the current legal situation and check whether the store complies with it.
 

3. Required functions and their effects

Which functions do you REALLY need? So: absolutely. Not nice-to-have.
The reason for this question: all functions have to be considered somehow, calculated and put a strain on the store speed and/or update-friendliness.
A very nice (negative) example are store systems, where you can even change the color of the store in the admin area with a mouse click.
Seriously now: how often do you want to do that?  You have to know that in the admin area you are actually in the database of the store, it's just been spruced up for you. Do you really think that the color of the store should be saved in the database? This is much(!) more performance friendly in a separate file.

The consequence of such performance hogs: You need a bigger webspace and a faster server. And suddenly you pay for your great, modern store system 100 Euro hosting fee per month, instead of 9,95 Euro.

Often people call here and start the phone call with "I need an ERP". When I then ask "Why?" 90% of the callers don't know the answer. Here is the solution: 90% of all start-ups, small businesses and sole proprietors do not need an enterprise resource planning system. This only becomes interesting with later growth.
 

4. Consequences: Costs, security, change of provider

4.1 Who programs the changes?

Don't be fooled. In the long run you will pay money for every software. At the latest, when the legislator demands that the store must be structured differently, you will need a programmer to implement these changes. From experience we can say: this happens on average once a year.

4.2 Who makes the updates?

Every store is outdated at some point, because it is on a server - and your hoster will not allow the server to be outdated and vulnerable to attack. So: you need an update strategy. Who does the updates and what do they cost?

4.3 What happens if I want to change the provider?

Did you just think at the last point, that you just take a rental store, and all updates are included in the price? Then you are screwed now. Because you usually don't get access to a rental store when you cancel. Means: all data gone.
So check beforehand whether you can change providers with the store - and take all your data with you.

4.4 Who makes the backups?

It will happen sometime, that's for sure: You will have a virus, Trojan, a hacked store or just a defective database. It's better to find out right from the start what possibilities there are for you to create backups of the database AND the files and to restore them if necessary. Even before the store is up and running, you need a backup strategy.

4.5 Who takes care of the legal protection?

Somehow a topic where VERY many merchants wave off. Mail order law is about as exciting for mail order merchants as financial accounting is for programmers :-) - Problem: most programmers can manage without financial accounting, but a mail order company that is not interested in the law will pay a lot of money in a very short time.
So: also here you need a strategy. The German mail order law plus the surrounding area (electrical laws, export rules, data protection, textile labeling etc etc) change without exaggeration every few weeks. You have to keep an eye on this or have it kept. There are law firms that specialize in such things, for example the IT Recht Kanzlei in Munich.

What is actually unimportant?

Quite simple - and this may surprise you. The appearance is completely irrelevant. Every store system can be modified to look the way you want it to. No matter how beautiful or ugly the demo stores of the respective provider are. Don't be fooled by glossy demo stores!

CONCLUSION

Before your own store is even installed, there is a lot of thinking to do.
We are happy to help you. Just contact us.