What to look for when choosing an ecommerce platorm

[skuba]

Hi,
I have suggested that one of my clients upgrades to a better ecommerce solution. Right now he has a proprietary solution and depends on the author to do every thing. The program has very feel features that are important.

So now I need to find a new ecommerce platform for this small to medium-sized client that carries about 3,000 skus.

I have been researching and contacting some vendors. What would you say are the most important things to consider and ask when talking to ecommerce solution vendors? What would you ask?

I am not interested so much in features, but how to spot a good system? if it's reliable? scalable? etc...

Thanks so much,
skuba

[ByronM]

My 2 cents:

1. Is it robust - does it have out of the box support for catalog management. Can you easily import, price, inventory & manage items?

2. Is it fast - does it offer good performance, reliability and scale well.

3. Is it standards driven - CSS/easy to modify templates.

4. Is the developer base strong - can you extend it - if not, is it actively maintained & supported.

5. Security/compliance/patching - does the developer have the resources to fix issues?

6. Does it have search capabilities, parametric filtering, strong taxonomy configurations?

What is your store? Simple widgets with 4-5 bullet point configurations or is it items that people look for that match specific features/components/configurations? Do you track inventory? do you need to import supplier catalogs?

[skuba]

Thanks for your suggestions.

The store requires more than 5 bullet points. We need to show description and specifications of the products.

No need to import vendor catalog.

Yes, we would like to manage inventory also.

Store now has about 150 orders a day. We would like something that will work even with we have 300 orders a day or more.

Any other suggestions any one might think of?

I am not sure what are the current players in the ecommerce platform industry for medium size retailers. Would you consider this a small or medium size internet retailer?
3,000 skus
150 a day
Avg $100

Thanks so much

[webtress]

Hi, Does the cart support your payment gateway. Does it offer the shipping features such as online rates from UPS, FedEx or support weight based, price based shipping. How many categores and product can be added, you don't want to find out later that you are limited. Can orders be downloaded, can products be mass updated? Are these features built-in or do you need to purchase extra modules? Is there support? Those are just a few questions that come to mind.

[ByronM]

I'd say pick out the most important features you need and work from there. With experience i'm sure you know your existing systems shortcomings so combine the wants and needs and then shop around.

[skuba]

I was looking at storefront by laguarde.

I also thought about just getting someone that knows a lot of oscommerce and set it up for us. I'm just afraid that going with a free/open source solution is not a good recommendation for my client.

He is expecting one product that will handle all our needs.

Thanks