All-In-1 Ecommerce Suite Similar to GoECart 360

SaaS Ecommerce Suite v/s Integrated Point Ecommerce Solutions

[mchowdhary]

What is better for ESTABLISHED small and mid size online retailers: All-In-One SaaS ecommerce suite (e.g. GoECart 360, NetSuite, etc) or loosely integrated shopping cart (e.g. Yahoo Stores, Volusion, etc.), order management system (e.g. OrderMotion, StoneEdge, etc.) and shipping software (e.g. Shipworks, Shipwire, etc.) from multiple vendors?

What other solutions are TRUE all-in-one, end-to-end besides redprairie, goecart and netsuite?

[mattia]

Hi,
If you're in for the log run, which is te case for small to midsize companies:
I strongly advise using an all-in-one ecommerce solution that you can actually BUY! NOT rent!
All these solution that you RENT! such as Volusion and BigCommerce (also called hosted solution) will not grow the same pace you would and would give you a real hard time for custom changes(which they do not want to do or with lot of difficulties) which you really need to be able to do.

best,
Marc

[lorax]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld mchowdhary!

I'd say it depends upon a few items you didn't mention - ability/time of staff to learn & manage the eCommerce site, and cash available for initial investment as well as on-going fees.

Using a cart service is dangerous in the fact that once you've invested time and $ into the setup, you'll be loathe to change to another service and that makes you somewhat captive to the service and their fees (which will go up at some point). If you do decide to go this route - have a lawyer read the agreement carefully and explain to you what you're getting into - especially the termination clauses.

On the flipside - buying an eCommerce software package comes with it's own set of headaches - often precisely because you now have ownership instead of paying a service a leasing fee.

I won't make a recommendation on any of the carts you've listed but I can tell you it pays to do your homework. Use spreadsheets and read the documents carefully before investing that kind of money.

[mchowdhary]

Thank you, lorax! You make some excellent points.

I totally agree that merchants must do their homework before making their decision and go beyond the marketing hype. This is a very confusing market unless you've been there and done that. One needs to evaluate both the depth of features and capabilities besides the breadth since most providers claim to do everything.

[lorax]

That's why I recommend using a spreadsheet. Identify your must have features, anticipate fees, sign up and termination details, for each of the carts you're interested in - or at least your top 3. Remove the least favorable one and then add another to the spreadsheet in it's place and begin the process again. Keep whittling away at the list of carts until you get to 3 solid candidates. Then you can make an educated guess. ;)

[mattia]

Thanks Lorax,
@mchowdhary, I would really interested if you could share such spreadsheet if you build done.

[mchowdhary]

@mattia, I don't have a spreadsheet handy but below are some additional ideas.

While a SaaS ecommerce platform like GoECart [GoECart.com ], NetSuite and Demandware [demandware.com ] can offer many advantages such as speed of deployment and functionality without requiring a large or no internal I.T. staff, merchant must diligently perform their homework before choosing a vendor. Know what you are getting into, speak with vendor’s customers, and see if the platform suits your business model. Not all providers are suitable for all clients and there is a cultural fit issue that is often taken for granted which is a big mistake.

Some points to check out:

Figure out how much internal resources (staff time and skillset) that will be required to get the chosen SaaS platform up and running

How flexibile is the new platform for making design changes and can non/semi technical folks make those changes easily

What third party applications and desired shopping features are pre-integrated into the platform

A platform vendor’s ability to support up and coming market trends, such as social media, mobile, etc.

How long does a merchant have to wait for a software patch to fix any critical bugs as they are reported

What's Vendor's SLA for uptime and case resolution

[mattia]

@mchowdhary,
Thanks, love that list of checks,
However I would challenge the value of that question:

How flexible is the new platform for making design changes
?
We have had our design done once and that's all, never changed it in 7 years.....
and although our cart allows for design changes we realize that this not a feature we've ever used....
Have you?

[mchowdhary]

@mattia, thank you for the kind comments.

You'd be surprised how many merchants make changes to their site seasonally. It always comes up at GoECart when we are speaking with clients and prospects. I agree that major template changes do not generally happen say earlier than 18 months. I see your point though. If the project leader is coming from sales/marketing/branding department, their care about design a lot more than if the ecommerce responsibilities reside with IT

[mattia]

@mchowdhary
I have to agree with you on that one, if the lead guy has more of a marketing background then of course they will want to make site changes to offer fresh new looks as often as possible, However like you said, these changes, for most of then do not necessitate major structure templates changes.

[mchowdhary]

Has anyone heard much about Interspire Solutions or TradePoint 360? Both are native desktop ecommerce tools but I am told that they have some web module. How about BrightPearl?

[mchowdhary]

Just saw this cool case study (free download) by Aberdeen Group. Does anyone know of a similar study on Cloud v/s SaaS Ecommerce?

SaaS vs Cloud ERP: Cut Data Loss Incidents

Discover how Best-in-Class companies...
•Gain Security Benefits from SaaS ERP
•Utilize SaaS ERP vs On-Premise More Frequently
•Implement ERP Faster

Organizations have become more educated on both the benefits and potential issues that factor into a Software as a Service (SaaS) ERP decision. Beginning in 2007, and continuing through 2009, SaaS ERP had not kept pace with the demand for on-premise SaaS enterprise applications. Then, in 2010 research showed an overall 61% jump in willingness to consider SaaS ERP, a trend that continued in 2011...

[v1.aberdeen.com...]