Ecommerce has become essential for all businesses small and large.
Ecommerce software is the engine behind the working of an online store, making it possible to manage inventory, add or remove products, calculate taxes, and everything else required to manage a website and fulfill orders easily.
Ecommerce software simplifies complex processes during a friendly user interface that allows people with non-technical backgrounds to oversee a complete e-commerce operation. Despite the ease of use that e-commerce software brings to an online business, it’s a multifaceted and complicated machine.
What does E-commerce software do?
The purpose of e-commerce software solutions is to place everything you need to run your store in one place. While the platform itself does not fulfill every task, integrations with leading providers make it possible to smoothly run a business without jockeying between different services. Accounting software, ERP, 3PL, social media — like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest — and many more can be linked to e-commerce software so data sharing isn’t manual.
Types of Ecommerce Software
Ecommerce software comes in two basic flavors, with many types of each:
On-Premise: Installed and managed on-site by developers who facilitate manual updates, fix problems and issues, and do general troubleshooting. Traditionally, merchants used on-premise solutions because of the increased flexibility from hosted solutions.
SaaS: Software as a Service (or “hosted”) solutions are way more hands-off from a technical standpoint. the only development requirements are for extra design and custom features — all updates, patches, and newly-released features are done automatically or with one-click integrations. Hosted e-commerce software has evolved to the purpose where the customization and adaptability, previously exclusive to on-premise, is robust, making it quite sufficient for many online retailers. Ecommerce stores using SaaS software can be launched in 1/3 of the time and at a much lower cost compared to the on-premise solutions.
Ecommerce software:
Simplifies marketing: Built-in SEO and straightforward optimization allow online stores to rank higher in organic search engines like Google for increased discovery and lower customer acquisition costs.
Automates shipping and taxes: Printing shipping labels, calculating sales taxes based on customer location, and sending notification emails to customers.
Manage products: From SKUs and variations (size, color, quantity) to product names and pictures, e-commerce software allows an online store manager to induce a high-level view or drill right down to the specifics with none technical knowledge required.
Customer & order management: Managing an order from inception to delivery is important to the success of any business. Ecommerce software allows you to filter by customer, check order status, and make changes on the fly. Integrations with email platforms like Mailchimp provide another medium for managing customer communications.
Enhance overall user experience: If customers can’t find what they need — and fast — then e-commerce software hasn’t done its job. Hosted solutions offer service-level agreements to ensure uptime, and easy website management with analytic insights assist you to find optimization opportunities.