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New generations of e-commerce require completely different support systems to their older counterparts. The choice can seem bewildering - so how do you choose the best e-commerce platform for your business?

Finding an ecommerce solution - learning from others

It’s a fact that many businesses will try several different e-commerce platforms before establishing which one works for them. What are the major problems they experience that cause them to change their e-commerce system?

Ecommerce software comparisons

How do the current leading ecommerce solutions measure up against the demands of today’s online businesses?

Shopify

Based in Canada, established since 2006, Shopify has become one of the best known of the web-based e-commerce platforms. Does it deserve its high profile?

For many people Shopify offers a basic platform that supports many merchants. It’s reasonably priced and claims to offer 24/7 customer service. What keeps people happy with Shopify is its simple process which, if you don’t want sophistication, can be cost-effective. The things that cause e-commerce business owners to tear out their hair in frustration are:

• Overly basic features - the limited functionality of Shopify can soon become a problem. Being able to only list 100 combinations of products rapidly limits the growth of a business and no on-board wholesale (business to business) options make this an e-commerce platform with a very scope.
• Checkout issues - the Shopify checkout takes customers to the Shopify checkout, not one hosted by your domain. This can be an issue for businesses that prefer to keep everything on their own site and there’s no single page checkout which can lead to customer loss and abandoned carts
• Add-on costs - if you’ve chosen Shopify and then found its limited functions aren’t enough to help your business grow the add ons that you have to buy can be substantially more expensive than the basic Shopify package.
• Variable customer service - while some seem to get their needs met instantly, other Shopify customers struggle to get answers, or even to get connected to the customer service team. For merchants with a global marketplace, customer service from their e-commerce solution needs to be global too, but lots of one star negative reviews show otherwise.

Volusion

Since establishment in 1999 Volusion has been a leader in all-in-one shopping cart software. With quite a strong focus on what could be called ‘classic retail’ (individual customers buying clothes, accessories or homewares) Volusion is a solid ecommerce solution. Where do its customers feel pain?

The issues that cause merchants to move away from Volusion are:

• Outdated software - this may be a reflection of Volusion’s age as one of the oldest e-commerce platforms around, but many customers express annoyance at the dated software which lacks many of the sophisticated features that today’s e-commerce clients expect
• Exceeding bandwidth - this is something that just shouldn’t happen today but appears to be a Volusion trend. New clients regularly complain that they start picking up bandwidth overage penalties when they move to Volusion; this problem be due to the age of the basic system, which lacks the streamlined processes that modern e-commerce requires, especially when handling mobile browsers.
• No customer support for Mini customers - the one time you need good customer support is when you’re establishing a business, but Volusion offers nothing to its start-up clients except a list of links to solve problems. Personal support phone/chat/email are available with Pro and Premium plans but are sometimes sporadic - apparently it’s not unusual to wait several hours for a response to a ‘live chat’ question.

Magento

What makes Magento popular is its complete customisation which gives maximum flexibility to the merchant who is able to throw resources at creating exactly what they want from their e-commerce platform. With two very different systems (Open Source and Commerce) it’s important to be sure that you know what you’re getting: the ‘Commerce’ option requires a business to have its own team of developers. Given that the one of the two systems should be right for every merchant, what causes Magento customers to migrate away?

• Cost - Magento is expensive! For a supposedly free platform, you’ll end up pay for web developers, web hosting and any other integrations you decide to opt for, many of which come as standard with other platforms such as Shopping Cart Elite.
• Speed - there’s no doubt that Magento is slow, possibly the slowest of all the e-commerce solutions. Slowness isn’t just an issue for your customers - it will impact your search engine ranking too, and there’s nothing more frustrating than doing everything you can to improve your position and then finding your e-commerce platform is dropping your page ranking.
• Zero customer support - literally nothing. This is a real issue with an e-commerce system that has a big learning curve and requires the users to have coding skills. Many merchants never reach the rest of that curve because the investment has been too costly and therefore they get no return on their Magento investment.
• While Magento charges you extra to build your site, it’s code is, as we’ve said, slow. This means that while you might throw a lot of money at the problem, there’s no guarantee you can get the solution you’re looking for - a slow site may not be rectifiable no matter how many developers you’ve had to pay for.

Web Shop Manager

It’s hard to obtain clear information about Web Shop Manager. There are few online reviews and the big review sites such as Merchant Maverick haven’t got around to reviewing it yet - maybe, unless it gains traction, they won’t ever review it! As a specialist ecommerce software solution you might imagine that Web Shop Manager has little competition in the marketplace of automotive e-commerce but in fact one problem with specialist solutions is that their limitations can reduce the merchant’s ability to earn income and satisfy customers. Being tied into a more or less bespoke system has its limitations as well as its benefits, including the problem of customer support when the support team itself has extremely little exposure to wider e-commerce experience. In addition, such ecommerce platforms have little incentive to upgrade their systems rapidly, as they already have a captive market, this can mean that they fail to keep pace with merchant demand and there can be a knock-on effect on customer satisfaction.

Shopping Cart Elite

Born out of frustration and necessity, Shopping Cart Elite has focused on offering the broadest possible functionality, meeting the needs of new generation merchants who are seeking an ecommerce solution that works they way they want it to,

rather than them having to work the way the software wants them to. It’s definitely a new kid on the block compared to some of the old school ecommerce solutions so what makes it right for you and what might mean it’s not your first choice?

• Automation - the automation levels on Shopping Cart Elite make this a fantastic e-commerce platform for those who want to run a substantial business without paying substantial costs to do so. The downside is that the system may be more difficult to learn that some less feature-intensive platforms which offer ease of use rather than effective business tools
• Omnichannel as standard - because it’s a next generation ecommerce solution, Shopping Cart Elite works across all channels from the very beginning. No need for integrations, no costly add-ons. Of course this does mean getting you - and your team - up to speed with omnichannel marketing, which can be a steep learning curve.
• Threat Engagement Analytics (TEA) - unlike any other platform, Shopping Cart Elite has a clear focus on ensuring merchants can recognise and eliminate fraud. No downsides to this - it’s a clear winner in the world of online commerce and we expect that something like TEA will be offered by all e-commerce solutions … at an add-on price, of course!

Overall, we believe Shopping Cart Elite offers massive benefits when compared to older generation platforms - not just in merchant’s abilities to handle omnichannel shopping as standard, but also because of its next generation features that offer a more comprehensive and more powerful e-commerce solution than any other.