22 Oct, 2021

What Factors Should Be Considered Before Changing eCommerce Platforms?

An e-commerce platform is an end-to-end software solution that allows online retailers to manage their businesses. This type of service includes e-commerce website builders, accounting, inventory management systems, and customer service infrastructure. Every platform offers common features and provides customized features based on their business needs. Some of the features of an E-commerce platform are scalability, payment gateway, order management, and security.

Technical advancement rapidly changes business and consumption style, which makes your old system a legacy. For better functionality and customer experience, you need to replace the aging e-commerce system. The blog answers eight major questions which help to determine whether an e-commerce platform needs to be replaced.

1. How old is your software?

Upgrading the heavily customized system into a new version is a difficult and expensive task. The insufficient support of software vendors makes it more troublesome. In this case, you are unable to provide demanded functionality by customers.

2. How many integrations do you have to support?

Managing many integrations and unifying them is a challenging task. For that, moving to a unified e-commerce platform and maintaining a connection chart between web services and different applications improves efficiency and eliminates cost.

3. Is your e-commerce system able to share information between other channels?

Are you able to integrate all the information regarding customers while selling through a different channel? Make it viewable for both customer care representatives and customers without bothering the channel of origin. Are you sure about accurate inventory support for customers who buy online?

4. Are you able to deliver a B2C-like online shopping experience to B2B customers?

Business to Business (B2B ) consumers are expecting the same shopping experience as Business to Consumers (B2C) consumers. If you are sure about meeting their expectations, provide access to the online catalog with real-time inventory and customer-specific product and pricing.

5. Does your system allow you to provide the overall brand experience you desire?

Does your current e-commerce platform have enough customization to showcase your unique layout or are you limited in what you can? Are you able to achieve modern design? With older platforms, you may not have as much control over the look-and-feel as it may be locked down.

6. What are your site’s analytics telling you? 

Are you monitoring website data like bounce rate, traffic, and conversion rates? Most companies recognize the importance of analytics but they do not use it effectively. So check the data weekly or monthly basis which surely gives you tacts for better performance. For example, increasing bounce rate indicates that your site is not effective. So keep reviewing and spot changes quickly.

7. Do you offer mobile support?

People are using their mobile phones to search and buy the product online and it is essential to have responsive websites. CSS media queries, CSS image resizes and flexible grid are some features that help to build responsive websites. Integrating all these features enables the display of website content on a smaller screen. 

The use of an “m.” site for mobile users increases your bounce rate and conversion fall. Because of that, most companies create a mobile website by removing certain functions like access to customer service, full product description, and other content which mobile users are always looking forward to.

8. What are your customers saying?

Listen to all feedback provided by your customers and prioritize them with the most relevant ones, For that you can conduct an anonymous survey on your site.

NetSuite SuiteCommerce

Netsuite SuiteCommerce is a cloud-based e-commerce solution that enables merchants to provide unique and attractive B2B and B2C online experiences. The main advantage of SuiteCommerce, beyond being a solid e-commerce alternative in itself, is its native integration with Netsuite. At the enterprise level, it is essential to integrate e-commerce with ERP. Choosing a radically integrated option helps to save your company headaches and the resources involved in software optimization costs and management.

Key Features of SuiteCommerce

• Deliver an innovative customer experience

SuiteCommerce helps to create interactive and personalized unique web and mobile in-store experience that makes your customer expectations higher. Transforming the store is another feature of SuiteCommerce. It is associated with some empowering sales tools which help to assist the engaging shoppers thereby customers can get the continuous shopping experience.

Any device can be used for online shopping. Because it builds with a responsive web design that allows device optimized online shopping experience that displays elegantly across smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops.

• Provide a 360-degree customer view

This platform helps to gain a cross channel view of every customer which enables personalized and consistent service, and also helps to build a deep relationship. A single system gives insight into profitability because it captures all interactions and transactions of your customer. Using this data leaders can take necessary decisions regarding marketing or other segments.

• Intelligently managing orders

It provides a centralized order management system that fulfils orders quickly and effectively, real-time inventory visibility including store, promotion, buy anywhere fulfil anywhere experience, and globally connected supply chain provides real-time information sharing and coordination which help for better management of suppliers and stock levels.

• Support unlimited expansion

There is no limitation for global expansion, suit e-commerce single suite support multiple languages, countries, tax rates and currencies, it also creates and manages multiple websites for single brands and without any further investment combine Business-to-Business(B2B)and Business-to-Consumers( B2C)  selling models on a single platform.

• Run on a unified platform

It eliminates the integration of separate systems by unifying business applications with cloud infrastructure,  real-time visibility across your business by consolidating scattered data into a single repository to make informed, timely business decisions, and also it provides flexibility and adaptability to maintain ultimate business agility.