[TamVo]

Hi,

A friend of mine is working on a hosted eCommerce platform and he wanted to know what the most import features would be.

If you would use an hosted eCommerce platform, what would be the most important feature for you?

My top 3:
flexible enough for the designer
reliable hosting
possibility for feedback on products

I would love to hear your input

[rallport]

Main ones I guess:

• PCI compliance - various levels of - how flexible will you be with merchant banks who scan and find things the designer/developer can't fix themselves - are you prepared to perform these as and when required
• SSL certificates - flexibility to install own
• Support system/documentation - full guides and sample code required
• LIke the god awful VOlusion hosted shopping cart don't force me to do all the tempalting directly on your servers - I want the flexibility to develop locally on my own machine - their sales people sell the platform like it's the best thing in the world, when in reality it's highly limiting and painful to work with. Basically, use VOlusion as an example and do the opposite imo
• Server location - especially important for ecommerce
• Support - if I need to speak to someone how fast will I be able to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about - E.g. NOT the sales department
• If you have limits state them - E.g. limit on numbewr of produicts etc.

[TamVo]

rallport, on 28 September 2011 - 09:00 PM, said:

Main ones I guess:

• PCI compliance - various levels of - how flexible will you be with merchant banks who scan and find things the designer/developer can't fix themselves - are you prepared to perform these as and when required
• SSL certificates - flexibility to install own
• Support system/documentation - full guides and sample code required
• LIke the god awful VOlusion hosted shopping cart don't force me to do all the tempalting directly on your servers - I want the flexibility to develop locally on my own machine - their sales people sell the platform like it's the best thing in the world, when in reality it's highly limiting and painful to work with. Basically, use VOlusion as an example and do the opposite imo
• Server location - especially important for ecommerce
• Support - if I need to speak to someone how fast will I be able to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about - E.g. NOT the sales department
• If you have limits state them - E.g. limit on numbewr of produicts etc.

Thanks for the input, very usefull, PCI compliant wise, if a 3rd party payment processor is used which is PCI compliant, this should be enough if we don't store/ask de payment info ourselves right?

About the templating? do you mean about possibility to upload css or other kind of templates?

support is indeed a very important subject.

[rallport]

TamVo, on 29 September 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

Thanks for the input, very usefull, PCI compliant wise, if a 3rd party payment processor is used which is PCI compliant, this should be enough if we don't store/ask de payment info ourselves right?

About the templating? do you mean about possibility to upload css or other kind of templates?

support is indeed a very important subject.

For templating I'll highlight how crap volusion are when I was forced to use them as they are hosted platform too.

You basically have to make all changes directly from the online admin area - as it is hosted there is zero access for me to develop locally from my pc. Total pain in the ass and very inflexible.

[Glowbridge]

The ability to check out as a guest.

[TamVo]

rallport, on 29 September 2011 - 08:57 PM, said:

For templating I'll highlight how crap volusion are when I was forced to use them as they are hosted platform too.

You basically have to make all changes directly from the online admin area - as it is hosted there is zero access for me to develop locally from my pc. Total pain in the ass and very inflexible.

I think I understand a little what you mean, I think he's doing it the same way.
Anyway, if you would like to have a look and give some more feedback that would be great?

[TamVo]

Glowbridge, on 29 September 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

The ability to check out as a guest.

You mean as an anonymous guest without the need to register?

that's a great idea, to speed up the process or lower the barrier to buy something.

[rallport]

Glowbridge, on 29 September 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

The ability to check out as a guest.

Totally depends how you market it on your checkout really, as a basic registered account only requires one extra field - a password.

The customer would need to enter all their delivery/billing and contact information even as a guest.

[Glowbridge]

True, but that is fine. Sometimes you know you are just going to use a shop once so it's nice to be able to buy something without actually having an account stored there. Also the ability to checkout without an account means support for Google Checkout and things like that.

What really needs to happen is widespread usage of things like Google Checkout/Virtual Credit Cards/USB Card Readers. Add stuff to basket, pay using a 3rd party service that just transmits all your details once for that checkout. I think it was a silly idea to have accounts at online shops in the first place, it's one of the few things where the system we had in place already in the real world is actually better than our virtual alternative.

As long as PayPal don't run it.

This post has been edited by Glowbridge: 30 September 2011 - 12:53 PM

[TamVo]

rallport, on 30 September 2011 - 11:48 AM, said:

Totally depends how you market it on your checkout really, as a basic registered account only requires one extra field - a password.

The customer would need to enter all their delivery/billing and contact information even as a guest.

just creating a password and username is sometimes still a barrier but both options should be available.

as much reliable payment processors as possible, got it!

[rallport]

Well as I say, it totally depends on how you market the create an account

[TamVo]

rallport, on 30 September 2011 - 03:45 PM, said:

Well as I say, it totally depends on how you market the create an account

On the other side, backend wise, anything particular to take care for?

[rallport]

TamVo, on 30 September 2011 - 05:26 PM, said:

On the other side, backend wise, anything particular to take care for?

Do you mean in general, or specific to user accounts? That's a very expansive question you're asking

[TamVo]

rallport, on 30 September 2011 - 06:43 PM, said:

Do you mean in general, or specific to user accounts? That's a very expansive question you're asking

That's true, my apologies

For the storeowner in particular, for the designer is what you have already talked a bit about.

I think storeowners need an easy way to add products. They should also have somekind of marketing tools, basic are some reports etc.

but any other superduper features?

[rallport]

TamVo, on 30 September 2011 - 08:07 PM, said:

That's true, my apologies

For the storeowner in particular, for the designer is what you have already talked a bit about.

I think storeowners need an easy way to add products. They should also have somekind of marketing tools, basic are some reports etc.

but any other superduper features?

Pretty much stanard features nowdays I'd expect to see in any ecommerce admin area:

• Products manager, ability to set custom seo urls
• Category manager (unlimited category nesting)
• manage static pages
• manage feeds E.g. google products, pinging sitemap
• email marketing - would expect at least a kind of email marketing manager whereby I can export emails based upon certain criteria E.g. ordered in the last week, order from category xxx, customers who haven't ordered for xx time etc. I'd expect a csv or similar to available to download
• reportings - sales breakdown, customer purchase report, aggregate order reports between two dates, stock report, popular products etc.

I'd be careful of making it too compliacted though, as you wouldn't want to end up with something like Magneto imo - ithe size and complexity of it's admin area is it's greatest downfall imo.

[TamVo]

rallport, on 01 October 2011 - 07:06 PM, said:

Pretty much stanard features nowdays I'd expect to see in any ecommerce admin area:

• Products manager, ability to set custom seo urls
• Category manager (unlimited category nesting)
• manage static pages
• manage feeds E.g. google products, pinging sitemap
• email marketing - would expect at least a kind of email marketing manager whereby I can export emails based upon certain criteria E.g. ordered in the last week, order from category xxx, customers who haven't ordered for xx time etc. I'd expect a csv or similar to available to download
• reportings - sales breakdown, customer purchase report, aggregate order reports between two dates, stock report, popular products etc.

I'd be careful of making it too compliacted though, as you wouldn't want to end up with something like Magneto imo - ithe size and complexity of it's admin area is it's greatest downfall imo.

right, simplicity is the goal. For certain shopowners basic marketing is enough. Not all of them know or use the complicated marketing ideas or strategies.