Six tips on choosing an ecommerce provider

Choosing the right ecommerce provider and ultimately the right ecommerce platform on which to run your website can be a difficult decision. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few useful tips to help along the way.

1. Does the potential ecommerce provider have a proven track record?
There are many companies offering to build websites at very low prices and these can provide a great start when first selling online, however, as your business grows, choosing a specialised ecommerce provider will mean that you get a combination of an ecommerce solution and access to specialised expertise and experience. We regularly advise our customers on wider business issues such as margin, profitability online, new sales channels, the most efficient way to fulfil orders and how to resource internally to best support a new website.

2. People matter, can you have a good relationship with the ecommerce provider? Is this someone you want to work with?
Typically, this will be an ongoing project, so you need to satisfy yourself that you can have a mutually beneficial relationship with your chosen ecommerce provider. Openness, good communication and mutual planning all go a long way in helping to develop a good relationship.

3. Does the ecommerce solution you are considering fit your needs now and in the foreseeable future?
Your investment in an ecommerce website typically should pay back within a year and ideally that website should have a lifespan of at least three years, with some ongoing enhancements and changes. While a really great value ecommerce website might be a good deal now, if you have to replace it within 12 months it may not be the right solution. As your business develops online, the process of changing a website becomes more complex and not something you want to do too often. So think ahead, imagine where the business will be in three years’ time and factor this into your decision making.

4. Can your ecommerce provider offer you an end-to-end solution?
There are a number of components to every website; the website itself, the hosting and server on which the website has to run, ongoing support and development and marketing of the website. While it is important to watch out for the old “jack of all trades, master of none” pitfall, if you can select an ecommerce provider who can offer a full service, this has the advantage of one point of contact should there be a problem. Your supplier should be able to help you with stock control and accounting systems integration, with the option to access a multichannel pricing strategy on the lucrative marketplaces of eBay and Amazon where necessary, as well as developing the website.

5. Have you checked the small print?
Always check the small print. Be clear on who will actually own your ecommerce website. We see too many companies who have not been clear on this from the start and naturally assumed that if they paid for a website it would be theirs. Be clear on who owns the IP for the website. Commonly the ecommerce provider may provide a license to use its platform and the customer owns any design-related intellectual property. It may also be the case that the ecommerce provider is using an open source ecommerce solution or a paid-for third-party application, in which case IP is not an issue. This is an important point and affects what happens if you fall out with the ecommerce provider and how you actually move on and work with someone else while retaining your website. As a minimum, with a bespoke ecommerce solution, we would recommend the customer ensures it has a license to use, change, modify but not resell their ecommerce website, and own all design-related intellectual property. On completion of the project and at regular intervals ask for a copy of the source code.

6. Consider performance-related payment options
If you’re looking at something standard and your provider is also providing marketing services, this could be a win/win opportunity for both parties. If yours is a particularly customised ecommerce website, then this may prove more difficult as the ecommerce provider will have to invest significantly to get your site to work the way you want it to.

Rob Williams is managing director of Williams Commerce, a provider of ecommerce and IT solutions.