A little bit about E-Commerce software

An online store consists of many complex components and processes that e-commerce software simplifies with an easy-to-use interface that even non-technical people can work with. What makes it even easier is the ability to integrate the system with other platforms and services such as CRM, CMS, ERP, payment gateways, e-marketing tools, accounting software, delivery services and social networks.

Let's look at many aspects of it for e-commerce, from what it does and how it works, to key features and examples of market-leading tools. This will make it easier for you to understand how you can use it for your business.

The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be a powerful catalyst for accelerating digital transformation - 59% faster, according to IBM estimates. The main beneficiaries are the e-commerce industry and the underlying financial technology industry that supports and promotes it.

Quotes differ, but estimates of e-commerce growth for 2020 range from 16.1% (Statista) to 19% (Oberlo) and 27.6% (eMarketer). In the U.S., Digital Commerce 360 estimates that e-commerce will grow at an annualized rate of 44% in 2020. Whatever numbers you prefer, it's clear that e-commerce has been virtually unaffected by the pandemic. In fact, the exact opposite has happened: the pandemic has increased confidence in e-commerce going forward.

A little bit of Statistics:

• In 2020, there were about 2 billion digital shoppers worldwide;
• 93.5% of Internet users worldwide bought goods online;
• There are about 24 million e-commerce sites worldwide. Together, they will generate $4.2 trillion in revenue in 2020.
• In 2022, the global e-commerce penetration rate will be 55.8% and is expected to reach 63.1% by 2025. For the U.S., the figure is only 21.3%, which means there is still plenty of room for newcomers offering interesting products or services.

Protected from pandemic, with tremendous growth rates and more than enough room for new players, e-commerce is where all the action in the industry will be for a long time to come.

Types of eCommerce Software

There are two general classifications of e-commerce software depending on how it is deployed:

1. On-premises. Installed on a local server or computer and managed locally by a team performing manual updates, troubleshooting and general troubleshooting. In the early days of online shopping, on-premises solutions were chosen because they offered easier manual management compared to hosted solutions.
2. Software as a Service. SaaS is a practical option because all recently released updates, patches and features are performed automatically or with one-click integration. E-commerce hosting software has undergone significant changes to provide extensive customization and flexibility that were previously only available locally, making it a sufficient solution for most online stores. In addition, the SaaS software can be quickly launched and is available in affordable packages.

E-commerce software tasks

E-commerce software itself can perform most of the important tasks associated with running your store, but it often integrates with other applications and services to help you perform some other activities right from within the system. The rich features and capabilities combined with powerful integration make e-commerce software a versatile, integrated platform that can perform the following functions.

1. Manage customers and orders. Managing a customer's order from product selection to payment, checkout and delivery is vital. Every order is a sales transaction that will affect your profits. Therefore, it must be done in a quality and customer-friendly manner. E-commerce software takes care of order management, checking order status and making quick changes if necessary. On its own or with some other third-party application or service, it can process payments, maintain transaction records, manage customer information, create invoices and invoices, keep accurate records, provide analytics and reporting, among other things.
2. Manage products and inventory. You get product information from articles and variations (size, color, quantity) to names and images, allowing you to organize and catalog products. You'll also be alerted and informed when inventory is running low and which specific items are scarce and need to be restocked.
3. Simplify marketing. Integrated SEO allows online stores to rank higher on conventional search engines, increasing search queries and online presence, and reducing customer acquisition costs.
4. Automates shipping and taxation. Printing shipping labels, calculating sales tax based on customer location and sending email notifications to customers can all be done automatically and more accurately.
5. Improve customer service. E-commerce software is designed to help customers quickly and efficiently find what they need in your store. Hosted solutions offer service level agreements that guarantee 100% uptime and easy and secure website management to give your customers the best online shopping experience.

Working with ecommerce software

Selling online through your website involves a number of steps and processes that e-commerce software takes care of. What is e-commerce but a system for optimizing these steps. How does e-commerce software work? It usually goes like this:

1. The customer visits your website, which displays products and categories downloaded/stored in the website's database.
2. The customer uses the shopping cart to add items and creates an account with all the information stored in the database.
3. Typically, when the customer is in the checkout phase, the Website switches to secure mode, displays a padlock icon, and uses an SSL certificate.
4. During the checkout process, the Website may use third-party software or services to provide the Customer with delivery options, delivery charges, and an estimated delivery date.
5. When the customer enters a credit card number, the information is sent to a payment processor or payment gateway, such as PayPal.
6. The customer's order is completed, and all sensitive information is stored in the payment system (not on the e-commerce site).
7. You can make the payment to your merchant account (a service usually provided by the payment gateway) or transfer it to your bank account.

The steps described above, from ordering to payment processing, can take just minutes, providing you and your customers with maximum efficiency and convenience. E-commerce software does all of the above smoothly and seamlessly, so you need a full-featured e-commerce platform to keep your online store or website running as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Note that there are several other components that must come into play for your e-commerce site to be successful:

1. Web hosting service. These companies and service providers offer web servers to host your website and all related elements and applications. This is a vital component because having a good online store that is always open, accessible, loads quickly and can handle a lot of traffic depends on reliable and dependable web hosting.
2. Catalog. A product catalog is what your customers browse and learn about the products you sell. Like a print catalog, your online catalog consists of the products, pages, and information you provide to your customers. They should be designed to attract, delight and entice your customers, as well as reflect the theme of your brand, company or store.
3. Trading Enterprise. This is what your customers use to place their orders, where they can add the products they want to buy, specify shipping and payment options, and submit the order. The shopping cart component can mean the difference between a completed or abandoned sale. So it needs to work optimally and smoothly.
4. shopping cart. This is the tool you use to manage your online store, as well as to configure and use any other tools and applications you may need. The interface should be reliable, flexible, customizable, and at the same time easy to use.
5. payment process. The backbone of an online store is payment acceptance. Simply put, without this component, customers cannot place their orders. There are several online payment services, payment gateways and merchant account providers that integrate with e-commerce platforms to provide secure, reliable, accurate and efficient payment processing.
6. Fulfillment and delivery. There are many fulfillment services, third-party logistics and delivery services that provide next-day, second-day and ground delivery services that you can offer your customers, giving them many options that they can use for fast and quick delivery. These services take the hard work out of your hands, so you can focus on sales.

eCommerce software ties all of the above components and services to give you one integrated solution to manage and run your online store from end-to-end.

Advantages of eCommerce Software

E-commerce software has many benefits for your business:

1. Get your online business up and running quickly. Most e-commerce software comes with easy-to-use online store builders with ready-made templates and a number of themes to help you create your store quickly. Here it's a matter of minutes, not hours, if you're familiar with the drag-and-drop feature where you simply place products in your store, add product images, enter descriptions and prices, set up your cart, and you're very good at go .
2. Your store is always open. One of the biggest business benefits of using e-commerce software is that it keeps your online store running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your business hours are not limited to your physical location or your staff's work hours. Since everything is automated, you don't have to constantly monitor your online store through your control panel.
3. You can sell to anyone, anywhere. For the above, allowing you to sell at any time, you can sell to anyone from anywhere in the world. You have a global market for your products, not limited by time, geography or borders. You use your internet connection to sell to anyone, no matter where they are.
4. Save time, money and resources. When you calculate your costs, you'll find that running an online store costs you less than running a regular store, where you need to rent expensive space in a great location, hire salespeople, and pay utilities. among others. Pay monthly for an affordable e-commerce platform that will take care of your online store, reduce costs and maximize profits.
5. You can sell so many products. Unlike a traditional retail store, which has limited space to store all of its products, an online store does not have the physical space to limit the number of products you can carry, display and sell. As more and more people shop online, it allows you to sell more by offering products organized as catalog web pages that customers can easily find and browse. It also leads to shorter sales cycles, providing maximum profit with minimum investment.
6. Convenient online payment and delivery. E-commerce software and shopping cart platforms are equipped to handle online payments, either as a built-in feature or as an integrated payment gateway service that provides secure and reliable online transactions. The software can also be easily connected to 3PLs or service providers who can offer your customers preferred shipping and delivery options.
7. Built-in marketing tools. Many e-commerce software programs come with powerful marketing tools and SEO features that help your store rank higher in search results and attract potential customers. There are also built-in analytics and statistics tools that can provide you with real-time information to help you develop targeted marketing campaigns, special offers and deals, and improve or promote your product line.
8. You can provide a quality online customer experience. E-commerce software gives you the tools to give your customers the best online shopping experience - from simple product selection, ordering and checkout to convenient online payment, shipping and delivery, all automated to make it as easy as possible. shopping in your store and getting the best service they can count on.

We could go on to a few other benefits or advantages, but the above is enough to reinforce your understanding and appreciation of the many positive and competitive advantages that e-commerce software can bring to your online business.

Key Features of eCommerce Software

To achieve your goal, e-commerce software is developed with a wide range of features and functions that simplify and support many aspects related to online sales. Here are the common features of e-commerce software:

1. Automation. The checkout process, including accurate pricing, taxes, shipping and handling costs, is automated to give shoppers an instant idea of how much they will pay for the items they choose to purchase.
2. Website Builder. If you don't have an existing Web site, e-commerce software can help you create one from scratch. It provides design templates to quickly create a professional-looking website and showcase based on your preferences without having to hire commercial designers.
3. Central database. You get a centralized place to easily store, access and retrieve product information, customer data, accounting transactions, product lists, browsing history, and payment and delivery status.
4. Search functionality. Enhanced search features make it easy for shoppers to find the products or items they're looking for. E-commerce platforms are able to list, categorize and update new products along with descriptions, images and feature lists.
5. Integration. Most e-commerce solutions can be integrated with various business applications as well as third-party platforms and services, allowing multiple tasks (accounting, e-marketing, order fulfillment and payment processing) to be performed within a single system.
6. marketing tools. You can use your e-commerce software to improve your website marketing, advertising and branding. You can use various tools to develop targeted campaigns, SEO optimization strategies and improve branding/image.
7. Analytics and Reporting. E-commerce software can help you analyze and identify trends and patterns affecting customer buying habits by providing you with information and statistics on customer demographics, keywords and visit flows. You'll learn what works and what doesn't and develop strategies to increase sales.

If you are a seller or an online retailer, e-commerce software should be your priority. As you learned in this article, it gives you a lot of benefits and advantages by simplifying and automating all the important processes involved in your online business. What is e-commerce software? It is a system that saves you time, money and effort. It enables you to provide superior customer service and provides you with analytical and marketing tools. This tool handles virtually every aspect of your online store, allowing you to focus on sales. Yes, get the e-commerce software that meets your needs and see how it changes your business.