Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/42495
Choosing the Right continued • Who will run the website? • Select a payment processor. • Plan for rapid growth just in case (it's better to be safe than sorry). Set a budget. Even if you choose a free shopping cart, there are still costs involved. Factor all your costs, including labor, add-ons, set-up fees, upgrades, support, and out- sourcing (if needed) so you will have a realistic snapshot of your actual spend. Select your desired features. • A stable and reliable platform (a must). • Ample storage space (a must). • Bulk import/export (recommended). • Ability to generate product feeds (recommended). • Real-time shipping with UPS, FedEx and USPS (recommended). • SEO-friendly links (recommended). • Customer order tracking (recommended). • Ability to cross-sell (optional). • Discount/coupon capability (optional). • Track inventory (optional). • Chat feature (optional). • Mobile platform (optional). Test platforms—Choose a shopping cart. • Many websites offer free trials, take advantage of them! • Contact customer service to see how responsive the support is. • Test the ecommerce platform from the customer side. • Test the ecommerce platform from the administrative end. • Test, test, test. Comparing Shopping Carts In analyzing prospective choices, you'll find that not all shopping carts are created equal. Free isn't always bad. Expensive isn't always good. The hun- dreds of available features can be dizzy- ing. Some features may be important to you while some may not. I compiled a list of several popular Thinking About Switching Platforms? continued on page 35 The first few years of our online existence went smoothly but as MissionRS.com continued to grow, our website grew increasingly slow- er. While pleased with the robust ecommerce platform, the speed became unsatisfactory. It was time to begin our search for a faster platform. In the meantime, something needed to be done right away. We knew our server was not the greatest, so as a tempo- rary fix we decided to switch to a host that offered top- of-the-line servers. Thus began our grueling four-month search. We looked at everything from $200 per month to $600,000 per year platforms. The low-end platforms were not very robust and fell short on features. The high- end platforms did not make sense financially. Four months into the process, we paused and took note: Our website speed issues had disappeared! It turned out our problems were not with our platform, it was the server of our previous host. Lesson learned. We almost made a costly mistake by switching platforms when it was not necessary. If you have exhausted all other measures and are certain you are in need of a platform change, below are a few ques- tions you may forget to ask while examining your prospective platform provider. If you are at the point of switching platforms, I'm assuming you understand some of the advanced terminology, so in turn, some of the questions are a bit advanced. 12 Questions the Seasoned Pro May Forget to Ask Before Switching Platforms 1. Can you transfer my store for me? 2. The new platform has the features my current shopping cart does not, but does it have all of the features I currently have? 3. Are there any limitations to customizing the look and feel of the cart? If so, what are they? 4. Is the platform PCI/PA-DSS compliant? 5. What is the monthly data transfer limit? How much for overages? 6. Will the shopping cart be hosted on a shared, semi-dedicated, or dedicated server? 7. Will there be any "provider branding" on my website? If so, how much to remove it? 8. Are add-on's, modules, API's, or plug-ins available to continue growing my store? If so, where can I find a list of them and how much do they run on average? 9. All websites are built on different technology. Is there a list of "tokens" or "call tags" your platform uses that will be available to me? 10. Will I have FTP access to my website? 11. Will I have root access to my website? 12. Can I upgrade if I outgrow my current plan? Investigating these thoroughly can save you a lot of time and a lot of money. 32 FEDA News & Views