Ryan Szrama, lead developer of Drupal Commerce and VP of Commerce Guys, talks about choosing the right platform for your ecommerce website. He helps answer the following questions:
- What are your hard business requirements?
- What are your softer business requirements?
- Can Drupal Commerce meet all of your criteria?
What are the hard business requirements that you should take into account when weighing your options?
- Can you actually make money doing ecommerce in your industry? This is the hardest business requirement, and one that is non-negotiable.
- Can the platform handle the products and services you need to sell? There are platforms just for events, or just for accepting donations, for example.
- What is your required time to market? How long will it take customize and launch?
Other criteria when deciding on a platform?
- Budget
- Customization - and what is your ability to do it in-house?
- Ease of use for administrators
- How much creative control do you need?
You also do not want the platform to drive your business model. Example: ebay almost forces you to compete on price.
Hosted platforms are a great way to get started on a small budget, but be aware of the disadvantages, like transaction fees.
Your user experience matters. It's how you make a first impression, and how you establish relationships. Don't skimp on designs. And choose a platform that can easily be changed to match those designs.
Drupal is a flexible choice, because of its modular architecture and interoperability of modules. For instance, there is a module for Facebook connect that you can just install, use that data to subscribe them to an email list, and generate a coupon at the same time. This would take a lot of effort on other ecommerce platforms.
EcommerceCon 2013 will happen on September 5th. Buy your registration today.
