Were your competitor pressed to explain why its ecommerce software needs a platform upgrade, the answer will likely sound familiar to you. That’s because it’s your answer, too, and the likely answer for 8 out of 10 merchants: insufficient innovation or flexibility.
The desire for constant improvement runs strong among ecommerce merchants. How could it not when you can examine other web stores’ features and immediately see what yours is missing? So the matter becomes one of wise ecommerce software management. Can you choose a platform that’s flexible enough to meet your feature ambitions, and that innovates at a sufficient pace?
Probably not, which is why the churn rate for ecommerce software runs about every 3 years says Ernie Schell, who helps multi-channel merchants select new systems. I’m talking with Ernie because he’s going to help Indi the entrepreneur answer this very question. It’s part of building out the Frankly eCommerce course, an online learning program for merchants facing decisions that are similar to Indi’s.
Jaivi, Indi’s cosmetics business, aspires to a greater level of integration between its website and fulfillment operations. The wishlist of website merchandising features grows unabated. There’s no lack for imagined interactions between website visitors using the shopping cart and follow-up offers by email. And on it goes. Sound familiar?
Schell is helping Indi to understand that the challenge will be evaluating which software provider will be her best business partner going forward. It’s not so much a matter of comparing feature lists as it is understanding the landscape of service providers. The lesson is to be found in learning to classify providers and compare them against your needs and expectations.
“By giving people the clasification tools, it’s then within their power to look at any ecom platform regardless of where they come across it, and decide whether it’s a match,” said Ernie.
It goes back to the problem with innovation or flexibility I mentioned at the beginning. Ernie writes about survey results concerning the challenge of managing ecommerce platforms, reporting 48% of merchants in the process of replacing their systems are doing so for lack of innovation / flexibility. But if you look at the other reasons in the survey, most are another way of phrasing the same problem, including:
- outgrown the technology, 24%
- vendor too slow to upgrade, 10%
Sounds like lack of innovation / flexibility to me. So 48% + 24% + 10% = 82% or 8 out 10 in my book. And if it’s an innovation problem, that reflects an underlying problem with the service provider. For merchants like Indi, the lesson goes back to choosing wisely among service providers, accurately examining them as a business partner across the criteria that matter.
As a former ecommerce service provider myself, creating this lesson will be fun…