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Creating a custom designed e-commerce site can be expensive. In comparison, a
LetMeShop e-commerce site will run, on
the average, $1500.00 to $2500.00. So why would a small business spend
thousands, even tens of thousands more to create a custom online catalog.
Like every business decision this one is based on customer requirements,
process requirements and return on investment. Let’s look at a few reasons you
may want to go with a custom catalog rather than catalog software package like LetMeShop.
Customer Requirements: While LetMeShop
gives you most of the features that Internet shoppers want there are some cases
where most is just not enough. One of our customers, for instance, sells
equipment repair parts. Most of their customers don’t have the expertise to
specify exactly the part they need. A standard listing of parts would be too
complicated and the number of returned parts would be high. To address this we
created an e-commerce site that allowed the customer to specify the make, model
and other information necessary for the parts technicians to locate the part the
customer needed. The customer received an email with a link to the shopping cart
of the e-commerce site. When they get to the site the shopping cart is
pre-filled with the parts they need. The customer only has to click the
“Buy” button. This custom e-commerce solution provided a process that
reduced the number of phone calls during peak times and still provides the
professional service the customer expects.
Technical Requirements: Sometimes the technical requirements of your process
require a custom solution. Another customer wanted their online catalog to be
able to talk to their existing order processing program. This required us to
create a custom online product database that matched the data schema of the
existing database. We were then able to create a simple import/export process
that allowed the two pieces of software to communicate with each other.
Traffic Requirements: LetMeShop is
being used for sites that get tens of millions of hits per month on a shared
server. On a dedicated server the software could handle hundreds of millions of
hits per month. However, if you expect to receive thousands of millions of hits
per month you may have to invest in a more robust catalog solution that can run
across multiple servers.
Business Requirements: This is the one reason for a customer catalog solution
that is nearly impossible to over look. If your business processes, products or
services require an ordering process that simply will not fit in the product
sales mainstream your only choice is a custom e-commerce site. One of our
customers sells online training. The process for registering and qualifying for
the training is far beyond the standard product/service purchase options. A
custom site was the only option.
As you can see there are any number of reasons for spending the money
necessary to create a custom e-commerce web site. You can rest assured, however,
that we have experience and expertise to help you make these decisions and the
technical expertise to make them happen. We can even help you decide if the
project has a reasonable expectation of a positive return on investment.
Whether you need a standard, packaged e-commerce site or a site customized to
fit your or your customers needs exactly we are here to help. To get started on
your e-commerce solution contact us today.
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