What is E-Commerce Software?
E-Commerce software will basically build a website for E-Commerce or an Online store for E-Commerce platform. E-Commerce software has enabled even a common man to build an online store. There are two types of E-Commerce Software: Hosted E-Commerce software and the other is Self Hosted E-Commerce software. The Hosted software is considered more user friendly while Self Hosted software is more advanced.
Three Important Features of E-Commerce Software
1. Availability of E-Commerce Site Templates in Abundance
More options for the site templates provide good scope for customizations. The templates should feature responsiveness, integration with social media and blogs.
2. Online Store Builder Should be Easy to Understand
Good E-Commerce software should have drag and drop feature. This makes online store builder simpler to use. If online store builder is easy to understand businesses would be able to focus on their core activities.
3. Presence of App Store
App store can provide more advanced features along with already present built-in features to the user like it provides in case of an iPhone user.
Self Hosted E-Commerce Software
To understand this type of E-Commerce software you can draw an analogy with purchasing of a hosting package and installing of wordpress on it. On similar lines instead of hosting a blog we simply host a E-Commerce platform in case of Self Hosted E-Commerce software. Self-hosted software can be very technical for people who are well versed with technical things. First you need to sign-up with hosting service providers and then you install E-Commerce platform or software along with a design template. The main advantage of having Self-hosted E-Commerce software is that it allows for more customizations.
The only drawback with Self Hosted E-Commerce software is that user is required to be tech-savvy to install, setup and configure it to work properly.
Hosted E-Commerce Software
Hosted E-Commerce software comes with a package including hosting and E-Commerce platform. In majority of the cases you are required to pay a monthly charge for the services. Here you don’t need to worry about technical glitches of hosting and security. Thus you can focus more on your business. All shopping cart tools like product management and payment processing come pre-installed. You will be able to make your online store using simple drag and drop features requiring zero coding skills.
The main drawback with Hosted E-Commerce software is you customize your E-commerce platform. Hosted E-Commerce is generally costlier than Self-hosted E-Commerce software. You can use only pre-decided themes and plug-ins.