What is eCommerce software?
eCommerce software refers to software systems and tools that enable eCommerce store owners and operators to carry out all their online store processes. It allows them to manage inventory, add or remove products, process payments, compute taxes, and fulfill orders, among other things. It providers eCommerce store owners and operators with everything that they need to run a retail site, thus essentially simplifying and streamlining online store management.
An eCommerce software system can help streamline the various intricate components and processes that keep an online store running. They do this via an easy-to-use interface that even people without a lot of technical experience can operate.
These software are also capable of integrating with other platforms and services like CRMs, CMS, ERPs, payment gateways, email marketing tools, accounting software, fulfillment services, and social media networks.
The main aim of eCommerce software is to simplify the customer experience. It should be possible for customers to find products, add them to their basket, and check out in the most simple and efficient way possible.
%20(1).jpg)
What are the major types of e-commerce software?
There are three types of eCommerce software
- Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
- Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
- On-Premise platforms
The software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model as well as the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model provide you wtih eCommerce solutions via the internet. In software-as-a-service, the vendor provides you with software solutions over the cloud computing infrastructure, and in platform-as-a-service you’re essentially getting all the development tools, infrastructure, and operating systems that you need to build an application via the cloud. Updates, patches, and new features are all dealt with automatically or with one-click integrations in SaaS and PaaS. SaaS and PaaS eCommerce software has improved dramatically to offer you wide customization and flexibility that was previously available only under the on-premise model. These solutions come in affordable packages and can be launched rather quickly.
On-premise eCommerce software and platforms are hosted locally on the retailer’s servers and are usually handled by the eCommerce store’s IT department. There are professionals on the site that have the necessary skills to deal with any problems or issues that arise, install updates manually, or add new features to the system. On-premise solutions are a great option for eCommerce companies that have their own IT team because this model allows the eCommerce company to have more control over its online store. In fact, most eCommerce stores used to opt for on-premise software back in the day because it enabled them to have a greater degree of hands-on management than the SaaS and PaaS models offered over the cloud.
What can eCommerce software do for you?
.jpg)
eCommerce software can take care of most of your core functions for running your online store. But it can even be integrated with other third-party apps and services to enable you to handle certain other functions from one interface, just like Shopify can integrate with Engati, allowing you to automate your eCommerce customer service in the easiest way possible.
Here are some of the things that your eCommerce software can do for your store:
Handle customers and orders
eCommerce software helps your customers manage their orders, check their order status, and make any changes that they need. In fact, Engati’s Shopify chatbots can even sen your customers updates about their order status via WhatsApp messages so that your customers never have to wonder where their orders are.
eCommerce software can even take care of payment processing, keep track of transaction records, manage customer information, create bills and invoices, help your with your accounting, share analytics and reports, and do much more.
Manage products and inventory
Your eCommerce solution can pull product specifics from SKUs and variations (size, color, quantity) to names and images, thus helping you organize and catalog your products. It can help you with inventory management and even notify you when you’re running low on inventory so that you can order some more. This is particularly useful when you have fast-moving goods that need to be replenished.
Help you simplify your marketing activities
Most eCommerce software products have built-in SEO tools to aid online stores in ranking higher in organic searches, helping them drive more store traffic from the search engine result pages. This helps store owners increase their store’s online presence and discovery and even reduce their customer acquisition costs substantially.
Streamline shipping and taxation
These software solutions can print shipping labels, calculate sales taxes based on customer location, and send notification emails to customers in an automated and accurate manner, saving you a lot of time and energy, allowing you to focus your efforts on growth rather than having to spend a lot of time on these activities.
Improve your customer experience substantially
eCommerce software makes it possible for your customers to find the products that they are looking for in your store in the quickest and most efficient way possible. SaaS and PaaS solutions delivered over the cloud tend to offer service-level agreements (SLAs) that could guarantee upto 100% uptime as well as simple and powerful website management, enabling you to offer your customers to best online shopping experience possible.
Answer product queries
53% of customers abandon their online purchases because they couldn’t find answers to the questions they have about the product that they have about the products they are interested in. Using eCommerce solutions like chatbots, you can answer all these questions in real-time, without leaving your customers waiting or searching for answers.
Increase your conversions
In addition to helping you close more sales by answering product questions, your eCommerce software have many other ways of helping you increase your sales. Let’s stick with the example of chatbots. You can set up a Shopify chatbot from Engati to trigger promotional offers with discount codes when a visitor lands on a product page, spends a certain amount of time on it, scrolls through it, adds a product to their carts or even removes it from their carts.
