Selling software is always difficult, especially when the product area is complex, there is knowledge gap between seller and buyer and expectations are not aligned and finally the software product needs to map to real life business processes. Not meeting those challenges creates at times un-healthy relationships and times between the two parties. eCommerce software solutions present just those challenges.
We sell eCommerce solutions. Have for many years, all sorts of sizes and solutions. eCommerce sites from the owners point of view are the potential cash cow Done right and it will generate sizable revenue and income. Wrong and it will fail. But unfortunately the difference between right and wrong is difficult to map out. There are no right solutions for eCommerce software. Only ones that come close. These differences are exploded when the buyer is into their first eCommerce site and the budget is tight.
Let's look at some of the issues that come between buyer and seller
Buyer has no experience with eCommerce software and their thousands of variations that go into a eCommerce solution.
Buyer has little experience with operating an on-line store. If the buyer is from the retail world, they certainly know how to run a physical store, but many of the experiences do not translate into the on-line world of selling.
The seller knows the software is complex so tries to reduce the complexity by glossing over areas to reduce buyer confusion. Unfortunately, many times this results in expectation gaps.
The buyer tries to map or project their current physical processes onto the on-line world. This can cause differences or gaps that appear in the eCommerce solution that require customizations. Perhaps using the out-of-the-box eCommerce solution would be best first, then customize when the buyer is more familiar with the workings of the software.
The buyer wants to be told that their business fits perfectly into this eCommerce solution. The seller generally does not have the time to spend hours reviewing buyer needs at no cost to the seller. In smaller cost solutions, buyers push must of the effort to match requirements to solution to the seller. In larger organizations, this is reversed, with the buyer spending a great amount of time making sure the solution matches their needs.
Budgets. Always there, many times an issue.
For the seller of eCommerce software, there are always trade-offs. In larger costing solutions, the seller in some situations spend the extra time to make sure the buyer's expectations are level and requirements are met. This can be done due to the larger profit margin on higher costing software solutions. However is less costly solutions this becomes much more difficult.
Recommendations for buying eCommerce software for smaller on-line stores
We will lay out some recommendations for both the buyer and seller. Achieving some or all of these will reduce the perception gap and go a long way to eliminate post purchase remorse and issues.
For the buyer
Clearly provide a budget upfront to the selling. Most buyers hold back for fear of being exploited, but when the seller goes through lots of work on the sale only to find out that the buyer's budget is nowhere near sufficient this ends any effort by the seller to continue. Provide a range if you must, but make sure your budget generally fits the range of software that you are pursuing. Just like in home buying, you don't look at the 20 room mansions when your budget can only handle an 6 room house.
Understand that an on-selling experience may need to be changed from the physical world. Adjust your thinking rather than to try to make the software system meet every requirement of your existing physical retailing.
Put some effort into thinking about what you want for must-have requirements and get the seller to review those. Don't provide a large list of requirements, since many times those are standard in the software and can (from the buyer's effort ) be easily met.
Spend time reviewing the software literature and demos if they are available. Many times you can evaluate the software after spending an hours or so looking at the demo.
Understand that each time you request a feature or function that is not in the software, it will be a customization and many times be expensive.
For the seller
Try to educate the buyer in way that increases their knowledge about the solution. Use prepared documents, web casts, demos and other techniques that do not take one on one time with the buyer.
Provide a list of tasks that your company will do on a standard basis. This wills start to eliminate the perception gaps.
Prepare and provide to the customer a document that describes the most common elements of the eCommerce solution that will be a cause of differences. For a typical eCommerce solutions this would include such items as payment, shipping, tax, product construction techniques. Laying these concepts out clearly for the buyer to review will help.
Provide clear quotes in lay mans terms, with included and excluded items clearly marked.
If the buyer and seller jointly perform some or all of these recommendations, the total experience from both sides will be better.
Author Resource:-
submit article has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Ecommerce
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