Overview of Ecommerce Solutions. Topics include requirements, general solution approaches, deciding on a direction, an cost expectations. Platforms discussed include WordPress, Magento, Drupal Commerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, others.

1. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Overview of Ecommerce Solutions
By Eric Landmann
Project Manager / Lead Ecommerce Developer
Earthling Interactive Madison, WI USA

2. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
About Earthling
Total Staff: 30+
Avg Experience: 7.5 years
# Staff > 8 years Experience: 10+
# Staff > 5 years with Earthling: 8
Well-Rounded
Developers/Computer Scientists, DBAs,
UI Designers, Business Analysts, Statistics
Current Clients
From Small to Enterprise, local to international
Have built > 35 ecommerce sites

3. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Outline
GENERAL APPROACHES
Software as a Service
(SaaS, or Hosted Solution)
Build It Yourself – or with a developer
(Self-Hosted)
A FEW EXAMPLES
REQUIREMENTS
Storefronts, Design
Catalog (Products and Categories)
Customers and Orders
Shipping, Checkout
Hosting, Business Considerations
DECIDING ON A DIRECTION
Platform Trends
Comparison of Platforms to Solutions
Find the Soultion
COST EXPECTATIONS
What does all this cost?

4. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

5. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

6. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

7. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

8. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

9. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

10. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

11. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

12. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

13. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

14. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

15. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

16. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

17. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

18. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

19. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

20. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

21. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Let’s talk about requirements….
What do you want your site to do?

22. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Storefront
Do you want more than one storefront (multiple stores or
websites or different URLs)?
Design
Do you want a custom design?
What sort of design features do you want?
–Social media integration, video, product information
–Upsells, crosssells, shipping or CRM integration
Do you want the design to be different for any storefront/
category/product?
Are there any areas of the site that should be protected from
the typical shopper?
Requirements

23. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Catalog (Products and Categories)
Approximately how many products?
Approximately how many categories?
What sort of product options are needed?
size / color / packaging / pickup
Do you need gift certificates?
Do you have any virtual products (software, coupons, gift certs)?
Do you want to track inventory?
Are there pricing breaks (tier pricing)?
Do you want related products or upsell products?
How would you like to sort categories?
List / grid
Filter by category / attribute / options
Show product options as images (i.e. colors)?
Requirements

24. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Customers and Orders
What is your customer profile, who do you sell to?
Is there more than one customer group?
Do different customer groups have special pricing?
Do you need wholesale pricing different from retail?
Is there an ERP or accounting system that needs to be fed order
and customer data?
Do you need any discounts or promotions (free shipping, $20
discount, etc.)?
Are there any special customer order identifiers that needs to
be used (e.g. customer number)?
Requirements

25. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Shipping
Which shipping methods do you use (common carrier, USPS,
FedEx, UPS, table rates)?
Do you dropship from warehouses?
Are there any products that don't fit normal shipping rates?
Are there any special shipping requirements (such as handling
fees, no delivery to certain areas)?
Do you have stores or locations that need to be listed and
found?
Requirements

26. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Checkout
Do you want one-page checkout?
Do you want checkout discounts (e.g. "buy 1 get 1" or "x% off
order")?
Do you have a credit card gateway (e.g. AuthorizeNet or
PayPal) and merchant account?
Do you want special messaging on the checkout page?
Requirements

27. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Hosting
Do you have an existing site that is being replaced?
Do you have a preferred hosting provider?
Do you have a Google Analytics account?
Who is the domain registrar?
Requirements

28. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Business Considerations
If you have an existing website, and are you willing to switch
platforms if necessary?
What is your timeframe?
What is your budget?
What resources can you commit?
How many transactions do you expect (really...)?
Do you need to connect to an accounting or ERP system
(Quickbooks, Great Plains, Salesforce)?
Requirements

29. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
General Approaches
Software as a Service (SaaS, or Hosted Solution)
Signing up with an “all-in-one” solution
Build It Yourself (Self-Hosted)
Using a designer and/or developer to
work with an
open-source platform

30. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Characteristics
• Platform name recognition
• Signup and get going
• Nothing to install or download
• More-or-less predictable pricing
• Support is usually online forums, ticketing or chat
Examples
Demandware
Yahoo Store
Volusion
Miva Merchant
BigCommerce
Shopify
Software as a Service

31. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Advantages
• More-or-less predictable pricing
• Get going quickly
• Less long-term commitment
• Generally cheaper in the short-run
• Can accommodate big spikes in traffic (scalable)
Disadvantages
• Limited design possibilities
• Long-term usually prohibitively expensive
• Black box code (can't change it)
• Can be hard to determine exactly how features work
• If your requirements don't fit, you're out of luck
• Little/no developer-level access, or must work with “certified” devs
• Support can be a challenge
• You don’t own
• Might be difficult to connect to your gateway/merchant account
Software as a Service

32. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Characteristics
• Ranges from all-DIY to project to one with substantial developer
involvement
• Typically done with an open-source platform
• Generally it's wide open for features
• Moderate startup cost
• Platform and developer choice are critical for success
• Personal relationship with a real person (meet face-to-face)
Examples
WooCommerce
Magento
opencart
Prestashop
Drupal Commerce
osCommerce
Build it Yourself

33. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Advantages
• Several excellent open-source frameworks
• Very rich and well-evolved feature set
• Code is free (free as in a puppy) or very inexpensive
• Large mindshare among developers
• Generally good documentation
• Design flexibility
• Extensible – Get exactly the features you want
• Depending upon requirements, can be very cost-effective
• You own it
Disadvantages
• Learning curve can be steep
• More decisions to be made, requirements are key
• It's the Wild West
• Cost can be unpredictable or vary hugely
• There is some degree of ongoing expense (can be a benefit)
Build it Yourself

34. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Tip #1
Look at the requirements!
(you did those, right?)
If you don’t pay attention to them, a bad experience is guaranteed
Deciding on a Direction

35. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI

36. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Platform Comparison – SaaS
Platform
Initial
Codebase
Hosting
Admin
Experience
Level
Bandwidth
Limits
Demandware Quoted Quoted High Quoted
Yahoo Store 0 $69/mo Low No
Volusion 0 $85/mo Medium Yes
Miva Merchant 0 $79/mo Medium No
BigCommerce Low $80/mo Medium No
Shopify 0 $79/mo Medium No

37. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Platform Comparison – Self-Hosted
Platform Initial
Codebase
Cost
Initial
Development
Cost
Hosting Type
Hosting
Cost
Admin
Experience
Level
WooCommerce ~$200 Low Shared $15–30 Low
Magento 0 Med-High Virtual Server
$90–
$250
High
opencart 0 Low Shared $15–30 Medium
Prestashop 0 Low Shared $15–30 Medium
Drupal
Commerce 0 Med-High Virtual Server $30–90 High
osCommerce 0 Low Shared $15–30 Medium

38. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
A Word about Open-Source Solutions
WordPress
Magento
Drupal

39. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Finding the Solution
Get out the requirements…
Pay attention to these:
1. Feature set – does it do what you want? If not, what will it cost to
develop or add that feature?
2. Design – Do you need a custom design, can you use a stock
template with modification?
3. Codebase – Is it open-source, or proprietary?
4. Total project cost – Get a quote on development
Ignore these:
1. Free setup fees. Has very little relevance if your site doesn’t have
the correct feature set
2. Hosting cost. It is trivial in the long-run and if self-hosted, can be
controlled.

40. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Cost Expectations

41. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
References
BuiltWith
http://builtwith.com/ecommerce/
http://trends.builtwith.com/shop
WooCommerce
http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/
Magento
http://www.magentocommerce.com/
Demandware
https://www.demandware.com/
Yahoo Store
https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/compare-plans
Volusion
http://www.volusion.com/hosting-plans-pricing
Miva Merchant
http://www.miva.com/ecommerce-hosting
BigCommerce
https://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/
Shopify
http://www.shopify.com/pricing
Earthling Interactive
http://www.earthlinginteractive.com

42. ©2015 Eric Landmann, Earthling Interactive, Madison, WI
Questions?
Eric Landmann
landmann@earthlinginteractive.com
Twitter: iteratews LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elandmann