E-commerce Features to Consider
E-commerce software comes in all shapes and sizes – here are some features and functionalities to consider when evaluating an e-commerce solution.
General Features
- Site search
- Tell a friend
- Open source code – is further customization or addition of features is possible?
- Platform: ASP, PHP, CFM, JSP ?
- Database: MS-SQL, MySQL, Oracle, Access ?
- WYSIWYG editor*
Search Engine Optimization Features
- Search engine friendly URLs
- Customizable page titles
Category Management
- Unlimited categories
- Unlimited sub-categories
- Add/edit/delete categories
Product Management
- Unlimited products
- Add/edit/delete products
- Multiple product images
- Image zoom
- Unlimited product options
Promotions and Pricing
- Discounts by product or category
- Home page featured products
- Related products (Cross-sell)
- Upsell
- Coupons
- Gift Certificates
- Wish list/Gift Registry
Inventory Management
- Inventory levels stored in system
- Inventory levels adjusted as products are ordered.
- Inventory tracking of product variations
Content Management
- Unlimited content
- Add/edit/delete hierarchal site content
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Order Management
- Print invoices
- New order screen
- Process order screen
- Search processed orders by date/name/order id
- Merchant e-mail order notification
Checkout Process
- Efficient, intuitive checkout process
- Customer order message
- Customer e-mail order notification
Shipping and Tax
- Unique shipping/billing addresses
- Configurable shipping options
- Configurable state tax calculation
Payment
- Compatible with multiple Payment Gateways
- Compatible with offline processing
Security
- SSL compatible
- Password protected administration interface
- Credit cards not stored if using online processing
User Accounts
- Users can create login password
- Users can save address info + preferences
- Users can view past orders
- Multiple pricing levels based on user group, example, wholesale users
Integration
- with UPS/FedEx/USPS
- with Ebay
- with Froogle/Google sitemaps
- with Quickbooks or other accounting software
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* WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. A WYSIWYG editor allows you to edit HTML code using a word-processor style interface, so you can format content without knowing HTML code.
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