In the early days of the net, "platform" was often a synonym for "operating system". In some ways that is still true today despite a GOOD e-commerce business platform does a lot more than an operating system.
When looking for an e-commerce business platform, you should choose one that integrates many of your day to day business functions.
You want to centralize and automate as many of these functions as possible.
A good e-commerce business platform should include at least the following:
• A way to set up and sell your products and / or services from one central site. You should have the option of selling from the actual URL of the platform or from different URLs. You should also be able to sell unlimited products and services through the platform.
• Include a shopping cart so you can offer multiple products from one site.
• Allow you to set up memberships.
• Allow several payment options. This is very important in e-commerce as people in different parts of the world may be unable to use certain payment processors such as Paypal, the most common payment processor.
• Have the ability to set up UNLIMITED affiliate programs with different commission structures. Choosing an e-commerce business platform that offers 1 or MULTIPLE and / or UNLIMITED tiers gives you flexibility
• An easy way to pay agreements to your affiliates.
• A way to track your sales, customers and affiliates.
In addition, you may want these features in the e-commerce business platform you choose:
• A way to contact customers individually, by the product or service they have purchased, by the amount of money they have sent, etc.
• The ability to enroll every customer as an affiliate.
• Allow 100% instant pay payments.
• The ability to set up coupons in order to offer a discount on all products you sell or for a specific product. You should also be able to set the number of coupons to be distributed, to what the coupon will be sent, the number of times a coupon can be used by each customer and when the coupon will expire.
• Allow you to set up one or more OTOs (One Time Offer).
• The ability to offer upsells.
• If you sell physical products, you will want the ability to set up different shipping methods and prices. The price of shipping should automatically be added to the cost of the product on checkout.
These are just a few of the things you should look for when choosing an e-commerce business platform for your internet business.
