We get to deal with many leads. However, not all the leads become clients. Part of that non-converting crowd are people who choose hosted shopping cart software. The reasons why we like those people are numerous, but I am going to list just one of them.Reason 1: Even if they didn’t accept our services, they can still spread the word. People have very different needs. One person could be happy with hosted shopping cart; another would need a full-featured web store front. So even if we suggest some third-party off-the shelf e-commerce solution – we still on good terms with our lead.
Reason 2: Even with the third-party solution customer may need unique design. This one is too obvious to complain about, so I won’t. No matter how sophisticated the solution is – people will have natural urge to tweak it to their heart’s content. While a customer is able to upload inventory from Excel file and couple of images, tweaking style sheets and design may get too complicated and boring.
Reason 3: Off-the-shelf (or hosted) e-commerce solution does have its limitations. While being useful and user-friendly your hosted solution falls short when you really need to grow. If you host plenty of pictures, sample images (or if you are electronically delivering your products, like eBooks or downloads) server load and bandwidth become issues with your hosted solution provider. You come back to people who can build a custom-fit solution for your business.
Reason 4: No matter which software you are using – there is a steep learning curve at the beginning of it. When you just starting – everything seems unusual and complicated. Once you familiarize yourself with it – you’re the king of the hill. Good thing is – when you come to someone to design and develop your custom-fit business solution – you already know what you want! We, the design and development guys, spend tremendous time determining what is it that client wants. People with experience are a great gift, like a second free customer. What could be better?
Overall, the idea of hosted shopping cart or online web page creation tool or whatever else is there is very productive for consumers, solution providers and web design guys. Consumers acquire knowledge and understanding of what they want. Solution providers acquire a stream of customers. Web design guys acquire educated customers. Everybody wins!