6 Enterprise Ecommerce Platform Challenges and Solutions
Online shopping is at its all-time peak. From websites to mobile apps, customers choose this method over an offline store method. It can be attributed to the seamless experience provided by various platforms on multiple devices. The online sales are witnessing tremendous growth in terms of products and number of visitors. It gives rise to enterprises e-commerce. The platform is a larger version of online stores and offers unlimited bandwidth and server support. However, the scale and complexity of different business can give rise to a few challenges.
Whatever products you market, you need to plan an intuitive and functional website, because internet users are impatient and always need variety. General categories or insufficient product information can quickly lead a prospective client to move to a competing site. A carefully planned payment system or the loading time of the pages also influence visitors. In short, the platform on which you run your online store has an impact on the development of your e-business.
Though e-commerce is perceived as less complicated to manage than a physical store, it has its own set of problems. This article aims to highlight the current issues faced by e-commerce platforms and how to tackle them.
Site performance
Google's 2016 study revealed that a page with a loading time of over 5 seconds loses about 40% of conversions compared to a page that loads in 1 second. Further, its bounce rate increases by over 100%. This information is particularly essential for the e-commerce industry.
There are several ways to optimize your site and shorten its loading time. It is certainly worth looking at the graphics placed on the site. For websites based on CMS, a considerable slowdown is the excess of installed plugins. It is good to pay attention to it and remove the unnecessary ones. Opt for an excellent hosting solution, a server with suitable parameters and avoid multiple redirections to reduce the page loading time and improve site performance.
Scalability
As the product portfolio and business grow, the website may experience a sudden increase in traffic. A sudden spike in traffic is also observed during holidays and promotions. Many e-commerce platforms are not equipped to handle this traffic, which leads to website downtime. Enterprises often suffer from considerable losses in terms of money and reputation at this time. Utilizing a cloud-based platform solution like software-as-a-service (SaaS) is ideal for handling these challenges of e-commerce websites.
Product Information and Placing
It remains one of the most common challenges of any growing e-commerce business. Even if at first, the online store contains only a few hundred products, with the ever-growing popularity and demand you will be handling thousands of different products. Thus, the content must be updated regularly according to the preferences of your target audience. Online sales change according to trends, so your product portfolio needs to be continually updated. It helps businesses gain an upper edge in the competitive marketplace.
At the enterprise level, e-commerce businesses need to take into account multiple products and their variations along with varying costs. Further, it involves organizing thousands of SKUs. Manually adding details regarding every product leads to waste of time and resources.
The best solution is to automate this process. A platform with robust application interface programming (APIs) can help you update the product information from your ERP software directly to the website or app.
Security
Another challenge of e-commerce websites is the degree of data security for anyone who records credit card transactions in their stores. If you are using open source software, it is mandatory to comply with the PCI standards. Enterprises must ensure that the e-commerce platforms they use are Level 1 Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) certified and compliant for maximum security. They support these security requirements and ensure the confidentiality of information both in the processing of credit cards and in the preservation of identity and contact details of buyers.
Further, safe and quick payment is one of the most critical functionalities in the store. Different payment methods, including those already built in, mean that the administrator does not have to worry about the full configuration of the payment gateway. The right platform meets all online security requirements and protects sensitive customer data.
Mobile Optimization
Mobile technology is dominating the digital world and actively driving online sales. Even Google prioritizes mobile search. According to The State of the US Mobile Market, the growth of the m-commerce market is substantial than e-Commerce. It is essential, therefore, to optimize your website for m-commerce. This functionality allows you to reach mobile customers and improve the reach of the website. Towards this, organizations can leverage the benefits of cross-platform development.
Overcoming these challenges requires the selection of an eCommerce development services organization that matches the requirements of your business. Developing user-centric websites and apps is the key to scaling up your e-commerce business.
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