Successfully launching an eCommerce website involves a lot of moving parts. At the core of it all is the eCommerce platform. Selecting a system that fits your needs is the key to successfully launching your brand. There are two key facets that make up your selection: hosted vs. installed and inventory integration vs. no inventory integration.
Hosted Solutions
A hosted shopping cart will get you up and running with relative ease. Generally, these are treated as interim solutions that are already set up in the cloud for you to customize and get your online store up quickly and easily. When choosing a hosted solution, you’ll want to make sure everything is running off your domain (mystore.com) in order to maintain control of your storefront for future expansion.
Some examples of hosted solutions which allow custom domains include:
Benefits to hosted solutions include an existing eCommerce platform with the ability to start immediately and doesn't require developer support. Because the merchant doesn't have control over the codebase, you'll want to make sure the hosted solution you choose to build your store on has the integrations and extensibility your busienss requires.
Installed Solutions
Installed eCommerce solutions (open source or otherwise) are commercially available software packages to be installed within your own environment. These solutions often offer more flexibility, extensibility and customization than hosted solutions. However, these systems need to be maintained, which comes at a cost. If you’re looking for a solution which will be flexible for the long-term, you should be looking here.
Below, I've included some examples of free installed eCommerce solutions:
Inventory Management
Some eCommerce websites require that products be in stock in order to be purchased. Generally these are selling products that have extensive lead time to produce. If this is the case, you’ll need to integrate your inventory management system to make sure a product is in stock before you offer it to a customer. This process generally involves a two-way synchronization between the website and inventory management system.
