Content Management System
Open-Source Ecommerce Adoption Obstacles
Open-source ecommerce (OSC) programs are wonderful in theory: cheap or even free money -making programs ready for the taking. So why isn’t everyone an Internet millionaire?
The answer is that many obstacles prevent potential OSC users from learning about these programs — obstacles that no proprietary program would experience. Most OSC programs are created by volunteer programmers, whose interests lie in areas other than marketing and product communications.
There’s an old joke that assembly instructions are so awful because they pick the least -needed person from the manufacturing floor to write them. In the open-source world, if no volunteer wants to write Web site information about the product, they don’t bother to pick anyone at all. There could be a dynamite product that could change the world, but only the developers would know about it.
It doesn’t matter whether a product is free or for purchase. Every potential customer tries to satisfy basic information needs as they move through the classic “sales cycle” of Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. If a customer cannot satisfy their need for information on a product, they simply move on to a product that does. Imagine that you were at a car dealer who refused to lift the hood of a car, who wouldn’t allow test drives, or who refused to give you a brochure that lists the car’s features. Can you see yourself purchasing that car anyway? I didn’t think so.
Now let’s go back to the OSC world. Few makers of OSC programs even offer the most basic screenshots of their product. Screenshots are necessary for the very first step in the sales cycle: Awareness. Many makers do offer demos, it is true, but demos are appropriate for the end of the sales cycle, the Desire phase. A demo is equivalent to the auto industry’s test drive, which is the very last step before you buy the car. By ignoring the most critical phase of the sales cycle, the beginning, a huge percentage of OSC sales are lost before they even start.
Every software marketer knows that in order to sell a program, he or she must offer the following ten items to potential customers or lose the sale:
- A factual description of the program. The best product description is concise and written in plain language, without technical talk and hard-sell phrases.
- Actual screenshots. Potential customers won’t buy if they can’t find out what it looks like. At best, screenshots should be used liberally to explain important features. At a minimum, screenshots should be used to show the storefront (what the customer sees) and the Admin (the “back-end” or private area of the Web site where the owner maintains his or her store).
- Who the product is for. For example, small, medium or large business; beginner or advanced technical skills. A product that sells to “everyone” sells to no one.
- Features list. A potential customer must be able to find out what the program does. What are its unique features? The best will include a “What’s New? ” list of features that have been added since earlier versions so existing customers can know what they will get if they upgrade.
- Specifications. Also known as requirements. What kind of computer operating system and supporting programs are required. It’s on the outside of every software box ever sold.
- Pricing. E-commerce programs are used by business people, who are likely to consider the full lifecycle cost. A low or free initial cost of a program is irrelevant if the product’s life cycle will be littered with bug fixes, crashes, or if it’s difficult to find consultants for it. Such a product will be abandoned early in the lifecycle.
- A user manual. Also included with every software box ever sold. Who would buy a new car if there was no manual in the glovebox? Or no third-party manuals available? Can you imagine an automaker telling customers to check the forums or the “Wiki” to learn about their new car?
- A working demo of the program. After a potential customer has reviewed everything else, the very last step before making a decision will be to test drive one or more programs.
- A free trial. All of the programs reviewed here do offer a free trial, so this item is not reviewed below.
- Support information. If the maker does not directly offer support, at a minimum they must refer customers to a source of support. The best software makers will certify third-party consultants and developers.
Source: ecommerce-guide.com.
osCommerce An E-Commerce Solution
E-commerce is one of the most successful and effective business strategies used by most companies as an extension of their business using the Internet. And it has emerged to be the strongest form of Internet Marketing strategy. Web design and ecommerce has become a vital component of the Information Technology industry. Shopping cart solution is the most important aspect of e-commerce for it is the tool used to manage online transactions such as order processing and reporting.
osCommerce is an open source shopping cart e-commerce solution that contains both front-end and and an administration tool back-end which can be easily installed and configured over a web- based installation procedure. And it runs on PHP and MySQL servers. And because it is an open source solution it is being distributed at no cost. osCommerce provides the basic functionality that every online businesses needs. And beyond its basic functionality, osCommerce can be customised by installing additional modules or custom code to meet your specific business needs.
osCommerce is the basis for both Zen Cart and CRE Loaded e-commerce solutions, thus making it more simple and having less features compared to both. osCommerce runs well though and can meet almost all the basic needs of any online business. osCommerce is back-end functionality for Administrators and front- end functionality for its customer.
The following are the features of osCommerce:
- Automatic online based installation and upgrade procedure
-Support dynamic pages
- Administration or back- end functionality
-Customer or Front- end functionality
-Product Functionality
- Accepts numerous offline and online payment processing
- Shipping Functionality
- Flexible tax implementation
osCommerce is a simple shopping cart solution that can meet your basic e-commerce needs, it is not a shrink- wrapped application for those who needed to be spoon- fed nor it is difficult as to have it from scratch. Although osCommerce is equipped with the basic functionality of a shopping cart solution it also has some shortcomings and extensibility. One of the advantages of applications is the nature of their development process for it allows other users to contribute codes to improve and enhance the system. And osCommerce is not an exception for there are over 2,000 user contributions available. This is critical in creating solutions for loopholes of the systems and fixes some serious issues on payment gateways.
However on the security viewpoint, default installation of osCommerce should not be used in a production environment without being customised. Why is that so? Because there is no admin login authentication protection which is usually available on most authentication systems. Such situation can make your business vulnerable to malicious users. However, there are modules available to fix such issues. osCommerce is ideal for start up business that engage in order processing.
UK SEO Agency supports and manages ecommerce systems such as osCommerce. And we provide web design and development embedded with ecommerce solutions that are tailored to your business needs.
Source: ukseoagency.co.uk