What to look for

10. VAT and Shipping Calculations

Make sure the ecommerce solutions you are considering calculate shipping and tax costs in the checkout process. Not providing this information can lead to abandoned carts and loss of customer confidence.

11. Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Recommendations

By providing offers and links to other related, relevant and popular products during your website user’s search, in their checkout process and in after-sales communications, you can dramatically increase your revenue from cross-sells and up-sells.

Make sure you choose an ecommerce solutions provider who enables you to:

• Include product suggestions, related products or ‘customers who bought this also bought...’ suggestions on product pages, in the shopping basket, on the confirmation/thank you page and in the auto-response confirmation email
• Link the product suggestions to the respective product pages to enable easy purchase

12. Online Order Tracking

You may not have ‘e-crm’ requirements right now but it’s likely that in the future you will need to offer your customers a full online customer care experience, in order to compete.

In most cases, ecommerce solutions which enable online order tracking will provide what you  need - either now or in the future.

So check if prospective suppliers can:

• Integrate your backend sales processes with your ecommerce platform so customers can
track their order status

13. Storing a Customer’s Payment Card Details

By giving your online customers the option for their payment details to be securely stored, you make it easier and quicker for them to return and make repeat purchases.

Ask prospective suppliers how PCI regulations affect the way they store your customers’ credit card details for you.



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