We’re often asked by potential clients about recommendations for off-the-shelf ecommerce solutions. Our answer is always the same: we don’t recommend any of them.

When we started building websites, we did implement some of these solutions, but they never worked out. This is the plight faced by many web developers who would love to implement less expensive solutions for their customers if they could. Recently, we talked with another developer who described some of the issues he’s experienced when using a packaged shopping cart: they are difficult to maintain, customers experience inventory problems and Google integration isn’t possible.

While off-the-shelf solutions may be quicker to get up and running and seem cheaper in the short term, the costs add up quickly. Not only are there financial costs, like hidden fees and other ongoing expenses, but most carts do not integrate 100% with the look and feel of your website. This results in confusion for the customer and increased risk of loss of sales. Encountering these unforeseen issues and realizing additional needs, most users outgrow their packaged carts and eventually move on to custom solutions, meaning completely throwing away the money they have spent.

When we build a custom ecommerce website, we start by helping you spec out exactly what is needed. We’ve done it so many times, and have even been on the customer side of running an ecommerce site, so we know what features will make your endeavor successful. Building a custom ecommerce solution means that there are no limits on what can be done. We love having the chance to implement the latest ecommerce trends on our sites, which you can read more about here. We provide support for any problems you may have, and build our sites using ASP.net, a ubiquitous programming language so that you can work with a wide choice of developers in the future.   

Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding custom ecommerce solutions.