PROJECT 1

Choose two e-commerce software packages and prepare an evaluation chart that rates
the packages on the key factors discussed in the section “Choosing an E-commerce
Software Platform.” Which package would you choose if you were developing a website
of the type described in this chapter, and why? Choose one of the open source web
content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal or another of your
own choosing and prepare an evaluation chart similar to that required by Project 4.
Which system would you choose and why?

SOLUTION:

What is an Ecommerce Platform?

An ecommerce platform is a software application that allows online businesses to manage
their website, marketing, sales, and operations.

Why Use an Ecommerce Platform?

Whether you’re expanding a brick-and-mortar store, looking to find an enterprise-level

solution, or even starting a business from scratch, your choice of ecommerce software has a
huge impact on the profitability and stability of your business.

The only real alternatives to using an ecommerce platform are:

 Building one from scratch, which is out of the question for most businesses — and
only justifiable for multimillion (or multi billion) dollar companies.
 Using a plugin, which isn’t an option if you’re looking to build and grow a legitimate
business – even a small one.

How Will An Ecommerce Platform Benefit My Business?

In addition to scalability and protection of your data, ecommerce platforms, whether hosted
on-premise or in the cloud, offer a handful of operational benefits and business tools.

These include:

 A product management suite.

 Merchandising.
 Pricing.
 Promotions.
 Search capabilities.
 The ability to personalize sales and services to your liking (e.g. payment options,
marketing features, mobile app, add-ons, etc.).
Ecommerce platforms offer business owners the ability to customize product information and
how it’s solicited to best fit their own online retail needs, which can be a mutual benefit for
both the business and its customers.

E-COMMERCE SOFTWARE PACKAGES

There are two selected E-Commerce software packages:

 Shopify.
 BigCommerce.

EVALUTION CHART

Key Factors Shopify BigCommerce

Functionality 9 9
Business Model Support 10 9
Processing Model Tool 9 10
Site Management Tool & 8 9
Reporting
Performance & Scalability 9 9
Connectivity Existing Systems 9 8
Compliance With Standards 9 9
Global/Multi-Culture Capability 8 7
Local Sales Tax/Shipping Rules 10 9
Total (90) 81 79
 Advantages & Disadvantages

SOPIFY
Advantages Disadvantages
 Number one for sales features  Poor for international scalability –
relies on third party apps for
multi-currency support.

 Brilliant inventory system  Transactions fees applied unless

using Shopify Payments

 Supports multi-channel  Switching templates means

selling across platforms such as reformatting your site
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinter.

BIGCOMMERCE
Advantages Disadvantages
 Has the most built-in features of  Complex terminology makes it
any ecommerce platform. unsuitable for beginners.

 Supports multi-channel selling.  Small learning curve required for

the advanced features.

 Fantastic SEO to boost search  Editing interface is difficult to

rankings. navigate.

OPEN SOURCE WEB

Two selected open source web are:

 WordPress
 Drupal

WORDPRESS DRUPAL
Themes 5,000 2,500
 Plugins 53,112 39,000
Ease to use Technical knowledge not Simple user interface, more
necessary, UI minimal technical language.
Upgrades/Customization Update alerts, updates Updates manuals,
installed with one click, customizing only through
customization of files in new plugins or offline
application.

WordPress Advantages

 Ease of use – WordPress is significantly more user-friendly, especially for non-

developers.

 Extensibility – WordPress’ third-party theme and plugin communities make it

similarly easy to extend WordPress without the need for custom development. Some
people even claim that, with the right extensions, WordPress can do anything that Drupal
can do.

 Ease of getting help – WordPress’ massive global community means that it’s easy to
find support for any issues that you run into.

 Lower development costs – WordPress offers more “out of the box” solutions and
WordPress developers are usually more affordable than Drupal developers.

Drupal Advantages

 Custom content types and views – while WordPress does offer custom
post types, most people consider Drupal’s custom content types to be a bit more
flexible.
 Access controls/user permissions – whereas WordPress single-site ships
with 5 basic user roles, Drupal has a built-in access control system where you
can create new roles with individual permissions.

 Core support for multilingual sites – in Drupal 8, multilingual functional

is baked into the core, whereas WordPress sites need to turn to third-party
plugins.

 Taxonomies for handling lots of data – Drupal’s taxonomy system is more

flexible than WordPress, which can make it ideal for handling lots of content.
Pricing for WordPress vs Drupal
When it comes to building a professional website, WordPress is clearly the more
cost-effective option. Whether you do it yourself or rely on a developer, you will
invest far less both financially and in terms of time.

In addition, when it comes to upgrading your website, WordPress works out much
cheaper. As a rule, rebuilding on WordPress costs around half the amount as on
Drupal.

WordPress vs Drupal Themes

For its sheer variety and number of options, WordPress beats Drupal hands-down.
Moreover, the ability to immediately implement “out of the box” designs and easily
customize them makes your journey to a completed website far easier.

However, if you are working for a client with specific design requests and complex
technical requirements then Drupal is the better option

Performance and Security

Security is still one area where Drupal enjoys an advantage over WordPress. While its
core is secure, the problem for WordPress lies in some of its third party extensions.

Support for WordPress vs Drupal

Both WordPress and Drupal provide you with a high level of dedicated
support for your website building needs. As is the case with both, you
will have to spend a bit more for the best one-to-one service but it is
generally worth it.