Help! my e-commerce system is such a pain.

Here are the common e-business pains (with solutions), best practices and things to look out for what maintaining and choosing your E-commerce system. This post deals with the the operator / business side. The next post will address the pains and solutions from your customer's view point.

1. "Keeping my products consistently up-to-date is draining my resources and time."
   
   Solution: Integrate your accounting package and online store together. Thereby, maintaining one centralised hub for your product information. Integration done properly, will mean when you update or add a product in your accounting package or ERP, it will immediately show in your online store. Best Practice Tip: Always ensure your site has great product content i.e. descriptions, multiple images and related product information. (again, ask your integration specialist to link your products with their related products from inside your accounting package or ERP.)


2. My ordering process is a mess! Managing the order process, getting orders processed and shipped out is an area that needs serious consideration. Pushing the orders through the pipeline and then maintaining proper order status is another pinch for operators.
   
   Solution: 360 degree integration plays a massive role here. Integrate your products, payment gateways, shipping providers properly and the order flow will become tight, clear and, the goal of goals, error free. Again, when you are integrating your payment gateway from your store to your ERP, then make sure each order's status is sent back to the website for when the client logs in.
   
   Best Practice Tip: Sit down and map out your order flow. e.g.
   
   
   


3. Customer support. My office is inundated with follow-up and website related calls. I just want to do business.
   
   Solution: The solution here begins at the beginning. Choosing your storefront. Your store should make it simple to edit product/site content, provide accurate order status (see best practice tip above), and customer account information. Seeing to these areas from the beginning is your best defense and will cut down of call volumes and support required by your office staff.