DEEP DIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF E-COMMERCE TOOLS

Transcription

1 DEEP DIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF E-COMMERCE TOOLS Kumar Mallampalli Head Emerging Solutions and IT Services

2 Table of Contents 1 Introduction The Challenges Solutions Options Open Source E-Commerce Magento zencart: zen cart virtuemart KONAKART Commercial E-Commerce hybris microsoft commerce server ATG Recommendation Annexure Overall Product Comparison Chart Commercial E-commerce Vendor Comparison Chart Open Source E-commerce Vendor Comparison Chart References Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page1of 19

3 1 Introduction In today's saturated market where virtually everything can be found online, the balance of power has shifted from the marketer to the well-connected and informed consumer. Brands across categories want to replace their outdated e-commerce platforms and improve their online customer experience with Web 2.0 and community capabilities. It has become imperative for brands to revamp their mundane e-commerce websites and increase their online transactions. The objective of this white paper is to compare some of the leading e- commerce platforms that are available in the market today under various parameters and suggest a holistic approach that organizations can follow during their e-commerce implementation process. Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page2of 19

4 2 The Challenges As every other organization wants to increase its investment on e-commerce and significantly enhance its direct trade, the key requirements for most organizations in implementing an end-to-end e-commerce include the following: Enhanced security while offering more products and flexibility in pricing Integration with other systems and plug-ins Search Engine Optimization Intelligent web analytics Customization to business requirements and local needs Marketing integration for unified branding Shorter time-to-implementation Lower support cost for customer issues on products returns, rebates, coupon redemption and others Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page3of 19

5 3 Solutions Options 3.1 Open Source E-Commerce MAGENTO Magento Enterprise provides businesses with unprecedented flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of their online store. Fully supported by the Magento team of experts, Magento Enterprise is scalable and easily tailored to meet every merchant's unique technical and business requirements. To help ensure success of their online channel, Magento Enterprise customers can leverage best-in-class marketing and merchandising tools. Magento Enterprise Screenshots Shopping Cart Screen Promotions Screen Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page4of 19

6 Gift card Screen Administration Screen Dashboards Payment Options Key Strengths: Marketing and promotions management Marketing reminders, gift certificates etc Secure strong data encryption, user access based on roles and permissions Rich merchandise suite Dynamic customer information management Search with Solr Order editing and Google checkouts Content staging and merging Multi-lingual and Multi-currency support Tax rate support in WEEE/DEEE format in EU Country specific customization Site registration, shipping destination address and billing address with ability to specify pay per method One click upgrades Weakness: Cart modification takes longer time System requirements of Magento are quiet extensive Requires at least PHP extended with mcrypt, PDO_MySQL and simple xml Platform hosting involves significant cost Coding style requires steep learning curve Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page5of 19

7 Some of Magento Customers: ZENCART: ZEN CART Zencart: Zen Cart is a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The e-commerce web site design program is being developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce web design could be and should be done differently. ZEN CART Screenshots Product Catalog Screen Dashboard Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page6of 19

8 Product Features Product Tools Key Strengths: Unlimited categories Unlimited product options, gift certificates, discounts Fully customizable and easily installable Template system Multi-lingual Customer reporting tools Permission system Multiple currencies Multi-tax Multiple shipping and payment options Multiple image per product Built-in override protection system Weakness: Administration module requires extensive training Add on non-compatibility VIRTUEMART VirtueMart is an Open Source e-commerce solution designed to be used with Joomla (But also works with Mambo). Joomla and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made for easy to use in a PHP / MySQL environment. VirtueMart Screenshots Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page7of 19

9 Shop Home Page Product Details Shopping cart with PayPal Admin: Edit Product Key Strengths: Stock level control for products and item Ajax-powered product overview that allows to quickly add products to the cart Manage different currencies, countries and states Product Availability: Shows how fast a customer could expect a delivery Weakness: Lacks lot of essential shopping cart features such as stock control, shipping, payment to vouchers and user group discounts etc. Lack of many add-on modules Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page8of 19

10 3.1.4 KONAKART KonaKart is an affordable java based shopping cart software solution for online retailers. Konakart Screenshots Home Page Shopping Cart Login Screen News Publishing Key Strengths: Rich shopping experience through fast indexed search, product filter and sorting, product review and ratings display Internationalization: Supports multi-currency and multi-language Up-selling and cross-selling merchandise Price, promotion and communication customizations based on customer groups Supports recurrent billing in payment module Google base integration and SEO Sophisticated marketing functionalities for promotions and communications Shipping module Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page9of 19

11 Multi store with reward point support Google analytics Weakness: Lack of support to gift certificates and loyalty programs Upper limit exists for product displays and customer listing (Example: limited number of products are allowed to list and for additional products to be listed, cost adds up) Some of KonaKart customers: 3.2 Commercial E-Commerce HYBRIS Hybris provides a complete multichannel e-commerce software solution that integrates product content, commerce operations, and the extended channel to help retailers, manufacturers, and other businesses create a unified and seamless cross-channel experience for their customers from online, to in-store, to mobile and beyond. Hybris Screenshots Cockpit Appealing Content Management Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page10of 19

12 Multi-channel Campaign Product Merchandise Key Strengths: Strong product content management tools Catalogue management Enterprise integration Globalization and internationalization capabilities PIM powered commerce Light weight technology stack Fast and flexible Multi brand site Problem free administration ability Integrates functions such as payment solutions, customer loyalty elements, search and navigation options and full marketing tools Customer-specific visuals, catalogues, products and prices and pre-configured order lists Mapping a wide range of distribution models, companies, business processes, administrators, user groups and user rights, therefore facilitating hierarchical purchasing and approvals processes Procurement integration and quotation module Weakness: Scores low in security (for cloud based offerings) Poor support and lack of regional customer management Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page11of 19

13 Some of Hybris Customers: MICROSOFT COMMERCE SERVER Commerce Server 2009 is a new, production-ready, out-of-the-box, contemporary web site that allows businesses to get their stores live and merchandise moving more quickly. New page templating features mean organizations can change the look and feel of a site just by pointing and clicking. Key Strengths: Shopping cart management Taxation Personalization and templating options Transaction management Settlement and product visualization Integration with SharePoint server 2010, FAST search and Biz Talk server Customizable, live services for integrated B2C shopping experiences with web parts Multi channel integrations with kiosks, mobile devices, POS systems, interactive TV and gaming systems Weakness: Poor technical architecture Requires additional product purchase to leverage web 2.0 services Some of Commerce Server Customers: Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page12of 19

14 3.2.3 ATG ATG Commerce is a comprehensive, highly scalable e-commerce platform and application solution that automates and personalizes the online buying experience to increase conversions and order value, and ensure customer loyalty. It s flexible, component-based e-commerce software architecture enables one to easily implement best-in-class e-commerce sites. Key Strengths: Complete multi channel e-commerce suite with strong personalization Shopping cart management Product catalogue Rich Internet Application (RIA) capabilities Multi site, multi language and multi currency support Search merchandise feature Multiple deployment choice Facebook and Twitter integrations iphone mobile store application Online community for customer, partner and product support Weakness: High cost Customer support outside north America is challenging Some of ATG customers: Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page13of 19

15 4 Recommendation Companies should select e-commerce platforms that are adaptable to specific business needs, flexible enough to accommodate various legacy systems and also scalable enough to meet new requirements or technology upgrades. Considering the above mentioned must-have features, the three existing e-commerce platforms that win over the rest with their comprehensive functionalities are - Hybris, Magento and ATG. Hybris: If you are looking for a strong product content management and multi-national e-commerce site that can be established in a shorter time frame at a lower cost, then Hybris would be the best bet. This product will allow one to localize the product content, pricing and promotions with its multi-currency, language, tax, regulations and other features. This product will also enable you to analyze customer profiles based on target segment or personalized behaviour pattern. However, some of the reference accounts have reported trouble in integration and implementation. Magento: If you want to quickly ramp up your multi-channel strategy with customizations, to meet growing online demand for a wide product range, then Magento is the right choice. One can create user-friendly e- commerce websites using Magento and get around the site for adding things to cart, wish lists or improve navigation. One can also integrate price, product and stock level information to the website. Magento allows one to internationalize the product easily, send newsletters, include Google site integrations, RSS feeds and also provides strong analytics support. However for future scalability, understanding of enterprise level customization for business needs is required. ATG: If you want to mainly focus on strong personalization, merchandizing, targeting and customer interaction then ATG should be your choice of e-commerce platform. However, ATG is priced slightly higher. It is also not easier to implement multi-language and multi-currency capabilities using ATG. It also doesn t have exhaustive product content management features. MS Commerce Server: MS Commerce Server is also a good product, provided it is implemented as a part of the overall Microsoft suite. Extensive knowledge of MS product ecosystem including BizTalk and SharePoint are required for the implementation. Overall, it is a big challenge to implement MS Commerce Server as compared to other products both in terms of price and technical features. Also strong in-house Microsoft expertise is required for both implementation as well as the periodic maintenance of the website. It is not possible to consider any particular e-commerce platform as the best. Because each e-commerce platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. A platform which may serve very well for a particular organization may not be suitable for another organization. Open source e-commerce platforms might work well for many companies as it does not involve any buying or implementation cost. But it may not be the right choice for organizations that are seeking advanced features like consumer profiling, targeted marketing etc. On the whole, organizations have to evaluate many factors such as price, implementation time, scalability, technology integration etc. and choose an e-commerce platform that will not only meet their current but also their future business needs. Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page14of 19

16 5 Annexure 5.1 Overall Product Comparison Chart Legend: - Supported - Partially Supported - Not Supported Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page15of 19

17 5.2 Commercial E-commerce Vendor Comparison Chart Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page16of 19

18 5.3 Open Source E-commerce Vendor Comparison Chart Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page17of 19

19 6 References pdf Hinduja Tech Limited Proprietary and Confidential Page18of 19