Online commerce is booming, and not just since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the period of lockdowns and contact restrictions has given e-commerce an additional boost: online sales rose by 15% in 2020 compared to the previous year, and by a further 19% in 2021. Nowadays, almost one in five euros spent in retail is spent online, and a large proportion of companies now also offer their products and services online.
So that you can create or expand your e-commerce shop, we want to give you an overview of software categories that you should consider when building your e-commerce tech stack. A tech stack is a mix of cloud-based software tools that work together to achieve a common business goal. These tools can be directly integrated with each other or integrated via third-party tools.
Create an e-commerce shop
The most important software for creating an e-commerce shop is a good e-commerce solution . These are all-in-one solutions that already cover many of the other areas mentioned in this article. The focus varies depending on the software, so it's worth taking a closer look at the solutions and adding additional software in individual areas if necessary. When deciding on new software tools, keep an eye on the integration options offered by the tools you choose so that your entire tech stack works together seamlessly in the end.
E-commerce software puts your shop online and provides you with the user interface in which you add products, analyze sales and sometimes receive payments. It therefore decides what your online shop looks like and what functions it offers. You often have several shop designs and templates to choose from or you can create your own design.
When choosing, make sure that your software complies with data protection regulations, offers secure payment gateways and can process an unlimited number of products, sales, page visits and customers. Reporting and analysis functions, integrated customer support and functions for offering vouchers, discounts and gift certificates are also useful, as are functions for search engine optimization. Integrated artificial intelligence (AI) functions can recommend to interested parties exactly the products they are interested in or suggest suitable special offers and discounts. Some solutions can be linked to social media and other online shops such as Amazon, Rakuten, eBay or usa telegram data Etsy and often several online shops can be managed at the same time.
There are different systems for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) sales. E-commerce software is available as an on-premises solution as well as cloud-based software, and numerous open source systems are also available. The software often works according to the modular principle and is industry-neutral or can be adapted to your industry using add-ons and modules.
provide online payment options
To ensure that your customers actually complete the purchase and don't give up in frustration and switch to the competition, the payment process in your online shop should be as smooth as possible. If your shop only offers a few payment methods, you could lose some of your potential customers. You should never assume that a certain payment method will suit everyone: some don't have a credit card or PayPal account, others prefer to pay cash on delivery or exclusively by direct debit when making online purchases. Therefore, choose a payment provider that covers as many payment methods as possible.
Ideally, your payment service provider should also offer protection against payment defaults. This means that you do not bear the risk yourself in the event of payment defaults. Buyer protection as an additional service for your customers is also useful. Different providers charge different fees, such as a monthly basic fee or a percentage of sales. In some cases, payment in installments is possible.