Shop System
The technical basis of any online store is the shop system. The selection of shop systems is almost unlimited and is divided into the large categories of open source, purchase and rental software. Some store systems are based on well-known CMS systems such as Drupal, Typo3 or Joomla.
Here is a brief overview of store systems by license model:
The free store systems enjoy the greatest popularity in the e-commerce community, but are closely followed in popularity by the purchase store systems (only 5% less of the total share than free systems according to ibi research study of November 2011 on the subject of shop systems, merchandise management and shipping.)
In-house solutions are also the basis for Internet commerce in more than one-tenth of online stores and enable far more individual store design than ready-made store systems. Thanks to open interfaces and open source communities, however, any shop system can be designed according to the store operator’s specific wishes, with significantly lower development investment at the outset. In the case of rental and purchase systems, the extent to which an individual design and suitable store structure can be realized depends heavily on the provider and the edition of the shop system.
For the adaptation and successful business operation of the webshop, the store system is usually supplemented with so-called plug-ins or modules for connection to merchandise management, payment systems, logistics or marketplaces. In some shop systems these are already pre-installed, e.g. the connection to a payment service provider such as Novalnet in the Commerce:SEO system.
Concerning the frontend, the layout and the user-friendliness of the online store are especially important. The Internet interface is the retailer’s shop window and at the same time the only way to build trust and customer loyalty with the visitor. Finally, the Knock-out criterion in the selection of the store system is whether or not it is well suited for search engine optimization, or SEO for short. In addition to the search in Google, Bing, Yahoo and Co., an intuitive and intelligent search function in the online store with helpful filter functions, which presents the store customer with the right selection of products and consequently increases the conversion rate, because the customer finds the right thing faster, is becoming more and more important.
