If you operate an independent website, you will need ecommerce software to sell anything on the website. eCommerce software consists of a product catalog, a shopping cart, and a checkout procedure. Also important is the capability to be able to use a credit-card charging service that dovetails with the checkout procedure.

eCommerce software varies in quality but is readily available from most host ISPs. In fact, host ISPs usually provide such software for a small fee or free as part of your website hosting service. Third-party software is also available.

One of the leading vendors is Miva, which provides Miva Merchant, an ecommerce software package. What’s interesting and unique about Miva Merchant is that it accepts plug-in modules created by third-parties. The plug-in modules are simply additional software that extends what Miva Merchant can do. There a number of third-party vendors that create and sell Miva Merchant modules.

Miva Merchant by itself is a pretty capable ecommerce program, which runs on a Miva server. Miva servers are available at about 200 host ISPs. At a cost of about $700, plus yearly upgrades for $300 each, Miva Merchant is inexpensive for what it does. It’s comparable to an enterprise program that provides a wide range of ecommerce services for a corporate website.

With the additional plug-in modules available for Miva Merchant at low costs, you can turn Miva Merchant into a digital machine comparable to corporate software packages costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. For instance, there is a plug-in from Miva Merchant available for a modest price that will run an affiliate sales program for you. This system provides you with a fabulous opportunity to use robust programming for increasing sales and delivering customer service that is otherwise not availabvle at an affordable price.

Independent Websites

eCommerce software is only important to you if you run an independent website where you sell products. Since this tutorial does not advocate that you do that, I will not dwell upon the use of ecommerce software. However, what you should know is that the auction management services can provide many of the same features for independent websites. For instance, many auction management services provide catalogs, shopping carts, and checkout procedures that are essential to conducting business on the Web, and they are not necessarily confined just to handling eBay auctions and eBay Stores. They may also be used for independent websites.

The auction management services use an underlying database to provide services such as a catalog. Because they use a core database for their applications, they can do a datafeed. (Whether they enable you to do your own datafeed is another question, but they are certainly capable of doing a datafeed.) You can use their datafeed to populate a Miva Merchant catalog. In other words, if you have to use Miva Merchant at an independent website, it does not have to be an independent part of your retail operation. You can use a datafeed from your auction management service to put items in the Miva Merchant catalog just as easily as you can use a datafeed to put your items into the Froogle product catalog.

On the other hand, you can also purchase and install Miva Merchant modules into Miva Merchant that will keep track of eBay auctions and will do datafeeds to other marketplaces. It seems that the auction management services and the ecommerce programs are each coming from a different direction and meeting in a middle point somewhere where they start to look like one another.

The only thing you need to remember is that there are services and software that are very beneficial for you to use for a variety of tasks and a variety of online business configurations. It’s up to you to choose your services or software carefully so that you are able to do whatever you need to do online without being restricted.

Cost-Effectiveness Review

I suppose if you have a large ecommerce website and your operations on eBay and eBay Stores are minor by comparison, that ecommerce software is important to make your business work efficiently. That’s your most cost-effective approach. Be sure that you’re using ecommerce software that provides the capability to handle eBay auctions, Stores, and datafeeds to other marketplaces.

If you are not already operating an online retailing business, I recommend that you use an eBay Store as a substitute for an independent website. An auction management service, whether provided by eBay or a third-party vendor, will provide all of the ecommerce functionality you will need to conduct your business professionally anywhere on the Web. Therefore, the message of this article is to use robust software to operate your business. But if you’re an established eBay business thinking of expanding sales, don’t worry about ecommerce software. You will be able to do almost everything just fine with an auction management service.