Once an e-commerce store is built, it is incredibly difficult to change the entire operation over to a new hosting provider or design. Here is a great write up to learn advantages and disadvantages of hosted and custom ecommerce website software solutions.

1. Differences Between Custom and Hosted eCommerce Website Software Solutions
The eCommerce software industry has graduated
to level where two main models control the
market. Today, most eCommerce websites are
created using (1) a hosted, off site, solution or
(2) a custom, open source, eCommerce
website solution. Both hosted and custom
eCommerce solutions are very different from one
another. This hubpage explores the differences
between the two eCommerce models while asking
you, the reader, to keep in mind YOUR website
goals in respects to market share, web site traffic
expectations, sales expectations, and length of
time you wish to have the same website before you
make a new one.
Hosted eCommerce Software Solutions
For those who want easy, a Hosted eCommerce solution is usually the quickest and
fastest way to go. If you purchase a hosted eCommerce solution, these sites are
premade by a software company and the site should work within hours or a couple days
from when you purchase the package. The hosted eCommerce solution provider will do
all configurations for you included in your package.
Hosted eCommerce solutions are usually less expensive to open (usually no to low
startup costs and minimal monthly fee to keep your website up and running). Going
further into costs, website owners using a hosted eCommerce solution do not have to
worry about website maintenance because, generally, hosted eCommerce solutions will
cover server maintenance inclusive in the fee to keep your web site up and running.
Hosted eCommerce solutions are again premade, and they are often stable and do not
require a ton of error and debugging attention.
There are disadvantages of hosted eCommerce solutions to consider. Hosted
eCommerce solutions are not owned by you, the business owner. If you stop paying the
monthly fee, you will lose your website and need to find a new solution. Generally,
hosted eCommerce solutions are locked in that code cannot be greatly modified making
eCommerce cart design and feature customization nearly impossible. With hosted
eCommerce solutions, you get the features the system comes with AS IS, without any
ability to add/edit/remove features. If you have a basic eCommerce store this is usually
not a problem. If you want the ability to modify features and grow the website into a
more feature rich solution, you may need to move to a custom eCommerce solution.
Those who anticipate high end second generation features may want to consider a
custom eCommerce solution that will allow this growth when ready to implement such
new features and elements. If one does this, the website can grow without the need to
redo the website design completely.

2. Search Engine Optimization for hosted eCommerce solutions can be more difficult than
more robust, custom eCommerce website software solutions. Most of the time, a search
engine optimization company is limited in what can be changed to a hosted eCommerce
website’s structure. Ecommerce SEO requires the tweaking of code due to hosted
eCommerce software limitations. Design variance testing also becomes more difficult
with hosted solutions because we cannot create multiple versions of landing pages,
product pages, and checkout. Sometimes Ecommerce SEO strategy involves creating a
few different versions of the home page to see how users react. Another part of this
strategy is testing if 1 page checkout or multiple step checkout gets more sales. Hosted
eCommerce solutions can make variance testing very difficult to impossible.
Open Source eCommerce Website Solutions (Open Source eCommerce)
Often the term “Open Source,” comes across
when making an eCommerce software decision.
Open Source means that you or your developer
has complete access to your eCommerce
software code and can make any changes to the
website. Given your eCommerce website
developer knows design, programming, and
search engine optimization very well, the
obvious advantages are that your website can
work and function as you wish. Custom
eCommerce websites can look any way you
want, sell products anyway you want, and
display products anyway you want.
Custom eCommerce websites cost more,
generally, because custom eCommerce require additional programming hours and
design hours. These extra hours are used to make a completely custom ecommerce
website design with setup the way you need it to be for you and your users. Costs may
be more at outset, but if you consider the monthly fees of hosted eCommerce solutions
(anywhere from $50 per month to $2,000 per month), return on your investment
generally pays off by end of year 1 or 2.
Custom eCommerce websites create a professional, serious, high-end user experience
that in the end will provide your users and administrators with the most up to date
functions you need without clutter you do not. Custom eCommerce websites allow you
to update your website when you need without waiting on your system update itself to
standards. If you want to havea new image zoom feature, your coder can get on it right
away. If you want to make your checkout a one page checkout, your coder can start
right away.
There are good advantages and interesting disadvantages for both hosted and custom
eCommerce websites. If you have any questions about which is a correct eCommerce
solution for you, please contact www.ATAKInteractive.com, a eCommerce Website
Development company located in Los Angeles, California.