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Most software developers look at "price" as the major factor in determining which e-commerce solution best meets their needs. But there are a number of other important factors to consider. While one e-commerce service might offer a lower transaction rate, they might also have a higher level of fraud, or they may have extra charges for incidentals (charge backs, currency conversions, phone sales, wire transfers, fax sales, etc).

Here are a few things to consider when evaluating an e-commerce solution or service:

Presentation Of Upsells
e-commerce companies can vary significantly in the way they present upsell options. If you can increase your average ticket price as the result of a different way an offer is presented, it might make sense to use a more expensive e-commerce provider.

Custom Order Forms
It is a fact that branded order forms have a lower abandonment rate. And a lower order page abandonment rate means more sales. e-commerce providers that allow you to brand your order forms or customize them to better match your own website can increase your sales by as much as 10-15%.

Fraud Screening
Every fraudulent order that slips through costs you money. Likewise, every legitimate order that is denied as a result of fraud screening costs you money. An e-commerce provider with good fraud screening, and a low incidence of fraud, will increase your profitability. Implementing and maintaining effective fraud screening can be expensive for an e-commerce provider. As such, if you want an e-commerce provider with a low incidence of fraud, you will generally pay a higher percentage rate for transactions.

Extras & Incidental Charges
Look for any backend costs an e-commerce vendor might charge. Does the e-commerce provider have a surcharge for credit card charge backs? Do they have additional fees for handling wire transfers? Are there extra charges for handling phone or fax sales? Do not be deceived -- incidentals can add up quickly, and some e-commerce companies may have multiple incidental surcharges while others may have none.

Payment Options
If your customers cannot pay you, you will not make a sale. What payment options are available to your potential customers? Keep in mind that Visa and MasterCard, while extremely common in the US, may not be common forms of payments in other countries. The more payment options that are offered, the easier it will be for ALL your customers to buy your products.

Language Options
If you have a varied customer base with a significant number of international customers, you might benefit from providing order pages in various languages. Evaluate e-commerce providers that include multi-language support.

Currency Display Options
Customers take comfort in making purchase decisions based on their own familiar currency. Some e-commerce solutions have the capability of displaying the purchase price in the customers local currency, with any necessary exchange rates already factored in. This can have a positive impact on sales.

B2B vs B2C
Different e-commerce services excel in different areas; one e-commerce company might be better suited to consumer sales, while another might be better suited to business sales. When choosing an e-commerce company, consider your target audience when deciding which e-commerce solution will best satisfy their needs.

Understanding Your Market
Some e-commerce companies are more generic in nature, and offer general and standardized services that will work adequately for a wide variety of businesses and industries. However, there are e-commerce companies that cater to the software industry specifically, and offer integration tools that make it easy to perform software-related tasks such as the generation of registration codes, sending automated download links that expire after a specified time period, etc. If registration codes, download links, etc, are an integral part of your software company, consider using a service that will automate the creation and delivery of this information to your customers. Customer satisfaction will influence future sales.

Some developers narrow their e-commerce options to two services, and then use "A/B split testing" to determine which service has the highest closure rates and the lowest fraud. Essentially they determine which e-commerce service will best assist them in making the most money.

The bottom line is: when evaluating e-commerce solutions, the least expensive service may not necessarily be the best for you, and may actually cost you revenue in the long run.

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