I’m no stranger to eCommerce, I’m proud to say I am a regular contributor to this $129.8 billion industry. But it has always been on the consumer side.  Now I’m getting a whole new view into the online commerce world from the application side. There are so many eCommerce platforms to choose from and each one has something different, their own secret ingredient that sets it apart from the rest.

Times Have Changed

eCommerce is not just about a shopping cart anymore. Shoppers expect the same level of customer experience online as they do when they walk into the physical store. It’s not a fluke, think back to the online liquidator sites. If you remember when they first started out it was pretty much page after page of static product images with MSRP listed and their “blowout” price underneath. Now these sites are dynamic and web 2.0 driven with customer reviews for products, profiles on social networking sites and they are even twittering about offers and coupons.

It’s becoming clear that eCommerce systems will have to evolve and adopt the value proposition of web content management systems: deliver memorable experiences for each and every site visitor. A few that come to mind are:

• Provide a 360° view of products through rich media management, which helps simulate a flexible, in-store shopping experience
• Include built-in SEO capabilities such as search engine friendly URLs and auto-301 redirects
• Integrate full analytics reporting to drive persuasive commerce and deliver personalized site visits
• Include blogging capability out of the box
• Administrative dashboard functionality that displays the real-time health of the online store, much like WCM system does for a website
• Deliver accurate information in real-time through inline editing to product pages