Managing an eCommerce Build (Part 2): Select a solution and integrator

You are in charge of building the eCommerce shop in your company, or more probably, migrating from the current outdated shop to a new one.

In the previous article of this series, we’ve covered the first step: drafting your requirements. We recommend starting with that article if you haven’t read it already.

So far, you’ve completed the first step from the ones outlined below:

Draft your requirements
Select a solution and solution integrator
Project planning & kickoff
Build phase
UAT & Launch

With a clear set of requirements, you can now choose the best solution for your shop as well as the solution integrator you’ll work with on building it. Along with the requirements, this is probably the most critical step in the build. Selecting a solution that’s not right for you can be costly while making bad decisions with the solution integrator you choose can lead to lots of frustrations.

Select a solution

Depending on your level of experience, this might be a difficult decision to make. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

We recommend you make a list of the potential solutions and start discussing your requirements with potential integrators specializing in each of those solutions. Alternatively, you could hire an eCommerce consultant to help you through this process; that consultant should not be an integrator himself, as it might skew this advice towards his solution.

You have two possible solution types for you to choose from:

Custom development using an Open Source platform
Software-as-a-Service

Custom Development

In this approach, you would hire a solution integrator specialized in one or multiple open-source platforms to create a bespoke design, integrate it onto that platform, develop all the custom functionality you require, and deploy your solution into production.

The most popular platforms are:

Magento
Shopware
OROCommerce
PrestaShop
WooCommerce

Magento is probably the best choice if your shop is a $1M+ in yearly sales, but Shopware is also a good alternative. For B2B, besides Magento and Shopware, oroCommerce is also a good alternative. PrestaShop and WooCommerce might be an acceptable choice if you’re building a small shop, but in that case, any SaaS platform would probably be a much better option.

SaaS Solutions

Most SaaS solutions advertise as being Do-It-Yourself, however building a shop is hard. So you’ll need to hire a team that specializes in that platform, yet the budgets are much lower than with a custom build.

The most popular solutions are:

Shopify Plus
BigCommerce
… and of course, our very own Zento

With Shopify and BigCommerce you’ll need to hire an agency to help you with your build, while at Zento we have that covered in the setup fee. Zento also offers you the advantage of being built on Magento 2 Open-Source.

To read more about the Pros and Cons of SaaS, we recommend you read our article: Pros and Cons of SaaS

Selecting a solution integrator

You’ll probably have one or more solutions selected, perhaps both open-source and SaaS, so now it’s time to pick a solution integrator to work with on building your shop.

Research

For SaaS solutions, you can read their presentations, feature descriptions, and case studies to evaluate whether they look to be a good option for your business needs. As for solution integrators, you can look at their portfolio and business presentations and see if they’re a good fit.

Reach out

With the long list in hand, you can send over the RFP you’ve prepared. If your RFP contains confidential information, you should probably write a brief version you can share up-front, and then, as discussions advance, sign an NDA and send over the full RFP.

You can already eliminate from your list the companies that don’t respond promptly or are not professional in their response.

Initial calls

Next, set up meetings or video calls to discuss your project. After outlining your business needs, see what solutions they propose and how well they understand your business. Ask why they think the platform they’re working with is a better choice than other solutions you’ve considered and ask how expensive would the shop be to maintain.

After this step, you can eliminate the companies that presented themselves poorly and that you don’t see yourself hiring. Be professional and let them know that you decided to go another way.

Proposals & Evaluation

Finally, ask the remaining shortlist of companies to formulate a proposal based on your RFP.

In the proposals they send over, look for how well they described and understood the needs you’ve outlined in your RFP, what solution they proposed for your needs, and how they covered everything you’ve outlined. Look at the quality of the proposal and the attention to detail, as that will most probably translate into the way they’ll do the work as well.

Eliminate the proposals that are way outside your budget and the ones that have the red-flags mentioned above. For the remaining ones, ask for an agreement draft, so while you make the final selection, you can also review the legal agreement.

Take the final list to the stakeholders inside your company, deliberate, and don’t hesitate to set up additional calls with the remaining companies to help you make a final decision.

After signing the contract with the winner, notify the companies you haven’t selected that you’ve chosen another solution. Thank them for their effort, and explain in a couple of paragraphs the reason for your decision.

Conclusion

Choosing a solution and integrator to work with is not easy. You should look at both SaaS and Open-Source platforms and have as many discussions as you can so that the decision you’ll make will be an informed one.

In the next article, we’ll continue with how to set up the project, monitor its progress, and finally launch your live site.