Final research paper

Then started sharing my idea with my best friend, Stalin Gomes, who is currently studying at Bridgeport University in Connecticut and is also a under Of this company. He also shared a similar idea and we started working towards building our company in 2010. Then we named it â€Å"Athletic Footwear†. Our company's USPS is â€Å"The best you can have†. We are committed to provide our customers with varieties of top quality footwear. We are working with all the top athletic footwear brands like Nikkei, Aids, Rebook, Puma, New Balance, Gender Armor, Acacias, Sketchers, Vans and Umbra to bring all the new gears to our customers.Our company's marketing targets are runners, athletics, sneaker lovers and others. Our company's top priority ND goal is to provide the best customer service possible and going global. We want to run our business successfully and also want to go international. To reach our goal we need a very successful website and to make it; we need storefront softw are that offers us similar options and services we are looking for. In the article, Starting an online store made easy and ‘really sexy': E- commerce TTY McMahon and DOD Jones talk about the future of e-commerce.They wrote, â€Å"A whole new era of e-commerce is emerging – one where just about anyone can create high-end, custom branded online stores for next to thing. This is being made possible by a crop of emerging online e- commerce platforms backed by venture capital† (McMahon & Jones 2011). These days it's very tricky to find the right storefront software as there are so many storefront software offering different features like hosting, design, pricing and payment options, marketing tools, reports etc.There are also many fake web builders which might be harmful for businesses. The purpose of my research is to find the right storefront software for building a website for our business. The research that I have completed describes the important features that we need to consider when choosing storefront software. Below I have detailed each key features required for building a perfect website for my business. Also, I have selected three storefront software and compared their key features. At the end I have chosen the best one for my business.IMPORTANT STOREFRONT FEATURES FOR BUILDING A WEBSITE There are a lot of different storefront software companies these days offering different options and services. The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a storefront software is our business needs, like it loudest make sense to use a smaller web hosting if we are building a huge website that requires multiple servers, it wouldn't make sense to pay for a lot of storage and features that we are not going to use if we are launching a small blob. I have decided to compare key features between three storefront software. They are Spiffy, Evolution and Precision Web Hosting.The important features that I have chosen to write about are unlimited w eb hosting, customizable web design, 24/ 7 customer service & security, shopping cart & payment options, product management, marketing & SEE, bile commerce and social media connectivity. Kari Fabian writes, â€Å"This type of application should help you design your website, upload and manage your inventory, connect to a shopping cart, and provide secure payment options to your customers† (commerce Software Review 2014). UNLIMITED WEB HOSTING Unlimited web hosting is the most important feature for building a website.I Want to expand my business in domestic level and also internationally, so it's very important for me to choose storefront software that offers unlimited web hosting. Spiffy and Evolution both offers unlimited be hosting but precision web offers very limited web hosting. In the article, Spiffy; The brains behind the online business the author writes, â€Å"Spiffy takes care of coding storage, backup servers, security and payment administration, in return for a su bscription fee and, with basic plans, a fee on each transaction† (Canadian Business 2011).Spiffy offers Content Delivery Network (CDC) which is large network of servers placed across the world to ensure that customers can load any website store quickly, no matter where they are. According to the article, For busy Evolution, e-business is good, Lori Hopkins talks about the features of Evolution. He writes, ‘Evolution helps businesses build their websites, update product information, offer online coupons, handle credit card transactions and track inventory, all in one place.Its social shopping feature lets customers add e-commerce stores to their Faceable and Namespace fan pages† (Hopkins 2010). Evolution also offers CDC, powered by Zamia, consists of tens of thousands of servers across the globe, allowing shoppers to access any site at lightning speed. Precision Web Hosting doesn't have servers all around the web, shoppers can't have access o all sites and also some loads slowly. That is a clear negative side of Precision Web Hosting as I want to expand my business globally. Ant my customers to access my website from any part of the world at lightning speed. All three storefront software also offer mobile common:e feature which lets users pull up smart phone ready storefronts. Evolution and Spiffy come with multiple hosted email accounts to help business owners communicate with customers. These web-based accounts allow owners to access their messages any†here they have an internet connection. On the there hand Precision Web Hosting comes with very few hosted email accounts to help business owners communicate with customers.I want to communicate with my customers so that I can let them know about new merchandise and sales, so think Evolution and Spiffy are in a better position in this case than Precision Web Hosting. CUSTOMIZABLE WEB DESIGN Choosing storefront software that offers customizable web design is also very important for a build ing a perfect website. In this feature we can customize our web page just as we want it or choose from different readmes templates to make it user friendly and website attractive.Spiffy offers â€Å"Spiffy Theme Store† which hosts a collection of over 1 00 premium and free commerce templates. The Theme Store includes professional looking templates for cloth ins & fashion, jewelry, electronics, art & photography, and other types of commerce sites. According to spiffy, many of the commerce templates found in the Spiffy Theme Store have been created by world-renown designers including happy cog, clearest and pixel union.On the other hand, Evolution offers dozens of free, ready-to-use templates by which we can make our website shine in less than sixty seconds y choosing from any of our high-quality commerce templates. With a wide variety of free templates to choose from, we will have a stylishly professional site that's sure to impress our customers. They also offer custom design and branding services to make businesses look unique. Precision Web Hosting also offers some similar services but a bit limited. They don't have options to design larger websites.They have limited ready to use templates and customizing options. I want to expand my business and also go international and for that I need storefront software, which is going to offer me to expand thou charging me more. Based on this information I think Spiffy and Evolution have better web customizing options then precision Web Hosting. 24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE & SECURITY One very important feature to look at when selecting storefront software is 24/7 customer service and security from the storefront software company to protect the website and also function properly.Security is very important these days. Especially with increased threats of online fraud and identify theft. In the article, Evolution; Evolution announces credit card fraud protection service for online store owners the writer wrote, † In 2009, the umber of personal records that hackers exposed – data like Social Security numbers, medical records and credit card information tied to an individual – exceeded 220 million records, compared with 35 million in 2008†³ (Information technology business 2010). Evolution, spiffy and Precision Web Hosting offers secure and flexible commerce hosting.They offer PC/Clips-certified securities which are dedicated to keep our site's most sensitive sales and customer data safe from harmful activities. But Precision Web Hosting doesn't have 24/7 customer service. As Precision Web Hosting doesn't have 24/7 customer service, think it's not perfect for my business because I want my customers to get 24/7 customer service so that they are ready to do business with my company over and over again. SHOPPING CART & PAYMENT OPTIONS Another very important feature we need to consider when choosing storefront software is shopping cart.Evolution, Spiffy and Precision Web Hosting a ll accept credit cards. With Spiffy Payments, set up is instant, so we can accept Visa, Mastered and American Express the minute we launch our shop. Spiffy offers a low credit card rate, and no hidden fee. Evolution offers legible payment options. We can accept a variety of payment options including credit cards, Papal, Google payments and international currencies. Precision Web Hosting also offers different payment options like credit cards and Papal. Evolution, Spiffy and Precision Web Hosting all offer flexible and simple shipping options.Spiffy has shipping rates that can be set up in a number of different ways, including fixed-price, tiered, weight-based and location-based rates. Also, unlimited plan users can receive automatic shipping rates from major shipping carriers like LASS, USPS and Fed. While Evolution and Precision Web Hosting also has similar features but Spiffy has better product management and product tracking options. So, Spiffy is the best option to setup a shopp ing cart for our business website. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT Products make up the business of commerce.A great range of products keeps customers coming back for more. But adding thousands of products is not an easy task and is often vulnerable to errors. Also delivering and keeping track of the product is also a very important task. Spiffy have Track product inventory option through which they can help us avoid selling rodents that have run out of stock, or let us know when we need to order or make more of our product. Evolution has mass import service which can do exceedingly fast product setup and we can relax as their skilled data feed managers guarantee us error free product updates.While Precision Web has a very limited product management service with no product tracking options. As I am going to expand my business in the feature I will have more products and to track them need a storefront software that has good product management service. So, think Precision Web is not a good option for my business. MARKETING & SEE Marketing and SEE is another very important feature that we need to consider when choosing a effective storefront software for our business. SEE stands for search engine optimization.Spiffy, Evolution both offers advanced SEE built right into our store, we can earn higher organic rankings in Google, Bingo and other search engines. Also, they automatically help to earn rich snippet displays like Star ratings, pricing and stock Status in organic search results. Evolution also offers their customers to sell their products on Amazon and eBay. On the other hand, Precision Web also offers similar eaters like Spiffy and Evolution but are limited. They don't options for selling in Amazon and eBay.Spiffy, Evolution and Precision web all offers email marketing options which helps customers to know about all the latest updates and discounts of the business. I am looking for the best marketing and SEE featured software and I think Spiffy and Evolution are very good options to choose from. MOBILE COMMERCE These days almost 30% of the commerce sales are made through a mobile device. Spiffy plan includes a free, built-in mobile commerce shopping cart. This means our customers can browse and buy from our store hill on the go, using any mobile phone from anywhere.Also, we can manage our store on the go and choose from beautiful mobile responsive themes. Evolution also helps shoppers buy from businesses anytime, an)Where by delivering a completely mobile optimized experience, from browsing all the way to checkout. Instead of making shoppers fumble through the site with their thumbs, site will be fully compatible with any smart phone or tablet device. In Precision web shopping cart automatically re-sizes the Shop template to fit mobile Screen resolutions but doesn't have beautiful mobile themes to choose from. So, I think Precision Web is not a good choice for my business.