The Right Approach for Your Online Business
Having the right tech stack in place can be a game changer for any business - it can provide you with an agility to have an edge over the competition in the marketplace, serve your consumers better, and help you grow in revenue. Talking about the eCommerce space, the right type of solution for your business can be one of the most important decisions you will make, and it can be a challenging task as the options available are vastly different. Some prefer the traditional legacy to configure, while others prefer the services-based option that you can build to your specific needs. The answer to which one would be better, however depends on your business needs and varies business to business.
In this article, we’ll give you a brief overview of what it means to work with a configurable commerce platform versus building with a customizable commerce platform, key criteria for choosing one and how Misiki plays a role in helping you to achieve your ideal state.
Configurable Commerce Platform
A configurable commerce platform provides the brands with a bundled set of functionality to drive their online commerce business. All of these functionality are usually developed and deployed by a single vendor and packaged together as a single unit, for brands to leverage its pre-built/out-of-the-box functionality to get up and running quickly.
Traditional eCommerce platforms will have an end to end solution that include features from storefronts, content management, and search to shopping carts, order management and shipping and fulfillment.
What to Expect When Working With a Configurable eCommerce Platform?
The platform costs less than services based solutions.
One centralized vendor to turn to for everything you need.
Pre-integrated features have easy usability.
Little or no technical background required to operate the platform.
However, the more customizations and complex requirements your brand has to address, the more these benefits dissipate. They provide eCommerce teams with fields and templates that allow them to customize and configure their eCommerce experiences to a certain degree within their guidelines. However, trying to veer from the predefined box they have outlined for you, your eCommerce teams are forced to spend more time and money configuring your platform to your unique requirements. So how do you know if this option will be right for you?
Should I go for a configurable platform for my business?
You must check for the following before considering a configurable platform:
You want a standard store up and running fast
You need a straight-forward store for selling standard goods or services (e.g. t-shirts via website only)
You want to develop your store all by yourself
You are convinced that the provided themes and templates sufficiently meet your requirements
You want to leverage all eCommerce functionality via one vendor
If at least 50% of these considerations resonate with you then a configurable platform may be a good fit. If you want a better idea of whether or not a configurable platform may be right for your business, take our platform evaluation quizand get expert advice from the Misiki team.
Customizable Commerce Platform
A customizable commerce platform provides the best-in-class services to deliver all the functionality you would have previously gotten exclusively from your out-of-the-box eCommerce platform.It provides all the capabilities commonly included in a traditional configurable eCommerce platform, such as order management, inventory management etc.
Modern customizable solutions include vendors such as Misiki, Commercetools, VTEX and Fabric. This means that while you can achieve an end to end solution with these platforms you and your team and/or hired agency will be responsible for building your unique solution.
What To Expect When Working With A Customizable Commerce Platform?
To have the best service for each eCommerce functionality.
To build your solution you want.
A high degree of flexibility to customize your eCommerce experiences.
A higher platform cost, but a significantly lower cost to make changes to your solution.
To be able to work with a variety of developers to bring your unique requirements to life.
Should I go for a Customizable Commerce Platform for my business?
You must check for the following before considering a customizable ecommerce platform.
You want your eCommerce solution to your exact requirements, not configure a template.
You have a technical team, systems integrator or agency to help with building your solution.
You rely on your brand to differentiate you in the market.
You have an eCommerce strategy that includes multiple business models (e.g. B2B, B2C, and/or B2B2C), use cases, experiences, etc.
You want to rapidly adjust your eCommerce solution to outpace competitors and meet market needs.
You want to enable omnichannel experiences with one solution.
You want to leverage complex configurations and settings.
If at least 50% of these considerations resonate with you then a services-based solution may be a good fit. If you want a better idea of whether or not a services-based solution may be right for your business, take our platform evaluation quizand get expert advice from the Misiki team.
Where Does Misiki Fall On the Platform Spectrum?
Misiki leverages a customizable approach to empower brands to build their Composable Commerce solutions. Composable Commerce is an approach that enables business and tech teams to bring their brand’s unique digital vision to life by launching and continuously optimizing digital commerce experiences that leverage multiple best-of-breed vendors composed together into a complete, business ready solution.
Therefore, when you choose to work with Misiki, you no longer have to compromise between the speed of configurable, out-of-the-box platforms and complexity of customizable solutions. This is all made possible by 3 main components of the Misiki Offering:
The Core Commerce Solution
Misiki Commerce Cloud offers a Composable, omnichannel architecture which is designed with simplicity to allow you to go for any use case
Business Ready Solutions
At Misiki we offer a modern vendor marketplace that provides business-ready solutions so that the businesses can move with the speed of their business demands. Not only can small vendors start their own online store, but also can serve as a sub store under a pre formed store.
Solution Assurance
Misiki offers assurance which gives brands who are embracing a multi-vendor approach an absolute peace of mind.
We truly hope this helped you to better understand how to choose between configuring an out-of-the-box platform and building a customizable commerce solution. As always if you have any questions or just want to learn more about how Misiki can help you to achieve your business goals, feel free to reach out to us!