The current situation demands that “your customer” gets easier access to their needs. By offering easy ordering, ensuring safe distancing, and enabling online payments, customers can save time and enjoy a hassle-free experience. The best way to overcome this challenge today is to go online and make your customers!

The Decision

The decision to choose the right e-commerce solution for your business is never easy!!

The E-Commerce industry is currently worth $4.8 trillion, projected to increase to $5.4 trillion by 2022. Business owners planning to start their E-Commerce business often imagine a website where they can list products and expect revenue to start rolling in. To drive traffic and boost sales, it takes strategic marketing, user engagement, and ongoing optimization. Creating a digital presence requires the same level of strategic thinking and planning process.

Business owner looks for the best E-Commerce platform, where they can operate core features, integrate new features, and 3rd party tools seamlessly.

There are a variety of options available in the market to help you sell your products online. Look for options that can delight your customers, run flawlessly, and fulfill orders in the fastest and most affordable way possible.

Choosing the right development approach to align with your business strategy is essential for success : 

1. Cost of solution: Cost of solution is not just the cost in which it would be developed. There are Direct & In-Direct cost like Cost of Upgrades, Infrastructure, Maintenance, Support etc.
   
   
2. Time to Develop: Solution development time should correlate with your Time to Market strategy
   
   
3. Solution Scalability: Can the product grow as your business grows? There should be option for starting small, yet a facility to make it big.
   
   
4. Solution adapts to Business Model: The solution should adopt to your Business needs and not the other way around. 
   
   
5. Data Ownership: Who owns the Data? Ownership and Compliance of Data & Privacy is very critical in this age.
   
   
6. Control over Technology: How much control you have over the technology in your business? As your business grows, control over the product becomes critical if you want to scale effectively.
   
   
7. Ease of Operation: Does the solution allow for Ease of Operation & Inter- operability? A solution has multiple type of users and platforms it can be used from. The user experience for all user group becomes critical.
   
   
8. Integration with 3rd Party Tools: Does the solution have the ability to integrated with 3rd Party? Integrating with existing or new external system like POS, Inventory, Book keeping etc is critical. The solution should allow for such an openness with other systems.
   
   
9. Solution Support & Upgrades: Does the solution provide for Support, Upgrades? Development is just a beginning. A great post development support and continuous upgrades is necessary for growing business.

What are the different types of E-Commerce solutions available in the market?

• Bespoke Solution
• Open-source Solutions
• SaaS Platform
• Clones
• White-Label Platforms

These platforms come with their own set of Pros and Cons. Look below at the comparison:

	Bespoke	Open-source	SaaS	Clones	White-Label
Definition	Custom Development	Solution like WooCommerce, Magento	Platform like Shopify, Yelo etc	Companies offering Clones of solutions	Product which has the ability to White-Label / Brand the solution as per Business
Pros	Best possible functionality Ownership of Source code	Lot of themes and plugins available for quick development and cost effective Highly Customizable	Tried and Tested model Lower entry cost Lot of features to adopt No infrastructure cost	These companies will offer you such clone at a very low cost Ownership of the Source code	Branded Solution Ownership of Data Low Cost
Cons	High Cost Longer Time to develop	No readymade mobile solution	Hidden cost Issues with GDPR/ Data compliance Not customizable Mobile App will not be a branded solution No ownership of Source code and data	Usually such firm download these clone code from open-source/ Github repository and add a UI wrapper around it Outdated versions / technology No customization available	No ownership of Source code

 

Look at the below Decision Matrix and find a solution which is a good fit for your business model,

No	Parameters	Bespoke	Open-source	SaaS	Clones	Lokaly
1	Cost of solution	Cost of solution will be very high	Web cost will be Low as themes & plugins available. Mobile App would be costly	Hidden charges for transaction, and other activities	Low cost of solution	No hidden cost, Low to Medium cost of solution
2	Time to Develop	Very long development time	Low to medium time to develop	Low time to adopt	Low time to adopt	Low time to adopt
3	Solution Scalability	Yes	Yes there would be different pricing models	No as it would be one time sale	Yes, we have modular approach
4	Solution adapts to Business Model	Product adopts to your Business Model	Product adopts to your Business Model	Business adopts to the Product	Business adopts to the Product	Product adopts to your Business Model
5	Data Ownership	Customer	Customer	Mostly the SaaS platform would own	Customer	Customer
6	Control over Technology	Full control with the ownership of the source code & data	Full control with the ownership of the source code as per Open source license & data	Least control of all model. Saas will not offer any customization & you will not own the code	Full control with the ownership of the source code & data	IPR/Source Code with Lokaly.
7	Ease of Operation	Yes	Yes	Yes	efficiency is low	Yes
8	Integration with 3rd Party Tools	Yes	Yes	Limited as per their list	Yes	Yes
9	Solution Support & Upgrades	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Upgrades

Lokaly

1. we focus on these differences to create a distinct experience for every user.

2. Product should be offered at an affordable cost and quick turnaround
3. Should be able to fit a small to larger venture using modular approach
   
   
4. Product should have an openness to integrate with existing/ new tools

The code developed for Lokaly is from scratch with no open source or copied code base which gives us complete knowledge and control over the development.

What do we cover:

	Aggregator Business Model (Marketplace with Store listing enabled)
	Single Brand Store (Single or Multi location)
	Pure Ecommerce Flow (3rd Party Courier Delivery Integration)
	Hyperlocal Ecommerce Flow (Self Delivery, 3rd Party Delivery)
	Dark-flow Ecommerce (Fulfillment WH, Multiple Suppliers)

Applications

	Customer Application	Business Application	Point of Sale	Driver Application	Picker Application	Dine-In Application
WEB
MOBILE
TABLET

What Lokaly Offers?

• Complete White-label Solution with customized & branded solution on App Store
• Your own Marketplace subscription model
• Business Hours, Order Settings, Delivery Settings
• SMS Alerts on Order receipt & processing
• Custom offers & discounts at store level
• Online Payment Integration
• Flexible Licensing model: One-Time License / Subscription Monthly Model
• Modular Functionality to allow solution to grow as your business grows
• Wide variety of store type

Core Modules

 

Add-On Modules

 

 

Pricing Model

 

Clientele