eCommerce and Web Portals: Everything You Need to Know

There are so many moving parts when it comes to selling anything online. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling services, subscription boxes, or products that go through an extensive delivery process. You need a way to sell your products and ensure the safety of your customer’s information. eCommerce websites and web portals are the keys to executing a successful online business.

What is the Distinction between an eCommerce Website and a Web Portal?

An eCommerce website and a web portal at first blush seem like the same thing. You need a place for your customers to go and purchase the products they need. So why is this so difficult? Well, many business owners don’t realize that what they actually need is both. Businesses need a way to introduce customers to products, and for the customer’s to see their purchases, and other personal information securely. Yes, an eCommerce website and a web portal can and often do work interpedently, but they are still different. Below you can read a little more directly on the function of each, the website and the web portal.

Website

A website is any location online that is accessible through a URL or web address. Anyone can access a website and see the posted content. But an eCommerce website is the digital storefront for a company. Now you can’t just open a website with your host and get to work processing credit card transactions. It does take some effort and investment to get an eCommerce site up and running. Many businesses use websites to host their eCommerce stores and introduce new people to their products. Websites often play a vital role in the early stages of any company’s sales strategy. When designing or building your website, you’ll want to consider aspects such as speed, bounce rates, and many front-end elements. You want something that users can easily navigate, but also making related information readily available.

Pros of Using an eCommerce Website:

• Access to new customers

• Secure transactions

• Reduced distribution chain

• The potential for customer anonymity

• Fewer updates compared to a portal

Cons of Using an eCommerce Website:

• Customers cannot review their past purchases

• No ‘personalized’ shopping experience

• Possibility of fraud

Web Portal

Web portals seem like intuitive parts of a website, but they stand on their own. A web portal will stand-in as the dashboard for the customer although you can hire a developer to build a portal for you that’s often time-consuming and ultimately disappointing .

Instead, the best way to handle a web portal is to use a company as a resource that can create a website that serves as a web portal. It should be able to both capture information and provide access to information online.

A portal will almost always have:

• Personal logins for users

• Restricted viewing of personal content such as purchase orders or receipts.

• Secure access for personal information

• More frequent updates

• Fluid interaction

There’s also the aspect to consider that a portal usually requires a substantial amount of “back-end” work. Usually, businesses use portals when they’re catering to a very distinct group of people. That’s why it’s best suited for business to business or B2B activities.

When designing a portal, you want to consider how the users will use it. You’ll also want to consider the security aspects such as encryptions and HTTPS login.

Pros of Using a Web Portal:

• The base of a Customer Relationship Management system

• Sales tracking

• Inventory management with 3^rd party software

• More reliable data from customers

Cons of Using a Web Portal:

• Content only reaches registered users

• Limited or no access to new customers

Read about the 7 Fata Mistakes when Implementing Sage Software or a Self-Service Customer Portal.

The Big Picture

So, the big picture view is that your website is a place for customers to visit, and they can purchase items through the website. But when it comes time for them to sign in and view their information what they’re accessing is a web portal.

The clear problem here is how to provide safe, secure, and accurate information from your database and to your customers. The solution is employing a combination of software solutions.

eCommerce websites and web portals work through very specific steps:

1. A website and/or web portal

2. Use of a database for orders, customer information, and inventory.

3. An SSL certificate

4. 3^rd party applications for payment processing

5. 3^rd party applications to connect the database to the web portal

The Website and Portal Connection

Third party applications are the solution for hosting a web portal for your clients, whether it’s B2B or B2C.  CertiPro Solutions helps companies help businesses bridge the communication gap between company databases and web portals.

CertriPro’s E-Link integration creates a website portal for customers, then uses Magento eCommerce to create a website. Finally, they use Sage Software, a popular software solution for businesses of any size.

Sage Software handles payments, business management including inventory and even basic accounting needs. It also provides more human elements such as customer data and tracks shipments. Although this information is vital for you, many businesses forget that their customers want this information too. For B2B activities, having access to this information may be critical for a client sticking with your services.

Using this combination of software solutions, Magento eCommerce will extract data from Sage Software and then display it finally on the web portal.

The bridged communication works two-ways, where portal users can also interact and submit information into Sage Software as well.

Conclusion

An eCommerce website can work for well for some businesses that operate an online storefront. A web portal is wonderful for some companies that operate exclusively with established clients and most likely in B2B capacities.

At the end of the day, many businesses need an eCommerce website, a web portal and at least two 3^rd party applications to bridge the gap between website, database, and portal.

CertriPro helps many companies with their e-Commerce solutions. They work with a variety of software solutions to guide any company in need in the right direction. Contact us today to get your company’s eCommerce platform running right away.