Outsourced Ecommerce partner vs In house ecommerce development

[ajhendel]

I was wondering what people's thoughts about outsourcing are when it comes to building an online website. Is the ease of an out sourced solution worth sacrificing a percent of your revenue? I want to build a site that allows for downloadable goods, starts downloads after purchase, gives customers a secure area where they can redownload the goods they already purchased another time over the next years, and is extremely secure to prevent anti-piracy. I was looking at a company called DigitalRiver.com. They seem to be very good with digital goods. What are other people's thoughts on this company. Does outsourcing require you to have too much dependency on your partner? Are there many disadvantages to using a Java server side language. What is best for marketing and search engine optimization?

[JuggoPop]

Those are a bunch of questions to answer... I don't know anything about the company you are asking about... I don't have much of an opinion on the other questions either... except one.

I have used cubecart shopping cart software in the past. And there is a add-on available for purchase from outside developers that allows for payment to download options. Once they pay they get an email with a download link. The link I think can be set to a time period that it is good for... this is to help against piracy but it also limits the time they can come back to download it again.

it might be possible to have it request a new link from the logged in state... not sure though.

Hope this helps a little... maybe someone else can help you further with the other questions.

[cimmeron]

If I remember right, Digital River handles everything for you, correct? From delivery to customer support on the products? I have purchased items from companies using Digital River (some software, I can't recall what) but I do remember thinking they did an excellent job.

The only thing I would consider would be your customer. When they purchase from you, business X and then get their product and support from business Y, does this make them doubt your company? I know it doesn't really bother me, but I work in this business, so to speak, so I kind of expect it.

From the other side, I've worked for several online companies providing downloadable products and services and done their customer support. It is time consuming and it can cost quite a bit of money, especially with customers that need a lot of hand holding.

I think for a business just starting out, without a staff in place, systems, etc., a company like Digital River is a good way to go. I think for larger companies, doing it yourself is better, however. I hope that helped a bit?

Deb