e-commerce server suite
E-commerce companies basically have two options to create their commercial web presence: They can choose to program their own solution or use a third-party e- commerce server suite.
If they program their own, they can integrate various software applications into their e-commerce architecture; if they use third-party software for the e-commerce suite, they have to rely on the provider's complete solution.
An e-commerce server suite, or merchant server softwarepackage, provides a completely integrated environment for an e-commerce solution. This includes all the relevant functions required by an e-commerce offering on the Internet. Decision criteria for selecting the right e-commerce server suite provider include costs, scalability, support functions and times, and reporting and analysis tools.