I've built my own E-commerce + ERP + CRM solution. Commercial version = good idea?
I'm an entrepreneur, marketer but also a full stack developer.
I wasn't satisfied by the features of the off-the-shelf solutions (not to name 5 to 6 digit pricing for ERP systems), I needed a better and tighter integrated one. So during the last few years I've written my own complete solution from scratch.
I have my own custom CMS, and on top of that I've built my own shopping cart, but also an ERP + CRM system. It is a proprietary, completely integrated solution; all orders from the website go straight into the CRM and ERP sections, even if residing on different servers (public website on an public host, ERP on the Intranet). So you can invoice them with a click, or manage customers with the CRM module, again with a click. One of the other benefits of the system is that it can work in a distributed fashion. You can even feed products and orders back and forth from ERP and CRM to multiple sites in whatever geographical locations.
So basically it's a one-does-it-all solution, built to be fast and flexible. You don't need another program, not even a website if you want, it's all included. The product's target would be small to medium enterprises. It will also integrate with WordPress sites if necessary, via a plugin. On the longer run, also with other CMS platforms.
Regarding features, here are some examples.
You can build a website, track conversions, track visitors and everything, even share resource across multiple websites or domains, using the built-in CMS. Then list products, create a custom shopping cart, get orders, manage stock inventory, prepare and print receipts, invoices and pro-forma, local, import and export invoices, manage customers, sales reports, and so on. The ERP even has some neat useful plugins like calendar/reminder, label printing (printing custom labels for packaging), tracking cheques, customs tariff codes, package weight calculation, automatic currency exchange ratio update, multiple companies, multiple departments, multiple inventories per company, transfers, ISO9001 document management, managing employees, ticketing/sales tracking, and a lot of other features I'm not going to mention because this is a long list already. One of the significant advantages of the system is that it's built for speed and volume, handling 1000's of SKU's, 1000's of orders, and so on. It has been in internal daily use for 2 years already without any issues.
My question to you is the following.
Do you think it is worth offering this solution as a commercial product (under SaaS model)? And what would the potential target be?
I'm not sure what the potential of my solution is, and where to aim with it, given the fact that there are so many other solutions out there already. There could be more than one customer segment to focus on with this one.
In few words, I'm looking into offering a fully managed, ready-to-use solution that includes hosting and everything. (The main advantages being, ready-to-use, fully integrated E-commerce + ERP solution, cross-platform (browser based), fast and reliable, distributed model / remote data sync, and the possibility of further customization based on customer request).
Any tips would be appreciated, thanks!
Not sure what ecommerce solution to use? Watch my video walk through of popular shopping carts.