There are over 250 million online shoppers in North America. The convenience of shopping at home or even on a mobile device is becoming the norm. This includes searching, registering, and paying for sports and recreation activities. Taking your organization online with e-commerce can cut down on administrative time and expenses and make life easier for your clients. Before you dive in and purchase a solution, it's important to understand that your needs are unique and simply cannot be fulfilled by traditional e-commerce platforms. This slideshare will help you navigate the many options involved in selecting an e-commerce solution that's right for you. For more information on choosing an e-commerce platform, download our free ebook: Choosing an E-commerce Platform. http://info.amilia.com/ebook_choosing_an_e-commerce_platform

2. In today's tech-obsessed world,
more and more people are going
for products and
services.

3. This includes ,
, and for sports
and recreation activities.

4. Your needs are and simply
cannot be fulfilled by traditional
e-commerce platforms.

6. There are over online
shoppers in North America.

7. The e-commerce platform you
choose should offer a complete
online store with an .

8. Your clients should be able to
purchase all activities, memberships,
merchandise, virtual goods, tickets,
etc…and give you a donation all in
the .

9. If the e-commerce platform
deviates from the
, it will confuse your
clients and they will abandon the
transaction.

11. One of the biggest benefits to
adopting an e-commerce
platform for your organization
will be the
.

12. However, it is equally important
that the platform allows you to
also be paid later by or
.

14. One of the most unique aspects
of your organization is the fact
that you interact with
all the time.

15. Therefore, the e-commerce platform
you choose needs to support both
.

17. The e-commerce platform should
support the way you present and
sell your activities.

18. • Pre and registration period
• Prerequisite (gender, age, skill levels, etc…)
• Schedule
• Capacity
• Resources (coach, place, etc…)
• Restriction (competitive vs recreational)

19. You might need to know if the
participant has allergies, a medical
condition, emergency contact
information,and sometimes social
security numbers if the activity is
entitled to tax credits.

20. The e-commerce platform you choose
provides real-time information on
availability and allows you to manage
waiting lists for future cancellations or
additional availability.

21. Make sure the e-commerce platform
you choose allows you to easily create
and manage groups. It will
significantly cut your administrative
tasks and your clients will love being
informed regularly.

22. There are a lot of potential promotion
opportunities specific to sports and
recreation organizations that could
be used to increase your revenues

23. You should be able to automatically
calculate the promotion at checkout
and recalculate when there is a
change such as a registration
cancellation, merchandise return, etc.

24. These should all be sent automatically
by the e-commerce platform and they
should include your specific
information and terms and conditions.

25. The ability to track accounts
receivable, send account statements,
write notes, add transactions, manage
and create groups is an important
feature you should look for.

26. You need to easily track and analyze
your sales, orders, and payments to
see what activities, merchandise,
etc… are selling — and which ones
aren't.

27. It is important that you can easily
any report the platform
offers to excel and/or your
accounting software.

28. The platform should allow you
communicate one-on-one with your
clients as well as mass email them

29. For an SEO friendly store, your
platform should support best practices
like customizable H1, title and meta
tags and SEO friendly urls.

30. Your online store needs to deliver a
consistent experience whether
serving five concurrent users or
5,000.

31. You should inquire if your platform
provider application runs on a single
code base or has to maintain
separate physical infrastructure for
each customer

32. Make sure the platform you choose
offers the best in data security, and
has rock-solid procedures in place to
guarantee the highest level of
application security.

33. Your provider should offer support by
phone or by email. They should have
an issue tracking system to ensure
that every issue is tracked until it
reaches a resolution that’s
satisfactory to you.

34. More importantly, your e-commerce
platform provider should have great
.

35. Now it’s time to take the next step,
and start compiling your list of “must
haves” and “nice to haves.”

36. Once these lists are complete,
start interviewing and evaluating
e-commerce software providers.

37. Amilia provides organization management tools designed
to meet the e-commerce needs of today's social
organizations. If you would like more information on what
Amilia has to offer or would like a free consultation for
your organization visit www.amilia.com today and
request a demo!