Hi-New Ecommerce Platform

print2group -

You are going to have some challenges on the "price to tailored size"...I've been in the eComm industry for over a decade now and have only seen 2 elegant solutions for this - both custom developed.

That said - let's talk how you charge your customer for these "tailored" offerings.  Is it based on the amount of tailoring that needs to be done, a volume of material used, or timeline to delivery (urgency)?

If you can "group" the variations together
(option 1:  1-2 alterations, option 2: 2-4 alterations) you can use almost ANY ecommerce platform that supports multiple product options - commonly referred to as "Style, Color, Size".

As far as your email marketing needs - there are 2 ways in which email has to interact with your website.  The first is managing and executing on PROMOTIONS CODES.  These codes are (ideally) passed through a link and will dynamically apply promotions to that specific users website visit.  This is genreally managed by your ecomm platorm or (preferably) your integrated back-end order management system (if you are multi-channel).

For "tracking" - your best results are going to be through a web analytics tool...a "snap on" to any ecomm platform.  At this point it really depends on what you want to see and do with the data (Automated shopping cart/check out abandonement, engagement based product targeting in email- i,e, "your customer was recently looking at ____" - these strategies require an "up market" tool - Webtrends and Coremetrics - there are some preium ecomm platform that support his as well).

In closing - I would just make sure to know EXACTLY what you need/want/desire from a business requirements standpoint.  If your clientele are of a more "premium" level - website personalization may be important (a "My Personal Shopper" style experience). 

You can build the platform of your dreams on a tighter budget by simply stitching together different components (SLI Systems for site search and navigation/merchandising, a lower cost "basket" tool for order capture - assuming the style color size approach can be made to work). One of the big issues you need to assess is what happens once I submit the order?

Back office...everyone neglects this.  Do the order flow in automatically or manually?  How will order capture impact your accounting systems?  Do you do any unique promotions or payment methods (vouchers, coupons, loyalty program points solution, gift certs/cards,) that you will need/want to support through your website today.

In closing.  I would like to get a better understanding of your needs, your vision.  How you acquire new customers, how you retain them?  Who are your customers? What inefficiencies are you laboring under today?  What are your "must have" features vs. ones that are "nice to have" (both long term and short term)? 

No, I don't "represent" any ecommerce companies...I'm just someone who has been doing this for entirely too long :)