Pros and cons of internal and external ecommerce support Should You Insource or Outsource Your eCommerce Support? So now you have your eCommerce website up and running. Customers are coming to your site, buying your products, and everything is going smoothly. But what happens when things stop going smoothly or your eCommerce site has a little hiccup? That is where your eCommerce support person or team comes in and saves the day. If you don’t already have someone who handles this task, it is important to find someone soon. Your two options for eCommerce support are outsourcing it to a eCommerce and web development company or hiring someone within your own company to handle the eCommerce support. Both are viable options with their own pros and cons. What does it Cost your company? Cost Cost can be a major factor when deciding whether to outsource or insource for your support needs. Insourcing can be seen as a lot cheaper especially if you are assigning the task to someone who already works for your company instead of hiring someone that is brand new. Outsourcing may seem more expensive because you now have to pay another person or company. However, it is important to take into account the cost of training a current employee or a new hire to handle eCommerce support. Outsourcing your eCommerce support may come out cheaper because you may not need a full time employee to handle it or the fact that international resources can be much less expensive. What level of control do you want? Control Having internal eCommerce support will usually give you the greatest control over quality of the support and the time it takes to handle it. Having the support specialist in house will allow you to see what is happening at every step. While you may not have as much control if you outsource, if you choose the right company, they will ensure that you understand the steps that they are taking and are comfortable with how they handle issues. Is it a priority for your company? Attention Hiring someone just to handle your eCommerce support will insure that your eCommerce issues get immediate attention. However, if you just assign the task of eCommerce support to an employee that already has other duties, the eCommerce issues may not take first priority or get attention until they have done their other tasks. Outsourcing could also go either way. A busy company may not be able to give your eCommerce issues attention right away because of the other clients that they are serving. However, some companies have staff dedicated to handling clients’ urgent issues quickly. It is important to vet any outsourcing company's processes as thoroughly as you can before moving forward. Getting Them Up to Speed Know How When choosing who to handle your eCommerce support, it is important to take expertise into account. If you choose to hire someone to handle your eCommerce support, they will need training, and there could be a steep learning curve. Outsourcing support to a company full of eCommerce experts, ideally the ones that helped customize and integrate your eCommerce platform, means that they are well versed in almost every issue that a client could have. The time it takes for an outsourced eCommerce support expert to correct the issue could be a lot quicker than the time it takes for a new hire to figure it out, depending on a new hire’s previous experience. Getting Them Up to Speed Clarity Can Help At Clarity, we understand how important it is to have reliable eCommerce support. With decades of combined experience customizing and dealing with eCommerce issues, our team is full of experts that know the ins and outs of eCommerce. Our team at Clarity prides itself in providing our clients prompt and courteous eCommerce support when issues arise. To find out more about how Clarity can help with your eCommerce support, call or click to contact us today!