Choosing an eCommerce System for your Licensed Application

Setting up eCommerce for your software products is an important part of your business as a publisher. The right system sells and delivers your licenses around the clock, captures new leads, and keeps your support costs down. This article explains the eCommerce options available with the SoftwareKey System and walks through the key questions to ask when choosing a solution for your licensed application.

What a good sales process looks like

When you sell licensed software online, you want a sales process that includes:

Instant gratification and around-the-clock convenience for customers
Methods for capturing new leads and sales from a global marketplace
A simple and user-friendly online purchasing system
Systems to automate license delivery
Systems for renewing license maintenance and securely selling upgrades to existing customers
Capabilities for selling various licensing models, such as subscription-based licenses

With these processes in place, you save time, increase revenue, and sell while you sleep.

Your eCommerce options with the SoftwareKey System

Although the primary focus of the SoftwareKey System is electronic license activation and management, many customers also use the integrated eCommerce capabilities of SOLO Server. SOLO Server integrated eCommerce meets the demands of many software companies, but it is not the only way to sell licensed applications.

You generally have two approaches:

Integrated solution. Use SOLO Server for both license management and eCommerce, so the two systems work together out of the box.
Best-of-breed approach. Use a separate, dedicated eCommerce service alongside SOLO Server, connecting the two so each system handles what it does best.

The rest of this article helps you decide which approach fits your business and what to look for when shopping for an eCommerce system.

How license delivery is automated

Once you have chosen an online purchasing system, the basic automation of license delivery is straightforward:

If the customer does not have your software installer at the time of purchase, they should be able to download the full version immediately after purchase.
It is common for applications that use a licensing system to start out as a trial version. With technology such as online product activation, the customer only needs to enter a serial number or license credentials to convert the trial into the full version.

Most modern shopping carts can handle the automation of license delivery and software download, but you should confirm that the solution meets all of your needs before committing to it.

13 things to consider before selecting an eCommerce solution

When looking for a way to sell your software licenses online, consider the following questions. Each licensing and eCommerce solution addresses these aspects differently, so use them to compare your options.

Does the license management solution you are considering offer integrated eCommerce capabilities, connectors to well-known eCommerce service providers, or a connector to the eCommerce service you already use?
Will your company benefit more from a single, integrated eCommerce and license management solution, or from two different systems that each offer best-of-breed capabilities for their area?
Do you need customer registration data to pass from the eCommerce system to the licensing system to help with future customer service inquiries? Customers may lose their license key after purchase, so being able to quickly look up this information is helpful.
How will downloads and serial numbers, licenses, or keys be delivered after an order is completed? Will a list of serial numbers be generated in the licensing system and uploaded into the eCommerce system, or will they be created on demand when an order is processed?
If the customer purchases a quantity greater than one, will they receive multiple licenses or one license configured with multiple activations? There are advantages to both approaches.
If software maintenance is being sold with the license, where and how will it be verified throughout the lifetime of the relationship with the customer? Verifying maintenance over time lets you: * Save costs by having support staff validate active maintenance before providing support. * Encourage upgrade or renewal purchases by allowing only customers with active maintenance to download software updates. * Increase revenue by notifying customers when their software maintenance is due.
Do you want to sell maintenance renewals or software upgrades where prerequisite conditions must be verified before a purchase is allowed? How flexible are the rule validations for this process?
How complex is the product catalog you want to display to the user? How many different ways do you want to license your software? For example, gold, silver, and platinum editions, individual features or modules, or standalone versus network licenses.
Do you also want to ship physical products along with your software licenses?
Does your marketing department plan to offer simple or complex promotions for product pricing?
- A simple promotion offers a percentage or fixed amount off when a promotional code is entered in the shopping cart.
- A complex promotion is something like "receive $25 off if certain products are purchased in combination."
If a subscription license is being sold, how will the eCommerce system and licensing system stay synchronized so that only active, valid subscriptions are allowed to continue running or receiving maintenance?
When using separate licensing and eCommerce systems, what is the total cost of processing orders for licensed software? Will there be support challenges when multiple vendors are involved?
How important is the speed of receiving payments in your bank account? If your own eCommerce merchant account is used, payments typically clear immediately. If you sell through a third-party store using their merchant account, payments are usually sent in batches once thresholds are reached.

Choosing your approach

There is no single right answer. A single, integrated SOLO Server solution simplifies vendor management, keeps your licensing and order data in one place, and can route customer registration data directly into the licensing system. A best-of-breed setup may make sense if you already rely on a specific eCommerce provider or need capabilities that a dedicated cart offers. Use the 13 questions above to weigh the trade-offs against your catalog, your licensing models, and your support workload.