SaaS companies like ourselves often focus on selling features. We make sure that we offer the right set of features that address customer concerns and can also match or beat the competition.

However, if our system performance is not up to par, all of those features become irrelevant. Customers will not be able to fully use them if the system is slow or experiences frequent downtime. This can lead to frustration, lost business, and damage to our reputation. As I worked on these eCommerce projects, I realized that we need to prioritize and constantly monitor system performance to ensure a seamless experience for our customers. It is not just about having the most features, but also about having a reliable and efficient

Features are easy to understand, categorize, compare, and sell. They are usually the basis of our sales pitch. System performance comes up as a footnote and something that often doesn't even come up during a full sales cycle.

However, for us, system performance is a key differentiator and something that underlines everything we do. It is also something I always think about when I try out other companies' products or talk to customers about their problems. There are a few reasons.

Fulfillment Operational Performance

Each order that our customer completes needs our platform to do multiple integration tasks quickly. These include dealing with external API calls, document generation engines, and internal data processing in real time.

At peak sales periods, all our customers get worried about system performance and label printing times. But the truth is that this is a critical aspect that should be a priority in every organization. After all, the last thing you want as an eCommerce business is to have operators having a waiting time on every order they pack. This introduces inefficiency and also a work culture where waiting around for a system to do its job is okay.

One of our customers recently told us that they could start packing and sending orders twice as fast after using our solution. This is because we handle every order in real time and don't use old ways of working and processing to deliver airway bills, labels, and export documents.

eCommerce User Experience

One other area that is usually overlooked by most of our competitors is the user experience and interface. A well-designed interface that also delivers information is real-time is key for eCommerce last-mile operations.

Having a handle on real-time information and data, and a user interface that allows users to act on the spot can make the difference between having a happy customer or a frustrated customer.

For example, our dashboard tells users when a delivery might be late. This gives operators a chance to fix the problem before it becomes a late delivery.

Having this kind of real-time information platform, which we call last-mile intelligence, is hard to design and set up. But it makes a big difference for our customers who want to find problems as they happen and improve their customer service metrics.

Last-mile Customer Experience

The third area where system performance becomes critical is in all features that directly impact and affect our clients' customers.

Things like branded tracking pages, returns portals, and customer notifications, need to be delivered flawlessly. Having a tracking page take 3 seconds to load or displaying an expected delivery date in the past impacts the brand's image negatively and contributes to brand value degradation.

Conclusion

Both users usually overlook system performance when they look for software, as well as sellers that build software solutions. For us, it is paramount.

Having a simple but fast and effective system with less features, always beats a sluggish platform with lots of features. 

Bad system performance can degrade operations and set the pace at which you can run your eCommerce operations. In today's fast-paced world, customers expect efficiency and speed when it comes to online transactions. A slow and clunky system can lead to frustrated customers and ultimately, loss of sales. Therefore, as sellers, it is crucial to prioritize system performance when choosing software solutions. It is not just about having a system with all the bells and whistles, but rather one that can deliver a seamless and speedy experience for both the user and the customer.