Startup e-commerce platform

1. Out-of-the box solutions don’t fit startups. Startups aim to break an existing business model based on either new technology or new business approaches. Since startups do new and creative things via e-commerce, they face a challenge: inflexible out-of-the-box solutions do not fit innovative models by design, and they are too expensive for an MVP. 
2. Licensing does not fit many startup business models. Traditional licensing is another challenge. Traditional licensing models are structured for conventional business models and practices, but not for companies with disruptive business models.
3. It is challenging to find qualified experts to build your MVP fast. The third critical problem is the lack of relevant e-commerce experience and expertise to deliver an MVP. Startup MVPs are about minimizing time and costs. It is essential to select the fastestway to MVP, which is not always obvious, and move forward as fast as possible. It is necessary to find a reliable e-commerce partner who will and can handle these risks: help to define the MVP scope accurately so that your business model will be implemented as cost-effectively as possible and delivered in a timely manner.

By selecting an inflexible platform as the basis of your business, you will need to invest heavily in development or adopt your business model, forcing a re-build of your solution every time your business direction changes.

There is a high risk of spending a lot of time and effort on delivering functionalities that are not valuable to customers, and therefore does not provide traction. Even if it is possible to create your desired functionality at the end of the project, it will demand significant additional time and money.

Traditional licensing is also a challenge for startups. For example, when building your own industry or market-specific platform to resell, you are usually limited not just by the technical weaknesses of “native” e-commerce solutions, but also by their licensing policies, which make it impossible for startups to earn money.

The lack of experience in selecting e-commerce solutions can be a killer for startups due to the reasons listed. Facing these challenges, startups often decide to build a unique in-house solution because it looks deceptfully cheap.

Building an in-house solution often entails the same issues as choosing an inflexible platform (too long, expensive) along with additional overheads, such as the risk of dependency on internal technical specialists. Imagine only a few people in the world know how to maintain your solution - it's a risky proposition.