Overseas Website Development and Open Source CMS make Powerful Bedfellows
The convergence of overseas website development and open source content management systems is bringing e-commerce to the masses and traditional development companies to their knees.
In the past, if you wanted an e-commerce site, you paid a lot of money for custom development. If you wanted a big e-commerce site, one with lots and lots of products, you were looking at 100k.
That’s simply not the case anymore, and big web development companies who spent years building up code bases should be sweating. Unless you’re doing some serious custom CMS work, there simply isn’t a need for unique code anymore. Open source content management systems WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal can handle almost every basic website management need these days, including e-commerce.
Combine this with overseas development companies that bill out at 10% or less than your average web design firm in the States and you’ve got a powerful combo. One that makes it possible for almost anyone with a little brawn and a little cash to get in the e-commerce game.
This is bad news for companies with big development staffs used to getting sweet cheddar for an e-commerce site. But it’s good news for companies that outsource development. The talent in India, Brazil and other upstart nations is getting better and better every day. Given the cost considerations, it is ridiculous not to take advantage of this talent.
Of course, not all overseas firms are the same, and some are choppers and used car salesmen, just like here. The smart ones are finding US partners to help forge the oh-so-essential trust so important to getting sales in the door and establishing long term relationships. This, in turn, gives the US partner a major price advantage over slower moving competitors.
In the end, the game is changing, mostly because the game is still young. Perhaps more importantly, anyone can play. Expect hungry overseas website development firms and their US partners to keep pushing the envelope.
