"This is more than we pay now."
Fair. Are we comparing license to license, or the full cost including agency, hosting and apps?
Do not compare payment fee rates without their real volumes and mix. Do not invent savings.
The objections, discovery questions and competitor answers that come up when you sell ecommerce. Read them free. Or load them into Ghost and have the right one on your screen the moment the buyer says it.
What Ghost shows on your screen during a ecommerce call. The buyer never sees it.
The objections ecommerce buyers raise most, what to say in the next ten seconds, and what not to promise.
"This is more than we pay now."
Fair. Are we comparing license to license, or the full cost including agency, hosting and apps?
Do not compare payment fee rates without their real volumes and mix. Do not invent savings.
"A replatform is too risky for us."
What would a safe first step look like: one brand, one region, or a new storefront in front of your current backend?
Do not promise no SEO impact or a timeline you have not scoped with a partner.
"We built our own platform and it works for us."
That is impressive. How much of your team's time goes to running it versus building new things for customers?
Do not insult the custom build. The team that built it is probably in the room.
"Nothing changes before the holidays."
Makes sense. If we planned now, could you start right after peak and be live well before the next one?
Do not push changes into code freeze. You will lose trust with IT and the agency.
"Security and PCI will slow this down."
What does your security team usually ask for with a commerce platform, and can we get that list now?
Do not claim certifications or uptime commitments you have not confirmed in writing.
"We are already on Shopify."
Got it. What do you like about it, and where are you adding apps or workarounds?
Do not run down the incumbent. Do not claim gaps without checking current features.
Every one of these is a deal that slips a quarter if you fumble it. Ghost puts the answer on your screen while the buyer is still talking.
Give them credit, then ask whether that vendor's strength matters to this buyer.
Shopify is known for being fast to launch and easy for merchants to run. How much custom logic does your business need beyond what apps can do?
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is common with large brands that also run Salesforce for service and marketing. How much does that connection matter to you?
Adobe Commerce, which many still call Magento, is known for flexibility. How much of your current site is custom, and how do you feel about maintaining it?
BigCommerce is known for an open, API-friendly hosted platform. Is flexibility the priority, or simplicity for your team?
commercetools is a leader in headless and composable commerce. Does your team want to assemble the stack, or would they rather have more out of the box?
SAP Commerce Cloud fits companies already running SAP for ERP. How tightly do you need commerce tied to your SAP backend?
WooCommerce is popular with businesses already on WordPress. How comfortable is your team managing hosting and plugins?
VTEX is known for commerce plus marketplace and order management, with deep roots in Latin America. Are marketplaces part of your plan?
Wix is known for making it easy to build a site and start selling. Is ease of setup the priority, or more control as you grow?
Squarespace is known for beautiful templates and simple selling. How important is design control compared with commerce depth for you?
Elastic Path is known for composable commerce with strong catalog and pricing flexibility. How complex are your catalogs and pricing rules?
Ask these on the first call. Then dig into the pain when they say it out loud.
Software that runs online selling: the storefront, product catalog, cart, checkout, promotions and order flow. It ranges from hosted all-in-one platforms for small merchants to headless and composable systems that large brands assemble from parts. The platform sits in the middle of payments, search, content, inventory, ERP, marketing and fulfillment.
The most common are: "This is more than we pay now", "A replatform is too risky for us", "We built our own platform and it works for us", "Nothing changes before the holidays", "Security and PCI will slow this down" and "We are already on Shopify". Each one above has a line to say back and what to avoid.
Start with: Can you walk me through what happens from a customer landing on the site to the order shipping? Which systems touch it? When your merchandising or marketing team wants to change something on the site, how long does it take? When the site slows down or a launch slips, what does that do to revenue? Who feels it first? What happened that made you start looking at this now?
Buyers most often compare Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, commercetools, SAP Commerce Cloud, WooCommerce, VTEX, Wix, Squarespace and Elastic Path.
Economic buyer: the VP Ecommerce, Chief Digital Officer or head of digital. In smaller brands, the founder or CEO. Big replatforms often go to the CEO and CFO.
Pick the ecommerce market pack in Ghost's setup and every card on this page loads into Ghost. When a buyer raises one of these objections or names one of these competitors on a live call, Ghost shows you what to say on your screen, hidden from screen shares and recordings.
Free to start. Pick ecommerce in setup and Ghost loads every card on this page.