1&1 ecommerce

[Hedgehog Toys]

Anyone use 1&1 ecommerce package?

[Toon]

No but I'm not sure why these companies charge so much for what is in effect webhosting with a shopping cart pre-installed. I can do that for half the cost! This is definitely going on my "to do" list along with the 100+ other things I've to do ;)

[awebapart.com]

My company looked into 1and1's eshop ecommerce system a few months ago as part of a competitor analysis exercise. If it helps, here are some of the websites we found that were using the 1and1 system (you might be able to contact the owners to see what they think of the system, or how hard they found it to customise etc):

flexibleliningshop.co.uk, fototech.co.uk, stupidkids.co.uk, colinette.com, bedfordtargetsupplies.co.uk, rubytuesdaycrafts.co.uk, sigma4less.com, jayrewcraft.co.uk, picturetools-shop.de

From what we could see, 1and1 use their own proprietary e-commerce system.

If you want a .com website, then be aware that 1and1 host in Germany, which means your site wont show up on 'pages in the UK' google searches.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Yeah, I noticed that. Thanks Paul.
One of the reasons I have discontinued the easystorecreator is because it is a US host company and as such the UK google search fails it.
I have found a good UK company now which will be up and running for all three sites for the end of feb.

[Sue F]

I'm not sure if I'm undertstanding you right.

Do you just mean that .com sites hosted on 1and1 don't show up in Google UK searches? (it's a bit late for my poor old brain to focus)

It's just that my mum in law and I both use 1and1 with several .co.uk domains which show up in Google UK searches no problem ... in fact my mum in law has a highly successful directory which gets in excess of 350,000 unique visitors per month and the majority of her pages are top three in UK searches.

Perhaps I'm just confusing myself but surely you would want to use a .co.uk address for a UK business anyway?

Ok so I'm not a very good advert for female intelligence right this very minute ... I'll have pulled myself together by morning.

Time for bed for me I think :redface:

[Sue F]

He means that you either have to have a .co.uk domain or be hosted on a UK IP in order to be listed on the UK only search.


Cheers ... Sue

[Bathead]

I really don't understand the big deal with this. If you go to google.co.uk, by default it searches all over anyway.

No, if you have a .com and a non uk server hosting then you are pretty sure not to be shown in Google uk results.

Having a .co.uk domain increases the chances but is still not a guarantee if the server is in Germany, for example.

[Solidhost-John]

No, if you have a .com and a non uk server hosting then you are pretty sure not to be shown in Google uk results.

Having a .co.uk domain increases the chances but is still not a guarantee if the server is in Germany, for example.

I didn't say that. I said that google.co.uk by default searches all over the web. IF you select UK pages then of course it will only show .co.uk sites or those that are hosted in the UK. I really don't think the average user is gonna spend time to click on UK only though.

[Solidhost-John]

He means that you either have to have a .co.uk domain or be hosted on a UK IP in order to be listed on the UK only search.

I really don't understand the big deal with this. If you go to google.co.uk, by default it searches all over anyway.

[awebapart.com]

It is easy to get confused over what google is doing, since google do not describe exactly how they do things, they also change how they do things on a regular basis, which leaves us outsiders to continually have to second guess what's going on.

If you are in the UK and you type in www.google.com (http://www.google.com) into your web browser's address box, google usually realises that the visitor is from the UK and thus sends the user to www.google.co.uk (http://www.google.co.uk). If you now do a default web search for say clothes, even though you haven't specified 'pages from the UK', google realises that you are in the UK and favours UK based websites in the results. If a clothes website owner has a .com website hosted in Germany (e.g. a 1and1 site), then google will not favour that site in its default web search as much as sites it knows are UK-based.

If the user specifies 'pages in the UK' then google will definitely not return a .com site which is hosted outside of the UK, e.g. try a google 'pages in the UK' search for the 1and1 hosted www.colinette.com (http://www.colinette.com)

Some people will always click on 'pages from the UK' when they go to google, even though they dont really need to. Others will click on 'pages from the UK' when they have a specialist search which doesn't return too many UK websites, and they really want a local supplier for cheaper shipping. Others might be using an ISP (e.g. some recent issues with AOL UK users having a US IP address) which may make google think they are not UK-based but US-based, in which case the users might click on 'pages from the UK' just to get relevant local searches.

Google will know if your website is UK-based either by first looking at the domain name (e.g. .uk), or for more generic domains names like .com, google will then see where the site is hosted by performing an IP address lookup.

[darren atkinson]

He means that you either have to have a .co.uk domain or be hosted on a UK IP in order to be listed on the UK only search.

I really don't understand the big deal with this. If you go to google.co.uk, by default it searches all over anyway.

Sorry, but it is an accepted fact in the world of SEO that .com's don't rank well in a search on google.co.uk if they are not hosted on a UK server.

If you do a search on Google.co.uk without selecting UK only sites, you will get results from around the world, however it promotes UK based websites further up the list. It has been doing this for a while now.

The theory is that if you were searching for a product or service from the UK then you would be more inclined to prefer using a UK based website. You must remember Google's whole business depends on providing the 'best' results for its users.

If you were a UK business with a .com domain name hosted in the US then google would not realise that you were a UK based business, and would not favour you in a search from Google.co.uk.

It is not a definate that you still wouldn't be able to rank highly if you were in this situation, but it would be more difficult.

As someone else mentioned it, hosting a .co.uk domain name in Germany would be fine as the .co.uk part indicates to Google that your targetting and providing a site mainly for people in the uk.

I can't really say exactly when Google started doing this but it has been well over a year or so at the very least.

Regards

Darren

[GNU]

I had a look at 1&1 a couple of years ago for a friend who had a package. It was a real pain to modify, and for the price you may as well get hosting with an oS cart and template installed, which you will have more control over.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Thanks for the responses all. Have decided to give 1&1 a miss:)

[GNU]

How come your looking for another E-Commerce package, last time I looked you had a site up and running with a company you seemed happy with, what went wrong??

[Carl-CSNM]

How come your looking for another E-Commerce package, last time I looked you had a site up and running with a company you seemed happy with, what went wrong??

I must have installed around 15 shopping carts for him but he has never stuck to any of them. ;)

[Hedgehog Toys]

Carl....I have told you a million times not to exaggrate. ;)

In a nutshell

OSC, Cubcart, & Zen Cart ...too complex if you are thick at html etc (like me) and they all look too 'clone like'.
Easystorecreator (the last one I used) is too expensive at £38 a month and it is also hosted in the US.
easywebstore is lacking in customisation options.
Store Sprite is good but can't find anyone to host it!
EKM Powershop does not accept visa electron for payment of the service.
Actinic is too complex.
Most of the others do not accept Nochex as a payment checkout.

Can't use any sites that use Paypal as a sole checkout as Paypal are ...well naff.
Store2go were pretty good but the image uploading options etc are very fiddly and time consuming.
The best one I have found so far is 'shopmaker'. I have used this before and although it has a couple of minor faults it is probably the only one that is a reasonable all rounder for the likes of me :)

[GNU]

Carl....I have told you a million times not to exaggrate. ;)

In a nutshell

OSC, Cubcart, & Zen Cart ...too complex if you are thick at html etc (like me) and they all look too 'clone like'.


You should try VirtueMart then :-)

£38 pm is way over the top.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Exactly. I don't mind paying £20 a month, even £25 at a push but £38 + is a bit much.
I will take a look at VirtueMart GNU. Cheers.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Most of my income from the site last year was spent on stocking supplies so to lay out a lareg chunk of money having a site designed has not been possible hence the monthly payment option by the way :)

[awebapart.com]

Most of the others do not accept Nochex as a payment checkout.
I think that's the category our online shop service currently falls under. Chris, I'm sorry we couldn't accommodate your nochex request within your timeframe, this was due to our service not being fully launched yet and us concentrating on just one payment provider for the launch (PayPal, the one we have tried and tested with other clients). We will add other payments providers after our sitebuilder launch. For other people's information, our sitebuilder service falls in the £250+VAT per annum bracket (which works out about £20.83 per month) including professional hosting.

Thanks for providing a breakdown of your thoughts and experiences of the various managed online shop providers out there. It is definitely useful for me to me to hear this (competitor/market research), and I'm sure it will be useful for other people who are thinking of getting an online shop.

[Hedgehog Toys]

There are a couple of sitebuilders that are good.
Click'n'build is one that is a good alrounder but again they only have Worldpay as the checkout system. The other one is Webkeeper and yep you guessed it...they only use Paypal.
I guess i'm being too fussy but to be honest if it doesn't do everthing I want it too then whats the point in using it!!