Which is best for eCommerce and mCommerce

[hoppy]

Hi Guys

I am looking for a shopping cart, either a script e.g. Zen Cart or OsCommerce, Magento, or a hosted solution. It is to sell 800 items and solely supply UK customers and it must have:

1. A shipping module that calculates the shipping cost from the weight in a similar way to the way it is done for Amazon 3rd Party sellers. e.g. £3.99 per order and £0.25 per Kilogram (you can set you own rules for this)

2. Ability to use with mCommerce, Mobile Store. Volusion seem to supply this but has a bad reputation as far as I can see on the web. But that seems close.

3. Be SEO friendly as possible.

4. No Transaction fees

I have a site with Blue Park which is OK as far as they go but after 18 month they still don't have any Mobile solutions. Although I had thought of carrying on with them and using GoMobi but I am not sure if that would work in combination with Blue Park or whether it is suitable for eCommerce at all.

Most grateful if you can advise

 

[daisyrogers]

You should try Magento. This is free source and I think it is good for E commerce website.

 

[ronaldneck]

I agreed with you daisyrogers..Magento commerce is the leading form of e commerce on the net today. Based on a superb flexible platform, Magento commerce solutions provide website owners with the tools to develop their websites into profitable highly visible selling portals.

 

[CoverPrint]

My site is hosted by shopify and they are a really good host, i'm pretty sure that they cater for all of the needs you have specified. Its only £38 a month for 2500 products but there is a 1% transaction fee. However if you go to the next package there is NO transaction fee, but that is £115 a month! I'd have a look if i were you
Hope this helps.

 

[WolfStores]

Hi There,

I agree that Magento is good but it is quite difficult to learn to manage so you would either need to spend a lot of your time learning it or pay someone else to help you with it, which could get expensive in the long run.

I would recommend to also look into Prestashop which is an open license, free to use ecommerce platform, equally professional to Magento.
Prestashop fully satisfies all of your requirements 1 - 4.

PM me if you need any more free advice on this

Best Regards,

Tim

 

[mattreflect]

Good afternoon,

I usually find what eCommerce solution you should use depends very much on where you are as a business.

For example, when a business starts off I would suggest a hosted solution and dare I say it - someone like Volusion. The reason why i would suggest Volusion as its cost effective when starting out and will be able to fit most of your requirements whilst building the business.

But once the business begins to grow and has built a client base I would then suggest you upgrade to Magento and choose one of its many resellers / partners to help you.

I work at a company called Reflect Digital and we have worked on a number of Magento projects including mobile sites. If you decide to go down the Magento route or would simply like further advice please do not hesitate to private message me.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[daisyrogers]

My site is hosted by shopify and they are a really good host, i'm pretty sure that they cater for all of the needs you have specified. Its only £38 a month for 2500 products but there is a 1% transaction fee. However if you go to the next package there is NO transaction fee, but that is £115 a month! I'd have a look if i were you
Hope this helps.

Well I don't think so.... I faced multiple issues in shopify. And if you're using shopify then you already know that its not SEO friendly, and without SEO you're unable to promote your website.

 

[webhostuk]

Another vote for Magento. Second option would be prestatshop recently I have seen many of our customer are using Prestatshop looks good.

 

[PlayaSud]

Hi
If you use WorldPay for payment processsing I don't think you have to go through all the upheaval of changing the complete platform. Bluepark integrates with Worldpay

Just google WorldPay mobile & you will see loads of info

 

[antropy]

I think Magento is overkill for this. It is complex to develop for, it runs slowly and will need a powerful and expensive server.

Take a look instead at OpenCart or Prestashop.

A demo of OpenCart can be found here: http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=demonstration/demonstration

 

[Bluepark]

I have a site with Blue Park which is OK as far as they go but after 18 month they still don't have any Mobile solutions.

Just to confirm, when we have finished the API and multi-channel development that we're currently working on, our next project will be a dedicated mobile optimised template for Bluepark sites. I would go as far as to say that this will definitely happen this year, 2013, most likely in the second half of the year.

 

[Felixl]

Hey mate

You might want to check out this tool to help you decide on which platform to use. It lists down the pros and cons of each platform.

ankitkumar.in/ecommerce-platform/

Hope it helps in your decision!

- Felix

 

[Holopainen]

Hi there,
I would suggest you to check BigCommerce or Shopify. Both can do what you need. however, BC is more feature rich while Shopify is extremely simple. Here is a nice comparison of both platforms.

 

[Amasty]

i think that magento would be the best choice

 

[14Steve14]

There are many open source ecommerce software available to you to use. Most if not all will do what you want. Some are harder than most to use, and modify. Magneto is possibly the hardest to modify so will cost you something to get it like you want. It also requires better hosting and serviers wnich will cost you more.

At the end of the day everryone will have their own prefered solution, and I currently use oscommerce with no problems that I am aware of. Just becarefull of what others say, and use the search engines to help you. Most of this software has online demos so just take a look and play with it. If you does whay yopu want straight out the box, you have cracked it, but most will want some sort of additional functions added. You can either do this yourself using modules or addons orr you can pay someone to do it for you. If you chose the later, jusr be careful.

 

[transpacific]

Hello
1) Hosted solution like Volusion, or Big commerce not suggested. Because your are boxed in a rigid system which with nor room for customization. Also they charge per sku listed . For 800 items it will be an expensive deal. Then watch out for transaction fees which are high. In future if you decide to move to any other system ; you have to start from starch again.
2) Magento: I would suggest no. It’s a good platform but complicated and learning curve is never ending.
3) Prestashop good but extensions and themes are expensive
4) Opencart: suits well for your requirements. Simple still powerful. Lot of free and reasonably priced extensions available
5) Hire a Developer will save lot of your time
Prashant
Transpacific-software.com

 

[Metalfrogboss]

I agree with transpacific and would add that in order to attain ecommerce success you should always have a plan for design, development and SEO and social media management which is totally in line with your competitors for given keywords or phrases. If you don't know how they have built their sites you are going to struggle. Hope that helps.

 

[webstore]

If you want the ultimate in ecommerce software along with a range of mobile options then it has to be Magento CE.

Your possible Magento mobile options are :-

a responsive design like our responsivewebstore.co.uk demo

mobile extension like ecommerce.aheadworks.com/magento-extensions/iphone-theme.html

iPhone / Andriod Apps (if you have deep pockets) magentocommerce.com/product/mobile

 

[metizsoft]

Hello

After reviewing detail of your requirement wish to suggest go with prestashop as magento is may be complex system for you but in terms of feature and expansion level Magento is great.

If you wish to see some sample I can show your for the Magento as well as prestashop as trial admin panel if you wish to review once

Thanks
Chetan
Metizsoft solution
Ecommerce development team | Mangeto develoment | Prestashop development