Where to go after Magento?

[sweetshop]

I have a magento website which is coming to the end of its life. My developer has suggested a bespoke woo commerce website costing min £10k.

Part of my issue with magento is that I was reliant on my developers to fix everything for me as I do not have the skills or the time to do it myself.

I have 4000 SKUs, largely simple products but some digital downloads, configurable products and bundle products.

I'm prepared to spend maybe £5k on a new website and would prefer something a bit easier to use than magento. Where are others moving to after magento? I have been looking at shopify but on first look I may have to sacrifice some the functionality for a more user friendly product?

 

[livingthedreamok]

£10k for a woocommerce store is excessive, but certainly recommend getting away from Magento

 

[WebDesires]

I also think 10k is rather excessive for a woocommerce store, but i guess it depends on what customization you needed which you didnt specify above? However I would not recommend woocommerce for a large store (above a few hundred products).

We use OpenCart which is a very friendly ecommerce specific system, with everything you could imagine you would need, and as a bonus it is highly configurable and developer friendly.

 

[billybob99]

What is he smoking?

He wants to use WooCommerce which is the easiest thing to use and then charge you £10k for it?

An absolute wally could setup and configure WooCommerce for you then its just visuals and UI.

More importantly, WooCommerce is just an extension of WordPress turning it from a blog to an eCommerce platform - it doesn't mean its any good.

You'd be better off with Shopify - they've actually tested and checkout process and you can get very high conversion rates if done properly.

You need to focus on doing what you do, selling stuff - leave the rest to Shopify.

 

[WebDesires]

Shopify is not a good idea if you want to be serious about ecommerce, you can only modify it and personalize it to the limits provided, nothing custom can be done code wise and you have to pay constantly for it. You don't OWN the system or the CODE and list goes on.

I'm sure its good if you don't need much and don't have competition and etc.

Using developers and a system that is specifically modified to your needs is much better, you then have full access to your "asset", you own your site and its data and its code and any personalisation and modification you need as you grow larger can be achieved. Not to mention all the SEO, usability and etc that you can modify as and when needed. The internet is moving very fast these days with schema, optimizations and site structure, AI etc. I wouldn't recommend anyone such a basic developer-less platform.

 

[billybob99]

That's right, because none of the brands on there are serious about ecommerce, they're just there for a laugh.

OP you should check out https://www.shopify.co.uk/plus/customers/gymshark

No doubt this is a business forum and everyone has their own agenda to sell you on what they provide.

Without knowing what you sell exactly makes it difficult.

You've already made a mistake choosing Magento but you don't want to make a bigger mistake.

If you want a hands-off, scalable approach Shopify might be the best solution.

If you want something truly bespoke (can't image you do as your current dev has suggested WooCommerce for a start) then you need to go down that route.

 

[WebDesires]

this is shopify PLUS... not standard shopify, they are probably paying thousands for development/support and etc. Just looking for a quote and its a callback form so this is not the same as the standard shopify...

 

[Chris Elwood]

We have recently started suggesting clients considering Magento look to Shopify as it offers a really stable platform and it seems to be where all the big players are going to.

There are loads of really well-reviewed plugins available to cover almost any aspect that it doesn't do out the box. Also with a fully hosted platform, there are no server issues to worry about or any updates to plugins or themes. For what it costs as an initial setup and ongoing fee I think that it is excellent value for money.

Also, the in-house Shopify support has been very responsive for issues we have been unable to resolve quickly. I'd be happy to have a chat about your project and show you some examples just drop me a message and we can sort something out informally.

 

[WebshopMechanic]

I agree that Shopify is the way to go these days. Magento has always been a challenge in my experience. It's overly complex and time-consuming to manage.

As @Chris Elwood says, lightening quick servers on Shopify are a huge benefit and, because it's hosted, it's uptime is pretty much 100%. Well, I've never know a Shopify site to go down.

The other thing I like about Shopify is its simplicity. Everything is quick and easy.

Even a fluffy marketer (like me) can use it.

Finally, last but not least. Shopify is built for mobile. Something Magento theme were never very good at unless they were custom-built.

Shopify just works. I love it. (no affiliation by the way)

 

[billybob99]

Shopify just works. I love it. (no affiliation by the way)

This.

Also the abandoned cart recovery is a very nifty feature.

Nowadays people are spending more time updating themes, plugins and fixing other random issues instead of focusing on doing what they should be doing - marketing and selling stuff.

 

[antropy]

£10k for a Woocommerce store is a very cheeky estimate and very much overpriced. I agree the need to get away from Magento is needed as it is complicated and expensive to maintain. If you are looking for a simple platform that you cannot customise easily then Shopify is your answer. If you are looking for a platform that you can customise easily then OpenCart is your answer. Hope that helps. Alex

 

[Deleted member 315707]

Nowadays people are spending more time updating themes, plugins and fixing other random issues instead of focusing on doing what they should be doing - marketing and selling stuff.

This x 1000% I'm finding more and more people are putting value on their time not on cost..

 

[makeusvisible]

One of the main issues with Magento from a client perspective is it's complexity. This leads to 3 main issues;

• Can be complex to manage day to day
• Expensive to develop due to the complexity
• Expensive to host

Don't get me wrong; Magento is an absolutely incredible platform. You can run a million SKUs off a site and it won't blink.

Cost wise, if we develop a truly bespoke Magento website, i.e custom theme development, with a completely blank canvas design, it is a real struggle to get the project below £10k.

With Wordpress/Woo we can do the same for half the cost, and often much less. It isn't as powerful a platform, but we are yet to develop a Woo site which has hit any barriers down to scalability and speed. From a day to day management point of view, it couldn't really be much easier.

It's worth also checking the recent news regards Google Shopping, as I can definitely see store owner's visitor numbers dropping, as users checkout without even leaving Google.

We have started contacting our Magento customers to get the ball rolling on upgrades or migrations. Your definitely right to start thinking about it now.

 

[Markmiller1]

10K for Woocommerce store, really? this way too much! I don't know how this amount came up in his mind, anyway, I will suggest you to go with Opencart, I think it would be the best option amount the rest of two [Shopify & Woocommerce]

 

[sweetshop]

Thanks for your responses they are really appreciated.

I suspected £10k was an absolute joke, one of the benefits of moving platforms is that I will no longer be dealing with these guys they have unhelpful from handover.

I will take a more indepth look at open cart, I presume it still requires external hosting?

Is it easy to transfer product listings etc from Magento?

Truthfully I am looking for an easy option which will require minimum setup input from me. I have recently had a baby and the business was coasting along beautifully until I was notified my website was essentially about to die. The thought of starting again from scratch fills me with horror as it was a painful labour intensive process the first time around and I don't have the time to do it again at this stage of my life.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I'm currently installing a Prestashop site on my Jack Jones .... it's all going without a hitch ..no monthly sub (other than your webhost) ...large user community...plenty of add-ons (& from recollection it was recently deemed one of the fastest growing cart sites)...there was even an app to migrate from opencart (only cost £60) so there's probably an app to help you migrate from Magento.

 

[antropy]

I will take a more indepth look at open cart, I presume it still requires external hosting?

Is it easy to transfer product listings etc from Magento?

It does require external hosting but there are lots of OpenCart hosting companies out there, including ourselves

Changing platforms is always fiddly but not as bad as you may think. I wouldn't say you would be starting from scratch which I sure is pleasing to hear. Alex

 

[bharris]

installing a Prestashop site on my Jack Jones

Out of interest what made you decide to change from Opencart and move to Prestashop?

I am currently looking at going from Magento to Opencart. I actually found Magento to be great and actually quite easy to get it to do what it wanted (just took some time to understand how it goes together). The reason to change is the (once free) high module fees many now needing a yearly licence for version 2 and the relative high hosting cost. OpenCart for all my sites is under £10 per month.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Out of interest what made you decide to change from Opencart and move to Prestashop?

I like to do things myself...but I'm not a code head - what I found was when I hit a problem on Opencart, (where the userbase is relatively small, therefore the forum isn't massive), that ...

1. Perhaps nobody else had experienced it
2. They'd experienced it, but the resolution made the space hubble telescope service manual look like a quick read.
3. Silence.

None of those are a good place to be when your website is on its arse.

I also took umbrage to the way the Opencart Owner strutted around & patronised his users (perhaps he doesn't do this anymore, but it used to be that his first line of defence used to be attack...and it invariably saw him essentially castigate the person raising an issue as a pleb)

...whereas the Prestashop community in comparison is vast....I now always go vanilla with my cart deployment, so if I'm hitting a problem, someone somewhere will surely have hit the same problem & - bearing in mind the depth of the userbase - there'll likely be a resolution.

Some stats here...

https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/PrestaShop/Market-Share

 

[bharris]

Haven't had too many problems so far when playing with Opencart, the biggest issue on the help forums i found was that many of the "how to do" guides are for old versions. My first try on Opencart is for quite a straightforward eCommerce site so perhaps i need to have another look before i try and move a more complected one to it.

 

[Pish_Pash]

...playing with Opencart, the biggest issue on the help forums i found was that many of the "how to do" guides are for old versions.

Yep, that too. I'm also very keen to directly access the cart database from MS Access ...Opencart never even had a database schema, whereas prestashop has a comprehensive/complete database schema published.

The difference between Prestashop & Opencart is night & day (from a "Hmm, I need to know how to do..." perspective), which is important if you're a one man band.

 

[Cube Digital]

Why are you wanting to move from Magento? It is a decent platform and not at end of life. Yes, it is a little more difficult to manage, but wherever you go next will have a learning curve.

One of the problems I run into is that Shopify is difficult to fully customise.

Where does your traffic come from? Is it all ads, organic, social?

I see too many sites lose everything when the changeover is not done well if most of the converting traffic is coming from Google.

 

[antropy]

OpenCart for all my sites is under £10 per month.

£10 a month for how many sites?

 

[Jacky Nikson]

Hello! I understand why you want to go from Magento. This CMS is quite complicated for websites which don't require a lot of customizations. I advise you to think of the Shopify platform. Its development will be easier and will cost less than Magento. Plus, it's a completely hosted platform. Shopify has more pre-made themes - it won't require much customization.

 

[bharris]

£10 a month for how many sites?

Its with a company called Krystal and its for Unlimited sites and bandwidth. They also have cheaper options for less sites.
Not had a single problem with them. Not sure who but it was someone here who recommended them.
https://krystal.co.uk/cloud-hosting/opencart-hosting

I'm sure there will be better and someone will say why not to use them but at that price i cant fault them. Quick response to issues i had (own making).

 

[apricot]

I used Magento for 7 years and I ended up learning all the installation, fixing issues, adding apps etc as I was fed up with coders. I've changed to Shopify about two years ago, since then I feel I can breath again! it's so much for more effective, easy, does more than Magento and takes a lot of hassle away that was coming with Magento. Shopify is highly recommended!

 

[Liquidshop ecommerce]

If you already are familiar with Magento, why change. Sure Magento 1 is reaching end-of-life from a support point-of-view. But there is an easy enough upgrade/migration path to Magento 2.x.

As some have mentioned depends on the customisations you have and extensions, but if you are looking to make life simple, cutting back on the customisations and extensions will make for a more stable store and less hassle to manage.

By the sounds of it you are looking for a stress free solution so you can focus on family and not have to re-learn store admin. Just find a provider who will provide a smooth and not so costly upgrade to your existing store.

Going low cost looks appealing, but in my experience puts more work on your shoulders and can bite you on the ass down the road. So you need to get the balance right, the main thing is a solution that gives you the tools you need to run your business without sucking too much of your time away. Just talk to the right dev company for this.

Thanks for your responses they are really appreciated.

I suspected £10k was an absolute joke, one of the benefits of moving platforms is that I will no longer be dealing with these guys they have unhelpful from handover.

I will take a more indepth look at open cart, I presume it still requires external hosting?

Is it easy to transfer product listings etc from Magento?

Truthfully I am looking for an easy option which will require minimum setup input from me. I have recently had a baby and the business was coasting along beautifully until I was notified my website was essentially about to die. The thought of starting again from scratch fills me with horror as it was a painful labour intensive process the first time around and I don't have the time to do it again at this stage of my life.

 

[AndrewJhnsn333]

Moving from Magento to Shopify seems to be not the best decision, especially when we are talking about 4000 SKUs and various types of products. Shopify is a great platform to start your ecommerce business, but it won’t fit you now.
Why don’t you think about updating your Magento platform? Magento 2 version is fast, secure and it is easier to manage in comparison with the first edition. There are plenty of extensions for Magento 2 and with an experienced developer, you can always customize your store and add all the features you are looking for.

 

[Sparetoolparts]

You think 4000 products are bad I have over 1 million on my Magento 1.9 sites. It's a pretty basic site though with a tiny bit of custom modifications to the up sell bloc. And a few choice plugins.

I've started saving for the move to Magento 2 or if someone can suggest an alternative I'd look at that too

 

[Jacky Nikson]

The Magento CMS is quite complicated for websites which don't require a lot of customizations. I recommend moving to the Shopify platform. Its development will be easier and will cost less than Magento. Plus, it's a completely hosted platform. Shopify has more pre-made themes - it won't require much customization.

 

[edmondscommerce]

@Sparetoolparts you should find M2 handles massive catalogues a lot better than M1 does, for our large catalogue clients we did some extensive testing and found that some features start to creak when the catalogue size gets huge, but generally it stands up to it pretty well

 

[Darkterror]

10k pounds for the new website is simply something out of the imagination when it will be based on WooCommerece, what that price will include ? Importing all data into new one ? OpenCart is really good for big stores, customisation is not good but it fast as damn here.

 

[mpollard]

We went from Magento to Shopify at the start of April. Sounds like I was in the same sort of boat as the original poster. Magento served our purpose for 8-9 years but I was reliant on others when problems arose and I was fighting a losing battle trying to set up a M2 store.

We changed to Shopify and it has been a dream to be honest. I set it all up myself, i'd say it took 2-3 weeks and it is our performing our old Magento store.

Sure, we have had to make one or two compromises here and there but I now have a website that I can control everything but further to this, every else in the business is able to use... the simplicity has made this possible.

 

[waiz]

I have been using some platforms, Yes number 1 should be now Woo, alternates which i have used are PrestaShop, its not that difficult, and gives freedom like Magento, please check

 

[daniel75]

I have a magento website which is coming to the end of its life. My developer has suggested a bespoke woo commerce website costing min £10k.

Part of my issue with magento is that I was reliant on my developers to fix everything for me as I do not have the skills or the time to do it myself.

I have 4000 SKUs, largely simple products but some digital downloads, configurable products and bundle products.

I'm prepared to spend maybe £5k on a new website and would prefer something a bit easier to use than magento. Where are others moving to after magento? I have been looking at shopify but on first look I may have to sacrifice some the functionality for a more user friendly product?

You can migrate your website on BigCommerce

 

[EddyRock]

I will recommend you choose WooCommerce too. There's only one problem: WooCommerce does not support Bundle product type, so you have to change the Bundle products to Grouped products in Woo store.

£5k for a WooCommerce store is too much. You just need to pay:

• $100 for moving data to WooCommerce: use Ecommerce migration service provided by Next-Cart, they will take care of everything for you with only $100.
  
• $200-$500 for designing it: download free theme and plugins. Hire a developer to customize it. You don't need to buy theme at themforest.
  
• $200 annual fee for hosting and SSL: I suggest you choose VPS ($10-$20/month) for your store and Let's Encrypt SSL (free).