Choosing an ecommerce solution

[zigojacko]

Following on from the original post back in 2014 now, just this week, I put together an article over at LinkedIn that lists the current eCommerce software and platforms available today with a bit of information about each (the main ones for now but I do plan to continue adding, extending and updating the article).

It should prove useful to any businesses looking to venture into eCommerce and set up an eCommerce website, especially perhaps for those less web-savvy business owners where it can often prove a minefield with the various recommendations, platforms, hosting types, pricing models, supported/maintained/services ones etc etc.

Anyway, hope it's of some use to anyone that stumbles across this thread looking for advice.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ecommerce-solutions-options-2019-geoff-jackson/

 

[fisicx]

Do you ever hear about ashop co?

"Effortless microsites for Amazon Sellers" - Not really a replacement for Shopify.

 

[Elle Rish]

We've been using WordPress for quite long already, as well as Easy Digital Downloads. Works fine on our end. Definitely one of the best eCommerce platform out there!

 

[fisicx]

...as well as Easy Digital Downloads. Definitely one of the best eCommerce platform out there!

EDD is not an eCommerce platform. It's a plugin for digital products - no use at all for anything else.

 

[crackerjackcommerce]

What about wordpress and woocommerce as a solution, what that fall under the Pre-built solution category?

 

[Karol B]

I've been using Prestashop for a number of years. However, once business grows, one should think about self-hosted Magento, for example, in order to have full control over the platform.
Have in mind companies like IONOS previously known as 1and1 lure you with a cheap hosting offer. Once your business grows, and it's difficult to transfer store somewhere else, they continuously increasing prices.

 

[antropy]

Have in mind companies like IONOS previously known as 1and1 lure you with a cheap hosting offer. Once your business grows, and it's difficult to transfer store somewhere else, they continuously increasing prices.

Even if money is tight at the start, really do try to avoid cheap hosting. The level of customer service is never very good and when things go wrong they never seem to be on hand. Pay more for a better service! Alex

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Even if money is tight at the start, really do try to avoid cheap hosting. The level of customer service is never very good and when things go wrong they never seem to be on hand. Pay more for a better service! Alex

Absolutely.

 

[Karol B]

Even if money is tight at the start, really do try to avoid cheap hosting. The level of customer service is never very good and when things go wrong they never seem to be on hand. Pay more for a better service! Alex

Agree with you totally. This is what i did with my new web services, we pay more but in case of any technical problems there is someone to answer the phone and find quick solution.

 

[mekondelta]

Shopify is a hassle free solution but there are subscription costs and the plugin costs will add up if your business takes off. Often less than development costs but it all depends. You will be limited on customisations although the customisations available are extensive.
Woocommerce is an excellent Wordpress solution and has pretty much what you need to run a basic ecommerce solution. If you are a bit web savvy then its a good choice. The options such as Drupal Commerce, Magento will generally require developers but they are powerful. Same with prestashop, which I have no experience with but I hear good things about. alot of them, at a basic level are pretty comparable, for what they can do out of the box. ecommerce is a big area and it depends on what you are wanting to sell and how you are wanting to sell it. Things get complicated when you want people to be able to pay by deposit, provide details. Scope what you need and compare. Also payment gateways and PCI compliance should be factored in which makes shopify the least likely to give you headaches.

 

[mekondelta]

Even if money is tight at the start, really do try to avoid cheap hosting. The level of customer service is never very good and when things go wrong they never seem to be on hand. Pay more for a better service! Alex

Make sure your hosting is PCI compliant. I build systems on AWS but for low cost solutions, Siteground is the hosting company that I would recommend for cost and technical support. Especially the technical support which is superb.

 

[SpridaZack]

In all honestly, I have found no better out of the box solution than Shopify. It's taken a huge chuck of the market share in the eCommerce platform industry and it is growing.

From the modern designs to the easy to use admin controls, I haven't found anything that even gets close without serious customisations in platforms like Magento or Joomla.

 

[Matthew Bennett]

This is very timely. I've been running a NopCommerce ASP.Net e-commerce site for 6 years now. I found it to be big and bulky, also the database filled with guest accounts and needed to be repeatedly cleaned. Daily automated maintenance wasn't able to keep up.

I've this month re-created the site in WooCommerce on WordPress. The file size of the database and files has shrunk from over 2GB to 150MB - a superb saving which will bring my hosting bill down tremendously.

The plugins for WordPress appear to be more stable now and just work. I have to admit that I'm sold.

Best regards,

Matthew Bennett

 

[obscure]

Siteground is the hosting company that I would recommend for cost and technical support. Especially the technical support which is superb.

+1 I use them to host my website. They are excellent.

 

[Instamixes]

Very useful information, thanks for sharing. I think choosing the right platform is one's choice. It depends on one's business type, niche or modal.

 

[Nick Garnett]

My view is that in order to get all the benefits of an eCommerce platform (hosted) with a self-hosted solution is going to cost considerably more, and it's not going to be fast, or as reliable. I've put together many a Wordpress/Woocommerce site and they've always been a complete nightmare. Technical issues abound like when you install that plugin and get the death screen of code and not your much-loved website. It's the same with Joomla unless your a tech aficionado it's always tough. Magento is great but is now owned by Adobe and they charge accordingly.
My advice is when you're starting out use BigCommerce or Shopify, and when turnover gets to £100k plus build a Magento site and host on a really fast server.

 

[fisicx]

I've put together many a Wordpress/Woocommerce site and they've always been a complete nightmare. Technical issues abound like when you install that plugin and get the death screen of code and not your much-loved website.

Never had that happen. Ever.

 

[TonyJJ]

I've recently set up my ecommerce store on Shopify, pretty solid overall. Don't need any coding experience to design a professionally-looking store. It allows me to focus on marketing products and customer service etc

 

[Michael Beaumont]

If you are a one man band then you can pick and choose any platform you like as it will be yourself that will have to learn how it all works. This can be fairly quick or quite tedious depending on the complexity of the solution. I see most "developers" now opting for woo-commerce as they are used to how Wordpress works. This can work fine until you come up against competition for your product keywords and find you are down on the search listings.

When products are competitive you need a code light solution so pages work faster and more visible to search engines. The cost of an easy to put together solution can be soon outweighed by the ability to market the products.

 

[DontAsk]

I am coming to this late but

I think that the best solution is open source software. The support of the community is huge. /QUOTE]

Sadly, that's not my experience with Opencart. It looks great initially, and is easy to setup. Once you have a problem, however, there is zero support and you are stuffed unless you can find someone to help on the forum or are prepared to pay. You might initially get some help but then that person just drifts away and leaves you in limbo.

The documentation is rubbish. Even something as simple as moving from one 3.x version to another is not properly documented. Having open source code is little use when there are very few comments in the code to explain what is going on.

 

[DontAsk]

On the other hand I e-mailed shopwired saying I was thinking of switching and asking a few questions. I received zero response. So much for the supposed good support...

Unless you are already experience in php, html, ajax, mysql, etc.,... the source code from an "open source" solution will be opaque gobbledygook, and you will end up paying for someone to do any but the simplest modifications for you.

Whichever system you choose, make sure you, or the provider, have a solution for the registration spam that you will suffer from.

 

[ShivPillai]

It also depend on pricing and payments, online support and security.

 

[Ecommerce-Help]

I'm a big Opencart fan. I find it easy to set up, easy to use, easy to develop and customize and very affordable for things like extensions and themes.

 

[Kidz Gifts]

Agree with William04 - Pre build CMS are best option easy and quick to customize

 

[SesO]

Choosing E-commerce platforms or way to customise your website depends on your needs. If you have a few products and sub categories then Pre build CMS are best option easy and quick to customize. If you have a lot and require regular updates, then a bespoke option is better. A bespoke option is better for SEO because Google prefers it. It prefers website pages that have less code and more visible content. A pre-built template will restrict you, but it could be a better option if you only have a few products to sell.

 

[Charlie Gr]

Practical advise : I get exposed to many of these questions when talking to different customers and have seen this question come up multiple times during discussions. With what I have seen a successful model (implemented by few) is -

• go with a hosted solution on day 1, for e.g. Shopify or something like that, quick to rollout / launch
• as the business grows, go with a bit more sophisticated solution which can integrate with shipping systems e.g. woocommerce / zoho commerce
• if it grows further then go with a full fledged "custom" solution which meets the business needs e..g Magento

even though this looks like throwing away previous investments with each new step, there are many practical advantages like -

• you only invest in what you need
• you revisit your real business requirements / model - there by optimizing the business everytime and stop focussing on unwanted items
• you are aware of how much inventory you are carrying .... (yes many people get lost in the huge database on what they have with them)

 

[Pish_Pash]

even though this looks like throwing away previous investments with each new step, there are many practical advantages like -

• you only invest in what you need
• you revisit your real business requirements / model - there by optimizing the business everytime and stop focussing on unwanted items
• you are aware of how much inventory you are carrying .... (yes many people get lost in the huge database on what they have with them)

Having just migrated from Opencart to Prestashop around September last year...it's not a process I would want to do that often, so I'm now firmly in the camp of "establish what you need, research....roll with it, and hope you never have to migrate away!" ...the notion of migrating every couple of years makes me want to curl up in a corner in the foetal position.

FWIW I did my research & Prestashop was on the up & up, good support community, running costs are low...I'm happy with my choice

 

[antropy]

it's not a process I would want to do that often

Switching platforms is usually tough, no matter what platform you are going from and to. Alex

 

[Charlie Gr]

Having just migrated from Opencart to Prestashop around September last year...it's not a process I would want to do that often, so I'm now firmly in the camp of "establish what you need, research....roll with it, and hope you never have to migrate away!" ...the notion of migrating every couple of years makes me want to curl up in a corner in the foetal position.

FWIW I did my research & Prestashop was on the up & up, good support community, running costs are low...I'm happy with my choice

Agree this is complex, but immaterial of what anyone says, businesses end up doing this anyways - if - the business grows. So, why not plan for this upfront

 

[antropy]

FWIW I did my research & Prestashop was on the up & up, good support community, running costs are low...I'm happy with my choice

Yes we like Prestashop too, it was up there with OpenCart when we reviewed them all. Paul.

 

[zigojacko]

Mindful of the fact that this sticky thread was created some time ago now so probably doesn't contain completely up-to-date and accurate information (though some of it still relevant as is quite generic), I remembered that last year, I published a beginner's guide to starting up an ecommerce store which lists what options are available currently in the market and weighed up the pros and cons. It's also going to be a guide that I regularly revisit, keep up to date and maintain as things change as well. You can check it out at the below link. Thought it might be useful to anyone that visits this sticky thread on here...

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ecommerce-solutions-options-2019-geoff-jackson/

 

[Haimen]

You have discussed everything all about Ecommerce Solution. In my last thread on this forum, I have asked people regarding OpenCart. Since everyone give me positive response and suggested me to go with Opencart, since its has no limitation to add multiple products in a day.

 

[CroftL]

Thanks for the great article. I personally prefer to have control over my website and store, hosting solution works the best for me as I can edit my website as much as I can while it's being hosted by a company.

 

[Guy Incognito]

We're just switching from Shopify Advanced to Shopify Plus - yes it's expensive but we're at the stage now where we need to take that step.

Overall Shopify has been very good and easy to use in our experience.

 

[fisicx]

You could get your own shop set up for less than you pay shopify each year - with far more control and far more features. But if it works for you that's OK.

 

[Alpha Helica Peptides]

Yes, WordPress is the best source for creating a website, Easily manageable.

 

[antropy]

Yes, WordPress is the best source for creating a website, Easily manageable.

The OP asked for an Ecommerce Platform, Wordpress most definitely does not tick this box! Alex

 

[Alpha Helica Peptides]

The OP asked for an Ecommerce Platform, Wordpress most definitely does not tick this box! Alex

As per the E-Commerce WordPress Also best for E-Commerce Store. Along with WooCommerce Plugin we able to setup the E-Commerce store on WordPress.

 

[fisicx]

As per the E-Commerce WordPress Also best for E-Commerce Store.

No it’s not.

 

[zigojacko]

As per the E-Commerce WordPress Also best for E-Commerce Store.

No it’s not.

I couldn't even understand what that sentence said. Haha.