Seeking e-commerce platform recommendations

[TabletSalsa]

Hello,

I’ve been searching for a new e-commerce platform for the company I work for, and I’m looking for suggestions.

We sell stretch-wrap machines, mostly through distributors. Our e-commerce site is for customers who want to purchase parts. Our current site is quite outdated. We are in need of an upgrade.

I’ve been considering platforms like Shopify and Squarespace, etc. I’d appreciate any suggestions based on our needs.

Here’s what we’re looking for:
• Ease of use: Site setup, use, and maintenance would be beginner friendly.
• Easily upload and update our online products via a CSV/Excel file.
• Automation: We’d like to find a platform which we could connect to our local SQL server such that orders placed online will be automatically processed into our local database, eliminating the need for someone to manually take online orders and process them into our own database.

I know that our requirements are somewhat general. There are probably factors I have not considered yet, so if you have questions from me that could help you suggest certain platforms, let me know!
Thank you!

 

[thetiger2015]

Will the new platform be managed completely in house? Or are you also looking to work with a specialist agency/web company for this?

The answer kind of depends on whether youve got a competent in-house IT/web team, graphic designer for front end or whether you're out sourcing all or some of this, at least for the initial build.

Shopify can handle the first 2 items on your list easily, the integration with your local server may require additional support.

 

[antropy]

• Automation: We’d like to find a platform which we could connect to our local SQL server such that orders placed online will be automatically processed into our local database, eliminating the need for someone to manually take online orders and process them into our own database.

For this type of requirement you'll need a self-hosted platform like OpenCart, which is free, open source, and incredibly simple and easy to use and modify.

Paul.

 

[thetiger2015]

It can also be done in Shopify, using connectors, like Zapier for example: https://zapier.com/apps/shopify/integrations/sql-server

At the moment, the initial question is too general. I'd have 100 questions at this point.

 

[japancool]

Does Shopify offer an API? You could write something fairly easily in SQL Server to poll a REST API to pull in and process new orders.

 

[TabletSalsa]

Will the new platform be managed completely in house? Or are you also looking to work with a specialist agency/web company for this?

The answer kind of depends on whether youve got a competent in-house IT/web team, graphic designer for front end or whether you're out sourcing all or some of this, at least for the initial build.

Shopify can handle the first 2 items on your list easily, the integration with your local server may require additional support.

Hello @thetiger2015,

We're looking to find a platform where we can choose a template and therefore not need a graphic designer, and where we can minimize the development side of things as much as possible. Ideally, if we can find another service to connect the e-commerce site to our local sql server, that'd be great, as opposed to us coding it.

 

[TabletSalsa]

For this type of requirement you'll need a self-hosted platform like OpenCart, which is free, open source, and incredibly simple and easy to use and modify.

Paul.

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your reply. I looked briefly into OpenCart. I am thinking that perhaps it will require more coding and maintenance than we are looking to pursue. Do you think that is correct or am I mistaken? Thank you

 

[TabletSalsa]

It can also be done in Shopify, using connectors, like Zapier for example:

At the moment, the initial question is too general. I'd have 100 questions at this point.

Yes, I was considering using a service like Zapier or Skyvia for connecting the platform to our sql server.

Regarding the generality of the question, I'm new to this and there questions I myself am likely not considering yet. What suggestions do you have regarding what I should be looking into as I search for a platform further? Thanks

 

[TabletSalsa]

Does Shopify offer an API? You could write something fairly easily in SQL Server to poll a REST API to pull in and process new orders.

I'm considering using a service like Zapier or Skyvia.

 

[fisicx]

Hello @thetiger2015,

We're looking to find a platform where we can choose a template and therefore not need a graphic designer, and where we can minimize the development side of things as much as possible. Ideally, if we can find another service to connect the e-commerce site to our local sql server, that'd be great, as opposed to us coding it.

Wordpress will do pretty much everything you need. You may need a developer to connect to your server but that's not a complicated function.

 

[TabletSalsa]

Wordpress will do pretty much everything you need. You may need a developer to connect to your server but that's not a complicated function.

I've heard using wordpress and connecting it to a plugin like WooCommerce requires more maintenance and is not as easy to use compared to Shopify. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks!

 

[fisicx]

It’s about as simple as it gets. Or you ask someone to help. I can get a basic woocommerce site set up in about an hour and teach you all you need to know in another hour. Other developers and clients may need more or less time, everyone is different.

If you already have hosting setting up a subdomain to test Wordpress isn’t that complicated.If you discover you don’t like it the cost is zero and a couple of hours of your time.

 

[EcomAlistair]

Hello,

I’ve been searching for a new e-commerce platform for the company I work for, and I’m looking for suggestions.

We sell stretch-wrap machines, mostly through distributors. Our e-commerce site is for customers who want to purchase parts. Our current site is quite outdated. We are in need of an upgrade.

I’ve been considering platforms like Shopify and Squarespace, etc. I’d appreciate any suggestions based on our needs.

Here’s what we’re looking for:
• Ease of use: Site setup, use, and maintenance would be beginner friendly.
• Easily upload and update our online products via a CSV/Excel file.
• Automation: We’d like to find a platform which we could connect to our local SQL server such that orders placed online will be automatically processed into our local database, eliminating the need for someone to manually take online orders and process them into our own database.

I know that our requirements are somewhat general. There are probably factors I have not considered yet, so if you have questions from me that could help you suggest certain platforms, let me know!
Thank you!

For the first two requirements, most platforms are going to be mostly equal… template libraries and CSV imports are the norm across the board.

For the third - automation - you’re unlikely to find a non enterprise solution that does this off the shelf, so your objective must be to identify the platform which is most ‘automation friendly’.

Shopify is unrivalled in terms of what is possible via its API and will welcome not just what you want to automate now but also likely anything in the future. The platform itself will not connect to your SQL database, but a middleware tool such as Zapier and Make will handle this synchronisation nicely

You might also want to consider maintaining accurate stock levels on your site from your local SQL database from a point of view of maintaining a single source of truth.

Woocommerce also has a good API but it lacks massively on your first requirement (harder to maintain and slower to launch)

 

[antropy]

Shopify is unrivalled in terms of what is possible via its API

Pure nonsense, Shopify is one of the most restricted platforms there is.

Paul.

 

[antropy]

Thank you for your reply. I looked briefly into OpenCart. I am thinking that perhaps it will require more coding and maintenance than we are looking to pursue. Do you think that is correct or am I mistaken? Thank you

I think you're mistaken. There are free extensions to do the CSV part you mention. The others wouldn't require much custom code.

On-going maintenance is really minimal.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

Woocommerce also has a good API but it lacks massively on your first requirement (harder to maintain and slower to launch)

That's not correct. It's really easy to maintain and launch speed is dependent on many factors - woo not being one of them

 

[antropy]

That's not correct. It's really easy to maintain and launch speed is dependent on many factors - woo not being one of them

I agree it's easy to maintain but speed has been awful in the WordPress installs we have. Perhaps there's some magic cache plugin everyone uses but our experience is it's pretty slow?

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

I agree it's easy to maintain but speed has been awful in the WordPress installs we have. Perhaps there's some magic cache plugin everyone uses but our experience is it's pretty slow?

There's a demo website with a demo Woocommerce store in my profile. No caching plugin.

Google speed test is shown on the store page. Feel free to test for yourself.

 

[antropy]

There's a demo website with a demo Woocommerce store in my profile. No caching plugin.

You mean this one?

Demonstration product category page | Shopclicks

This is a demonstration product page created using Woocommerce on a WordPress database

shopclicks.co.uk

Because the TTFB is pretty bad at 2.695s when really it should be closer to 1 second for such a simple page.

This testing service says it needs improvement:

WebPageTest Performance Test Results

Check out these web performance test results on WebPageTest.org:

www.webpagetest.org

Our Antropy.co.uk home page was 1.020s for example because it uses ConcreteCMS which has incredible caching built in.

Google speed test is shown on the store page. Feel free to test for yourself.

The Google Page Speed Test isn't the be all and end all.

Perhaps your front-end code is optimised but your back-end code is not.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

Our Antropy.co.uk home page was 1.020s for example because it uses ConcreteCMS which has incredible caching built in.

What results do you get from a simple open cart install?

 

[antropy]

What results do you get from a simple open cart install?

Just tested Vape Liquid UK which you won't allow me to link, but it was 1.581s.

It's not unmodified but it doesn't have a caching extension.

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

The Google Page Speed Test isn't the be all and end all.

Perhaps your front-end code is optimised but your back-end code is not.

I have similar operational sites that pass core web vitals. Why would I care about any other speed test?

 

[antropy]

Why would I care about any other speed test?

Because of the user experience. It's been proven in research by Amazon that for each 0.1s decrease in page load time, conversions increase by a certain percentage:

"

• Shopzilla speeded up average page load time from 6 seconds to 1.2 seconds, and increased revenue by 12% and page views by 25%.
• Amazon increased revenue by 1% for every 100ms of improvement (same as Walmart).
• Yahoo increased traffic by 9% for every 400ms of improvement.

"
Source: https://www.globaldots.com/resources/blog/how-website-speed-affects-conversion-rates/

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

Because of the user experience. It's been proven in research by Amazon that for each 0.1s decrease in page load time, conversions increase by a certain percentage:

The test location you linked to for the demo page is US. There's no CDN.

 

[antropy]

The test location you linked to for the demo page is US. There's no CDN.

Same for my site I tested, which was more than twice as fast so yours clearly has a lot of lag in the back-end code even though the front-end is well optimised.

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

Same for my site I tested, which was more than twice as fast so yours clearly has a lot of lag in the back-end code even though the front-end is well optimised.

Your point was that Woocommerce is slow. Clearly it isn't.

That site's shared server runs 4GB RAM. The user experience is anything but slow.

 

[EcomAlistair]

Pure nonsense, Shopify is one of the most restricted platforms there is.

Paul.

Hi Paul, interested to hear how the Shopify API is restricted?

I'm talking about automation friendliness. If a business owner does not want to be on the hook to an external agency and wants to build "If this, then that" workflows - I have not seen any other platform offer more options than Shopify.

If you have, I would really like to learn from what you know - but your short answer doesn't state anything material to help the conversation move forward.

Thanks !

 

[antropy]

Your point was that Woocommerce is slow. Clearly it isn't.

Yes it is, yours takes 2.5s when another site takes 1s. That's felt by the user in a delayed and less snappy experience. I'm not sure how you're suggesting 2.5s is as fast as 1s?

Paul.

 

[antropy]

I'm talking about automation friendliness. If a business owner does not want to be on the hook to an external agency

But they are on the hook to Shopify themselves. If you build your site with Shopify then Shopify own your online business and can change anything at any time. They can increase their fees, or decide they don't allow your products anymore.

Paul.

 

[antropy]

Hi Paul, interested to hear how the Shopify API is restricted?

It's not so much the API itself that's restricted, it's what's possible with Shopify. We've had various client requests for Shopify Apps and have had to say no because Shopify themselves have confirmed it's not possible to modify the platform in that way.

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

Yes it is, yours takes 2.5s when another site takes 1s. That's felt by the user in a delayed and less snappy experience. I'm not sure how you're suggesting 2.5s is as fast as 1s?

You're comparing apples with oranges again. I just tested a couple of your OpenCart vape site product category pages:

TTFB 2,422 & 2.104

I re-checked my demo page and got TTFB 1.924

 

[antropy]

TTFB 2,422 & 2.104

I re-checked my demo page and got TTFB 1.924

Well presumably you kept testing until you got the results you wanted while increasing server load ?‍

The results I gave were the first ones that came back.

Either way those are not great times, nor for the vape shops.

Paul.

 

[thetiger2015]

But they are on the hook to Shopify themselves. If you build your site with Shopify then Shopify own your online business and can change anything at any time. They can increase their fees, or decide they don't allow your products anymore.

Paul.

That's not unique to Shopify though. When we used WordPress/Woo, we had to go back to the developer for almost everything. It was all custom built, so nobody else could do anything with it. We could change text/images and add products but we couldn't do much else.

We've also used Magento in the past but that was crazy, crazy expensive and ridiculously temperamental. Way too bloated and slow.

We've settled for Shopify. It integrates with lots of things. There's some stuff you can't do but it's very difficult to break. I don't know of any system where you are the complete owner, not unless you have in-house developers and, if you do, you're probably going to be using a custom built platform on AWS/IBM/Some other huge software company, you wouldn't use Shopify/Woo/OpenCart etc. Too much security risk with off the shelf platforms like that.

 

[Shopclicks]

Either way those are not great times, nor for the vape shops.

Can we at least agree that Woocommerce is not slow. It's other factors that can influence TTFB (server speed, caching, CDN, etc.)

 

[HostXNow]

CMS platform aside, for the fastest page load speeds a quick fix is to use the fastest CPU/processor with the fastest memory. It makes a huge difference. I have done lots of testing of this kind over the years. Just remember that apps like WordPress/OpenCart are single-threaded and so load faster on the fastest single-core CPU/processor!

I recently used AMD Ryzen 5900/5950X with 3200MHz memory to host sites for my clients which had the fastest PHP load times around. There is an unbiased ranking/award for this on Google if check.

Recently, I upgraded the server to AMD Ryzen 7900X (shared/reseller) and AMD 7950X (VPS) with 4800MHz. These are the fastest servers around right now. Period.

TTFB isn't everything but is one of the many parts of it.

When using Shared/Reseller, PHP loading times will be limited by other software running on the server like CloudLinux LVE. Some web hosts offer better limits than others.

If you want the fastest speeds, use a VPS so there is no throttling! Want even faster, use a dedicated server! Of course, need to use the best web host who knows what they are doing to achieve the best speeds.

Everything else like Caching, CDN, and TTFB is not as important and one should not fixate on them.

You can have one site with better TTFB but have poorer routing/slower initial page load due to various other factors for where it matters most target visitors in the country/location you are targeting. The result you want is the fastest Load time which can be checked within Google Network Tools (better than using 3rd party website tools which are not as accurate). Once you got the fastest PHP loading times on the default CMS (WordPress/OpenCart), then look to optimise the CMS/design (WordPress/Opencart), and once done that, then add Caching to help preload pages from the cache, and once done that then add a CDN like Cloudflare (optional).

That's the best way to go about it if you truly want the fastest page loading times for anything PHP/MySQL related.

There are lots of other neat tricks that can be done/but web hosts aren't going to share them all for obvious reasons. Although I just shared many that many do not mention with good reason.

I hope that helps.

 

[dx3webs]

I agree it's easy to maintain but speed has been awful in the WordPress installs we have. Perhaps there's some magic cache plugin everyone uses but our experience is it's pretty slow?

Paul.

wp-rocket is worth every penny and gives near varnish like performance.. and if you really want to show off.. add varnish anyway.

 

[dx3webs]

CMS platform aside, for the fastest page load speeds a quick fix is to use the fastest CPU/processor with the fastest memory. It makes a huge difference. I have done lots of testing of this kind over the years. Just remember that apps like WordPress/OpenCart are single-threaded and so load faster on the fastest single-core CPU/processor!

I recently used AMD Ryzen 5900/5950X with 3200MHz memory to host sites for my clients which had the fastest PHP load times around. There is an unbiased ranking/award for this on Google if check.

Recently, I upgraded the server to AMD Ryzen 7900X (shared/reseller) and AMD 7950X (VPS) with 4800MHz. These are the fastest servers around right now. Period.

TTFB isn't everything but is one of the many parts of it.

When using Shared/Reseller, PHP loading times will be limited by other software running on the server like CloudLinux LVE. Some web hosts offer better limits than others.

If you want the fastest speeds, use a VPS so there is no throttling! Want even faster, use a dedicated server! Of course, need to use the best web host who knows what they are doing to achieve the best speeds.

Everything else like Caching, CDN, and TTFB is not as important and one should not fixate on them.

You can have one site with better TTFB but have poorer routing/slower initial page load due to various other factors for where it matters most target visitors in the country/location you are targeting. The result you want is the fastest Load time which can be checked within Google Network Tools (better than using 3rd party website tools which are not as accurate). Once you got the fastest PHP loading times on the default CMS (WordPress/OpenCart), then look to optimise the CMS/design (WordPress/Opencart), and once done that, then add Caching to help preload pages from the cache, and once done that then add a CDN like Cloudflare (optional).

That's the best way to go about it if you truly want the fastest page loading times for anything PHP/MySQL related.

There are lots of other neat tricks that can be done/but web hosts aren't going to share them all for obvious reasons. Although I just shared many that many do not mention with good reason.

I hope that helps.

This is a good summary.
Hosting for speed is a balancing act between hardware and cost. The higher the cpu clock the better.. but the highest clocked servers tend to have lower core count.. so with any real traffic those cores are going to get overwhelmed in no time. So you then look to the high core servers.. which will handle traffic but not as quickly. Mix in varnish / caching this is good enough for most sites.
If you still need raw power then get a cluster of those high clocked servers behind a load balancer.

You can have your cake and eat it... at a cost.

the problem with cloud solutions is that those massive multi-core processors have very average CPU clocks behind them.

 

[antropy]

Can we at least agree that Woocommerce is not slow. It's other factors that can influence TTFB (server speed, caching, CDN, etc.)

I'm afraid not, because it is very slow in all the installs we've setup.

Perhaps paid caching extensions can improve it, but the point is that out of the box it's painfully slow.

Paul.

 

[antropy]

That's not unique to Shopify though. When we used WordPress/Woo, we had to go back to the developer for almost everything. It was all custom built, so nobody else could do anything with it. We could change text/images and add products but we couldn't do much else.

Not true, you could have gone to any good WordPress/Woo developer or agency.

We've also used Magento in the past but that was crazy, crazy expensive and ridiculously temperamental. Way too bloated and slow.

You're right, and my blog article explains exactly why that was the case: https://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/the-lure-of-magento/

We've settled for Shopify. It integrates with lots of things. There's some stuff you can't do but it's very difficult to break.

It's difficult to break because it's impossible to customise in certain ways. You can't break what you can't modify.

I don't know of any system where you are the complete owner, not unless you have in-house developers

OpenCart or PrestaShop are two examples. And none of our hundreds of clients have in-house developers and they do pretty well.

you wouldn't use Shopify/Woo/OpenCart etc. Too much security risk with off the shelf platforms like that.

WordPress is very vulnerable but there are very few security issues in OpenCart. Don't kid yourself that the big companies are immune to hacks - they're in the news pretty often.


Paul.

 

[antropy]

TTFB isn't everything but is one of the many parts of it.

Time To Last Byte is probably more important because that's when the server has done its part. Assuming everything else is equal, this will be the biggest factor in user experience and keeping the server online when under very high load.

Paul.