best ecommerce platform

[Joe MIOTELLO]

in a mind field of eCommerce who is the best to go for about£50 per month
I am doing a 28 day trial with EKM but find them slow to do things, looking at Wix
just so bloody confused my brain full now

 

[fisicx]

There is no best. There is just the most suitable for your business.

It all depends on what you are selling to whom and how you plan to market your products.

Avoid Wix at all costs.

 

[Mr D]

All of them are best.

There, solved it.

Its like asking which shop is the best when shopping offline.

Perhaps list what you are looking for in particular.
Speed? Customers? Themes? Price? Ease of use?

Can be worth - if you can avoid spreading yourself too thin - using multiple sites if no one site meets all your requirements to the level you want.

 

[Rob1985]

There is a best. The best ecommerce platform are the ones where you can actually find developers who have experience working on those platforms.

Shopify is worth a serious look at. A cheaper solution would be wordpress and the woocommerce plugin.

 

[ecommerce84]

I personally like the flexibility that Wordpress and Woocommerce offer. Loads of plugins, and loads of themes. All in various price ranges.

It’s a world away from 2002 when I launched my first website. It was largely hand coded, as I couldn’t get on with Dreamweaver, FrontPage express was too limited and FrontPage Editor was beyond my budget. It used a PayPal cart, featured a tables layout and an iframe for the left menu. Good times!

 

[Joe MIOTELLO]

I will make this more clear then-lol
I want an eCommerce site that will be mostly using dropship
it must be a simple task to upload CVS files
must be SEO friendly-as my site at the moment is bad -I have been told this-
In this pandemic my sale 2 items-when, a lot of people reported upturns in trade
I would prefer a UK based one

 

[fisicx]

Still doesn't make a lot of sense.

How many products? Who are you selling to? How do you plan to market the site?

And what's your budget?

As an aside uploading products using CSV is never simple. If you plan you use the CSV provided by the dropshipper the site will fail. If you want to succeed (and be SEO friendly) you will need your own images and write all your own descriptions.

 

[Joe MIOTELLO]

so fisicx , you're saying that I need to upload all say 500 items manually to get the SEO to work and get traffic on google


had my sites done this way of CVS to tvs file, all loaded ok-but is this my problem of no SEO working?
i cant give you my shop site yet-but its javagifts if you can find me-lol

 

[fisicx]

so fisicx , you're saying that I need to upload all say 500 items manually to get the SEO to work and get traffic on google

Yes

 

[wayzgoose]

so fisicx , you're saying that I need to upload all say 500 items manually to get the SEO to work and get traffic on google


had my sites done this way of CVS to tvs file, all loaded ok-but is this my problem of no SEO working?
i cant give you my shop site yet-but its javagifts if you can find me-lol

I've got 6,000 products. Just under half entered manually, the rest on a feed with headlines and descriptions changed. Easy money this dropshipping lark !

 

[fisicx]

....the rest on a feed with headlines and descriptions changed.

This is key. If you use the data provided by the dropshipper you end up with same listing as everyone else and Google will just ignore you.

 

[Joe MIOTELLO]

what about uploading the CVS feeds, and then editing the content to your own description

 

[fisicx]

Yes. But you also need to change the images, titles and other data elements.

 

[Joe MIOTELLO]

thanks for that fisicx, looking at bluepark,big commerce, or EKM if they get there finger out

 

[Joe MIOTELLO]

also W Academy-they build it for free by students and we pay the running costs

 

[Darren_Ssc]

what about uploading the CVS feeds, and then editing the content to your own description

You'd kill yourself trying to do this. Pick out the likely winners and let the rest fly.

I should add that simply re-writing generic descriptions is already been done with AI, with limited success.

 

[Paul Norman]

There is no best. There is just the most suitable for your business.

It all depends on what you are selling to whom and how you plan to market your products.

Avoid Wix at all costs.

This.

The question does often get asked. It does divide opinion, but of course if there was one, objectively, best platform we would all be using it.

There are a few good ones, though. It is worth being very clear on what you need before you review which one to go with.

 

[Deepika_Chauhan]

Hi,
Both Shopify and BigCommerce serves the purpose for the best eCommerce platform.
However you can turn your BigCommerce store into a MultiVendor Store and can even dropship products from AliExpress, when you integrate you store with AliExpress, another popular e-commerce marketplace which lets you import products from AliExpress which you can sell directly from you own store after setting the price rule.

Hope this helps!

Thanks!

 

[fisicx]

@Deepika_Chauhan - can’t think of a single reason why anyone would ever want to connect to Aliexpress.

 

[Deepika_Chauhan]

@fiscix,
Here are few:
Features of BigCommerce AliExpress Dropshipping
General Features:

• Functionality to import products from AliExpress product page to your BigCommerce store.
• A custom built AliExpress Importer Chrome Browser Extension is available on Chrome extension store.
• Easy to configure and manage at admin end.

Product Import Features:

• Imports products with details like Product Name, Price, metadata, main image, additional image, options, and product details.
• Functionality to set a default category to which products get imported from AliExpress.

Product Options Feature:

• Import products with various options along with the images.

Product Data Update Feature:

• An admin can modify the data of the product like Name, Price, Metadata while importing from AliExpress.

Price Rule Features:

• Admin can increment or decrement the price of products through “Price Rule”.
• Set the “Price Rule” value in %.

Order Automation Features:

• Admin can place orders on AliExpress by a single click if any order for imported products is created on BigCommerce.
• When admin clicks on place order, all the products in the order will be automatically added to the cart, and admin can get shipping address in one click.

Updated Features

• Admin can select the product details to import as per his requirement.
• Admin has the functionality to select the product’s images and options to import.
• Functionality to import AliExpress products along with the available inventory.
• Functionality to import AliExpress products variants within the stock.
• Option to set the SKU prefix to AliExpress imported products as per choice.

 

[fisicx]

@Deepika_Chauhan - the problem is the tat and scam that litter Aliexpress. Nobody who is serious about ecommerce will ever use Aliexpress. Expecially as I can get next day delivery here in the UK but have to wait a week for something to arrive from China.

 

[Vin Gupta]

I can't say which is best for you, but I can give a summary of the main ones.

• Shopify is an all in one solution that is dedicated for ecommerce. It has a pretty good reputation
• Wix is a general website builder. It's very popular, but the websites are generic and not very sophisticated
• Wordpress is similar to Wix, but open source. It powers 30% of the web. I'm not a fan, as 90% of all hacks take place on Wordpress

 

[fisicx]

I can't say which is best for you, but I can give a summary of the main ones.

• Shopify is an all in one solution that is dedicated for ecommerce. It has a pretty good reputation
• Wix is a general website builder. It's very popular, but the websites are generic and not very sophisticated
• Wordpress is similar to Wix, but open source. It powers 30% of the web. I'm not a fan, as 90% of all hacks take place on Wordpress

Wix! Don’t ever mention that name again. Almost as bad as shopify.

Wordpress gets hacked because people don’t keep it updated and install insecure plugins and themes.

 

[Vin Gupta]

Wix! Don’t ever mention that name again. Almost as bad as shopify.

Wordpress gets hacked because people don’t keep it updated and install insecure plugins and themes.

I don't feel strongly about Wix. I'd like to know why you dislike it!

Your point about Wordpress is correct. You need to do a little bit of work, to make sure you use Wordpress safely, and don't get hacked

 

[fisicx]

I don't feel strongly about Wix. I'd like to know why you dislike it!

Because it's useless. Pretty much all site builders are. If you are serious about ecommerce use a proper ecommerce platform. Shopify isn't one of these.

 

[John Toomey]

We use EKM for our clients. It's easy to setup and great for trialing new online business ideas.

 

[Sanjay Patoliya]

you need to decide based on your business requirements because every eCommerce platforms are best based on its features.

 

[pcourtney]

another vote for EKM in Preston, UK
but sadly once you hit £50,000 in online turnover for the year, you are moved from the Basic Plan £390 p/a to the Standard Plan at £780 per annum

Basic Plan £390 online t/over £50,000
Standard Plan £780 online t/over £150,000
Advanced Plan £2340 up to 1 million t/over

the best value is the Advanced Plan, but not every ecommerce idea / store gets anywhere close to a million in t/over - one can dream

 

[Patrick Blanc]

There are many ways to go about creating a new shopping website or an online store. You may hire a team of developers who build, test, and run the store for you, or you can go for a hosted platform that offers you already tried and tested solutions. Since you’re asking about the best e-commerce platform coding from scratch is not on your mind. In this case, your best bet would be a hosted or SaaS-based solution. Because a hosted solution takes care of all your IT needs (pricey developers), you can focus on your business strategies more.


Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, etc are just a few examples of a hosted e-commerce solution. You will have to, however, find a solution that specially fits your requirements. On the surface you may compare the pricing, number of users, reviews but to make the final call you will have to check the following as well:

• Easily customizable front end and back end with little to no coding requirements.
  
  
• Scalability to accommodate your constantly growing business.
  
  
• All the aspects of e-commerce like inventory management, product management should be covered effectively.
  
  
• Smooth integration with other software like CRM, accounting, ERP, etc.
  
  
• Guarantee for a secured website; compliance with the security standards
  
  
• Multiple payment options including international payment gateways.
  
  
• Integrated shipping taking care of both domestic and international locations.
  
  
• Transparent pricing so you don’t have to worry about hidden costs for extra plugins or extensions.

If you feel that your chosen platform has all these features while in the free trial period, feel free to go with it

 

[MarkSS]

another vote for EKM in Preston, UK
but sadly once you hit £50,000 in online turnover for the year, you are moved from the Basic Plan £390 p/a to the Standard Plan at £780 per annum

Basic Plan £390 online t/over £50,000
Standard Plan £780 online t/over £150,000
Advanced Plan £2340 up to 1 million t/over

the best value is the Advanced Plan, but not every ecommerce idea / store gets anywhere close to a million in t/over - one can dream [/QUOTE I do like the look at their sites though.

 

[MarkSS]

Still doesn't make a lot of sense.

How many products? Who are you selling to? How do you plan to market the site?

And what's your budget?

As an aside uploading products using CSV is never simple. If you plan you use the CSV provided by the dropshipper the site will fail. If you want to succeed (and be SEO friendly) you will need your own images and write all your own descriptions.

How does one use own images? Without purchasing each product how can you use your own images? You are right but I’m curious as to how or where you get these images.

 

[fisicx]

How does one use own images? Without purchasing each product how can you use your own images? You are right but I’m curious as to how or where you get these images.

You take images of the samples you get. If you are getting samples how are you testing the quality? You can also write a proper description based with the product in your hands.

Relying on the words and images from the supplier dooms your store to oblivion.

 

[MarkSS]

You take images of the samples you get. If you are getting samples how are you testing the quality? You can also write a proper description based with the product in your hands.

Relying on the words and images from the supplier dooms your store to oblivion.

Also having checked samples you are more aware of quality and can make descriptions more interesting and differentiate from the mainstream ones.