Choosing an ecommerce solution

[Groggy]

Nice post. +1 for Woocommerce with WP! Our ecommerce solution journey has been long and hard - from custom software (and a criminally overpaid developer) to hosted solution (Volusion, then very quickly to BluePark!) and now Woocommerce. Bluepark is excellent, but our need for customisation is outgrowing it.

 

[James Hawkman]

I also agree that there isnt any right or wrong answer to this. It is only what you are carrying, means your items and what platform you have chosen to sell them.

Reards,
James

 

[MarekBober]

I also agree that there isnt any right or wrong answer to this. It is only what you are carrying, means your items and what platform you have chosen to sell them.

Reards,
James

What matters is how good you are in handling orders, how good buyer experience you can maintain and what are limitations of your grow.

So chose the solution which will be not a bottleneck of tomorrow, which you do not keep your own team of developers and admins. Be focus on your core business.

Need advice- drop me a line- happy to help with advice- rest is up to you.

 

[MarekBober]

Great shared conversation!!

Need any help regarding online selling business- drop me a PM

Happy to help
Marek

 

[AnnaDanishek]

Have any of you considered a webchat option for your website? or order taking through telephone/customer support. The best e-commerse sites have a fantastic customer service and this is reported upon via social media, word of mouth, etc. A study by BT found that webchat services have seen a 25% increase in the last 12 months Feel free to message me if this sounds like a viable solution to you.

 

[MarekBober]

Webchat is important part of UX of online shop. Im my personal oppinion customers are interested to contact with "real person"- good booths do the job as good as live person- and algorithms are getting better and better. With Idosell Shop we encourage shop owners to install chat plugins to deliver the best possible customer experience to customers. Quick response combined with accurate information from shop platform guarantee the higest customer satisfaction and in long run customer retention.

Happy to help
Marek

 

[Damian Rushworth]

We have been using shopify for a number of months. The interface is simple and easy to use and the support is pretty good. Lots of useful apps available too.

 

[Ajmit3]

Shopify is better than any of them !!!!

 

[Keylee]

Absolutely agree with your sharing. Platform choice depends on your business objectives also budget for it. Anyway, i prefer Magento Its such a pro and modern shopping cart that i cant ignore.

 

[Jonny Dare]

What a great intro in to Ecommerce @Faevilangel some great pointers and intros in to what's available to customers

 

[madams_ba]

IMHO Self hosting is always best. If you chose a company-hosted solution and they went bust tomorrow - what would you do? You've lost your website and most likely your readers/visitors while you find or build a new solution.

 

[Rakesh Yadav]

For startups with low budget, i recommend WordPress + Woocommerce. Developer for this are far more affordable than any other platform like Magento. This is the best CMS out there and very user friendly too. Give it a try. Great information by the way!

 

[madams_ba]

I agree with Rakesh - easily extendible and workable. Also there's lots of communities out there for Woocommerce if there's ever a problem. And Woocommmerce have a great 'help' area on their website

 

[madams_ba]

And not to mention how easy Woocommerce is to install with the need minimal layout changes needed on product/category pages.

 

[myself]

Agreed, but as I say, it's rare that an existing solution can't be customized with less work than starting again.

Yes, need to do a lot of hard work to grow the business all the time until you are satisfied enough

 

[Ameliajhon]

Nice and informative post, Thanks for sharing

 

[Paul Babiak]

I have a quick question.
Recently I listen to lots of podcasts. Pretty much everyone there talks about Shopify and nothing else.
Does Shopify have clear advantage over WordPress that I don't see?

 

[myself]

Nice and informative post, Thanks for sharing

Thanks

 

[myself]

Wordpress is a blogging/website development platform, Shopify is a complete ecommerce CMS solution. They are not the same.

Oh thanks, what do you this about prestashop? are they better than shopify for ecommerce?

 

[myself]

Selecting E-commerce system or way of customization also relies on Need of Internet business Entrepreneur, In case few products and sub groups to display on website then Pre develop CMS are best choice simple and fast to customize.

Can you explain a bit more, please? Thanks!

 

[Aki kumar]

There's a vast difference in eCommerce solutions. In today's omnichannel world, replatforming is likely a central and strategic decision that will impact all areas of your business. Taking a serious look at your own business before issuing an RFP will give you much better insight into what you need. Instead of focusing solely on specific features, ask yourself how you sell, how you fulfill, how your customers buy from you, and which technology fits your business needs. The answers will help you match up your business with the right eCommerce platform provider.

 

[myself]

That is very good point. I haven't thought this way.

 

[Gordon O'Connor]

Yes it is. Shoot me with more good stuff

 

[Ekim Saribardak]

Opencart 2.2 + a responsive theme + wordpress blog = win

 

[AWA Training]

I'll pop back and read these in a bit, i have just joined, but WooCommerce works well for me. Reasonably easy to install (WP plugin) can be buggy, but it works for me

 

[Ecommerce Web Design]

What ever works for your customer best , use this. In the end of the day admins can put up with pain if there is income, but if there is a fancy dan admin and no income then its a failed business. Once your system is opensource there will be some guru who can do some admin magic when you get the volumes.

 

[Ecommerce Development]

Very useful information thank you for posting here..

 

[Robin_Denis]

Shopify is the best if you wish to built your website yourself without a developer. Very easy to use. If you are familiar with coding or have a developer to work with, you can create more complex websites with Magento.

 

[nageena]

Enjoyed reading it

 

[webroot]

We work with magento for http://funique.co.uk but i am not sure if I recommended that for startup or completley new in ecommerce.
It gives you a lot but has got some requirements as well.

 

[cathreen7879]

Certain things or rule are golden rules when i am starting the my new eCommerce website but this is entirely different form my thinking. I think it is the best suitable advice for the new people who wants making website or creating some awesome stuff in eCommerce.

 

[nageena]

We can offer an eCommerce solutions based on your need

 

[Ian CRA]

in my 25 years exp.

Hosted webs -
only good for already standing businesses such as taxi firms, local plumbers and so on. nothing competitive.

software.
slightly better than the 'go daddy ' stuff. though you will need more than shop software to do anything online as the SEO search engine optimisation on shared software is diluted as so many users share the same code.

custom
depends on the designer. some produce unique work which is key to good google listings. others fob you off with tall tales while they just use the same shared software you turned down. if you looking for a web designer, ask for past work - then test KEYWORDS for their client on google. if they don't show of GENERAL search terms for product - then its just a pretty design. if they show you a tyre shop - search for tyres on generic google searches. the listing position are 10x better than a pretty design.

horses for courses.

 

[nageena]

There are companies that do Search engine optimisation for the keywords

 

[Ian CRA]

Yes but the SEO companies are mostly bogus. Just guys sat around at home throwing out big words. Think about it. If you could control the 1st positions on Google you would not be sat around hawking SEO over the phone, you would be top supplier for the retail sales of global 'widgets'.

be careful and don't believe what you read as the 'custom' element of anything ecommerce is not a standard and varies from making you to bankrupting you.

 

[John Lewis]

I would suggest to go with proven & tested platforms like open cart, woocomerce, magento, OSCommerce. Magneto would be for heavy applications & consumes a lot of memory too.

 

[Ekim Saribardak]

Opencart and magento are great for adding features to your site with all the modules and extensions.

 

[Rosie Hana]

"Magento 2 - POS extension" and "Magento 2 - Reward Point extension" are really good extensions for online store

 

[aManHasNoName]

Opencart and magento are great for adding features to your site with all the modules and extensions.

Totally agree, although I do prefer Magento.

 

[lambooni]

We have always used shopify and have been very impressed. It's certainly more expensive than something like woocommerce but I do feel you get what you pay for.

It has a great selection of themes that can be customised with a little HTML knowledge. Their store has a huge number of apps to help setup your store for different scenarios. We have our store cloned for a wholesale brand also with custom pricing customer by customer.

It also connects directly to Linnworks for order fulfilment and stock control.

Anyone who holds their stock in FBA may want to consider it as it has a direct intergration for order fulfilment.