Choosing an ecommerce solution

[Yeongwonhi]

Thank you, appreciate this!

 

[goivvy]

Good info. Thank you. I think that Magento is one of the best solution for medium to small businesses.

magento is complex and you will need a developer to maintain it. might be cheaper running shopify

 

[Idosell Shop]

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?

Hi Paul,

all the solutions have pros and cons. You can build up the perfect solution on every shop engine- this is only a matter of resources and time. Shopify is popular since it is ready to go solution available in Saas with plenty of modules distributed by the third parties. There are some incompatibility issues since modules are provided by multi suppliers. In case you have shallow pockets, Saas offered platform seems to be the best option. Personally, I would go for one with the all-in-one. One supplier of the professional solution is a warranty of compatibility, inner integrations.

Regarding Magento- migration from 1.1 to 2.0 means whole new platform development- burning budget.

 

[Idosell Shop]

Yes,Shopify is really much more cheaper

Good info. Thank you. I think that Magento is one of the best solution for medium to small businesses.

How you categorize large/medium/small- by parcels number shipped per month?

 

[Idosell Shop]

We categorize our customers by a number of parcels shipped every month- it might be not the best but apply to a majority of businesses- especially traders and retailers. Drop shipping gets more and more popular since fairly low investment and efficiency. 2-3 people company can proceed several thousand of parcels a month due orders processing automation. This is why I would stay with a number of parcels/orders proceeded every month. I am open for arguments and discussion.

 

[Jeff Nev]

I have to concur with other posters, Magento is an excellent platform for small to medium businesses and once you get it mastered, is very user friendly on the whole.

 

[Idosell Shop]

I have to concur with other posters, Magento is an excellent platform for small to medium businesses and once you get it mastered, is very user friendly on the whole.

Yes indeed, once you know the answer there is no difficult question. The only one problem with open source solutions is that no one will take responsibility on a bad day.

 

[Edd Dutton]

Thanks, great info!

 

[kgg.becks]

I have choosen Opencart as it is lighter and its extensions are not too pricey.

 

[HBC]

My 2p if i may: I would strongly go for a customised solution. It pays off already in the medium term because there is never ever a situation where you would be 100% happy with what the hosted or ready-made software has to offer. In my case it was for example, the lack of multi-lingual ability in SEO keywords for the products - another example was the lack of a report that showed me the speed with which products were sold after being put online. Plus dozens of other (individually small but collectively adding up large) elements that obviate the customised solution. Disclaimer: I'm also a programmer of e-commerce websites, but I'm NOT peddling my wares here, just sharing my experience

 

[Neil_Shah]

I initially used many SaaS solutions but these softwares' available in the market would have one thing but not the other thing. Eventually I got a customized inventory management software developed according to my business needs. I got it designed and developed from eSellerHub. These guys have developed customized softwares' for top Amazon and eBay retailers.

 

[ContentInspector]

There is no doubt that hosted solutions have evolved well beyond a user base of "mom and pop" businesses, but there still does come a time when a business grows to the point that it needs something more closely integrated with other business processes and functions, and offers more options for customisation.

Until that point, for any small or bootstrapped start-up I would recommend hosted (Bluepark, Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion etc) before embarking on anything that needs a developer.

 

[Idosell Shop]

There is no doubt that hosted solutions have evolved well beyond a user base of "mom and pop" businesses, but there still does come a time when a business grows to the point that it needs something more closely integrated with other business processes and functions, and offers more options for customisation.

Until that point, for any small or bootstrapped start-up I would recommend hosted (Bluepark, Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion etc) before embarking on anything that needs a developer.

Embarking on developers integration on backend moved far away from what was available on the market even one year ago. For the frontend, there is still a lot to do for developers and it will be since there is no one design applicable for all the businesses.

 

[Richard Edwards]

If anyone is interested in a talk about CS-Cart, let me know. We work closely with the team behind it on a regular basis.

 

[MarekBober]

Peel worth of effort... it is not about what is the easiest but what brings you tools you will use in your professional business. It is not worth to pick your solution which will be blocker soon only because it is easy to operate. It is cheaper to learn than to re-platform...

 

[nik309]

Hi,
I am completely agree with rogerba it's really good way to summaries the question without any complication to understand it.

 

[Glenndilen]

Much like Richard, we use CS-Cart too, and see it as the number 1 platform for small to large businesses.

It offers so much more functionality than it's competitors, and blows them out of the water with it's ease of use.

If you want anymore info, drop us a message!

 

[amdowney]

Yep, loving CS Cart, be even better when they improve the way options work to be individual products. Got away from click cart pro as that just lacked updates, too out of date etc. Looked at Magento and is dfar too complex, CS Cart is a little more user friendly and there is a good community for addons and support. My main site is <<< Link Removed >>>.

 

[Glenndilen]

Sounds great!

If you ever need any help with your site, drop us a message and we'll be happy to help.

 

[UniHost2u]

Magento is the best platform for eCommerce business. also every usa / uk business like Magento. but i like opencart.

 

[bigbuzzbelfast]

I like this software look up ecommerce templates dot com it's not that well known but things like options and variations are handled very well.

 

[ISL Recruitment]

ECWID or WooCommerce if you're enterprise size,
Magento if you're going large and Shopify if you just want a little, hassle-free set-up.

 

[wtfareyou]

Awesome Thread thank you

 

[wtfareyou]

So much helpful info in 1 place i luv it

 

[Manish Saini]

Well Categorized. Most of the time you will find Magento vs Core Php. I think custom built website is always better than ready made websites

 

[bigbuzzbelfast]

The problem with custom (if we are talking about software) is that it can be expensive and very very time-consuming. Many a great website has been built around many of the established ecommerce software brands mentioned in this post.

Why use them because they have put a lot of money into developing their software and while each different ecommerce software company mentioned does things a little bit differently they all have something to offer that can save you time and money. Think about the time you still have to put in using established ecommerce software companies, can you imagine how much time a custom one may take?

 

[plugnpaid]

what is your take on distributed commerce solutions?

 

[natalieporter]

Many thanks for your information. It's very useful with me.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Opencart or Mangento both worked well for me but you need to bring a lot of time to do it yourself. Both are running in a couple minutes but creating products etc... takes time

 

[JasonGreen]

I would go with Magento 2.0 if the budget was available, however there is plenty of cheaper alternatives that will kick start your store, you can always upgrade when your company grows unless of course you have the budget available then I would look past Magento.

 

[Eshan Imrit]

Thank you for the valuable knowledge and information.
I have a very small family business on EBay started 6 months ago. I had the option to set up my own website or to choose EKM. As a novice, I am thinking to sign up with EKM. The reason is that; maintaining a website can be costly as well as the SEO. I hope I am making the right decision to increase my sales!
Thanks

 

[Direct One Data Solutions]

i set up prettylildress dot com via go daddy its a bit slow and hard to figure out though anyone have a better platform ?

 

[LondonSW1]

Shopify is really the easiest and most flexible e-com for people who have no programming skills. I've tried a lot of them out there over the years and nothing beats Shopify.
Magento is awful. Very outdated and far more time consuming than Shopify.

 

[Eshan Imrit]

Thank you for your reply and suggestions.
As you mentioned that you have tried a variety of selling platforms, have you ever tried EKM?
Thanks.

 

[Rebekah Ward]

Great summary! It really does depend what suits the user for their business and the technical ability / time.

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

Great post! If there are eCommerce platforms that offer free demos, I'd gladly take them out for a spin. Experiencing the service is a great way to gauge the amount of value that users and sellers can get from the platform. You can always read testimonials and reviews, but it's an entirely different experience when you're able to feel it for yourself. I'm not saying reviews are useless, I'm saying that demos are a better way to determine whether a product or service is for you or not.

 

[stef686]

A lot comes down to personal experience too, I think you HAVE to try different software to find out what's best for you. Personally, Magento really isn't for me, I just don't get on with it at all!

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

A lot comes down to personal experience too, I think you HAVE to try different software to find out what's best for you. Personally, Magento really isn't for me, I just don't get on with it at all!

You and me both, Stef. You and me both!

 

[ECS]

We have 2 websites. The first built on Bluepark and the second on Shopify.

We wanted a revamp so thought we'd start afresh with Shopify as it looks a lot 'glossier'

It was relatively easy to build but the functionality is VERY VERY limited - you can't even edit an order.

Anything more than the basics and you have to get an App add-on, which are mostly on monthly recurring fees. So they entice you in with a low monthly fee but before you know it you're easily paying an extra £150 + /m ... and that's just for a few basic Apps.

Bluepark has so much more functionality all built in to their basic packages.

Also SEO is MUCH MUCH better on Bluepark and I haven't even optimised anything much on that site. Our organic listings are no virtually nowhere to be seen on the Shopify site, whereas with Bluepark we were on Page 1 & 2 from pretty much launch. We have to do Google Ads on Shopify, but get the same amount of sales without advertising on the Bluepark site.

The latest is Shopify withdrawing with only 48 hours notice, their Payment processing, due to some of our products being in violation of Stripes Terms of Service.

We sell mainstream healthcare stuff that you can buy in Boots / any High St pharmacy / loads of online shops. No dodgy supplements or anything like that.

They've done this and are going to be doing it to pretty much all customers in Health & Beauty. So as of tomorrow night we'll only be able to take payments via Paypal until we can get another Payment Processor & Merchant account set up


That's the coffin in the nail for me as far as Shodify go.

 

[Scottishgifts4u]

When I started I went with Actinic (now sellerdeck) and one of the attractions was I could buy the programming, build my own site and the only ongoing costs was the hosting fee. This meant if I didn't sell a thing it would still only cost me a pittance (£100 a year from memory).
That was a long time ago but if I ever thought of switching are there still platforms that allow you to do that or are they monthly payment only?