Choosing an ecommerce solution

[websensejim]

Thanks for the heads up on LinnLive. I hadn't heard of that but it looks very useful for anyone dealing with Magento.

 

[delxyyy]

Joomla with VirtueMart

 

[Paul Norman]

Joomla with VirtueMart

In the interests of clarity, are you saying this is the definitive best solution? Or is it just another product in the massive array mentioned on this thread? And, if so, why is it a good one?

 

[delxyyy]

Yep, it's the best solution in my opinion. If you are a beginner, WP is ideal for you because Joomla requires more technical skills,but it's far more intuitive, professional and scalable.

 

[Paul Norman]

I think it is important for anyone here reading this thread to note the admission above. These are opinions - and often not substantiated, although some reasons are given.

If you are in the market for an ecommerce site, go back to the opening post. Read it twice, and heed its advice. More important than the technology chosen is the company you choose to build it, and the confidence they are able to give you.

 

[abhay_walia]

Hi,
There are so many platforms to create an e-commerce online store but I would go with Magento. Why you asked? Because it provides best integration options and you can use large number of impressive extensions and themes developed for Magento to improve your online store. It also has well organised back-end too. It also has many different extensions for marketing that will be beneficial for your store's sale. If you want to know more regarding this you can visit ocodewire's website that can provide some good knowledge regarding Magento platform and it's extensions .Thanks

 

[Dorothy13]

Thank for your post. I run a online store with Magento, it's so hard at the beginning, and I'm still a newbie, don't know what's the best way for me. I need to learn more about ecommerce. But I think there are some bugs of Magento I want to complain about.

 

[leshka_uk]

With PE company buying eBay Enterprise (Magento is part of it) last month for 1Bn I expect to see major investment into platform development. Those criticizing Magento should get their story right.

for SME's exploring Magento technology there are entry level options with small headache.

Magento based SaaS systems

magecloud net
pixafy com
simpleservers co uk/magento-hosting
smallbusiness.magento com

 

[pinta-andrey]

Hi to everyone.

Looks like almost everybody think that CMS is the best solution to build E-Commerce website.
Everybody know that most popular goods (in this theme - technology for website development) are only most popular brand. I mean that if owner of such CMSs as Magento, OpenCart etc. can/want to get profit from their product, they spend their money for advertisment.
Sometimes some great goods are not known enough only for 2 reasons - owner don't have an idea to promote his product or product is not good enough.

I'm working for a long time in IT Company and I know that even greatest CMS can't stand near the Framework.
On Framework you can develop ANY functionality without ANY limitation. Framework can withstand not only 20, 30, 50 thousand guests per month as CMS, but more then 1 million. And it won't crash.

If you'll search any advanced info about Frameworks, you'll find something like: "There is no admin panel in the stock" (every admin panel need to be developed for every project. It's exclusive), "Framework need a lot of time to develop E-Commerce website" or any other website (yes, it takes about 1,5x timeframe in comparison with CMS), "Framework is hard to learn" (for developers) and other.
But don't be shine - it's the greatest decision for any website functionality.

For today, if you look to find greatest decision and you have enough funds for it, you need to choose one of most advanced Frameworks like:
Laravel 5.1
Yii 2
Symfony 2
CodeIgniter
RoR (Ruby on Rails)

Framework will have fastest download speed. Any CMS can't be such fast as Framework. But it depends on developer's experience too

But if you want to find not expensive solution and you have strict deadline - CMS is your best decision.

Hope this message will be usefull for somebody

With kindest regards,
Andrey

 

[Mingleflow]

It really depends what a company needs. We regularly build custom solutions that include features which can't be found elsewhere.

Sometimes custom builds are the only way to go.

That is exactly our approach as well. Many cases a custom-built solution is the quickest and easiest way to go for, but if you want to have an ecommerce solution which is linked with your workflow (without changing that dramatically), this is the only way. Once your custom system is built, it can be extended as your business grows.

 

[andrew lloyd]

I signed up to Bigcommerce, there shopping cart software is easy to use and there customer support is amazing

 

[AkshPatel]

Magento as an opensource code can never be truly liable for its liability, and this is a webmaster issue for their licence holders.

They have a bounty for end users to report security breaches on and their architecture. There are 3rd parties that can help security a bit more from a customer perspective that can bring more confidence from a merchant and customer perspective.

 

[Prettycool]

Another vote for Bluepark here. They have fantastic support, fast speeds, api links, and most important they really care about their customers!

 

[Prettycool]

Another Bluepark fan here. The reason is, fantastic customer support, fast speeds, good seo features, API link, and most important they really care, that's why we are still with them after more than 3 years of our 10 years online!

 

[smurfington]

I see a few people have mentioned that where the e-commerce store is hosted is crucial. Can somebody explain how the hosting company/package affects the success/traffic/rankings etc? I have a hosting package with UK2.net where I host a few Joomla sites that I created myself and an unfinished OpenCart install as "sub-domains" (I can apparently host an unlimited number of sites as "sub-domains").
Would it be a bad idea to create a new Opencart store as a sub-domain on this package, in terms of performance for traffic and SEO etc and would it generally hinder the success of my Ecommerce store? What should you look for when deciding where/how to host your store?

 

[UmerShoukat]

Very useful information.
Every solution have their benefits but i'll prefer open source because it is better than all easy to use and have flexibility to change any thing.
I'm running an online store and selling wedding shoes, evening shoes etc. and am using magento open source also i have listed my products on Amazon and Ebay. that works perfect for me.
Cheers!

 

[Robin_Denis]

Nice article. I am running three websites and I am using Shopify for all of them. I tried Magento too but shopify is great if you have limited or no coding skills. Easy to use.

 

[rmmfree]

Hosted solutions are fine. One friend is using Shoppify, with good results. However, if you have enough resources I think it's better to build a site from scratch in long terms.

 

[Darren Gregory]

I've trialled all the big ones and ended up moving to bluepark, who have everything I need.

 

[Steve Bridger]

I used Magento for all my stores for some time, but recently migrated everything over to Wordpress and Woocommerce. Magento is really powerful, but there are a few niggly things (search etc) that meant I was always keeping my eye out for something to move to. WP has been a blessing so far!

 

[tajflon]

I'm using wordpress on mine but I have heard that wordpress is good only if you have less then 1000 articles. I have also tried magento but you need a good programer for that.

Anyone already using Magento 2.0?

 

[Huque Chaudhry Associates]

Having used pretty much every platform that ever existed I can safely say from my point of view that magento is the most robust and quick to administer with the right amount of complexity for a startup. Woocommerce is good aswell but a lot of our clients find that a bit fiddly.

 

[twentyfingers]

If you plan to run a business seriously you will definitely need to invest to make any platform custom and to your needs. You can't get anything out of the box that is 100% meets your needs now and will meet in future

 

[Valentin_IC]

I usually use WP, Magento but now I start to use Drupal

 

[Joe Fos]

I always use x-cart. Its a great bit of software. I can't port the URL here but google it and im sure you will find it.

 

[Jack Anderson]

Hello! I've been looking up this information for a while. Thanks for offering multiple solutions. But I guess choosing the one that will help you depends on the concept of your project. I've recently tried ecwid... Not too bad, I daresay.

 

[jsonline]

I started on WP [which I have about 3/4 WP sites running the some of the backend], but I transferred to Magento over a year ago and have to say it's night and day. Is it perfect? No but it's miles better for e-commerce over WP.

 

[DD-Matthew]

I would always recommend Magento, WP is ok but I wouldn't use it for an E-commerce store.

- Matthew

 

[twentyfingers]

Yes, word press is a blog CMS first of all. It like selling with Joomla + VirtuaMart. If you do E-commerce than you should have e-commerce platform and not WP + plugins

 

[Richard Edwards]

I'd like to highlight that CS-Cart is also Free, and Open Source. The paid option simply includes extra add-ons or if you want multiple storefronts. Most new/small businesses can work with the free version perfectly fine.

I have used CS-Cart for years and years, and it is by far the most user friendly to use, and the quickest and cheapest to develop additional functionality in to. It has also vastly improved in performance over the last 2 years, now up there with Magento, but easier to use.

 

[Peter Durrant]

Really interesting thread and super-informative. Thanks guys for helping me learn a lot in just a few paragraphs!

 

[Lucie Merieux]

Hi there,
I am currently working for an eCommerce company and we just released our new eCommerce eBook edition so I thought you might be interested in getting tips from experts. It's a free eBook you just to share the link on the social channel of your choice. I hope you'll like it!

You can find it on our website wizishop.io

 

[techpro]

precisely explained the type of eCommerce solution offered.....When you run a small online store with few hundred of SKUs then hosted eCommerce solutions are better as you need not take the pain of hosting, design, functions etc.

But if you want run a full fledged online store about thousands of SKU then open-source eCommerce platforms are better choice as it gives you complete control over online store.

 

[xnstandy]

Thank you for your great post. I learned a lot from your post. If a website needs customized service, they need a IT group or consult technical company.

 

[ExtensionsMall]

Magento is the most scalable eCommerce platform with almost endless possibilities if you know how. I have high hopes for new Magento 2 being more user friendly.

 

[Steve Taylor]

One other factor to consider are ecommerce solutions provided by epos companies or at the very least an ecommerce solution with an api to your epos. Stock control is a big issue for small multi channel retailers and a smart solution to manage stock between in-store and online is essential.

 

[mike-brown-vivid]

For small businesses looking to start selling online, WooCommerce, the Wordpress plugin is often a good start. It's open source, simple to deploy and widely adopted.

Often the best choice of e-commerce solution is dependent on a number of factors. The most common are the complexity of your products (i.e. is their a large category structure and/or product variants) and your reporting / back office requirements.

 

[xnstandy]

Have you solved your problem? I have problems on how to install wooecommerce theme to wordpress.

 

[Victoriously]

Brilliant post. And I like to use woocommerce or presta shop - both are awesome in my opinion.

 

[MarekBober]

Brilliant post. And I like to use woocommerce or presta shop - both are awesome in my opinion.

They are good but I would not put all my eggs into those baskets since there are some better solutions on the market. All depends on the stage of growing your company is. Need a hint I will be happy to point out a more complex solution in similar budget range.