eCommerce platform (EKM vs Shopwired)

[Tomako]

Hey all.

We decided to make the move from other marketplaces to our own Shopify account this year, all was going well until we had some issues with the products that we sell (they say it's against a policy, we disagree as they host the manufactures site as well many others with this site but it is what it is) - this process has been going on for a while now, but, as we're super small and only had a handful of sales, we've opted to take a look at other platforms instead of fighting a losing battle.

The two that have come up mostly have been EKM and Shopwired, we reached out to both to explain our situation and the products that shopify deemed as un-hostable have been cleared as perfectly fine on these platforms - awesome.

I'm just reaching out here to see if anyone has any experience with these companies or have even been in the same boat? We have a small team who can list the products as well as a graphics designer (who is also really good with some basic coding so we'll be building a custom theme or modifying one heavily) so we feel confident to try out another platform.

The vibe I am getting is EKM is a lot bigger but upset people when they moved to their own payment processor which doesn't support things like apple or google pay, where as shopwired is smaller but a lot more configurable. However looking at Shopwired, they are also saying they are launching a payment processor this August, will they then be forcing people to use that like EKM do?

We looked into selfhosting as well but ultimately opted that we couldn't scale well with us.

We have demos with both and all the team is going through each demo at the moment but as we're still new, it'd be great to hear some feedback if people have any on the platforms - or even any alternatives that I may have not seen! We've seen all the threads with a lot of people discussing this but a fair few (looking at you reddit!) is people just saying you should use 'X' with no real reasoning.

Any help would be massive, thank you!

 

[fisicx]

Why can’t you self host? Doing so opens up a lot more opportunities and means you are not beholden to someone else’s policies.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Why use something where you are beholden to someone else for hosting, payments, support, and crucially, your site development has to fit in with their development path if you want to do anything bespoke or unusual?

The reason you're having an issue is it's their trainset. If you build and host your own site, as long as you're not doing anything illegal, there should never be an issue with what products you sell.

Research building a site in something open source like WooCommerce or Open Cart. Scaling the site and hosting should be no issue, as long as you're with a good host company and have a VPS setup you can increase performance on over time.

 

[antropy]

I'm just reaching out here to see if anyone has any experience with these companies or have even been in the same boat?

As others have said, if you go with companies like those, you will always be subject to their rules. Who says they won't change their rules on your products in future?

Instead look at a self-hosted platform like OpenCart, PrestaShop, or WooCommerce.

Paul.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

^^^^
What they said!

 

[DoolallyTap]

I am an EKM user. Everything you need is available for £70 per month. This has to be so much cheaper than trying to build your own site. Unless you are really capable your home build site will probably be amateurish and difficult to put together with all the functions you need. Get a builder to make it for you and it will take time and cost much more. With EKM or other sites, you can be up and running within a few hours, with all the various back office stuff easily in place and instantly useable.
The EKM support at this price level is first class, it took me about 5 months to really get into all the features and understand how it all worked but now it runs just super. I take Paypal and the EKM Clear accept and have no problems. I don't know, but don't think, there is any real problem with not taking other payment methods. My site is linked to my Google merchant account and Google Ads, I have a low cost SEO manager who looks after this side, currently paying just £12 day to Google and already on page 1 with display ads, word adds, and my website.

 

[fisicx]

Which hewco are you? The one selling 8 bit games @DoolallyTap ?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I don't doubt the benefits of EKM, but you could run your own server (managed or self run) with fully featured e-commerce software for a fraction of £70 a month.

 

[DoolallyTap]

Which hewco are you? The one selling 8 bit games @DoolallyTap ?

No, that's not me.

 

[DoolallyTap]

I don't doubt the benefits of EKM, but you could run your own server (managed or self run) with fully featured e-commerce software for a fraction of £70 a month.

This may be true but not all of us are easily capable of running anything that may be more complicated, the EKM system is easy and simple to operate and I am happy to pay for the simplicity and back up provided.

 

[fisicx]

No, that's not me.

Ok. I just searched for the business name in your profile. What is your store?

 

[chickenlady]

I've tried EKM and had the issue with the payments and also a large and sudden increase in pricing. It also did not offer all the flexibility that I was looking for and although I tried, my regulars hated it because the old website, although slow and clunky, was actually quite user friendly. I looked at moving to Shopwired and I was impressed with the support but didn't do it in the end because at the time, it couldn't provide what I needed but they were talking about their own payment system then I'm sure - a few years back. I've gone back to the old site which is self hosted but it is not responsive enough for Google so I'm now looking at BluePark which is less intuitive and user-friendly than Shopwired (IMHO) but gives me more options I need. I've also considered Create.net which also has excellent set up support. I go back to the free trials on a fairly regular basis because I know the site I have presently is not good enough and they are always improving their offering but I won't be going back to EKM. The paid options on Freewebstore offer the same sort of thing.
One thing I have noticed is that if you set yourself up on one of them, the others seem to be more than willing to transfer your site across if you want to change - but don't quote me on that

 

[Russ Michaels]

Hey all.

We decided to make the move from other marketplaces to our own Shopify account this year, all was going well until we had some issues with the products that we sell (they say it's against a policy, we disagree as they host the manufactures site as well many others with this site but it is what it is) - this process has been going on for a while now, but, as we're super small and only had a handful of sales, we've opted to take a look at other platforms instead of fighting a losing battle.

The two that have come up mostly have been EKM and Shopwired, we reached out to both to explain our situation and the products that shopify deemed as un-hostable have been cleared as perfectly fine on these platforms - awesome.

I'm just reaching out here to see if anyone has any experience with these companies or have even been in the same boat? We have a small team who can list the products as well as a graphics designer (who is also really good with some basic coding so we'll be building a custom theme or modifying one heavily) so we feel confident to try out another platform.

The vibe I am getting is EKM is a lot bigger but upset people when they moved to their own payment processor which doesn't support things like apple or google pay, where as shopwired is smaller but a lot more configurable. However looking at Shopwired, they are also saying they are launching a payment processor this August, will they then be forcing people to use that like EKM do?

We looked into selfhosting as well but ultimately opted that we couldn't scale well with us.

We have demos with both and all the team is going through each demo at the moment but as we're still new, it'd be great to hear some feedback if people have any on the platforms - or even any alternatives that I may have not seen! We've seen all the threads with a lot of people discussing this but a fair few (looking at you reddit!) is people just saying you should use 'X' with no real reasoning.

Any help would be massive, thank you!

I tried shopwired a few years ago and found it very Clunky, not intuitive, not a nice ui and just felt like it was designed by developers for developers not end users.
I am a big fan ECWID, my clients love it, very easy to use, nice ui etc. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles as Shopify, but it's also a lot cheaper.

The downside with self hosting is that you have be responsible for all the updates, maintenance, security etc. But you do of course have complete control over it. If you want to go down that route then opencart would be a good solution, maybe give antropy.co.uk a shout, who will manage it for you.

 

[antropy]

I have a low cost SEO manager who looks after this side, currently paying just £12 day to Google and already on page 1 with display ads, word adds, and my website.

Anyone can get on page one for paid ads, that's not difficult.

Are you on page one for non-paid search results though?

Paul.

 

[DoolallyTap]

Anyone can get on page one for paid ads, that's not difficult.

Are you on page one for non-paid search results though?

Paul.

if you read what I wrote you would not be asking this question. Why are some people here just so snotty.

 

[antropy]

if you read what I wrote you would not be asking this question. Why are some people here just so snotty.

Where do you answer that question?

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

if you read what I wrote you would not be asking this question. Why are some people here just so snotty.

I also read it that you are paying for ads. Which is somewhat different to an organic ranking.

 

[DoolallyTap]

page 1 with display ads, word adds, and my website. - AND MY WEBSITE,, not able to read that bit - I wonder what benefit or sense of self gratification people get from just making useless, futile, ineffectual, vain comments that don't help anyone.
My post was about EKM and hopefully may have helped the OP to make a good decision about what he wants to do. I am very happy my website is on page one and my paid for ads are costing so little.

 

[Shopclicks]

AND MY WEBSITE,, not able to read that bit

Not trying to be nasty here, just trying to understand.

Google doesn't rank websites, they rank pages. Do you mean you have product category pages appearing on page 1 of search results organically?

 

[antropy]

AND MY WEBSITE,, not able to read that bit

As others have said that doesn't really mean anything:

• What pages of your website?
• What keywords?

Anyone can get to page 1 for their own brand name - if it's unique - or some other irrelevant searches.

But can you rank on page 1 for a search term that's competitive and actually resulting in sales?

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

I’m most confused now are you suggesting @DoolallyTap that you are ranking organically and have two different types of adverts running on Google? It does seem like a bit of overkill.

I know it’s gone a bit off-topic but just trying to understand your post.

 

[antropy]

Yes I'm also very keen to understand as Doolally says they have ...

a low cost SEO manager

So it would be good to understand what search terms are being optimised and how they're doing.

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

So it would be good to understand what search terms are being optimised and how they're doing.

I'd be very surprised if an EKM store ranked for anything remotely competitive other than the domain name. I've moved people away from EKM for that reason.

 

[Russ Michaels]

if you read what I wrote you would not be asking this question. Why are some people here just so snotty.

nohting he said was snotty, the only one I am seeing being snotty is yourself I'm afraid.