Ecommerce solution for a beginner in small business.

[polygon]

Hello, so I have been looking at a few ecommerce carts like volusion, bigcommerce and 3d cart. From what I can gather volusion, shopify and bigcommerce are the most popular. My question is why do these 3 seem to get the mostnotice, do they have features that say 3d cart does not have, are they cheaper and easier to use.

I have read alot of bad reviews about volusion and bigcommerce in with the very poistive, and the oppisate wya around for 3d cart.

Basiclly ive found my products that I will be selling, ive done my research on the product and the market, but I am not to sure about the cart to use.

I will be selling 20 products max initially, but i want a package that will be easy to use have thefeatures that ar easy to use for a beginner in ecommerce and small business, and not one that has me spending more time trying to figure out how to use it. I want to concentrate on sales and marketing. So just wanted someons opinionon what they think is a good choice. I dont mind paying the monthly fees. Also shopify is out of the question with their 2.5% transaction fees. I think a standalone website cost to much, and would require alot of work initally with all the protection, payment handling, certificates etc.

 

[StokedSEO]

I would recommend EKM Powershop if you're just starting in ecoms TBH.

 

[polygon]

Oh nice hadnt seen that one.

I was thinking 3d cart or bigcommerce myself though.

 

[jamieclick]

It really depends what you are looking for. What are you looking to spend on a site to start out with, what features do you need, do you want to own your own website? etc etc

Its hard to say without know your needs.

I, personally dont like the monthly fee websites as you never own the site yourself. What are they going to charge if you get very successful? That is just my opinion. I know there will be people that think different.

Jamie

 

[swasa11]

Hi, You can try with ZS Cart which is the best ecommerce software solutions provider to create your online store.

 

[j600com]

I would recommend EKM Powershop if you're just starting in ecoms TBH.

I agree too

 

[Curious]

We've just used Opencart for a new shop - it's simple to use and easy to get going with. Maybe have a look? http://www.opencart.com/

 

[polygon]

It really depends what you are looking for. What are you looking to spend on a site to start out with, what features do you need, do you want to own your own website? etc etc

Its hard to say without know your needs.

I, personally dont like the monthly fee websites as you never own the site yourself. What are they going to charge if you get very successful? That is just my opinion. I know there will be people that think different.

Jamie

I am not to sure what features are required TBH.

Are there any features that are a must when looking at all these ecommerce packages?. I suppose my needs are I want to sell, but I also would like every tooavaliable to me that can allow me to see statistics on the site, marketing, seo, shipping,payments etc.

 

[polygon]

What I dont want to have to do is spend100's of hours fidling around with eevrything. I would like to have it as simple as possible, but with as many user friendly tools at my disposle as possible.

I will want to get a designer as well to do ym design for the store as the wysiwyg tool wont do.

 

[DavidHorn]

Y'know, shopify is a nice, simple way to test the water. There are no long term contracts, you can upload inventory quite quickly - and you only have 20 products or so, and there are a lot of good templates available for it. There is no significant investment in time or money to at least carry out a 'proof of concept'. If it works - i.e. you sell stuff - then later, sure, you can build a solution up from one of those off the shelf packages, or call in a developer for a bespoke development package.

(You could also hire a designer now to develop a shopify theme if you can't find one you'd like to start with)

But right now, it seems you want something quite quick, with low overhead, that works well. You can't go wrong with Shopify - you could be selling your products by the end of day today, and concentrating on marketing what you have.

Good luck,

David

 

[polygon]

Only problem is shopify take 1-2% in transaction fees. I am not really looking to get started today. just trying to compare at the moment. Most likely I will setup by mid october, after I have worked out all my fixed costs, my leaflets are printed and my selling prices and margins.

I dont mind paying abit more for a solution that gives features that are benificial for the marketign and sales.

 

[Alicatt]

Most of these offer a free trial or demo, so why not test out 2-3 of your favourites before you decide?

I've written a short white paper about choosing a shopping cart for beginners which covers a lot of the questions you've asked. If you'd like me to send you a copy, just PM me your email address. (that applies to anyone else too).

Alison

 

[Curious]

I would recommend EKM Powershop if you're just starting in ecoms TBH.

Just taken a look at EKM it looks brilliant. Have you used it, are there any downsides to it?

 

[deniser]

Just taken a look at EKM it looks brilliant. Have you used it, are there any downsides to it?

I just looked too. Looks as though they have covered everything I can think of.

 

[jamieclick]

The only issue with the likes of EKM is that you never actually own the site.

If that business were to go bust (example, I dont know the company) then you lose everything. You fall out with them, you have to start from scratch.

Say you are with them for 3 years you will have paid around £720 and you don't actually own anything.

Jamie

 

[mud-stx]

the main issues with EKM is exactly that - you DO NOT own your site, it has to hosted with them also so you cant take it away and you are limited by the shops capabilities, however, the plus is that it has a helpline which is uk based as it is a uk company (big plus)

ekm is okay to start off with but why waste your time and efforts and energy on a site that when you grow you will have to move??

opencart is a good solution to begin with (for a start up company) very easy to design and run yourself and then later on if you need to change - no hassle!!

it is very easily optimised and you have a variety of payment gateways to choose from, easy backend to monitor your sales and stock AND to update.

ultimately up to you, but dont get into summat that is restricted or will cause a hassle in the furure

 

[polygon]

The only issue with the likes of EKM is that you never actually own the site.

If that business were to go bust (example, I dont know the company) then you lose everything. You fall out with them, you have to start from scratch.

Say you are with them for 3 years you will have paid around £720 and you don't actually own anything.

Jamie

isnt that the same for places like bigcommerce,shopify and volusion? You dont own the store right?, and ekm is the same as that?. or am i getitng it wrong?.

 

[deniser]

the main issues with EKM is exactly that - you DO NOT own your site, it has to hosted with them also so you cant take it away and you are limited by the shops capabilities, however, the plus is that it has a helpline which is uk based as it is a uk company (big plus)

ekm is okay to start off with but why waste your time and efforts and energy on a site that when you grow you will have to move??

opencart is a good solution to begin with (for a start up company) very easy to design and run yourself and then later on if you need to change - no hassle!!

it is very easily optimised and you have a variety of payment gateways to choose from, easy backend to monitor your sales and stock AND to update.

ultimately up to you, but dont get into summat that is restricted or will cause a hassle in the furure

I have had the opposite experience. I have my own custom made site but found that it quickly got out of date and old fashioned. We got to a point where we could no longer add onto it and we can't start from scratch because of fear of losing business.

I have other sites with the likes of EKM, not them but similar. I like the way that they are continuously updated free of charge so whenever Google changes anything (frequently), the site gets updated alongside. And there are new issues to deal with all the time which you don't have to worry about.

Yes they might go bust but we have sought assurances from the people we work with as to what would happen in various extreme scenarios.

And the key is not to have all your eggs in one basket.

 

[Alicatt]

When you are just starting out you don't know what features will be really important to your business.

A couple of years with a hosted solution will enable you to sort out what you need and you will be in a much better position to have a customised site that works long term.

It's a good idea to download all your catalog data to your PC regularly - especially if you use hosted ecommerce. That way of the worst happens, you have backups.

 

[Curious]

I've had a similar experience to Deniser - we have one custom coded site and it's a pain to be honest. Developers are good guys and reasonable with everything and even upgrade us for free with little bits and pieces but it does restrict us.

I much prefer our Opencart site to it due to the extensions etc available and for how easy it was to get everything working. And I really fancy giving eKM a spin now with our next idea.

Great few posts here, good stuff.

 

[polygon]

When you are just starting out you don't know what features will be really important to your business.

A couple of years with a hosted solution will enable you to sort out what you need and you will be in a much better position to have a customised site that works long term.

It's a good idea to download all your catalog data to your PC regularly - especially if you use hosted ecommerce. That way of the worst happens, you have backups.

When you mean hosted solution do you mean a cart like EKM for example?. Is that what a hosted solution is?.

Is this a hosted solution? http://order.1and1.co.uk/xml/order/Eshops;jsessionid=4569DD20CDF4440F3D9C0EC06955958F.TCpfix152a?__frame=_top&__lf=Static&linkOrigin=Home&linkId=ct.nav.eshops

Also what do you mean by Licensed software an an off the shelf shopping cart?

thanks for the help.

 

[StokedSEO]

Just taken a look at EKM it looks brilliant. Have you used it, are there any downsides to it?

Yep, we've used them on a number of sites over the last 3 - 4 years to be honest. Of course there are downsides, there are with any off the shelf product. There are also many advantages of going with a company such as this, you get upgrades all the time, you can get free support from other users and their customers often get discounts on things like paypal etc. In my experience they do an excellent job and suit most people's needs for £20 a month or so, especially if you are very new to the market.

The only issue with the likes of EKM is that you never actually own the site.

If that business were to go bust (example, I dont know the company) then you lose everything. You fall out with them, you have to start from scratch.

Say you are with them for 3 years you will have paid around £720 and you don't actually own anything.

Jamie

Well, that's not quite true to be honest. If you buy the domain you own it, similarly if you have a bespoke design you own that too. If anything were to happen to the company then you would have the major things covered. Sure, it would be a bit of a pain but to say you lose everything and dont's own anything is a little OTT, in fact, it's just not true

 

[j600com]

Yep, we've used them on a number of sites over the last 3 - 4 years to be honest. Of course there are downsides, there are with any off the shelf product but in my experience they do an excellent job and suit most people's needs for £20 a month or so.



Well, that's not quite true to be honest. If you buy the domain you own it, similarly if you have a bespoke design you own that too. If anything were to happen to the company then you would have the major things covered. Sure, it would be a bit of a pain but to say you lose everything and dont's own anything is a little OTT, in fact, it's just not true

Couldn't agree more, the value isnt in the design or platform (at this level) it's in the domain and customer base.

Ps I would also say EKM is a safer bet than a freelancer using open source (in terms of risk/vanishing overnight, spend 10mins on here and you'll see countless posts from people who's 1man band developers have gone AWOL and they are looking for help finishing/moving their site)

 

[polygon]

So is bigcomemrce not an option for uk based businesses?. I have been reading quite a few reviews saying dont bother with it if you are from the uk, due to the tax issues, the support times etc.

 

[Jameel]

Hello there,

20 products is a very small amount of products to start with. I think diving into a monthly subscription might not suit you due to the size of the shop. In which case I would recommend the free package Tiger Commerce offers "Tiger Cub".

It's limited to 50 products, and you will only be use PayPal or NetBanx as payment services providers, but for a beginner just to get started it's ideal.

Also I work for Tiger, so if you have any questions drop me a message.

 

[polygon]

Hey,

thanks for letting me know about that, much appreciated.

My strategy has switched abit latley after readin alot about seo and marketing, and for the eman time my efforts will be no site for atleast a month or 2, until i sort out alot of the online marketing strategy.

For the time being it will be spam leaflet distribution and other methods, and mail order payments, and I will see from that whappens, and then see after my research of words, seo, targeting etc, I will setup a site either hosted or self hosted.

thanks for the info.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

i would recommend Actinic as software that's easy to use, has many upgrades so you can expand and a great community to help

 

[johngrossi]

an eCommerce service that registers your chosen website domain name, provides you with easy website building tools, hosts your website, helps you apply for a merchant account, connects you to a shopping cart, a payment gateway and a credit card processing service, and helps you connect to such powerful marketing avenues as social media and Search Engine Marketing, all working together in harmony—this is the power of eCommerce software.

 

[vwdolly]

I use Highwire.com and after trying lots of others I find it the simplest to use, profesional and very affordable. Lots of great features and so simple to use

 

[Cris]

Hello Polygon, for a beginner like you I would like to suggest the Avactis Shopping Cart. We offer a convenient set of tools to quickly launch an online business. It is simple and fast installation, easy to customize using the Avactis CSS Editor and Page Manager. And we have friendly live chat support if you need help.