Is any one using Magento to manage their e-commerce business

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edmondscommerce

edmondscommerce

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Nov 11, 2008
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  • #3
    I am totally confident Magento is the best long term solution in the open source ecommerce field.

    Its still a relatively new product though and there are certain issues with that. However the architecture of the system and the roadmap for future upgrades is certainly very impressive.

    At Edmonds Commerce we expect to be dealing with lots of Magento clients over the coming months / years.
     
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    Stampy

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    May 16, 2008
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  • #4
    Hi

    Yes, I use it on one of my sites, sentientclothing dot co dot uk.

    Quite a "heavy" application, fantastic features, but I'm not using a lot of them at the moment. Can be tricky to customise it yourself as well. I also use Prestashop, feels more lightweight but very easy to use.

    I think the best way to approach it is to ask what you want from your online store, and then look at the various alternatives to find the one that will do what you need it too.
     
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    Peter1982

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    Apr 21, 2008
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  • #7
    I've had a look into this and have been very impressed although I do agree that it is very heavy, not everyone has super fast computers or connections.

    The best thing seems to be the freedom it gives you to design, we use oscommerce (CRE Loaded) at the moment and making the smallest changes can be time consuming and frustrating. I've had a play around with a test site and think it's well worth considering. Definatley an option for the future.

    Does anyone have a site up and running to look at?
     
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    edmondscommerce

    edmondscommerce

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  • #9
    I know CREloaded / osc / zen cart like the back of my hand..

    So for me making changes to these platforms is a hell of a lot easier than Magento!

    However as I learn more about Magento I hope to get the same level of confidence with it and be able to tweak things at will.

    Magento is object oriented and based on the Zend framework. Some critics have said it is over engineered.
     
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    jonjon10

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    Sep 22, 2008
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  • #12
    Thanks guys, I think I'll give it ago. It's hard to commit to a new package as if something better comes along it could mean going back to square one. How does it compare with Joomla's eCommerce extensions? I'm worried that if I want to expand the site to include a social network or blog, Magneto won't be as flexible as Joomla.
     
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    Stampy

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    May 16, 2008
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  • #17
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    edmondscommerce

    edmondscommerce

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    Nov 11, 2008
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  • #19
    That's the best thing about Magento in my opinion,

    Not only is it pretty damn good right now, but it is being developed and improved at an impressive pace, with new features being rolled in at every release.

    This is why for a long term investment into a package I think its the one to go for.

    This is partly due to the fact that it is based upon the Zend Framework which is, like Magento, backed by a real company and is also being developed and improved at an impressive pace.

    Basically (you might have guessed already) I'm pretty impressed with Magento :)
     
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    downsouth

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    May 16, 2008
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  • #20
    currently testing a magento site but have an issue with displaying on the 'homepage' tried a few tutorials but nowt is displayed

    {{block type="catalog/product_list" category_id="X" template="catalog/product/list.phtml"}}

    Where X is my category id of 6

    Keep getting

    There are no products matching the selection.

    ARGHHH
     
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    A

    Astute Visions

  • #21
    Well just to put in my 1 or 2 cent worth , the basic difference which i have felt in my experience with Ecommerce platforms ( varied across Oscommerce, Zencart...Virtuemart.. Magento) the very significant difference is in the level of participation by the developers which you will see in the forum. Over the years as i learned the lingo , there were really nerve racking issues that popped up due to client requirements of customizations and by far and i mean by a far far shot Magento scores very high on that.

    1. Oscommerce -- The original dev team is hardly there to take any notice of forum but the veterans have now taken over and are pseudo development team there , most issues will get addressed using them... Great product with a lot of mods,addons, hacks available and if u can do php well u can do anything with this.

    2. Zencart-- Havent been a big fan of it due to its coding complications

    3. Virtuemart --- Great Product Addon to Joomla as a Component... but lacks even basic support in ther forums... You will see most posts unanswered and feature requests.. well.. ignored.. they have been developing a new release for a long time and there has been no updates ..as yet..... however if u can do php urself then its a great product.. Great if you wanna eventually broaden your site to include other things including social network

    4. Now we come to Magento-- I have just had a couple stores on Magento and although it did have a learning curve i found the dev team the most involved among the rest of the Open Source Ecommerce Platform devs.. It is a new project, perhaps thats the reason but then others were new as well , have seen quite a few mature and they didnt have this support. so thats good..

    However what it does not have is lot of mods,addons built for it and unless you dont require extra/changed it is the way to go. However it is a little high on server needs so make sure u need the facilities it provides, or else it will be a waste of resources. They do mention that they are for mid sized shops and that needs to be interpreted to your own needs. Most are small sized in which case no point going the Magento way..
     
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    M

    mattcm

  • #22
    Magento seems to be a cut above the rest, although definitely suited to larger sites to get the full benefit of it's features. As edmondscommerce said, it's object-oriented and based on Zend Framework, so it's developer friendly too.
     
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    Toni Anicic

    Toni Anicic

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    • Jan 19, 2009
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  • #24
    Hello there, my first post on this forums :)

    I work in the USA based company with lots of experience in developing Magento web shops. We did several completely custom designed web shops and made many useful modifications to Magento.

    If you need to ask anything about Magento, feel free to PM me here or visit our corporate blog where we often write about some new features and problem solutions in Magento. (Huh, I'm new so signature is not showing, let's stick to the PM plan :))
     
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  • #25
    mattcm said:
    Magento seems to be a cut above the rest, although definitely suited to larger sites to get the full benefit of it's features. As edmondscommerce said, it's object-oriented and based on Zend Framework, so it's developer friendly too.
    Click to expand...

    All of the points you have made above are completely valid and i do not disagree to it ,however i think a product is also evaluated from a pricing perspective and in case of most open sources it is basically the developmental(customization) cost that is accompanied with it. That is for mid and small shop owners the biggest concern and i guess we all understand why that is so.

    Now if we compare the cost of development of something which is present out of box or as an addon ( working one as quite a few dont work as stated) with Magento then things are great but the moment u need customizations on the platform , your costs start rising exponentially as compared to a more linear or logarthmic rise in Oscommerce. Two reasons i can think of / have seen are

    1. Oscommerce is known virtually to all ecommerce platform developers and hence its a demand supply cost factor which weighs heavily on the supply side. You can get work done cheaply and not always the saying holds true " You get what you pay for" as some really good guys bite in hard to get good reviews.

    2. Oscommerce has soo many addon scripts generated as of now with its huge community in force that it will take quite some time for Magento to catch up with the deliverables.

    I am sure there are many other reasons , probably some to counter what i said above but then this is what i have faced as a programer who has worked on both platforms.

    At the end the point being that both have there ins and outs and based on the requirement should be leveraged to get maximum output for your quids.
     
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  • #26
    Dominic Taylor said:
    Magento is looking interesting and we've seen a few more enquiries about it recently...

    Another one that looks interesting to me (as I've not used either really) is X-cart which doesn't seem to get much publicity :) (it may be because it's rubbish, but I've heard the opposite so!)
    Click to expand...

    X cart in my experience is again good out of the box and has a lot of features and i guess has the leverage of being backed by a company , rather then open source.

    However the downside is customizations are expensive ( and i mean really expensive) and you will be surprised that every person has his custom needs when u deal with mid scaled product shops.

    I personally always prefer open source if given an option : not only cause its free ( though that is a reason as well) but also because they are more community driven and also more transparent in terms of there terms/conditions/policies... etc..
     
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    Toni Anicic

    Toni Anicic

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    • Jan 19, 2009
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    agency418.com
  • #28
    kiki123 said:
    I am yet to see a decent Magento ecommerce site which does not feel blocky ... has anyone got any examples?
    Click to expand...

    Yes I do :) Not sure what do you mean by blocky, but take a look at these pebblehilldesigns.com , kapitolreef.com, teraflex.biz

    Magento is not so easy to modify and building such layouts requires lots of knowledge. For more info PM me :)
     
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    G

    garysumpter

  • #30
    Hi all.

    I am looking to have someone build an initial website for us in Magento (its a migration from Virtuemart). I am a website designer and can do it myself but I am fully booked for 2 months. If you are interested in offering your services, please get in touch via PM.

    Many Thanks

    Gary
     
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    L

    Lesya

  • #32
    I agree with the fact that Magento is #1 among open source shopping carts but it requires good hosting and is a bit heavy. A friend of mine has recently moved fm magento to prestashop with cart2cart service so we'll see how that one goes.
     
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    webhostuk

    webhostuk

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    • Jul 26, 2009
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    www.webhostuk.co.uk
  • #33
    jonjon10 said:
    Hi

    Has anyone used Magento to run their online store?

    http://www.magentocommerce.com/

    I have used 123-reg instant shop and found it rather frustrating to operate
    Click to expand...


    Hello,

    If you wish a easy way for magento installation ..go with cpanel hosting. With our cpanel hosting package we offer one click Magento installer..to get your Magento store install in couple of minutes.
     
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    B

    Brain Frost

    Free Member
    Feb 24, 2010
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  • #36
    I checked those 3 sites listed previous, while they dont seem blocky to me the graphics are very slow loading.

    Is this inherant in magento? problems with their hosting?

    tested against my admittedly fresh install of presta and dont get the same issues.

    (note tested all 3 + my site in FF and Chrome for a comparison)

    Was debating Magento, but I like speed.. a lot.
     
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    D

    Dominic Taylor

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    Jun 19, 2008
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  • #39
    Magento is very quick with proper hosting - we host a large Magento site on shared hosting and it flies (and many other small ones which do too). I suspect they've put work into optimising it etc. And of course the good hosting ;) (anyone reading, check if your hosting supports mod_deflate - makes a huge difference)

    In terms of bugs, I've not much experience working with it so wouldn't know about that. But every piece of software has bugs...I've spent some time with a Prestashop client recently sorting out various things on their site, and oscommerce used to be a right PITA.
     
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