looking for an ecommerce platform

[TEEMO]

I am looking for a good ecommerce platfom that will provide me with marketing tools and a recommendation for a good designer??

 

[bargainmania]

What sort of budget do you have for this?

 

[bargainmania]

would be ok of big commerce was not full of bugs, to much to soon

 

[TEEMO]

Michaelangelo izzo net sounds interesting i will check it out ,do you have to pay extra for a good design how dose it work??
bargainmania I have a small design budget and I think that my best option is to go with a good platform, a lot of people were telling me that I dont have pay a good desgienr and i am totaly new at this,
:|:|:|:|:|

 

[bargainmania]

magento is cumbersome and 'bloated' but can be made to look very nice. magento is not liked by google in many instances to due page load times being slow, it runs too many database queries so is slow.

 

[summer11]

Tiger Commerce are pretty good.

You can get a 14 day free trial so you can have a play.

It's got all the features you could want.

I'd recommend looking at the testimonials section of their site so you can click around some example sites to get a feel of how good you can get your site looking.

They charge monthly, but if you can cover that cost in a couple of sales then it's well worth it for the benefits.

 

[jamie1183]

Id reccomend Magento, very advanced and has alot of good marketing features.

Feel free to get in touch should you need any assistance, we work for alot of UKBF members on Magento projects.

 

[jamie1183]

magento is cumbersome and 'bloated' but can be made to look very nice. magento is not liked by google in many instances to due page load times being slow, it runs too many database queries so is slow.

Im amazed at this reply, where do you get this information from that google does not like Magento :0

We have alot of clients all ranking page 1 of google and many in number 1 positions for competetive keywords so I don't think this is a true statement.

Ok if Magento is not well built then it is slow and can affect, however in my opinion Magento is one of the best soutions for SEO and much easier to rank than many other platforms.

 

[edmondscommerce]

Yep got to agree with Jamie.

Speed is an issue though not if things are done right and that doesn't necessarily mean throwing loads of cash at an expensive dedicated server.

 

[jamieclick]

No votes for OpenCart?

Great platform. For sure worth looking into.

Feel free to drop me an email/PM if you would like a quote on a theme build for this.

Thanks,

Jamie

 

[Paul Norman]

These threads always make me chuckle a bit. AJ Ecommerce is the best. Magento is the best. Magento is the worst. And so on

None of these comments is valid. What the OP needs to do, is to define carefully what they want to achieve, and to research what is out there. All of the systems mentioned above have something to offer, and all have drawbacks.

My counsel would be to make a careful plan as to what you want to achieve. I would then make a careful judgement call as to how much budget you can put to achieving that.

If you have zero budget, and if you are confident of your website skills, then many of the above products would be suitable platforms on which you could put together a reasonable starting point - but be ready for some late, and frustrating evenings!

If you can afford it, and if your plans are sufficient to warrant it, I would recommend talking to some professional website design companies. These guys, if good, bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, and will get you on the road rather more swiftly.

Neither option is definitively better. But one is definitively better for you.

 

[Chilcott]

Open cart is a really good system, get in contact with www.webgel.co.uk

 

[magentoxhtml]

hello,
my suggestion is magento. Because it's really secure and well decorated platform. Possible to handle most of the things from admin. Also there are lot of extensions to expand the feature. Only bad thing of it is , it's a heavy software. Otherwise it's a great software.

Thanks
magentoxhtml.com

 

[jackysouer]

I agree, Izzonet seems the best solution for an ecommerce platform at this point, it's new but the free trial offers much more than I had expected and I am getting it today with all the marketing upgrades.
Yeah!!!!

 

[That Guy]

No votes for OpenCart?

Great platform. For sure worth looking into.

Feel free to drop me an email/PM if you would like a quote on a theme build for this.

Thanks,

Jamie

Open cart is a really good system, get in contact with www.webgel.co.uk

I would start testing the New OpenCart v1.5 which will be available soon

Have a look here:
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=206411

Easy to Setup, Customise and Use

 

[dx3webs]

magento is cumbersome and 'bloated' but can be made to look very nice. magento is not liked by google in many instances to due page load times being slow, it runs too many database queries so is slow.

eh! nothing bloated about it.. just built on a reliable framework and not a rag tag collection of scripts like a lot of other carts

 

[Andy777]

Here's a shopping cart solution I use:

http://www.3dcart.com/

It's not cheap but:

* Superb features
* Admin panel very user friendly, intuitive
* Regular updates
* Great, 24/7 support

They have their own designers as well as directory with designers working with 3D Cart.

As a negative, they're US based so some things (like shipping plugins) will be with US specs.

Alternatively, take a look @ Cube Cart:

http://cubecart.com/

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Martfox Hosting UK]

This cart is worth every penny. Our customers have used other carts and have tried other "ecommerce" sites but NONE come even close to CS-CART. It is very easy to modify and putting in your products is a piece of cake. You can be up and running in no time. The help desk it wonderful. And the people in the forums are great too. This is the way to go if you want to have a quality store.

 

[gina681]

Try MetaPack...

For your packaging use Duo Ltd! They are a Manchester based Packaging Supplier...

 

[newyorkdd]

Speed is an issue though not if things are done right and that doesn't necessarily mean throwing loads of cash at an expensive dedicated server.

 

[timslatter]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']I have really been studying this for ages and using ecommerce packages for 10 years. Actinic for most. We recently moved one venture over to Interspire Shopping Cart as it is very flexible. It has masses of features and has been very stable so far. We went live on Wed last. thebrilliantbakers.co.uk[/font]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Webtise did an amazing build for us. If i was to start over i think i would go for Big Commerce v7. I have just trialled this.....amazing! Made by the same company and where they are focusing all their resources. They have been famous in the past for bugs and poor service, but lots of the bugs have been ironed out and it is so feature rich and friendly to use. [/font][/font]

 

[Raijin44]

I will recommend you to go with Magneto.It is flexible to use

 

[Simple Servers]

Agree with magento comments and we have a number of hosting options available and tuned to run as fast as possible. For shared accounts we offer a month trial for just £1

 

[magento-guy]

I would recommend Magento as it has a host of features built in that a lot of other carts just dont have. New extensions (paid and free) are regularly updated. In terms of design, it is quite easy to customise an off the shelf theme (paid or free) to get you the look you require. If you drop me a PM I can show you an example and talk in more deatail about your requirements

 

[sam_gibbs]

You must choose that shopping cart which is fully customizable and giving you easy designing features. I experienced easystorecreator.com, offering free custom template design on signup and that template will be designed according to your requirements. You must check shopping cart features, you can see some sample stores as well there is a link given at home page.

Thanks

 

[Timothius]

nobody has mentioned payment gateways, plugins for extra functions or buying/customizing themes/skins

there are some technical details relational to a web host & payment gateways, like wether the host is using php/sql in cgi. shared hosting is often configured like this to facilitate the rationing of service amongst the host's users and can present some difficulties with (for instance) google checkout

so the first question might well be "which company will be processing online payments?" make sure that there is in fact a module for that company available for any platform you choose.

are there any special features you require, like tracking numbers on parcels cross integration between Amazon/Ebay/Kelkoo etc - again check availablility for your platform, also there's probably a cost to this.

do you really need an arty-farty custom theme or will your company colour scheme on an existing layout suffice? if not, are there any themes available at small cost for your chosen platform.

i know this is a long TLDR for my first post, and I hardly began. contact me to discuss, it's way too complex to completely handle in a forum thread

 

[astutiumRob]

magento is not liked by google in many instances to due page load times being slow

google doesn't like slow/crap/cheap/nasty hosting on overloaded servers on poorly connected networks in the @rse end of nowhereville

properly setup, properly managed decent hosting is a requirement to get magento to perform well, which more than negates the extra quiries and file-include times.

 

[Woodcrest Accounting Serv]

A good alternative for a cheap online presence is Mr. Site , famously used by Levis Roots for his Reggae Reggae sauce when starting out. Has ability to use an online shop, includes meta tags.

I have one and it does the job as long as simple is what you are after:


No technical knowledge is needed and it includes email, your own secure online shop, guest book, blog, hosting, 24 hour support from the Mr Site team and much, much more.

For a discount , Just visit www.mrsite.co.uk and pick which package you want to purchase. When you get to the checkout page , you'll see a box called 'Offer code' - just type in 126419-FRIENDS and click the 'Apply offer' button to get 25% off Takeaway Website Beginner, 20% off Standard and 15% off Pro.

 

[atmedia]

Magento is the daddy but is a real bi*** to edit if your not familiar with the code and good developers are hard to come by.

Opencart is easier to edit.

 

[CS-Cart]

CS-Cart Shopping Cart Software may suit your needs. It has a great deal of marketing tools, however it is flexible and easy to use. You can test drive its trial version.

 

[ukbf0001]

Ah this thread again. You need to ask yourself what are my requirements, what do I want the software to do?
If you listed these then people here could give you a fair assessment of what maybe the right fit for you.
How IT savvy are you ? , if not very - I wouldn't bother trying to tackle Magento - steep learning curve and you'll get bogged down quickly enough.
Do you want to be able to have your shop in multiple websites, in Facebook and in different blogs etc ? , do you know much about SEO.

As you can tell - until you know your requirements - it maybe a bit difficult to say what the best solution is.

 

[diego.getapp]

Like other said, Magent and OpenCart are really good solutions. But Id also take a look at Shopify, I have heard good feedbacks about this solution.
I found a listing for Ecommerce Apps in GetApp with more options, I recommend you to check some of them, use the trial period and then choose what is the best for you.
getapp.com/ecommerce-software

 

[davetee]

If you are any good with Wordpress, Sommerce is a good theme which works with a plugin called JigoShop. I use it for my Wall Art website shutterclik.co.uk

 

[Timothius]

How IT savvy are you ? <cut>, do you know much about SEO.

these are the most pertainent questions asked itt

 

[CazzzK]

I'm in the same situation but have already looked at a handful of different hosted platforms. I'm a bit confused at what the differences are, and one of the most important things for me is the ability to add 'normal' content web pages as my website will be 'half shop, half info' website.

Don't want to hijack the thread but I'm sure the advice would help TEEMO too! (except that I don't need a designer). I thought I'd post here rather than creating another thread on pretty much the same subject.

Unless there's another brilliant platform out there I should know about, I would like to know more and get people's opinions on the hosted versions of Shopify, Magento, Wordpress and ekmPowershop.

I am IT savvy - but only front-end web editing (HTML/CSS) with very little PHP etc. and I'm *very* au fait with SEO. I'll be managing the site myself.

My requirements would be a platform that:

>let me mess with the templates.
>that allowed the addition of non-commerce pages.
>custom menu construction/arrangement.
>that would allow for feeds from other sites e.g. Amazon's affiliate programme or RSS from Twitter or the ability to insert code for these.
>possibly send order notification emails to more than one email address i.e. also to a packing warehouse.
>lots of customer management features, newsletters,
>ability for customers to leave feedback on products

in addition to the usual features that I've seen on all the platforms I've looked at so far. I know Wordpress does a lot of this but the ecommerce feature is a plugin rather than on the other platforms where it is already fully integrated. I don't mind messing with plugins but have limited time to set up and manage the site because of a full time job!

Like I say, sorry to post on someone else's thread but I think it might help too. Thanks!

Oh, and I forgot to add that an automatically mobile-friendly site would be a bonus, just looked at Shopify and you have to pay $400 extra for a mobile-friendly version.

 

[CazzzK]

Additionally...on reading more it's been pointed out that it's better to keep to open source and self-hosted (i.e. hosted somewhere of your own choice rather than with an ecommerce platform).

What are the pros and cons of this? Is getting the shopping cart to work with an exisiting website a pain in the backside? Is Wordpress flexible enough in-page to add feeds mentioned in my last post? Is its ecommerce plugin any good? Are the fully hosted ones flexible enough to expand the website? And cheap enough?

 

[Timothius]

Are the fully hosted ones flexible enough to expand the website? And cheap enough?

it's not a flexibility problem, more about being held over a barrel for extra charges per month each time the catalog expands, not being able to move the data if you change your mind etc etc.

also: as part of not being held over the proverbial barrel, it's NEVER a good idea to take thr "free" domain name when you get hosting. always buy your domain from somewhere other