Moving away from Magento help

[preciousbags]

Hi all

I moved from a hosted ecommerce provider over a year ago to Magento and since have just not really got use to Magento nor have i liked it as much.

I am currently opting to have some work done to the magento site i already have but feeling very uncomfortable with this as i dont know if i like this platform

I am wondering has anyone moved back to a hosted ecommerce solution and if so what are your thoughts on bluepark?

What other UK based ecommerce hosted solutions are there that you can recommend

Thanks in advance

 

[mmajackw]

Hi all

I moved from a hosted ecommerce provider over a year ago to Magento and since have just not really got use to Magento nor have i liked it as much.

I am currently opting to have some work done to the magento site i already have but feeling very uncomfortable with this as i dont know if i like this platform

I am wondering has anyone moved back to a hosted ecommerce solution and if so what are your thoughts on bluepark?

What other UK based ecommerce hosted solutions are there that you can recommend

Thanks in advance

Hey! Believe it or not, there aren't many UK based ones. However there are plenty of hosting companies that offer these shopping carts built into part of the hosting server. So thats sort of it.

Not in the UK however BigCommerce is great! Having built tons of ecommerce sites before using WP Commerce, oscommerce, zen cart and bigcommerce I would say get hold of myself via PM or another web company and get a proper job done!

 

[Bluepark]

I am wondering has anyone moved back to a hosted ecommerce solution and if so what are your thoughts on bluepark?

You're absolutely right to be looking for a UK based solution, with your hosting and support based in the UK. For some unbiased feedback, take a look at our reviews and feel free to post on our forums. We have a very friendly and active community.

 

[wayzgoose]

And once again I can only reiterate how happy I am with freewebstore.org. Excellent support and pretty much all the facilities you will need.

 

[webhostuk]

Other than zencart, cubecart you can also check out prestashop

 

[Davef]

If your looking for a hosted solution with UK servers and UK Support I can highly recommend Bluepark. Their offering is bullet proof and feature Rich allowing you to concentrate on running your business.

 

[templateagreements]

I would recommend Shopify. It's not UK based but their platform is super and the customer service is decent.

 

[mit74]

what don't you like about Magento? It's pointless looking for other ecommerce solutions and others suggesting them if the new solutions have what you didn't like about Magento.

 

[Davef]

I would recommend Shopify. It's not UK based but their platform is super and the customer service is decent.

Problem with it being USA based is a) where server is located and b) because of the time difference support can't be quick.

Also unless you go on their top package there is a transaction fee of between 1% and 2%

And finally you have to pay extra for apps to get features such product discount, product upsell, product options and quantity discounts etc.

 

[Beermonster]

If you are using Magento on shared hosting, VPS or similar then you will have problems, you need a dedicated server, I use UKFast just got my box upgraded with 16GB ram and my site works fine.

I've been using Magento for about 3 years and although it was a bit of a learning curve at first, its by far the most feature rich ecommerce software available, stick with it.

 

[JD@fifty6]

I've been lucky enough to work on a myriad of different e-commerce platforms over the past few years, and Magento has got to be my favourite balance of power and usability.

What is it that you're trying to achieve? In no way am I trying to insult your potential choice to move again, but perhaps some more time actively learning the platform will help you to get used to how it fits your business?

 

[savemoneymary]

i have experience with shopwired and the service was excellent. They have helped several of my clients and provide a bespoke design hosted solution which starts from very low cost monthly fees. Pm me if you want more details

 

[Davef]

i have experience with shopwired and the service was excellent. They have helped several of my clients and provide a bespoke design hosted solution which starts from very low cost monthly fees. Pm me if you want more details

Well they wouldn't be one of my favorites. Their portfolio is very limited with 3 out of 6 sites live and 2 of those are registered to shopwired.

No free trial, no feature list and the monthly fees are expensive compared to the competition.

Also they have landing pages which don't really compare themselves to the competition but rubbish them.

Not very professional IMHO.

 

[Josh_Farmer]

i have experience with shopwired and the service was excellent. They have helped several of my clients and provide a bespoke design hosted solution which starts from very low cost monthly fees. Pm me if you want more details

Every post is about shopwired?

 

[Josh_Farmer]

I tend to find magento is overpowered for 90% of people, you would be better looking at opencart or prestashop in all honesty, both run far smoother on shared hosting and are easily customisable.

 

[Holopainen]

Hosting solutions are more comfortable. No need to take care about web-hosting. These shopping carts always have 24/7 support, so, in case difficulties, it can help you briskly. However, you have to pay for the convenience.
As for me, there are several front players in this category: BigCommerce, Shopify, Volusion and 3dCart.
These platforms have a lot of different features out of the box.
I would recommend you to check this article about hosted shopping carts.

 

[antropy]

I'm not surprised you don't get on with Magento, as other posters have said, take a look at OpenCart instead, it shouldn't be too tricky to move across.

But make sure you try it out first:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=demonstration/demonstration

 

[Holopainen]

I'm not surprised you don't get on with Magento, as other posters have said, take a look at OpenCart instead, it shouldn't be too tricky to move across.

But make sure you try it out first:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=demonstration/demonstration

Talking about open-source solutions, I agree, OpenCart is a good shopping cart. It has simple store setup, excellent performance and usability, multistore functionality.
If you consider using this shopping cart - check the article about benefits of OpenCart.

 

[RWD425]

Like Holopainen said, hosted ecommerce platforms are definitely more comfortable and built for ease of use.

I specifically like Volusion and have worked with that platform before. The best thing to to is give them a try. Volusion, Shopify and Bigcommerce provide free 14/15 day trials.

If you have knowledge of HTML/CSS then you can customize your Volusion template too.

PM if you have any questions.

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Happy to chat about this if you wish. Host over 400 e-commerce websites from here. They run in the top 15% in the World for server speed and we design and develop sites in all platforms (just saying)

 

[JonathanSEO]

Hosted shopping carts are in the main for lifestyle type businesses. If traffic is low and this is just like a hobby business then Shopify will be ok.

Anything serious and you need your own hosted platform.

Dunno why you don't like Magento though, it's by far and away the best ecommerce platform out there.

This doesnt necessarily apply to you but IMO the people who slate it are the ones looking to do a DIY job website without any knowledge and just assume its terrible because they struggle with it. Then have to part with cash for a developer and feel hard done by so Magento takes the blame.

DYOR in the first place is my advice and see if the platform will exploit your own limitations meaning you'll incur more costs to sort things you can't.

Opencart is terrible in comparison though. I hate using it. Too many faults that should be solved out the box but instead need extensions.

I'd either stick with Magento, go hosted like Shopify or find an alternative. Maybe Woocommerce is suitable, demo it first and see.

 

[ProjectOcto]

Before changing over, your first step HAS to be to write out your wishlist.

Write down what you don't like about Magento, and what you do want your website to be in terms of functionality (front and back end) - and don't feel you're being unreasonable as anything can be developed.

Magento, OpenCart, Big Commerce etc are often built by the client (you) or developed by a third party on your behalf - either way, support is HUGELY IMPORTANT when running an ecommerce business; and its naturally limited when using one of these options.