Need a new supplier (Currently EKM)

[Steve_g]

Hi All

Currently hosted VPS with EKM.

I use a standard template that has been tweaked a lot by myself and a few bis by EKM over the years!

What has really kicked me up the bum to get things moving is that a customer pointed out that a competitor has copied our site layout and colours, they even sold out T+C and much text content.

Anyway, i have spoken to said company and they have removed all offending things BUT it remains that they have the same template with my tweaks and changed and colours as us - nothing i can do about it.

So 2 options, i can pay EKM (or whoever) 1-2K for a unique template to prevent this happening or i can move to a new platform.

I have asked about this before, most people suggested options such as self hosting etc but i like being able to do my own design tweaks and add remove content quick and easy, this is the aect of EKM i love - i also love to have someone on the phone when something goes wrong - Say what you will about EKM but VPS support is very good.

IM looking for a managed solution that has some more flexibility and doesn't have some restriction that EKM have such as poor customer log in, no trade accounts etc.

I have looked at Bluepark but they dont offer VPS and i think my site has outgrown the normal requirement offered by EKM standard and Bluepark.

Any other options? looking for as little effort and disruption as possible

Cheers for any help

Steve

 

[ryedale]

We're just in the process of migrating a new client from Bluepark to Opencart - They found them to be very frustrating with regard to customizing anything so as you suspect you'd probably hit the same barriers if you tried them.

 

[ecoleman]

Why do you think your site requires a VDS? EKM are very quick to push their customers onto a VDS by stating you have exceeded their (nowhere mentioned) limits but in reality your site could work very well on a standard system. EKM are also known for cramping as many shops as possible onto their shared servers which generally slows everybody down.

If you really are looking for a VDS system, then you should look at something like Opencart hosted with TSO Host. The VDS will cost you half what EKM where charging you and you will get a much higher spec system and much more bandwidth allowance.

 

[Steve_g]

Thanks both for getting back to me.

We actually decided to move as out site was very slow and laggy and felt we would benefit from the support, in fairness the site is much faster and the support is much better - we are not a huge company but do attract 100-200 orders a day and a few k unique visits a day so its a pretty busy site compared with some on EKMs servers.

I have spoken to a developer today and thin the best things to do is move to Magento, although we are looking at a bit of cost to get this done we can save a bit by dropping some software we currently use (Sage, tradebox and Channelgrabber)

I think im just worried about the entire thing, iv got comfortable with EKM and dont like change - i just need someone to hold my hand

like ryedale said, i think i will find limitations with any off the shelf solution.

Ecoleman, who are you currently using if you dont mind me asking? i remember when you were using EKM a few years ago but think at the time you moved to open cart if im not mistaken?

Cheers

Steve

 

[ecoleman]

Yes, I use Opencart. Being open source, I have been able to develop the site and the backend to suit my products and my requirements as and when I want and not on somebody else's "never never" wish list.

Certainly with the number of visitors and sales you are getting I would recommend a VDS which I think you will find difficult to get on a hosted solution.

Magento and Opencart are both powerful systems and with the right developer you can pretty much do what you want with them. Just be careful with Magento as it's quite resource hungry and does require a pretty beefy server to get running quickly. It's also much harder to modify so development costs would probably be more then for Opencart.

 

[Steve_g]

Thanks for the heads up, i have spoken to a local and well established developer today and will be having a consultation with them soon to see what we need.

Sounds like everything will need changing from out back office software to out warehouse processes so its a bit step! on to bigger and better i hope!

 

[vivente]

What are replacing Sage with?

 

[Steve_g]

We only use Sage to process out invoices, we will get have this processed using an add on and not Sage itself... thats the rough idea anyway.

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Happy to offer another take on things. Managed solutions not a great idea. Inflexible, you don't own the code, and normally you inherit programming issues. Daily, we are working on web design, web development , and digital marketing strategies. Average ROI for our clients is 69 times their spend. Clients from high street e commerce through SME's to startups. All require delivery.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Have you considere d Sellerdeck the renamed Actinic, UK Company, UK support, great forum, Sage links to export import data, free demo www.sellerdeck.co.uk

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Oh dear! Sellerdeck/Actinic...shocking! Sorry

 

[Chris Ashdown]

What makes you say that ?
I see you offer a 3 page website for £600, What a great offfer that must be for SME's you cannot really be serious offering solutions to large PLC's to small companies

 

[Metalfrogboss]

Not sure what relevance this has on the thread? Actinic is poorly coded, has low search engine thresholds and the customer does not own the code. Can't see this being a very good option if the OP is looking to make money online. Can you?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

The Sellerdeck software you own the software but with Actinic breaking away a few years ago they moved a version of Actinic software over to monthly payments, Sellerdeck has many options from Single site to Multi User and Enterprise versions

Sellerdeck has a high built in SEO and a few multi million sites running and a great forum and support.

Its obvious your market is for much larger companies than SME and bespoke software has great limits as it restricts you to the same supplier for all mods, where most software companies have many developers to change designs or modify at far less cost

 

[Simon Brummitt]

You might like to take a look at what iShop offer. It is a managed services that includes everything that you will need and more. iShop now has fully responsive designs right through to a mobile basket. An example would be www.orientique.co.uk this is fully responsive and has the mobile basket. Give it a try. For a full portfolio go to www.ishop.co.uk/ecommerce If you have any questions let me know.

 

[Sports Trophy Co]

I have used Actinic then Sellerdeck and found the sites created to be very easy to add products to myself and do all the admin tasks.

 

[Banksbroo]

I looked at Sellerdeck recently, then saw the word Actinic and reached for my executive bargepoll. My experience of Actinic on the EPOS side of things put me off completely. Superfically they look great - until you actualy have to use them in a live environment. It felt like free software that accidentally ended up with a price tag.