New online venture

[Aratedplumbers]

Hi guys, first official post after introduction...

Im looking to set up a web shop for my business and were going to be using sage pay to take payment.
Can anyone recommend any good web store software that doesn't cost the earth ?

 

[antropy]

Have a look at www.OpenCart.com - it comes with a couple of SagePay payment gateway extensions.

 

[Bill1954]

Wordpress

 

[Page]

Er - it depends what you want to do with it overall and how many items - who is going to set it up - create it and manage it
And on it goes

My understanding is that wordpress and woocart work together well and are cheap.

But you may have other considerations - how easy is it for a newbie to use for example.

Plus do you want hosting hassles and costs. So you may like something that comes with all that thrown in

So really you need to work out far more what it is you are think off and why and the reask

At the moment you are asking a question a bit like - what is a good car to buy
Er it depends

 

[arnydnxluk]

Take a look at WooCommerce (a popular WordPress plugin to handle e-commerce) and PrestaShop. However @Page is right, the choice you make will depend on the type and amount of products you're selling. If you can offer further details I'm sure some people can give more suited recommendations.

 

[Aratedplumbers]

Thanks guys, I will sort my own hosting and set everything up as I'm reasonably technical. The wife will be maintaining it so needs to be user friendly. products we will be selling will be electrical and plumbing goods, we were selling lots of boilers on ebay until we got hit 5 times in 1 month with fraudulent cards.

 

[Page]

Well you can be hit with fraudulent cards on your own site !!!

Why not just stick with paypal and done

You are entering a crowded marketplace and why do you think people will make an effort to come and find you on your site and then register to buy from you
When they can go on to ebay and buy on there

I am not saying that you cannot make it work
But I am saying have your worked out what your proposition is that mean customers will buy enough from you for the hassle etc

I am not well placed to recommend what to use but from what I hear woocommerce and wordpress seem to pair together well and blah blah

Maybe start a new thread with a more focussed title - they tend to interest me more than ones that say things like ecommerce help wanted

 

[arnydnxluk]

Well you can be hit with fraudulent cards on your own site !!!

I was thinking the same. If eBay and PayPal aren't picking up the fraud, it's going to be more difficult via your own website and shifts more of the responsibility to you. Having said that, it does give you more detail and control selling via your own website.

 

[Aratedplumbers]

I have been talking to payment providers about their 360 payment secure I think its called. I could integrate that into my site and from what I understand your fully covered.
This may be a crowded marketplace but it will be a business sideline and I don't plan on keeping stock.

 

[Bill1954]

I wouldn't touch Paypal with a barge pole. They reverse payments far too readily and it's almost impossible to successfully argue your case.
Go for a payment processor with 3D secure enabled, at least you have a chance to fight any chargebacks.

 

[Aratedplumbers]

Thanks Bill, the last think I want is to be git with another 4k + chargeback. I have been advised by world pay that if you run a card check on every payment over the phone we would be fully covered ? I'm not fully confident tho

 

[Bill1954]

Rule of thumb here now is no payments over the phone unless the customers card has already been used and 3D secured in a previous transaction. Everything goes through the site, that's the only way to be 3D secured and really the only way we feel safe with payments now.

 

[AngliaPolska87]

As written above, everything depends on the number of products and planned functionality. I think that you can recommend PrestaShop .

 

[Aratedplumbers]

Thanks for the help with this guys, Just on with researching some of your suggestions

 

[Joshua Daniels]

Magento. I wouldn't consider any other option. It's an open source solution, future proof and free. Although you'll need developers. I have lots of e-commerce experience, working with a handful of agencies. You have to be careful choosing a website company as they will need to understand the principles of SEO and digital marketing, otherwise it will cost you big time down the line. If you need any further advice I'm happy to talk.

 

[Bill1954]

Magento. I wouldn't consider any other option. It's an open source solution, future proof and free. Although you'll need developers. I have lots of e-commerce experience, working with a handful of agencies. You have to be careful choosing a website company as they will need to understand the principles of SEO and digital marketing, otherwise it will cost you big time down the line. If you need any further advice I'm happy to talk.

Did you forget to mention that Magento will cost typically 5 times the cost of a Wordpress site ?

 

[makeusvisible]

Magento. I wouldn't consider any other option. It's an open source solution, future proof and free. Although you'll need developers. I have lots of e-commerce experience, working with a handful of agencies. You have to be careful choosing a website company as they will need to understand the principles of SEO and digital marketing, otherwise it will cost you big time down the line. If you need any further advice I'm happy to talk.

Would agree with everything you say about Magento.... but in this situation I don't think Magento is the right choice. The mod isn't want to spend significant money on the site, and if done properly Magento is not a budget platform. there are countless other threads on these forums about people trying to do Magento on the cheap....it very rarely goes well for either the customer, or the developer.

 

[Joshua Daniels]

Did you forget to mention that Magento will cost typically 5 times the cost of a Wordpress site ?

I've worked with countless Magento/Wordpress sites, I wouldn't necessary say Magento is expensive (it can be) but it can be cost effective if you have the right people involved. It's scalable and cost effective in the long run. Wordpress is great for blogging and for service sites, not e-commerce in my opinion. There are lots of amazing themes which are available on Themeforest for Magento, it doesn't cost the earth.

 

[Joshua Daniels]

Would agree with everything you say about Magento.... but in this situation I don't think Magento is the right choice. The mod isn't want to spend significant money on the site, and if done properly Magento is not a budget platform. there are countless other threads on these forums about people trying to do Magento on the cheap....it very rarely goes well for either the customer, or the developer.

Agree, but working with themes can be cost effective with Magento. I don't think Wordpress bodes too well for the future, it isn't a platform that is built fundamentally for e-commerce. Can work good for quick wins though, but that's my advice.