Nice Online Ecommerce Platform?

[Fill-Your-World]

We have recently switched from Jshop to Blue Park and cant recommend it highly enough. It has a massive range of features, is very user friendly and the support is just outstanding.

 

[rendy]

That tradingeye looks superb. Any companies out there which make bespoke designs to lay over the backend?

When I had my site created, I looked at the showcased stores and then contacted designers who had already created designs I liked

http://www.tradingeye.com/showcase.php

They did have a few themes you could buy for the v5 site but looks like they haven't finished upgrading them for the new v6 site yet!

 

[jackysales2]

I agree with you

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Martin,

depending on the number of products, you could use a simple Paypal Pay Now button, however, for more than a few products, I wouldnt!

However, if you are going to do ecommerce in any (semi) serious way, use a proper system. Looking at candypress, there are plenty of options already listed here that are more powerful and free!

For straight ecommerce, Magento, OSCommerce variations like CRELoaded, Prestashop etc are great. However, if a content driven site, Joomla/Virtuemart is great (although just ecommerce is good as well!).

 

[martin001]

Thought I better dip in here as I started the thread in the first place!

Anyway, my colleague has opted for BigCommerce - which we both think is very easy to use and a fair price.

Thanks for all the input, though doubtless the thread will continue for a while

M

 

[logicfusion]

I've been playing with Zencart today ( I did look at Joomla, but its not for me).

The Zencart local install is about 13mb, it seems pretty nippy.

Certainlly setting up a store seems straight forward.

Financial reporting looks very disapointing, but I've downloaded an entity relationship diagram on the schema and think writing my own financials in SQL would be pretty straight forward.

The future probably is something like Magento, but Zencart is impressing me. I've not looked at any of the code behind it yet!

 

[zigojacko]

I've been playing with Zencart today ( I did look at Joomla, but its not for me).

The Zencart local install is about 13mb, it seems pretty nippy.

Certainlly setting up a store seems straight forward.

Financial reporting looks very disapointing, but I've downloaded an entity relationship diagram on the schema and think writing my own financials in SQL would be pretty straight forward.

The future probably is something like Magento, but Zencart is impressing me. I've not looked at any of the code behind it yet!

Zencart is terrible, it is limited in so many ways and falls a long way short of many ecommerce providers. What exactly is impressing you?

 

[RBS]

Check this out:
http://www.ecwid.com

Free, super easy to set up and use.

 

[logicfusion]

Its fast, unlike several Magento sites I have seen.
I've pretty much got my head around the basics in a day.
Configuration has been very straight forward to date. I've not played
with template layouts yet.


I'm not looking to create a massive ecommerce site. The software worked immediately - unlike Magento which took several hours to get running due to a variety of reasons. I'm not knocking the potential for Magento or the features it offers.

I do reserve the right to change my opinion though.

Zencart is terrible, it is limited in so many ways and falls a long way short of many ecommerce providers. What exactly is impressing you?

 

[Ali-v-8]

I have to agree I don't rate zen cart.

I'm shocked that there are people recommending Zen Cart, it is the most appalling system I have ever come across... Considering they are one of the oldest serving ecommerce providers, I thought they would have moved with the times and been able to offer something much more comprehensive than what they were providing 5 years ago. Evidentely not.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Yeh, disgusting, isn't it - a product which you do not pay for isn't updated!

 

[Ali-v-8]

If you want simple to use and modify, then I really recommend you use EKM powershop.
I also would consider cube cart.
Both are easily optimisable.
Creating SEO friendly URLs, easily editable content pages.
How ever make sure you set the url function on the Cubecart.

If your only targeting UK then EKM is a great solution for only £30 a month all in.
Telephone support is always available.

With cubcart you have to go through to sales to trick them into giving you telephone support.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I don't like magneto either.
Or zencart
or a number of other solutions.
A lot of Indian companies use magento.

But Joomla. *ali runs off to violently vomit*

Find proven websites that look good. Much better idea.

Its fast, unlike several Magento sites I have seen.
I've pretty much got my head around the basics in a day.
Configuration has been very straight forward to date. I've not played
with template layouts yet.


I'm not looking to create a massive ecommerce site. The software worked immediately - unlike Magento which took several hours to get running due to a variety of reasons. I'm not knocking the potential for Magento or the features it offers.

I do reserve the right to change my opinion though.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I dont get it :|

well i think i need to introduce my products here its nice platform. We deal with . Jeans, cotton, salt , towel , mobs , rugs and carpets

 

[logicfusion]

Can anyone (who isn't sellnig their own cart) provide some decent reasons why I shouldn't continue to investigate ZenCart ?

So far I've found the template override system pretty straight forward.
The system is very fast. Much faster than Magento (both ran locally from an Xampp folder)

Sorry to say it, but I actually prefer the 'classic' Zecart template to many Magento sites I have seen !!

The template 'acts' and 'appears visually' the way people expect a shopping cart to work in my opinion. Its not hard to overide the classic template and create something a little more unique.

The product is free too, and I am capable of doing my own adhoc PHP mods and SQL reports.

 

[edmondscommerce]

I wouldn't judge Magento based on how it performs in XAMPP - it is definitely not happy in XAMPP (though it does run)..

Magento does need to be on a properly configured hosting environment, ideally Linux.

Zen Cart is always going to be faster (for most things) than Magento though simply because it is much lighter weight, it is doing less.

The trade off is that it has less features and functionality than Magento, such as the multi store functionality (which is awesome).

We still work on a few Zen / osC / CRE (they are all the same to me tbh) sites and some big clients are still using these platforms (though often heavily customised).

If you are happy using Zen then I say go for it - don't waste £30 a month on a paid for platform when there is a perfectly acceptable free system out there.. think what ELSE you could do with £360 per annum to grow your business.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I am speaking from an SEO's point of view.
I dont sell websites although I do endorse EKM Powershops through experience.
Lately i have been impressed with Cube cart V4 and above only.

Can anyone (who isn't sellnig their own cart) provide some decent reasons why I shouldn't continue to investigate ZenCart ?

So far I've found the template override system pretty straight forward.
The system is very fast. Much faster than Magento (both ran locally from an Xampp folder)

Sorry to say it, but I actually prefer the 'classic' Zecart template to many Magento sites I have seen !!

The template 'acts' and 'appears visually' the way people expect a shopping cart to work in my opinion. Its not hard to overide the classic template and create something a little more unique.

The product is free too, and I am capable of doing my own adhoc PHP mods and SQL reports.

 

[logicfusion]

I can see now that ZenCart does have far reduced functionatliy compared to some other offerings.

I'm please to see some people don't slate ZenCart

I still maintain Magento is an excellent product, but as you say (and as I suspected) - you do need to make a little investment to host it on a platform that will do it justice.

For a small start up such as mine, ZenCart does seem the sensible way forward. Plenty of advice around on Google plus its a tried and tested product.

Hosting for a Zencart site should be cheap. I can now focus on getting a merchant account set up - but I may have to stick with someone like NoChex for a few months. I don't fancy putting a 10k deposit up front just to get a Merchant account.

Regards

Al

I wouldn't judge Magento based on how it performs in XAMPP - it is definitely not happy in XAMPP (though it does run)..

Magento does need to be on a properly configured hosting environment, ideally Linux.

Zen Cart is always going to be faster (for most things) than Magento though simply because it is much lighter weight, it is doing less.

The trade off is that it has less features and functionality than Magento, such as the multi store functionality (which is awesome).

We still work on a few Zen / osC / CRE (they are all the same to me tbh) sites and some big clients are still using these platforms (though often heavily customised).

If you are happy using Zen then I say go for it - don't waste £30 a month on a paid for platform when there is a perfectly acceptable free system out there.. think what ELSE you could do with £360 per annum to grow your business.

 

[edmondscommerce]

using nochex is a mistake, better to go for paypal - at least everyone has heard of it and knows what it is

 

[edmondscommerce]

re SEO - we have a few tricks up our sleves to optimise osC and derivatives (eg Zen) nicely..

static looking SEO URLs with unlimited complexity

nice auto generated meta tags with the possibility to override them as required (though most clients seem to be happy with the auto generated tags, they are well optimised)

 

[logicfusion]

Paypal fees are pretty horendous though aren't they? I guess the Paypal branding is something everyone is aware of. I hadn't heard of NoChex until reading about it on here.

I'll confess. I really don't know that much about SEO. I do have some books, but I've not read them in any detail yet.

Is your Zen SEO expensive - is it something I could take over myself after an initial purchase?

Sorry to seem such a cheapskate. I'm just trying really hard to keep initial costs as low as possible to make this work. I do also love rolling my sleeves up and getting stuck in.

re SEO - we have a few tricks up our sleves to optimise osC and derivatives (eg Zen) nicely..

static looking SEO URLs with unlimited complexity

nice auto generated meta tags with the possibility to override them as required (though most clients seem to be happy with the auto generated tags, they are well optimised)

 

[edmondscommerce]

Re paypal, yes its expensive but people will use it..

If nochex is your only payment option I think you will lose a lot of potential customers. You could always offer both if you wanted.

If the business is serious you do really need to be getting a merchant account and taking cards properly its by far the most cost effective way of doing things.

Re the SEO for osCommerce - its a couple of plugins we can install for you, they are pretty much set it and forget it, would be £400 to get both installed and configured for your store.

If you want to save cash I recommend getting the meta tags one first (£200) as this will have the biggest impact. Can always add the SEO URLs later on.

 

[Ali-v-8]

Am I misunderstanding this.
Zencart module charges £200 extra for seo.
this is what you get from Cubecart

Page URL can be set to SEO friendly.

 

[edmondscommerce]

Its not Zen Cart, its a custom module we have developed ourselves - two in fact. They are not the cheapest - we are not trying to be - but clients who want it have it and are happy with it.

 

[Ali-v-8]

Cheap doesn't mean good.

Its not Zen Cart, its a custom module we have developed ourselves - two in fact. They are not the cheapest - we are not trying to be - but clients who want it have it and are happy with it.

 

[edmondscommerce]

Cheap doesn't mean good.

couldn't agree more

 

[ever126]

couldn't agree more

don't agree

sometimes, we use free service to promote our payable service. but it doesn't mean that free service doesn't work well.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I agree with Ali cos he is cool
Split personality kicking in there sorry.

Offering free stuff as a marketing gimmick is not cheap pricing.

don't agree

sometimes, we use free service to promote our payable service. but it doesn't mean that free service doesn't work well.

 

[edmondscommerce]

How can "cheap doesn't mean good" not be true.

If you don't agree, then that means that you believe that:

"cheap does mean good"

Which of course is not true. I think this thread has degenerated into meaninglessness...

 

[Pteppic]

ClickCartPro6 or EuropaCart7 very good SEO built in and full of features. We been using them for a couple of years and work well for us.

 

[logicfusion]

I've just installed Ceon URI Mapping in Zen Cart. Peace of p*** to install.
It doesn't screw too much with the core files. A quick whiz through with Beyond Compare confirms this.

Now, I'm happily generated categories and products with nice URLS. No idea how good this product is in the grand scheme of things.

Google knows the answer.