Online shop solutions...

[gweb]

I know that there are a million threads on this; and I have genuinely researched everything - but I'm still bamboozled!

My situ' is this. I set up an online store and after three years - I am now about to employ a fulfilment company to handle / ship orders for me. Sales are up as are loyal customers, etc.

The fulfilment company has stated that the main solutions that will work with their software are:

• Shopify
• Magento
• Bluepark
• ekmPowershop
• BigCommerce

The store is currently running on a self hosted Wordpress site using WP-Ecommerce or 'Getshopped' as I think they are now called. I am pretty handy with HTML and online editing, customisation, etc - but I'd still rather go down the route of having a hosted solution such as Shopify. Reason being; I plan on travelling and I need to cut down my responsibility with the store as much as I can. If I self host - and there's an issue with the server; or the site gets hacked; I may not easily be able to fix things in a timely manner.

So, it seems to be between Shopify, Bluepark, eKM and BigCommerce. Shopify, for some reason, jumps out as the most intuitive and easily managed option. I'm not sure I get their transaction fee however. There is no transaction fee if you use their own payment solution; which is fine - why would anyone not use the solution they offer? Does Shopify allow for Paypal to be used as standard also? We have a lot of customers who use Paypal...

Bluepark seems OK; their bottom package would probably be fine for us. The sites in the showcase don't seem as refined somehow and I wonder if Shopify, by default - has the edge with regard presentation off the bat.

BigCommerce; 1.5% transaction fee - unless you go with their mid-package or higher. If I only need their bottom package then that is a bitter pill to swallow...

eKm: not sure...

My gut says Shopify - on the lowest rung package - and use their payment solution to avoid transaction fees... will Paypal still be an option for my customers - and is there any other reason to avoid their payment solution?

 

[Davef]

I would avoid hosted solutions outside of the UK for both server speed (performance) and more importantly having to wait hours for responses to questions/problems because of the time difference between the UK and USA/Canada/Oz Etc.

Look at the features offered by UK companies so see which best suits your needs and budget. If they have a forum look at the forum and see whats going on as that will often give you a good idea of how happy their users are and if there are any major problems.

If they offer a free trial then signup and have a play.

Everyone has their own opinions on what's good and what's not and no doubt you will get many differing opinions to mine.

 

[Chelios]

Shopify is generally a very sturdy, easy to use system which sounds like it should suit your needs - as you say, you seem to be getting along with it already and you can't underestimate that first impression. I'd go with your gut.

 

[R.O.T.]

I use Bluepark and have previously used EKM. I would recommend Bluepark of the 2. Haven't used the others so can't comment on them.

 

[samtaylorseo]

I have previously used Bluepark, but I now find that it does not have enough integration with other tools. I now use Shopify because it fitted what I needed and it has fantastic integrations with 3rd party software. Plus, it has a really good online community, so if you need help on anything you can get it easily. In terms of speed I can honestly say that I've never had any issues, it's always run quickly enough.

I would suggest you narrow it down to 3 and sign up to their free trials. Plus write a list of exactly what you need from an ecommerce system, both now and in 5 years time.

I would suggest you look at Woo Commerce for Wordpress, this company has just been brought by Wordpress's parent company and so you can almost certainly guarantee that it will be around for quite a while.

Good luck!!

 

[antropy]

The fulfilment company has stated that the main solutions that will work with their software

Have you considered hiring a developer to connect your existing WP store to the fulfilment company?

That way you get to keep your shop which sounds pretty successful already and you won't risk dropping in search results, having to transfer customers login details over etc. etc.

I think the chances of it going down are low if nothing is being touched, but we (and I'm sure other companies) do offer a 24/7/365 monitoring and fixing service to keep the shop online.

 

[gweb]

Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, my gut says Shopify but I need to delve deeper...

Re' using our existing site; I hadn't thought of the SEO / link implications. Will have to think on this!

 

[fisicx]

Or do as antropy suggests and get a plugin developed for your existing site to connect to the fulfillment centre. A much more elegant solution and one that means you will keep all your ranking and inbound links intact.

Shopify isn't the right choice for you (unless you enjoy giving them al lyour profits)

 

[antropy]

I hadn't thought of the SEO / link implications. Will have to think on this!

There are other implications too - your shop will be down for a while while you switch over, customers will then see a totally different site. It sounds like your current site was working well - how sure are you that you can create a better one with Shopify? Do you think you can get all the order history transferred over easily too?

On the other hand, sometimes integrating with a fulfilment company is as easy as copying them in on the order emails. Sometimes it's a bit more complex but generally it doesn't involve complex synchronization, just the transfer of data one way or another.

 

[TianaRodriquez]

Shopify is the best solution for me!

 

[IanDade]

As a fulfilment house, we link with many clients who use 3rd party hosted software.

There has been a definite swing from Magento to Shopify/BigCommerce over the past 12 months.

For me, as a fulfilment house, both BigCommerce and Shopify are very easy to integrate to our system and provide two way integration allowing us to draw in orders and to mark orders as shipped on the channel and keep inventory level accurate when we receive stock into the warehouse.

 

[antp__]

@Davef - Every time I have had a question during the day (UK time) I have managed to get on to Shopifys online chat and speak to someone within minutes. They do not fail at their customer support times in my eyes. I am also yet to have an issue with speeds.

@gweb - Their transaction fees are a little confusing. It's as follows:
If you use PayPal only, you get charged their transaction fee on top of PayPal's usual charge.
If you setup their Shopify Pay AND PayPal. It removes the transaction fees. This way they can pay by Paypal, and you only get charged paypal charges. OR use Shopify Pay which is powered by Stripe to pay by Credit Card. When using another payment gateway, you get charged shopify fees regardless.

There are many 'Shopify Experts' out there that can and will help along your way. I didn't have time to revamp my website so left it to one of them. Extremely helpful and well within a good budget.

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

Hi,

Personally I'd stick with what you have, and get your existing website integrated with the fulfilment company as suggested.

For peace of mind while you travel, all you need is decent eCommerce hosting with proactive management. Many providers will provide this, or you can pay someone else. They'll then make sure your website stays up to date and secure, and fix anything that may come up.

That would likely be more cost effective than a hosted solution, and avoid all the potential issues associated with switching to a new website and platform.

Best of luck,

Dan

 

[webstore]

If you were to consider Magento you can see the range of fulfilment extensions at http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/catalogsearch/result/?q=fulfilment

 

[gweb]

Hi, thanks to everyone for their help. I ended up going with Bigcommerce; why? They seemed to offer great control over URL strings and it seems that I'll be able to match the store item URLs with our old site... which I'm pleased about.

I did think of sticking with what we had but... I wanted a truly stress free situation and I feel better knowing it will be all hosted, backed up and generally looked after by a platform provider.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Prettycool]

We were with EKM fo four years.They were great until you start to get a lot of traffic and then they want to up your cost of hosting by 1000% so we then moved to Bluepark, this was in Sep 2012 and since then they have been fantastic, their support is second to none and quick speeds and no downtime at all. Bluepark is developing all the time and the owner listens to the forum and reacts on their customers. Can't fault Bluepark at all!