Recommend an eShop

[heimedall]

Hello, can anyone recommend a hosted shopping cart, I've been looking for weeks now and well its not easy when you type one things you get information or applications and I just don't have time to set up software and learn how to use it.

We're looking to set up a shop that has products from several companies so a fairly large number of products and categories would be great, a no limit or high limit bandwidth would also be an advantage.

Features we're hoping to find: Paypal and Google payments as well as credit/debit cards, ebay integration, cross-selling and/or bundles, free shipping option (on all orders), email newsletter, promotions/coupons or such, and most importantly - SEO friendly.

I did find a few, but was let down by their very basic templates or lack of template range, so if you know somewhere that we can look that has some nice, it not modern templates, that would be great.

Thanks

 

[Chris Fickling Design]

There are many solutions that have been around for quite some time and many threads about them on this forum.

Personally I prefer the 'newer' solutions such as Magento - whilst not exactly hosted it is flexible and you can get it installed as part of a hosting package. I use Nublue for this - found them to be very good.

I'm also looking at Adobe Business Catalyst (Adobe BC) - not had time to try it yet but looks very promising.

 

[heimedall]

Those are DIY software though, I'm after an online - ready to use system. Quick and easy and I'm running out of time to find one.

 

[Babybots]

Have you considered Shopintegrator (posts on here) or Ecwid both are hosted carts, not sure if they do everything you want though, or like someone else said paypal does have a cart system.

 

[sanjiv]

When do you need it done by?

It is just after looking at your requirements, a designed solution will be best. Shortfall is high startup cost by then it will probably become cheaper than hosted. Also when you get bigger, to migrate will be a pain and will damage you in SERPs.

 

[heimedall]

ASAP, I was meant to set up the shop last week and this week while the boss was in China - obviously that hasn't happened. The place we picked turned out to be horrible, everything we wanted to use that was on their features list cost extra and there was no indication of that was actually included in the price.

I would love to ask for recommendation on software, but as my poor boss was meant to come back 2 days ago and is currently making his way through Rome I can't ask him if I can have the time to learn software instead of using one of these "shrink-wrap" online shops. So I'm getting as much info as I can on eshops and if he says I can have the time, then I'll look for software (not the resller kind like Adobe BC).

Any advice at this point would be welcomed.

 

[sanjiv]

I can probably have something for you in one week and then I will fine tune it over the following weeks. If you are interested, please send me a PM.

 

[heimedall]

Thanks for the offer, but that list of requirements was just the basic additions we were looking for. If we're going to have it built, then I'd have to do it myself, it's what I was employed for - getting an online shop by any means necessary. Preferably without spending all his money

 

[MartCactus]

it's what I was employed for - getting an online shop by any means necessary. Preferably without spending all his money

Employing someone just to set up an online shop seems a rather expensive way of doing things.

Most people who don't have the skills in house just hire a reputable company to do if for them and it costs anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, without the need for them to hire any new staff.

 

[sanjiv]

Employing someone just to set up an online shop seems a rather expensive way of doing things.

Most people who don't have the skills in house just hire a reputable company to do if for them and it costs anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, without the need for them to hire any new staff.

I think he means he is in charge of managing the online side.

 

[awebapart.com]

Have you considered Shopintegrator (posts on here) or Ecwid both are hosted carts, not sure if they do everything you want though, or like someone else said paypal does have a cart system.

Those are hosted external shopping carts rather than fully blown eshops/advanced ecommerce systems. As such they usually need another website to work with, they are not an all-in-one standalone solution. Have a read of this eshop vs shopping cart article to get an idea of the differences.

It might be that an external basket is what the OP wants, if they have an existing website with the products already on the website and they just want to make those products 'buyable'. If they have an existing website but no products on it, then they might want an advanced ecommerce system to add to that site. But if they want a completely new website then an eshop or advanced ecommerce system might be more appropriate. If this is the case, and you are looking for a hosted solution then have a look at Internet Retailer (Quikshop).

 

[heimedall]

Employing someone just to set up an online shop seems a rather expensive way of doing things.

Most people who don't have the skills in house just hire a reputable company to do if for them and it costs anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, without the need for them to hire any new staff.

I am the skills in house - I will do other things for them, media wise, but at the moment this is my only project.

 

[heimedall]

But if they want a completely new website then an eshop or advanced ecommerce system might be more appropriate. If this is the case, and you are looking for a hosted solution then have a look at...

This is what we're after - eshop, not software. But finding something with good features and customizable templates so I can get set up and selling then change the layout or their layout images. I'm not sure what that thread has to do with it thought.

 

[awebapart.com]

I'm not sure what that thread has to do with it thought.

Internetretailer.biz (member name Quikshop on this forum) provides a hosted eshop service, I pointed to that thread so you could look at some of Quikshop's posts (and customers) on this forum.

 

[heimedall]

Thank you, I'll have a look.

 

[Black_sheep]

That's why I would rather pay few thousand than make a very costly and time consuming mistakes which impede my customers buying things in my shop. I am thinking about polish eproSHOP but I am trying to compare it with other offers.

 

[JJ Spencer]

If you have enough money, you can employ experts do all the things for you.

 

[tomsk]

Have you looked at Erol Shopping Cart

I am a little bias of course being a reseller

 

[Apostol Apostolov]

The future is in the hosting solutions and google drives the online world to the software described as SaaS. There are many hosting solutions that provide great service. Here are some of the best on the market. Bigcommerce and Shopify. First one is very powerful and the second simple and user friendly.

 

[Vision2]

what happens when that company goes under, or doesn't care. Would be a pain.

Also think about future upgrades of the system you using.

eCommerce sites need investment, without it, they fail and learn the hard way.

Magento is the flavour at the moment, but it needs investment to get something that works up.

Obviously, all this comes at a cost. But i would certainly not go with those instant ecommerce creators, horrible things.

If you want to go on the cheap, at least go with something that can be further invested down the line, BUT you still need to make some degree of investment to begin with.

 

[Rosco1112]

How does big commerce relate to Tiger commerce? I would rather deal with a UK company but if big commerce will perform better in google then obviously it's a no brainer for me

Regards

Ross

 

[allsquare]

Have you looked at Erol Shopping Cart

I am a little bias of course being a reseller

Erol looks very similar to Actinic don't you think?

 

[heimedall]

Thanks for all the help, eventually we went with bigcommerce.com - as I said, I didn't have the time to learn a software sollution and set it all up manual. So sadly we did have to go with a ready set go sollution. But I've taken in all the notes and should we expand enough I will suggest getting a software I can learn to use for later on.

Thanks

 

[onesixtyfourth]

Hello, can anyone recommend a hosted shopping cart, I've been looking for weeks now and well its not easy when you type one things you get information or applications and I just don't have time to set up software and learn how to use it.

We're looking to set up a shop that has products from several companies so a fairly large number of products and categories would be great, a no limit or high limit bandwidth would also be an advantage.

Features we're hoping to find: Paypal and Google payments as well as credit/debit cards, ebay integration, cross-selling and/or bundles, free shipping option (on all orders), email newsletter, promotions/coupons or such, and most importantly - SEO friendly.

I did find a few, but was let down by their very basic templates or lack of template range, so if you know somewhere that we can look that has some nice, it not modern templates, that would be great.

Thanks

I have been using Zencart up to now but I am currently looking a Ubercart and finding myself liking it very much. It has the payment gateways you mention but not sure on the rest. It does have seo friendliness if by that you mean clean urls. It is a cms with addded modules for e-commerce and very customisable but that could be its down side.

 

[tomsk]

Erol looks very similar to Actinic don't you think?

I agree they are similar, but having used both I would personally say Erol is easier to customize.

 

[heimedall]

Are Erol and Magento (is that right) single site use or are they designed more for developers who are starting a business building ecommerce sites?

 

[tomsk]

Are Erol and Magento (is that right) single site use or are they designed more for developers who are starting a business building ecommerce sites?

Never used Magento so could not comment, but assume as it is openscource you can pretty much have any license model you want.

With Erol there are the options for both, a single site license or developer license both allow you to change to css etc to suit your design requirements.

Erol have a 30 day free trail that has full functionality, except for the ability to place an actual order online.

 

[heimedall]

Thanks, I will have to spend some time looking into all the mentioned softwares and trying out Erol

 

[Vision2]

Thanks, I will have to spend some time looking into all the mentioned softwares and trying out Erol

I can't strongly suggest enough Magento

 

[heimedall]

Ah, but you didn't answer the question I aimed at the people using Magento - is it single licence or more for developers? or like Erol, has the option of both.

 

[brownie]

Ah, but you didn't answer the question I aimed at the people using Magento - is it single licence or more for developers? or like Erol, has the option of both.

Option of both, it fits both single and multi-store requirements fine.

 

[Rosco1112]

Which is the most google friendly? Ie which will perform best in a google search?

Was thinking about going with tiger commerce but big commerce looks good

Regards

Ross

 

[brownie]

Which is the most google friendly? Ie which will perform best in a google search?

Despite the marketing materials and what SEO people reckon, in my experience they can all be tweaked to perform well in the SEO space with some work, no one solution is necessarily better than the other.

 

[Vision2]

Ah, but you didn't answer the question I aimed at the people using Magento - is it single licence or more for developers? or like Erol, has the option of both.

sorry missed that one, the only lisence cost with Magento is if you want to utilise the Enterprise version, but realistically speaking, you only need the enterprise version with an established site that has a decent amount of traffic. Obviously with that, comes the highier cost.

Essentially, if you are looking to spend £10k+ on dev/design etc, then enterprise worth looking into, as you will more likely have the cashflow behind you to utlise EE additional features, as well as cashflow you can dump on other things.

If you are looking to spend a few grand to 10k or so, community version would be the better option, allowing you to dump some cash into marketing etc that would otherwise get soaked up in the EE cost + additional development costs.

With the community version which i deploy mostly on, it's open source / free, only cost is either finding someone to design/deploy etc or learning to do it yourself.

But, Magento carries with it some very heavy weight features.

Like all things in life through, you get what you pay for =)

hope the above helps

 

[Vision2]

Which is the most google friendly? Ie which will perform best in a google search?

Was thinking about going with tiger commerce but big commerce looks good

Regards

Ross

most decent systems now have fairly ok SEO potential.

Some exceed it, some dribble along.

Personally, out of all the systems i have used, Magento is my flavour - with some additional work on cleaning up the SEO, magento gives you all the SEO area's you could ever possibly want.

People who do tend to moan at magento's SEO are usually the ones who don't understand how to utilise it.

But SEO is a pain, requires hard work, and cash dumped into it. Pay peanuts for it and you get monkeys as they say

 

[marketimpact]

Hello, can anyone recommend a hosted shopping cart, I've been looking for weeks now and well its not easy when you type one things you get information or applications and I just don't have time to set up software and learn how to use it.

We're looking to set up a shop that has products from several companies so a fairly large number of products and categories would be great, a no limit or high limit bandwidth would also be an advantage.

Features we're hoping to find: Paypal and Google payments as well as credit/debit cards, ebay integration, cross-selling and/or bundles, free shipping option (on all orders), email newsletter, promotions/coupons or such, and most importantly - SEO friendly.

I did find a few, but was let down by their very basic templates or lack of template range, so if you know somewhere that we can look that has some nice, it not modern templates, that would be great.

Thanks

At IBC Webtech we can fully build your own ecommerce shop - http://ibcwebtech.com/design/ecommerce/. Also we can host your site for you. Prices start at £2.99 a month - http://ibcwebtech.com/hosting-domains/hosting/. If you are looking for a domain name, we can registar your domain name we use - http://ibcwebtech.com/hosting-domains/domain-names/.

PM me for more information

Alex
IBC Webtech

 

[Apostol Apostolov]

Magento has all the potential to be on of the most used eCOmmerce solutions. It will take a share similar to the osCommerce in the early days of the eCommerce. Running a Magento shop is not hard thing but definitely is for eRetailrs that want spend time with the code of their systems. Bigcommerce has almost everything that has the Enterprice edition of Magento. Bigcommerce has affiliate program, promotions, feature products, groups and so on. Both Magento and Bigcommerce systems lack of marketing real functionality. It is a hard work to populate your products in all the channels - facebook, google ads, shopping comparison, articles, blog posts, social bookmariking. The best shopipng solution on my opinion for merchants that would like to concentrate in sales and not in keeping their site working is Bigcommerce+marketing functionality as described above. I am looking for a such type of shopping cart but meeting the budget of the small business.

 

[Vision2]

Magento has all the potential to be on of the most used eCOmmerce solutions. It will take a share similar to the osCommerce in the early days of the eCommerce. Running a Magento shop is not hard thing but definitely is for eRetailrs that want spend time with the code of their systems. Bigcommerce has almost everything that has the Enterprice edition of Magento. Bigcommerce has affiliate program, promotions, feature products, groups and so on. Both Magento and Bigcommerce systems lack of marketing real functionality. It is a hard work to populate your products in all the channels - facebook, google ads, shopping comparison, articles, blog posts, social bookmariking. The best shopipng solution on my opinion for merchants that would like to concentrate in sales and not in keeping their site working is Bigcommerce+marketing functionality as described above. I am looking for a such type of shopping cart but meeting the budget of the small business.

You can do the majority of that, and everything else with some additional development in Magento.

 

[imageonline]

www.puresilva.com you will find what they offer hard to beat, there are so many extras included in the price. I moved there a while ago and am at the top of google for many of my keywords. Sales have rocketed, help is great, updates regular and free. You need to take time to read the info on the site to fully understand what is on offer. Good luck with whatever you decide to go for.

 

[Black_sheep]

Advertising of your own company is so easy...Tell me that I am wrong
Best regards