Should I transfer my site to Bluepark?

[les78]

Hi

I have a website with ekmpowershop. EKM was good when I started a few years ago but as the internet and my business have moved on ekm has become a bit dated.

I've been told about bluepark.co.uk and have had a couple of trials and I now have a basic understanding of what it can do. (a hell of a lot more than ekm)

I've never been good with html, I can read it but just can't write it. I've spent by time learning (as best I can) SEO.

I've been in touch with a website designer and he has had a very quick look at bluepark and he says it is harder to customize a design than ekm.

I've also looked at a view sites that use bluepark and the code looks a mess (maybe I picked the wrong ones). It's full of tables and no div's (bad for SEO? the debate cotinues )

If any one has moved from ekm to bluepark I would love to know how you found it and if there's any designer out there I would love to hear your opinion too.

Many thanks

Les

 

[iboxsecurity]

Honestly if your business is moving along nicely and you need something above and beyond EKM - have a look at Zencart, Oscommerce or better still Magento.

There are PLENTY of designers/developers on the forum who would be happy to help you with it. ALl of them are fairly easy to design for a build custom functionality into.

 

[les78]

Honestly if your business is moving along nicely and you need something above and beyond EKM - have a look at Zencart, Oscommerce or better still Magento.

There are PLENTY of designers/developers on the forum who would be happy to help you with it. ALl of them are fairly easy to design for a build custom functionality into.

What about opencart? Whats your opinion between magento and opencart?

Les

 

[iboxsecurity]

Cannot give an honest opinion about opencart as we have had very little work with opencart before, only a couple of small shop projects.

We focus mainly on Magento stores and moving people off Oscommerce over to Magento when we do ecommerce work.

Having had a quick look at the latest opencart -it seems reasonable. By all means have a look around the internet for some reviews on the system.

 

[evocart]

OpenCart is very good (might be a but biased) but there are so many low cost themes and modules available, it's easy to learn, setup and customise and with a unique template it would make it a very attractive choice.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I've had clients that used Bluepark and, if I remember correctly, it has major issues with conversion tracking. (Issues like it won't allow you to place adwords conversion tracking on the post checkout page.)

There might even be problems with tracking via google analytics as well.

Being able to use proper tracking is an absolute 'must have' when doing business online. If Bluepark prevents you from doing this*, I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

Hope this helps,

Steve

* Don't take my word for it, I may be mistaken about Bluepark.

 

[les78]

I've just searched the bluepark forum and I haven'y come across anything regarding conversion tracking problems. If it was broken then I would be very surprised if it hasn't been fixed. Every other problem that has been discussed on the forum has been fixed in a very, very short amount of time.

But back to my main point, what is peoples opinion on the coding of bluepark sites? Do they look a mess to you?

The reason I ask is I am in a very competitive online market and I have to ensure that my rankings don't take a tumble. They have the facility for 301 redirects but I don't want google to get 'stuck' when crawling my site

Thanks

Ian

 

[catecoles]

Hi Les78

I can confirm that the Bluepark system can be fully integrated with Google Analytics and Google Adwords with all conversions being reported. Tracking/conversion code has never been an issue.

All default HTML used on Bluepark sites is 100% valid, you can see an example by going to our Demopark.co.uk site and clicking on the W3C button at the bottom of the left-hand column.

If you’ve viewed the source of one of our pages, you’ll probably have noticed that line breaks and unnecessary white space are removed to keep the page size to a minimum and the display consistent between browsers. We also Gzip the output and employ intelligent caching to deliver the fastest possible page browsing experience. We take site performance very seriously.

To make the transfer process a little easier, we offer three services to help you move over from your current provider - template integration of your current site design, full product data import, and creation of essential 301 redirects. If you decided you wanted a new design for your website we could put you in touch with our recommended design partners.

We invite you talk to some of our existing clients on our forums, including some who have successfully transferred from your current provider, who can give you an honest opinion regarding their experiences of our system. Of course, if you have any questions just give us a call and we’ll be happy to help.

Cate

 

[j600com]

Hi Les,

What do you sell? What type of custom features do you require that EKM can't do (if you don't mind me asking)

I have clients who came via both, but never really compared the two, I know that's not much help

 

[quikshop]

If any one has moved from ekm to bluepark I would love to know how you found it

You've been thinking about moving from EKM for at least 18 months

You really ought to be considering Ecommerce software on the basis of whether or not it meets your businesses needs in terms of features and operation.

If your business has outgrown a hosted platform then a standalone option sounds like the best choice. There are dozens of open source standalone options and loads of developers on this forum who could help you with the whole process.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I've just searched the bluepark forum and I haven'y come across anything regarding conversion tracking problems.

Maybe it's google website optimizer it's not compatible with. I have it in my mind that it doesn't work with something that's important.

Steve

 

[Bluepark]

Maybe it's google website optimizer it's not compatible with. I have it in my mind that it doesn't work with something that's important.

Steve

I'm not aware of any major obstacles to using Bluepark with Google Optimizer. The page selected for conversions may determine which method is used to add the code to the page, but it will certainly be possible for any of our clients wanting to do split testing. Anyone who needs assistance in this area can contact our support team.

Rich