Unsure of which platform to choose

[PNsystems]

Hello everybody. I'm new to the forum, and am writing on behalf of the small, five person company that I work for.

We're at a bit of a crossroads with our ecommerce website; We've been using a privately owned platform (Really Easy Cart) for the past year or so, but have been finding that it is missing a number of important (and core) features, and so we're now looking for an alternative platform to use.

I am the in-house frontend designer (with years of experience with HTML/CSS, some basic PHP and Javascript experience, and some experience with Magento - a few years ago. I am also very experienced with Wordpress and Joomla and have completed a number of 'theme overhauls' (using the framework of existing themes as a skeleton upon which to design sites), so I am adept at changing the appearance of sites, so this should not be a factor when it comes to deciding which platform to use.

We are a small business with five staff, with a product catalogue of around 1,500 products and around 12,000 visits per month. We have encountered a number of issues with exceeding bandwidth with our current system (which does not make sense to us, and the ecommerce providers are unable to provide maths to support this), so a system that allows for a large amount of traffic is important.

Our main considerations in looking for a new platform are:
1. SEO optimisation. We understand most platforms claim to be SEO friendly, but appreciate advice from anyone who has actually used the various platforms available. Our biggest fear would be to move platforms, to then find the new platform is terrible for SEO.

2. Rich with frontend AND backend features
Our current system was rich in backend features (margin calculator based on cost prices and selling prices, bulk-editing products, tagging products with keywords), but lacked many frontend features (such as "filter by price/manufacturer" feature, sort products by A-Z, price, etc.).

3. Customisable
Customisable design is a must. Themes are great as a "skeleton" so long as we can edit them to our liking

We are currently looking at alternatives platforms and are looking at:
1. Magento (would Go or Community be a better option?)
2. BigCommerce - Looks v.good and doesn't limit the amount you can customise the site - Does this lack features/SEO, though?
3. AmeriCommerce

We really appreciate any help anybody can give.

Regards,
Dan

 

[mobile-marketing-online]

Hey man - Do you think you could expand on your business type and brand, maybe that will help us recommending a platform that little bit more easier?
Cheers!

 

[PNsystems]

Hey man - Do you think you could expand on your business type and brand, maybe that will help us recommending a platform that little bit more easier?
Cheers!

Hi, and thanks for the reply. Sure, no problem. We are called Pinknoise Systems (google - as I cannot link you) and sell audio equipment, mostly to prosumers.

 

[Bluepark]

Our main considerations in looking for a new platform are:
1. SEO optimisation. We understand most platforms claim to be SEO friendly, but appreciate advice from anyone who has actually used the various platforms available. Our biggest fear would be to move platforms, to then find the new platform is terrible for SEO.

2. Rich with frontend AND backend features
Our current system was rich in backend features (margin calculator based on cost prices and selling prices, bulk-editing products, tagging products with keywords), but lacked many frontend features (such as "filter by price/manufacturer" feature, sort products by A-Z, price, etc.).

3. Customisable
Customisable design is a must. Themes are great as a "skeleton" so long as we can edit them to our liking

We are currently looking at alternatives platforms and are looking at:
1. Magento (would Go or Community be a better option?)
2. BigCommerce - Looks v.good and doesn't limit the amount you can customise the site - Does this lack features/SEO, though?
3. AmeriCommerce

There are UK-based solutions that can cater for these requirements, including (and not limited to) ourselves.

There's no need to use a US-based solution where you need to wait until 2pm to get technical support, and the site is most likely hosted on US-based servers.

 

[PNsystems]

There are UK-based solutions that can cater for these requirements, including (and not limited to) ourselves.

There's no need to use a US-based solution where you need to wait until 2pm to get technical support, and the site is most likely hosted on US-based servers.

Thanks for the response, the support issue is a key factor here, as our current system was rarely updated, and new functions were few and far between (and were usually extremely buggy or not fit for purpose).

At first glance, I'm very impressed by Bluepark, and we had actually come across one of the websites in your example showcase before, and liked the features you have. I'll take a further look into it this one for sure.

 

[Bonadza Vojo]

Magento seems very suitable based on the requirements you provided.

 

[Holopainen]

Check this infographic. It clearly shows pros and cons of differnet shopping carts. I think it can help you to choose the platform that suits your nedds best.

Good luck!

 

[JonathanSEO]

Magento will be perfect for this.

 

[rashisree]

Hi, Zeuscart is the best advanced open source shopping cart software with the rich set of user and seo friendly features to create your store for physical as well as digital download products.

 

[ANye]

We used a company called Red Technology at my last place of work. There were plenty of fields designed for your own SEO work - title, meta description etc (but I guess most of that comes down to your own content and how you're presenting it). They were also constantly updating their platform to bring in new marketing tricks & trends for ecommerce businesses. They were based around Oxford so met them a couple of times and were easy to get hold of by phone/email during working hours.

 

[ServWise]

Have you taken a look at opencart www.opencart.com, its much easier to customise and design for than Magento which I find to be really painful to customise. It is also a lot less of a resource hog than Magento. It may not have all the features you need out of the box but it has a large community and plenty of mods and it is open-source.

 

[Metalfrogboss]

We use OpenCart and Magento frameworks to build customer carts. Clearly because all skills from web design, web development and online marketing are in-house, we know what we are building for and the market and its competitors. Most platforms are reasonable. I would steer clear of things like Joomla and VirtueMart, and OSCommerce we developed 8 years ago, but would not use in either standard or CRELoaded versions. Simply the cart you choose should be one which offers the most simplistic and efficient admin system, reporting and integration functionality and above all build the site with the viewer in mind, not you!

 

[abstractindigo]

I'd recommend Magento Community so you can customise it as required and then choose a good UK host.

Budget for a VPS or dedicated server to ensure performance is snappy for 12k visitors per month. Magento likes a lot of RAM and needs a decent amount of resources. Avoid cheap shared hosting as its often oversold.

It's SEO friendly but must be configured correctly.

Magento Go probably isn't right for you as it seems like you want to be able to customise it and the options for doing this on Go are limited. It's also hosted in the US so not ideal for a UK audience.

Euan

 

[j600com]

Out of interest what is it you sell?

 

[transpacific]

For your requirements Magento will be an overkill. Hosted carts like Bigcommerce are too rigid absolutely no scope for customization.
I would suggest you Opencart. MVC pattern , light weight. lot of free and paid extensions available and easy to learn
Prashant
transpacific-software.com

 

[alexlhh]

If you can manage it, magento community will be your best choice.