Forum Moderators: buckworks
Can a modified version of X-cart scale into a high-traffic store?
Thanks!
I definitely would NOT start there! :)
Off the top of my head:
If you're going for a top-notch ecommerce site then build from the ground up.
Brainstorm a list of functions that you must have and want to have. Review other sites, download and install demo carts and open source carts to review them for what they offer. Separate the list into orders admin, tech admin, and public.
Put together an advisory board of business people with ecommerce experience, web tech types, and consumers (non business people) and give them the appropriate list for them to review and comment on. Tweak as necessary.
Hire a usability and conversion consultant, a website designer, and an information architect. Have them give you 3 conceptual designs. Refine these and run them by the advisory board. Tweak as necessary then choose one for the final design.
Develop working templates and review functionality. Hire a programming team (min 2 person team) to develop the code. They must work together and they must share their code. If one leaves, the other can continue on while you look for another team player. Be sure they document their code in a manual/handbook. Avoid comments within the code (makes fat files even if the comments aren't processed. Be sure to use a dedicated server with a host that has the bandwidth. You may even need to go further and work with two load balanced servers depending upon the setup you choose.
What if money was no object?
Forget about boxed scripts and software - you should have your platform developed. If money really is no object - you shouldn't have a problem.
And always remeber.... WWAD (what would amazon do) :)
WWAD (what would amazon do) :)
Sell some stock to the public. i.e. free to them
Go with an established ecommerce platform. Vcommerce comes to mind. They run newegg and they push more products than anyone i know. Count on a 6 figure startup cost and a 1-3% transaction cost but also figure on a package thats ready to go in months not years and allows you to streamline your entire process from purchasing to distribution.
If you want to be like amazon then sell on amazon.
But anyway, I digress.
Here are my reasons for suggesting a custom platform.
Adaptability: E-commerce at this level is going to demand constant change. By the time you're done hacking your Vcommerce or whatever else you'll have a custom platform anyway.
Transaction Cost: You're going to get hit for merchant bank processing fees on top of any e-comm service fees - throw in operating expenses and the 1-3% overhead per sale that the above post mentions is a dream. The fewer entities taking a cut of every transaction the better.
Marketability: What happens when you think of a great innovative new way to serve your market and get ahead of your competition but your boxed crap doesn't offer any apps to make the idea happen? You'll have to build it - that's what will happen. If you had a custom platform from the start this would be much easier because your developers will be intimate with the code they've written.
Lastly....
E-commerce is like a war between you and your competitors. If each side is armed with the same redundant set of weapons that their out of the box app offers it leaves little room for competitive advantage. If you've got the budget you should build your arsenal as much as possible. Why limit yourself?
I wasn't suggesting they build it themselves. Boxed scripts are designed for the masses - they're set up with many options, some of which you'll use, many of which you won't but the options, their footprints and supporting code will still exist and your cart's performance, your efficiency and your programmer's abilities will likely suffer for it.
If you know what you need and have the resources to build it, then there's simply no reason not to have it built. It will be faster, more efficient, less time consuming to work with, and customizable without jumping through hoops to achieve the change. Getting a good team together to help you is the key. Ideally they will have been there and done that in aggregate and will be able to help you include things you may not think of on your own. Think outside the box!
In this case, either move where most expensive programmers/architects are, or look online, but you will have to interest them with something other than money (or lots of money). "2 programmers in a dark cubicle" is a dream that is not going to work for LARGE eCommerce. Get a $300/hr architect, get 3-4 $120/hr programmers (one of them should be able to take over if architect is gone), a quality DBA, testing team, a production support, and a bunch that was mentioned above (usability, non-business users, etc.etc.). My blind guess is that cost of this team will be in millions per year.
2. If money is somewhat not an object - for instance you have $1 million per year of capital to burn....Don't hit for millions of users per day. Design to scale, but aim to turn profit in a year or 2. Then you can take that money and scale up using #1.
You may be able to get away with customization of existing software for a while (let's say 1 year), but then you should know that it will either not work as it is, would be too bloated to modify, or work backwards and is uncapable to deliver what you want.
