New eCommerce Platform - your advice needed

[Yaros]

Hello,

If you don’t mind I want to ask you some questions regarding ecommerce platforms.

1.If you are already using any of eCommerce platforms, what advantages and benefits can make you transfer to another one?
2.Are you satisfied with support, if it is provided?
3.What were the main difficulties you come across while building your webstore?

Your opinion really matters and will help me greatly.

[edited by: lorax at 1:30 pm (utc) on Jul 12, 2013]

[lorax]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Yaros!
I hope you stick around after you get your answers.

It's rather difficult to answer blanket questions like yours. All of the products cover the basics in some form - add/edit/delete products, payment solution, shipping options, etc. The challenge is in the details of how well they accomplish the specific goals/situation of each store.

Support is also a sticky wicket. Some of the folks here are comfortable with programming and quite comfortable with tearing a store a part and making it do what they want. Others are looking for an out-of-the-box solution and really want support to help with setup, and "how do I" sorts of questions.

I'm sure the membership will share at least a few thoughts with you.

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld, Yaros!


have you looked through past threads in this forum for any answers?
just from threads so far in 2013:

Do I go with an eCommerce service provider or build?:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4583503.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Best cart for a few products & most seamless integration:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4579488.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Shopping Cart question please :):
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4570773.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Is X-Cart the best ecommerce shopping cart.?:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4571288.htm [webmasterworld.com]

custom procedural coding vs framework:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4565838.htm [webmasterworld.com]

What are some of the higher end hosted carts?:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4551393.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Question About Shopping Cart System for Repeat Purchases:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4549934.htm [webmasterworld.com]

What Shopping Cart Are You Using?:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4537477.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Moving from Zen Cart to Woo Commerce:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4532658.htm [webmasterworld.com]

e-commerce carts/the best?:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4506764.htm [webmasterworld.com]

New shopping cart recommendations:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/ecommerce/4525020.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[Luxoria]

Also, you need clarify scale. There is a huge difference between a store with 100 products vs. 1000 vs. 10000.

1) Everything working out of the box and anything I want customized right there already to go. (I could list several dozen features like shipping estimators, SEO URLS, etc.)

2) My current solution offers only support from the dev team at their discretion. My platform is free to use.

3) Learning to code the store and the store's internal code structure.

However, as another note, there is a great difference between technically skilled webmasters with the time to manually modify their site to fit their needs vs. a non technical person that wants to open a webstore but knows not the difference between html, css, php, javascript, etc.

[Yaros]

Thank you Luxoria. Are you using Opencart?

[adsxx]

I would say this: don't move from one ecommerce platform to another unless you have really good reason because it involves alot of work. As for what systems to use:

1. Opencart is great for entrance ecommerce companies. I had my first store up and running in about 3 hours with help of $40 theme. Support is limited and OC loves to updated frequently (maybe too much). But its easiest system to get up and running without programming experience.

2. Magento "the beast". Its monster of program and you will need your own vps to host it as it likes to bang on servers pretty good. Most comprehensive platform but requires some programming ability and maybe even dedicated IT person.

3. Big Commerce/Shopify - these are platforms that you don't self host. They run the show and take nice profit out of each transaction. You need to have good margins to make this doable. If you want hands off IT approach and just focus on marketing and branding of company...this should be your choice.

[Austinhoney]

Not true. Shopify does take a cut as does Yahoo but BigCommerce, Volusion and many others do not. Some of these can get you up and running, with SSL and a decent selection of free templates for under $20 a month.