eCommerce platform for new web site

Forums › IT Pro and developers › eCommerce platform for new web site - recommendations?

livisun

421 posts

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#156033 17-Nov-2014 10:32

Hey guys,

Looking to start an online store, does anyone have any recommendation on what platform i should built it on? I've been suggested shopify and have looked into woocommerce. Anyone have experience with these platforms or any others out there?

Thanks

wasabi2k

2098 posts

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#1177236 17-Nov-2014 10:36

I looked at BigCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace and Weebly.

Ended up going with Weebly as their templates fit my needs best and their charges were good.

BigCommerce is Aussie Based - they had the best follow up service (called and talked to me), but their templates were very geared to being shop only (I needed a few static plus a shop). Charges are reasonable.

Squarespace - best templates by a mile but only support Stripe for payments which doesn't work in NZ - non starter.

Shopify - didn't really like templates (expensive for paid and free ones average) and didn't like the cost per transaction.

Weebly had good templates I could customise and support a bazillion payment processors and good costs.

So I am going Weebly + Paypal.

Be VERY careful on costs - some hosts charge per transaction (3-4%) then your payment processor will charge similar (3-4% + 0.45c for Paypal?). Others charge a flat monthly fee with no transaction costs.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13771 posts

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#1177254 17-Nov-2014 10:54

Open Cart is quite user friendly etc if youre happy enough to set it up yourself on a webhost. (reqs PHP and SQL)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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livisun

421 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1177488 17-Nov-2014 17:28

Thanks for the answer!

I will look into weebly and open cart.

Can i also use the DPS payment express extension on these? seems like most sites in NZ uses that option instead of paypal

Dreal

417 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1183719 27-Nov-2014 01:35

Would you be comfortable building it yourself with a small amount of technical stuff?

Tap That - Great cheap tablets and tablet accessories. Windows and Android, NZ based

DravidDavid

1907 posts

Uber Geek

#1183780 27-Nov-2014 08:35

I manage a Woocommerce website and it's horrible.

The front end looks ugly too.

I'd grab a premium Wordpress template with eCommerce built in. That way everything already looks pretty for you with all the back end tools you need to get started. Wordpress is also an awesome SEO platform.

Have not tried opencart however. Looks good!