Need help for eCommerce store?

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whatname

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#217921 18-Jul-2017 16:47

Hi there Guys!

Hope you are all doing well

I am looking to start an eCommerce store, but am having trouble deciding which one. This is my first ever website hence, I am a bit lost (if I am honest). I am not sure which platform to build my only store on

I have looked at Wix, Squarespace and Shopify

I ideally want Xero to be integrated aswell so it makes the accounting side of things much easier as I am bad at that haha

Shopify - Seems a bit too complicated for me

Squarespace looks really good, but has stripe and paypal ( would that work in NZ? it says Stripe is limited in NZ)

Wix - Doesn't really provide customer support

Any suggestions?

I would really appreciate it :)

THANKSSSSSSSS :)

Benjip

943 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1824612 18-Jul-2017 17:15

I would go with Shopify for sure, it's not complicated to get started if you just choose one of their pre-built themes.

Stripe is now in "public beta" in New Zealand, which means it's fully functional but might not yet have all the same features as it does in other countries. For day to day eCommerce I believe it's fine, and I use it to accept credit card payments (via Xero invoices) from my overseas clients who don't have NZ bank accounts.

I can't speak of Squarespace or Wix as I don't have experience with those, but Shopify definitely appears to be the leader.

mdf

3512 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1824678 18-Jul-2017 18:26

Shopify is the leader in the space. It has a relatively straightforward DPS integration which will work with all NZ cards.

Or you could try supporting the local (both NZ and Geekzone) option, @Ivor's IvorERP.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1824727 18-Jul-2017 19:52

Or hire a web designer to do it...

whatname

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1824735 18-Jul-2017 20:03

Thanks for your reply :)

Benjip have you used shopify before?

I heard its quite hard to manage; am I able to integrate xero into it?

Or do you have a better recommendation in terms of managing the accounting side of things?

Another thing that put me off shopify is the fact that it charges like 3%.... that is quite a big margin overall. Hence my decision to look elsewhere, stripe accepts paypal, that wouldn't really work for people without paypal accounts correct? as majority of people in nz pay with visa

Thanks!

kobiak

1615 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1824744 18-Jul-2017 20:21

wordpress + woocomerce + dps = cheap and more or less easy to do, but you will be responsible for everything (hosting, themes, seo, accounting, payments, privacy, etc), everything under $50 a year :)

helping others at evgenyk.nz

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1824749 18-Jul-2017 20:24

kobiak:

wordpress + woocomerce + dps = cheap and more or less easy to do, but you will be responsible for everything (hosting, themes, seo, accounting, payments, privacy, etc), everything under $50 a year :)

You also need SSL. Will also likely be responsible for any private customer information being leaked if the site gets hacked. Will also probably be very slow if you are only pay that much for hosting, as cheap hosting can be very slow especially with wordpress, and probably won't cope with decent traffic going through the site.

kobiak

1615 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1824755 18-Jul-2017 20:28

mattwnz:

kobiak:

wordpress + woocomerce + dps = cheap and more or less easy to do, but you will be responsible for everything (hosting, themes, seo, accounting, payments, privacy, etc), everything under $50 a year :)

You also need SSL. Will also likely be responsible for any private customer information being leaked if the site gets hacked. Will also probably be very slow if you are only pay that much for hosting, as cheap hosting can be very slow especially with wordpress, and probably won't cope with decent traffic going through the site.

SSL is free with cloudflare or let's encrypt.

and cheap hosting != bad hosting. OVH VPS for 3.5 NZD a month, get's me going for 5 websites with combined traffic 100-500 users a day. more than enough for a start.

helping others at evgenyk.nz

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whatname

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1824756 18-Jul-2017 20:28

I probably wont create my own website, as I would be responsible for too many things.

If I use something like shopify or another service like that. Then I won't need to worry about credit cards, privacy, etc correct?

kobiak

1615 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1824758 18-Jul-2017 20:32

whatname:

I probably wont create my own website, as I would be responsible for too many things.

If I use something like shopify or another service like that. Then I won't need to worry about credit cards, privacy, etc correct?

You won't be processing payments yourself anyway, so that one off. Account details, order tracking, inventory, etc - is another story.

Go for best out of the box solution for a start and you will quickly understand what is working for you and what's not. The more perks you'd want, the more stand alone website is required.

helping others at evgenyk.nz

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek

#1824827 18-Jul-2017 22:17

Consider Rocket Spark if you want a local option, and yes they intergrate with Xero. I have not used personally but have dealt with companies that have, and they liked the local support

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1824847 18-Jul-2017 22:43

kobiak:
mattwnz:

kobiak:

wordpress + woocomerce + dps = cheap and more or less easy to do, but you will be responsible for everything (hosting, themes, seo, accounting, payments, privacy, etc), everything under $50 a year :)

You also need SSL. Will also likely be responsible for any private customer information being leaked if the site gets hacked. Will also probably be very slow if you are only pay that much for hosting, as cheap hosting can be very slow especially with wordpress, and probably won't cope with decent traffic going through the site.

SSL is free with cloudflare or let's encrypt.

and cheap hosting != bad hosting. OVH VPS for 3.5 NZD a month, get's me going for 5 websites with combined traffic 100-500 users a day. more than enough for a start.

VPS requires a lot of know how and management and is significantly different than buying cheap shared hosting which is managed. They would be better to pay for good quality managed hosting if they are going down that track and don't have server knowledge. It is like getting someone to do DIY dentistry

catchlight

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1846163 14-Aug-2017 09:28

Hi,

I'd be happy to help you out. We build e-commerce stores for clients and I can point you in the right direction if you're interested in telling me more about what you're trying to achieve.

Brock

Jessenikol

4 posts

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#1875000 30-Sep-2017 03:50

I really want to give you a friendly advise.

First of all I would like to made it clear that, it totally depends upon the size of the store's sales volumes. For beginners and people just starting out, I'd recommend WooCommerce. For companies with larger volumes, it would be Magneto (based on my personal experience).

Why I've recommed these paltfroms?
Because it's one of the best eCommerce platforms out there, with a huge development community and innumerable businesses using it as their base. Get the help of experts to build your Magento based eCommerce website. Magento is technical and secures platform to launch your store.

Next, If you don't have a technical experience I would recommend you Woo-Commerce as it is one the easiest platform to deploy and manage. You can find multiple extentions and free plugins but there is concern related to secuity.

Any of the platforms Magento, WooCommerce, and Prestashop are great but it really depends on the usage.

catchlight

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1876608 3-Oct-2017 12:23

Jessenikol:

I really want to give you a friendly advise.

First of all I would like to made it clear that, it totally depends upon the size of the store's sales volumes. For beginners and people just starting out, I'd recommend WooCommerce. For companies with larger volumes, it would be Magneto (based on my personal experience).

Why I've recommed these paltfroms?
Because it's one of the best eCommerce platforms out there, with a huge development community and innumerable businesses using it as their base. Get the help of experts to build your Magento based eCommerce website. Magento is technical and secures platform to launch your store.

Next, If you don't have a technical experience I would recommend you Woo-Commerce as it is one the easiest platform to deploy and manage. You can find multiple extentions and free plugins but there is concern related to secuity.

Any of the platforms Magento, WooCommerce, and Prestashop are great but it really depends on the usage.

This is true, the volume of sales is a big factor but how will you know if you're starting out? I'd throw BigCommerce and Shopify into the mix as an entry-level thing. These systems won't give you anywhere near the flexibility of the above-mentioned platforms, but they come at a fraction of the cost. What you sacrifice is flexibility - but flexibility comes at a cost. Get some "points on the board" and then move up to a system like WooCommerce or Magento if your sales are warranting it. Something to be aware of on any platform you choose is what sort of payment gateway you need to go with. A payment gateway allows customers to securely pay you via a Credit Card. The bottom entry level is usually PayPal, or you could go with Stripe (recently launched in New Zealand - popular in the US) or eWay. Again, this all comes back to volumes because as you sell more you'll want to kill off PayPal to avoid the percentages they take from each sale. You'll then want to move to PayStation or Payment Express, which requires a merchant account with your bank. So the expenses mount, but if your sales are high enough it will be worth it. Certain NZ Banks also don't support certain gateways, so always check with your bank before you go down any one path.

Lots of moving parts. :) Good luck.

whatname

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1876623 3-Oct-2017 12:48

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions

I have decided to go with Rocketspark as they provide local support. Although they are a small company they seem to really care about their customers and want them to succeed.

Their payment gateways also are quite good? They integrate with many different payment companies. One of which is Payment Express which is popular in NZ