E-Commerce Solutions
Discussion
Evening all...
At 4.10pm this afternoon, I pulled the trigger on an email shot out to 8000+ customers/subscribers to launch a new product that I've just spent the last four weeks going through sleepless nights to get it into the country, and is now sat in our warehouse ready to ship out.
At around 4.30pm, our current ecommerce provider had an internal systems failure that took down all three of my websites. They're all still down. They've had a hardware failure at their data centre, this has been identified and a man is driving new hardware there, two hours away.
Now, I get that these kind of things happen... But given how much we now rely on our e-commerce, I think we need to look at alternative solutions, with better response times to outage. With our retail shop closed due to lockdown, our ecommerce is more important than ever!
I run a company which has three websites, currently paying around £500-600 per month for a hosted solution, I do all our of our design work and maintenance myself in house. We turnover around £700k across those three sites at present.
I'd welcome any suggestions for platforms/solutions below.
Many thanks
Jon
At 4.10pm this afternoon, I pulled the trigger on an email shot out to 8000+ customers/subscribers to launch a new product that I've just spent the last four weeks going through sleepless nights to get it into the country, and is now sat in our warehouse ready to ship out.
At around 4.30pm, our current ecommerce provider had an internal systems failure that took down all three of my websites. They're all still down. They've had a hardware failure at their data centre, this has been identified and a man is driving new hardware there, two hours away.
Now, I get that these kind of things happen... But given how much we now rely on our e-commerce, I think we need to look at alternative solutions, with better response times to outage. With our retail shop closed due to lockdown, our ecommerce is more important than ever!
I run a company which has three websites, currently paying around £500-600 per month for a hosted solution, I do all our of our design work and maintenance myself in house. We turnover around £700k across those three sites at present.
I'd welcome any suggestions for platforms/solutions below.
Many thanks
Jon
Hi Jon, You need to be looking at Cloud software providers.. no one in this day and age should be driving new hardware to a hosting location. Its now all about auto-scaling, auto-provisioning globally hosted environments. Outages may still rarely occur, but usually due to wider internet issues.
I hear very good things about Shopify Plus and that may be worth investigating. Shopify have some lower cost solutions as well.
Just to say - I work in the eCommerce area (Content and Media - not commerce platforms anymore) and have no affiliation with them - I think we have only one customer on Shopify Plus. Most of my customers are on SAP/Salesforce/Oracle/CommerceTools - but they would definitely be overkill for your needs at this stage. Hope this helps.
I hear very good things about Shopify Plus and that may be worth investigating. Shopify have some lower cost solutions as well.
Just to say - I work in the eCommerce area (Content and Media - not commerce platforms anymore) and have no affiliation with them - I think we have only one customer on Shopify Plus. Most of my customers are on SAP/Salesforce/Oracle/CommerceTools - but they would definitely be overkill for your needs at this stage. Hope this helps.
I’m a huge Shopify fan after spending 5 years putting businesses onto Shopify with only 1 going back to hosted.
Now I’m starting an e-commerce club offering advice peer to peer but not doing any work (as I’m locked out after selling the agency)
You won’t need Shopify plus but probably advanced at $300 month regardless of traffic. Dev cost will be lower and features are apps which can add up. You’ll pay a small transaction fee circa 20p. it has legendary uptime and updates itself largely.
If you want a chat about it let me know, Shopify doesn’t suit all brands / sectors but those it does do well.
Now I’m starting an e-commerce club offering advice peer to peer but not doing any work (as I’m locked out after selling the agency)
You won’t need Shopify plus but probably advanced at $300 month regardless of traffic. Dev cost will be lower and features are apps which can add up. You’ll pay a small transaction fee circa 20p. it has legendary uptime and updates itself largely.
If you want a chat about it let me know, Shopify doesn’t suit all brands / sectors but those it does do well.
Definitely look at Shopify, their uptime is legendary and the rate at which they ship new features is mind blowing. As a previous poster said, everything is in the cloud now. Let someone else manage your site and hardware - Shopify have over 1m e-commerce businesses hosted with them now.
I use this business for my E commerce website, Woocommerce based and we have a dedicated server.
Been reliable for the 3 years we've been with him.
We have a similar turnover and approximately 150 transactions a week via the website.
https://www.redfrogstudio.co.uk/
Happy to recommend.
Been reliable for the 3 years we've been with him.
We have a similar turnover and approximately 150 transactions a week via the website.
https://www.redfrogstudio.co.uk/
Happy to recommend.
21ATS said:
I use this business for my E commerce website, Woocommerce based and we have a dedicated server.
Been reliable for the 3 years we've been with him.
We have a similar turnover and approximately 150 transactions a week via the website.
https://www.redfrogstudio.co.uk/
Happy to recommend.
I’m not an IT guy but is it deliberate that their website when viewed through a phone is a complete mess?Been reliable for the 3 years we've been with him.
We have a similar turnover and approximately 150 transactions a week via the website.
https://www.redfrogstudio.co.uk/
Happy to recommend.
Ahhh EKM the good old days, we started with them too. Had no major issues but eventually moved onto Opencart then Magento.
Now we are on Shopify, multiple websites, 7 figure revenue.
The sites have been down once or twice but not for long. It’s nice not having to worry about anything hosting or core system related. It just works.
However Shopify is equally annoying as it doesn’t do what I’d consider basic things like multiple customer groups (trade) and tiered pricing etc. And their discounting system is very limited. Everything is an app, most of which aren’t exactly “native”. So check it matches your requirements before moving.
Definetly work looking into though. It really allowed us to focus on growing traffic and sales rather than messing with the site constantly.
I don’t know if we’ll still be on it when we get to £10+ million revenue but for now it works really well.
BigCommerce is worth a look too. I’ve not used it but it’s very similar however seems to plug the holes in Shopify like trade pricing etc. Have been tempted to move one of our sites and combine with our currently separate trade site but it’s a big undertaking.
Good luck whatever you do.
Now we are on Shopify, multiple websites, 7 figure revenue.
The sites have been down once or twice but not for long. It’s nice not having to worry about anything hosting or core system related. It just works.
However Shopify is equally annoying as it doesn’t do what I’d consider basic things like multiple customer groups (trade) and tiered pricing etc. And their discounting system is very limited. Everything is an app, most of which aren’t exactly “native”. So check it matches your requirements before moving.
Definetly work looking into though. It really allowed us to focus on growing traffic and sales rather than messing with the site constantly.
I don’t know if we’ll still be on it when we get to £10+ million revenue but for now it works really well.
BigCommerce is worth a look too. I’ve not used it but it’s very similar however seems to plug the holes in Shopify like trade pricing etc. Have been tempted to move one of our sites and combine with our currently separate trade site but it’s a big undertaking.
Good luck whatever you do.
DSLiverpool said:
I’m a huge Shopify fan after spending 5 years putting businesses onto Shopify with only 1 going back to hosted.
Now I’m starting an e-commerce club offering advice peer to peer but not doing any work (as I’m locked out after selling the agency)
You won’t need Shopify plus but probably advanced at $300 month regardless of traffic. Dev cost will be lower and features are apps which can add up. You’ll pay a small transaction fee circa 20p. it has legendary uptime and updates itself largely.
If you want a chat about it let me know, Shopify doesn’t suit all brands / sectors but those it does do well.
I'd be very interested in the e commerce club. I'll soon be tasked with developing an online market to support a successful high st business and have zero experience! Time to learn new skills.Now I’m starting an e-commerce club offering advice peer to peer but not doing any work (as I’m locked out after selling the agency)
You won’t need Shopify plus but probably advanced at $300 month regardless of traffic. Dev cost will be lower and features are apps which can add up. You’ll pay a small transaction fee circa 20p. it has legendary uptime and updates itself largely.
If you want a chat about it let me know, Shopify doesn’t suit all brands / sectors but those it does do well.
Venisonpie said:
I'd be very interested in the e commerce club. I'll soon be tasked with developing an online market to support a successful high st business and have zero experience! Time to learn new skills.
Lots of starting out / specific platform support - the websites on limited release now with full roll out this week. I’ll be putting info on my profile once properly live. The strength is ln members supporting members backed up by specialists who can advise.
DSLiverpool said:
Venisonpie said:
I'd be very interested in the e commerce club. I'll soon be tasked with developing an online market to support a successful high st business and have zero experience! Time to learn new skills.
Lots of starting out / specific platform support - the websites on limited release now with full roll out this week. I’ll be putting info on my profile once properly live. The strength is ln members supporting members backed up by specialists who can advise.
Odhran said:
21ATS said:
I use this business for my E commerce website, Woocommerce based and we have a dedicated server.
Been reliable for the 3 years we've been with him.
We have a similar turnover and approximately 150 transactions a week via the website.
https://www.redfrogstudio.co.uk/
Happy to recommend.
I’m not an IT guy but is it deliberate that their website when viewed through a phone is a complete mess?Been reliable for the 3 years we've been with him.
We have a similar turnover and approximately 150 transactions a week via the website.
https://www.redfrogstudio.co.uk/
Happy to recommend.
Thanks everyone... We've been with EKM now for nearly ten years, and have grown our websites to a good point, but looks like Shopify is the way forward for us to now grow further.
From what I can see, we still need three accounts for the three websites... Oh what I wouldn't give for a solution where we could manage all three from one login!
I just need to look into how easy it is to migrate, whether I can do that or need to get someone to do that for us, and the best way of processing transactions in whether we use Shopify payments or we keep our own card processor. Our rates are much better, but wondering if the integration is worth the extra fees.
From what I can see, we still need three accounts for the three websites... Oh what I wouldn't give for a solution where we could manage all three from one login!
I just need to look into how easy it is to migrate, whether I can do that or need to get someone to do that for us, and the best way of processing transactions in whether we use Shopify payments or we keep our own card processor. Our rates are much better, but wondering if the integration is worth the extra fees.
Have a look at www.shopitcommerce.com that is setting itself out as a shopify alternative
We are Bigcommerce, as they offered features Shopify didnt when I signed up many years ago.
Id recommend either Shopify or Bigcommerce - crack on ASAP. Really easy to get these sites online with their templates - use somebody like DS to smooth the cracks and build custom template if necessary.
Id recommend either Shopify or Bigcommerce - crack on ASAP. Really easy to get these sites online with their templates - use somebody like DS to smooth the cracks and build custom template if necessary.
JPJPJP said:
Have a look at www.shopitcommerce.com that is setting itself out as a shopify alternative
Now that looks interesting... Especially running multiple shops from one account. Thanks for that.Have signed up for a couple of trials so I can use the back end systems and see how they compare.
What's more striking is the total radio silence from EKM... If I was Anthony Chesworth, and my network had gone down taking out all my customers online stores, I would have had an email out by 10am this morning.
What's more striking is the total radio silence from EKM... If I was Anthony Chesworth, and my network had gone down taking out all my customers online stores, I would have had an email out by 10am this morning.
JPJPJP said:
Have a look at www.shopitcommerce.com that is setting itself out as a shopify alternative
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