Any experience with Shopify, Bigcommerce or Volusion?
Discussion
Looking to port our website to a different platform, as our current is very out of date and starting to cost a lot of money (via dev work) for any changes or new features we want adding. The platform we are using are no longer developing and its not changed in 3-4yrs.
So looking to change to one of these more template based providers (with a custom designed template), where I am hoping to gain more features etc. I have come to the short list above as I know these are compatible with the e-commerce platform we use to manage our sales and inventory.
The site will list about 10,000 products and will require a good navigation system/search facility.
I am also looking for good account management onsite where I can implement loyalty schemes etc
Good promotion facility
Possible integration with a mail shot facility to save time with newsletters and promotional emails.
User friendly as our demographic is not particularly young...
The list goes on....
Cost is obviously a factor, but if its a couple hundred quid here or there then I am not too bothered....
Any advice?
So looking to change to one of these more template based providers (with a custom designed template), where I am hoping to gain more features etc. I have come to the short list above as I know these are compatible with the e-commerce platform we use to manage our sales and inventory.
The site will list about 10,000 products and will require a good navigation system/search facility.
I am also looking for good account management onsite where I can implement loyalty schemes etc
Good promotion facility
Possible integration with a mail shot facility to save time with newsletters and promotional emails.
User friendly as our demographic is not particularly young...
The list goes on....
Cost is obviously a factor, but if its a couple hundred quid here or there then I am not too bothered....
Any advice?
If you have a large amount of products, avoid Shopify. There are many issues with categories/navigation - no native layered navigation, there are workarounds but they're all a pain. The back end is also virtually impossible to use with large amounts of products, viewing options and filtering are fairly poor. I've just started using Bigcommerce, too early to really say much, but it seems to be built like a more user-friendly version of Magento, handles SKUs/categories, etc a lot better. Also considered Volusion in the past, but there was a major reason I decided against it (I can't remember why now!).
With the amount of products you're dealing with, I'd go with Magento, or maybe Opencart or XCart?
With the amount of products you're dealing with, I'd go with Magento, or maybe Opencart or XCart?
I am currently working with a website developer who has been doing work for me for the last 3 years and has never steered me wrong.
I also asked him just 3 weeks ago to build me a bells and whistles site (within reason); putting other factors aside which is THEE best platform to use overall and he said it was opencart. I think all the platforms have their place and some will of course suit certain businesses more than others but in a nutshell I have yet to hear someone say stay away from opencart.
This platform constantly changes and evolves all the time to be better and better and I know you want to reduce your dev work but you need to look at the other side of the coin and be grateful that opencart is quite easy to work on too.
I think with 10,000 lines (very curious to know what you sell that you have 10,000 lines) but I think opencart is probably best for you.
If you really want to get a better view point, call up a few website developers after a quick search in google, literally say look I am looking to have a website made with these key features and I have 10,000 lines what do you feel is the best platform.
They might tell you something that may edge one out for you more than the others.
Good Luck!!! You'll probably need it!
I also asked him just 3 weeks ago to build me a bells and whistles site (within reason); putting other factors aside which is THEE best platform to use overall and he said it was opencart. I think all the platforms have their place and some will of course suit certain businesses more than others but in a nutshell I have yet to hear someone say stay away from opencart.
This platform constantly changes and evolves all the time to be better and better and I know you want to reduce your dev work but you need to look at the other side of the coin and be grateful that opencart is quite easy to work on too.
I think with 10,000 lines (very curious to know what you sell that you have 10,000 lines) but I think opencart is probably best for you.
If you really want to get a better view point, call up a few website developers after a quick search in google, literally say look I am looking to have a website made with these key features and I have 10,000 lines what do you feel is the best platform.
They might tell you something that may edge one out for you more than the others.
Good Luck!!! You'll probably need it!
we have put a couple of clients from Magento (the hosted version which is now dead) onto BigCommerce in the last year - like the system - good support, but neither with anywhere near that number of products (think more 100 - 500)
I would talk to some of the companies behind the software if you have concerns - what are their limitations, or find a 3rd party dev. company who will support you
I would talk to some of the companies behind the software if you have concerns - what are their limitations, or find a 3rd party dev. company who will support you
SpeckledJim said:
Our BigCommerce shop has 400,000 products.
It works pretty well, but updates are a major pain - dividing files into 30 and repeating the same process with each one.
Do you mean updates to price, qty, product info? I wouldnt have to worry about this, as I have a system which BigCommerce would integrate into via API which would automatically push through any changes made to a SKU automatically every 15-20mins. It works pretty well, but updates are a major pain - dividing files into 30 and repeating the same process with each one.
Id love to see the site and how the navigation copes with the amount of SKU's. All the case studies these firms seem to have is for fashion retailers who are all about rich media. Whilst rich media is still important for us we need a more structured design (not just 1 big picture on the homepage with a few buttons at the top!)
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff