Ecommerce Platforms - Squarespace?

[Herbs]

Getting to the design stage for an Ecommerce website and been recommended Squarespace over Shopify, Magento etc.

Does anybody use this or have any real world experience of it?

Any other suggestions that should be in the mix?

[uber]

Herbs said:

Getting to the design stage for an Ecommerce website and been recommended Squarespace over Shopify, Magento etc.

Does anybody use this or have any real world experience of it?

Any other suggestions that should be in the mix?

If you want really simple go Shopify, If you want real custom go Magento, if you want to be back here in 6 months aking for upgrade advice go Squarespace

[Herbs]

Thanks

Bigcommerce seems to be well rated as well so edging towards that at the moment if anyone has any experience of it?

[uber]

Herbs said:

Thanks

Bigcommerce seems to be well rated as well so edging towards that at the moment if anyone has any experience of it?

If you are going down the hosted route Shopify v Big commerce I would still sway the Shopify route as its better supported via community and apps

[akirk]

Uber's comments are pretty good
We have clients with both bigcommerce and shopify, strengths and weaknesses to both...
Go with whichever you prefer, if you build the business big enough to cause issues with either you will need to be looking at alternatives like Magento anyway

[Evolved]

Shopify unless you can go down the Magento route. We also like Woocommerce as it offers some nice custom build options and a raft of off the shelf bolt on's. All depends on your budget and end goal requirements.

[Herbs]

Thanks for the replies.

I've been having a look at this which is interesting although i'm not sure how much they are different in the real world

https://selfstartr.com/ecommerce-platforms/

[jammy-git]

Herbs said:

Thanks for the replies.

I've been having a look at this which is interesting although i'm not sure how much they are different in the real world

https://selfstartr.com/ecommerce-platforms/

Those results will vary massively depending on the template you use, web host, server set up, etc.

[akirk]

jammy-git said:

Herbs said:

Thanks for the replies.

I've been having a look at this which is interesting although i'm not sure how much they are different in the real world

https://selfstartr.com/ecommerce-platforms/

Those results will vary massively depending on the template you use, web host, server set up, etc.

This...

yes, you can do a standard test by uploading the same content - but that is no reflection of real life, unless you run 20-30 different shops across each platform for 6-12+ months, you are getting fake results - you might test one platform on a day when it is running slowly and skew the results - yet, on average their platform may have less down-time than others - speed will be a factor of popularity of the website / how you optimise media you upload (esp. photos) / the connection your clients have (are they all rural with slow broadband, or sitting in a high-tech country close to the server with gb connections?

you are overthinking this - if you are starting up a new business get on and spend the time starting up the business not reading abstract and irrelevant information - when you start up any of the major platforms can handle what you need - shopify and bigcommerce will both cope - if you scale to a point where they will no longer cope, great, you are now suceeding, invest some money in something new and at that point in today's world you may wish to go to a hosted magento solution - but that is a way off, for now the priority is to actually get the business running and either shopify or bigcommerce can do it - we run both for clients and both are fine - they are different in how you use them, but both are viable and sufficient for this stage of your business...

stop messing around looking to how you will handle a later stage of the business which at this rate will never come - get on and make it happen

[Herbs]

akirk said:

jammy-git said:

Herbs said:

Thanks for the replies.

I've been having a look at this which is interesting although i'm not sure how much they are different in the real world

https://selfstartr.com/ecommerce-platforms/

Those results will vary massively depending on the template you use, web host, server set up, etc.

This...

yes, you can do a standard test by uploading the same content - but that is no reflection of real life, unless you run 20-30 different shops across each platform for 6-12+ months, you are getting fake results - you might test one platform on a day when it is running slowly and skew the results - yet, on average their platform may have less down-time than others - speed will be a factor of popularity of the website / how you optimise media you upload (esp. photos) / the connection your clients have (are they all rural with slow broadband, or sitting in a high-tech country close to the server with gb connections?

you are overthinking this - if you are starting up a new business get on and spend the time starting up the business not reading abstract and irrelevant information - when you start up any of the major platforms can handle what you need - shopify and bigcommerce will both cope - if you scale to a point where they will no longer cope, great, you are now suceeding, invest some money in something new and at that point in today's world you may wish to go to a hosted magento solution - but that is a way off, for now the priority is to actually get the business running and either shopify or bigcommerce can do it - we run both for clients and both are fine - they are different in how you use them, but both are viable and sufficient for this stage of your business...

stop messing around looking to how you will handle a later stage of the business which at this rate will never come - get on and make it happen

Thank you

It's not holding anything up yet but more, due diligence as whatever we choose, will have a massive impact on payment gateways, ongoing costs etc and we need to decide so the web developer can start the build which will be next month.

Between Shopify and Bigcommerce so will make a decision!

Thanks again for all advice to date

[jammy-git]

If it's between those two, I'd argue Shopify.

Personally I always lean towards the most popular platform (unless there is a specific feature with one platform that you really must use). Popularity means it's easier to find designers and developers who are familiar with the platform - an abundance of devs and designers usually lowers the cost of them too. Plugins, extensions, themes are usually more readily available should you need to extend the features of your store and most problems have generally already been crossed and resolved.

[Dejay1788]

Another vote here for Shopify, it really is very simple to use and the support is usually pretty great.

[LDN]

Sorry to muddy the waters but I went with BigCommerce. At the time, it offered deeper control over things such as URL strings and it seemed just as intuitive as Shopify. I see a lot of online shops using Shopify and it seems great but I found BigCommerce to be a slightly more professional and in depth solution.

Can I also put forward - Ecwid. It's a different way of doing things but surprisingly effective!

[Herbs]

Thanks all.

I'm swaying towards Bigcommerce after a brief look for a couple of reasons , firstly there doesn't appear to be % charge per transaction like there is on Shopify and secondly, most sites I have seen tend to look templated which I am keen to avoid and I think Bigcommerce will be a better solution for customisation.

Will keep you all updated