3 Best Shopping Carts For 2014

[Vick]

So I've been doing a lot of research again on what eCom platform to use, and came across this great review site, thought the site was gonna be spammy, but it's actually a pretty good blog.

I've used Shopify before with my old site and was really impressed with it. So, naturally I was going to use it again for my next venture. But just to be sure, I wanted to do some further research into other platforms as well, in case things have changed.

Anyway, I think some people might find this useful on deciding what eCommerce platform to use.

I know I did.

Make sure to read the in-depth reviews, there very informative.

http://www.ecommerce-platforms.com/...eviews-2014-shopify-bigcommerce-corecommerce/

Shopify in-depth review - http://www.ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/the-ultimate-shopify-ecommerce-review/

BigCommerce in-depth review - http://www.ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/the-ultimate-bigcommerce-ecommerce-review/

CoreCommerce in-depth review - http://www.ecommerce-platforms.com/...-ultimate-corecommerce-ecommerce-review-2012/

Personally, I've chosen to use Shopify again.

Cheers,

 

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[Vick]

Just wanted to add this. The price structures between Shopify and BC

Most people dislike Shopify because of it's price structure. I think people are a little confused by it.

So here's the jist, if they don't know.

Shopify Pricing:

Shopify offers five packages to choose from. They start with “Starter” at $14 per month and scale up to their enterprise solution called “Unlimited” for $179 per month. All of Shopify’s plans require no setup fee, come with unlimited bandwidth, and offer a generous no credit-card required 14 day trial.

Pro: Many store owners are drawn to Shopify because of their unlimited bandwidth. The comment sections of review sites on other shopping cart platforms are riddled with bandwidth fee horror stories, especially against Volusion – who seem to sneak other “hidden fees” into their service.

Instead of bandwidth fees, Shopify charges a 0% – 2% transaction fee depending on your plan. What’s also nice about Shopify is their pricing structure is transparent, and they don’t have any hidden fees. Be careful of some ecommerce platforms that charge: fraud score fees, gateway access fees, monthly statement fees, and early termination fees – some of which are hidden in the a large “terms and conditions” document.

Every Shopify plan comes with a $100 Google AdWords and a $100 Amazon Ad credit to get you started with marketing campaigns. All plans come with unlimited web hosting, a PCI complaint SSL shopping cart, and hundreds of features.

Con: Shopify does not necessarily cost more, it just depends on which Apps you choose to install. Many online stores won’t need to install any Apps at all, whereas if you want further functionality, you may end up paying a little extra.

BigCommerce Pricing:

BigCommerce offers five separate packages from “Bronze” at $24.95 per month to their enterprise solution called “Diamond” for $299.95 per month. All of BigCommerce’s plans require no setup fee, which is quite standard among its competition.

Pro: All of BigCommerce’s plans include their full list of features. Unlike Volusion where you have to upgrade to get a basic function like a “social store builder,” it’s nice that BigCommerce gives you full functionality at no additional charge. It’s also great that upon signup you get $50-$100 in Google AdWords Credits, depending on the plan you choose. BigCommerce offers a 15 day free trial with no credit card required.

Con: Although BigCommerce offers their whole feature set at any pricing plan, they’re really limiting when it comes to number of products, staff login accounts, bandwidth, and storage. If you start with a “Bronze” plan, you’re limited to 100 products (remember, a t-shirt isn’t just one item, it’s one item per size, and color), 3 staff logins, 2 GB of bandwidth, and 200 MB of storage. You should take note of the limit on bandwidth in particular. As I found on their website:

Bandwidth over your allocated monthly allowance is charged at half a cent per megabyte. For example, using 1 GB of bandwidth over your allocated monthly allowance would be charged $5.12 (1,024 MB x $0.005). Storage space over your monthly allowance is charged at 10 cents per megabyte.

If you don’t sell much and you don’t get very much traffic, bandwidth should not be a problem, but if you get a surge in traffic you will be surprised at the end of the month when you receive your bill. Also, although they have a decent rating with the Better Business Bureau, they have had 15 complaints closed with the BBB (9 of which in the past year). Four of the complaints have been about “Billing / Collection Issues” but have been resolved “with BBB assistance.”

 

[Phones]

Please don't forget about other FREE solutions. I'm using Magento, 4€/month perfect hosting (seriously, almost as perfect as dedicated solutions).

Shopify is good for people that just want a store, but I find it too expensive, 14$ a month plus 2% commission and I don't even have access to basic stuff like discount codes and theme editing.

Magento is tricky indeed, but with out any coding experience I've been able to do almost everything I want to. (I love google search...)
And please don't buy 99$ magento extensions before searching how to do it yourself. I would have probably spent 500€ if I bought extensions for everything I already changed/added.

 

[stranger]

i use open cart - many different options.

 

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[Vick]

do those cart options require someone to know how to code?

is everything automated?

 

[Phones]

Like I said, I don't know how to write a line of code and I have a multi store with multiple domains running right now. Average joe might find it a bit hard to work / configure, But there's nothing you can't do by searching. And for things like installing/fixing a theme you can just get someone on fiverr do do it for 5 bucks.

And yes, everything can be automated on magento. Right now the only thing I am yet to automate is making an order "Finalize" when the tracking code updates to Delivered. And printing shipping labels.

 

[mentalic]

As a developer, and after watching people trying to customize Magento and OpenCart solutions, I would go to Shopify. You get an out of the box descent shop, money saved & time saved. Just try not to customize too much the themes. Most of them are designed by professionals.

 

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[stranger]

do those cart options require someone to know how to code?

is everything automated?

If your questions are addressing to me.
----
Yes, if you need something unique from the cart as it was in my case. But if you just want a standard store, everything is automated there.

 

[biophase]

Shopify Pricing:

Instead of bandwidth fees, Shopify charges a 0% – 2% transaction fee depending on your plan. What’s also nice about Shopify is their pricing structure is transparent, and they don’t have any hidden fees. Be careful of some ecommerce platforms that charge: fraud score fees, gateway access fees, monthly statement fees, and early termination fees – some of which are hidden in the a large “terms and conditions” document.

BigCommerce Pricing:

Con: Although BigCommerce offers their whole feature set at any pricing plan, they’re really limiting when it comes to number of products, staff login accounts, bandwidth, and storage. If you start with a “Bronze” plan, you’re limited to 100 products (remember, a t-shirt isn’t just one item, it’s one item per size, and color), 3 staff logins, 2 GB of bandwidth, and 200 MB of storage. You should take note of the limit on bandwidth in particular. As I found on their website:

Bandwidth over your allocated monthly allowance is charged at half a cent per megabyte. For example, using 1 GB of bandwidth over your allocated monthly allowance would be charged $5.12 (1,024 MB x $0.005). Storage space over your monthly allowance is charged at 10 cents per megabyte.

Shopify's 0-2% fees are If you do $10,000 in sales a month, you are paying them $200 @ 2%. This is in addition to your credit card processing fee. So if you are not on the $180 plan, you will pay 3-5% in fees off your gross income in just fees.

What you said about Bigcommerce is totally wrong. When was the last time you went to their website? (http://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/) Bigcommerce does not have bandwidth fees. All plans are unlimited bandwidth. Also, 1 shirt in 4 sizes and 4 colors is just one product not 16.

 

[CommonCents]

how about recurring charges/purchases? I want to offer product of the month/quarter packages.

 

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[Vick]

Shopify's 0-2% fees are If you do $10,000 in sales a month, you are paying them $200 @ 2%. This is in addition to your credit card processing fee. So if you are not on the $180 plan, you will pay 3-5% in fees off your gross income in just fees.

What you said about Bigcommerce is totally wrong. When was the last time you went to their website? (http://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/) Bigcommerce does not have bandwidth fees. All plans are unlimited bandwidth. Also, 1 shirt in 4 sizes and 4 colors is just one product not 16.

I just copied and pasted what the Reviewer wrote in her articles about the software.

 

[Vick]

@ Bio - Whats your take on BC? Do you think it's the best choice?

 

[MMatt]

Is that correct that shopify does not give access to promo codes? I was set on shopify but I definitely want promos especially initially getting a customer base. Maybe i misunderstood the previous statement regarding promo codes.

 

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[Phones]

Is that correct that shopify does not give access to promo codes? I was set on shopify but I definitely want promos especially initially getting a customer base. Maybe i misunderstood the previous statement regarding promo codes.

Only at Basic Plan at 29$/month, the 14$/month doesn't include it.

 

[JasonR]

Magento is, hands down, the best shopping cart platform I've used and it's FREE (the community edition) and is infinitely extensible. There are also no monthly fees based on sales, etc.

It has a STEEP learning curve, but it's very powerful.

Note: avoid Magento GO.

Source: I've worked in e-commerce for the last 8 years.

 

[Vick]

Magento is, hands down, the best shopping cart platform I've used and it's FREE (the community edition) and is infinitely extensible. There are also no monthly fees based on sales, etc.

It has a STEEP learning curve, but it's very powerful.

Does it require code knowledge? How long does it take to setup a fully functional Ecom site, without knowing any code what so ever?

Just curious because.

I want to be spending my time Designing products and selling. Not working on website fixes, issues, setup, etc

 

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[JasonR]

Does it require code knowledge? How long does it take to setup a fully functional Ecom site, without knowing any code what so ever?

Just curious because.

I want to be spending my time Designing products and selling. Not working on website fixes, issues, setup, etc

No, not really. There are hundreds of themes available that are plug and play. If you want to do something super custom, it may required coding knowledge. I only know HTML/CSS and have no desire to learn PHP/Zend (even though my custom shopping cart runs on PHP/Zend, same as Magento).

Basically, if you need to do something really custom with Magento, you can hire a developer and have an extension built. There are thousands of developers out there.

It will do everything Shopify/BigCommerce will do and MUCH more out-of-the-box with a simple theme. Like I said, the interface has a steep learning curve, but really worth it if you're going to be doing 6-7 figures online per year.

 

[eqttrdr]

loved how easy Zencart was when I was in the ecommerce biz

 

[biophase]

I just copied and pasted what the Reviewer wrote in her articles about the software.

Looks like that site is down now. It sucks that say it's for 2014 which makes it seem like the article is current, but I bet it was written at least one year ago, maybe even two.

And that sentence about each variation being a product, that was never the case, ever... so it leads me to believe that the writer never used BC. I bet the article was just a way to get affiliate dollars.

I like Shopify but I can't get past their fees. I don't think their fees are justified and no other cart charges those. But they have a ton of stores so they are making alot of money off of people in that way. All my stores are on BC because of this.

I would stick to one and get to know it. I'm pretty good at BC now and understand its code and structure. So I probably will never switch unless someone else comes up with something way better.

 

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[Mrs. BRKb]

It has a STEEP learning curve, but it's very powerful.

There's a section in this article that discusses Magento's steep learning curve (2011).

 

[tycoon7]

I am in ecommerce niche, and was choosing the platform myslef a while ago.
I've chosen magento(community edition which is free) and it's the best choice i've made.

It's have some learning curve, but you can do it -> at magento forum you can find posts how to do pretty much everything.

The main important part -> YOU OWN THE STORE(the code), you can change everything, you can customize all parts of the store(code), and after you own it, you can use the same store for creating the new store(let say you opening another ecommerce store in different niche, i know guy who has 30 magento stores).

If you will go with magento, there is one extension you must have - it's one step checkout, i've seen CRAZY INCREASE in CONVERSION RATE after purchasing it. It's the only extension i've ever purchased for magento.