eCommerce Optimisation Questions

[Bulgano]

Hopefully my overly generic title didn't give a bad initial opinion.

I wanted to get some information in regards to eCommerce and how much software actually matters.

For example, we all know WooCommerce and Shopify dominate the eCommerce market, but is it worth building a store from scratch if you already have the programming knowledge to do so?

I've been trying to weigh up the pros and cons of both and it seems to be evening out quite a lot.

So I guess the questions I have are;

• Would developing a custom store software (if you already had the coding experience) be worth it and make a viable difference when compared against Shopify?
• Is it worth giving a store a landing page or is it best to just take the customer straight to the store so they can instantly see what products are available?

If anything I asked wasn't clear feel free to let me know and I can elaborate a little if needed.
Any help or information is appreciated as always!

 

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[jon.M]

Would developing a custom store software (if you already had the coding experience) be worth it and make a viable difference when compared against Shopify?

What would the benefits of developing a custom store from scratch be? You can, but what are your arguments for why you should?

Couldn't you just make a WooCommerce/Shopify store and use your skills to create custom solutions when you actually need them?

• Is it worth giving a store a landing page or is it best to just take the customer straight to the store so they can instantly see what products are available?

I feel like it's pointless for anyone to answer this question in its current state, since we don't get any information at all about your store or the products you'll be selling.

For example I'm launching a store where my first product will be sold on a simple landing page. Would I do that for any product? No. It depends on how you're planning to get visitors, how you plan to sell it, the nature of your product and business etc.

 

[Bulgano]

What would the benefits of developing a custom store from scratch be? You can, but what are your arguments for why you should?

Couldn't you just make a WooCommerce/Shopify store and use your skills to create custom solutions when you actually need them?


I feel like it's pointless for anyone to answer this question in its current state, since we don't get any information at all about your store or the products you'll be selling.

For example I'm launching a store where my first product will be sold on a simple landing page. Would I do that for any product? No. It depends on how you're planning to get visitors, how you plan to sell it, the nature of your product and business etc.

Sure, I guess a number of "pros" I can give are;

• You have full control in terms of the environment. If you want to use a certain software, you can.
• You again get this sense of uniqueness. Wordpress is great, but in my opinion there are restrictions and the general feel of Wordpress is 'clunky'.
• You can optimise the site as much as you want, since looping back to the first point, you have full control. Where-as something like Wordpress, you are pretty restricted in what you can change in the backend without breaking a lot of stuff or impacting performance heavily. (Especially since Wordpress runs on PHP)
• I feel the styling options are a lot more open when doing stuff yourself as opposed to making a Wordpress theme.

These are just some I can think off the top of my head at the moment, and I'm sure Wordpress/Shopify has some good rebuttal points as well.
I guess what I'm trying to understand is what should I be prioritising? The technical benefits of doing it myself which could result in something like for example, incredibly fast page load times compared to Wordpress, or the simplicity and speed that comes with making it with Wordpress/Shopify.

In regards to the landing page, I agree. I probably should have elaborated further on what I meant.
I'm not so much talking specifically, just generally. Statistically speaking do stores with landing pages do better than ones without? Or do they drive people away? That type of thing. I get that it depends on what marketing strategies you are using, what products you are selling, your brand identity, etc... But that question I meant more broadly.

I'd love to hear any further thoughts you have on this.

 

[Tom.V]

It's a question of time. Do you want to spend countless hours building, troubleshooting, fixing, perfecting your own handbuilt mousetrap, or simply rent one for $30/mo with all of the bells and whistles you will probably ever need?

 

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