Do you use online shop software?

campdave

I'm mulling over whether to go for an online hosted shopping solution.

Currently I have some open source software on webspace, but the version I use no longer talks to Paypal since a recent security update, and it's beyond me to upgrade it myself. I've been quoted About £250-£300 to get it upgraded.

The software I use is pretty poor for SEO, from what I've read, google doesn't like the way it generates pages, and it's been less successful than I hoped, despite extensive flyering with my ebay sales. It also isn't mobile friendly.

I was wondering if anyone uses any of the online solutions that are out there - I'm leaning towards bigcommerce, as their templates seem more modern, but does anyone on here use bigcommerce, shopify or ekmpowershop? Shopify and bigcommerce seem to have more modern templates, and the headline figure per month is cheaper, but the bottom end packages I'm looking at also have a transaction fee.

If SEO is better with these sites, I'm happy to pay for the monthly cost if I get results, otherwise I'm better investing the money in listing extra items on ebay and etsy.

Tictail was mentioned on here last week, and I spent quite a bit of time looking at that, but I don't think it's the solution I'm looking for - by the time I add a couple of extra features that i think my website should have, the cost saving is minimal between that and the other paid-for solutions. Plus it's non-committal about how many items you can usefully have in categories - which could limit us.

Thanks for any advice!

RFW

campdave wrote: »

Tictail was mentioned on here last week, and I spent quite a bit of time looking at that, but I don't think it's the solution I'm looking for - by the time I add a couple of extra features that i think my website should have, the cost saving is minimal between that and the other paid-for solutions. Plus it's non-committal about how many items you can usefully have in categories - which could limit us.

Thanks for any advice!

Tictail is limitless, although I can understand why it wouldn't fit.
Other than that I've used a few and I found Shopify the most user friendly. There are quite a few others, Paypal is actually a good source, they have a page of shop software sellers with offers on (3 months free, etc).

RFW

Here's the Paypal page, some of them want a kidney or two for setting up, some are free

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/shopping-carts

Doesn't look like there are offers on there but most of them will offer something free if you search more.

campdave

RFW wrote: »

Here's the Paypal page, some of them want a kidney or two for setting up, some are free

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/shopping-carts

Doesn't look like there are offers on there but most of them will offer something free if you search more.

Thanks for this list, worth a look, as I've found it a difficult thing to google.

steviebabes

I use http://easily.co.uk/easilyshopmain not much more difficult than ebay. Formats OK on smartphones and tablets. I have the basic package at £99 + VAT per year. Uses paypal and can be integrated with eBay if you want. Seems to be picked up by Google quite well. Its hosted in Germany but this doesn't cause any problems.

campdave

steviebabes wrote: »

I use http://easily.co.uk/easilyshopmain not much more difficult than ebay. Formats OK on smartphones and tablets. I have the basic package at £99 + VAT per year. Uses paypal and can be integrated with eBay if you want. Seems to be picked up by Google quite well. Its hosted in Germany but this doesn't cause any problems.

Thanks - not come across this, but probably won't be suitable for us as we have over 2000 products already, so that's £500 a year, and a lot of sales needed before we break even - would have been a good thing to look at if we had less products.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

RFW

campdave wrote: »

Thanks - not come across this, but probably won't be suitable for us as we have over 2000 products already, so that's £500 a year, and a lot of sales needed before we break even - would have been a good thing to look at if we had less products.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

If I were you, I'd try EKM. They're UK based and can import/export listings to Ebay. I've not used them for a few years but they were pretty good for customer service and helpful when needed.

campdave

RFW wrote: »

If I were you, I'd try EKM. They're UK based and can import/export listings to Ebay. I've not used them for a few years but they were pretty good for customer service and helpful when needed.

I had a trial with them about 2 years ago. I wasn't massively keen on the templates, but maybe I should have another look.

The draw back is they are a bit more expensive (£30 EKM vs $29 for shopify and bigcommerce - I'm well below the VAT Threshold so have to pay VAT on EKM's fees).

One of my suppliers uses EKM, which was what made me go back and look at these hosted solutions again - perhaps I'll ask them about their experiences with EKM.

lovinituk

We have a webiste on BigCommerce with a premium template and I can't fault it to be honest. Its nice and easy to use and does almost everything we wanted it to do. We've had it for a while though and we don't get charged any of the transaction fees. Their customer service is excellent and answer very quickly.

We're just starting another website and was going to go with BC again but the transactions fees were annoying. Instead we are just trialling 3DCart and so far I love it. Cheaper monthly fees and no transaction fees although they do charge extra for some of the bolt ons that come free with BC (Facebook integration for example).

For us, it had to integrate seamlessly with Linnworks which both BigCommerce and 3DCart do nicely.

Don't get too distracted by fancy templates. Decent modern websites are very plain with white backgrounds - just look at Amazon and eBay, nothing really fancy in the overall designs there. The most important thing is that they are dynamic and have a decent mobile version.

fishybusiness

Have recently left Bigcommerce.

The purchase experience is very American, no surprise there, changing it is a a pain if you like the UK look and feel.

For ex, cart v basket, shipping v delivery.

Also, if it is important BC does not integrate with Amazon Payments, may or may not be important to you, worth knowing.

On the upside, BC just works, Stripe for card payments integrates easily, and templates are tweakable with too much hassle.

The other big + is as mentioned above, Linnlive integration.

lovinituk

fishybusiness wrote: »

Have recently left Bigcommerce.

The purchase experience is very American, no surprise there, changing it is a a pain if you like the UK look and feel.

For ex, cart v basket, shipping v delivery.

Also, if it is important BC does not integrate with Amazon Payments, may or may not be important to you, worth knowing.

On the upside, BC just works, Stripe for card payments integrates easily, and templates are tweakable with too much hassle.

The other big + is as mentioned above, Linnlive integration.

Do you mean Amazon payments didn't work? Its on their list of integrations...https://support.bigcommerce.com/articles/Public/Availabe-Payment-Gateways

I don't remember having any particular issues with de-Americanising our store.