Ecommerce Platform

[udunnit]

I am using Yahoo stores and it is very clumsy to load my product images (requires a zip of the images instead of using a direct URL). I have a very volatile inventory and have to udpate daily at this time (using .csv).

I am looking for recommendations / comparisons of:
Miva
Volusion
Yahoo Stores
Fortune3
Dreamweaver

My challenge is that I have three Brick and Mortar stores that I update inventory from manually. I want something very SEO optimized (creates product specific meta tags).

I would also prefer the platform to have integrated Google and Yahoo Product Submit capabilities.

Thoughts?

[SG14]

Personaly, I would recommend you X-cart from qualiteam. It is not on your list but it's one of the best soft I ever dealt with.

Also there are several software comparison articles on their site.

[Dinghus]

It all depends on what you want. If an out of the box solution will work, then there are a lot to choose from. If you want a customized solution, then you need to find a developer. For rapid deployment with the most power, go with CFMX.

[craigmn3]

We have used Miva Merchant with great success, but it is a shared license with our hoster so it doesn't offer a lot of flexibilty. But it does allow inventory tracking and is a good solid cart

[danners02]

We recommend www.cubecart.com - with a few modifications (some bought, some developed for us) we have a site that works extremely well for SEO - it launched only last December and is now on first page (mostly) of google.co.uk for all its main keywords.
http://www.cribonline.co.uk
If you want a higher-end custom solution i would recommend the team at www.featurecreep.com

[zepop]

I am using both ProStores and MIVA.

ProStores is easy to upload pictures and to upload Product files. It is NOT currently flexible to customization. There is a new package that maybe vapor-ware that is being touted for ProStores to connect the web storefront and cart to your brick and mortar operation, but it costs an additional $155 per MONTH over what you pay for ProStores.

MIVA is flexible to customization, but you must either do the programing or buy additional modules to add functionality. A non-customized MIVA is clumsy to connect pictures to product. I am still setting up this store.

[alatxtc]

We're now using Miva 5 and it is a relatively easy program to work with and there are a lot of customized modules already made for it.

I have been told by some folks that OS Commerce is an extremely flexible program, but that it is somewhat difficult to set up initially. The good thing about it is that it is open source and there are a large number of modules available for it.

[JohneeMac]

Zen Cart?

Dont let the open source ( free ) tag put you off. Its very powerful, secure and can get great seo results.

The learning curve is quite steep but if you have the time then its definately worth looking at.

[Corey Bryant]

We have had some merchants on Yahoo and they seem pretty good. Some have asked me to call them since they are overseas to get some things set up in Yahoo. The times I have called, their suport was great.

But if you understand HTML and know how to code, you might run into problems using them. They also charge a transaction fee as well on top of what the merchant account provider will charge you. So keep that in mind when figuring your costs

[SkyOnline]

I am using a new kind of ecommerce and i have opened with it several stores allready, I am very happy with it so far.

The system is not high $$, and you can use there 30 day free trail to build-up your eshop/web-store.

I recommend www.easy-webuilding.com

[vwebworld]

Zen Cart, osCommerce, or X-Cart ... I've used them all (for various clients) and would recommend any of them.

~Roland

[udunnit]

I appreciate all of your feedback. I am looking for somthing that is very SEO friendly.

Yahoo will not work as I do not have the image files natively and only have a URL where they are posted.

I do not have strong programming skills although I am I.T. saavy. I believe OSCommerce would not meet my needs as a result. I am looking for something with a fast learning curve as well.

I am down to Volusion and X-Cart.

[vwebworld]

X-cart I think has a longer learning curve than Zen
cart or osCommerce.

All three provide SEO friendly ecommerce solutions...
they all provide bread crumbs, searchable content,
and product links that can be indexed by search
engines.

~Roland

[nexternal]

Ok, I'm going to say it. Traditional SEO is become less and less important. There it's out now.

EVERYONE knows about metatags. Does anyone think they can change only my meta tags and get my site to #1 for any non-gibberish keyword? Anyone? Any site?

So if SEO is fluff, then what works? Well as a company providing services to hundreds of online merchants....

1. Quality backlinks. There is a reason popular sites are popular. There is something unique there that people are interested in enough to link back to you. Simple.

2. Content. You know those generic product descriptions everyone uses for the same product? Yeah, that's called "duplicate content" and will drag down your site with the great SEO.

3. Time. Page Rank doesn't come overnight.

4. Email marketing. Enough said.

5. Comparison shopping sites. You know search for shopping. Is there an "SEO" for these yet?

If you are serious about making money, then PM me. I'll show you how to automate your entire store from end-to-end. From marketing, to remote inventory control, to order processing, to automated shipping, all the way through fulfillment.

Does this sound like BS too? How about clients and references like iRiver, Alcoa, Korbel, Time Warner and more.

[HighConversions]

by most search engines any more. Building backlinks is part of Search Engine Marketing and duplicate content refers to the SAME site displaying multiple pages with very similar, if not exact same, content.

Granted, putting the exact same description on your site that 10 gazillion other product pages have isn't going to help your cause.

[jjrs79]

Hi guys,

I'm looking into 3dcart as a hosted ecommerce solution and this is what they offer for SEO
http://www.3dcart.com/shopping-cart-features-seo.html

Could you take a look and let me know your opinion about the SEO features?

[vwebworld]

Originally Posted by jjrs79

Hi guys,

I'm looking into 3dcart as a hosted ecommerce solution and this is what they offer for SEO
http://www.3dcart.com/shopping-cart-features-seo.html

Could you take a look and let me know your opinion about the SEO features?

Expensive!

The same SEO features are available with the various
open source programs (osCOmmerce, Zencart.....etc).

~Roland

[jjrs79]

Expensive!

I've been looking into MonsterCommerce ($99.95/mo) and Volusion ($197) for their decent plans. I really want a hosted solution since I had bad experiences with OsCommerce and Miva on the past. So the $65.99/mo at 3dcart is the best so far (Yahoo and Prostores are also good if you're willing to pay a % of your sales).

The same SEO features are available with the various
open source programs (osCOmmerce, Zencart.....etc).

ZenCart looks good but I don't think you can have friendly HTML links on the categories and products URLS (which is really important for Search Engines), I checked a couple sites and they all look like "index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 7". Having all the pages as INDEX.PHP even if the querystring is different can't be good. Volusion and 3dcart both offer the friendly HTML links that contain the name of the product as the URL.

[vwebworld]

Actually products listed in Zen Cart do get indexed...
by the products' name/title.
Example, Google search on: beef - jerky of the month
Note #1 result.
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...y+of+the+month

Plus, there are SEO mods you can implement for osCommerce or Zen Cart.

~Roland

[jjrs79]

I agree that ASP and PHP pages are also indexed but having a link like "www.houseofjerky.net/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=213" is not as good as having "www.houseofjerky.net/Beef-Jerky.html".

It's easy to get a #1 result for a keyword like "beef - jerky of the month" which is the title of the page. Try a more common keyword like "beef jerky" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...ky&btnG=Search) and you'll see that the page is nowhere to be found, on page 2 you get the main www.houseofjerky.net which is great but not the specific product page.

[onlinesourcebank]

I am currently in development of my website onlinesourcebank.com. Its being developed by Getoninter.net - Website Development

I would highly recommend them im paying £45 Per Month and i can make my website as big as i want and the price is fixed its great. The customer service is very good to if you run into any problems you just email or ring and they sort you out. My website is for people that want to start a business featuring free business tools and information and a forum.

[DreamR]

Hi guys,
I see nobody here used the Avactis shopping cart. Rather strange, cos it's a nice and not-so-expensive cart. What I personally like about it is the clean and straightforward interface. Much better that that of ZenCart & osC I think you should at least do a test install (there's a free limited demo).

[kelfy]

Any open sources like ZenCart, osC, Virtuemat they all free and very professional. Why bother to pay an expensive cost to someone like Yahoo for a shopping cart?

I'll suggest you get a developer and create your own site with open sources platform. Is very cost effective and you have way better control on it.