Head spinning, ecommerce solution regret?

[Wellspring]

My business partner and I are brand new to ecommerce, and our goal from the beginning has been to have a site that is clean, easy to navigate, secure, excellent SEO, and relatively easy for a newbie to learn how to operate and update without needing a degree.

Simply because we were overwhelmed with the amount of information out there, we settled on Network Solutions' pro ecommerce package, but since I stumbled on a post by a user who also has stores with Yahoo and Volusion (where he basically said his bounce rate is abysmal with NS to the point where he is considering dropping them altogether), I have been scouring the web for information, reviews and forums such as this to help get some perspective.

Can I get some opinions on "starter" ecommerce solutions? Should I stick with Network Solutions, or is it a bygone conclusion that they only have the ecommerce solution packages because they are "Network Solutions"? Can I get more for my money elsewhere?

I'd appreciate any responses - thanks so much!

[incrediblehelp]

To be honest the best solution for long term success is to not use any of them and build the website completely independent. This will give you the control to manage your website and cart as you want.

[AVC]

If you are not a developer and do not want to hire one, your best bet would be ProStores or Interspire - Web Software Inspired by You

Interspire has a very easy to use store builder, quite innovative indeed.

[Dubbya]

If you want absolute control, there are tons of starter carts available. Most will allow you to host them yourself and some are easily modified.

I use VPASP. The starter pack is free, quite comprehensive and easily modified without scripting in ASP. There are custom skins available for purchase and several developers whom you can contract for initial setup and customizations.

At any rate, it's an inexpensive solution regardless of whether or not you opt for the basic or full packages.

Check it out:

Shopping Cart Software – Ecommerce Solutions and Web Hosting From VP-ASP

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[Wellspring]

Thanks everyone, I will definitely research the options you've presented.

Incrediblehelp - we don't have a budget to create from scratch right now, but what is a rough estimation of cost you would expect for a completely custom site? I see that several solution providers offer their talents for $500-$3000 (that I quickly saw).

[Dubbya]

To script a fully functional shopping cart would likely cost you in excess of $3000.00. I've done all the changes on my site myself and I'd never have gotten them done for under $5000.00.

There's a lot of programming logic and database functionality required to track pricing, items, descriptions, images and stock counts, not to mention customer-centric data, payment gateway integration, login information and so forth.

Considering that a programmer/developer who's worth his/her salt would charge $50-$150.00 an hour, I'd start with a free cart and modify it to get it to do what you want it to do.

In addition, there are a lot of security vulnerabilities inherent with processing payments online. You want a solution that's tested and that provides security updates. Go with an established cart.

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[incrediblehelp]

Dubbya is pretty close with his numbers. I guess I dont understand how you expect to start website from the ground up without budgeting for a programmer/designer.

[Wellspring]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Dubbya is pretty close with his numbers. I guess I dont understand how you expect to start website from the ground up without budgeting for a programmer/designer.

Because we never expected (read: intended) to start a website from the ground up.

We knew we had limited startup funds and had always expected to use something "out-of-the-box", that hopefully gave us enough basic customization to add our company logo and change colors. While I would love to spend $5000 on a gorgeous, custom-made site (and we will likely spend that as we grow), we simply do not have the funds to do so at this time.

[flyclothing]

There are a number of e-commerce solutions you can use that are pretty simple. Check out GoDaddy's offerings or Yahoo stores. Some inexpensive ecommerce options are: x-cart, oscommerce, cubecart, zencart and cs-cart. As with anything else, your most expensive part will be labor. Programmers are about the same as listed above for the latter.

[gelcreative]

We've recently launched an online store using the Epages software which is available through various partners (do a google search). After checking around we settled for the offering by Daily Domain name registration and web hosting from Daily.co.uk for the middle option being the "Business" version. This costs £18.99 a month + the dreaded VAT.

I was totally unsure how this would work out, but have been very pleasantly surprised to find our site already appearing on Page 1 of google for our key search terms. We are being beaten only by our own Ebay shop and one or two others. We only launched in the middle of March so I'm very pleased so far.

I have found the Daily guys to be extremely helpful on technical support - and I mean *really* helpful. They are happy to answer simple or complex problems and the phone is answered very rapidly. This means a lot when you are setting up something new.

I'd like to show you our shop but don't want to take advantage, so with permission I will list the link in a later post if I'm allowed.

I'm happy to talk further about the experience I've had so far with setting up a shop using the Epages software and happy to help you set up if you like. You can PM me.

By the way, I'm not affiliated in any way with Daily or Epages .... I'm just an impressed customer.

(Hey - my Mum is a 68 yr old computer-newbie and even she's picked up how to use it ... now that's an advert!)

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by Wellspring

My business partner and I are brand new to ecommerce, and our goal from the beginning has been to have a site that is clean, easy to navigate, secure, excellent SEO, and relatively easy for a newbie to learn how to operate and update without needing a degree.

SEO is not the be all and end all for an e-comm business. Depending on what you plan to sell SEO may never drive sales.

Originally Posted by Wellspring

Simply because we were overwhelmed with the amount of information out there, we settled on Network Solutions' pro ecommerce package, but since I stumbled on a post by a user who also has stores with Yahoo and Volusion (where he basically said his bounce rate is abysmal with NS to the point where he is considering dropping them altogether), I have been scouring the web for information, reviews and forums such as this to help get some perspective.

Typically this is another misconception.....the backend system usually has less to do with bounce rate than the site lacking poor design, few call to actions, and many other failures to be the business best salesperson.

Webmasters make me laugh when the place the onus of making sales on the developer programmer or marketing people when it is the webmasters poor site design that loses most sales.

Don't put too much into anything you read by webmasters as few are trained in operating a business,,,,,,most are people who felt they could make money online by tossing up a website and when it fails they place the blame everywhere but where it truly belongs.

Originally Posted by Wellspring

Can I get some opinions on "starter" ecommerce solutions? Should I stick with Network Solutions, or is it a bygone conclusion that they only have the ecommerce solution packages because they are "Network Solutions"? Can I get more for my money elsewhere?

I'd appreciate any responses - thanks so much!

I would also be hesitant to take someones glowing recommendation of a system without doing due diligence,

as noted in the post by gelcreative above they were able to be ranked well in Google for their terms rather quickly.....this is often due to the fact that the keywords are non competitive more than anything the e-commerce provider happened to do,,,,given that the competitors are their own ebay shop and only one or two others ,,,,,gives credence to the terms not being very competitive and that the same providers may fail miserably for high competition terms.

Peace and good luck in the future!

[Clarrie]

Originally Posted by Wellspring

My business partner and I are brand new to ecommerce, and our goal from the beginning has been to have a site that is clean, easy to navigate, secure, excellent SEO, and relatively easy for a newbie to learn how to operate and update without needing a degree.

Simply because we were overwhelmed with the amount of information out there, we settled on Network Solutions' pro ecommerce package, but since I stumbled on a post by a user who also has stores with Yahoo and Volusion (where he basically said his bounce rate is abysmal with NS to the point where he is considering dropping them altogether), I have been scouring the web for information, reviews and forums such as this to help get some perspective.

Can I get some opinions on "starter" ecommerce solutions? Should I stick with Network Solutions, or is it a bygone conclusion that they only have the ecommerce solution packages because they are "Network Solutions"? Can I get more for my money elsewhere?

I'd appreciate any responses - thanks so much!

You might also want to take a look at Joomla with the Virtuemart e-commerce plug in.

We've set up quite a quite a few of these sites, and it is a very straightforward job using simple installation scripts. A plus is that you get a good CMS to maintain your information content as well as an integrated shopping cart program.

Both Joomla and Virtuemart are free Open Source software, and very well supported by the relevant communities, and there are a multitude of very good free or low cost templates available.

Joomla! and VirtueMart: Your free e-commerce solution. - Welcome...

[ScouserTommy]

If anyone is new to ecommerce you could try http://mrsite.com/

[crossland]

Have a look at osCommerce which has a large community supporting it and as a result there are a large number of customisable options available. We include it as part of our eCommerce hosting package; if you want the interface to be enhanced there are a large number of templates available at low prices.

Tim
osCommerce host

[keyon]

I've wrestled with this issue more than once, and what I finally had to decide is where my time and energy is best spent -- fixing code in broken shopping carts or developing new marketing campaigns. If you're a small shop operation just starting out, this is a no brainer. Find a one-stop solution for ecommerce (like Yahoo or GoDaddy), get something up and running, and use your time and talent to create revenue.

Believe me, I understand the drawbacks of going with the big site packages, but the fact is that their basic storefronts work...right out of the box. I've been managing several Yahoo stores for the last eight years, and while they have their limitations (okay, lots of limitations), that doesn't seem to stop the money from rolling in. Best part is that I can sleep at night knowing that all the back end stuff like the shopping cart, payment gateway, CC security, is someone else's problem, not mine.

[Wellspring]

Originally Posted by keyon

I've wrestled with this issue more than once, and what I finally had to decide is where my time and energy is best spent -- fixing code in broken shopping carts or developing new marketing campaigns. If you're a small shop operation just starting out, this is a no brainer. Find a one-stop solution for ecommerce (like Yahoo or GoDaddy), get something up and running, and use your time and talent to create revenue.

Believe me, I understand the drawbacks of going with the big site packages, but the fact is that their basic storefronts work...right out of the box. I've been managing several Yahoo stores for the last eight years, and while they have their limitations (okay, lots of limitations), that doesn't seem to stop the money from rolling in. Best part is that I can sleep at night knowing that all the back end stuff like the shopping cart, payment gateway, CC security, is someone else's problem, not mine.

Thanks - we've settled on Network Solutions/Monster for now, and I'm pretty comfortable with what they can do/what they are limited on. As we grow and get more money to play with, we'll look at total customization, but I'm fairly happy with the out-of-the-box solution we went with.

[crankydave]

The very first thing I suggest is that you make a very detailed list of what you need the platform to do for your particular business as well as what you want it to do for the present and going forward. I want emphasize very detailed a second time. You cannot search and compare different platforms intelligently without doing so IMO.

Even the smallest detail can have a great deal of influence on which solution is best for you. For example, if it is neccessary to adjust price points frequently a solution that does not provide you the ability to easily make global changes will make simply maintaining that aspect a nightmare, especially if you have a large number of products.

I'm a fan of ShopSite. Very easy to use, lots of features, lot's of add on modules. As a hosted solution, the folks at Lexiconn have been stellar.

Dave