Anyone familiar with Monster Commerce?

[Crafty-Ones]

My site is currently using monster commerce software through a licensed server and not directly with monster commerce for it's e-commerce shopping cart. We've been using this since April of this year and have been having problems with the speed of the site. I am happy with the software and the features it enables. However, it also places certain restrictions from the automatic features, the price I pay I guess for the automation.

Monster Commerce tech support tells me that I need an upgrade from them to solve the problems we are having. So currently we are looking at purchasing the license rights from monster commerce. I've spoken with users that host directly with monster commerce with the upgrade and are happy with it.

We have also looked at other shopping cart software. One is a custom software designed by a client of mine, but the price is way out of our ball park.

We've also have been looking at mals-e software and hear wonderful things. But I have a couple questions regarding it. Do the buy now buttons have to manually inserted into html designed pages? Can multiple users be given access?

Since we are already loaded with over 1,000 products with monster commerce, should we be looking elsewhere or does the upgrade wound like a better solution?

Thanks for any feedback,

Tami

[lklein]

I had Monster Commerce for several months.
It's pretty reliable and the speed is okay.

I didn't like the shopping cart or the lack of control. You can't really do what you want.

I'm back to using 1Shoppingcart along with another host where I can do what I want.

Seems like sales picked up a lot. With Monster I think my customers were too confused and couldn't use the cart well.

[Corey Bryant]

I just completed an app from someone who was at Monster Commerce. He said their prices were outrageous for the services that they offer. He was told the same thing - You need to upgrade. He called me to get my opinion. After reviewing their site - I told him our prices.

I would consider something that is somewhat tailored made. That way - you can take it anywhere you want. And it can be pretty cheap actually. We just completed two shoping carts - one for the consumer to build a computer & one for a cell phone / carrier, both costing about $1,000 total. That might be somewhat out of your ballpark but depending on what you need, you should be able to get the cart & maybe some customization for less than $500 if that.

[Crafty-Ones]

Thanks for the feedback. I am torn with monster commerce. It offers a lot more than what our old system did. Getting it through a 3rd licensed site we get a lot more for less than hosting directly with them.
Our server has been pretty reliable, but I agree, I am limited on how to lay out the site within the software and am finding many customers get confused during checkout and I can't add in anything to help further explain it.
Corey, I'd like to talk to you in depth some more in the future. We looked into a custom design through a client of mine and the prices were way out of our ball park. But if you would like to discuss some options with us, I would love to look into it.

Thanks!
Tami

[Corey Bryant]

I would be more than happy to discuss this with you at your convenience. Just let me know.

Thank you!

[compusolver]

You could save a lot of money and get a ton of power and flexibility by going with an open-source cart like virtuemart It is free to download and use (Google it). It uses PHP and MySQL. Since you get the source code, it is easy to modify when needed. Also, it works well with Joomla, a content management system that is great for many small businesses.

Some problems with Virtuemart are that it was mostly developed by European programmers where they have a value added tax. Thus there are issues for American companies when it comes to discounts and sales tax. I've made modifications to Virtuemart which cures these ills, but if you're not doing any kind of special discounts, then you don't even need the mods.

- Hank Castello
CompuSolver.com

[confettiguru]

I have an ecommerce site with Monster Commerce. I sell party supplies (http://www.chicoparty.com) and have several thousand products. I like most of what it does but agree that the checkout portion is confusing. They do have great tech support and we've never had a problem with speed. It took about 6 months to get to Google page 1. We update our site daily and follow through with customer service that is above par.

My domain name is about 10 years old so that probably helps.