Yahoo Store for ecommerce??

by cartnj
9 replies
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I dont see Yahoo stores discussed much. Is a new Yahoo store a good starting platform for a small-mid sized company with a ecommerce website creation budget of $5000-6000? Approx 300-500 products.

Is Yahoo store and RTML known to be as SEO friendly as other carts?

I understand the monthly and transaction fees but is that the only reason why you would suggest against it?

Thanks!
#ecommerce #store #yahoo
  • Profile picture of the author alksense
    I got started in eCommerce with a Yahoo Store almost seven years ago for no other reason then that is what Tim Ferris recommended in The 4-Hour Workweek.

    I have absolutely nothing bad to say about them because I was able to make A LOT of money while using their platform. However, just over a year ago I sold all of the remaining sites I owned on their platform and I now build all of my stores on Shopify.

    Here are my comments on their platform:

    - AWESOME user interface on the backend. It's extremely easy to learn but also very powerful and I was able to master it as it newbie with no one teaching me.

    - Customers feel secure buying through a Yahoo Store. You can add the "Yahoo Store 128 bit encryption" badge to your store and this adds a trust with your customers.

    - Yes, they charge a transaction fee but I just considered this a business expense. I was able to earn a lot of money with their platform so I did not have a problem paying it. Now I use Shopify (who also charges a transaction fee) but I use their unlimited monthly plan so I have this waived.

    - Regarding SEO - All my product pages ranked extremely well organically but that is partially because I optimized all of the page titles, meta keywords and meta descriptions.


    So far everything seems great - but here is why I don't use them anymore when building new stores...


    - Their "free" templates look like they are from 1990. I started with one and was able to bring in sales but that's because I choose a great niche and had competitive pricing.

    - Once I started making money and knew my business was going to be successful I hired an RTML webdesigner from the Yahoo Stores recommended list. I knew what I wanted and shopped around and got quotes from $2k to $10k+... I negotiated with a company that was somewhere in the middle and paid $2k to have my site customized.

    - As I went on and grew my business and wanted to add additional "features" to my stores (ie; Wishlist, Reviews, Livechat, etc, etc, etc) I realized everything was VERY expensive to have done (because of the RTML language).

    These two things (cost of webdesign and "upgrades") are why I don't use them anymore.

    I like Shopify because they have some really great templates (for free) that are very customizable and basically I can put up a great looking, highly converting store within a day instead of waiting six weeks for a RTML programmer and then paying $2k. I can also add features like reviews, seo tools and livechat for free within a matter of minutes instead of paying hundreds of dollars and waiting on someone to implement the changes.

    So while there is nothing wrong with Yahoo Stores and you can make a lot of money with them I feel there are better options out there.

    Everyone will have their own opinions of which platform is the best but Shopify is what works for me
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      I have to agree with the above. Yahoo Stores was the first really hosted application, and in fact, if you ever see stories about Y Combinator, the guy who runs Y Combinator is who designed the system and then sold it to Yahoo.

      I can tell you Yahoo gives them very little budget to maintain upgrades. It is the same with ProStores. Prostores gets ZERO budget from eBay to maintain and upgrade their systems and last time I was in the know they were hosted in a data center in southern florida with ZERO redundancy.

      Shopify has its place (very web 2.0 feel) but I also think its limited when you have lots of categories and sub-categories unless you are good with javascript and CSS. It also drives me nuts that I have to pay a one time or monthly fee to get "plugins" that other carts provide at no cost.

      The big seller for me used to be unlimited bandwidth but BigCommerce offers unlimited bandwidth and a more robust menuing system. For me, Shopify is great for Niche store and BigCommerce for fully functional retail stores. It all depends what you want.
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      • Profile picture of the author cartnj
        From my little research I guess a good programmer/designer can make a really great looking ecommerce website from many different platforms. What I am really concerned about is if google looks at some shopping carts better then others and therefore ranks them higher in the search results. (considering that all internal optimization is the same)
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  • Profile picture of the author cartnj
    And thanks for your responses!
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  • Profile picture of the author malia
    I had a Yahoo store way back when. 2000 ish I think? Lifetimes ago. IMO, Yahoo Stores have not stayed up to date with the agility of more flexible and robust platforms. I left it quickly-- QUICKLY and wouldn't choose it in this day and age.

    ---- Customers feel secure buying through a Yahoo Store. You can add the "Yahoo Store 128 bit encryption" badge to your store and this adds a trust with your customers. ---

    This is so true and one of the main remaining advantages. However, you can get this by offering google and amazon checkout.
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      Originally Posted by malia View Post

      I had a Yahoo store way back when. 2000 ish I think? Lifetimes ago. IMO, Yahoo Stores have not stayed up to date with the agility of more flexible and robust platforms. I left it quickly-- QUICKLY and wouldn't choose it in this day and age.

      ---- Customers feel secure buying through a Yahoo Store. You can add the "Yahoo Store 128 bit encryption" badge to your store and this adds a trust with your customers. ---

      This is so true and one of the main remaining advantages. However, you can get this by offering google and amazon checkout.
      I always tell people be very careful with Amazon Checkout. If Amazon is already selling your products then ok, but if it is a product that Amazon doesn't currently sell, they will use your purchase data to pick off good products.
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  • Profile picture of the author GetExperienced
    Yahoo was a great stepping stone for me circa 2002-03..but really it's trash for today's market.

    I remember having to deal with that awful RTML nonsense, and having no options for doing advanced coding on the site. (any and all Database functions had to site remotely on other machines).

    Then we were doing some rather large business (more than 1M a year), but I just could deal with the headaches and non-scalability anymore and jumped shipped to build my own custom solution. (Which is a headache to say the least.)
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    • Profile picture of the author cartnj
      I have seen some really nice new stores created in yahoo stores.
      I hear magneto could be slow. So now the question is since I am hiring a developer and plan to only manage the store and update its content , what is a good platform in the $5000ish range.
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      • Profile picture of the author york
        I've always tended to hear that yahoo stores actually do pretty well, though I've never had one myself.

        Hope this helps!
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