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Best option for creating shopify site

by marsbars
15 replies
  • ECOMMERCE
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Hey guys,
I recently acquired a few great furniture domains and I am thinking of venturing into the e-commerce world, this will be my first time in e-commerce. I am thinking of shopify or big commerce and while I will be trying to find dropship suppliers I am not in anyway a coder, do you recommend outsourcing the creation of the shopify or big commerce site?

Thanks!

Andrew
#creating #option #shopify #site
  • Profile picture of the author jbthemummy
    Forget Shopify. Get someone to get a wordpress built + ecwid or PM me and I'll guide you further.
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      Originally Posted by jbthemummy View Post

      Forget Shopify. Get someone to get a wordpress built + ecwid or PM me and I'll guide you further.
      There you go. Forget going with a platform designed for sales, like say, Opencart or Prestashop, let's be lazy and go with wordpress. Lets not worry about platforms that are not PCI-compliant or even PCI-certified.

      Instead, this is the advice I would give.

      You can actually build it yourself if you take your time on both BigCommerce and Shopify. It is not that hard, just has a learning curve.

      Both Shopify and Bigcommerce are great platforms to build an commerce website. Shopify is probably easier to set up than BigCommerce (especially look and feel) but doesn't have as many bells and whistles.

      Do you have a simple category structure? Shopify will work great.
      Do you have lots of categories and sub-categories? BigCommerce might work better for you.

      You need to lay our your needs before we can tell you which platform will work best for you, and then we can say, yes, either do it yourself or have a third party create and implement it for you.

      Can you let us know
      1. How many products
      2. How many SKU's
      3. How Many Categories
      4. How many sub-categories
      5. US or non-US based
      6. How are you dealing with shipping?
      Signature
      Learn how to set up a powerful, functional yet easy to use e-commerce website at cartprep.com.

      Not sure what ecommerce solution to use? Watch my video walk through of popular shopping carts.
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      • Profile picture of the author amcg
        Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

        There you go. Forget going with a platform designed for sales, like say, Opencart or Prestashop, let's be lazy and go with wordpress. Lets not worry about platforms that are not PCI-compliant or even PCI-certified.

        Instead, this is the advice I would give.

        You can actually build it yourself if you take your time on both BigCommerce and Shopify. It is not that hard, just has a learning curve.

        Both Shopify and Bigcommerce are great platforms to build an commerce website. Shopify is probably easier to set up than BigCommerce (especially look and feel) but doesn't have as many bells and whistles.

        Do you have a simple category structure? Shopify will work great.
        Do you have lots of categories and sub-categories? BigCommerce might work better for you.

        You need to lay our your needs before we can tell you which platform will work best for you, and then we can say, yes, either do it yourself or have a third party create and implement it for you.

        Can you let us know
        1. How many products
        2. How many SKU's
        3. How Many Categories
        4. How many sub-categories
        5. US or non-US based
        6. How are you dealing with shipping?
        Great advice again. For starting out, hosting is the way to go for sure; allowing you to focus on stuff like inventory, merchandising, shipping etc versus the technical areas of ecommerce.

        As for the Shopify vs BigCommerce arguement, both are the the best hosted options IMO - which is better is subjective. Shopify I think is probably better for less SKU's or as an entry level ecommerce option.

        BigCommerce as OnlineStoreHelp says is a bit more advanced though is definitely a good option for starting out also.
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      • Profile picture of the author lexenz
        Thanks for the info. I am thinking of starting an ecommerce website too and was wondering if "Ecommerce Get it Right" by Ian Daniel is a good primer. It is a bit old (2011) but it does have some good reviews on Amazon. Anyone have any thoughts or perhaps an alternative primer that's more current?
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        • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
          I would most definitely try looking for something that's a bit newer.

          This isn't to say that you won't find any helpful information in a book from 2011.

          But a book from, say...later in 2013 is probably readily available, and will definitely have a lot more relevant information for you.

          Honestly, if you're dealing with the Internet, and you want to make sure your project is the best it can be, it helps to put your time and money into resources that are relatively new.

          Old, outdated information might actually hurt you, and in an Internet-based game (so to speak) like eCommerce, it's really going to be a huge feather in your cap to be current on the newest technologies, techniques, opportunities, and best practices.

          _ Sean
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      • Profile picture of the author Etoot
        Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

        There you go. Forget going with a platform designed for sales, like say, Opencart or Prestashop, let's be lazy and go with wordpress. Lets not worry about platforms that are not PCI-compliant or even PCI-certified.

        Instead, this is the advice I would give.

        You can actually build it yourself if you take your time on both BigCommerce and Shopify. It is not that hard, just has a learning curve.

        Both Shopify and Bigcommerce are great platforms to build an commerce website. Shopify is probably easier to set up than BigCommerce (especially look and feel) but doesn't have as many bells and whistles.

        Do you have a simple category structure? Shopify will work great.
        Do you have lots of categories and sub-categories? BigCommerce might work better for you.

        You need to lay our your needs before we can tell you which platform will work best for you, and then we can say, yes, either do it yourself or have a third party create and implement it for you.

        Can you let us know
        1. How many products
        2. How many SKU's
        3. How Many Categories
        4. How many sub-categories
        5. US or non-US based
        6. How are you dealing with shipping?
        Best explanation and recommendations.
        Signature
        Etoot - Social Shopping
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  • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
    Platforms like BigCommerce and Volusion are great, because they make it so you don't have to be a coder. You're definitely on the right track.

    A solution like BigCommerce, as OnlineStoreHelp pointed out, is going to have a few more bells and whistles. It's a bit more advanced than your other alternative. They also make it a point to keep everything over at BigCommerce very up-to-date in terms of API and integrations, so it'll be very easy to connect your shopping cart with other services and apps you might want to use.

    _ Sean
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  • Profile picture of the author marsbars
    Thanks for the advice guys. All good information!!
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    • Profile picture of the author webitemsllc
      my site is in shopify. I love it. Super easy to set up, awesome dashboard and you get a iphone app to get notifications of sales on your phone.
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  • Profile picture of the author gmil88
    I would highly recommend going with Shopify. I've worked with Wordpress and WooCommerce and decided to switch my site over to Shopify.

    You can go with one of the basic templates and find a Shopify expert on Odesk to make changes and customize it for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author redlegrich
    I did a BigCommerce site, I'd agree it is supports more complex product SKUs. What I did not like was their templates looked pretty amateurish. Yeah, I could dive in and do CSS and HTML, but I'm not a coder. In the end I never really liked the site. However, their support is top notch! No offshore support nonsense, based in Austin TX with the devs.

    For a new store, I will check out Shopify. I like that they offer credit card processing with the package. A nice thing not to worry about.
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  • Profile picture of the author yoangov
    I'm here to vouch for Woocommerce with both my hands. If you invest just some time, you will be able to build your shop on your own. Just make sure you pay for a premium theme that has good support - it's really simple.
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    I generate high quality leads for your business, PM me!
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  • Profile picture of the author jmalnik
    @marsbars: To be upfront, I work at Bigcommerce. We can definitely help you get your store(s) up and running.

    We recently launched a bunch of new, free themes, including a fully responsive theme called Reactive, as well as a few, out of the box premium themes. You can check out all of our themes for yourself by signing up for a free trial (no credit card needed). http://www.bigcommerce.com/templates/

    In addition, we also make it really easy to start taking orders/collecting payments with our one click payment installs for Stripe and Paypal Express. We also integrate with more than 65 other payment gateways. https://support.bigcommerce.com/questions/1372

    If you have any additional questions about our platform, please don't hesitate to message me.

    Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    Always go with a hosted solution. Some of the top brands in the world are running BigCommerce and Shopify sites, and none of them are running Wordpress sites.

    If you want to be successful, do what successful people do. Having a hosted shopping cart is like having a full time development team dedicated to keeping your store up to date, and a team of engineers making sure everything is up, backed up, and loading fast. Your site is supported by redundant servers, so if one crashes the others keep working. Traditional hosting companies simply don't offer this level of service. If your store isn't hosted in a redundant environment and your host goes down, your site goes with it. Databases can become corrupt, hackers can search for loopholes in your source code, automatic Wordpress and Theme updates can screw up your customizations. Do you want to be the guy trying to figure out how to fix it?

    Even if you are a master programmer, I still recommend going with a hosted solution. Having their technology and expertise behind your store lets you focus on running your business instead of worrying about the technology behind it.

    And for those who talk about the costs... are you freakin serious? If you can't afford $50 per month for proper eCommerce hosting, you certainly won't have the marketing budget to be successful.
    Signature

    -
    Ron Rule
    http://ronrule.com

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  • Profile picture of the author Ecommerce Advice
    While you are starting out you want the 'best done for you' cart you can find - often that is the hosted solutions.

    Just make sure that you can get a copy of your database should you require it. If your store grows and does well you may want to expand to a different platform or change providers because your current cart can't do something you want.

    You don't want to be held hostage by the provider not giving you your data.

    Take a look at my ecommerce course below, it might be of help
    Thanks Alan
    Signature
    http://www.SplitTest.com - Increase Your Conversion Rate Guranteed
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