Which Ecommerce Solution suits me better?

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Hello dear reader.


I am in the process of analyzing some Free Ecommerce Solutions for my company, and I am going to be the lead developer.


I am coming here in help to make the ultimate decision. I am talking about a travel agency that sells days and nights in hotels, excursions, etc. And we want to sell that using a free ecommerce solution. The main thing I am looking for are the following:


From the technical point of view:
1. Preferably written in PHP5
2. Responsive Design using HTML5 and CSS3. I will be using HTML5 Boilerplate here. So there will be heavy template customization here. With a Mobile Mindset approach. For the backend I dont really care about the DOCTYPE.


Features:
1. SEO friendly URLs. And of course using semantic HTML5 markup.
2. Ecommerce sales reports or any kind of analytics.
3. Multiple languages or localization (mainly in Spanish, Portuguese, German and English as secondary)
4. Currency (Not Euros, Not Dollars, some latinamerican country currency)
5. I'll be using a local payment gateway solution that can adapt to any third party ecommerce site.


What I will be selling:
1. Travel packages, like 7 nights 8 days in a hotel. So I will not be using shipping in anyway.
2. Excursion trips to fun places.
3. The amount of products doesn't go beyond 100.



If anyone has any experience in this area, any help would be appreciated.


Thanks in advanced.
#ecommerce #html5 #localization #seo #solution #suits #travel agency
  • Profile picture of the author coolav
    Hi

    YOU have 3 options

    WP Ecommerce
    Magneto
    Open Cart
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi fuiton83,

      The most popular shopping cart platform is Magento. It's an open source PHP script and has a huge community of support, extensions, and themes. Out of the box it has many features (so many features that it often overwhelms new users). It is a very robust platform, and financially backed by the largest eCommerce players (eBay/Paypal). Because it is open source you can mod it as needed.

      Thousands of themes and extensions are available for Magento and nearly every ecommerce serve has already provided integration and support for this cart.

      You could literally have your website up and running in a day or 2 if you use the proper extensions and start with a theme designed for your industry.

      i.e. Booking and Reservations by aheadWorks - Magento Connect


      For even more see this link: Results: booking reservations - Magento Connect
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      • Profile picture of the author TheCodex
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        Hi fuiton83,

        The most popular shopping cart platform is Magento. It's an open source PHP script and has a huge community of support, extensions, and themes. Out of the box it has many features (so many features that it often overwhelms new users). It is a very robust platform, and financially backed by the largest eCommerce players (eBay/Paypal). Because it is open source you can mod it as needed.

        Thousands of themes and extensions are available for Magento and nearly every ecommerce serve has already provided integration and support for this cart.

        You could literally have your website up and running in a day or 2 if you use the proper extensions and start with a theme designed for your industry.

        i.e. Booking and Reservations by aheadWorks - Magento Connect


        For even more see this link: Results: booking reservations - Magento Connect
        Saying that you could build a Magento website w/ hotel booking in two days is saying you can write "War and Peace" in 48 hours.
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        Internet Codex - Redefining Internet Marketing
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by TheCodex View Post

          Saying that you could build a Magento website w/ hotel booking in two days is saying you can write "War and Peace" in 48 hours.
          Hi TheCodex,

          There was a time when I thought that way too. But then I discovered pre-built themes, some of which are really well done.

          The great thing about Magento is that it really is easy to install, and if you find a well built theme you can have a functional web store up and running with only a few hours of work. Now if you want to do a lot of customization, then that will take extra time, as will entering product data, and sales copy.
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  • Profile picture of the author rusilja
    I'd say Magento.
    It might take you a some time to master it, but it will be WELL WORTH IT!
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    Why free?

    I mean, if this is a serious business, why wouldn't you want to be serious about your platform and use something like BookingLive or Tricon?
    Signature

    -
    Ron Rule
    http://ronrule.com

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    • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
      Magento is a great suggestion -- it's free and open-source, so it'll be important to remember that there's no official support.

      Provided, of course, that you're using the free Community Edition.

      As the name implies, though, there is a strong community of Magento developers, and many of them are actually licensed. These individuals, and the ever-so-helpful forums should be able to help you find any information you're looking for, or solve any problems you might run into.

      It sounds like you know what you're doing behind the keys, though, so Magento will probably be a great option for you.

      Also, if you're thinking about syncing your inventory across MULTIPLE channels (ie, your webstore as well as Amazon, eBay, or other marketplaces), you should check out Solid Commerce: Multi Vendor eCommerce | Multi Vendor eCommerce Platform Solid Commerce

      I think your inventory might be well-served by being synced across multiple channels.

      Hope that helps!
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    • Profile picture of the author amcg
      Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

      Why free?

      I mean, if this is a serious business, why wouldn't you want to be serious about your platform and use something like BookingLive or Tricon?
      This is a good point. It's tempting to go with Magento right off the bat due to the size of the community and the fact it's free! That said, there's a ton of proprietary options out there - some will be out of your league budget wise but others might surprise you.
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      • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
        Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

        Why free?

        I mean, if this is a serious business, why wouldn't you want to be serious about your platform and use something like BookingLive or Tricon?
        Originally Posted by amcg View Post

        This is a good point. It's tempting to go with Magento right off the bat due to the size of the community and the fact it's free! That said, there's a ton of proprietary options out there - some will be out of your league budget wise but others might surprise you.
        A super good point. When it comes to Internet things (and many things, really), you usually wind up getting what you pay for.

        It's definitely possible to achieve what you want for free -- but paying for top quality back-end implementations is a lot more likely to get you a top-quality site.
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  • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
    There are platforms out there that are designed to handle this type of thing and the cost is quite minimal, like $40/month. I don't think a traditional commerce platform is really gonna do it for you without a lot of customization so I am gonna disagree on going the magenta/opencart/wordpress route. If this was me doing this, I would build it in Drupal which will give you a lot of flexibility. If you need checkout functionality you can use Ubercart which is a module for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author kates59
    Hey,
    I would suggest you to choose Magento For your new eCommerce site. You will find solutions to your problems very easily with the largest Magento community.
    You can use Bookings & Reservations - Magento Connect this magento module will help you in creating your desired setup.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinewarriors
    hi,
    bigcommerce.com and shopify.com

    David
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author adammiller44
    Magento is a great choice because You can customize the design of your store and extend the functionality with extensions. And if not then WP Ecommerce is also a good option.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lynker
    I used cs-cart a bit. Loved it. Big commerce is another good choice.
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  • Profile picture of the author kjamesnv
    I agree with Ron Rule and and OnlineStoreHelp above. By the way they are 2 of the best contributors to the ecommerce forum here.

    Magento (and most shopping cart systems) would take a lot of customization for this project. Stick with a platform made for travel.
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