What's a good solid e-commerce platform to operate my internet business from?

[MarkAmes]

I looking for a solid e-commerce platform or system to operate and manage most aspects of my online business from. The platform to manage things such as (but not limited to):

* customers
* sales
* digital and/or physical delivery
* returns
* support
* memberships
* affiliates
* and perhaps JV down the road.

What do Warriors suggest would be a good way to proceed.

I think it's prudent to set something up now and have a system that will grow with the business as apposed to needing a time consuming, frustrating change over to a different system later on. I've just changed laptops and that was bad enough!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have heard of systems like 'InfusionSoft' and 'Delavo', but am not sure if they are suitable. Anyone used these systems or have other suggestions.

Thanks for your time and I apprecaite any responses.

Regards
Mark

[James Spinosa]

I have found it easiest to just outsource all of this to a company rather than worrying about it all myself. I use ClickBank because it makes it very easy to find affiliates and they take care of the chargebacks, refunds, etc. (with the exception of a few support emails) so I can concentrate on promoting my product.

This only works for digital products, if you need digital AND physical you'd have to go with somebody else.

[Barry Walls]

Mark...Delavo has just come out for free, but I use fantasos/JVM2. Awesome piece of kit

[sts2k]

oscommerce is free and has many, many modules and plugins that will do pretty much everything you are looking to do. i highly recommend it.

[JVManna]

Disclosure: I work for Infusionsoft. I believe in our products and have the data to back my claims. Ask around, we're legit, and we've dropped our prices significantly and offer a 'Double Your Sales' Guarantee to put our money where our mouth is.

Mark,

Based on the needs you shared, Infusionsoft would be a perfect fit for you because it combines many elements of ecommerce, marketing and automation all in one autonomous solution.

Many entrepreneurs frequently run into bottlenecks when they use several 'point' solutions, resulting in numerous points of failure, inconsistent reporting, poor user experiences and a frustrating time to run their business. There's nothing "wrong" with Aweber, Constant Contact or 1SC; they're great to start with, but eventually an entrepreneur outgrows their shell and they move up to us.

Infusionsoft can automate your email marketing, direct mail, voice broadcast and fax (if you use that). The old school form of autoresponders uses set dates ... with Infusionsoft you can set triggers such as purchase, declined credit card, bounced email and varying conditions such as "tags," and additional data held on their contact record. Infusionsoft also makes it simple to create Order Forms (one-product type of pages) and shopping carts.

Infusionsoft is Web-based with full compatibility with IE7 and Firefox 3. Google Chrome works really well (super fast) but had a bit of trouble when editing templates. Mac, Windows, Linux ... it doesn't matter, it works. Even on the iPhone, unofficially. We handle all the hosting, storage, data backup, PCI compliance and SSL certs.

We're also a forward-thinking company that has numerous features and refinements coming out nearly twice a month. We leverage our customers' feedback extensively. Will be unleashing some major features soon that our customers have awaited. (We just recently debuted our solid Outlook integration, which was a common request from customers for the past couple years.)

Because of all this, it's no wonder that Frank Kern, Ryan Deiss, Matt Bacak and even (recently) SEOMoz signed with Infusionsoft so they can automate their operations. In addition to the pro-marketers, over 400 customers of ours doubled their revenue since using Infusionsoft.

If you want more info, you can always browse our site. I'm available for any questions or concerns you or other Warriors want to know.


-Joe

[Webthings]

Joe,

I [briefly] looked at Infusionsoft a few days ago and got as far as speaking with one of your sales staff about the mid-range "DELUXE" version. The only reason I had to phone and speak with sales staff was the lack of prices published anywhere on your website (always a sign that they will be high IMO).

It wasn't so much the $299/month that scared me off (although that's bad enough) but more the mandatory $4,000 setup fee, whether I wanted it or not "to help get me started".

OK, so I may not be as quick around the product as your guys & girls, but one day I'll have to do it myself so I may as well start learning from day 1, while the list in there is still small and mistakes matter less. Unless of course it's so complex that I'll never be able to do it myself, and will then need to keep paying for "consultancy" once my first $4,000 is over?

My AWeber and 1SC accounts in contrast - neither as fully-featured as Infusionsoft I realise (and I posted earlier about problems with AWeber & PayPal integration) - both cost peanuts monthly in comparison, have no up-front setup fee, come with a bunch of videos online to help me, and even have friendly and free support staff available if I get stuck.

I don't doubt that Infusionsoft is an excellent product, but for most people it's so completely over the top that it would be like learning to drive in a world-championship racing car. What most people here need is to start making sales, not an ultimate (and ultimately expensive) product on day one to support sales that may still be years away.

For many people the problems that Infusionsoft solves would be nice ones to have!

All IMHO of course.

Andrew

[dug]

I think you should take a look at cre loaded and zencart. Both of them are based on oscommerce but are more advanced. Each of them should meet the needs of your business.

In case you need to move from different shopping cart you may consider cart2cart service. It will transfer all your data automatically.

[JVManna]

Andrew,

Thanks for sharing your candid feedback; I appreciate the insight. Infusionsoft is a pretty powerful system that does require an investment of time and dedication to maximize the output from it -- that's what the setup and activation fee is for, consulting and migration of a small business into Infusionsoft.

We've unpublished prices from our Website for a few reasons, of which includes that we're adjusting them and working furiously to meet and exceed the needs of entrepreneurs. In addition, people were getting a bit turned off at the prices without understanding the value (ROI) that Infusionsoft provides. Our sales team assesses these needs and provides a realistic estimate as to how Infusionsoft can grow your business. At any rate, it's a test and prices should return to the Website soon.

Wanted to also point out that our friendly support staff available over the phone or online at no charge for customers in case anyone gets stuck. We have a very low, reasonable hold time so everyone is treated like first-class. Not sure if I can post a link here or not, but you can browse the online support at help.infusionsoft.com, but rest assured as a customer you can participate.

I'm not the first to say that Infusionsoft isn't for everyone. It depends on how your business is performing, the amount of resources you throw at it and how much you intend to automate. We have quite a few users who have outgrown their abilities to use Aweber or 1SC who fit comfortably with us. Before moving forward with Infusionsoft, it's ideal to have a plan, even a mindmap with how their business operates end to end. This way, it's clear how Infusionsoft can be easily implemented saving you time and money so you can focus on doing business, not learning software.

Stay tuned for some exciting news in the next month or so, you won't be disappointed. I'll let folks here know about the changes as well as keeping the community apprised as to any major announcements.

Thanks for the feedback! We're always looking to improve and become the leader in marketing automation software for small business.

~Joe

[Loren Woirhaye]

Most e-commerce things like ZenCart are geared towards
selling physical products, not download products. They
also tend not to be designed to pay affiliates and things
like that.

I have Fantasos/Delavo (haven't done the upgrade yet
but will when I have time set aside to deal with issues
that come up, if any) - and it will do most or all of what
you asked, maybe not as elegantly as InfusionSoft, but
then again the recurring expenses are much less because
it is a script you run on your own hosting account.

If you have a serious operation and you need serious
list segmentation poweer InfusionSoft does that.

[Daniel E Taylor]

We use cubecart for all our ecommerce. Does just fine. We also have a fulltime programmer who does all the moding and what not.

[MarkAmes]

Hi Guys - I greatly appreciate all your comments and suggestions. It helps greatly to have the advice and opinions of others when moving forward.

Kind Regards
Mark

[tomek]

I use DlGuard for single products and Amember for Memberships + Getresponse for both

[informom09]

I use Premium Web Cart and compared to another one I was using it is 10 times better. They have a trial version if you want to check it out for 4.97$.