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E-Commerce Site vs Store Plugin

by Lazy Larry
17 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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E-Commerce Site vs Store Plugin which is better?

So how I'm looking at this is.......

E-Commerce Site

E-Commerce site is more selling the products, more in your face, buy now. Yes you can add articles, SEO the site, give great product descriptions and some demostrations on the product of the product selling.

Wordpress Site with Shopping Cart Plugin

Wordpress Site(or other platforms) using a shopping cart plugin. Site is more informational, shopping cart is in the background(not in your face everywhere) can probably do a better job preselling the product. More likely to get potential customer to atleast opt-in to mailing list.

Yes, it all depends on what type of store you are running or what type of products you are selling, yeah I got that but....... which do you think in your opinion would be better to start out with in trying to build up your brand without the McDonald's multi-million dollar budget?

I plan on selling printer related supplies(which is a very competitive market) so I need to try to seperate myself from the pack alittle.

So what's your 2 cents????
#ecommerce #plugin #site #store
  • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
    I've been facing the same type of dilemma this past week - and I found I needed to resolve this before starting the site because it will impact how the site is organized.

    I have a product I created, additional products which I am selling (but need to be handled separate from the main product), and then affiliate products that fall into the same niche and greatly compliment the whole scope.

    More likely to get potential customer to at least opt-in to mailing list.
    Some things are going to depend on just how things are handled on the back end.

    Is the list the biggest priority for you? If I come to your site, and make an immediate purchase am I sent to another site to finish the transaction - thereby completely missing your list?


    I plan on selling printer related supplies(which is a very competitive market) so I need to try to separate myself from the pack a little.
    Is this via dropship, affiliate, or ???
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    • Profile picture of the author Lazy Larry
      I actually plan on sourcing the product and either shipping from my current store or using Amazon FBA program.

      Jill, you brought up another point that I didn't think far enough ahead yet, affiliates. Which is a main objective after the site is setup and going. So I guess I have more planning to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author alexgold87
    WordPress with Plugin with no doubts.

    First. You always can hire someone to tweak your shopping cart. There are thousands of WP developers across the globe. Also there is a big community for WP as a benefit.

    Second. If you will choose some E-Commerce software in short time you will be required to tweak/fix something and hiring will cost you a lot. Seriously. And you will get small or none community at all.

    I was in the same issue two years ago and chose e-commerce software. That was ridiculous choice. Don't repeat my mistake.

    WP + Cart = Your choice.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    If I were building an ecommerce store on the cheap, I would use a Woo Commerce theme, their newest lines of themes with lots of features for ecommerce.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lazy Larry
      Woo themes likes to keep a lot of their branding on the sites, which I don't like.
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Lazy Larry View Post

        Woo themes likes to keep a lot of their branding on the sites, which I don't like.
        They don't keep any of their branding on your site. Everywhere, the footer, etc that you might see branding is because someone was too lazy to change it to what they want it to be.

        I use Woo themes extensively and none of my sites have any indication that they are Woo themes on them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alessandro Zamboni
    Hi Lazy Larry, by my side now I use only Wordpress, also for ecommerce.
    I made for my family shop a good eshop with a cheap but high quality theme with ecommerce plugin.

    It works well, it keeps track of everything and it's visually stunning. It's from WooThemes.

    So I will never change Wordpress with any software or script, also if in my life I tried ShopFactory and online ecommerce like Add2Cart and Shopify, but they are costly for what I needed.

    See you soon,
    Alessandro
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  • Profile picture of the author edward2011
    I do prefer E-Commerce site.
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  • Profile picture of the author olar21
    Hi guys,
    I'm trying to get a WP ecommerce plugin and stumbled upon this thread, it seems to be that the thread sort of ended with a recommendation to use an ecommerce wootheme. Can anyone recommend a particular wootheme that fits into this category please? Or a WP plugin that is equally as good as this wootheme please? thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author nstephan
    WP + your cart is the way to go! Many more developers available to work on WP then other new cms based ecommerce solutions. Also it helps you change most other site wide fixes without worrying about if it will effect the site, since its it own little entity.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparkstation23
    Transform your WordPress website into a thorough-bred online eCommerce store.
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    • Profile picture of the author inkpress
      Choosing between WP or E-Commerce solution all depends on your needs.
      Creating a simple list of functions and features your website needs, will help you make that decision.

      Obviously most E-Commerce solutions give you more built in features especially for shipping, tax and payment modules. Most of them also include Affiliate systems, support systems etc.. Also, make a decision on the simple things such as whether handling fees will be charged, many shopping carts do not include that.

      But if you don't need a robust system, WordPress + Plugin works out well, I think woocommerce is one of the best shopping cart systems for WordPress, you can easily integrate it into your current theme (so you don't have to buy woothemes if you don't want to). It handles downloads, virtual links etc..

      MarketPress from wpmu is also a good shopping cart, missing a few features, but for integrating affiliate links etc, it's an all in one, and they are always updating.
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  • Profile picture of the author carrot
    wordpress eShop is a great free plugin, and its unobtrusive so will prety much work with any theme you like
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  • Profile picture of the author punchout
    I have only ever used virtumart / joomla which are both free with virtumart/joomla having tons of modules and plugins for it for free. I had to buy a store template for the site though and had somebody customize it's look. Has worked well for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author webpeon
    I was faced with the same question a couple weeks back now, and opted for an e-commerce solution over wordpress + shopping cart mostly because its a dedicated sales system as opposed to an add on to a system configured mostly for informational purposes.

    It does depend on what you are looking to get out of the site, if your main goal is to sell products then ecommerce is the way to go, if youd prefer to inform people of a product and then hopefully look to convert them based on them now having more knowledge than I'd opt for wordpress


    (follow along in my blog if youd like to see how Im getting on, I do need to update it over the next day or so_
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    Web 2 Mobile
    The Future of The Web
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  • Profile picture of the author derricks
    The kind of software needed is up to you.
    For very big online stores makes much more sense to use a dedicated system (like Magento), for just beginning or smaller niches a Wordpress solution is a very nice alternative.
    Only when the level of transactions on the site reach to something big (and you need reliable support and infraestructure) is worth the change.
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