What's the best ecommerce platform???

One of the best e-commerce platform is actually opensource - it's called Magento. Magento - Home - eCommerce Software for Growth It's built on PHP by the open source community, so there is a free version. It has good SEO features built in. You could use that with themes specifically made for Magento - you could buy some great themes for reasonable prices - just search for them in google.

You could also go with Wordpress themes that support e-commerce. Check out Premium WordPress Themes | Elegant Themes for some examples. They have two specific themes that come to mind: LeanBiz and Boutique.

Hope this helps.

I actually love this question because I have tried multiple platforms. Here is what I can tell you.

Magento is the best as far as customization. However the learning curve is huge for editing and customizing. Unless you already understand PHP you are going to have a tough time with it. Doing upgrades on Magento can result in broken pages, so you sometimes have to update other things. I have 2 sites running on Magento.

ZenCart is much easier than Magento and is one of the oldest platforms out there. It pretty much has everything you need, but lacks the customization ability of Magento, however there are workarounds. For basic products Zencart will be just fine though. They have a very active forum for help. I have 3 sites running on Zencart.

Prestashop is also a very simple ecommerce platform. You have to pay for a lot of the modules though which sucks, so you can be out of pocket a decent amount after theme and other things you might need to get launched. But the simplicity is even better than Zencart. I have 1 site running on this platform.

I know there are more carts out there, but I don't currently have any sites running on those so I don't want to tell you my opinion on them.

Hello Jaede2000,

Did you check out the answer I just gave on your other question... the one about Citymax? If not, please go there.

Do you or are you considering WordPress?

Ron

Ahh yes I forgot to mention I have tested Wordpress as an ecommerce platform. There are a couple plugins for that you can use, and of course if you are familiar with Wordpress it should be a snap.

I use osCommerce and Magento.

I like and use magneto for all customer ecommerce, unless they are a big company that can afford something else.

Magento is probably the best for ecommerce. I dislike zencart, it can't really be compared to magento. Prestashop is decent. Big Commerce is cool. You can also use Drupal and Joomla with shopping carts. I wouldn't ever recommend wordpress for a shopping cart, I would always recommend Magento first and foremost!

I also use Magento and really like it.

You can even get some very nice free template designs or pay just $99 from here: Magento Themes 1.6.1.0 & Magento Templates 1.5.1.0 >> See Details

Robert

I recommend oscommerce,cs-cart and Magento

All good suggestions! I use wordpress.. haven't experimented with the others. will take a look. Thanks!

Look into 3dCart if you want a hosted solution. They're a bit pricey, but I used them for about 3 years and was very happy with them. If you want more flexibility regarding customization, WordPress is great.

I second the choice of Wordpress. Easy to use and there are many ecommerce plugins.

I would use zen cart as it comes already seo optimized

WP has some nice solutions like WP E-commerce and MarketPress, but they can feel rather clunky and bolted-on, since WP is not really an ecommerce platform.

I've had a crappy time with Prestashop as it's rather buggy. The backend is not intuitive and you have to pay for almost any module.

Magento is not beginner-friendly, especially if you want to customize your shop.

BigCommerce is a very good hosted solution. About $19/mo I think. Extremely feature-rich, user-friendly, customizable, great support. I built a jewelry site with it recently and it was a relative breeze.

OpenCart is a good one also. Very simple, very easy to work with. Easy to get up and running. Programmer-friendly in case you ever need to customize.

OScommerce is nice but becoming outdated. There are some other forks of it available that may be better. Benefit here is that LOTS of people are familiar with it so you can find help when you need it.

Good luck!

WP platform, getshopped plug in
Anynody used it? Looks good and easy to set up.

Joe

Thanks everyone for answering.... this post helped me a lot... I had the a similar question and wanted to learn about it.

Magento is the best opensource platform right now I think. osCommerce was good but its community seems to be dying. Lot of developers moved to magento.

123reg.com?

The two platforms I've used are 3dcart (hosted) and ecommerce templates. 3dcart has a lot of decent features - and their platform typically isn't buggy. However, attempting to customize it is quite tough. With it being hosted, you can't touch the source code. In addition, they won't support the API they give you access to. For ecommerce templates - their forums are quite active, and there are many custom coders that specifically make mods for ecommerce templates for anything you want. Their software out of the box does leave a lot to be desired compared to 3dcart.

I've been using ZenCart for years but now I'm googling for an alternative. ZenCart has things about it that are really kludgey. For example, it doesn't have a 1-click checkout: you always have to go through multiple screens. For another, it forces the user to create an account to checkout. The shipping modules is the weakest part. The shipping settings are for the entire site, not by product. So there is no way to only offer Fedex choices for one product but USPS for another, for example. And it's a little buggy. I recently had a situation where my inventory had 1 left of a product, but it let the customer order 2.

I found this thread because I'm searching for alternatives.

I would suggest magento for ecommerce. Some of my clients using them and they're happy with magento.

Many of the top SEO companies from topseos.com like Magento and prefer Joomla over Wordpress if using a blog style CMS.

I use 123-reg.co.uk

Hi Jaede2000, by my side I used WooCommerce with all the themes compatible. This is a very cheap solution who permit you to have your ecommerce ready in just a day or two, all inclused.

If instead you are trying to build a phenomenal shop, always with Wordpress you can find ShooperPress, a good theme/plugin customizable and wonderful to see.

If you want some real examples, please send me a PM.
I tried every ecommerce solution on the planet...

See you soon,
Alessandro Zamboni

It really depends on how many products you plan on selling and what your budget is. There are lower cost platforms like big cartel if you don't plan on selling too many products.

Has anyone tried Zulu Cart from storecoach.com?

I've had great success with shopperpress....bigcommerce is good too though if you got a little budget

My choice "prestoshop",
most popular eCommerce builder ,
secured and reliable.

Hey,

I have a couple sites online that are the first thing that generated real revenue for me online was ecommerce stores.

Prestashop - It was i use and love it, easy and gets the job done well.

Magento - for big sites, takes a lot of resources (200+ Products)

I go with prestashop.

I like wordpress and opencart. I have multisite ecommerce use them for current. If you like wordpress, you can choose the best wordpress ecommerce themes for save the time and money. You don't worry because you don't know programming languages.

Good luck for you!

I personally love the Woo Commerce themes and extensions. Easy to get a nice looking ecommerce site up with it, and works for both digital and physical products and also for affiliate products.

I'm going have to say zencart 100%. Built several custom sites on that platform.

I use oscommerce but also open cart both are great to customize and expand.

Magento although feature-rich and a good choice has a steep learning curve, is resource-intensive, and is best used with projects that are somewhat larger in size and scope.

There is seriously a ton of good shopping carts out these days but having personally used Magento, OScommerce, OpenCart, Yahoo Stores, and BigCommerce (and a few more); for mid-sized projects, I'd recommend Open Cart. It's free, easy to use and there are various plugins available for enhanced store management and operational needs.

Personally for larger organisations Id say Magento

smaller companies would find Prestashop a lot easier to use

Wordpress is very good but its not a bespoke eCommerce solution, it might be fine for smaller operations, I'm thinking aseven a CMS/Blogging platform Wordpress has its limits

As a web developer I have worked with almost every ecommerce solution under the sun at one point or another, and I can honestly say in my opinion the #1 ecommerce solution is anything that is a hosted solution. Meaning, you do NOT have a web hosting account with a PHP ecommerce script installed on it.

The company I have had the absolute best experience from is BigCommerce. Plans start as low as $29 per month. Its a fully hosted solution meaning its fully PCI compliant, you never have to worry about your site going down because someone hacked your crappy shared hosting account. Updates are automatically taking care of, support is unparalleled, full API for development expansion.

Honestly this is a short list, but if you are looking for longevity and ease of customization with the least head aches, go with BigCommerce.com

I think you should check ready made ecommerce solutions available in the market today, as they will be more comprehensive and will cost less. I would recommend that you look for an ecommerce website system that provides a backend system to log both your online and offline sales so that you have a single integrated system to manage your business. Also, the ecommerce system should be able to manage your inventory and automatically propagate all transactions to accounts.

im surprised it has not been mentioned before..shopify is one of the best out there. check it out. In my opinion shopify and bigcommerce are the better ones on usability, scalability, robustness and great support community. I have used Magento before, and i have to say, its not as nearly as easy as people make it out to be. The enterprise version rocks, but very pricey.

Magento is probably the best for ecommerce

I use PHP Shopping Cart Software — WebAsyst Shop-Script they have some great features, greeat for seo, facebook etc etc... plus you can install and design your shop yourself no html skills needed, if you can use frontpage, word or dreamweaver it's like that, check it out to see what i am talking about.

If you have a small number of products or just want to try out a niche, I'd recommend Zuhah. You'll be able to join a store and blog on the same site, and its free.

this is a good question that it solved my problem. Thank you everyone

Magento is the most advanced, and has also the longest learning curve. You probably need something simpler, easier to set up and manage at beggining.. Just check out some hosted solutions such as BigCommerce, Shopify, etc.

I use Magento and OpenCart. My clients saying that OpenCart really easy to use.

Definitely go for Magento.

Another consideration is leaving the platform to an established e-commerce shopping fulfillment house. There are plenty of good ones. One long-standing fulfillment house - that was around since 16mm film, is karolmedia. Around for 35+ years.

karolmedia.com

Hope that helps.

if you are going to invest in a decent server, you are going to have a lot of traffic and sales. magento!

if you are starting.. dont know what to expect.. dont want to invest in a high performance server.. go with opencart

oscommerce is definetelly not the best one ................ i guarantee

I also agree that Magento is a very good eCommerce platform. But I would also suggest you to look for other alternatives, that would suffice your needs best.

Though Magento is popular and very user-friendly, it is best to be sure of the platform that you use, whether or not it brings your profits to you.

The best are only dedicated platform, but they often cost a lot of money. If you are looking for something free - Wordpress + WooCommerce or WP-Ecommerce. For this if you know the basics of PHP, can easily modify the script to fit your needs.

I'm a fan of Big Commerce.

Shopify

- It is the easiest eCommerce CMS to use
- They have the best customer support
- You don't have to pay a webdesigner to build a store for you
- It comes with different FREE themes
- It is very secure
- They have an app store that allows you to add on features to your site with the click of a button
- They automatically submit your store to shopping engines, they have an iPhone app that allows you to run your business from your phone
- etc, etc, etc...

I've been in the eCommerce business for seven years and I have tried almost every eCommerce platform out there. I will now only work with Shopify.

Magneto has so many unnecessary database queries. Generally, instalation this script sa a waste of time

I'm using Opencart. It's open source and very easy to use.
You just need some more Vqmod hack to operate fully. After a while using this source in e-commerce I realize some important thing you should consider before choosing a platform:
+ Many payment systems: Paypal, cash, ATM, 2co,...
+ Your desire shipping method in your country as you can find a lot of method but none of them can work (or compatible to) with your local shipping company.
+ It's fast when checkout: Add to cart > checkout > fill the form > choose right payment, shipping.. > done. NOT Add to cart > checkout > register > checkout > choose right payment, shipping.. > done
+ Have a lot of plugin or modification because you will need extra functions for you specially needs.
+ It should have beautiful templates because customer will see this. I buy template for desktop, mobile and tablet.
Hope this help you having a good decision

I think, asp .net with sql database is very nice platform as programming for E-commerce site

Many are all the same now, its all down to preference.

Be very interesting to know which you choose and why...?

I use opencart, I built my e-commerce solution in 12hrs from scratch, easy to use and free!

It's Oscommerce - take a look at my wife's shop:
GajaStore com - Design Studio - GajaStore - Jewelry Store

In one of my later posts, I recommended PrestaShop. I totally take it back and do not recommend it to anyone. Their latest update really messed me up for a couple days.

i have chosen opencart user friendly and easy to set up

I use Magento... really like it!
Enjoy!

If you're not a coder and want ecommerce solution that has the looks (to inspire trust) I highly recommend Shopify and Bigcommerce. Both of them have great app market places for great plugins but they also take seconds to set-up at very good price points.

I use osCommerce and Magento, and like Magento the best.

I would recommend and my choice goes to oscommerce and magento. As of i know the both are good to use.

You don't need to hire a web developer yet, only after the site is doing well. You dont wont to waste your money on a site thats not making enough money. Use Opencart or Magneto, either buy a ready made template or search for a free quality templates in Google.

For those using Big Commerce, how easy is to tie in my Aweber mailing list to the page if I wanted to capture email addresses etc? Possible?

According to your query of a good ecommerce platform, there are many and Magneto is running ahead in the race for its superior service.
Again, whether you buy an off the shelf ecommerce site or develop a website from scratch will be based entirely on your cost-benefit analysis. For whichever your benefit is greater than your cost, you can go for that keeping other factors in mind.
All the best in taking a decision.

No need to buy. I think its better to hire a good web designer you can ask him/her to create something unique and good for you. Best of Luck!!

Hello!

First off, we need to know what you are using the shopping cart for? Will you be selling strictly..

1. Online?
2. Amazon
3. ebay?
4. Other marketplaces?
5. Any special features you need?
6. Will you have hundreds or thousands of products?
7. Open source or hosted? Open source is better for larger web sites

The reason I ask is, all different types of carts have different capabilities. You will want to go with a cart that's most beneficial to YOUR BUSINESS.

But from what I can suggest from experience here's a breakdown.

Magento - Magento is probably the most robust cart out there and with the most support out of all the open source shopping carts. It has the largest community and has the most developers. It integrates with eBay and Amazon using m2epro.

Cons? - It takes up a lot of resources, it isn't the easiest cart to use, and it's not the fastest.

Prestashop - Prestashop is a great cart as well. It is fairly faster then Magento, it has a large community and a lot of plugins available. The community isn't as large as Magento, but it is definitely growing. It takes up less resources on the server compared to Magento and also supports multi-sites. OUT OF THE BOX, it is pretty damn good. It also supports digital sales and more.

Cons - Doesn't really integrate well with other marketplaces (amazon, ebay) compared to Magento, but it can be done with some programming. Also there are a lot less developers for prestashop compared to Magento.


Open Cart Fast, easy to work with, and a very new and upcoming cart. It also supports multi-sites, but the community again isn't are large as Magento and Prestashop, but it is rapidly growing. This cart is perfect for smaller companies or for people who are new to the e-commerce world. It is very easy to use and the backend is very user friendly.

But if you are looking to build a large web site with a lot of features and looking to expand, I would go with Magento.

Also, please stay away from hosted carts, just because in my opinion you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. At least with a open source shopping cart, you can have more control over your store and also choose your own hosting provider.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!

-Carlo

After a couple of years fighting with osCommerce I decided to look for something new. I made tons of comparisons and installed a bunch of different carts to try them out. Eventually I fell in love with Opencart.

You can't even compare the clarity of the code, the comprehensive back end and just the vibe between osCommerce and Opencart. osCommerce is basically a mess. If you try to install two extensions from different contributors you might really need to know your way around PHP to pull it off. Yes, there's a lot of community contributions, but the mere volume creates more of a confusion than a feeling of choice.

Opencart has several things built-in that made my life so much easier. An affiliate system, automatically generated download links for digital products, a MVC architecture for easy modifications on the code, etc.

So yes, I absolutely recommend Opencart.

I would pick Magento over anything.

I would imagine WP e-commerce will be the cheapest, possibly no cost. The plugin is free and there should be some neat free themes around.

The biggest stumbling block when it comes to ecommerce stores is not the setting up part but actually sourcing the goods to sell.

I use 3D Cart and find it it very easy to use and has about every thing you can want or need.

I have had good success with big commerce... volusion seemed to be a good option for a large quantity of items, as it was about half of the price of big commerce, but they rejected me due to my product content. Big Commerce is very user friendly, SEO optimized, and fairly cheap, depending upon the amount of products that you plan to carry.

I was also looking for an answer about the best ecommerce platform. I was thinking a little for Magento to use, and now I'm really convinced to do it.

Magento and ZenCart is the most easiest for me...
They are easy to customize.

With eCommerce websites, how often do you have to check for transferring site orders and cash to the dropshipper office?

I suggest MAGENTO as this is recommended for bigger sites and is used by big names in eCommerce industry.

I have taught many people how to create ecommerce websites and how to do them on a lot of different platforms.

Some, unfortunately, on forced platforms that were terrible (that I wish I could post without retribution)

I would recommend WORDPRESS by far.

.org, of course.

Never go with a free theme, and if you're looking to get a great theme - I'd peruse Themeforest.com that utilizes the 'above the fold' real estate effectively for SEO content and product visibility.

Opencart is definitely a good ecommerce platform. There are also a few others which you might want to check out such as: Shopify, FoxCart, Magento or CubeCart.