Best shopping cart platform

Dong Lee

11 years ago

PrestaShop - Is really great platform to start your e-shop bussiness.

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tronsmith

11 years ago

I would recommend Magento.

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Dong Lee 11 years ago

Originally Posted by tronsmith

I would recommend Magento.

Can you customize free skins at Magento ?
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jutipum 11 years ago

Originally Posted by tronsmith

I would recommend Magento.

Magento too!
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max4web

11 years ago

shopify is also good option.

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Travis Wade

11 years ago

It really depends on your needs, how many products you have, functionality required, payment gateways, etc. Each cart has it's strengths and weaknesses. I personally use magento, opencart and creloaded. Each one I have had someone write scripts to customize them for my needs. Just make sure you do plenty of homework. The last thing you want to do is switch carts after getting it all set up and going live. I did that once! Never want to do it again! lol

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GoBlog

11 years ago

Vote for Prestashop too but if you consider to use WordPress, I would recommend to use WooCommerce.

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frogjy

11 years ago

I like zen cart....

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IMPower5

11 years ago

I highly recommended WooCommerce. WooCommerce is an open source WordPress plug-in that lets you build a fully functional e-commerce site easily. It's free to download and comes loaded with features. Combined with WooThemes, WooCommerce will get your store online quicker than any other e-commerce plug-in on the market.

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mikeye

11 years ago

I just came across this recently - Premium Web Cart. They have a feature & price comparison chart on their website with other major shopping carts, including InfusionSoft, 1ShoppingCart, and Nanacast.

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abhishekcis

11 years ago

Originally Posted by joshenfhmack

What is the best shopping cart platform?

well i guess zen cart is best platform for this...it comes with some handy seo plugins

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Silas Hart

11 years ago

If you are completely new, I recommend PrestaShop. Some of the extras are a bit pricey but usually worth it but they aren't usually necessary if you just want to get a site up and running. You can list things up in the same way you would on eBay and when you want to get a little bigger, you can do a .csv upload which Prestashop doesn't make all that easy for you.

For more advanced stuff, like running multiple stores from the same database, I recommend Magento. My feelings is that 99% of the people with Magento don't actually need it for its capabilities and would probably be happier with something like Prestashop.

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sbrettoncm

11 years ago

There are many shopping cart platforms as many have suggested but it would be wise to choose one which would meets your requirement specifically. As you have not stated your requirements, we can suggest the most commonly used ones like Magneto, Shopify, cart2mobile, etc.

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hipspy

11 years ago

I have looked at the major ones in the last few months. I looked at:

Magento - Needs more than shared hosting. Lots of complexity. Expensive.
Prestashop - Loved it but it has a bug with setting up product that has not yet been addressed.
Opencart - Has tremendous market growth in the last year. VERY POPULAR. The founder is not know for great customer service, but I am using it anyway.
Ubercart - Based on Drupal. I wanted something geared specifically for eCommerce.
Virtuecart - Based on Joomla. Same as above and I don't care for Joomla.
Zencart - Terrible backend design and very dated.
OSCommerce - Same as above.

I installed and tried everything except Magento because of the many comments I found that said it is a resource hog and does not work well with shared hosting.

In the end, I wanted to use Prestashop, but I had to use Opencart because of a bug with the products feature in Prestashop. If / when Prestashop fixes the product bug, I may use it in the future. Opencart was fun and easy to setup. Also, the modules are less expensive than Prestashop, and I found more feature rich modules for Opencart. I found modules that are 25 and for the same thing in Prestashop, it cost over 150. I found this numerous times for different types of modules. The modules in general are better with Opencart. My only hesitation with Opencart was the founders reputation for being rude.

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abbeynism

11 years ago

my vote for prestashop. Simple and easy to understand.

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jrgattison

11 years ago

Although I recommend OpenCart sites for ecommerce, I also have found that there are some other platforms that are sufficient in getting the job done like Magneto, Zen Cart, Prestashop(found it not to be user friendly in the initial setup but it could be me), Wordpress using a plugin(I wouldn't use it for a real full ecommerce store yet).

All of these solutions have a lot of flexibility in designing your store. I use Opencart sites primarily because you can use themes like wordpress, they have plugins/modules like wordpress and it is easy to use like wordpress. The benefit is it is way ahead of wordpress as far as Ecommerce goes and you can get a much cleaner, fully functional store with integrated shipping, different payment processing and tons of other features that make it my platform of choice.

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ryshark

11 years ago

Bigcommerce and Corecommerce are easy to use and offer lots of options

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bsbear

11 years ago

Most people tend to like magento these days.. personally I stick with wordpress + plugins that integrate with paypal.

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1 reply

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dburk 11 years ago

Hi joshenfhmack,

Asking this question they way you asked it, is like asking "what is the best vehicle?"

There is no one correct answer, someone might say that it is a Buggatti because it is the most expensive, while another might say it is Toyota, because it is the best selling, and for some people those might be the right choice. However, what if the reason you need the vehicle is to haul steel rebar for a construction company? Or to transport dozens of passengers? The point being you need the right vehicle for the primary objective.

There are shopping cart platforms built for large ecommerce stores with thousands of SKUs, and there are platforms built for single product. There are platforms that include hosting, and there are platforms that are self hosted, there are platforms that are easy to setup, and there are platforms that are extremely flexible. It just depends on what your specific needs are.

Since this is a forum, why not share what your specific needs are so that you can get some practical advice?
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bijan814

11 years ago

Go with Magento, its the best one, and its very SEO friendly

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IMPower5

11 years ago

There are a lot of ecommerce platforms to choose from and as you can see, everyone has their favorites. When deciding on a platform, be sure to research the capabilities and match them to your own personal needs. All have the same basic features, so it will come down to price and additional features.

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MiniBay

11 years ago

You could give these a try, looks like they give free web hosting and free ssl certificate for the social ecommerce store + they also do web & more importantly mobile webstore - Social Mobile Ecommerce

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Cash Maker

11 years ago

I use and would recommend Magento.

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chullos

11 years ago

You can choose from a lot of eCommerce platforms, of course everyone has their favorites. Anyway from my personal experience I would suggest Magento or PrestaShop, both are very easy to mange and also very SEO friendly.

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outsourcingphilippines

11 years ago

Originally Posted by joshenfhmack

What is the best shopping cart platform?

Hello Joshen!

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. What features do 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

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!

-Carlo

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1 reply

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darkheaven

10 years ago

Originally Posted by outsourcingphilippines

Hello Joshen!

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.

-Carlo

Now that I wasted $250 for linkedmobile.net and I am limited to do thing on my site.

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Andy777

11 years ago

I personally use 3DCart.com

For something cheaper, take a look @ OpenCart.com

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marketman007

11 years ago

"There are literally thousands of eCommerce sites but just a handful stand out. For me, these are:
1. Magento - this is an open-source alternative with some additional modules that you can install. It's so straightforward and clean and easily integrates with third party apps
2. Prestashop - this runs on MySQL and PHP framework and allows orders for product returns, tracking packages, etc.
3. OSCommerce - setup for this pretty easy and fast. What I like about is its smooth backup system.
4. Zen Cart - so user-friendly and it's an open-source. It provides different payment and shipping options
5. Open Cart - this is based on PHP and is relatively easy to use, as well. "

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admin@subashseo.com

11 years ago

It should be depends upon your needs. I like OS commerce and Magento.

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kimjoshi

10 years ago

I recommend zen cart or Magento development for the the shopping cart service as they are the most secure shopping cart platform.

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Willy921

10 years ago

I might be late to the party, but I think that OutsourcingPhilippines really has the right approach. There is no such thing as a single "best" shopping cart; it depends on what you're trying to do. First identify what's most important to you and then identify a handful of options that seem to meet these needs and do some deeper research.

I appreciate the comment about staying away from hosted carts, but I disagree. Ultimately you'll encounter a number of trade-offs and there may be other functions overshadow having the cart hosted elsewhere.

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marquinho

10 years ago

I definitely recommend Magento as the best eCommerce solution - but if you're looking for some alternatives, there's also OSCommerce and ZenCart

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crescendo

10 years ago

Magento is the best shopping cart platform.

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hisnibbs

10 years ago

Can I give a +1 for Wordpress and the plugin Easy Digital Downloads. I am not an affiliate :-) and anyway it is free!

It's extremely well coded and easy to use, and I have been playing with it for a month now and it's now powering all my downloads.

But if it's a CMS platform you are after Magento is probably the best coded out the box.

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Aaron Carl

10 years ago

It depends upon which type of online store you are having and what are the functionality you need. Popular shopping carts are,

- Shopify
- MagentoGo
- X-Cart
- Zen Cart

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Hrkjds

10 years ago

Always choose shopping cart that suits your need. Try and look at the features of every shopping cart as many are free. Try shopify, magento, zen cart...

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HammerNiko

10 years ago

CartTeam | Simplifying E-Commerce - I am pretty happy with it. Decent prices but is worth it. Tryout !

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khairul6355

10 years ago

woocommerce is the best

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1 reply

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kjamesnv 10 years ago

Originally Posted by khairul6355

woocommerce is the best

Why is it the best? What are the benefits? How long have you used it and for what type of sites? What are you comparing it to?

However, to simply say something is "the best" with no reasoning whatsoever is completely useless.
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ChrisDouthit

10 years ago

There is no best, it really depends on what you are trying to do with it. All carts have certainly strengths and weaknesses. The best is really the one that fits your specific needs.

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vishwa

10 years ago

I will Recommend you to go with Cubecart. It is very Light (Not a Big Size) So, It will not put pressure on your server, You can manage through any shared hosting. The admin Panel is very simple and settings are not so complicated. Just try it.