Best e-commerce platform that allows for customizations

44 replies
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We started with Joomla, invested a lot in customizations, then found that with each major upgrade of Joomla we had to rewrite the customizations from scratch.

That was a pisser!

What's the best customizable e-commerce platform that doesn't kill your customizations with platform upgrades? Here's the kicker, preferably a platform that's user friendly for someone without a great deal of programming expertise.
#customizations #ecommerce #platform
  • Profile picture of the author loudpixels
    I personally recommend Drupal + Drupal Commerce (https://docs.drupalcommerce.org/commerce2) ... let me know if you need help?
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    • Profile picture of the author minimax
      Originally Posted by loudpixels View Post

      I personally recommend Drupal + Drupal Commerce (https://docs.drupalcommerce.org/commerce2) ... let me know if you need help?
      Recommending Customize php is the best way to create any ecommerce businesss website whether it's B2b or B2c.
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  • Profile picture of the author SidewalkWar
    I've heard Drupal is a great option for people that want to customize their website, however, I've also heard that it's a more expensive solution and not terribly user friendly for those without technical knowledge. Is that right?
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    • Profile picture of the author loudpixels
      Drupal and Drupal Commerce are free and open source, matter of fact 99% of the modules in the Drupal ecosystem are free. If you are planning to do everything yourself, than yes, there's a learning curve (so I guess in that sense it's not user friendly) but if you are planning on having someone set it up for you than it's super end-user friendly cause you can build a custom back end if you want to. Although the latest version, Drupal 8 has made leap and bounds in terms of making things more intuitive and aesthetic. There's a saying in the drupal community: if you need to build a blog or website use Wordpress, but if you need to build a Wordpress than get Drupal.
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      • Profile picture of the author SidewalkWar
        Is there a demo site I can log-into, play with the admin, review changes to the front end, ect. A demo I can really dig my teeth into?
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    • Profile picture of the author Pratiktiwari
      Originally Posted by SidewalkWar View Post

      I've heard Drupal is a great option for people that want to customize their website, however, I've also heard that it's a more expensive solution and not terribly user friendly for those without technical knowledge. Is that right?
      Yes, a technical guy can better understand & administrate the system well

      Magento & Drupal both are the options, however which one will be best that can be compared on the basis of your requirements only
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    • Profile picture of the author SidewalkWar
      No, but I've heard of it. In fact, I'm not sure how you try any of these platforms. Are there online demos where you're free to play with the admin backend and see the results on the FE website?
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  • Profile picture of the author stephenchong
    You also choose Magento that is the best for E-commerce platform. It gives you plenty of options for Customisation and is a reliable option. Drupal is another option where you can invest, but my personal choices is always be Magento, because of its easy and Userfriendly interface.
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    • Profile picture of the author SidewalkWar
      Yes, I've heard Magento is a very robust, user friendly system, but again whe Magento makes an update (as I understand it) all of our customizations go bye-bye. We've got to reintegrate them into the new version of Magento, sometimes from scratch. That's an expensive, time consuming project at every update.
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  • Profile picture of the author cearionmarie
    When it comes to simplicity and ease of access Magento is on top of my list. I've heard a lot of good reviews about Drupal too so you might want to look in any of these two.
    Signature

    Cearion Uy - Marketing Advisor
    www.influencerauditor.com

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  • Profile picture of the author SidewalkWar
    I just expresssed concern about Magento above. Yes, I've heard Magento is a very robust, user friendly system, but again when Magento makes an update (as I understand it) all of our customizations go bye-bye. We've got to reintegrate them into the new version of Magento, sometimes from scratch. That's an expensive, time consuming project at every update.

    My concern about Drupal is that it's beyond my technical ability, will require a lot of outside programming and end up being quite expensive.
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  • Profile picture of the author loudpixels
    The reality is that every major (not minor) updates are going to break things and will require some type of planned migration. The good news is that major updates usually take several years to take place and if the product is well designed, they usually give you detail instructions on upgrading/migrating. Drupal commerce just went through a complete rewrite so it will be at lest 4 to 5 year (if not more) before you have to think about that. Just like everything in life, I highly recommend slowly budgeting (or educating if you want to do-it-yourself) for the future upgrade so that it's done without issues. Remember that compare to a real store, you are saving tons of money and some of the money saved should be invested in maintenance and upgrades.

    Woocommerce also is a great solution, especially if your store is a typical store and doesn't require too much customizations ... maybe also look at shopify as well : https://www.shopify.com/

    Here is a guided tour of the front end of what drupal commerce can achieve: https://commerce.acromedia.com/

    Hope this help
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  • Profile picture of the author herbertvwright
    Thank you all guys for this topic
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  • Profile picture of the author amcolex
    I'll second the shopify recommendation. When you take everything into consideration. the hosting, the addons etc. It's not necessarily more expensive.

    If you dive into the liquid code, you can pretty much adapt it however you want. You can also always hire 3rd parties to modify it as needed if you have the budget.
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  • Profile picture of the author jmosticc22
    BigCommerce is gaining popularity, many people like their payment integration options. Shopify is also a very good, reliable platform but some options can get expensive.
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  • Profile picture of the author synamen
    Your concern is very much true and is a fact that generally when there is an upgrade on a platform, there is lot more work on customisation and extensions.

    There are few options here:
    1. CMS + E-Commerce: The options are WordPress + WooCommerce, Joomla + VirtueMart and Drupal + Drupal Commerce. I would recommend going with WordPress + WooCommerce. Reasons being, it is the most widely used CMS platform and has a huge community. Also, the upgrades do not affect the website much.
    2. E-Commerce Platforms: The options are Magento, OpenCart and Prestashop. Magento is the most robust and scalable platform but can be slightly difficult when there are major upgrades. With OpenCart and Prestashop being lightweight platforms, the upgrades are manageable.
    3. Hosted Solutions: Shopify is the most popular one in this category. You do not have to work about Upgrades a single bit as it is taken care of. But obviously, there can be limitations in the customisation.

    Regards,
    Synamen Thinklabs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sevan Rudolf
    Some of the e-commerce platform that allows for customizations are given below

    1. BigCommerce - Best for Small Business
    BigCommerce provides a hosted e-commerce solution both as a full SaaS platform as well as a shopping cart for other types of websites.

    2. Shopify - Best for Boutique Shops
    Shopify has become one of the most well-known names in the e-commerce sphere. It's a fully featured hosted solution with hundreds of thousands of users.

    3. Wix Stores
    Wix is originally a website builder that allows you to create websites via drag and drop.
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  • Profile picture of the author rakesh87
    1. Wordpress is a good e-commerce solution for the merchants by using WooCommerce plug-in and changing your simple site into an eCommerce engine. But with increased scalability, some may find difficult to administer and require a dedicated server.
    2. On the other hand, BigCommerce is a game changer for small businesses as it is a SaaS based and is accessible as a service on subscription.

    But WooCommerce provides you extreme flexibility to customize.

    3. You can also opt for Magento, Shopify and Drupal. Clothes merchants usually prefer Shopify.
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  • Profile picture of the author CutOutExpert
    You can try with Big Commerce or Shopify. Both are the nice eCommerce platform to run online business.
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  • Profile picture of the author HannaDidier
    Shopify is really conquering the world right now. It integrates with many apps and platforms from bookkeeping to inventory management and it also offers great management solutions in house. Don't know about the customizations though..
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  • Profile picture of the author markhenry26
    Hey,
    You can easily create the eCommerce website with WordPress CMS integrated with WooCommerce.
    WooCommerce has hundreads of free and premium extension and you can add more functionality with it. It is the most customizable eCommerce platform for building your online business. It is open source and easy to use platform.
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    • Profile picture of the author Akram Quraishi
      My vote also goes with WooCommerce. It is free, it has amazing free and premium support. We have created 10s of websites and we never came across any requirement which could not be done with Woo.
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  • Profile picture of the author jennytrump
    As per my suggestion following are the best E-commerce development platform which allow you to develop customization website

    1. Wix
    2. Wordpress
    3. weebly
    4. BigCommerce
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  • Profile picture of the author Shazar
    Has anyone had any experience with Builderall? have been looking at it last days but most of the reviews are from affiliates.. so they are all raving about it.. with difficulty finding any independent reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author MasonReed
    Whichever ecommerce platform you select for your online store, the default functionalities and set of features is never enough; sooner or later, a business owner will consider customizing their online store, the way you did. Unfortunately, not all ecommerce platforms are equally customization friendly.
    I believe Magento is among the best ecommerce solutions in terms of customization. Currently, there is a great number of themes and extensions, official and by third-party developers, and anyone will easily find a theme which suits you. There are free extensions as well as the paid ones; the price of a good quality Magento extension starts from $50 and on average rarely surpasses $499.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eugene Hill
    As per my experience, Magento is good option.It is an open source platform,You can customise it as per your requirements.You can create online shop from scratch with less coding.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Dean
    In my suggestion, YoKart e-commerce platform is best among the other solutions as it already has inbuilt features which are required on an eCommerce website to boost sale.
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  • Profile picture of the author richaj247
    There are many e-commerce platforms that allow customization because it is the need of every second online store. But the Magento e-commerce platform is best among the other solutions it helps you to build best e-commerce website with innovative features.

    Here are some major advantages of Magento website-
    -Cost-effectiveness
    -Easy to customize
    -Complete e-commerce solution
    -Allows you to control every facet of your business
    -One page checkout
    -SEO friendly online store
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  • Profile picture of the author sarahalfred
    Magento is a highly customizable eCommerce platform that helps to build unique online stores to sell products and services. If you are looking for the best eCommerce solutions, Magento website development can be the right solution. Being a versatile eCommerce platform, it makes your website compatible with all the devices. With built-in up-selling and cross-selling features, website owners can expect higher sales and conversions.
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  • Profile picture of the author tripples
    Go with drupal
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  • Profile picture of the author Martin smith
    Magento is the best e-commerce platform and this allows customizations...
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  • Profile picture of the author webexpert2016
    As an experienced I can suggest you for woocommerce . that really give easy and user friendly



    easy to SEO optimization
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  • Profile picture of the author jonesmargaret
    According to me Magento is an appropriate platform to build an Ecommerce Marketplace website with many of superior features. It is a highly customizable eCommerce platform that helps to build unique online stores to sell products and services.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dean Fields
    I recommend using Wordpress + Woocommerce. You can build a highly customizable ecommerce site without coding knowledge. Woocommerce has a very large user community and there are lots of themes and add-ons out there -- many of them free.

    The downside is Woocommerce can be a resource hog. But you will be ok if you are with a web host with servers optimized for Wordpress.
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    Collabora 365 - Web, Email Hosting, Wordpress and Ecommerce Hosting
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  • Profile picture of the author jameshawk
    As an experienced I can suggest you for woocommerce.
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  • Profile picture of the author HostColor
    We like PrestaShop a lot and many of our clients use it. It has a very good backend with a lot of useful data that helps the owners of the commerce websites to analyze their sales, traffic and the overall dot com business performance.
    Signature
    HostColor.com
    Cloud Servers, Infrastructure Hosting & Managed Services
    Data centers in U.S. and Europe
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  • Profile picture of the author richaj247
    Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your business can be an exceedingly difficult one. But today I want to focus on one of the most well-touted and widely used e-commerce systems in the world: Magento. There's a lot to know about Magento and its capabilities, but the best way to get the big picture, in a nutshell, is by delving into its biggest advantages.

    Here are some of its amazing advantages which no other eCommerce platform will offer you.

    1) Versatile Content Management

    2) Mobile-Friendly Configuration

    3) Advanced Search Engine Optimization

    4) Powerful and Spacious

    5) Built-in Upsells and Cross-sells

    6) Easy Third-party Integrations

    7) Customize Security Permissions

    8) Intelligent Filtered Search For Shoppers

    9) A Gigantic Community

    10) Saves time and money
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  • Profile picture of the author Martin smith
    Best E-commerce platforms :
    1. Shopify
    2. WooCommerce
    3. Opencart
    4. Wordpress ...etc are the best e-commerce platforms...
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  • Profile picture of the author Kiran Malik
    I've heard good opinions about Drupal trade are free and open supply, count number of reality 99% of the modules in the Drupal ecosystem are complementary.
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  • Profile picture of the author kebumen
    Does you try the Wordpress CMS platform? This is My lovely platform that have been use many years ago. I use this CMS because a lot of features inside, easy to custom, and you can integrated with various e-commerce plugin. Also, this platform have tons of plugin to optimise your site, such as SEO, directory listing, online shop, affiliate, and much more.
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexandarA1227
    I use Shopify, and i would recommend it as a good e-commerce platform, but that's just me. I have heard that people are satisfied with WooCommerce but you'll have to double check that.
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  • Profile picture of the author anandsama1990
    drupl and magento are athe best and reliable plaform
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  • Profile picture of the author Merion Rebeca
    Have you tried Woocommerce? It comes with lots of features such as a secure payment gateway. It also has a shopping cart that serves really well. You can turn your WordPress based Woocommerce single store into a multivendor marketplace anytime just adding free plugins.

    Woocommerce Features that has many variations-

    1. Easy drag and drop Option for setup
    2. Customized option for your need
    3. Many plugins option available
    4. 100% secured for Web Solution
    5. Regular update with the latest technology.
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