looking for e-commerce expert / advice / partner

R

ryanmiller1122

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Mar 25, 2011
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I have a couple questions I want to throw out there to the wf world. I am looking for the best e-commerce solution available. The cheapest but most effective, easy way to build an e-commerce site from the ground up. I would like to use wordpress if possible as I am already familiar with it, however I am not 100% stuck on that idea.

I am really looking for a partner to guide me through the development of this site, and possibly a few more. I have been turning down e-commerece work cause frankly it is a bit overwhelming but need to get my feet wet. Would anybody out there be willing to guide me through the process beginning to end for a piece of the pie. I am looking for someone to step in and make reccomendations from what platform/software to use, to how much to quote the client, integrating the cart, etc. etc. etc.

If this interests anyone I would be more than willing to pay for the help. I am not looking to outsource this so dont ask. Time to learn, just want a little help pointing me in the right direction.
 


Satchmo is a great Django shopping cart, but first you'd have to learn Python and Django. Django is an MVC framework and makes building custom sites very quick, if you're going to be doing a lot of this kind of stuff it would be a great investment for you to learn Django/Satchmo. If interested check out the Django tutorial.
 
Magento!!!!! Wordpress requires too much modification to become a legit ecommerce solution. The other good options are shopify/bigcommerce but they take transaction fees and you are stuck in a box so no bueno for longterm.

There are some others but magento is my fav. Buy a nice 200 theme and spend another 3-400 on plugins and you will have a very nice ecommerce site.
 
I use BigCommerce and couldn't be happier.

And unlike the comment above tells you, they do not take transaction fees. That is complete bullshit. He obviously has no clue what he is talking about since he recommends you use Magento.. which is a pain in the ass to configure and needs some heavy hosting to run properly. Yes, i tried.

I suggest you either go with BigCommerce or indeed use Wordpress.
Good luck.
 
You are correct about bigcommerce, I forgot they didn't charge xaction. Magento is not that difficult to configure...sure it's no Wordpress and may take some actual thought but as far as extendability past a simple store its much better than the private ems's.

It really depends on your goals for the store.
 
Unfortunately, like many other things there is no one solution for e-commerce that fits them all. It will greatly vary depending on the client's needs/budget. No matter how many people you ask and how much research you do, you will get hundreds of different answers from different people, usually they will recommend what they are familiar with.

Think of it like designing a static site. Some clients may want custom design, photo galleries, blog integration. etc etc, where as others may just want a simple 3 page informational site. You would bid and recommend a solution/proposal to the client based on their needs. It is no different with e-commerce. Some platforms have great features, customer service, but can't handle large amounts of traffic or limits on customizability. Others have minimal features, can handle traffic, but bad customer service and are a pain to navigate the back-end. Then throw things like # of products the client needs, client's budget for monthly hosting, onsite or offsite checkout, and whether or not to build from scratch or utilize a platform into the mix.

Have confidence and go after the work. Get all the information from the client, tell them you will do the research to find the best solution for them and get back to them with options/pricing. Often times a client may want ABCXYZ and you have to come back and give them three options:
option1 : ACXYZ @ $3000
option2: ABCXY @ $3500
option3: ABCXYZ @ $1000

You will save a lot of time, and frustration by finding the correct solution up front and being straight forward with the customer. Hope this helps. I may be able and willing to help more so feel free to pm me with specific details or questions.
 
Magento is great for the small operation with simple items and minimal needs. We outgrew it in about 3 months. At this point we would need a full time hacker to make Magento do what we think a decent e-commerce system should do.

We have used Magento for about a year and it sucks terribly. It is full of hype but weak on functionality. There is no way to even know when you received your product, how many were sold in each month, who bought them, how many were returned, how many scrapped, at what price your items are selling (to determine optimum pricing), nothing. All Magento tells you, is how many it thinks you should have right now, and what your current price is. There is no way to import tracking numbers from shipping companies, and manually entering them is a tedious multi-page data-entry operation for every order!

Magento is a huge system hog and the database is convoluted. We have less than 5000 items, it takes hours to import new pricing. Trying to import new products is not viable unless you have basic simple items with no images, no categories, no size/color variations.

It is impossible to edit an order in Magento. If a customer changes their mind, or you want to edit their shipping address, or change the price, change the tax or discount, you are fucked. Your only option is to cancel the order and make a new one.

php hackers love Magento, it's a gravy-train for them. We have spent close to $10,000 in plugins, add-ons and Magento bug fixes. If you love hacking php, magento is for you. If you want to focus on sales, then get something else.

If you have a small operation, and want a low start-up cost, Magento will work for you. It's a great place for noobs to get started, but prepare to make a change if you grow.

Feel free to PM me if you want my Skype Id.
 
Jake1125 said:
Magento is great for the small operation with simple items and minimal needs. We outgrew it in about 3 months. At this point we would need a full time hacker to make Magento do what we think a decent e-commerce system should do.

We have used Magento for about a year and it sucks terribly. It is full of hype but weak on functionality. There is no way to even know when you received your product, how many were sold in each month, who bought them, how many were returned, how many scrapped, at what price your items are selling (to determine optimum pricing), nothing. All Magento tells you, is how many it thinks you should have right now, and what your current price is. There is no way to import tracking numbers from shipping companies, and manually entering them is a tedious multi-page data-entry operation for every order!

Magento is a huge system hog and the database is convoluted. We have less than 5000 items, it takes hours to import new pricing. Trying to import new products is not viable unless you have basic simple items with no images, no categories, no size/color variations.

It is impossible to edit an order in Magento. If a customer changes their mind, or you want to edit their shipping address, or change the price, change the tax or discount, you are fucked. Your only option is to cancel the order and make a new one.

php hackers love Magento, it's a gravy-train for them. We have spent close to $10,000 in plugins, add-ons and Magento bug fixes. If you love hacking php, magento is for you. If you want to focus on sales, then get something else.

If you have a small operation, and want a low start-up cost, Magento will work for you. It's a great place for noobs to get started, but prepare to make a change if you grow.

Feel free to PM me if you want my Skype Id.
Click to expand...

Which version of Magento are you using? I havent experienced any of these problems beside Magento being a resource hog (which is why I got a VPS for it). I'll agree that plugins are a bitch and can get expensive, but other than that I havent had any issues with it.
 
Jake1125 said:
Magento is great for the small operation with simple items and minimal needs. We outgrew it in about 3 months. At this point we would need a full time hacker to make Magento do what we think a decent e-commerce system should do.

We have used Magento for about a year and it sucks terribly. It is full of hype but weak on functionality. There is no way to even know when you received your product, how many were sold in each month, who bought them, how many were returned, how many scrapped, at what price your items are selling (to determine optimum pricing), nothing. All Magento tells you, is how many it thinks you should have right now, and what your current price is. There is no way to import tracking numbers from shipping companies, and manually entering them is a tedious multi-page data-entry operation for every order!

Magento is a huge system hog and the database is convoluted. We have less than 5000 items, it takes hours to import new pricing. Trying to import new products is not viable unless you have basic simple items with no images, no categories, no size/color variations.

It is impossible to edit an order in Magento. If a customer changes their mind, or you want to edit their shipping address, or change the price, change the tax or discount, you are fucked. Your only option is to cancel the order and make a new one.

php hackers love Magento, it's a gravy-train for them. We have spent close to $10,000 in plugins, add-ons and Magento bug fixes. If you love hacking php, magento is for you. If you want to focus on sales, then get something else.

If you have a small operation, and want a low start-up cost, Magento will work for you. It's a great place for noobs to get started, but prepare to make a change if you grow.

Feel free to PM me if you want my Skype Id.
Click to expand...

Sound like a cluster fuck just like Joomla/Virtuamart. Big pile of steaming shit. Have you hear anything about Open Cart?
 
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