CMS for Ecommerce

Marcoose · May 9, 2012

Hi guys, ws just wondering what CMS would be best for an ecommerce site. Im undecided at this point whether to drop ship or stock myself and not sure whether this matters. There are some rather tasty themes on ThemeForest that Im considering.

ehm · May 10, 2012

Been working with ecommerce for sometime and it depends on what you are selling.

if you want to use a CMS then Joomla + Hikashop is good.

With out CMS use Opencart, Cs-cart or magento commerce all 3 are free to use and are the best ones we have used.

Blossom · May 10, 2012

Seconding OpenCart. Unless you want to create the next Amazon and then you'll need Magento (not on shared hosting though).

Ashton · May 10, 2012

Depends on what you're selling.

If its only a few items, then shopp plugin for wordpress

For more, opencart.

For even more then magento.

Marcoose · May 11, 2012

Im looking to sell designer furniture. Thing is I'd rather not stock it as it will be a XXX,XXX start up on stock alone. Whats the easiest way to get around this? Drop ship? Get deals in place with manufacturers or deal with actual drop shipping specialists? I'm going to be dealing with very high value goods (like 800 for a lamp shade lol).

Should I just knock the whole ecom thing on the head seeing I've got 0 knowledge of it? Im just thinking though its a great model for building a brand and Ive got a name I really, really like!

Marcoose · May 11, 2012

Ashton said:
Depends on what you're selling.

If its only a few items, then shopp plugin for wordpress

For more, opencart.

For even more then magento.

What does magento do that the others dont? Would you recommend getting a custom site built or would a out of the box template suffice?

Ashton · May 11, 2012

Marcoose said:
Im looking to sell designer furniture. Thing is I'd rather not stock it as it will be a XXX,XXX start up on stock alone. Whats the easiest way to get around this? Drop ship? Get deals in place with manufacturers or deal with actual drop shipping specialists? I'm going to be dealing with very high value goods (like 800 for a lamp shade lol).

Should I just knock the whole ecom thing on the head seeing I've got 0 knowledge of it? Im just thinking though its a great model for building a brand and Ive got a name I really, really like!

I was going to start an online clothes shop, but lots of people advised me against it and I came against so many walls - there is so much information out there that it would takes years to filter through. I found suppliers just wanted to sell me the stuff with high minimum orders. They weren't interested in drop shipping and hence I would have needed a much higher budget if I was going to order in.

What I was tempted to do, before being distracted by something else was start it as an affiliate site and gradually move to stocking products once it was running well as an affiliate.

Marcoose said:
What does magento do that the others dont? Would you recommend getting a custom site built or would a out of the box template suffice?

Magento is a bit nuts, it's got so many damn features. For many people who use it, it's overkill. It's also uncomfortable to use without spending quite a long time just learning it. It's so bloated with a bazillion features you will most likely not use.

OpenCart is bliss in comparison, much shallower learning curve and a lot less bloat - I also find it easier to code for. However you may find it not quite feature rich in the future.

I think you should just install opencart, and find a theme you like - there is some on:

http://themeforest.net/category/ecommerce/opencart

D600 · May 12, 2012

Prestashop is very good! Not tried open cart but will be trying it soon for the multishop feature!

Marcoose · May 12, 2012

Thanks for the advice. Part of me thinks I should stick to what I know but I do feel ecom is a great hedge against these shitty (can I say that?) google updates. Plus it would be nice to diversify a little more too.

retired_member21 · May 12, 2012

Magento = capable of full on enterprise usage wrt stock control/features and can be tricky for non-dev people to work out compared to the rest. Support licenses cost a fortune is basically a full on solution (I've heard anywhere from £12k/year for full support)

Prestashop = good (you can see the showcases on their site too - potential back link target

)

Opencart = good

fresh79 · May 12, 2012

+ 1 opencart - great & easy to code mvc plus a new-ish addition called vqmod means you can do all sorts of fancy tricks

-1 prestashop - awful seo urls - hugely bloated - steep learning curve.