ecommerce platform comparison

Transcription

Ecommerce Platform
Comparison
20+ Shopping Carts Reviewed
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Introduction
One of the worst mistakes a retailer can make is shack up with
the WRONG ecommerce platform. Don’t find yourself wanting
a divorce after only a couple weeks. The decision to go with a
platform is a big one, and most likely you’ll hop on a few calls
with several before you decide.
This ecommerce platform comparison is meant to provide
general overviews (stereotypes, if you will) to send you down
the path best suited for your business.
This Review Series has been featured in
Internet Marketing Magazine
www.CPCStrategy.com |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
How We Grade the Platforms
4
Overall Rankings
8
Individual Platform & Shopping Cart Reviews
14
4
How We Grade the Platforms
Our ecommerce platform comparison grades are based on
the expectations of a medium-sized retailer. These types of
retailers don’t have the resources ($1-10M/year in revenue) to
set up and run an enterprise-level ecommerce store but they
also have more general and technical expertise than
small retailers.
Let’s review the criteria
Pricing
For a mid-sized retailer, unlimited products and data storage is
typically ideal. These features were generally included in the
upper-tier/premium plans for each solution, and so we compared
each solution’s premium plan price and value (i.e. what are
you getting for what you’re paying).
Functionality
A mid-sized retailer needs to have all the fundamental
ecommerce functions and more. Premium features generally
include email marketing, loyalty programs, coupons and
promotions, strong customization options, advanced SEO,
etc. Ultimately, ratings were based on the platform going
above and beyond in terms of power and completeness.
User-experience
Did this platform give you the hot, stuffy, and dark experience
or the cool, breezy, and sunny experience? We looked at and
compared each platforms’ ease of setup, navigation, and
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design as well as the customer service and knowledge support
(support articles, instructions, tutorials, forums, etc.) offered.
Overall Value
These platforms were hands down the best value based on the
above criteria.
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Overall rankings
Ecommerce
Platform
Pricing
Functionality
User
Experience
Overall Value
Magento Enterprise
C+
A+
A
A+
IBM Websphere
C+
A+
A
A
Demandware
C
A+
A
A
Hybris
C
A+
A-
A
Shopify
A-
B+
A+
A-
Magento Community
A
A
B+
A-
Miva Merchant
A-
B
B
A-
CS-Cart
A
A-
C+
B+
Bigcommerce
B-
A
A-
B+
Volusion
B+
A
C+
B+
X-Cart
A
B+
C+
B+
Nexternal
C
B+
B+
B
Yahoo! Stores
C
B+
B+
B
Zen Cart
A+
A-
C-
B
PrestaShop
A
A
C
B
WooCommerce
A+
C
A
B-
Open Cart
A
B+
C+
B-
Magento Go
B+
C+
A-
B-
Amazon Webstores
C-
B-
B+
C+
3dcart
B
B-
C-
C+
osCommerce
A+
C-
C-
C
VirtueMart
A
C
C-
C
Big Cartel
A-
D-
A-
C-
AmeriCommerce
A-
D-
A-
C-
UberCart
A-
D-
A-
C-
8
Individual Platform &
Shopping Cart Reviews
We compare 25 of the most well-known ecommerce platforms
and shopping carts today on the basis of pricing, functionality,
user-experience, and overall value. It’s important to check out
the individual platform reviews for a more in-depth perspective.
Click on a ecommerce platform to view our review:
3dcart Review
CS-Cart Review
Magento
Enterprise Review
osCommerce
Review
Volusion Review
Amazon Webstores
Review
Demandware
Review
Magento Go
Review
PrestaShop Review
WooCommerce
Review
AmeriCommerce
Review
Hybris Review
Miva Merchant
Review
Shopify Review
X Cart Review
BIg Cartel Review
IBM Websphere
Commerce Review
Nexternal Review
UberCart Review
Yahoo! Stores
Review
Bigcommerce
Review
Magento
Community Review
Open Cart Review
VirtueMart Review
Zen Cart Review
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Amazon Webstores Review
What Kind of Merchant Should use the
Amazon Webstores Platform?
Amazon Webstores is a new all-in-one ecommerce solution for
online retailers.
Webstores opens its services up to retailers of all sizes because
their 2 plans both include unlimited storage, bandwidth, and
SKUs. Retailers have the option of signing up to sell on their
own site AND sell on Amazon.com or solely just selling on their
own website.
As you can imagine, Amazon.com encourages selling on their
own site, and so we see a 1% transaction fee for the former
plan and a 2% transaction fee for the latter.
However, retailers who sell on Amazon Marketplace still have
to pay Marketplace’s separate selling fees. Amazon tacks on
2 other fees, called “payment processing and fraud protection
fees,” regardless of whether you sell on Amazon.com, and so it
can get a little confusing.
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Ultimately, when comparing ecommerce platforms, it becomes
clear that Amazon Webstores is ideal for small to mediumsized businesses because smaller businesses can benefit from
the built-in market that comes with Amazon Marketplace
integration and larger businesses will unfortunately see
transactional fees pile up very quickly.
Good Amazon Webstore Features
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Bad Amazon Webstore Features
You can view all of Amazon Webstores’ features here.
Notable Amazon Webstores Examples
Russell Athletic (Sports Apparel and Equipment)
Fruit of the Loom (Apparel)
Argo Tea (Tea)
Bottom Line
Using Amazon Webstores is like trusting the wise and
experienced guy you met in an alley: he knows what he’s doing
and will help you some of the way, but he has his own ulterior
motives. Bad analogy? Well, just know that Webstores is
designed and catered for the inexperienced retailer who
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prefers the “set it and forget it” approach, and the multitude
of fees you’ll pay for that kind of service will pile up quickly.
Amazon Webstores will provide a very user-friendly, hands off
(for you), and complete kind of experience, but in any case
where a smaller retailer puts his/her business in the hands of
the largest internet retailer in the world, there is likely going to
be some sort of bullying down the line.
Platform Grade: C+
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Americommerce Review
What Kind of Merchant Should use the
Americommerce Platform?
AmeriCommerce is a hosted, comprehensive ecommerce
platform that allows you to design, launch, and manage your
own online store. Founded in 2005, the platform is now used
by more than 5,000 stores worldwide and has sold more than
$4 billion in products to date.
AmeriCommerce’s real strengths lie in its cross-platform
selling functionality. With just the click of a button, users
can push sales to Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, or they can
export products to comparison shopping sites. Additionally,
AmeriCommerce also allows for multiple storefronts and
microsites, and all can be controlled from the same, singular
admin dashboard.
From a technical standpoint, AmeriCommerce is a pretty
thorough platform. It includes hosting (which boasts 99.9
percent uptime) and every package comes with a free
shared SSL and is PCI compliant, which helps provide the
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security needed to accept payments and funds online.
AmeriCommerce also offers help with domain names, though
those come at an extra cost.
A few years ago, AmeriCommerce caught flak for its backend/
admin area. Customers reported it to be confusing, difficult to
navigate and designed for only the truly tech-savvy individual.
The company listened to these concerns, however, and
launched a new, completely redesigned backend just last
August. Now, the dashboard is fully customizable, includes
easy-to-understand graphics, and is even viewable on
tablets and mobile phones.
As far as pricing goes, AmeriCommerce offers 5 distinct tiers,
ranging from $24.99 to $299/month. On the higher end,
you’ve got the “Medium Traffic” Gold tier for $149 a month
and 10,000 products, and the “High Traffic” Platinum tier for
$299 a month and an unlimited number of product listings. For
retailers that sell more the $50,000 in products each month,
AmeriCommerce offers more customized packages and pricing.
Ideal for: Small to Medium-sized retailers,though it’s particularly
beneficial to those who manage multiple storefronts.
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Good Americommerce Features
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Bad Americommerce Features
You can view all of Americommerce’s features here.
AmeriCommerce Store Examples
Empire Vehicle Accessories
Boat Outfitters
Bottom Line
In a nutshell, AmeriCommerce is a robust, full-service
solution for those looking to operate an online store. From
hosting and design to product upload, order management
and even marketing, AmeriCommerce makes a strong case
to be considered a dark horse among its main competitors:
Bigcommerce, 3dcart, Volusion, and Shopify.
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If you’re looking for a main differentiator between
AmeriCommerce and its competitors, its the multi-store
functionality. I’m pleasantly surprised by how much
AmeriCommerce asserts itself in the mid-tier hosted
platform market.
Platform Grade: B
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Big Cartel Review
What Kind of Merchant Should Use the
Big Cartel Platform?
With over 200,000 active online stores, Big Cartel lives up to
its name. However, the vast majority of those stores are very
small to small online stores. Just looking at their pricing plans
reveals its simplicity. Their premium plan, Titanium, maxes out
at 300 products and is only $29.99/month. Started by a guy
who wanted to sell his band’s t-shirts, Big Cartel is essentially
the online store solution tailored for artists.
Check out all of Big Cartel’s pricing plans.
When comparing ecommerce platforms, it’s clear that Big
Cartel is ideal for very small to small-sized retailers.
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Good Big Cartel Features
Bad Big Cartel Features
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Submit Your Product Feed from Big Cartel
to Google Shopping
Because Big Cartel fosters a very small technical community,
your options here are pretty limited. However, if you’re using
Big Cartel, odds are that you don’t have many products to
begin with.
It’ll no doubt take a while, but you do have the option of
developing your own feed exactly to the specifications for
Google Shopping. Or you can always pay a one-time fee and
hire a software service like Aten Software to create and
transfer a feed for you.
Notable Big Cartel Examples
Parachute (apparel)
Boompa (apparel)
Bottom Line
Big Cartel is very cheap and extremely simple to use. If you’re
a very small-time retailer looking for the basics, this could
very well be your solution. Big Cartel will offer a very basic and
user-friendly experience, but it will also be extremely limiting.
Platform Grade: C-
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BigCommerce Review
Big Cartel Platform?
Bigcommerce is a relatively new (founded in 2009) ecommerce
platform that was designed to combine high functionality with
good user-experience. Merchants using the Bigcommerce
platform can sell any type of product, ranging from physical
products to events and services.
Like Volusion, Bigcommerce is loaded with features so it may
be overwhelming to a very small retailer with a simple online
store in mind. It’s ideal to be somewhat familiarized with
shopping carts to get the most out of their many features.
When comparing ecommerce platforms, it’s clear that
Bigcommerce is ideal for a retailer of any size because of the
range of variation in their plans. However, it can be pricey for
a small retailer.
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Use this chart to determine which Bigcommerce plan is right
for you.
Good Bigcommerce Features
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Bad Bigcommerce Features
Notable Bigcommerce Examples
Oh So Celeb (Apparel)
Circuit Boss (Gaming and PC Accessories)
Bottom Line
Bigcommerce offers a super customizable hosted ecommerce
platform that’s up there as one of the most well-known,
feature-rich, and prototypical solutions. It’s perhaps most
comparable to other all-in-one solutions like Volusion, 3dcart,
and Shopify, with Bigcommerce towards the top in terms
of functionality. Bigcommerce offers an online retailer an
extremely complete ecommerce platform experience
Platform Grade: B+
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Get More on
Google, Amazon, adwords,
& Retail Search
Find out how to increase your ROI on Google, Amazon, AdWords, and
retail search campaigns without logging into a platform, dealing with
technical elements of your data feed, or poring over performance data.
Dominate Retail Search
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CS-Cart Review
CS-Cart Platform?
First things first, CS-Cart is an open source ecommerce
shopping cart solution currently used by over 30,000 stores.
Created by ex- X-Cart employees, CS-Cart offers a complete
solution for the modern retailer and has gained a lot of buzz
and popularity in the last couple of years. For a retailer, open
source software means a couple things:
A) unlimited SKU capacity and customization potential and
B) you’ll need a developer (preferably in-house).
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CS-Cart (version 4) offers 3 different products:
The nice thing about CS-Cart’s product offerings is that a
retailer can simply download the free Ultimate version to get
a feel for the platform interface and decide later on if he/she
wants to upgrade for more store functionality. Additionally,
many (smaller) retailers may find that the free version will
suffice for their ecommerce needs. This review will focus on
the $395 Ultimate plan. Check out all 3 of CS-Cart’s versions
compared.
Ideal for: Any size retailer with web development resources.
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Good CS-Cart Features
Bad CS-Cart Features
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Notable CS-Cart Websites
Greenhouse (Apparel)
Chic Cham (Furniture)
Bottom Line
CS-Cart sets the sky as the limit in terms of customization of
design and functionality. With tons of features and a very userfriendly design process, the open source platform seems to
just fall short in the customer support sector. If you’re a small
retailer with limited technical resources, this is a HUGE red
flag, but medium to large retailers with more in-house web
development expertise will not experience as much duress.
At the end of the day, consider CS-Cart as an up-and-coming
open source solution that provides a modern, well built-out
shopping cart experience.
Platform Grade: B+
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Demandware REVIEW
Demandware Platform?
Demandware is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that
launched in 2004. Currently, the platform serves more than
180 companies across the country, including big names like
Adidas, Barneys New York, Brooks Brothers, Crocs, Ecco, FILA,
Godiva, Kate Spade, Loreal, Lancome, New Balance, PacSun,
Panasonic, Pier1 Imports, UGG, and more.
Demandware is unique from other ecommerce platforms in
that there are two ways a customer can use it. First, it can be
used simply as a “shell”. Customers can build and create the
website themselves, using Demandware as the backbone to
power it (see here). For less tech-savvy clients (or those who
wish to have a more hands-off experience), Demandware
also offers a second option: let a Demandware LINK partner
handle it for you. With this method, clients are partnered
with a one of Demandware’s LINK program partners who can
help design, launch, manage, and market the site for optimal
success. Demandware boasts LINK partners for technical
aspects, strategy solutions, and end-to-end assistance.
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While Demandware is not self-hosted, it does afford users
a fully customized experience. Its Eclipse-based support
system allows experienced developers to add custom code,
debug existing code, and even test new code in a staging
environment before going live. Demandware also boasts open
APIs, so it can easily and quickly be integrated with outside
programs and applications.
As far as pricing goes, Demandware operates on a
subscription-based model. Clients are charged a license
fee based on a percentage of the sales they generate
from the site. This percentage varies from client to client
(1-800-Contacts pays around .75 to 1.25 % of monthly sales,
according to Equity Research.) Implementation services,
which include web design, management, marketing and other
services provided by Demandware LINK partners, depend
completely on what assistance a client needs. Typically, a
customer that boasts annual sales between $20 and $500
million (Demandware’s target client) can expect licensing
fees between $200,000 and $700,000 a year and an
additional $250,000 to $600,000 a year for other services.
Though Demandware’s sales-based platform model does seem
harsh at first (taking a portion of your profits!), it can actually
turn out to be quite a beneficial system for both parties
involved. Since Demandware only gets a high payday if the
retailer does the same, the company is extremely invested in
its clients’ success. They’re motivated to help customers be
as profitable as possible, so they, in turn, can be profitable
as well. According to Demandware’s president and CEO Tom
Ebling, this is a “shared success model” of business.
Use of Demandware has been on the rise in recent years,
especially among big-name retailers. According to its 2012
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annual report, the company increased total subscription
revenue by 44 percent between 2011 and 2012, raking in
a grand total of $67.9 million in licensing fees alone. But
despite its seemingly successful system, Demandware is not
without problems. In fact, late last year, shoe retailer Finish
Line attributed a $3 million dollar loss to its recent choice to
migrate from its in-house system to Demandware’s platform.
Ideal for: Enterprise-level businesses that generate between
$20 million and $500 million in sales annually
Good Demandware Features
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Bad Demandware Features
You can view all of Demandware’s features here.
Notable Demandware Sites
Adidas
Brooks Brothers
Bottom Line
Demandware is best for large-sized, enterprise-level retailers
looking for an all-inclusive, customized ecommerce solution.
While it is possible to use the Demandware system simply as
an open-source ecommerce solution (if you’re tech-savvy or
know your way around code), the platform’s real power lies in
its unique LINK partner program. Through LINK, customers can
pick and choose any number of value-added services that can
improve their store and add to their bottom line.
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If you’re looking for a strong differentiation between
Demandware and Magento Enterprise, it’s certainly
Demandware’s pricing structure, cloud platform, and lack
of an active, established community (not as huge a factor
for enterprise businesses). Demandware will most likely
be significantly more expensive than Magento Enterprise
solutions, but speaking just of functionality, enterprise-level
businesses can’t go wrong with either feature-set.
Platform Grade: A
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Hybris Review
Hybris Platform?
Hybris is an enterprise-level ecommerce software suite that
offers B2C and B2B store functionality. Currently, more than
2,500 stores use the hybris (the lowercase is intentional)
platform, boasting more than 20 million product SKUs and
over 500,000 orders each day. Hybris has been a dominant
enterprise platform mainly in the European market.
With hybris, you can choose to host your site yourself and
simply use hybris software to power it, or you can opt for a
hybris-hosted or cloud-based solution. Either way, you’ll have
access to multiple sales channels, including B2C, B2B, mobile,
and in-store access. Inventory management/content is housed
centrally, and you’re able to pick and choose which products
are viewable in each channel. This allows you to maximize
your selling potential and display listings according to varying
customer groups and segments.
While its multichannel functionality is valuable, the true
power of hybris lies in its customizable approach. Each
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hybris deployment is carefully managed to provide exactly
what the client needs, whether it be a hands-off, hosted
solution or a store that can be handled in-house and on-site.
This customizable nature means the platform can easily be
expanded or scaled down as a customer grows and changes.
In addition to its ground-up customized options, hybris also
offers a more scaled-down, out-of-the-box solution called
Commerce Accelerator. Commerce Accelerator is a readyto-use system that includes numerous templates, order
management tools, and payment capabilities. I’ve read that
this product takes anywhere from 3 to 4 months to implement
a full-scale store.
As for pricing, hybris offers a variety of options, including
pay-per-use, long-term licensing, and revenue share.
Standard licenses start at $54,000/year and go up from there,
depending on what modules and services you need.
Ideal for: Large-sized companies who have a significant budget
and can commit to a long-term online store solution (B&M
presence is ideal).
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Good Hybris Features
Bad Hybris FEATURES
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It’s frustrating to see that hybris doesn’t release granular
feature-information (reporting capabilities, advanced
marketing capabilities, etc.), but here’s a rough overview of
their product.
Notable hybris Websites
Land’s End
RadioShack
Bottom Line
Although your hybris solution will depend on your unique,
individual needs, one thing is certain: it’s not a solution for
beginners or even middle-of-the-pack retailers. With licenses
starting at more than $50K and a built-in multichannel
functionality, this platform is best suited for large to
enterprise-level retailers with sizeable budgets and numerous
revenue streams.
B&M + ecommerce brands will benefit the most from hybris,
though it may be the better route to go with a cheaper,
similarly functional solution like Demandware or IBM
Websphere.
Platform Grade: A
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IBM WEBSPHERE Review
IBM Platform?
IBM WebSphere Commerce is an ecommerce platform
that offers multi-channel selling for B2B, B2C and B2B2C
companies. It allows for web, mobile, social, call center, and
in-store functionality, and lets users control all channels
from one central admin platform. It’s currently offered
in three deployment forms: Software as a Service, cloud
implementation, or on-premises. IBM allows customers
to transition between these three methods easily as their
businesses grow and change.
In addition to the three deployment methods, there are also
three unique WebSphere Commerce products, each aimed
at a different target audience. The “Express” package is
designed for fast, easy implementation and is considered a
“starter store,” of sorts. The “Professional” package is aimed at
midsized companies, and the “Enterprise” package is designed
for high-volume B2C and B2B retailers with multiple websites
on the docket.
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IBM WebSphere Commerce distinguishes itself from other
ecommerce platforms by integrating a number of selling
channels and allowing the user to control them from one
single admin area. WebSphere’s features are aimed towards
delivering a personalized shopping experience that speaks
to your customers’ needs, increases their brand loyalty, and
improves your sales simultaneously.
Unfortunately, WebSphere’s pricing structure is somewhat
confusing. Not only do you have to pay a licensing and
subscription fee (the subscription is annual); you also have
to pay a set fee per PVU, or processor value unit. The PVU is
the number of units within the operating system that will be
hosting the WebSphere software. Typically, this number can
fluctuate anywhere from 30 to a few hundred, depending on
the brand you have.
For the Express package, you’re looking at $5,030 cost for the
user license and subscription fee. In addition to that, you’ll
need to pay $327 per PVU. Let’s say you have an IBM Power
Systems core with a Linux operating system, which clocks in at
70 PVUS. In this scenario, your PVU fees would come in at a
total cost of $22,890. Add that to the licensing fee, and you’re
at just around $28,000 (for 1 year).
If you want the Enterprise package, you’ll pay $15,700 for a
25-store license and subscription or $20,800 for a 10-user
license, whichever serves your company best. Then, on the
PVU side, you’ll owe $1,990 per PVU. If we use the previous
example, Enterprise would run you between $139,300 and
$160, 730 per year. For the Professional package, the prices
continue to climb. You’ll pay $15,700 for a 25-store license or
$23,300 for a 10-user one, plus $1,230 per PVU. In total, that
comes out to $101,800 or $162,600.
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Ideal for: High-volume, enterprise-level sellers with a B&M
presence and those primed to take advantage of its multi-site,
multi-channel functionality.
Good IBM Websphere Features
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Bad IBM Websphere Features
You can view many of Websphere Commerce’s features here.
Notable IBM Websphere Websites:
Staples
David’s Bridal
Bottom Line
The IBM WebSphere Commerce platform offers a number
of features that could be a real game-changer for a retailer.
Reviewing it gave me the feeling that the IBM Websphere
Commerce was designed by a conglomerate of the some
of the most brilliant tech-nerds in the world because of the
sophistication of many of their retail features. Unfortunately,
many of these features aren’t available with the platform’s
most basic (and most affordable) product, WebSphere
Commerce Express. Only Demandware, another enterpriselevel solution, compares to the sophistication of WebSphere.
Platform Grade: A
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MAGENTO COMMUNITY Review
Magento community Platform?
Used by over 125,000 online stores and powering 26% of the
Alexa Top 1 Million sites, Magento Community is a big deal
in ecommerce. You’ll probably think to yourself, “What’s the
difference between Magento and the likes of other opensource solutions like CS-Cart and PrestaShop if they’re all
so customizable and they all have hundreds of extensions
available?” Well, the reality is that the user-experience with
open-source software differs greatly by the customer/technical
support made available, the user-interface, and the amount of
built-in functionality.
All 3 solutions are geared for tech-savvy retailers of any
size. For some perspective, if PrestaShop is the baseline,
CS-Cart offers a more stress-free user-experience (easy
installation, great interface) and Magento provides exceptional
functionality. At the end of the day, Magento Community will
distinguish itself from other open-source software with its
high power and functionality best-suited for retailers with high
traffic and large inventory.
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Ideal for: Upper tier, middle-sized retailers as well as
large retailers
Good Magento Community Features
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Bad Magento Community Features
You can view a comparison of key Magento plan features
(including Magento Community) here.
Magento Community Websites/Examples
Buy a Kilt
Coffee For Less
Bottom Line
Sure, Magento Community is not going to look elite next to
Magento Enterprise, but that should not cloud the fact that
Community is still one of the most capable open-source
software solutions on the market. Ultimately, your success
with Magento Community is going to be determined by your
accessibility to highly skilled web developers and your vision
for the potential of your store.
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The reality is that a retailer could technically create an online
store similar to the robustness and sophistication of an
Enterprise store using Community by purchasing extensions
and having great programmers. The multitude of extensions
will be expensive, but it’s better than paying a huge annual
licensing fee.
Though it has a high barrier to entry (for optimal potential),
Magento Community provides a highly capable and
sophisticated ecommerce experience.
Platform Grade: A-
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MAGENTO Enterprise Review
Magento ENTERPRISE Platform?
Everyone knows about Magento. The company was launched
in 2008 and now offers three unique versions of its software:
Magento Go, Magento Community, and Magento Enterprise.
While Go is suited for smaller retailers, Community and
Enterprise are geared toward medium- and large-sized
retailers. The primary difference between the two? How techsavvy the client needs to be.
Magento Community is a free open source solution, meaning
its code is completely customizable to your store’s needs.
Unfortunately, that means you’ll also need to be extremely
well-versed in code (or have someone on staff who is) in
order to configure your store the way you want it. Magento
Enterprise, on the other hand, offers a complete ecommerce
solution, including PCI compliance, tax calculation features,
return management modules, loyalty programs, email
marketing, and much more. It’s more geared toward retailers
who want an all-inclusive, hands-off package. It also includes
24-7 expert technical support, in case you need help along
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the way. Magento Enterprise and Magento Community, unlike
Magento Go, are not hosted by Magento itself. If you go with
Enterprise, you will need to purchase a separate hosting plan
relative to the size store you wish to operate. Because of this,
there is no limit to the number of products you can upload
(though it’s important to remember: the more server space
you take up, the more you’re going to pay for hosting.
In a nutshell, Magento Enterprise is best for medium- and
large-sized retailers with high sales and deep pocket books.
Magento Enterprise’s pricing looks like $15,550 a year, and
the premium version runs upwards of $77,000 annually. One
of the biggest reasons retailers choose to cough up these
high costs for Magento Enterprise is its advanced marketing
capabilities – in particular, its ability to segment customers.
This allows you to treat unique groups of customers differently
so you can give them incentives, invite them to special sales,
and do more to encourage buying on a personal level.
Opening a Magento Enterprise store puts you in company
with current clients like Nike, Vizio, Toms, and OfficeMax.
Ideal for: Medium and large-sized retailers who bring in
significant sales numbers annually.
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Good Magento Enterpise Featues
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Bad Magento Enterpise Featues You can
Check out just about all of Magento Enterprise’s features here.
Notable Store Examples
Nike
Warby Parker
Bottom Line
Unlike designer clothing, you get what you pay for with
Magento Enterprise, and it’s a lot. As one of the most popular
ecommerce platform providers in the world, Magento has
pulled out all the stops with its Enterprise edition.
Magento Enterprise offers a plethora of unique and gamechanging features that can help your store run smoothly and
add value to your bottom line. From customer segmentation,
private sales, and built-in loyalty programs to fast loading
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pages, easy checkout processe,s and more, Magento
Enterprise offers many benefits you can’t find with other
platforms.
Magento Enterprise isn’t for everyone. Despite its power,
speed, and functionality, Magento Enterprise’s high
licensing costs significantly limit who can take advantage
of this software. Enterprise is best reserved for medium- and
large-sized retailers who have a lot of product SKUs, a large
IT budget, and a high number of annual sales. Only then is it
worth the up-front costs.
Platform Grade: A
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MAGENTO Go Review
Magento Go Platform?
Use this chart to determine which Magento plan is right
for you:
Magento Go is the most basic Magento plan and is also the
least customizable. If Enterprise is the father and Community
is the mother, then Go is the middle school child. It’s designed
for small businesses that prefer a simple online store. For the
sake of not beating a dead horse, this Magento review will
focus on the little known Go.
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Magento Go starts at $15/month for 200MB of storage space
and 100 SKUs and ends at $125/month for 10,000 SKUs and
5 GB of storage space. Given the fact that Magento Go has
limited SKU and storage space plans, it is ideal for small
businesses.
Good Magento Go Features
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Bad Magento Go Features
You can view all of Magento Go’s features here.
Notable Magento Go Examples
Off The Hook (Shoes and Apparel)
Arrive Chic (Travel Accessories)
Bottom Line
Magento Go has all the makings to become a great and affordable ecommerce platform, but they’re still rather infantile in
their developmental stages. It’s very possible that over the
years, this ecommerce platform will become more sophisticated (and perhaps more expensive). Ultimately, Magento Go
will offer a very rudimentary and plain experience to its users.
Platform Grade: B-
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MIVA MERCHANT Review
Miva merchant Platform?
Miva Merchant is a complete ecommerce platform solution
for retailers of a variety of sizes. It’s one of the few platforms
that offers small business plans, enterprise solutions, as well
as self-hosting software. This means you can control how
customizable you want your Miva Merchant shopping cart to be.
There are 4 Miva Merchant plans for small businesses, ranging
from $29.95 to $129.95. Neither of these plans have a
product limit and include all of the same essential features.
It should be noted that Miva Merchant doesn’t host for
retailers with soft goods (meaning services or downloadable
products). When comparing ecommerce platforms, it becomes
clear that Miva Merchant is ideal for retailers of any size,
considering their unlimited products feature and their
consistency in features across all plans.
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Good Miva Merchant Features
Bad Miva Merchant Features
You can view all of Miva Merchant’s features here.
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Miva Merchant Examples
Green Tree Coffee and Tea
Mad Cat Toys
Bottom Line
Miva Merchant is a platform that is much improved over previous versions. Though not as well-known as some of its competitors, it’s a surprisingly robust and powerful ecommerce
platform that gives retailers all of the ecommerce essentials
and great usability.
Miva Merchant will provide merchants with a conventional,
yet powerful experience.
Platform Grade: a-
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Nexternal Review
Nexternal Platform?
Nexternal is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that was
launched in 2000. The platform serves a variety of companies
across the apparel, automotive, non-profit and food/beverage
industries and boasts several big-name clients, including
Korbel, USA Today, Hershey, Taser, Mystic Tan, and Magnolia
Bakery. All Nexternal stores are maintained on the company’s
corporate server and require no outside hosting package,
security precautions, or SSL add-ons.
For pricing, you’re looking at a $1000 initial setup fee. After
that, monthly pricing is dependent on your monthly online
sales. They also offer a 15-day free trial. Very high volume
merchants can also consider the Nexternal Unlimited package,
which costs $5000/month for any number of monthly sales.
Check out this table for an overview:
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A big plus of Nexternal is its customer service model. When
a client first signs up for the platform, they’re assigned a
personal Nexternal representative right away. This rep
will be their go-to person for any questions, concerns, or
support requests they have throughout the entire life of their
account. They’ll assist with setting up and designing the store,
recommending marketing efforts, and providing technical
support when needed. Unlike most ecommerce platforms that
use ticketing systems for customer service, Nexternal’s process
guarantees more personalized, customized support, and care.
Based off its pricing structure, I’d recommend Nexternal to
larger online retail businesses doing greater than $6 million
in annual sales. At the end of the day, Nexternal is an
enterprise-level solution.
Ideal for: Depends on annual sales, but medium to large
online retail businesses doing greater than $6 mil. annually will
see the most value
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Good Nexternal Features
Bad Nexternal Features
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You can view all of Nexternal’s features here.
Notable Nexternal Sites
ToeSox
Simple Truths
Bottom Line
With Nexternal’s personalized customer service model and
all-inclusive functionalities, the platform is a good choice
for larger retailers who will actually get the most out of
Nexternal’s powerful software. I recommend taking a look
at their pricing structure, comparing it to your monthly and
annual online sales numbers, and determining if the solution is
scalable for your business.
Despite being overshadowed by similarly-priced and more
recognized solutions like Amazon Webstores or Yahoo Stores,
Nexternal is a viable, dark-horse option for large online stores.
Platform Grade: B
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OpenCart Review
OPENCART Platform?
OpenCart is a FREE open-source shopping cart. Like Zen
Cart, OpenCart is based on PHP/MySQL code and was
developed to to be an affordable, user-friendly, and potent
piece of ecommerce software. OpenCart is definitely not
as dated as Zen Cart, but the two are very comparable.
To compare the two, OpenCart provides an overall more
intuitive and well-designed user-interface as well as a higher
selection of extensions while Zen Cart adds a bit more built-in
functionality.
Straight “out-of-the-box,” OpenCart is very basic in terms
of functionality and doesn’t touch the sophistication of
Magento’s open-source shopping cart. Like with all opensource software, the potential for your store only rises with
how skilled your web development resources are so these will
be very necessary when customizing an OpenCart site and
installing extensions.
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OpenCart is a great solution for ecommerce business owners
who are just starting out because all the base needs are
covered and there’s not all these (sometimes unnecessary)
bells and whistles that can become overwhelming. The biggest
costs for owning an OpenCart site will be web programming
resources and extensions for added functionality.
Ideal for: Small to medium-sized ecommerce stores
Good OpenCart Features
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Bad OpenCart Featuers
You can view many of OpenCart’s features here.
Notable OpenCart Examples
Mix Wig
Gorgeous Couture
Bottom Line
Despite being around for about 4 years now, OpenCart is
still an immature solution (in comparison to other opensource software on the market) in terms of its “out of the
box” robustness, and this is where purchasing a wide host
of extensions plays a role. A small to smaller medium-sized
retailer will have no problem using the OpenCart shopping
cart because it includes most base ecommerce functions, yet
a quickly growing medium to enterprise-sized ecommerce
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business may want to consider comparable, more complete
open-source solutions like PrestaShop or Magento.
It’s become clear that OpenCart users have very polar
experiences with the cart, where many customer testimonials
either rave about or smash the ecommerce software.
Nevertheless, with sound and capable web development
resources as well as a clear vision for the store, an ecommerce
business owner can have a very functional and sleek store on
their hands using the OpenCart software.
Platform Grade: B-
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osCommerce Review
osCOMMERCE Platform?
osCommerce’s online merchant platform is a comprehensive
PHP-based ecommerce solution for online retailers. Think of
it as the grandfather of all open-source shopping carts (“os”
means open-source). Zen Cart is actually a branch off of the
osCommerce software. Currently, more than 12,000 business
owners use osCommerce as the backbone for their selfhosted (vs. hosted) online store.
Because osCommerce (v2.3) is a self-hosted, open source
solution, there are no limits to the number of products that
can be uploaded using the platform. Additionally, thousands
of free community add-ons make just about any in-store
functionality possible. If you’re looking for a differentiating
factor for osCommerce among the sea of other open-source
solutions, it’s that osCommerce has been in the business for
over 13 years now. This means that the cart already has a
built-in, active community (which is huge for open-source) and
that there are many 3rd party services that integrate easily
with it. Customization is one of osCommerce’s strong suits.
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The general consensus is that although osCommere was the
Model T that started it all, it simply does not compare to the
more advanced and improved open-source shopping carts
available today.
Ideal for: Any-sized retailer (osCommerce is the 5th most used
ecommerce software among the Alexa Top 1M; the top 5 are
all self-hosted open-source)
Good osCommerce Features
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BAD oscommerce Features
Bottom Line
As the original leader in open-source ecommerce software,
osCommerce’s run at the top has dwindled as more and more
improved-upon solutions popped up on the market and surpassed it (see Magento, CS-Cart, Zen Cart, and PrestaShop).
Your main expenses with an osCommerce shop will be for web
development services, hosting, and added security.
Recommending osCommerce to the masses of medium-sized
retailers would be like recommending a DeLorean to a family
man with 4 kids (another one of my attempts at analogical
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humor…). There are simply more robust, streamlined, and
updated software available for arguably less of an investment
of time and resources. Nevertheless, with affordable and
capable web development resources, an ecommerce business
owner could still have a very functional online store, yet the
effort required to get that point will probably not be worth
the ROI.
Merchants can be ensured a blank slate and uphill battle
with osCommerce.
Platform Grade: C
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PRESTASHOP Review
PRESTASHOP Platform?
PrestaShop is a complete ecommerce platform for retailers of
a variety of sizes, and it gives retailers a large number of ways
to customize their store through open-source software.
It’s free, too, which gives retailers a low barrier to entry and a
lot of flexibility (if you have the programming skills) to build an
ecommerce store.
PrestaShop is ideal for any business that is programming
savvy.
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Good Prestashop Features
Bad Prestashop Features
You can view all of PrestaShop’s 310 features here.
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Notable PrestaShop Examples
Dirty Shirty (Apparel)
Ode à la Rose (Flower Delivery)
Bottom Line
PrestaShop is a platform that is overall cheap and extremely
flexible IF you have the skills to manage it. After reviewing
the PrestaShop platform, we believe it should be a top
contender in your comparison and analysis of the best
ecommerce platforms only if you have a good understanding
of programming knowledge and skills.
PrestaShop offers retailers a very technical but robust
experience.
Platform Grade: B
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SHOPIFY Review
SHOPIFY Platform?
Founded in 2004, Shopify is the leader in the wave of
progressive, modernized ecommerce software for business
owners. It currently powers over 70,000 ecommerce stores.
Although it’s a favorite for a large range of business sizes,
Shopify is best suited for smaller retail businesses because
of its simplicity and ease of use. However, that’s not to say
that Shopify, especially its Enterprise solution, isn’t a popular
choice for huge businesses like Gatorade and Tesla Motors.
For retailers looking to create a complex and highly
sophisticated online store, there exists better options (like
Magento Community). The hosted ecommerce platform is a
favorite for many design-oriented business owners, and its
aesthetics along with its user-friendliness are its strongsuits.
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Check out which of the 4 Shopify pricing plans works best
for you.
These rates are typically slightly less expensive than big names
like Volusion or Bigcommerce.
When comparing ecommerce platforms, it’s clear that Shopify
is ideal for small to medium sized businesses in terms of
ease of use, yet it also offers one of the cheapest unlimited
plans for retailers with a lot of SKUs.
Good Shopify Features
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Bad Shopify Features
You can view all of Shopify’s features here.
Notable Shopify Examples
SMS Audio by 50 Cent (Electronics)
Noon Copenhagen (Watches)
Bottom Line
A Shopify store is going to be aesthetically very pleasing,
rich with relevant features, and best of all, amazingly easy to
create. Shopify is hands-down the most user-friendly premium
ecommerce platform, but is not ideal for large businesses with
massive inventories.
Shopify offers an aesthetically beautiful and extremely easy
to use experience for small-medium size businesses.
Platform Grade: A
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UBERCART Review
UBERCART Platform?
Ubercart is an open-source shopping cart plugin for Drupalbased websites. It is free to download and install, but
will only integrate properly with stores using the Drupal
content management system (CMS). Ubercart is a basic,
add-on module that offers only shopping cart and checkout
functionality for already existing sites. It comes with no builtin hosting or email capabilities; these must be secured from a
separate hosting provider.
Overall, Ubercart is a fairly basic shopping cart system with
no extra bells and whistles. It allows you to upload products,
apply attributes, and list them in separate categories – but
that’s about where it ends. For other functionalities, such as
SEO, advanced marketing capabilities, mobile readiness and
more, you’ll need to use one of Drupal’s many other extension
modules (of which there are hundreds). Additionally, your
design options are limited with Ubercart. There are no
included templates; you’ll need to hire a designer or
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programmer to alter the site’s theme files and CSS to your
liking and style.
Although Ubercart itself is free of up-front charges, you’ll
encounter a number of other costs along the way if you want
to run an online store with it. In addition to needing a domain
name, a hosting package, a programmer, and SSL capabilities,
you’ll also need to foot the bill for an account with one of
Ubercart’s approved payment gateways before you can begin
taking payments.
If your company is on a strict budget and you simply want a
way to list a handful of products quickly on the web, Ubercart
may do the trick, but certainly better ecommerce plugins for
better CMSs exist.
For bigger-sized Drupal stores, Drupal offers its own
ecommerce platform called Drupal Commerce, which offers
a number of valuable functions that Ubercart simply doesn’t
have. Social media integration, more design freedom, mobile
responsiveness and international currencies are just a few of
the platform’s enhanced capabilities that could provide value
to a larger retailer.
Ideal for: Very small retailers, companies on a budget or those
only wanting to list a few products.
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Good Ubercart Features
Bad ubercart features
You can view a list of Ubercart’s features here.
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Ubercart Store Examples
Amplified Parts
Beauty Hall Indo
Bottom Line
I just can’t imagine any scenario for why I would recommend
Ubercart to a retailer. For Drupal devotees, Drupal Commerce
is a superior alternative and for those looking for an ecommerce plugin for a CMS solution, VirtueMart for Joomla and
WooCommerce for WordPress are levels beyond Ubercart
(WooCommerce is by far the best of these).
If there is such a thing as a truly ominous sign, the Ubercart
site actually crashed during my research for this review. Prepare for plenty of development and customization work
with Ubercart.
Platform Grade: D
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VIRTUEMART Review
VIRTUEMART Platform?
VirtueMart is a free, open-source ecommerce plug-in that
works in conjunction with the Joomla content management
system. It was launched in 1997 and, to date, has been utilized
by nearly 300,000 retailers worldwide.
VirtueMart is not for the novice business owner by any
means. For one, it operates on a less than user-friendly CMS
(Joomla). Known for its confusing interface and complicated
admin area, Joomla is a platform designed for the highly tech
savvy user– not the casual web user. Additionally, VirtueMart’s
open source code (which is all PHP and MySQL-based) makes
it difficult for the average business owner to manage. In
most cases, an experienced web developer or programmer
is needed to install and implement the platform successfully
(and to maintain it in the long run). Let’s also not forget that
VirtueMart and Joomla have both been swept up by
WordPress and Woocommerce as the newer, more userfriendly CMS has gained popularity in the last couple of years.
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VirtueMart (or Joomla, for that matter) does not come with
any sort of hosting support. That means business owners who
choose to use this platform must acquire a separate hosting
package with another vendor in order to get their store up a
nd running.
Users also may have to cough up extra dough if they want
their store to be mobile-friendly. Mobile compatibility for
VirtueMart is only available via the iVM Store application,
which must be purchased through the iTunes App Store
or Google Play. Depending on the device retailers want to
target and the licensing period they choose, the app can run
between $110 to $1000. So, if your store/product category
inherently attracts a lot of mobile users, VirtueMart is
not ideal.
Accepting payment with VirtueMart can also be a costly
process. To accept credit cards using the platform, retailers
first must install a PCI-compliant plug-in into their Joomla
installation, which costs around $50. They’ll also need to sign
up with an approved payment gateway and acquire an SSL
certificate (both of which mean more fees.) Fortunately, PayPal
is a bit easier to install, and it can be done at no cost.
Ideal for: The do-it-yourself small to medium sized retailer
with a lot of technical know-how.
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Good VirtueMart Features
Bad VirtueMart features
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You can view all of VirtueMart’s features here.
Notable VirtueMart Stores
Simply Remembered
Eliseo Fashion
Bottom Line
Transferring your online store, or even starting out there,
would be a huge step backwards. VirtueMart is past its prime
and in both design and functionality, appears outdated, weak,
and surpassed by more innovative competitors. It seems like
VirtueMart also has a stronger international presence than it
does in the U.S.
In a nutshell, VirtueMart is a valid option for the retailer who
has his/her sights aimed small. Small to medium-sized retailers
looking in the open-source market are better off considering
more mainstream solutions.
Platform Grade: C
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VOLUSION Review
VOLUSION Platform?
Volusion gives an online retailer every tool necessary to make
a highly functional and sophisticated online store. Volusion is
highly prototypical of a premium ecommerce platform. There
are simpler online stores available for smaller merchants, but
Volusion offers solutions for retailers of every size.
Check out all 5 Volusion pricing plans to find your best fit.
Volusion is ideal for a wide range of business sizes because
of the variance in product limits across their 5 plans.
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Good Volusion Features
Bad Volusion Features
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You can view all of Volusion’s features here.
Notable Volusion Websites
3M (multiple product categories)
School Outlet (Furniture)
Bottom Line
One of the oldest and most established ecommerce platforms
in the industry, Volusion is a hosted ecommerce platform that
offers an all-in-one ecommerce solution. If you’re looking for
a very basic online store with only a few products, a Volusion
website probably isn’t for you because of the multitude of
features it offers.
Highly customizable and easy to use, Volusion offers a very
standard and comprehensive experience.
Platform Grade: B+
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WOOCOMMERCE Review
WOOCOMMERCE PlUGIN?
Launched in 2011, WooCommerce is an ecommerce plug-in
for the WordPress content management system (CMS) that
has gained immense popularity in just a couple of years. In 3
years, it already has 2.3 million downloads, and to put that in
perspective, PrestaShop, which doesn’t require a CMS, has 3.4
million in 7 years.
Right off the bat, an online retailer needs to know 2 important
things about WooCommerce.
WooCommerce Is A Shopping Cart Plugin, NOT An
Ecommerce Platform
This means that retailers who are considering using
WooCommerce must first have a WordPress website. If you’re
unfamiliar with WordPress, it’s a quickly evolving content
management system (a.k.a. “sophisticated superblog” in
Layman’s terms). The CPC Strategy blog is a WordPress site,
and the likes of Van Heusen and IZOD rely on WordPress to
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run their retail site as well. If you already have a WordPress
site, great. If not, transferring to WordPress just for its
WooCommerce plugin may not be worth it.
WooCommerce Is Very Basic
Most features that would come standard with premium,
established ecommerce solutions like Volusion, Magento, or
Shopify are available for purchase as extensions. I think of
WooCommerce as blank iPhone, whereas a PrestaShop or
Magento Community is a blank Android. Another bad analogy
on my end, but hopefully you get the idea.
WooCommerce is FREE and is available to download
immediately. As far as pricing goes, the WooCommerce plugin itself is completely free to download. Extensions, as we
mentioned before, will be required and will run you extra
cash, and you’ll also need to have a configured WordPress site,
hosting package, and SSL in place before you can start selling.
Ideal for: Small-size retailers
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Good WooCommerce Features
Bad woocommerce features
There’s little documentation on WooCommerce’s built-in
feature set (there’s not much), but here’s a rough outline.
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Notable WooCommerce Stores
Recon Instruments
Soul Brother
Bottom Line
I’m a fan of WooCommerce. I think it’s the ideal solution for
small retailers (from just starting out to roughly $500k/year),
and prior experience with WordPress is of course a huge plus.
WooCommerce is one of the few solutions out there that really simplifies the ecommerce aspect of a website for the layperson and packages site management in a highly intuitive and
simple user-interface.
That said, a medium-sized retailer (1-5MM/year) is better
served with a solution that offers more analytical/reporting
data and has higher-level marketing functionality.
Platform Grade: B-
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X-CART Review
X-CART SOFTWARE?
X-Cart is an e-commerce platform available via download
or through a cloud-hosted solution. More than 30,000
online stores use the X-Cart platform.
X-Cart’s primary product is an open-source PHP-based
platform that can be purchased, downloaded, and installed
on any self-hosted site. In order to use the platform, you’ll
first need to acquire a domain and outside hosting package.
X-Cart actually offers hosting packages, but these come at an
additional price and are not included for the downloadable
version. If you’re looking for a differentiator between X-Cart
and its open-source peers, it’s more up-to-date software and
better user-friendliness than such PHP-based carts like Zen
Cart and OpenCart.
X-Cart also offers a hosted, Cloud version of its software called
X-Cart Cloud. With X-Cart Cloud, your site is hosted on the
X-Cart cloud servers, and security, installation, and set-up are
all included. Both the downloadable X-Cart platform and the
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X-Cart Cloud include a mobile ready design, unlimited product
listings, and built-in SEO tools, like customizable meta tags and
titles, XML sitemaps, search engine-friendly URLs and more.
They also integrate easily with all major payment gateways
and shipping providers.
Unlike a lot of open-source solutions, X-Cart isn’t free.
Packages for the downloadable version include: Mobile, its
most basic solution ($99, can’t have soft goods), Business,
designed for mid-sized and growing businesses ($495), and
Business Premium, which is for larger businesses and includes
SSL, additional support ,and store set-up help ($1,495). A
15-day free trial is available for the Cloud solution, while
merchants can test out the open-source software until they
decide to go live.
It’s Cloud packages (most comparable to a hosted platform like
Shopify), range from $20 to $200/month.
Ideal for: Small to Medium sized businesses
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Good X-Cart Features
BAD X-CART FEATURES
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You can view all of X-Cart’s features here.
Notable X-Cart Websites
Xerox
Dr. Denim
Bottom Line
Honestly, my expectations weren’t high going into this, but
X-Cart has proved to be a surprisingly capable and adaptable
solution for the mid-tier retailer. If any aspect of X-Cart sounds
familiar, it’s because it’s very similar to CS-Cart, another
modern, more high-end open-source cart. The 2 are very
comparable in terms of their feature-set and customer
support structure.
If I were advising a medium-sized business going through
the platform migration process and it came down to these
2, I’d go with CS-Cart by a thin margin (also has strong multistore capability). At the end of the day, make sure you have
a lump sum to spend on modules and reliable, very capable
development resources before diving into X-Cart (a strong
relationship with you developer is key here).
Platform Grade: B+
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YAHOO! STORES Review
YAHOO! PLATFORM?
Yahoo! Stores is quietly one of the premier ecommerce
platforms out there, and it hosts more of the top 500 internet
retailers than any other platform. It’s also the only platform
whose plans reflect a retailer’s expected monthly sales rather
than the number of products or storage space. All 3 of Yahoo!
Stores’ pricing plans feature unlimited storage space and
a max of 50,000 SKUs, ranging from $39.95 per month to
$299.95 per month.
When comparing ecommerce platforms, it’s clear that Yahoo!
Stores is ideal for medium to large size businesses, but its
Starter Plan is an inexpensive but very comprehensive solution
for a small merchant.
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Good YAHOO! STORES FEATURES
BAD YAHOO! STORES FEATURES
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Notable Yahoo! Stores Examples
Organize.com (Home & Garden)
Greekgear.com (Apparel and Accessories)
Bottom Line
Yahoo! Stores offers the fundamentals and essentials to
launching an effective ecommerce site. The platform is feature
rich but lacks the innovation and optimizations of other platforms like Magento, Volusion, or Bigcommerce.
Yahoo! Stores will provide a very typical and complete
experience for a retailer.
Platform Grade: B
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ZEN CART Review
ZEN CART PLATFORM?
Zen Cart is a popular, FREE open-source ecommerce software
solution. It’s PHP-based so PHP programming experience is an
absolute necessity. Zen Cart is a branched-off project from the
veteran ecommerce software osCommerce, with the major
difference being that Zen Cart’s pages are template-based and
a bit easier to customize.
The shopping cart has been around since 2003, so there is
extensive documentation on its use. Zen Cart also goes toeto-toe with other major open-source ecommerce software
solutions like Magento Community, CS-Cart, and PrestaShop
on close to every fundamental ecommerce function.
If you’re just looking to get an ecommerce store off the ground
and on the web, then Zen Cart will get the job done. However,
don’t expect jaw-dropping designs or highly sophisticated bells
and whistles on your site, and PHP programming knowledge/
resources is an absolute requirement.
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Ideal for: All business sizes, particularly smaller retailers with
web development resources.
Good Zen cart features
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Bad zen cart features
You can view many of Zen Cart’s features here and the key
features here.
Notable Zen Cart Examples
Fox Cartel (Apparel)
Main AttraXion (Apparel)
Bottom Line
Zen Cart is typically preferred by small to medium-small
retailers because while it is initially difficult to customize the
look and features of the store, many will just set-and-forget
the website interface until they’re ready to upgrade to a more
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advanced, premium solution. The very low overall cost of a
Zen Cart store doesn’t hurt either. The biggest costs for Zen
Cart will be programming/web development services
and hosting.
Ultimately, Zen Cart proves itself to be a solid, highly
capable, and very affordable shopping cart. It will cover all
the ecommerce essentials a lower-size retailer will require,
but it tends to sacrifice design and aesthetics in the process
(depending on how good your programmer is). Additionally,
the Zen Cart brand has been around a while, and it will
continue to be a solid and stable solution.
As a side note, it is absolutely vital that you have a highly
skilled and dependable PHP developer on-hand because
customizing your store is something you want to get done
right the first time.
Overall, Zen Cart will provide retailers with high capability
and reliability.
Platform Grade: B
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3DCART Review
3DCART PLATFORM?
3dcart is another all-in-one ecommerce platform that has
plans for retailers of all sizes. Their prices are on the lower
end for a solution of this scale, and 3dcart is one of the easier
platforms to use compared to its competitors (i.e. Shopify,
BigCommerce,Volusion).
Use this chart to determine which 3dcart plan is right for you.
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Check out all of 3dcart’s pricing plans to find out which one
best suits your business.
When comparing other ecommerce platforms, it’s clear that
3dcart is ideal for small to medium sized businesses because
of its cheap price and middle-tier functionality.
Good 3dcart features
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Bad 3dcart features
*These are the costs for customizing the design of the
following features (ALL of these features come standard in a
default design for any 3dcart plan): Drop down menus ($199),
mobile integration ($399), daily deals ($799), “view cart
preview” box ($499), social media tie-ins like Facebook and
Twitter ($299), blog ($399)
You can view all of 3dcart’s features here.
Notable 3dcart Examples
The New York Times Store (Gift items)
Lems (shoes)
Bottom Line
3dcart is a decent shopping cart that many smaller retailers
will enjoy using because of its ease of use. There are better
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solutions that exist if you’re looking for more a highly
functional, robust solution and there are platforms that
provide better customer service. The ecommerce platform
will provide a very run-of-the-mill, conventional experience
for retailers.
Platform Grade: B-
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ecommerce platform comparison

Transcription

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