[help] Dipping toe into the choppy waters of ecommerce....

[phoenixalpha]

I'm starting to look into the possibility of creating a ecommerce site for mugs/tshirts/etc (just like everyone else really) as it's not something I have any experience of, hence the query on here. I know a lot of people on DSF have their own and I was wondering if anyone has any solid recommendations on the avenue that they have taken.

I've spent a few days looking for the best way, but then everyone says their way is the best way, so I thought I'd ask for some real world opinions.

I've looked into a few options and would like any opinions on them:

ECWID - looks simple, easy to set up, $15 per month for the basic setup and $35 pm for the usable version, but lacks (from what I've seen) the ability to be customisable and real world sites seem to be a bit thin on the ground. Can be easily set up with free account to see "how it works"

WOOCommerce - Wordpress plus template - easy as its Wordpress... seems to be costly though to set up multiple modules though and you need to commit to the full design and cost before getting to see how it works

Opencart - seems complex and pretty much on your own to set up and get going.


Does anyone have any "yeah."X option".. this is the way to go" stories?

[James990]

I use Joomla, most of the plugins are free, and I find it a breeze to use.

[JMugs]

If you want easy then ETSY (www.etsy.com) and open a shop and/or ebay with a shop. Lot's of people will shout me down on this I am sure. But for getting out there with minimal hassle they are both worth considering.

Janners

[phoenixalpha]

I have both etsy and eBay sites but was looking to branch out into my own.

[Justin]

I'm with OpenCart, appeared a bit complicated at first but if you stick with it it's excellent Plenty of help out there.....and on here

[pisquee]

There's some excellent ECWID tutorials on YouTube by RichMom who was just a user making videos about how to set up ECWID for other users - am not sure if she's more official about it now though, but either way very good.
ECWID is customisable with CSS code, and is easy to pop into an existing WordPress site - I liked that the same back end shop was then also available on your FaceBook page - two shops for the price of one effectively. There are links on the ECWID site showcasing what people have done with ECWID and how it's been customised - plenty of Q&As on their site for you to search to find out how to change everything. I also liked that you can upload your entire catalogue including URLs to main product image in a csv file, rather than having to edit each product individually on the website.

[GoonerGary]

As soon as I see an e-commerce method costing 'something' per month I click the back button.

I was building a wordpress site blog with the wp-e commerce plug-in adding my products. A day or two later not having officially launched the site I had sales coming in. I was amazed.

Wordpress, wp-ecommerce/ paypal...it's free forever. I spent £40 on a nice shopping theme, but that has been it.

The only nuisance were the upgrades and the bugs and my theme is no longer supported.

So to get round that, don't always get the latest upgrade, you don't need it.

I'm setting up new sites this year and will see if woocommerce is suitable.

[logobear]

i am wondering with these near 'free' sites, do they SEO well ?

[arko]

WooCommerce is very easy to integrate, fully supported, has numerous free and paid modules, is regularly being updated and incorporates an automatic reminder and has numerous excellent themes for free and paid!. The wp-ecommerce isnt supported as much as it used to as the Woo boys knocked them for six with their simplicity and support! I love it! I also like, as Justin, the OpenCart system. All depending on which themes you use, you also get an easy to use admin panel which can save loads of hours uploading and configuring compared to the normal OC admin panel. Two of the best customizable themes I have seen are Kauri and Bazaar for Wordpress and Journal for OpenCart.

[GoonerGary]

With wordpress, there are always free seo plugins. Do you actually need them? Your keywords are in your product titles and your description. Sites don't SEO themselves automatically, put the keywords into your images and products and google will do the rest.