Australian Infront

Posted 29.06.2012 @ 2.52PM

I really like using Magento, the free version comes with no support but i believe it still has all of its features.

I saw one recently that looked pretty good, but havent had the chance to try it out yet - PrestaShop (i believe it is totally opensource and free!)

Posted 17.07.2012 @ 12.00AM

::I found interesting for small online shops is JavaScript-based shopping cart, for it's simplicity and nice user interface.::

Let me guess: The one that your website link links too?

Where's that damn spam reporting link???

Posted 24.07.2012 @ 10.51PM

i am a big wordpress fan but it sucks at commerce. the current plugins are unreliable. there is a new one out, however i am waiting for it to mature before even considering using it. I used shopp and that was a disaster come upgrade time. My wp dev mates were already complaining about the other main wp plugin

i like bigcommerce as a hosted solution... features, cost etc..... painful templating system but it does allow you to do what you want...

Posted 24.07.2012 @ 11.09PM

Yep, agree with wordpress ecommerce plugins, they all seem buggy in one way or another.

Was chatting about that in a thread on flyingsolo.com.au, and one freelancer was trying to convince everyone that WP was just as good an ecommerce solution as a dedicated one, rather than (my view) an option only when there are other specific reasons to use wordpress (ie. blog focused site with ecommerce just a small part of it ...etc).

I think it's a little like the days when wordpress really wasn't up to being a dedicated CMS (it's come a long way now), and some people hacked and forced it into being "okay" rather than select a more appropriate CMS. They seem to be trying to force it to be used for every type of website, which is completely wrong way to go about it, and doing your clients a real disservice.

Posted 26.07.2012 @ 1.54AM

I saw your post. As I have some background in building Ecom sites, I would like to give you a little feedback on the different Ecom platorms:

**Magneto**
Magento is an excellent enterprise ecommerce platform however it is not for the faint of heart. A Magento shop takes time to develop and a good understanding of PHP. I have used Magento to develop may Ecom sites however at the end of the day it requires time, knowledge and or alot of money. Adequate hosting alone is going to run 50 to 100 AUD. Plugins run about 100 - 300 USD and custom development I believe would start around 5,000 AUD (if you were looking to an outside developer to set it up). Magneto Go might be an option but it doesn't have the templates that...

**Shopify**
offers. I have never used Shopify however yesterday I came across this showcase and was quite impressed.http://www.shopify.com/blog/6277292-22-beautiful-australian-shopify-stores It seems like it might be a perfect fit for what you are looking to do. So impressed that I decided to do a little research on Shopify. From what I read it doesn't offer much in the way of customizations for the checkout process, but if you can live with what they have it might be an attractive option that would be quick to get up and running. The available templates are decent and could easily be improved with a bit of coding (Shopify uses Liquid which I am not too familiar with however from what I could see the markup isn't too complicated). I also see many artist that are using it for Ecom. Also I believe there are plenty of ports for Tumblr, Wordpress and Joomla if you wanted to add in a blog or other content. However as I said I have never used Shopify but it looks interesting.

**Joomla and Word Press**
If you don't want a hosted service I think you can certainly explore your options with Wordpress or Joomla. I don't have any experience with Word Press ecommerce so I can't offer much about Wordpress. However I have worked with Joomla extensively and I can say that Joomla's Virtuemart has gotten much better with the recent 2.0 version, so you could certainly consider that. However if you do go this route I would stress that you need to pay for good hosting. You are going to need at least a dedicated VPS, dedicated IP and SSL cert. Again this is a minimum of 50 AUD a month and probably more if you want to host in Australia.

Hope this helps! I'd be happy to give you more feedback if you have specific questions.

Posted 26.07.2012 @ 3.57AM

You missed out on the two best CMSs: opencart and prestashop.

Posted 26.07.2012 @ 11.27AM

You are right. Sorry I don't have any hands on experience with those :( However I did look into Prestashop before and that does look promising and certainly not as complicated as Magento.

Posted 27.07.2012 @ 6.01PM

has anyone used the eccomerce in business catalyst?

Posted 29.07.2012 @ 11.22AM

Useful information share..Thanks

Posted 31.07.2012 @ 9.05AM

shopify looks hot and i had a play.. however look at the pricing models... shopify charges for every transaction on top of your gateway. most plugins have ongoing fees.. this all adds up quickly, especially the shopify transaction fee..