hello, well , i have read many posts here that many recommending to start with magento , zencart , bigcommerce , etc packages either self hosted or hosted packages . Before to it , i am not able to make a decision that does i need to go with this packages or go for own design with some web designing companies .
You're probably better off starting with something like bigcommerce, volusion, shopify, etc. Way easier with payment processing and everything else starting out. If you have custom needs you can hire a designer to help customize your site at http://www.bigcommerce.com/experts/ and http://experts.shopify.com/designers, though I really recommend looking into a few designers before you choose one.
Even if you go with any of these platforms you may need a customized designed website. these are just platforms which even provides some readymade templates. Now it's upto you whether you want to go with pre designed templates or use your own custom designed template. I recommend to go with custom design as you get enough liberty to integrate anything in your site and give it any shape and style. You have all the freedom to make it user/ search engine friendly, which is more important that thinking of pre-designed or custom designs. You just need to think of your requirement, what exactly you want in your website and how it can help you to increase your sales/leads. Business is more important than design. But business can only generated via a aesthetically appealing, user friendly, and search engine friendly website
Yes SEO is the ,most considerable thing for Any website.. we cant get more hits than the Google bring to us. Can this packages are god for seo? & as i have seen on there "Showcase" no site is popular.
Hello there, Everything is related with your budget and the kind of store I would advise to adopt OsCommerce | Magento | Opencart which would be easy to manage the products and contents, as well as we have plenty of available resources. It involves cost on design, development and hosting.. it may not go more than $300 USD to $450 USD (inclusive of design, development and hosting) While we go with the online stores like bigcommerce.. etc... you need to understand that you are hosting in their servers.. you will have lot of restrictions... even it involves much money if you need to make a unique design or if you need to make any customization. So better stick with your own store in your own server .. Good Luck .. Cheers
thanks for the reply @orangelabs I never look at hosted solutions.. i am looking in between using open source carts vs Self coded (with web design company)
A Ah! That's fine.. then open source carts should be the right solution. If you need to build a shopping cart from scratch with a team, it will involve much investment. Cheers
fine , as i know these open source carts won't full fill all requirements , but as i read on many articles for startup its a good choice . One Question rises on my mind , Does it easy to migrate from these carts to self designed solutions in future if i got succeeded in business
In my opinion I know that magento, zencart , bigcommerce , vevocart , Opencart etc. they provide template but I always think it hasn't template that can meet my requirement of business. So my own design should be the best. If you think like me, you should consider what programming language which you are expert for modify design and see what platform probably easy to modify design then you choose shopping cart platform.
A lot depends on budget and timing. If you want to quickly get online selling then you'll want to use any of the really good shopping carts applications already available. You'll lose some flexibility in that you'll need to work with their cart but less time is involved. If you want more customization capability, then having one developed for you is the way to go. Main downside is cost as it can get expensive (unless it's really simplistic).
Hello, I think It totally depends on the requirements of the users which they find most relevant. If you crave the utmost in customization, then choose open source cart like Magento and if you want ease in use or don't to invest more time and money then go for hosted solutions like Big Commerce, shopify etc. I feel Magento has upper hand on most of the ecommerce platforms. It provides huge list of features, extensions and moreover you have full control on this to customize it as per your requirement. If you're a developer and wants to experience every aspect of your website then go for magento. Thanks