Hello, I have a friend who will be starting a major eCommerce site next year. The site will be huge and they want to have a really cool site like the big guys...i.e gilt, armaniexchange and etc... They are going to spend lots of money on this. If they decide to go with volusion they will use the "custom theme design" which will cost around $5k. 3d cart is cheaper but they are not looking for "cheaper" per say but the best. Custom developmet - how much would that run them if they decided to go with custom design and what are the pros and cons of custom design? I guess my question is which is the best option out there? should they just go along with volusion or does anyone have any other ideas. Also if you are an expert in this field, pm me and give me your honest advice. we are also looking for qualified developers to help us set up and etc down the line.
I would start by making sure the ecommerce solution is VISA PCI certified, listed on Visa's website. For a "major" ecommerce business, site availability and technical support are really important, so 24x7 Phone Support is a requirement (which rules Bigcommerce out), and I would check downtime stats for both companies within the last couple months. 3dcart is a large provider with affordable prices, but the corporate plans are far superior than Volusion while at the same time reducing costs by avoiding bandwidth overages. I would be make the decision about the fact that 3dcart can do custom programming in addition to custom design, but this is not an option with Volusion, so if there are unique needs then you always have the option to customize the ecommerce solution to adapt to your business.