What Shooping Cart To Use?
-
Hi
Any recommendations on shopping carts? I’m looking for something pretty cheap, not over $150 a month. But I don't want to sacrifice quality to save on loose change.
Any suggestions?
-
AWESOME! Thank you everyone for all your help. We truely have a fantastic community here at SEOmoz!
Thanks everyone!!
-
SearchFit is a very powerful shopping cart software and one of the best out there. Starts with $79 per month with $39 for 1st month. They also have 14 days trial.
-
Recommendations need to be based purely on your specific requirements (and budget)...
Undoubtedly, opting for a cheap solution, will sacrifice on quality - as with many things in life.
Are you planning on using a website design / development agency to build and design your store or are you just looking for an off the shelf platform with pre-built templates?
What is the $150 per month for? Hosting? Monthly transaction commissions on self hosted solutions or just monthly fee for usage of the ecommerce solution?
First identify whether an open source platform or a self hosted platform is best for you. If you want everything taken care for you and aren't worried about the endless limitations you will face, then a self hosted solution such as Shopify or Big Commerce may be best.
We've got many years experience in ecommerce having worked with lots of ecommerce providers and there really isn't any case of one size fits all nor are there many that we recommend as the majority have flaws.
Generally we'll recommend Magento as it's open source, extendible, flexible, robust, powerful - but it is also bulky so needs experts to fine tune and configure server, site and a decent hosting package - preferably in a dedicated environment - but this won't always be the best or cheap option for some etailers.
Some questions you may want to be asking before going with a recommendation include:-
- What is the reasons for upgrading / switching if you already have an ecommerce website?
- How many products do you need to upload and will the filters/options be complex at all?
- Can you design, code or work around PHP, MySQL databases, HTML and CSS (typically)?
- What ecommerce features do you require?
- How extendible does your solution need to be?
Other noteworthy subjects to consider:-
- Support & Service
- Themes & Extensions
- Maintenance & Updates
- SEO / Core Optimisation
You may also find this article on Killer eCommerce Tips for Online Retailers useful too. Whether before you have chosen an ecommerce solution or after...
-
Only with joomla, but they're free... and with a big community sharing new components, plugins, and modules... ZenCart is other good option.
-
ZenCart is a popular shopping cart system as well and its free open source. Ive been happy using zencart and virtuemart for my shopping cart applications. Virtuemart Ive only used in conjunction with Joomla CMS websites. Not sure if it works as a stand a lone.
-
If you want to recommend CART66 150usd SO and there is little free version.
Flex
-
Hi waayne
We're using Virtuemart 2.0.6. Free and easy to use. You can download it from www.virtuemart.net.
I hope this can help you.
-
Hi Wayne,
I've recently had a friend launch a ecommerce site on Big Commerce. From everything I've read, and everything my friend tells me, they are fantastic. I had a bit of a play around with the backend and it's really easy to use too.
Prices start at around $25 a month and I'm pretty sure there are no locked in contracts.
Cheers
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What Website Platform would you use?
We are considering 1 maybe 3 websites (1 new 2 redesign) there are so many options with technology rolling over every 3 years it seems. Here are my obstacles: Wordpress: dynamic but easily hacked, often needs updating Joomla: attractive, but cumbersome to manage Custom: sleek and easier to manage, but gets outdated quickly Here are some variables: 80+ products, E-Commerce, Dynamic, Blog, Tons of images, SEO friendly, MUST not lose our rankings! OK, Moz friends, What do you recommend?
Web Design | | KevnJr0 -
Anyone using CloudFlare on multiple sites?
We are considering using CloudFlare as a CDN for a large group of sites. The fees are $5 to $200 depending on many factors. We tried the free trial on one site and were impressed with the results. I am wondering if any of you have any longer term experience with this and performance metrics, etc.
Web Design | | RobertFisher1 -
Should I Use An Animated Javascript Responsive Site
Hi, hope someone might be able to help me with this. I am setting my son up with a website for his small painting and decorating company. However, I am a wordpress stalwart and he has seen a theme which is a javascript animated responsive theme from template monster. Its not my choice just he is adamant that he wants it. However, I am slightly concerned that Google cannot index as well with these kind of sites as they would with a standard HTML site. I would be grateful if someone could confirm if they can be indexed etc. The content appears in what I can only describe as lightboxes. Thanks
Web Design | | denismilton0 -
Using H1 Headings - More than 1?
I've known about avoiding the use of more than 1 H1 Heading Tags, however, with HTML5 is this going to change... at least that's how I understand it. According to HTML5 Specs, Each 'section' can have an H1 heading, which at least theoretically means certain web pages that have multiple "sectioning elements" can have more than 1 H1 heading... true? False? What I'm looking for here is some insight into the ramifications HTML5 will have on the use of H1 tags. And would like to know how search engines currently handle this and are they anticipated to change as the HTML5 outline algorithm becomes widely supported? thanks in advance Kelly
Web Design | | KellysTutorials0 -
Two sites in same industry and which shopping cart
Right. So I suspect I am going to sound paranoid here - but you'll all forgive me right?? I am sure I saw a reply to a question on the Q&A suggesting that it was a bad idea to have two sites in one industry as Google may see it as trying to get two bites of the SERP cherry... is this accurate? I have an existing asp.net site in the maternity wear industry here in Australia and am wanting to start another site to appeal to a different customer base... the market is quite broad. There will be a core list of products that are the same between the sites, but also some quite different products. Content, product descriptions and categorys will be different. I have another website that I bought with reasonable age and links in the industry that I was going to 301 to the new site to give it a kick in the juice. So, not wanting to deceive my customers in anyway, I was thinking I would call it a "division of" or "sister site to" the existing ecommerce site, with a single link back and forward between the two sites. Would there be anything wrong with this in googles eyes? Even with same contact details? They would be run on totally different platforms and hosted by totally different providers. Or would you keep them totally seperate and only have contact details in images? Or a step further and have totally different phone numbers etc? Then the shopping cart - I would love some suggestions on which opensourse cart to use, preferrably one that I can set up myself, and that has a good framework for seo. I want to use schema.org, authorship, seo friendly urls all of which I am having trouble getting out of the developer of my asp.net site.... I don't want the new site to be asp.net Thanks in advance!!
Web Design | | catfree0 -
How is an SEO's time best used?
We have over 50 highly varied and niche sites in our company. Each website is for an annual event spread across the calendar. I am the solo SEO person here and was wondering what your opinions are about what would bring in the greatest SEO power in my limited daily allotment; link building? Keywords? Content? Oh, and to make my life even easier - its all based on SharePoint 2007!
Web Design | | DaveGerecht0 -
Are HTML sitemaps still in use today?
I'm trying to help a client understand the importance of having a well-organized HTML site map as a method of helping usability. As part of this process, I spent some time searching for good examples of well-organized HTML site maps, and found that many sites don't offer one (including SEOmoz). I'm wondering if webmasters and/or SEOers think they aren't valuable any longer?
Web Design | | EricVallee340 -
Which CMS Should Use?
I have a desinger working on a new webiste and he's suggesting that WP creates design limitations (He's doing quite a bit of HTML 5 I believe...I'm not sure) and obviosly has secruity concerns. He suggested TextPattern, which I've never heard of. Has anyone had any experience with it? Also, what CMS are you using (besides WP) that you really like and is SEO friendly? Thanks
Web Design | | LuminConsutling0