Shopify for Web Store?

Zascar

A friend of mine runs a business of which part of it he has an online shop that sells some of his products. It’s a basic Zencart which does the job but it’s nothing fancy and he’s already spent quite a bit of time and money on it.

He’s now starting a new side business with a new group of products and wants a new site with a ‘state of the art’ online shop. Something that really looks very modern and attractive – impressive on first sight etc. I think he should go the shopify route. I think it will do more than he needs, be able to get a really nicely operating and attractive store for small money. Trying to do the same from scratch would be a huge investment and I’m not sure it would be worth it for what he’s selling and the quantities etc.

I’m looking for advice, if you guys have used it, any feedback etc – and also he wants someone (in Ireland preferably) to design, build and look after the site for him. I know they have a marketplace for people who will design the stores etc – but are there any irish ones, or can any designer do this?

KonFusion

Never used shopify myself, but it's from the folks at Happy Cog so I imagine it's very good.

I'd usually reccommend it to clients who don't have the cash for bespoke eCommerce work.

From what I understand is shopify not something like squarespace where you pick from various themes? I believe there's very little involved in the design & build. He should be able to learn how to do it himself fairly easily.

Failing that, I'm sure any decent Irish design firm can assist.

ressem

Shopify or Magento would be my candidates depending on what the customer needed.

"Magento Go" is the version hosted by the company themselves.
You can have it hosted by them in the UK, and a small advantage over shopify in pricing/SKUs and no "per transaction" charge.

"Magento CE" is when you want to host the store yourself or customise the store heavily at the expense of self-maintenance (or by your site-builder in this case).

There are a few good quality developers in Galway that specialise in Magento. Presumably there are more in Dublin.

devildriver

Shopify is probably the best known hosted ecommerce app/site but there are plenty of others.

Take a look at BigCommerce and SolidShops:

http://www.solidshops.com
http://www.bigcommerce.com/

Neither of those sites charge transaction fees, just a flat monthly rate regardless of how much you sell. Shopify charges 1-2% of every sale as well as the monthly fee.

So it depends on the voume of sales that your client expects as to which option will work out cheaper in terms of ongoing costs.

@KonFusion: I wasn't aware of any relationship between Shopify and Happy Cog. Is there a connection?

Zascar

Wow. thanks guys I did not know there were so many other viable options. So which ones are better at what exactly does anyone know?

KonFusion

devildriver wrote: »

@KonFusion: I wasn't aware of any relationship between Shopify and Happy Cog. Is there a connection?

I'm wrong. For some reason I thought I'd read that shopify was developed by the folks at Happy Cog. In fact Happy Cog simply produced premium themes for Shopify.

My whole outlook on Shopify has now been tossed up in the air :pac:

Zascar

Few links I found: http://www.webdistortion.com/2010/05/30/5-hosted-ecommerce-cart-solutions-reviewed/
http://www.ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/top-6-ecommerce-platform-reviews-2012-shopify-volusion-bigcommerce-magento-bigcartel-3dcart/
http://coalitiontechnologies.com/blog/bigcommerce-review-shopify-vs-bigcommerce-vs-magento-vs-volusion-vs-3d-cart/2320/
http://www.leapgo.com/bigcommerce-vs-shopify-vs-volusion-a-detailed-review/
http://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/volusion-bigcommerce-or-shopify-which-one-is-for-you.html

I'm sure they would all be fine for what I want to do. What I'm wondering is if any of them are more suited to an Irish store, that will also ship internationally?

davidclayton

Zascar - brilliant. Exactly what I was looking for. Will look through the links.

I'm in a similar situation - need to advice a friend with no php/asp programming skills on which is the most suitable for him. He only knows html and image editing, so looking for easy setup, but needs to handle around 2000 products. I'll report back if I make a decision

Zascar

I emailed 8 web design companies in yesterday with a large description of what I'm trying to do and what I need, requesting some feedback and costs from them. Only one replied. Amazing.

This page: http://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/ has a great comparison and the site is excellent also. I think BigCommerce is the way forward. Apparently it can link in with eBay and Amazon too which would be fantastic.

I'm going to put a thread in the work wanted thread - but I think I'll start a free trial and help him build it, kick things off and then see what help we can get...

davidclayton

Hmmm... drawn to Shopify so far. Further research needed. Something I hadn't considered is that when they list the 'amount of products' in the pricing, this doesn't take into account if a product has multiple sizes or colours or whatever - these attributes are counted as new products as far as I can make out. Seems ridiculous, as I'd probably need around 10-20k products then.

I think I'll email their support and ask for an answer on this.

Zascar

http://shopping-cart-software.venturebeat.com/compare/24-27/BigCommerce-vs-Shopify
Hmm doing some research Shopify seems to get the better reviews but looking on this list, BigCommerce seems to have more features..

davidclayton

davidclayton wrote: »

Something I hadn't considered is that when they list the 'amount of products' in the pricing, this doesn't take into account if a product has multiple sizes or colours or whatever - these attributes are counted as new products as far as I can make out. Seems ridiculous, as I'd probably need around 10-20k products then.

Just called Shopify and got an answer on this. If a product has attributes, then each combination is a unique product. Say for example you had a tshirt, which was available in 10 colours and 10 sizes. The total amount of products would be 100 for this one tshirt :mad:

The shop my friend is planning has about 2000 products, and most at least 2 attributes. I estimate that he'll need a package that supports around 50,000 products!!! For Shopify, that means the top package ($179 per month)

Zascar

Hmm that is a bit annoying. I don't need many products, a few hundred maybe. Still though, $179 a month is cheap compared to getting a custom website built - its all relative really..

I did read on one review that if you are based (and shipping) outside the US, shopping is not great and OS Commerce is better. There seems to be a good few pros and cons from each I'm just not sure what to choose

devildriver

davidclayton wrote: »

Just called Shopify and got an answer on this. If a product has attributes, then each combination is a unique product. Say for example you had a tshirt, which was available in 10 colours and 10 sizes. The total amount of products would be 100 for this one tshirt :mad:

The shop my friend is planning has about 2000 products, and most at least 2 attributes. I estimate that he'll need a package that supports around 50,000 products!!! For Shopify, that means the top package ($179 per month)

In fairness though David, Shopify wasn't really created for stores of that scale. IF you need unlimited scalability then maybe a custom build would suit you better.

Although Highwire has a different model where they charge you a flat fee based on actual sales which would suit your situation.

http://www.highwire.com/pricing/