Could do with some advice re setting up site

Neil_Sedaka

Hi all, a few years ago I used to have an online store with one of those "all in one" providers like Volusion, Bigcommerce, Shopify etc.

I'm thinking of starting up again, but this time I'm considering Opencart.
I would obviously need hosting (preferably with good support, either 24/7 live chat or phone if possible) at a reasonable cost, as I don't know if this venture will take off.

I have toyed around with Wordpress, but I feel and have been advised that Opencart would be a better option for my needs.

I would need an FTP client of some sort I reckon.

Also, some place to get decent themes for Opencart.

All of this is on a very tight budget, but I'm willing to pay (a little extra) for good service.

All suggestions welcome please.

Thanks.

Graham

Neil_Sedaka wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience with this company?

http://www.arvixe.com/

Long standing boards rules bans the discussion of specific hosting providers Neil.

It's probably worth picking a hosting provider close to your target market. Is there any rest you wouldn't go with one of the all in one providers again?

Neil_Sedaka

Graham wrote: »

Long standing boards rules bans the discussion of specific hosting providers Neil.

It's probably worth picking a hosting provider close to your target market. Is there any rest you wouldn't go with one of the all in one providers again?

Thanks Graham, sorry I wasn't aware of that and have removed the post.

Neil_Sedaka

@Graham,

"It's probably worth picking a hosting provider close to your target market. Is there any rest you wouldn't go with one of the all in one providers again?"

I just had some bad experiences with the last one I used. Customer support was appalling and the monthly rates just weren't worth it for the service I received I thought.

Got speaking to a very knowledgeable guy recently and he suggested Opencart, hands down!

Huge learning curve for me though, that said, I won't be ready to launch for weeks.

Graham

Opencart would be hard work if you're not very technical, for that reason alone I wouldn't write-off wordpress with WooCommerce.

Trojan

If you're technical and willing to get hands-on with code, then I'd be considering a self-hosted option like OpenCart. Well, I'd be looking at Magento, my personal experience with OpenCart hasn't been great, I found it difficult to find good themes for it, etc, but maybe it's improved recently.

It's hard to look past the hosted solutions like Shopify though, if you're on a budget. Cost half nothing to set up an attractive reliable site and test it for a month or two. If it doesn't pan out, you haven't sunk huge amounts of cash|time (your choice which).

Graham mentioned WP+WooCommerce, my take on that is it's fine for ecommerce where you have a small number of SKUs, but doesn't scale well with larger inventories.

Neil_Sedaka

Graham wrote: »

Opencart would be hard work if you're not very technical, for that reason alone I wouldn't write-off wordpress with WooCommerce.

I think you are right Graham, I took Opencart for a spin, but I feel Wordpress with WooCommerce is more suited to my abilities.

Still a huge learning curve for me, but there seems to be a lot more support forums and YT videos for WP than OC.

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What kind of payment options are you planning on using.

Neil_Sedaka

Victoria Breezy Marshmallow wrote: »

What kind of payment options are you planning on using.

Mainly Paypal and Bank transfer.

Graham

Neil_Sedaka wrote: »

I feel Wordpress with WooCommerce is more suited to my abilities.

it'll cost you next to nothing to try it out too.

I'd keep Trojan's comment in mind too, Shopify is well worth a look if you're looking for the easiest/fastest route.

mneylon

If you're going to use self-hosted anything remember to keep the software up to date. Please.

Neil_Sedaka

Hi Blacknight,

Thanks for the advice, I presume you mean Wordpress, Woocommerce and any plugins?

I think WP auto updates, no idea of the others though.

Kenny Logins

All of the plugins and themes need to be kept updated too.

How many products do you have?

Neil_Sedaka

Hi Kenny,

I reckon it will be about 130 - 150, with variations available on about 30 of those.

EIREHotspur

Wordpress/Woocommerce is deff the way to go for me.....the best combination in design/features.

mneylon

Neil_Sedaka wrote: »

Hi Blacknight,

Thanks for the advice, I presume you mean Wordpress, Woocommerce and any plugins?

I think WP auto updates, no idea of the others though.

Wordpress itself might auto-update, but a lot of themes and plugins won't
In some cases you can rely on something like Wordfence to notify you of available updates, but a couple of the recent security issues that caused WP users headaches were with plugins that didn't even show as out of date ie. they weren't from the main Wordpress plugin source

willows

Opencart themes are now excellent, see themeforest for examples. Opencart version 2 is responsive on the front and backend out of the box. The platform you choose depends on the selling model. dont choose a platform based on pretty design only.

My experience of ones I have worked with.

Woocommerce is a wordpress plugin so its not true ecommerce but does a good starting point

Magento is a beast and you'll need whopper hosting and a developer.

Prestashop not far behind Magento

CS-Cart works ok but is delicate. Good seo structure out of the box

CRE loaded is a up to date oscommerce with bags of addons

Zencart not updated enough to make it safe

oscommerce the original of the species, but now out of date.


the more features you add generally the more complex it gets so keep it simple and make sure it can integrate with other platforms so as to make the transfer of data seamless.