eCommerce software

lucanbusiness

Hi all,
I had a search but couldn't really find what I was looking for so thought I'd ask. We're currently in the planning stage for a new eCommerce business, we already have a property business that's going well which is where we saw the need for this new business. However, we're new to eCommerce so we were wondering what good software is available so that we don't have to make it ourselves.
Description of operation: A website that will offer customers products for sale by independent businesses. Think the way Amazon operates. We're gathering customer information through their profile to try predict what other products they would possibly want.
What we have so far: We use Xero for accounting, Salesforce for our CRM, Zendesk for our ticketing solution. Sales/support centre is outsourced, marketing is outsourced but we keep both under a close eye.
What we need: We need software that will integrate with our site that allows us to view in real time our sales and allows us to run reports that can interact with our CRM in order to run reports on customer profiles. Is there anything like this? I know Xero can run some reports but we really want something that allows us to see what customer profiles are the most profitable.

Sorry if this post is a bit long and rambling, it's my first post here.

CodeApples

You have many many options. So i'll just list a few.

Wordpress website with an e-commerce plugin like Shopify
Wix website
Shopify itself is good and has lots of integrations
Magento has a marketplace for add-ons
Squarespace with e-commerce is easy to setup but limited in features.

Most platforms will provide integrations and if not it can still done using web hooks with automation platforms like Zapier.

It will depend on many variables, but suggest looking at Wix and Shopify to start with. Good Luck!

lucanbusiness

Hi thanks for the informative response. Will Shopify work with our own website if made in wordpress or do we have to create a Shopify templated website?

Protelos01

As stated you have lots of options for software so choosing the right one is going to be your issue.

If I were you, I would stay well clear of Wordpress, wix and squarespace and focus more on something that can scale without needed if s full time system admin.

Square and wix are way behind Shopify etc in terms of functionality and ease of use so if you are not one person in your spare room selling art I would avoid them.

Wordpress is a nightmare for any decent business and if you add on woo commerce, Shopify or big commerce you will have a constant issue with syncing both platforms and unless you are ok with this going in, I would avoid at all costs and try and get as much of what you need under one roof.

As mentioned above, adding connectors to Shopify etc is no issue so I wouldn’t be as concerned about adding them to your must have list as much as I would be worried about the marketplace aspect.

Marketplaces are behind the rest of the industry in terms of plug and play type of things and if you want a decent one you might need magento and a plug in and any magento build will be expensive.

Also, one big q they could reduce your build from a 9/10 to a 4/10 on the complexity level. Do you need a seller to have their own store on the site (with info and a list of their products etc) or do you just need to know someone bought the product from them? The former is a pure marketeplace and the latter could be done with some affiliate tracking and would way less complex.

Happy to keep the convo going.

ironclaw

Wordpress is a nightmare for any decent business and if you add on woo commerce, Shopify or big commerce you will have a constant issue with syncing both platforms and unless you are ok with this going in, I would avoid at all costs and try and get as much of what you need under one roof.

This is simply untrue. Some extremely large businesses use WordPress and WooCommerce, and it's the most common site and eCommerce platform out there. WooCommerce gives you the flexibility that Shopify doesn't, at the expense of having to own the complete solution. Shopify is great for hands-off, 'someone else's problem' ownership but you'll loose out on the features WordPress gives you out of the box e.g. Theme, Blog etc.

The issue is people don't invest in their eCommerce platforms and spend the least amount of money to keep them operational. Instead of doing it right for €5k at the start, they give someone €500 on Fivver and then wonder why they have problems from the get go.

Shopify and WooCommerce are equally great platforms, but they serve different needs and have different strengths. It's categorically untrue, and foolish, to try do everything under one roof as you simply won't be able to do.

mneylon

From what the original poster is saying they'll need something like Woocommerce with a plugin for multiple merchants. (See https://woocommerce.com/posts/create-multivendor-marketplace-wordpress/# for example)
Shopify et al won't work for the scenario they're describing.

Michele

devildriver

Wix and Squarespace can be ruled out almost immediately as they are not at a serious business level.

I think the choice comes down to whether you want to mange your own hosting and infrastructure or have that done for you.

Wordpress/WooCommerce will require a lot of management.

Protelos01

Well Shopify does have an app called webkul that could do the job.

As said, managing Wordpress/woo is a nightmare and you can double the headache with adding a marketplace.

ironclaw

Protelos01 wrote: »

As said, managing Wordpress/woo is a nightmare and you can double the headache with adding a marketplace.

It literally isn't, stop making baseless claims or at the very least support them with facts. Hundreds of thousands of stores run Woo, we run it at $1m+. In the same manner, others run Shopify.

Neither is a nightmare. It's what you make of it.

Protelos01

LOOOOOL, I don't recall these being baseless facts. They are in fact the reality. Why would you think I would make a random statement out of my arse without having any experience. I work all day in Ecommerce and I have had countless people move off Woo to a SaaS platform because of the instability of Woo.


People are making millions on Woo, wow no ****, but they understand what they are getting themselves into for a hosting and support and maintenance perspective, plus the opportunity cost of spending that cash on support instead of marketing on a SaaS platform is another huge drawback.

On a good note, apparently, Shopify does have their eye on the space, so maybe in 6-8 months there might be an out of the box option.

Clearly, we are off-topic, I will leave it at this, Marketplaces are not fun on any platform so there is give and take, spend the time doing some research before going with a platform.

Since woo is open source you can make it happen with the ****ty plug-in recommended above. Make sure you get a good developer lined up for support and set aside $2k a month for support.

Tippbhoy1

Hard to answer this with certainty without more information. Some good replies already. Sounds like you're trying to build what one might term a B2B2C solution.

Wix, Squarespace - brochureware sights and one man and his dog operations. I doubt this will meet the needs.

Shopify - an eComm B2C SAAS product, a more serious one man and his dog operation to be run by a DIY'er, and smaller organisations that are growing their eCommerce. It would in theory scale very well, but as they take a % it becomes cost prohibitive after a while. There is an enterprise version, but is expensive. Maybe there's add on's for multi vendor, but I can't imagine they are too dominant in the market. Shopify is a great product for a specific set of needs. However, it is limited in what you can do so if you're requiring something off script, it's very difficult and expensive to do. Overall a great product, but you need to stay on script.

Wordpress/Woo - an extremely impressive platform in terms of capabilities. There is unlikely to be anything in Wordpress that you can't do. However, it is not for a DIY'er - You will need either in house web development capabilities or access to 3rd party support. Yes, a hobbyist can mess around with it, but the results will only ever be average.

Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud etc. you need €€€€€

The suggestion from Protelos01 of the affiliate site could be a very good one.

My own view, if the skills aren't available in house and you don't have the investment to build something, I'd be inclined to think the idea won't be successful. Marketplaces are complex. There's a steep learning curve to sell effectively on the web with a new brand - building the solution is only the start, the real costs come in maintenance, promotions, graphic design, marketing and operations. Realistically, are you going to enter a market you don't understand to compete against hundreds of thousands who do? You'll need a very strong USP and a decent budget. Lots of people are getting into online now with grants etc. where realisically most of them won't be a success unfortunately. I've even seen big brands trying to maintain their existing supply chain with fudged B2B2C solutions which in the main are never superior to a B2C product.

Customers are selfish and greedy now, they want the cheapest product with the least hassle, as quickly as possible. They won't tolerate mediocre sites that look bad, work bad, and don't offer them low priced products where they can easily go elsewhere with the click of a button. That's not to say your idea can't be a success, but I would be concerned that you're going into a space where you don't appear to have much insight or support. Thread carefully.

Nicoglay

There is a lot of software for eCommerce business. I’m shocked you didn’t find any online.