Hi I'm a small time designer specialising in small/micro business sites. I've been researching the possibility of offering small e-commerce sites. I looked into using a cart and CMS like prestabox, cubecart and even WP with a shopping cart plug in but to be honest I'm more confussed than when I started LOL there are so many choices it's hard to know which is the right one so I have gone back to my original option which was to use "hosted carts" where all the techy stuff is left to the host and I can concentrate on the design, plus the client can manage their own site supported by the host. Do you think this is a good idea? or is it a monthly payment for something that can be done using a cheaper host and prestashop or other cart software? any suggestions welcome

Yes, the often quoted advantage of hosted carts is :

 

• Free Software Upgrades - As their software gets better, you automatically benefit.
• Free Maintenance - The browser wars mean that what works today may not work tomorrow so you need to have constant maintenance to ensure complete browser compatibility.
• Complete Feature Set - Hosted shopping carts are typically much more complete with all applications needed under one software umbrella.
• Powerful Up Sell Functions - Maximizing your revenue per customer is a "must do" item to stay in business and profit in this competitive environment.
• Free Support - If a system does not have free and unlimited support then avoid it like the plague. Too many companies put out a non-friendly user interface and then charge you for a "support" call when you cannot figure it out.
• PCI compliance

But often these features are offered by other good value downloadable carts like 'Mal's' for instance.

However, with downloadable carts there may be a simple one-off payment which would be better for simple shops.

Hi I'm a small time designer specialising in small/micro business sites. I've been researching the possibility of offering small e-commerce sites. I looked into using a cart and CMS like prestabox, cubecart and even WP with a shopping cart plug in but to be honest I'm more confussed than when I started LOL there are so many choices it's hard to know which is the right one so I have gone back to my original option which was to use "hosted carts" where all the techy stuff is left to the host and I can concentrate on the design, plus the client can manage their own site supported by the host. Do you think this is a good idea? or is it a monthly payment for something that can be done using a cheaper host and prestashop or other cart software? any suggestions welcome

 

Looking at your requirement I feel you have options like magento,cubcart,oscart, oscommerce, Drupal,Joomla,wordpress etc.

 

We offer cpanel with auto installer script of all the above scripts. So that helps you to just install the script with one click of button and start your design work.

thanks for your replies,

 

But often these features are offered by other good value downloadable carts like 'Mal's' for instance.

However, with downloadable carts there may be a simple one-off payment which would be better for simple shops.

How would this be more of a benifit for my clients? I do like the option of owning the licence of say easyboutiquebuilder.com or the like but not sure if this is any better than using an OS cart.

 

Looking at your requirement I feel you have options like magento,cubcart,oscart, oscommerce, Drupal,Joomla,wordpress etc.

 

We offer cpanel with auto installer script of all the above scripts. So that helps you to just install the script with one click of button and start your design work.

I have looked into Drupal and Joomla but I feel it's over kill for what I'm after and I'm trying to simplify things for my clients who would probably find both Joomla and Drupal a little technical to start out with. WP is an option but do I really need a blog with plug in's?

 

Does anyone know what cart software is used in some of the hosted cart sites? I'm wondering if it's just the software itself that makes them simple or if it's the fact that they install them for the client??

 

Thanks for listening to my non tech ramble LOL

I use Magento, I swear by it.

 

In my opinion, it is by far the best shopping cart out there.

 

Hope this helps.

Hi Gareth thanks for your help, I'll have a closer look at Magento. From a designers point of view would you find it easy to design?

Hi Gareth thanks for your help, I'll have a closer look at Magento. From a designers point of view would you find it easy to design?

 

Its not that simple but if you learn, its great to work with.

Its not that simple but if you learn, its great to work with.

 

Thanks for your help I have found a few other carts that I like as I would like to have a couple of options incase one cart doesn't do what I'm after for each client ie downloadable purchases, coupons etc. Has anyone had any experience or know anything about storesprite.com avactis.com and opencart??

I have always like Magento but I have found it can be difficult to deal with in the beginning. My suggestion would be Open Cart, I think it's ace

Try opencart.com. Its free and easy to use.