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Top 10 E-commerce Solutions

This entry is part [part not set] of 3 in the series Web Development

Whether you are looking to set up an internet shop, or take an existing business online, you’ll be surprised to find how many e-commerce solutions there are to choose from. Most of them offer standard shopping cart features, plus additional marketing tools and administration panel to help you keep track of products, orders, customers, shipping, etc. Depending on the  particular requirements and the size of your business, you will want to compare a few of these services in terms of what they can offer you.

The most important thing to watch out for is whether your e-commerce service provider is PCI-compliant. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard is a joint creation of Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express. In response to the growing severity of credit card theft, the PCI Standard was created with the goal of protecting cardholder data wherever it may reside. The PCI has developed industry wide standards for card data security to be followed by both merchants and providers alike. Compliance with PCI Data Security Standard is highly recommended for all on-line stores.

  1. Shopify

    Shopify offers integrated website and comes with 11 different free design templates, each of which is mobile responsive, and has a variety of different colouring options. Other than that, there isn’t much freedom with design customization. However they do offer many premium themes that can be fully personalized and built on. You may want to check out ThemeForest for a larger selection of Shopify themes:

    When it comes to website loading, Shopify is fast. Because it’s a hosted platform that’s built on huge infrastructure, Shopify offers each of its webmasters rapid loading pages (80 milliseconds, to be exact). As a result, shops stand a better chance of ranking well and a better chance of leading customers to conversions.

    Shopify allows integration of apps to:

    – Create discount codes
    – Offer gift cards (on Professional and Unlimited)
    – Install cart recovery systems (on Professional and Unlimited)
    – Include individual product reviews
    – Amend shipping options
    – Sell on Facebook
    – Import products using CSV files
    – List different product variations
    – Print orders

    Listed above are free, basic options, and there are hundreds of different features that can be installed from the Shopify App Store. Some are free, but some come at a monthly fee. Speaking of which, if you wish to offer the website in multi-language, we will need to use Langify app. This plugin costs $17.50 / month.

    There’s also the not insubstantial issue of technical support. Shopify is renowned for the high quality of its customer care. Each client can enjoy 24/7 access to a customer adviser in case they have any issues or queries.

    shopify-logo-1000x6002Shopify has a sliding scale of packages which offer users a range of different features:

    – Lite ($9)
    – Basic ($29)
    – Pro ($79)
    – Unlimited ($179)

    This way, when the business grows it’s easy to upgrade the package. Please note: Lite package does not give you an online shop, just a point of sale for your Facebook Page, so you need to start with the Basic package.

    At $29 per month, it isn’t really that expensive considering that Shopify is a hosted solution, which means that all security for online payments and hosting issues are taken care of. The issue of credit card SSL certificates is always complex and expensive and with any other option, there would be additional monthly fees for hosting. So you’d have to pay at least $200 a year for secure hosting, depending on the size and ambition of your website. What’s more, you’ll have shell out decent amounts of cash in order to enjoy the same rapid response times that Shopify sites enjoy.

    With the Langify app, your Shopify subscription will rise to $46.50 / per month in total. The good news is that once Shopify is setup, you won’t have any other recurring website expenses.

    Shopify

  2. Volusion

    Volusion is a premium, award-winning e-commerce software, featured in PC Mag and other media and used by major companies like Disney and Motorola. In short, Volusion allows you to build and manage an online store to effectively sell products and services on the Internet. A low cost merchant account is integrated with over 35 Gateways.

    Volusion’s flexibility, power, ease of use and price make it great for small businesses, but it has the infrastructure and expertise necessary to meet the demands of a larger company. Many business owners find that as they grow and become more successful online, their use of bandwidth increases along with their sales revenue. Volusion will not compensate for this by charging you a percentage of your sales, but only charges a minimal monthly fee for the hosting of your online store, while additional bandwidth is available for only $0.007/MB.

    Volusion

  3. CoreCommerce

    CoreCommerce is an award-winning, feature-packed e-commerce software that apart from the standard options also provides search engine optimization, one page checkout, and integration with third parties, such as QuickBooks, Facebook, UPS Worldship, and more. Store administration is easy to customize and design, and the control panel is integrated with over 26 payment gateways, all kinds of credit cards, multiple currency support, fully-integrated shipping options, order management, customer tools, etc.

    CoreCommerce offers several pricing plans, starting at 19,99 per month, and all pricing plans include all the features. They also offer a free trial.

    CoreCommerce_FullLogo_Color-side

    CoreCommerce

  4. BigCommerce

    BigCommerce is one of the most trusted names in e-commerce business. They protect your store and data with the same military-grade security and encryption that the big banks use, and have a 99.99% average uptime track record.BigCommerce includes dozens of built-in marketing tools to drive traffic to your online store, including advanced search engine optimization, Google product export and the ability to sell your products on Facebook. It’s very easy to customize. Business owners can choose from over 60 store designs and use the Drag & Drop Design Mode to customize the layout of their store while designers have full access to HTML and CSS via FTP, as well as QuickEdit and different tools.

    You can sell products online easily even without any prior experience. The getting started wizard helps you get your online store and shopping cart up fast and there are dozens of step-by-step videos if you get stuck.

    With over 25 business intelligence reports built in (such as top selling products and average revenue per order), BigCommerce helps you make better decisions which mean more money in your pocket with less work.

    But best of all, there are no transaction fees — ever! Big Commerce never charge transaction fees and have no hidden costs. What you see really is what you get.

    BigCommerce

  5. Interspire

    Interspire Shopping Cart is a non-hosted version of BigCommerce, an all-in-one e-commerce and shopping cart software platform that includes absolutely everything you need to sell online and attract more customers using the power, reach and affordability of the Internet.

    Interspire offers an opportunity for web developers and designers to get full access to the source code and easily customize HTML-and-CSS-only store designs. They can create new stores for clients in record time using Interspire software.

    From expert search engine optimization to powerful merchandising features and unique built-in marketing tools to drive more traffic to your online store, Interspire Shopping Cart guarantees you’ll generate more sales by committing to give you your money back if they don’t deliver.

    Interspire

  6. Sellfy

    If you are looking for a way to sell your digital products, Sellfy is the perfect solution. It handles everything from your product hosting, payments to secure checkout and content delivery to end customers. Easily customize the look and feel of your store. It lets you match your existing brand and be consistent on your social media website and store.

    With Sellfy you can sell directly to your audience. Whether it’s Facebook, Youtube, Soundcloud or your own website – just add a purchase link or embed “Buy now” buttons to start selling.

    Sellfy

  7. 3DCart

    3DCart is one of the most complete website e-commerce solutions, with over 100 features designed to grow your online business. Easy-to-use web-based administration enables you to customize your website and online shop, no graphic design or programming necessary. Additional plugins such as Livechat, Quickbooks integration and ROI tracking give you the competitive edge in an ever increasing market.There are many features to help you run the shop, from strorefront design, promotion and marketing, product management, order processing, statistics and reporting, shipping and payment, etc.

    3DCart

  8. Avactis

    Avactis Shopping Cart is another software package that allows you to open an online store on the Internet. Compared to other similar e-commerce solutions, Avactis allows for a fast and easy integration of an online store into an existing website without any programmer’s knowledge or skills. Unlike other shopping cart software, Avactis is integrated into your website, instead of integrating your website into the online store.

    The client side (the storefront) is your website as seen by visitors. The Avactis’ client side allows the visitors to your site to browse products in the online store, select products and put them into the shopping cart, as in a conventional supermarket, and then pay for the selected products using a credit card or other payment options. The Avactis’s administrator side allows you to stock up the store with products, as a conventional warehouse, maintain the inventory, track orders and payments.

    Avactis Shopping Cart

    Avactis

  9. Vendio

    Vendio is another award-winning platform that has been supporting the needs of online sellers for over 10 years. Similar to Shopster in that it lets you reach buyers where they are shopping, without forcing you to learn a different interface for each online channel. Whether you are a seasoned online sales veteran, or just a beginner, Vendio provides an ecommerce solution that enables you to share inventory with eBay, Amazon and more, which means it makes it easy to build and run your online ecommerce business no matter where your buyers shop.

    No programing knowledge necessary to set-up the ecommerce solution you need in minutes. Once you create your items you can sell them  through multiple marketplaces without complication. There are no hosting fees, listing fees, or final value fees.

    Vendio

  10. Summer Cart

    Summer Cart is 100% SEO Shopping Cart Software, with search engine friendly URLs, SEO keywords on every page, automatic generation of sitemaps, etc. The store setup wizard makes it easy to setup your store quickly. The admin panel is very functional, offering useful sorting, filtering and search options, and easy product tracking and management.

    Summer Cart offers numerous payment & checkout options, multi-language support, and 39 automatically updated currencies. It allows for product comparison by attributes, product ratings and reviews, in-stock and out-of-stock tracking, and many other really handy options.

    Summer Cart

 

About Dubie Bacino

Always on the lookout for new, original and innovative, Dubie loves spotting upcoming trends in cyber culture, discovering useful tools and innovative start-ups and inventions. To the Google+ crowd, she is known as the curator of stunning photography.

Comments

  1. i like the site… just give real reviews of top ten stuff… but you left off all open source code from the ecommerce review, what about zen cart or prestashop

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