Am I right in thinking that Magento - the e-commerce platform - is a hosted service, like WordPress, so you don’t build the store on your computer (like RW) and then upload it, rather you build it live on the server?
Thanks
Rob
I think the answer is “it depends”…
They have a product called Open Source (it used to be called Community Edition) that you download, and then can extend with themes and plugins in a similar way to Rapidweaver, that you host yourself.
However, their main product is called Commerce, which is hosted/cloud service.
It’s a while since I looked at the Open Source product, and I don’t know how far you could go before having to switch to Commerce - which I assume is their cunning plan…
Regards
Mark
Thanks Mark. It’s now a moot point as the company hosting the site has deleted all the backups. I won’t name and shame them as I don’t have all the info but it’s sounds pretty rum to me.
Still, look on the bright side Rob. You can now rebuild it from the ground up with what ever you want as a fresh start!
Regards
Mark
True. But because of this catastrophe, the potential client is on a very tight budget. What would you choose?
Ecwid
Cartloom
Shopify
Rob
Difficult to say without understanding the complexity of the product being sold, I’m assuming it is more than a digital product (for which it’s hard to look beyond things like Paddle).
By that I mean if its t-shirts you’ve got size, and colour versions and thats about it - so pretty straight forward. If its something more complex that has lots of options and configuration "rules’ then you are going to need something more flexible. Shopify is flexible, I have no experience of Ecwid and my only Cartloom experience is with earlier versions.
You are into monthly payment subscriptions with Shopify though, so not sure how that fits with your ‘tight budget’.
I still like Rapicart Pro for physical products, and hard to fault a buy-once-use-many ecommerce solution for a tight budget.
Mark
Thanks. This is going to be something the client needs to update and add products to herself so I think that the three I outlined are the main choices. I’m going to sleep on it and then have a chat with her tomorrow.
Rob
Ah, that off course rules out RCP then.
I believe that RCP has an iOS app that allows the user to add and update products on their mobile devices.
Paul
I’m 99% sure that RCP does not have an iOS app. There is one for cartloom but that only enables you to check and update inventory not add and edit products.
They actually do have one – I’ve had it on my iPhone and iPad since RCP 3.
However, I haven’t used it recently. I just tried and I get the error “This app needs to be updated by the developer.”
It used to work, just isn’t compatible with iOS 11.
Oh well.
Interesting. Never seen it before. Sounds like it came out years ago but stopped developing it.
Chiming in here… Shopify has got to be the “worst” platform for eCommerce. The “upside” of a few efficiencies on ease-to-use with the backend is far outweighed by the need to pay monthly fees ($5 - $30) for each bit of extra advanced functionality you want to add.
I have a client who uses Shopify and we’ve had so much trouble with getting basic things setup (without apps), that it’s appalling. I’ve had to manually code / develop a lot of essentials that should’ve been included. Ex: The basic plan wont allow certain types of payments or shipping options, so you’ll need to upgrade to the 2nd or 3rd tier (~$80/m).
Not familiar with Ecwid, but I would recommend Cartloom out of the options you mentioned. It’s being actively developed, the devs are great about feedback, and the entire experience (front and back) are non matched.
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Would have to agree with Arron, sounds simple, and not that expensive, but to make it work you have to keep upgrading.
Ecwid has a good reputation as well cartloom, and now has a RW plug-in.
Thanks for the insights everyone - especially the thumbs-down for Shopify. I was seriously considering it. Offering to do some hand-holding for a small fee while she did it herself but I’ll think again now.
I’ve looked at Cartloom and really rather like it. And it’s probably the most RW-friendly of the bunch.
Rob
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