Choosing an Ebiz Platform is so Frustrating

April 4th, 2008 by Kenric

Now that I know what I want, it’s so frustrating to choose the shopping cart software that fits my businesses perfectly.  I am hoping to get a fully hosted solution this time.  This means that I don’t really handle any of the software coding.

In a perfect world, I would just purchase the solution and pay them a monthly fee to keep everything up and running.  Then I would choose a free template provided or get one custom made.  Attach my payment gateway to the backend to accept credit cards and my store is up and running.

However, I’m having trouble finding the “perfect” solution.  I was pretty set on going with Volusion.  They are a bit pricey but they have a few things that I really really want.

The first one is 1-page checkout.  My current OSC solution has 4 pages.  I really want the customer to click on checkout and the next click should be place order.  All the shipping, billing, payment information should be on 1 page.  Volusion is the only one that has this out of the box.

I definitely don’t want to make the customer create an account just to place an order.  Again, this goes with the one page checkout thing.

The next thing is that I want the checkout process to stay on my URL.  If my store is ABCSTUFF.com and I click on the check out button, I don’t want to see the URL at the top change to https://us-dc2-order.store.yahoo.net or https://order.cartx.com/123.   I don’t know if any of you have noticed this at all, but many sites do that.

My problem with Volusion is the bandwidth requirements.  I’d like to get their cheapest solution and pay $40/mo but you are allowed 1GB of transfer per month.  To combat this, I was planning on hosting the store’s photos on a different host.

I don’t like Yahoo store because of their checkout interface.  I surfed around all night through many many ecommerce solutions and none were perfect.  Volusion came the closest but they were also the most expensive.

Getting my store setup at Volusion would cost $100 setup, $80 SSL, $40/mo.  Then I have the payment gateway which is $125 setup & $20/mo.  I know that this isn’t that much money, but with a hosted solution you do lose some control of your code.  I’m more worried about upkeep costs and bandwidth costs over 1GB.  I would have $305 setup and $60/mo expense.

So it brings me back to my current OSC solution.   This would cost me $0 setup, $50 SSL, $3/mo. plus the payment gateway of $125 setup & $20/mo.  $125 setup and $23/mo.  But I would have complete control of my store and no bandwidth issues.  The downside is that I’ll be spending hours and hours getting the store up and running.

So which way do I go?

After writing this, I think I’m going to give Volusion a try.   I know it costs more but its a risk I’m willing to take.  If I don’t like it, I’ll cancel and come back to OSC.  If I do like it, then I can build my future ebizes on it.  I think this is one of those comfort zone things.  I’m comfortable with OSC (but not 100% happy with it) and Volusion is new territory.

Now the only thing I need to figure out is a new business and domain name.  That should take another week!

Posted in Ebiz3 | 20 Comments »
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  1. 20 Comments to “Choosing an Ebiz Platform is so Frustrating”

  2. You may want to checkout corecommerce.com. They have a one-page-checkout and you don’t need to have a customer create an account to place an order. Good luck finding the right solution.

    By Nicole Ryan on Apr 4, 2008

  3. I am currently using volusion and i had all the same frustrations you had with trying to find the perfect company. I wanted one page checkout, your own domain name, decent looking free templates and support for my authorize.net account.

    I heard about corecommerce on the radio and I’m currently switching my stuff over to them. They seem to be one of the new up and coming ecommerce service provider. They addressed all my concerns and more.

    By Matthew Eric on Apr 4, 2008

  4. You know I did check out CoreCommerce last night as I went through a ton of possible solutions.

    They had good pricing and included SSL. However they also have the 1GB data limit on there entry level plan. Their 2nd level plan looks decent.

    I was going to write something about their site because their demo site did not work last night. Therefore, I couldn’t test the checkout page and back end. When I went to checkout I got a database error. This was not a good sign. I just tried it again today and its working now.

    By Kenric on Apr 4, 2008

  5. Americommerce has one page checkout also. They looked decent too.

    By Kenric on Apr 4, 2008

  6. I’ve used Volusion for myself and many of my clients, and have never had a complaint about it. I do find that their 1-step checkout really helps keep shopping cart abandonment down to a minimum.

    Good luck!

    By Terra Andersen on Apr 4, 2008

  7. I got to use CoreCommerce during beta and I loved it. I’ve been using digiSHOP (which is like a distributed version of CoreCommerce) for a couple of years now. I had very few problems with the cart in the past 2 years, but dealing with my host has always been a huge headache. That’s why I started to look for a hosted solution. I checked out a bunch of different carts like Volusion and Yahoo, but decided to settle with CoreCommerce because I’ve never had any problems with digiSHOP, so I know these guys are solid. Plus I don’t have to fight with my host anymore because they now take care of that too.

    By Nikita on Apr 7, 2008

  8. I find this discussion interesting. I currently use Volusion and for the most part like it. However, there have been times that I need help with HTML, because I want the site to do something in addition to what is “standard”. The other issue is that I want to change to a different template, but I can’t seem to get my logo resized right. I am not getting any help from Volusion’s design dept. What has been your experiences?

    By Ann S. on May 6, 2008

  9. Hi Ann, from my experience to change the logo size you would just need to change it to the proper size using a photoshop type program or even MSpaint and then reupload the new logo.

    I don’t think Volusion’s department is going to help you with that type of change unless you are paying them for the design.

    A better bet would be to find a volusion forum and post your questions there.

    By Kenric on May 6, 2008

  10. BTW Ann, your store is using the same template that my new store is using so I may be able to help you with design questions.

    By Kenric on May 6, 2008

  11. After switching and using Volusion for 3 months, I find it utterly problamatic. Our first month we went over bandwidth by 135G and the second by 150G getting hit with outrageous bandwidth charges. They claim to be integrated for shipping with UPS but they are not, you have to export all your orders and for a store getting sales every minute this is an impossible and drawn out process. I wouldn’t recommend volusion to anyone who is doing a lot of sale and has to do a lot of shipping online. I am in the process of swtiching to 3dCart, their admin panel is much friendlier and has so much more information, they are truly integrated with both Fedex and UPS to just click and ship, and although they dont advertise a large bandwidth program they tailor made a solution for me at a very good price that at Volusion would have cost me over $4000 more a month.

    Just my input.

    By George G on Aug 29, 2009

  12. I just moved over to Volusion, And unless your okay with having a site that looks premade in a box, it took months to make our site look “good” and custom for our Market. I am on the Platinum plan and it only has 25 megs of bandwidth per month? For the last two months my bills have been 400-450 in overages because they charge $10 per meg you go over and I have been using around 65 megs per month which I don’t think is that much. I tried moving the pics over to another hosting plan with Crystal tech, I figured my bill would go down but it has not! I dont know what to do, I dont want to pay 600-700 per month for their package. Has anyone else changed over? What other Carts would you recommend. Their Tech support is good and the Shopping Cart is pretty flexible. Although I miss some simple Feature my old custom cart had like simple order reports. When someone calls if they dont have their order number you cant easily look it up by product. But overall I would be happy if they offered more bandwidth. Any Ideas?

    By Nick on Oct 6, 2009

  13. I am in the process of switching to 3D cart, with volusion every month I have now been hit with over $800 in overage charges for bandwith, most of the bandwidth is generated by our company internally adding merchandise and working on the site, That really sucks. I have spoke to them over and over again and there is nothing they can do or will do. In addition if you ship UPS they dont offer printing UPS labels from their cart you have to export the data to worldship and then back. 3dCart was willing to tailor a package for me for 1000 Gigs of Bandwith so I have a fixed cost and have no unexpected surprises. We are in the process of moving, plus we can print UPS lables or Fedex, they were also (for a fee) willing to write script for our site that was not offered. They also allow you see details from orders in a scroll over pop up so you don’t to open every order one by one just to see what’s in them. A Much better Cart 3DCart I highly recommend them!

    By George G on Oct 6, 2009

  14. We are currently with CoreCommerce and are looking to move. We started with Volusion, had an awful experience, their tech support is not good and we were treated rather rudely. CoreCommerce is probably ok for basic users with little to no knowledge and small sites starting out. However, their quickbooks interface is a joke and has cost us a tremendous amount of time, money and frustration. It does not work properly and completely destroyed our QB inventory. Our google account has also been completely destroyed for weeks on end several times because their ecommerce section doesn’t work properly. So, suddenly you no longer have analytics and this is your problem. Tech support is ok with what they can do, but it seems like we are continually finding bugs. They don’t test their stuff very well and each version update leads to more chaos on our site. We’ve stopped contacting them with issues and have started looking elsewhere. They may have a good thing eventually, but they are just too green and amateur right now to be taken seriously if you are doing a large scale business. I would like to know more about 3DCart – I like what I see on their site, but there are SO many reviews of bad support we are scared to even try. More bad support is the last thing we need.

    By Kate on Oct 27, 2009

  15. Take a look at CS-Cart, looks promising and I may switch a store over to it.

    By Kenric on Oct 27, 2009

  16. We’re considering 3dCart and CoreCommerce as well. Neither seems to be that great.

    CS-Cart has great forums, but no free phone support or local phone support. That concerns us.
    We hop to find better options than what has been provided.
    Anyone look into Business Catalyst?

    By Tyra on Nov 4, 2009

  17. I’m trying to setup an ecommerce site that needs customization of the product,i.e., custom computers but my hair hurts with no good options. Anyone got a suggestion other than Volusion?

    By YancyD on Nov 19, 2009

  18. Think 2x about hooking up with Volusion, recent months show signs of a company on the skids. They appear to have overextended their abilities and finances in a shift from Rackspace to their own server with multiple SEVERE crashes which have impacted our business exponentially.

    Now, in a fit of desperation and ego (see Clay and Kevin, founders) they are advertising a payment system to shore up their lavish lifestyle. It is slammed in the faces of their customers when taking a phone order in the admin system – oops lost that information because Kevin wants a vote to be king of the universe again.

    RUN. Don’t allow yourself to be trapped as we are! These boys are running the business into the ground with risk-taking callous calls that will destroy us all. If anyone is backing them finacially – pull them up by the short and curlies and send them back to school, they skipped a few grades.

    By Think2x on Nov 20, 2009

  19. 3dcart is the worst decision anyone could make. The customer service is horrible and unprofessional. Very rude people. The only reason I went for them was because their cart works with my gateway and they offer a “Free Trial” which turns out NOT to be a free trial. The website advertises (30 Days Free , COMPLETE E-Commerce Solutions, Get Instant Access) I dont know, but when I read something like this Im inclinded to think I will be able to use their software from start to finish. What they should post on their website is Free Demo, 30 Days to familiarize yourself with the software. But dont expect to make a sell through their cart until you pay them money. Very deceptive and misleading advertising. When I brought this to the attention of a supervisor, he was not willing to work with me. His attitude was like “Pay up or oh well!” If you are thinking about using this cart…DONT DO IT. If you have used this cart and lost money…file a complaint with the BBB. In my opinion if a company lacks integrity,honesty and great customer service skill, then they have no buisness being in buisness!

    By Datgirl on Feb 18, 2010

  20. Add me to the long list of people that had a bad experience at 3DCart–terrible customer service/tech support. Their tech support’s primary procedure is to take 23 days to respond to a ticket and then respond with a question to your question (where the info they are asking is already included). Then, you get to wait another 2-3 days for another question from them. In one month, I had sent them 5-6 tickets and none of them got resolved. Switched to CoreCommerce. Too early to say what I think of them so far.

    By John Carlisle on Mar 9, 2010

  21. thank you great responses. researching and, dont want surprise bills from volusion, or to spent hours with accounting because the data download incorrect to quickbooks, 3d cart was sounding good for a minute but now reading a lot about unhappy people. so, it makes it clear there is not a perfect option. So with corecommerce, as long as you are starting new with quickbooks then i guess you an custom it to corecommerce though it will not work with sku’s. Anyone have any further feedback?

    By fiona on Dec 3, 2010

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