Magento OR OpenCart OR osCommerce OR Zen Cart OR WP e-Commerce OR WooCommerce
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I am looking for very simple product page which includes product images, description price, buy now and discount.
Don't want any inventory etc.
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When clients ask me to use Wordpress for an e-commerce site, I not only say no, I say hell no. Wordpress is not a scalable solution with a myriad of other issues. Let me list the issues I have with Wordpress as an ecommerce store.
Security, it is just not secure. Most ecommerce applications use a two authentication system, not to be confused with a two factor authentication system. Like Prestashop what it does is has a login for the admins and a separate login for the customers. They are not handled by the same code, the same page, or the same system. Wordpress uses only one system, so where an admin would login, so would a client. This is insecure in so many ways in my mind. One, how many password attempts do you wait before you lock someone out? It could be a legitimate user that gets locked out costing you a sale. But at the same time, if you do not lock them out, they can write a script that for days uses different ip addresses to try to crack your admin password. On ecommerce systems most allow you to select an admin directory. Wordpress's is site.com/wp-login. Prestashop or Magento it could be site.com/3490834admin or what ever you feel like using.
Another issue is features. There really are not many, sure there are plugins that are developed by God knows who, but Wordpress was never meant to be an ecommerce platform so it lacks a lot of the valuable features. Most Prestashop sites I work on (I keep using Prestashop not to push it, but it is really the only platform I develop with) only use 2 -4 modules that are not part of the package. Usually they are like an obscure payment gateway, a module that connect to quickbooks, or a shipping module. Stats, products, features, cms, it is all held internally by the application. When it takes 30 modules by 30 different people to make a site, it will be insecure, there are no two ways about it. Something will also conflist as well breaking something. Plus there are not modules for half the features a real ecommerce platform has available for Wordpress. Sure you can sell, can you send time follow emails with coupons? Can you handle shipping products separately from different suppliers? Can you handle warehousing and storing supplier information? Can you import csv files from your suppliers automatically on schedule? It is the things like that when someone opens a shop, they do not take into account. It is a lot easier to flip a switch in the back office of a program to enable a feature than it is to either program it or try to find a module that does it.
The whole idea of Wordpress is insecure when it comes to ecommerce systems. I mentioned the login above, but it is actually the whole foundation of Wordpress. One thing that you will never catch a dedicated ecommerce system doing is executing a server side language in the template. Wordpress's templates are built around PHP with adds another layer of in security. With Prestashop, a template uses variables that are passed from the controller or the module. That way the internal MVC structure is used to execute all of the code. I can only image how upsetting it must be to someone using Wordpress to find out their site was compromised because they downloaded a mailchimp plugin made by coder dude99 and he didn't sanitize the email input. Everything in an ecommerce system is handled through the controller logic, people aren't willy nilly writing code and executing it.
Speed is also an issue, that comes in with the coding quality standards mentioned above. When you are executing all kinds of code, there could be a bottle neck anywhere. Most ecommerce platforms have built in functions for everything code wise and only allow you to use them. Want to access the database? Sure there is a function for that that checks the data for exploits before it is run. One thing I really like about Prestashop that wordpress does not do is how it handles css and javascript. When a module is developed, it has a directory it needs to be in, inside the module. Prestashop then takes the css and js and compiles it into 2 repective files, cutting down your request number and minifying it in the process. Plus it has default support for things such as APC, MEMcache, and CDN servers.
To answer your question above, yes buying a template might be all you need. It really comes down to how you want your business to operate. There is pretty wide payment gateway support standard, but there are some that are not supported. So you might have to buy a payment module.
If you are building this for a client, I would think twice about taking the job, if you don't have any experience with some of this stuff it can be difficult.
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Do I need to purchase payment gateway also? or simple paypal will work? (pay and buy)
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Out of the box I think the supported ones are paypal standard and adaptive, blue pay, authorize.net, cod, bank wire, first data, hipay, moneybookers, payment sense. Those are the US ones I remember off the top of my head, but you can get a module for any gateway really. I made one for NMI I have for free download on my site, there is a stripe one floating around too that is free also.
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Thank you Lesley for your help.. Very nice of you to write here and answer me..
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No problem, people sharing knowledge is what makes a community great.
To answer your question I missed above, Prestashop is free, all you need it web hosting.
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I would add some hosts have 1 click installs for some open source e-commerce and then auto upgrades. That could make your live easier as it sounds to me you only want a simple e-commerce system so pretty much any opensource system will do the job for you.
Most systems support paypal by default, but paypal rates are not the best, but if your not selling much then they are still the best option as proper payment gateways have monthly costs, so only make sense if your doing decent numbers (and they can take some work to get setup).
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Back again.. . this is what i need www.ayurvediccure.com. Now please let me know which platform is good according to my needs? thanks for help in advance.
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Well that sites uses WooCommerce
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So for which Platform i need to go for? with the above website requirements. Prestashop or Magento or Wordpress
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You forgot Cs-cart which is widely - I'd take some time to research that as well as to UI is very easy to use and its super versatile
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This is really a decision that you need to make. It is akin to asking what kind of vehicle you should buy. If I were in your situation what I would do is write out a feature list that I want and find which platform closely integrates with it.
Also, if you are not on a hard deadline play with them all before you make a decision. Then you will know what you are getting into.
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Hi Chris, i am not able to found much themes for Cs-cart on themeforest, Do you have any other website where I can find more themes?
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You can view some of the live stores here - http://www.cs-cart.com/live-stores.html
There are some themes here - http://marketplace.cs-cart.com/themes.html
Cs-cart is fully customizable so in general most developers will be able to make any theme you want for it.
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Hi Lesley, Is there any way to try all of them at free (like DEMO)? to check there feature etc.
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I agree with lesley, make a short list of which platforms your are looking at, make a list of what you want, then see which ones check the most boxes. Might be worth visiting the forums of each and asking questions there.
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I see a lot of comments about the lack of support of some gateways for WooCommerce. To the poster who mentioned BluePay Woo Commerce. I completely disagree, in fact, I think there is more merchant support from WooCommerce than any other popular platform today. Yeah, I said it
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I am sorry you feel that way, but you are wrong. It looks like woo only supports around 125 payment methods (gateways and offline type methods such as P.O's and such). With only 14 free ones that only include one top tier US payment company (Amazon).
Check out something like Prestashop. Between the main site and all of the 3rd party merchant sites, they support around 300 different gateways and methods. With most top tier gateways in the US being free, such as Auth.net, Bluepay, First Data, Paypal business, Paypal Advanced, ect. So while Woo does have good payment support, it is costly and not near the best coverage.
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