Need advice re: selecting an Ecommerce platform

[sbg781]

Hi. I am responsible for choosing an ecommerce platform and overseeing the implementation of a large ecommerce site. The site will have tens of thousands of products and will be fairly complex.

Eventually the site will integrate with the suppliers back end inventory/order management system, which is some sort of custom Windows/.NET system. (I'm not very technical if you haven't noticed....)

Primarily I want a platform that is SEO friendly, and I have to be sure that the site is developed properly from an SEO and usability perspective. I thought I would go with an asp.net solution (aspdotnetstorefront, specifically) to facilitate the future integration, but I am questioning this choice after reading some of the comments I have found here at SEOMoz.

So is asp.net really a bad choice SEO-wise? I almost considered Magento, but was having trouble finding a good solution provider to work with. I also worried about integration issues down the road.

I would appreciate any advice or input anyone may have.

Thank you!

[tylerfraser]

Hello,

You have identified my two favorite ecommerce platforms. I opted for magento and am very pleased with the site, usability and seo. I think you will find asp.net a good choice too. Either way you will need to find a good provider. The provider list at magento is long and there are some good ones in there. Mostly asking around 4,000$ and up to work with them. Both Magento and Asp.net as excellent choices and will fit any store owners needs. Don't worry about integration down the road. Unless there are some technical things you need done.

[sbg781]

Thank you for your response.  If you know of any good Magento solution providers, and wouldn't mind sharing that would be very helpful.

Stephanie

[tylerfraser]

I don't know if you looked here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/partners/find/solution-partners/united-states/

But this is the route I used to find my service provider. I would go to the last page and start there with professional providers not enterprise. They will work on the free community version without too much trouble.

The biggest question when talking to these people is "what kind of companies do you normally work with" - if it sounds similar to your situation that's good!

If I answered your question please mark "this answered my question"

Thanks

[KeriMorgret]

You might look at this question regarding ecommerce. http://www.seomoz.org/q/what-is-the-most-seo-friendly-ecommerce-cms-platform-available-today

In the answers, there is someone using Magento with 60,000 products between two sites. Speed has been a large problem, though it looks like a recent update has helped. You might contact that poster, as it looks like s/he could offer a lot of first-hand experience.

[sbg781]

Tyler,

Thank you- I didn't even notice that the providers were classified as Enterprise etc.  I started at the top and was immediately priced out of the market!

[tylerfraser]

- 75,000$?

[sbg781]

Thank you Keri,  I had read about speed issues with Magento before, but I thought they had been mostly resolved.

I think I am going to stick to my asp.net solution.....  it's a decision, anyway.