# Opencart or Volusion?



## leenhia (Oct 25, 2012)

1. Which one is better?

2. Which one has a better payment system for your customer?

3. Which one has more payment option other than paypal, reason I ask is because some people don't have an account with paypal.

4. Is there a fee for credit card transaction?

and yes I'm a really big noob atm


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## VIP (Jun 22, 2007)

I used volusion for over a year before letting it expire. It was a really slick site and used their credit card processing. I made only one sale on the site and it did go smooth....I wanted the site more as a Company Info site verses a Ecommerce and thats why there was only one sale lol.

My only issue with them was the fact that there were only so many options for selling a shirt(s). For example:

If a customer wanted 10-S, 20-M, 5-Xl and so on, they would have to manually enter each quantity for each size one at a time instead of one screen that they can enter all the quantities at one time. This may not sound like a big deal, but it was a PITA for me.

With that said, Volusion had an awesome control panel and stats, and customer info to keep everything in order for you. I have never used Opencart. Good luck!


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## rwd425 (Oct 8, 2013)

Hi Leenhia,

So I've used Volusion in the past, but I guess that makes my opinion biased since I've never used opencart.

Anyway, by doing a little research into opencart, Volusion still looks better and easier to use, especially for someone new to the game.

It seems like Volusion offers more methods of payment/credit card processing options besides Paypal. They also offer a POS payment system as well.

One of the best features of Volusion is that they don't charge credit car transaction fees. This was one of my big selling points when trying them out.

I'd say to give Volusion and Opencart a try though to figure out what works best for you. 

Opencart is an open source software, which is going to be much harder for you to use if you're new to using ecommerce software.


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## leenhia (Oct 25, 2012)

Thank for the help guys, after what both of you two said I think I'll be going with Volusion and se how things turn out. Thanks a lot


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## leenhia (Oct 25, 2012)

Okay... Volusion say 1gb of data transfer. Does that include all traffic to my site? or just when people download something off the site? becuase 1gb seem little. Also, I bought my domain with Hostgator already but want to transfer it to Volusion. How much does it cost to transfer and renew domina with Volusion?


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## amp267 (Oct 11, 2006)

rwd425

When you say open source software, what does that exactly mean?? Sorry im also looking for a good ecom solution.

What do you guys think of shopify?

Sorry not trying to hijack a post just asking


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## TheSwanx (Jan 26, 2013)

amp267 said:


> rwd425
> 
> When you say open source software, what does that exactly mean?? Sorry im also looking for a good ecom solution.
> 
> ...


We have used Volusion for almost 2 years now and they have been great! They have 24 hour live chat support in case you have any issues or questions. The control panel is very powerful but simple to use. When I say powerful I mean there are so many things you can do that you are not even going to use half of them.

The downfall is they do charge for bandwidth overage so make sure you get the correct package. If you are going to have many products, large pictures and heavy traffic....make sure you get a big enough package. 

Hope that helps a little.

Curtis~


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## rwd425 (Oct 8, 2013)

hey amp267,

I'll see if I can explain it easily. Volusion, Shopify and Bigcommerce are all hosted platforms, the exact opposite of open source. You go to these websites, sign up for their shopping cart platform and you have everything ready and in front of you to create an online store. The software is already developed and can only have minor changes made to it (small HTML and CSS changes to your online store)

Open source (magento) software is the opposite because you, the user, can modify the source code. This means you can change the software however you like. It's more for experienced developers who feel comfortable with coding, whereas hosted platforms like Volusion have a path laid out for you to create your store in a step by step process.

Can anyone provide a better explanation? I don't have a lot of experience with open source ecommerce software.

Thanks!


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## amp267 (Oct 11, 2006)

rwd425 said:


> hey amp267,
> 
> I'll see if I can explain it easily. Volusion, Shopify and Bigcommerce are all hosted platforms, the exact opposite of open source. You go to these websites, sign up for their shopping cart platform and you have everything ready and in front of you to create an online store. The software is already developed and can only have minor changes made to it (small HTML and CSS changes to your online store)
> 
> ...


Thank you, I thought thats what it meant but just was not to sure


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## leenhia (Oct 25, 2012)

Well guys I changed my mind I did a little you more research and Volusion got a bad rep for hidden fees and bandwidth fee. I found some other ecommerce site that looks pretty darn good. As of right now I'm trying to figure if I should go with Squarespace or Jimdo. Check them out, they have very nice templates.


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## Stefano (Aug 5, 2013)

leenhia said:


> Well guys I changed my mind I did a little you more research and Volusion got a bad rep for hidden fees and bandwidth fee. I found some other ecommerce site that looks pretty darn good. As of right now I'm trying to figure if I should go with Squarespace or Jimdo. Check them out, they have very nice templates.


I've been looking at these sites/services and the choices are both staggering and confusing. The following site reviews what they consider the top 10:
The Top eCommerce Builders
Other reviews go through the top 25 - sheesh - how can you digest that much?


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## OneTrickPony (Oct 16, 2013)

Hi there

Imo the two best options would be:

1. Wordpress + woocommerce plugin for small start-up stores or opencart plugin etc.
2. Magento for larger inventory stores.

Plus self hosting of your website since hosting prices are not expensive and then you have total control over your website and hosting package.

Wordpress has a small learning curve and has enough plugins that will allow you to add functionality, search engines love wordpress, it is easy to skin and make responsive - viewable on all sizes from large screens to mobile phones and plenty payment options and built in social network sharing...

Magento has a slightly steeper learning curve but is slick and can handle anything you trow at it, can also be themed responsively with free and paid for modules.

There are enough big hosting companies that will give you unlimmited bandwidth and a free domain for $5 or so to make it a beter option than a bundled product.

I mostly build clients websites using wordpress, joomla and magento with Wordpress being the easiest to "learn" - but you could with a local wamp server download and install wordpress/magento and install it on your home pc and build/learn the packages before transferring it over to your host.

Google really is your friend 

Regards
Robert


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## Stefano (Aug 5, 2013)

OneTrickPony said:


> Hi there
> 
> I mostly build clients websites using wordpress, joomla and magento with Wordpress being the easiest to "learn" - but you could with a local wamp server download and install wordpress/magento and install it on your home pc and build/learn the packages before transferring it over to your host.
> 
> ...


Excellent suggestions Robert. I started to use WordPress but it wasn't obvious how to hide the work in progress from the world. I downloaded Instant WordPress, which enabled me to build locally in a "sandbox" but at the time, it was confusing how to import your finished site to the host. Wamp would be great for exercising a site and add on functions without going into deep water so to speak. It was a pain to install and configure several years ago but now I hear they have streamlined the process. We shall see!
- Steve


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## OneTrickPony (Oct 16, 2013)

Hi Steve

I am on mobile now but will later post how to move WordPress from local to live it is not that hard.

Robert


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## OneTrickPony (Oct 16, 2013)

I posted the tutorial but it is being modded or something so if you would like it I can PM you


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## Stefano (Aug 5, 2013)

OneTrickPony said:


> I posted the tutorial but it is being modded or something so if you would like it I can PM you


Thanks Robert - that would be great!
- Steve


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## printkeg (Jan 6, 2011)

I noticed that many of you are using e-commerce packages but why not use a solution like Deconetwork or Inksoft that have an entire package dedicated to our industry? 

Our company doesn't use either of those solutions either because during development of our website, we just didn't know they existed, and we were not into shirt printing yet (We mostly did posters, postcards etc.)

Now that we are into shirt printing, a standard e-commerce solution doesn't seem like a good idea. I was curious now that we are building/testing a Deconetwork website which seems like a better choice than places like Volusion and Shopify since they have features (like an online designer) catered to DTG, screen printing and embroidery.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.


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## msnowman (Dec 12, 2008)

I used Deconetwork for a couple of years and never had as many sales as I should have. The problem is SEO. It isn't designed for good SEO. From what I have read Inksoft has the same problem. I don't disagree with you that they are optimized for our industry and have several benefits that other shopping cart software are lacking but if you can't get people to your site to use them then all the features in the world aren't going to do you any good. I really have high hopes for the opentshirts project as opencart does have good SEO capablility but it isn't quite where I need it to be to make the switch yet.


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

Printkeg - you can always link to a page or site within your Wordpress site etc that runs or hosts the dedicated design/industry aspect. 
Infact, I'd rather do that to avoid potential conflicts, maintain control of seo and keep everything a little more manageable in a module approach!


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