# Need to know your opinion on best E-Commerce Website builder? I know, same old question but 2013 might have new surprises and reviews



## Olperez1 (Feb 24, 2013)

Hello Everyone,

I know this has been asked a lot, but i don't see any 2013 posts, and considering programs have advanced through these years, I need some help, desperately.

I am looking to build an E-Commerce Site (like Zazzle) showing various designs, not just shirts, but stickers, mugs, apparel, banners, car wraps, car graphics, etc etc. So I want to be able to have customers go online and order stuff they see and like, or sending in their own designs for me to print for them.

(I'm getting a Versacamm sp540 and Sublimation printer in the next 30 days).

I got a hosting account at Host Gator after a lot of research on this forum, but when I downloaded Magento through it, it looks really complicated. I'm not a computer genius with coding, which is what it looks like I will need to be with Magento, or am I looking at it wrong.

I need a shopping cart, paypal check out, etc etc (like a miniature version of Zazzle.com)

What have you guys preferred, and something easier than Magento? I'm sure if I view hours of tutorials for Magento I can get a hang of it, but I really don't want to spend countless hours of web designing/ecommerce designing when i have so many designs for product that I also have to do.

My goal is to find (if any) an E-Commerce builder that I can just drag and drop or upload copies of my designs (on merchandise) and put a price on it for people to just pick the merchandise they like, pick a size, a color and check out (or continue shopping). I know there might not be an E-Commerce builder site that easy, but I want to have something very userfriendly and easy to keep updated? I want to have a good looking site built within a month or two at most.

Not lazy, just trying to get my business started, and doing it all on my own. So prefer not having to deal with coding (which i have no experience in)

Please help, thank you so much in advance.


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## DJakob (Mar 7, 2013)

Shopify(Expensive) or Bigcartel(Cheap).

Shopify is geared towards bigger stores, while Bigcartel is geared towards smaller ones.

Shopify has won my heart out of every eCommerce plugin/service i've tried.


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

Use shopify. I'm a magento developer and I don't charge under 8k for a magento site...

Shopify is cheaper in the immediate future plus is deployed on an included CDN.


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## Olperez1 (Feb 24, 2013)

ThAnks. What do you think about Prestashop through hostgator?


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

Like I said. Shopify. 

Forget about hosting. Forget about programming. Just pay a percentage of your sales and setup a shopify store. The price of running on an expandable cloud server alone would sell it for me. I run 4 small-medium ecommerce magento shops per dedicated server and it slows down. (I know it's not the optimal way but it runs like that due to budgetary reasons)


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## itsvectortime (Apr 5, 2013)

I just started a big cartel site, and it has been easy to use. Still needs some tweaking, but they have great customer service.


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## hotrod08 (Jun 28, 2008)

I am just getting started also. Been looking at yahoo and Wix.com. any one used then. The Wix easy upload cut and paste. Thanks


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## mcologne (Mar 22, 2013)

Hello all,

Anyone familiar with Woocommerce ? We are thinking about using Woocommerce with Wordpress...


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## TreeClouds (Mar 30, 2013)

I am new to the t-shirt business, but I have been doing web design for a long time.
WooCommerce is one of the best options if you want to mantain your own store/website.
It has been recommended to me 2 years ago and I have no regrets after I started using it for my clients. Like everything else, it has a learning curve, but the features are well worth it.

Good luck with your website!


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## mcologne (Mar 22, 2013)

Olperez - I apologize for hijacking your post. Check out woocommerce, liking it thus far... 

Thanks for your response TreeClouds... 

Our domain is in the process of being transferred... is it advisable to use the temporary domain provided by our host to set up woocommerce? Or should we wait for the main domain?

We are worried about uploading stuff and having to redo links to merchandise uploaded once we point the main domain to the shop... don't know if this made since... new to this.

Mike


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## RaptorRay (Oct 6, 2009)

BigCommerce is a web store host I use. I am playing with EcWid with a free account, it is widget based and enables you to drop those widgets into any web site. For a self hosted site I would use CoffeeCup software as they have an app for every part of a website.

Ray


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## Olperez1 (Feb 24, 2013)

mcologne said:


> Olperez - I apologize for hijacking your post. Check out woocommerce, liking it thus far...
> 
> Thanks for your response TreeClouds...
> 
> ...


How Dare you MIKE!!! Just Kidding. I actually don't mind it because it is still helping me on making a decision. I actually like Shopify. I want to do all the work myself, but not coding, and i will so many designs available for what i want to sell (shirts, wall graphics, mugs, apparel, magnets, car wraps, mobile advertising, business advertising, etc etc) that I won't have much time to keep coding all out (especially when i'm not great at coding). So I think Shopify will be my best friend, and i know its a paying site, but i'm positive i can make the money back by selling just 2 tshirts. 

FYI, i was with hostgator and prestashop, but i barely touched it as i kept reading that even though prestashop is as good as Shopify (but prestashop is free), there is really no phone support, just a big community. I really don't like the idea of just a community when i will sometimes need answers quickly, and not sit there and wait with anxiety for some one who isn't paid by prestashop to send me his expertise. Some stuff I just know i have to pay for to get the best.

Thank you everyone! Please keep sharing.


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## karlesbaxton (Apr 11, 2013)

Try Miva Merchant for the best ecommerce web development.


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## Texas Slick (Oct 30, 2008)

Check out Ammericommerce.com. They are a good company


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## Texas Slick (Oct 30, 2008)

Americommerce.com


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## mcologne (Mar 22, 2013)

*Re: Re: Need to know your opinion on best E-Commerce Website builder? I know, same old question but 2013 might have new surprises and reviews*



Olperez1 said:


> How Dare you MIKE!!! Just Kidding. I actually don't mind it because it is still helping me on making a decision. I actually like Shopify. I want to do all the work myself, but not coding, and i will so many designs available for what i want to sell (shirts, wall graphics, mugs, apparel, magnets, car wraps, mobile advertising, business advertising, etc etc) that I won't have much time to keep coding all out (especially when i'm not great at coding). So I think Shopify will be my best friend, and i know its a paying site, but i'm positive i can make the money back by selling just 2 tshirts.
> 
> FYI, i was with hostgator and prestashop, but i barely touched it as i kept reading that even though prestashop is as good as Shopify (but prestashop is free), there is really no phone support, just a big community. I really don't like the idea of just a community when i will sometimes need answers quickly, and not sit there and wait with anxiety for some one who isn't paid by prestashop to send me his expertise. Some stuff I just know i have to pay for to get the best.
> 
> Thank you everyone! Please keep sharing.


So sorry - So sorry, Otto... lol. Hey, glad I somehow helped. Good luck with Shopify... keep us posted.

Mike


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## OyoaDP (Apr 10, 2013)

So, for those who use WooCommerce, I have a silly question. I remember having a WordPress account, and mostly to be able to truly interact with others, I had to have that account. 
The customers do not have to have a wordpress account to buy, correct? And who do they process through? (PayPal option available?) Thanks.


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## catldavis (Mar 31, 2012)

Your customers won't need a Wordpress account to purchase through Woocommerce site. Woocommerce is just an integrated ecommerce platform for Wordpress. 

Payment options vary. The easiest - and by far the most secure - is to use Paypal only. Paypal now offers a free scanner so you can accept payments at a remote location (such as fairs/festivals). 

You could look in to a merchant account, but then you will have a monthly gateway fee to deal with. Not only that, you have to deal with pci compliance. 

I wouldn't give up on Magento. It's more resource intensive than Wordpress but it's worth it once it's set up. Plus, unlike Woocommerce, a lot of extensions are free. There's a reason the largest companies in the US use Magento and not Wordpress. If you need programming for Magento, a know a couple of Magento developers that work very inexpensively (Contact me through PM if interested). Or, probably the easiest route with Magento is to use MagentoGo. It's hosted directly through Magento, you get 100 Sku's, great free templates and for $15/mo, you can't beat the price!!


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## hudjibaba (Oct 29, 2009)

For e-commerce website, Opencart is light weight for hosting, small and easy to install. if you have css knowlegde. Modifcation theme is easy or you can purchase a nice theme at themeforest.com.


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## MiEmb (Jan 29, 2011)

Magento is a super flexible environment if you are a developer. It is not easy at all if you want to set it up without any programming knowledge. If you are bent on using magento, start with MagentoGo and make sure it is what you really want. You can then move onto your own magento setup but plan to use a developer.


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## iAce (Apr 21, 2013)

Try Wix, it's very easy and simple to use, gives you so much customization along with hundreds of free templates which you can use. It also allows you to integrate paypal buttons and an e commerce widget. 

It's also free, they do hosting for you. You only pay for a domain.


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## watt (Dec 27, 2006)

I knew nothing about mangento and setup a site in no time. Magento work with parent and child folders. You modify only the file that you want by creating themes or in skin folder. I just setup a second site with one magento install with two different domain names. I host with hostgater and they will help somewhat. They have videos that show you how to modify the theme. They have lots of plugins that do things for you, such as zoom, that zoom in when mouse is hovered over t-shirt. 
The address to my site is africanrootsworld.com. 
It's just a basic magento site with WordPress blog integrated into it.
I need to get some things done but it works. I knew nothing about building websites or magento. magento is not as hard as it look if you have patience.

Magento offers the most flexible for building a site.


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## catldavis (Mar 31, 2012)

Watt is correct. Once you have the opportunity to work with Magento, it's not that difficult. However, i would pay someone a few dollars to set it up and then go from there.


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## thebiz34 (Aug 28, 2009)

Anyone use homestead. Looks good?


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## ektajain (Mar 4, 2014)

In my opinion, Magento is best platform to work with because it provide various options for creating your ecommerce website and there you can also integrate All-in-one Product Designer, All-in-one Print Designer kind of things which allow your users to create wide range of custom products ranging from tshirts, sweatshirts, jerseys, mugs, bottle, bag, personalized cards, business cards, labels, banners, laptop skins etc.


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## MaraP (Jan 9, 2015)

And why are you not satisfied with Magento? I've been using this CMS for a long time since it was so widely popular and I have no complaints to Magento. Check this review where the most advanced ecommerce online platforms are described. Perhaps you will find something more convenient for yourself.


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