Shopping Cart Comparisons, Magneto

So you have just got into the world of ecommerce, you’ve picked a winning drop ship supplier now all you need to do is to work out how to list your items online.

There are about as many ways to sell online as there are things to sell online. Besides having eBay, Amazon and many other eBay alternatives as locations to host and promote listings there are open source communities like OSCommerce and CRE Loaded offering to help you create your own website to sell things on.

As a result getting clear, correct easily-understood information more than a little hard, especially when those who know the most are often the least able to express their knowledge clearly in a language that will be understood by everybody.

So Chinavasion is running a series on the different ecommerce software / platform options available to you, go through how they work and talk about their benefits and problems.

The Magento platform is like Zen Cart and OSCommerce in that it doesn’t host any content and won’t be able to used in conjunction with sites like eBay, Amazon or one of the many eBay alternatives.

And, like OSCommece and Zen cart, this puts it into the more complex basket because it means that users will be required to know code and how to deal with site hosting companies, domain name brokers and the like.

Like OSCommerce and Zen cart Magento is very customizable with a number of different shops being created from the same model. And like the two other platforms it has had a number of add-ons made for it to make it do a number of different jobs.

Some of those functions include an add on for coupon creation, multiple payment options, the ability to sell at multiple locations and some nice default templates. According to IT Web Experts (itwebexperts.com/oscommerce_zencart_xcart_comparison.php#magento-commerce-shopping-cart-review) Varian, the company that put together the software, is fairly good for putting out updates for bugs and problems within the software.

However, IT web experts do say that the software does run slow, there is a shortage of technical information on the platform and that customizing it is difficult if not impossible. This is backed up by the readers of Shopping cart reviews (shopping-cart-reviews.com/carts/Magento.aspx) who say that:

• It’s not very user friendly
• It feels ‘clunky’
• It’s not logically designed

The claim that there seems to be a shortage of technical material is unusual given the number of support material and channels out there.

Magento Resources

• Magento Forums:magentocommerce.com/boards
• Magento Wiki:magentocommerce.com/wiki/
• Magento Knoweldge Base:magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base
• Magento User Guide:magentocommerce.com/support/magento-user-guide-book

One thing not guaranteed to Magento Community users is advice from Varian, the people who create it. However, Varian say this is where owners of a Magento Enterprise Edition will get a higher level of support and guarantees of performance.

While not coming cheap (the average yearly subscription goes for US$11,125) it is supposed to be just the thing for businesses looking for a platform in a hurry (well it is according to the people at Varian anyway) And 3M, Samsung and Lenovo uses Magento’s services so they can’t be all bad.

So, as you can see, Magento is perhaps worth looking at if you’ve got some time on your hands and are willing to put the work in but not exactly as good as other free platforms.

Let us know what you think of Vendio in the comments below or take part in our polls to let us know which ecommerce platform you run your business with.

Magento Summary

• Name: Magento
• Number Downloads: 1.5 million According to Magento
• Set-Up Cost:
  • $0 Community version
  • Price on contact Enterprise version
• Yearly Cost:
• $0 Community version
• US$89000 Enterprise version
• Customizationability:Quite customizable (with effort)
• Help:See list above
• Software Requirements: magentocommerce.com/system-requirements
• Find At: magentocommerce.com/

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