Comments on: Magento Commerce - A First Look

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:00:57 +0000

Marc,
Magento does not require to be necessarily set up by a very experienced man in those platforms, you can get an automatic install from a kind of fantastico script in your hosting. You don’t need as well a very expensive hosting, I just paid 50 dollars for one year and my new store in magento works fast.

By: Blue Acorn

Blue Acorn — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:10:44 +0000

@Marc

Thanks for the comment - to be honest, Magento and most other eCommerce platforms really need to be setup/built by someone who has experience working with those platforms - or with a background in web development that can pick it up. Not saying that you wouldn’t be able to manage it ongoing, but to set it up, you’ll need someone to assist you in setting it up that has that expertise - but you’ll have all of the tools necessary to manage the site on an ongoing basis. Best of luck to you!

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:36:50 +0000

Hiya, thanks for providing this forum and sharing your knowledge.

I am considering overhauling my website, built by a friend two years back but I have never attmepted anything like this before.

I am presently using Page down tech due to the ease of managing the backend on my own with limited knowledge and Magento was recommended to me.

I have someone who will transfer all the date from old to new once built, but is it possible to go from 0-60 with this application ie, can someone who has never built a website before do so with Magento?

I welcome any and all constructive critcism,

Thanks,

Marc

By: Blue Acorn

Blue Acorn — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:44:24 +0000

@Audio Bible: Ablecommerce is a .NET based solution similar to a BV Commerce or ASPdotNetStorefront. While not being closely familiar with the solution myself, what I do know of them is that they are one of the top .NET based solutions out there in that market. They seem to have a mature featureset, but a few things I noticed rather quickly when looking over their site:
(1) None of the example sites seem to be table-less in the design
(2) They tout having “Industry Leading SEO” through their URL rewriting, but basically every cart out there has this and some do it better (see BV Commerce). They use this as a sales tactic although I don’t see anything that makes this industry leading. A couple of sites I checked out used sessionids in the URLs which is a big no-no.
(3) Developer Wiki was basically useless. If you plan on having someone customize this I’d take a look at their development capabilities and make sure it is extensible.

Overall, the best thing to do Audio Bible, when selecting a platform, is to document a list of all of your requirements, prioritize them, and then evaluate your options. A large portion of clients that come to us for Consulting are switching from a platform they just implemented in the last two years - make sure, whichever one you go with, that it will grow with you so that you don’t end up in the same boat. Let me know how things work out and best of luck!

By: Audio Bible

Audio Bible — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:36:18 +0000

I am thinking of switching to Ablecommerce, any opinion about those guys?

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:07:02 +0000

@Mel: “I find it rather amusing that the hosting companies seem to think they understand the pockets of small business owners. You want our cash, and that’s the bottom line.”

Not sure if this was directed at me, but since I’m the only commenter who’s part of a hosting company, I’ll assume it was.

We’re small business owners ourselves. It’s not easy and money isn’t a luxury.

We provide a service, but we rely on our website to continue to generate new income. If our site isn’t up, or isn’t fast, we’re not making money.

Only a fool builds his house on sand, regardless of what he’s selling inside that house.

By: Blue Acorn

Blue Acorn — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:37:08 +0000

Thanks for chiming in Jonah, to be honest, these issues aren’t necessarily preventing us from migrating to Magento - in fact, we already have projects to be deployed on Magento shortly. However, this is a big issue, there are some workarounds for the time being (search the Magento forums for details) and I’m confidant these issues will be resolved shortly.

By: Jonah

Jonah — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:12:20 +0000

I liked the honest opinion write up. I have a question about your reluctance to migrate your shops to Magneto.

Q: For a newby to the ecommerce world, would you recommend continuing with OSCommerce and they eventually moving over to Magento, or rather sticking it out with the multiple URL’s SEO issue until the fix it if they do?

Thanks for the feedback!

By: Kirk

Kirk — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:55:16 +0000

How does Magento compare with Voluson platform?

By: Mel

Mel — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:46:07 +0000

I find it rather amusing that the hosting companies seem to think they understand the pockets of small business owners. You want our cash, and that’s the bottom line.

Thank you fr the review! I can’t wait to try Magento. I’m installing it myself…because I don’t spend money all willy nilly.