Over the years I've learned a lot about computer programming. However, until recently I didn't know jack shit about e-commerce and I knew even less about payment gateways and order fullfillment. This article will be the first of a series about e-commerce and my experiences.
I would like to pre-cursor this blog entry by stating that I have a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. So it should come without surprise that I have decided to write a little bit about what works and doesn't work in my experience with regard to e-commerce.
Commerce Platforms
Open Source vs Hosted Solution
This is a debate worth talking about. Notice there is no mention of closed source solutions as I believe you get the worst of both worlds when you not only have to host a solution but also pay for it and can't have control over the source code. Commercial closed source solutions are for companies that suck.
Pros - Open Source E-commerce
- Usually free (As in beer) with the ability to get commercial support if necessary
- Complete flexibility in that the source code can be edited
- Only limited by your own creativity rather than code licensing
- Community support and modules availible
- Completely brandable
- Extendable should you learn to write code.
Cons - Open Source
- Usually requires a Guru ( Like the ones @ binocular Inc )
- Developer communities can be fragmented. Thus, you never know how well someone is doing your implementation
- Can have limited documentation
- Depending on level of customization, things can get expensive quickly
- Your left to manage security patches and upgrades.
In general open source is really good if you want to do some customization and don't mind spending some money to get that customization done for you. My favorite open source e-commerce platform is Magento. They are a commercially supported commerce company with a strong community. This solution will offer you great flexibility but you will likely either need to get the enterprise edition or hire a developer is you are serious about keeping things running smoothly. There are many open source commerce platform but none of them even come close to magento so they are not worth mentioning. I have tested os-commerce, zen-cart, and ubercart and it is my opinion those platforms create more problems then they are worth.
Next i'll discuss the Pros and Con's of a hosted solutions and then follow up with a brief paragraph about my experiences.
Pros - Hosted solutions
- Fixed cost. Usually you pay a monthly fee set it and forget it
- Code updates handled automatically
- Easy setup (this is the biggest selling point)
Cons - Hosted solutions
- limited flexiblity
- Prone to data lock in
- Can get costly if you average it out over the long run
- Subject to 3rd parties downtime.
In general if you have access to a developer an open source solution can offer you more flexibility vs a canned solution. But don't make the mistake of thinking it's free. My favorite cloud solution is shopify.com it is a robust system with a really great api to make getting at your data possible. Combine with amazon fullfillment and you've got a combo that's hard to beat.
