In 2012, online businesses grew 21.1 % to top $1 trillion for the first time of its trend. This year sales are expected to grow 18.3 % to $1.298 trillion worldwide. It’s also forecast that there will be 175 million people going shopping online by 2016.
The development in online sales is outstanding, and now financial records for 8 % of total retail sales.
Some platforms are best liked for particular website and could not so great for another one, so it can be very difficult finding the perfect solution. Creating an online shopping Cart takes really long. That’s why it is advisable to ask the expert before going for your online store.
1. Magento
More than 150,000 businesses around the word choose Magento as their ecommerce platform Magento is powerful, flexible and cost effective ecommerce solution. Magento was launched on March 31, 2008 and developed by Varien, the now renamed Magento Inc. Magento was built using the Zend Framework. More than 30000 merchants used Magento as the fastest growing ecommerce platform. Companies such as Nike, Lindt, Samsung, Olympus, OfficeMax, The North Face, Stussy and Nespresso all make their ecommerce website by utilizing Magento to boost their online business. So we need to look on Magento usage and recognized exactly what an excellence solution of open source ecommerce. Magento can be compared to WordPress in that they both transformed and dominated the space they targeted Magento in e-commerce, WordPress in blogging and content management. The premium, Magento Enterprise Edition solution is accessible based on an annual subscription however the Magento Community Edition is offered as a free download (http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/magento-community-edition-one-eight alpha-now-available /) under the open source OSL 3.0 license.
Why we choose Magento as an ecommerce platform?
- Magento built in stable and reliable structure.
- Open source platform.
- Magento allow us to adjust existing features and add new ones.
- Magento contains all excellence features to enhanced your online business such as the shopping cart, catalog management, search, checkout and administration functions
- My opinion about who choose Magento:.
Maintenance cost of Magento is high as as compared to other open source platform however Magento site is more SEO friendly as compared to rest of all. I advise that small business does not choose it due to the fact that of low financial investment; upkeep of the site becomes extremely difficult.
2. OsCommerce
OsCommerce is among the oldest open source platforms available in the market. It was started in 2000 in Germany and developed by Harald Ponce de Leon. Open source commerce is an online store management software program. In August 2008, more than 14,000 ‘live’ websites using the OsCommerce program. This admired open source e-commerce solution is used by nearly 13,000 websites. In the period of 12 years, OsCommerce has produced a vast community approximately it consisting of 270,000+ members, so you’ll be able to lean on thousands of OsCommerce experts and web developers specializing in the e-commerce platform if you’re ever in need of support.
OsCommerce is another crucial option when it goes to free and open source e-commerce platforms. The features, as well as the benefit and limitation, are similar Magento’s community edition. With OsCommerce you can utilize your choice of web hosts, however you’ll require seeing to it that it is in a secure hosting environment. The neighborhood of users is another big advantage of OsCommerce, as there are over 7,000 add-ons from the community that can be downloaded and used totally free. On the backend, OsCommerce uses PHP for server-side programs and MySQL for its relational database management system (RDMS).
Functions of OsCommerce
- Free to download.
- Open source.
- Can be hosted anywhere.
- Free templates available.
- Premium templates available.
- Add-ons available from neighborhood members.
- Customer and order management from the admin dashboard.
- May require the assistance of a designer/developer.
OsCommerce was the most exceptional shopping cart readily available for a long time, and you had very little other feasible options. But, at the moment, it’s gradually being replaced by its competitors.
3. OpenCart
OpenCart is an incomparable open source shopping cart system. It is a protected e-commerce platform for online establishments which supplies you to develop your own online business and lope your e-commerce economically and smoothly. It can be used on any web server with PHP and MySQL operating on it. Open Cart is accessible as free software as it’s specified in the GNU General Public License released in 2009. Although OpenCart is the new discover platform among these five e-commerce platforms, it has already proved itself as a peak choice. The success of OpenCart is in its straightforwardness and exceptional usability for online business as well as their customers. You can create an unlimited number of categories, sell an unlimited number of items, various currencies and use numerous languages and supplementary option of payment and shipping method. Because of these multiple selection it gives high rank in search engine. Opencart has best order management which is the main feature of it. Opencart likewise gives multiple choice of tax payment in varying country.
OpenCart is new and well-built ecommerce solution. It is easy to use especially for beginner. It is also perfect solution for a company which wants to utilize multiple stores using one admin interface. As a result when any beginner choose OpenCart to set up their online store, they should employ OpenCart developer rather than by own hand.
4. Zen Cart
Zen Cart is an online shop management system, developed by the Zen Cart Development Team in September 18, 2012 and specifies in GNU General Public License Zen Cart is same as to OsCommerce. In truth, Zen cart separated from OsCommerce as various project in 2003. The main difference between Zen Cart and OsCommerce comes from Zen Cart’s structural changes and simpler to change appearance as CSS based. It gives property of online retailers with a larger amount of customer management and promotion tools like gift certificates, coupon codes, discount and sale guidelines, newsletter manager, automatic email order confirmation, and much more. Zen Cart is extremely easy to handle, modify and install. People who have less technical knowledge can also build an easy ecommerce website. It has several helpful adapter available to develop and manufacture your shop and admin area, although too many can make the interface a little messy.
A person who really want simple establishment and doesn’t care about the look and setup, or who are excellent with PHP Zen Cart could be a great choice for him. But you are not familiar with PHP, so you can hire Zen Cart developer from leading web Development Company.
5. WordPress
WordPress was first launched on May 27, 2003, by its founders, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. As of September 2013, version 3.6 had been downloaded more than 6 million times. WordPress was initially designed as a blogging platform; it has then curved into a tremendously powerful and modifiable CMS system with a large range of plugins that can transfer your site into an online shop. on behalf of genuine online retailers, the open source Magento platform, which takes the same top position in ecommerce that WordPress has in the CMS world, is far better suited. One of the main reasons for opting to use WordPress for your store in its place of Magento is that Magento can have fairly a high knowing curve for somebody who is securely surrounded in the WordPress world. Peoples who have little or no knowledge of coding or who can not hire developer, wordpress are the best ecommerce solution.
WordPress have some plugins which help in converting our site into online store that can be rapidly downloaded, configured, and locate, without requiring much additional software outside of the need for a payment processing service.
WP E-commerce for WordPress
WP e-Commerce is one of the most popular and strong e-commerce plugin of WordPress. It is easy to download, install and takes very little time for updating. Adding a new product is very easy and you can add lots of products in website through this plugin. This plugin has lots of functionality and this is suitable to people who are beginner.
Woo Commerce for WordPress
Woo commerce was established by Woo Themes on August 25, 2011 as a new ecommerce plugin. The majority of woo commerce plugin and extensions are free to download from Woo Themes website. Woo Commerce plugin install easily like any other wordpress plugins. Woo commerce plugin is similar with WP ecommerce but it had some differences. One of the main difference is woo commerce can not apply for a lot of themes. Consequently you have not high technical knowledge; it could be extremely challenging for you to build an online store and it also offers very little option of shipping method. The interface of woo commerce is very straightforward to use and familiar to users. It gives lots of menu such as Setting, reports, orders, vouchers making your online shop customer friendly.
