What makes an online store usable for the owners?

January 15, 2013 12:21 PM

If you've ever paid $10 to $30 a month for a hosted online e-commerce solution, I have some questions for you about your experience.

What was your experience like?

What features were critically important and which were useless?

How much control over the theme of your store did you have (and how much did you want to have)?

If you use a hosted solution now, what do you dislike about the service? What do you like about it? Which do you recommend?

posted by jsturgill to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: I use e-Junkie. I like it because it doesn't require me to put my products on a different site with a theme and such -- I just get decent-looking "buy" links to put on my own site. The pop-up that shows what's in my cart is a stylish black that looks good on my sites.

Critically important features:
- Works happily with Authorize.net; doesn't require Paypal
- Supports digital downloads and membership site registration links

Useless features: There are many that aren't useful for me, such as stuff relating to inventory or color of the product (my products are digital).

The admin interface took a lot of getting used to, and if I don't use it regularly I get confused.
posted by ceiba at 6:40 PM on January 15, 2013

I think this question very much depends on what kind of product or service you are selling (digital, non-digital, etc.) and what level of complexity you need related to shipping, taxes, currencies, etc. Obviously there are a lot of choices out there (for example, for non-digital there's Yahoo! Store, Shopify, Volusion, etc.) but the one that is ideal for you very much depends on a number of factors that are unique to your business.
posted by Dansaman at 11:42 PM on January 15, 2013

Response by poster: Obviously there are a lot of choices out there (for example, for non-digital there's Yahoo! Store, Shopify, Volusion, etc.) but the one that is ideal for you very much depends on a number of factors that are unique to your business.

I was hoping to get a range of responses from people with different businesses.
posted by jsturgill at 8:15 AM on January 16, 2013