Sales Performance Of 4.x.x Compared To 2.x.x

General General Questions
21

Because CS CART is unique and we have good tools on the market exact the finger from the hand: ...CSCART, MAGENTO, PRESTA and others 2

But when i sell (hypothetical) the same products with Darius..and he have a worst wordpress (with no sitemap, and other big tools) and i have cscart and i work daily with seo tools and strategies... and i have 250 unique/day... and Darius have 1200 unique/day ?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!

It is a real case... i replace my competitor with Darius

After years.....and now in 2018 after last updates.... If i can not overtake my competitor this year... i will leave Cs Cart...

Aprox 2012 year...when was V2 X

Good SEO was the only reason I fell in love with CS CART

So, can you list the exact problems with SEO you have in v4 and you did not have in v2?

22

My responds is OT, general SEO

So, can you list the exact problems with SEO you have in v4 and you did not have in v2?

I wish you could incorporate ability to have SKU name in to product seo name, even ebay has this for example

https://www.ebay.com/itm/iPhone-6s-Apple-16GB-64GB-128GB-No-Fingerprint-Unlocked-Smartphone/222693913062?epid=229250346&hash=item33d99771e6:m:mXQwDBo8SefcKb8X-4BJgvw

as you see name consist of seo title and item number

/iPhone-6s-Apple-16GB-64GB-128GB-No-Fingerprint-Unlocked-Smartphone/222693913062

23

Version 2 was my favorite version. It was the last version when cs-cart was a 'shopping cart'. Now it is an 'e-commerce platform'. Along the way cs-cart forgot is was a shopping cart and that selling products is the primary focus of cs-cart. They have added so much fluff unrelated to selling products that it hurts the performance and rankings of cs-cart sites. I wish it would become product focused again!

• In version 2 we could add more than one product at a time to the cart (without using 'buy together'). This was lost starting in version 3.

• In version 2 we could see how many customers logged into site.

• Version 2 was clean, fast and selling product focused.

• Version 2 had a customer friendly checkout.

• Version 2 allowed "Please select an option" as a null selection without having to use this bogus "sequential" feature. We should not be forced to use 'sequential' inorder to use this basic shopping cart feature!

• Version 2 did rank better in search engines.

Yes, addons are available that are product focused. But cs-cart hasn't incorporated into its core any of this product based technology in years. I think the developers lost there way. Go back to being a shopping cart, please!

24

Version 2 was my favorite version. It was the last version when cs-cart was a 'shopping cart'. Now it is an 'e-commerce platform'. Along the way cs-cart forgot is was a shopping cart and that selling products is the primary focus of cs-cart. They have added so much fluff unrelated to selling products that it hurts the performance and rankings of cs-cart sites. I wish it would become product focused again!

• In version 2 we could add more than one product at a time to the cart (without using 'buy together'). This was lost starting in version 3.

• In version 2 we could see how many customers logged into site.

• Version 2 was clean, fast and selling product focused.

• Version 2 had a customer friendly checkout.

• Version 2 allowed "Please select an option" as a null selection without having to use this bogus "sequential" feature. We should not be forced to use 'sequential' inorder to use this basic shopping cart feature!

• Version 2 did rank better in search engines.

Yes, addons are available that are product focused. But cs-cart hasn't incorporated into its core any of this product based technology in years. I think the developers lost there way. Go back to being a shopping cart, please!

I Agree. Not a day passing by without thinking to switch to other platforms.

25

Well, I for one am extremely happy with version 4. We used version 2 for many years but I'm very impressed with how cs-cart improved and added a lot of functionality that we use. The time of simple shopping carts that is over guys, time to realize that. You need more so you can compete with your competitors.

  • Because of the api we were able to easily integrate our helpdesk system.
  • Cs-cart 4 is extremely fast. I dare say v4 is just as fast as v2 even though our images are now 2 times larger.
  • How many customers are online - this can be easily seen in google analytics. Or with a simple add-on. Stats was slowing down large websites and was not showing nearly as much as google analytics, so it made sense that they removed it.
  • Checkout - we have not had complaints so far and while it shows a bit more info than version 2, now it is 99% compliant with for example EU law (which version 2 was not).
  • Better in search engines - We saw our visitors go up by 10 to 30% after we switched to v4 and full https.
  • Sales - we saw sales increase by 10 - 20% after we switched to version 4 (although this might have also happened had we stayed with version 2, i think it's very safe to say V4 definitely does not do worse than V2).
  • Options - ok this is the one thing I agree on with the post above. Not sure how and why this was messed up (see my bug post here: http://forum.cs-cart.com/tracker/issue-6878-cs-cart-not-loading-in-stock-options-as-default/)

Then, most importantly - our customers do not complain and stayed with us. Switching to a new design is always tricky, but we did our best to keep the look and functionality like the menu the same as much as possible, only to improve in very small steps after that. So maybe this is good advice for other switching: don't make the step too big for your customers.

26

Flow, thank you for the post. Glad to hear that. As for options we do a lot of work with variations and there will be new features and improvements soon.

Version 2 was my favorite version. It was the last version when cs-cart was a 'shopping cart'. Now it is an 'e-commerce platform'. Along the way cs-cart forgot is was a shopping cart and that selling products is the primary focus of cs-cart. They have added so much fluff unrelated to selling products that it hurts the performance and rankings of cs-cart sites. I wish it would become product focused again!

Hi Triplets,

Let me go through your points

They have added so much fluff unrelated to selling products that it hurts the performance and rankings of cs-cart sites.

A lot of features are added as add-ons so they did not affect performance. Besides number of add-ons for CS-Cart v4 increased dramatically comparing to v2.

• In version 2 we could add more than one product at a time to the cart (without using 'buy together'). This was lost starting in version 3.

It's not a problem for B2C business which CS-Cart is primary focused on. But if you need it you can easily buy an add-on http://marketplace.cs-cart.com/add-ons/customer-experience/wsa-multiple-add-to-cart.html

Also note that we have such feature in v4 like "quick view" "order in 1 click" and they are also configurable.

In version 2 we could see how many customers logged into site.

C'mon it's 2018, for everyone who is focused on online business Google Analytics is must have tool. It allows you to see a lot more things that ex-statistics in CS-Cart.

What for do you need "users online" I really can not understand.

Version 2 had a customer friendly checkout.

Why? Here is a screenshot of v2 and v4 checkouts

https://www.evernote.com/l/AQFWhaYucK5JiK2WMOj17s6lTHHviI5_lwY

In v4 you have a configurable block with order details - cart content. Besides take a look how many possible checkout implementations v4 have:

http://marketplace.cs-cart.com/add-ons/customer-experience/one-step-checkout.html

http://marketplace.cs-cart.com/add-ons/customer-experience/one-page-checkout.html

http://marketplace.cs-cart.com/add-ons/customer-experience/simtechdev-one-page-checkout.html

Version 2 allowed "Please select an option" as a null selection without having to use this bogus "sequential" feature. We should not be forced to use 'sequential' inorder to use this basic shopping cart feature!

yes, this was an issue, but we fixed it in v4.7.1 please take a lookL: http://blog.cs-cart.com/2017/12/20/introducing-cs-cart-4-7-1-with-order-management-and-export-import-improvements/section Usability improvements.

• Version 2 did rank better in search engines.

Why do you think so? We put a lot of efforts in investigating such issues but we did not found any proofs of this.

V4 have more SEO features like 301 redirects, canonical URL, editing robots.txt, google rich snippets. And even more SEO add-ons that make CS-Cart is extremely SEO configurable.

We upgrades our cs-cart.com site to v4 and note that SEO for us is the primary source of clients.

So to summarize. I often see complains like "previous versions were cool and new sucks" but from my experience I came to conclusion that owner don't have a need for it or just don't have resources (time, energy, money) to understand all the reason and advantages of new versions.

27

This addon does not work in a way Flow explained, just tested it and it addss all page products to cart at once not particular selected..

It's not a problem for b2 business which CS-Cart is primary focused on. But if you need it you can easily buy an add-on http://marketplace.cs-cart.com/add-ons/customer-experience/wsa-multiple-add-to-cart.html

28

Was a long time a go

And i can`t tell you exactly the difference. But i now as in 2013 i dominate google with my shop

Yes ... i now.. in time lot of rules was changed and developet ...market also grow..

But it results that Cs Cart is no more efficient as he was. And all we feel this

Before 2013 (aprox) when we jump at V3... when "community edition" disapear... all my carrier from my country was offering a free addon for Cs Cart. When V3 was released everyone forgotten CsCart until this day... and i can proof here, and more

If imac said:

- Its about providing you with powerful tool, not leading your business

- It's not a problem for b2 business which CS-Cart is primary focused on

Means that CsCart is no more good for me

...i will back

29

It's not a problem for b2 business which CS-Cart is primary focused on.

I think you meant B2C (business to consumer)

30

Was a long time a go

And i can`t tell you exactly the difference. But i now as in 2013 i dominate google with my shop

Yes ... i now.. in time lot of rules was changed and developet ...market also grow..

But it results that Cs Cart is no more efficient as he was. And all we feel this

Before 2013 (aprox) when we jump at V3... when "community edition" disapear... all my carrier from my country was offering a free addon for Cs Cart. When V3 was released everyone forgotten CsCart until this day... and i can proof here, and more

If imac said:

- Its about providing you with powerful tool, not leading your business

- It's not a problem for b2 business which CS-Cart is primary focused on

Means that CsCart is no more good for me

...i will back

the more difficult Google rules become - the greater efforts you should put to achieve good results.

The point is that everyone follows his own strategy. One write a lot of blog articles (blog was included in v4). One just correctly set meta tags and descriptions, someone work with agency. CS-Cart optimizes a lot of these approaches and give you tools - but we can not auto generate unique content for you, or set meta tags for your niche.

Once again. You blame CS-Cart SEO tools. But don't forget the time is passing and each day there more and more competitors on the market.

So it's not just about the SEO, there are a lot of other factors.

I see lot of complains "I'm gonna leave CS-Cart for other platform XX" But what are going to find there? Automatic SEO configuration that will place you on the first position in Google among other thousands of competitors?

31

I totally agree with the above post. I NEVER worry or worried much about SEO and page optimization yet I took several cs-cart stores (including the one I'm still running) to 7 figure numbers turnaround with no marketing, let alone, SEO budget. Still we rank high. Why? Because:

1. We have excellent service and people post about us on forums, etc

2. Bloggers love us, our style, our products, and write about us

3. We create good unique content ourselves that google as well as people appreciate and link to

The platform might make 1% of a difference, but not much more I expect. Stop blaming, take responsibility, and work to get back the ranking you lost because your competitors got ahead of you.

32

@Flow - excellent response. Everyone thinks that in today's world just making Big-G happy by buying adwords, including data that makes their job easier, etc. will make the difference in their business success. The reality is that it's exactly the things above that is "marketing" and good marketing generates sales. Very few people go to a small-merchant web site to simply shop. They go because something outside your business caught their interest and pointed them to you. It could have been claims of excellent service, low prices, quality, etc. But the reality is there is nothing better than word of mouth (whether those be electronic words, written or spoken).

The goal of a quality site is to spend 90% of your time marketing and 10% removing obstacles to purchase. An online store is not a lead generator, it is a deal closer. So the goal is to get them to checkout in the quickest and least painful manner possible. If people want to shop they will 95% of the time go to Amazon or other big-box sales platforms. So the trick it to get them to buy from you before they go to Amazon.

33

How does wordpress has these statistics from google analytics incorporated in dashboard?

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-analytify/


C'mon it's 2018, for everyone who is focused on online business Google Analytics is must have tool. It allows you to see a lot more things that ex-statistics in CS-Cart.

34

How does wordpress has these statistics from google analytics incorporated in dashboard?

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-analytify/

And how does wordpress have multi-language integrated? Oh wait they don't. It's only available with crappy add-ons that keep breaking. It's so easy to compare tools like this and say "they have this why do you not have it?"

How much work is it to login to google analytics? Is it really worth it to create an add-on that has to be maintained like crazy so that is keeps functioning? Because google changes things, constantly.

Do you realise how much resources this takes up from a company? I'd rather have cs-cart spend time on things that matter.

35

And let me ask what matters?

Developers have tons of time and resources, they been working on many projects that never succeeded...

I'd rather have cs-cart spend time on things that matter.

36

And let me ask what matters?

Developers have tons of time and resources, they been working on many projects that never succeeded...

Darius, are you telling me that having google analytics inside you store in most important feature?

You see I do not see logging in to google analytics and making detailed research there as a problem. And spending developers time on coping this interface into CS-Cart admin panel is not a good thing to spent resources on.

37

No, since google analytics does not show per what keyword entry was done I do not use it much as before.. I am not pro what conserns paid advertising, but since I do not buy adwords I see no use of analytics..

As for cs-cart statistics. OK, sorting by popularity what is this? According to someone from staff, its how many times product was added to cart, removed, purchased, viewed. BUT. Neither admin neither customer can get access to this data, only total score number. So if this data is collected either way, why not show it?

Just recently you introduced new feature, display recently updated products, this can extend to least viewed, range added from year to year, least added to cart and many more stuff..

You are a techy person, I do not expect you to understand poor cart admins life..

As for the admin panel, imagine you want to hire someone to add products and pack placed orders, but dont show any of the sales totals data.. Even this cannot be customised..

Darius, are you telling me that having google analytics inside you store in most important feature?

You see I do not see logging in to google analytics and making detailed research there as a problem. And spending developers time on coping this interface into CS-Cart admin panel is not a good thing to spent resources on.

38

A "poor mans" site analytics could certainly be developed. But I think you want much more than end-point reporting (views, adds, etc.). The most critical piece is navigation. How did they get to the point of purchase? Is there a consistent path your users are taking? What was the landing page? Who was the referrer? Did they stop and read a long description or click through to the next purchase step?

This can all be done on-site but Google, Klaviyo and other tools already exist for gathering/displaying this info to you so I think the question was more about "why reinvent the wheel?" To me, the most critical piece of info is "where did someone come from to purchase a product/service on my site?". Did they come from Big-G, Marketplace, here on the forums, some other link in an article somewhere? Hence I track the Referrer in each order so I can see where user's are coming from. If I wanted to perform analysis on that info, I would keep it in a DB so I could perform counts, frequency analysis over time, etc. But I don't get enough volume to make that worthwhile.

Most of my customers come for a specific reason. They don't usually come to shop. Sometimes they come for one thing and then see something else they would want in addition, but the vast majority of my customers come for one product or service.

39

Good old ebay.

Why do they not offer me to go to analytics and present much of the this hungry resource data on site?

How many with questions

How many are being watched (wishlisted)

How many with questions

How many views

Whats the overall total $ listed products

Whats overall total $ displated on page or selected

Views can be customized, with picture without picture, anything added anything removed.

Columns can be expanded or shrinked..

It also has "This listing hasn't had any sales in at least 16 months." what is really great..

I would suggest developers checking out etsy and ebay, what they offer as an inspiration.

listing.jpg

40

95% of my stock is one in stock (hand made jewelry), so I care little for overall paths how one gets there, I focus on categories.. I mainly want to identify why one was viewed most, but not sold. Want to clearly understand and identify stock that is oldest with no sales so I could run promo on them, or edit description or refresh pictures..

A "poor mans" site analytics could certainly be developed. But I think you want much more than end-point reporting (views, adds, etc.). The most critical piece is navigation. How did they get to the point of purchase? Is there a consistent path your users are taking? What was the landing page? Who was the referrer? Did they stop and read a long description or click through to the next purchase step?

This can all be done on-site but Google, Klaviyo and other tools already exist for gathering/displaying this info to you so I think the question was more about "why reinvent the wheel?" To me, the most critical piece of info is "where did someone come from to purchase a product/service on my site?". Did they come from Big-G, Marketplace, here on the forums, some other link in an article somewhere? Hence I track the Referrer in each order so I can see where user's are coming from. If I wanted to perform analysis on that info, I would keep it in a DB so I could perform counts, frequency analysis over time, etc. But I don't get enough volume to make that worthwhile.

Most of my customers come for a specific reason. They don't usually come to shop. Sometimes they come for one thing and then see something else they would want in addition, but the vast majority of my customers come for one product or service.