BigCommerce 6 - Good features

I don’t know if this is the correct forum so move this if needed.



I just noticed that BigCommerce (Interspire) released version 6 of their shopping cart. While I am not recommending moving (I love CS-Cart), some of their features are very important to today’s eCommerce Store Owner. Namely:


  1. Post items on eBay
  2. Easily export items to shopping comparison sites (BizRate, Shopzilla, Beso, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com and MySimon).
  3. Mobile Commerce
  4. Social Media Reviews
  5. Facebook store integration
  6. Email Marketing Integration (MailChimp)



    Thinking from a marketing side of things, these are all very important parts of running a business.



    The latest upgrade focused on stability and order processing which is very important. I feel the next upgrade should give all of us some new ways to attract customers and get our products out to more people.



    What do you think? What can we all do to get CS-Cart to focus on these types of features next?



    Thanks,



    Adam

Great but look at the overall running cost of BigCommerce, add that up over 12,24,36 months and it becomes quite costly.



I’ve just moved away from “package prices” to CS Cart for the above reason.

Bet they (bigcommerce) even tests the software before release instead of leaving it up to the community to fix essentially what should of been working before release.

Just hang around long enough and in 12, 24, 36 months your costs will be the same with CS as with Big Commerce.



Developmental cost, downtime, lost sales, etc. They all add up. If I were not so invested at this point…mmmmm???. Maybe.



I’d rather see Cs-cart hike the price of the cart up by 4x than to continue releasing versions of this cart that are broke. Spend the extra money on testing.



Stu

I don’t think BigCommerce is open source software.

The more you are allowed to customize the software the less compatible you will be when an upgrade comes out.

I believe I saw that some people modify the cs-cart database. This would probably cause the most incompatibility when a new version comes out.

I know cs-cart needs some more testing, but I wonder how much of the problems are due to insufficient testing and how much is due to the user modifying the files.

Bob

Stu,



You have an interesting look on things, but I do wonder.



If you store is working fine, why be in a rush to upgrade?



Why upgrade a live site before fully testing a test site to make sure the bugs are worked out and your store will run with no problems?



It’s interesting to read on the forum and read about people complaining about upgrading their store and now they and their customers can’t access the site or whatever. I mean, really, you’d actually just go ahead and upgrade your store before testing it and especially within a couple of days of the release coming out?



Man, give it some time, help test out the new version, post bugs and problems, wait for the version to become stable, then upgrade your store. Pretty simple really.



Brandon

[quote name=‘brandonvd’]Stu,



You have an interesting look on things, but I do wonder.



If you store is working fine, why be in a rush to upgrade?



Why upgrade a live site before fully testing a test site to make sure the bugs are worked out and your store will run with no problems?



It’s interesting to read on the forum and read about people complaining about upgrading their store and now they and their customers can’t access the site or whatever. I mean, really, you’d actually just go ahead and upgrade your store before testing it and especially within a couple of days of the release coming out?



Man, give it some time, help test out the new version, post bugs and problems, wait for the version to become stable, then upgrade your store. Pretty simple really.



Brandon[/QUOTE]



Brandon,



You make good points. I just get frustrated when each release is littered with bugs.



I don’t do the development on our site, just the backend stuff and graphic stuff. So I have to pay someone to fix the bugs for us. We’re now waiting to implement a new design, so we’re waiting on a stable version to do so. No one wants to touch this thing until a stable version is released.



Also, what about brand new people that are downloading this thing for the first time. Why should they have to start with such bugs?



I understand your points and I’m not trying to start an argument. It’s just I pay people to do what I need completed, just like I pay Cs-cart for an upgrade license for what should be a stable versions of this cart every time Perhaps I just don’t understand the development process and that this is the norm for this type of work. Guess I expect way to much.



I do love the cart with exception of these few things. Guess I will take your advice…give it some time.



thanks for the reality check,



Stu

[quote name=‘jint’]Great but look at the overall running cost of BigCommerce, add that up over 12,24,36 months and it becomes quite costly.



I’ve just moved away from “package prices” to CS Cart for the above reason.[/QUOTE]



jinf,



I wasn’t suggesting to anyone that they move to BigCommerce. I was just wondering what everyone thought about the new features they added. I feel they would add tremendous value to my store. Being able to use Facebook and other social media would really help. Mobile commerce is rapidly approaching and we should all be ready.



I too chose CS-Cart for that as ONE of the reasons along with an active development community, active support, and great general community.



Adam

To get back on topic, Brandon, what do you think of the features they added?

Stu,



I’m not trying to ruffle any feathers and I totally understand your frustration. If you are paying someone to do your work, you obviously don’t want to have to pay to have it done twice. And, if you are trying to implement some new design changes I can understand not wanting to have to do that twice either.



As for the bugs, it seems to me that the majority of the bugs are caused from upgrading. While this shouldn’t be, at least people who are just starting with 2.1 shouldn’t really be running into that many problems.



I don’t quite know why CS rushed to release 2.1. I read on one post that they were going to release it in the middle to end of August. I was kind of surprised that they released 2.1 when they did. There were still quite a few bugs being reported for the RC5 and then all of a sudden 2.1 was released. I personally would have preferred CS to wait another week or so to finish fixing the various bugs, but CS released 2.1 anyways.



Adam,



As for the features, I’m not sure. The only two that I would have any use for are the Mobile Commerce and Email marketing features. The email one can be done a number of other ways, so I don’t think it is a huge deal.



The mobile commerce feature though is getting more and more important everyday. While I don’t really go online with my phone all that much a lot of people do. Shoot, even my dad has a Droid and goes online with it. (Makes me feel like the old one) I don’t know how many people would be purchasing aquarium stuff from their mobile phone, but for everyone that wants to, they might not be able to purchase from me. (I haven’t actually tested this myself so I don’t actually know) Either way, it would be nice to have my store be accesible from a cell phone.



Honestly though, I don’t really care all that much about tons and tons of features and addons. I really just want my store to work and to not have any problems. All the features in the world don’t matter if the customer can’t figure out how to checkout.



Brandon


{if $shopping_mobile='Y' && $device='iphone'} {$redirect='http://mobile.mywebsite.com'}
{elseif $device='droid' || $device='blackberry'} {$redirect='http://www.apple.com/iphone/'}
{/if}

Well Sno, that was a good laugh, although the joke was lost in translation when I retold it to my wife.



For anyone who is interested, when you tell a computer / cell phone / if statement joke to your wife who really doesn’t know anything about those three things, be prepared for her to just look at you like you have totally lost it.



Oh well, at least I saw the humor in it even though my wife didn’t.



Brandon

One of the main issues I came across was backend database access with “package priced software”. Basically you had no access, this is OK if you have a range of products that are not being updated daily.

[quote name=‘jegesmaci’]I don’t know if this is the correct forum so move this if needed.



I just noticed that BigCommerce (Interspire) released version 6 of their shopping cart. While I am not recommending moving (I love CS-Cart), some of their features are very important to today’s eCommerce Store Owner. Namely:


  1. Post items on eBay
  2. Easily export items to shopping comparison sites (BizRate, Shopzilla, Beso, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com and MySimon).
  3. Mobile Commerce
  4. Social Media Reviews
  5. Facebook store integration
  6. Email Marketing Integration (MailChimp)



    Thinking from a marketing side of things, these are all very important parts of running a business.



    The latest upgrade focused on stability and order processing which is very important. I feel the next upgrade should give all of us some new ways to attract customers and get our products out to more people.



    What do you think? What can we all do to get CS-Cart to focus on these types of features next?



    Thanks,



    Adam[/QUOTE]



    Some of the features that Big Commerce is offering are VERY important! We are not moving one of our sites off of CS, but we are moving one of our sites on to Big Commerce. We have tested Big Commerce for about a month now and so far we love the features.



    Why are we trying Big Commerce and not moving our site to CS?
  1. CS seems to miss some of the important issues. For example, we want to export to ebay, shopping sites, etc. without wasting a ton of time.
  2. I still have to pay for hosting with CS and many times have to put CS on a VPS to get decent speed which ends up costing more than the shopping cart and hosting at Big Commerce. For the first time we are trying hosting through Scott (S-Combs) so we’ll see how that goes on getting the PCI scan done and approved.
  3. We don’t want all of our sites on the same shopping cart as the almighty Google (and others) appears to look at different shopping carts in different ways.
  4. While Big Commerce (BC) is not quite PCI Compliant, they appear to be a heck of a lot closer than CS-Cart is. BC still expects their software and servers to be compliant by months end which will be one less headache for me.



    Don’t get me wrong, I still like CS and love the flexibility on the open source.



    In regards to comments made about “cost” difference. You really need to truly compare CS against something like BC in a true light…including the actual hosting cost. If I have 10,000 items in the cart like I do on our ClipLink website then using something like Big Commerce might not make as much sense. If it is a site like Newt’s Games which only has about 400 items then it makes more sense to move that to Big Commerce as it would still be cheaper than just paying the VPS hosting. Just a thought.



    We are testing to see how our one site works on s-combs server. If all goes well we may end up moving our little bit higher traffic site over there too.



    Finally, I would have to agree with Brandon. Don’t upgrade so fast! We are still using 1.3.5 sp4 with patches and will stay there until we see a stable release of CS 2.? We are using CS 2.? on a couple of very small sites, but there is no way I would trust the new version of CS yet for a site that my lively hood is based on. Honestly, beyond the bugs, CS 2 just does not flow as smoothly as the old…in my opinion.

Hi Clips (and others ofcourse),



I was wondering if you went with Bigcommerce in the end or not… we are starting a new shop and are in doubt between CS-cart and Interspire 6 (which is basically bigcommerce).



We will be selling luxury products so for us the way the shop looks and feels is very important.

I feel that a lot of CS-cart shops feel very techy, if you know what I mean, and not very sexy, and I think interspire might be a bit better in terms of marketing possibilities, like the export to facebook shop they now offer.



Initial costs play a game but I don’t mind spending money on a good product that I’m going to be very happy with.



Would love your opinion about this… !



Thanks!

If you’re basing your decision on the visual appeal; I think that you’re going about it all wrong. You can pay a designer to make your site look and feel any way you would like.



However, if you’re looking for a template from within the cart itself, then I think the two are very comparable…maybe Interspire by a hair.



For the price and features, got to suggest downloading a trial of both and basing your decision on the outcome of your research first hand. Bet you will go with Cs-Cart.



Also, some of the highest ranked “luxury stores” are some of the worst looking, yet they gotta be doing something right. In the end I think it’s all bout a good marketing plan, knowing your industry, SEO and someone that has the knowledge to get your site “there.”



That being said…I’d save 1500.00 and go with the 285.00 CS luxury platform and have one of the forum’s magicians get your site “there” with the money you save.



As far giving you a technical opinion on your question, I’m sure someone will chime in.



Oh and by far I think CS has the best forum which is always willing to lend a helping hand.



Stu

Thanks for your answer… I do realize that I can make cs-cart look the way I’d like it to look. I just think interspire might be focussing more on marketing and how to get more business, while cs-cart “just” delivers a very good shopping cart. The price difference is indeed huge though and you’re right, I can hire a good designer for this amount of money. (Apply for a job now! haha… no seriously, feel free to send me a message!)



I’m currently making a shop for my sister in CS-cart and it’s going very well, so I think we will also use it.



Still, comments are welcome!

Hi,



I’ve had a CS Cart licence for a while but decided to set up a store on BigCommerce as it’s easier and quicker.



BC is good if you just want a basic, easy to use application.



If your thinking of switching to them then make sure the features your going for actually work. There are a LOT of bugs.



MailChimp integration doesn’t work correctly, issues with QuickBooks and eBay integration as well. The checkout isn’t terrible but does have some strange wording in places which can be confusing.



Support, if your outside the USA, is via ticket and is very slow. You normally will be waiting more than 24 hours for any reply and they don’t offer 24 hour support.



The the big plus point they should have PCI compliance-they don’t have it.



They have been promising it was going to happen soon since Feb of this year but it hasn’t happened and they have gone silent on the issue.



If being PCI compliant is important to you then my advice would be to wait till they are compliant.



If your happy with the features they offer and you fully test everything works the way you want it to work during your free trial then go for it. You end up with a nice looking site which should do what you want it to do.



If your going to join based on promised new features or fixes - then wait for them to appear.



You can have a look at there Customer Forum at [url]http://community.bigcommerce.com/bigcommerce[/url]



They have announced some new features that are due next week which are interesting and useful.



I personally would be happy to stay with them if they would make some sort of announcement regarding PCI compliance.



In general though. If you have a site up and running on CS Cart then switching to BC means you will actually be switching to a cart with less features.



Try out the Free Trial and test everything you want/need works. If your happy then it may be for you.



Remember, the grass isn’t always greener and if you switch carts then normally your just switching one set of frustrations for a new set as no cart is perfect:(



Hope that helps some. Didn’t come on here to bash BC, the basic product is good.

Thanks so much for your answer, but we are not looking to switch. Interspire and CS-cart are the two last-standing carts in my search for the ultimate shopping cart.



I am currently building a CS-cart shop for my sister and am impressed. Although I have to search a lot for some things, now I’m getting used to it goes faster and faster.

For this site I will stick with CS-cart for sure, we will buy the license next week.



I just hear so many good things about interspire, and they do offer great marketing tricks, and I’ve seen some great looking sites… but I think I made my decision and we will also go for cs-cart for our own 2 upcoming shops.

[quote name=‘Flow’]I just hear so many good things about interspire, and they do offer great marketing tricks, and I’ve seen some great looking sites… but I think I made my decision and we will also go for cs-cart for our own 2 upcoming shops.[/quote]

I just downloaded interspire shopping cart (no I did’nt pay for it) and I’m not that impressed with it. Yea it’s s nice cart, looks impressive, has some more interesing features then CS, but overall it is not better then CS. CS has alot more to offer for alot less. Even OpenCart is better then Interspire, glad the download was free because I deleted it pretty quickly after checking it out - Sno

Well, to say opencart is better then interspire… I’d say that is a very bold statement… Interspire /Bigcommerce is a much more developed product then opencart.