ecommerce:shopping_for_ecommerce_solutions
Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
Next revision | Previous revisionNext revisionBoth sides next revision | ||
ecommerce:shopping_for_ecommerce_solutions [2021/10/18 01:28] – created mithat | ecommerce:shopping_for_ecommerce_solutions [2021/10/18 02:43] – [Shopping for eCommerce solutions] mithat | ||
---|---|---|---|
Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
* Very low cost --- because it’s not really going to make money, at least for a while. | * Very low cost --- because it’s not really going to make money, at least for a while. | ||
- | * Automatic sales tax computation --- because I live in a state that has difficult and complex tax collection policies. | + | * Automatic sales tax computation --- because I live in a state that has complex tax collection policies. |
- | * Ability to use a fulfillment center (e.g., Fulfillment by Amazon) -- to handle things if things | + | * Ability to use a fulfillment center (e.g., Fulfillment by Amazon) |
+ | |||
+ | ===== Shop 0.0.1 ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | **TL;DR:** [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | A couple years ago, I set up a trial [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | What I found is that while it’s possible to build a shop with WordPress+WooCommerce, | ||
+ | |||
+ | As far as how well WordPress+WooCommerce lines up with my three desired features: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * It can be very low cost to run — free in fact if you don’t count webhosting that you already have. However, running it for “free” will limit the plugins you can use. | ||
+ | * WooCommerce’s own tax calculation plugin promises to do what I need, and initial testing suggests that it works. Other options exist but get very costly very quickly. | ||
+ | * The [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Shop 0.0.2 ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The concerns and issues with the above led me to search for potential alternatives. I was drawn away from other FOSS solutions (e.g. [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | This in turn led me to consider what’s available in the fully-proprietary camp. I’ve built eCommerce sites for others using Shopify, but I eliminated it for my own shop because of their fees. Yes, even their admittedly meager monthly cost would be hard to justify based on the expected income from the shop — at least for a while. I quickly eliminated other alternatives that charge similar or higher fees. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I finally narrowed things down to a few interesting candidates, which I discuss briefly below. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Square Online/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | **TL;DR:** [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | In terms of required features: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * It’s very affordable: there’s no cost to start. | ||
+ | * It promises automatic sales tax computation. But this needs testing, esp. for local tax granularity. | ||
+ | * Support for third-party fulfillment doesn’t seem to be mentioned by Square, but [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Other pros and cons: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * No plugins, so much less anxiety of abandonware. | ||
+ | * It's easy to use, though not nearly as easy as they would have you think. | ||
+ | * Running under your own domain will require a paid tier. But the '' | ||
+ | * The retail template is functional, but they only offer one, along with a number of styling (font and color) options. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Shift4Shop/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | **TL;DR:** [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | In terms of required features: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * There’s no cost as long as you use their preferred payment provider. | ||
+ | * Sales tax computations require manual updating of ZIP codes and rates. It’s undetermined whether you can “stack” e.g. local tax onto state tax. A plugin is available to automate the calculations, | ||
+ | * There are reasonable modules for a large variety of fulfillment providers, including Amazon. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Other pros and cons: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Running on your own subdomain seems possible for no extra fee, but this needs testing. | ||
+ | * Available templates seem decent but need more testing on mobile. | ||
+ | * Their site talks about the ability to sell items banned on other sites, like guns. Mentioning guns makes me think they might be people that I don't want to eventually support. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Ecwid ==== | ||
+ | ** | ||
+ | TL;DR:** [[https:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | In terms of required features: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * There’s a no-cost tier, but … | ||
+ | * You don’t get automated tax calculations unless you pay for the $15/mo package. | ||
+ | * I'm assuming integrations are possible, but without automated tax for no cost, I decided not to do more research. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Conclusions ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | TBD. |
ecommerce/shopping_for_ecommerce_solutions.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/25 05:54 by mithat