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10 Ecommerce Platforms For Drop Shippers
One way to set up the software your ecommerce store is to hire programmers and have something custom developed for you. This option has few advantages:
- You can have some unique features, exactly the features you need, and only them.
- If properly programmed your store will be more secure than "out of the box" solution because the backdoors of popular scripts are know among crackers.
- Your shop may work faster because of the absence of features that you don't need - again assuming it's properly programmed.
The main downside to this approach is cost. It's going to be very expensive. And there are other drawbacks, mostly related to the quality of execution. It's not easy to find and hire good programmers, and hiring bad ones will result in ecommerce software that is slow, buggy, insecure, and poor in usability. On top of that you may have to wait months until it's developed.
I'm not telling you to ignore the first approach. If you have to cash and patience, go for it. The rest of us better look at "out of the box" solutions that can, with or without customization, fit most of our needs. There are many commercial and free ones with various level of quality. In this post I'll do a short review of some of them and will try to help you with your choice.
1. PHP Mall
PHP Mall is relatively expensive script for large shops. One of the most important features is that it's multi-vendor software which said simple means you could have your suppliers submit products for you. It contains content management system and two modes - "Classic mall" and "Affiliate stores". This software inherits a lot of functionality from iBoutique.
URL: http://www.netartmedia.net/mall/index.html
Price: $276.00 / $674.00
Type/Technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL based. Most web hosts can support this.
Who is this for: Medium ecommerce businesses. Most probably the one-man drop ship business isn't going to use this script. I'm giving it here just for reference in case your plans are big. It's expensive but custom development will cost you more. I have not used this script myself.
2. Prestashop
I hate the code of PrestaShop. I have customized it for clients and it's plain bad. A lot of developers and designers like it though so maybe I just have no idea. Whatever.
Prestashop is a typical e-commerce shopping cart software. With it default features it should be fine for setting up a typical drop ship store. It supports quite a few payment systems, has detailed statistics, shipping modules, in overall very feature rich interface. I think its user interface is very confusing but maybe you'll find it OK. Better check at the demo.
URL: http://www.prestashop.com/
Price: free
Type/Technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL Based
Who is this for: small dropshippers without very specific requirements. If you need something non-standard you may need customization. Fortunately there are many free modules available. And many programmers know this software so it's easy to find someone to modify it for you. If you are not familiar with installing PHP/MySQL based software you may need help with this too.
3. Magento
Magento is huge ecommerce platform for both small business and large enterprise. I have heard a lot of complains that it's really hard to customize. I don't have experience trying to do so. For sure it's quite heavy and bloated with features. This can be good or bad depending on what you want to do with it. If you are looking for a relatively simple web store it's probably better to look at PrestaShop or some of the other solutions listed below.
URL: http://www.magentocommerce.com/
Price: free for the open source community edition, $2,995 USD/yr for the Professional edition, $12,990 USD/yr for the Enterprise edition, $15 - $125 per month for the hosted Magento Go.
Type/Technology:
PHP/MySQL for the self-hosted editions, or you can have it hosted.Who is this for: As already said, it's supposed to be suitable for any size of ecommerce business. However I would avoid it if I don't have thousand of products. If you are willing to pay and not familiar with installing scripts, I'd recommend you Magento Go as they'll take care for the tech stuff for you.
4. Axis
Axis is less popular and probably smaller ecommerce solution. It allows you however to manage several stores under one administration which makes it very good for the niche oriented drop shipper. The backend administration seems a lot user-friendlier than most other ecommerce backends I have seen. I have not tried this software in live store so it might be just a visual thing.
Price: Free, open source
Type/technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL
Who is this for: Seems suitable for most types and sizes of drop ship stores. The user-friendly interface makes it good even if you are less experienced with technical stuff. You'll need hosting and to install it yourself.
5. Open Cart
This is one of the well looking and easier to use ecommerce tools. It's also a fairly fresh project which makes me believe its codebase is better than other's. This may be important if you plan customizations. The project is still popular enough to have plenty of free modules for almost everything and translations for most languages.
Price: Free, open source
Type/technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL
Who is this for: Very good for small stores and seems to be able to handle bigger and more complex ones just fine. I've only played with this one but it's maybe my favorite.
The three options that follow aren't typical ecommerce solutions. They are content management systems that can turn into web stores using modules and extensions. Why would you want to use them instead of dedicated software? Here are few possible reasons:
- Most of them are easier to install and use
- You'll have access to more and more affordable developers in case you want customizations.
- You may combine them with content based web site or blog. A good option if you don't sell many products and want to gain free traffic from search engines and social networks.
- You may be already familiar with the software.
6. Drupal
Drupal is typical CMS with a lot of fans and many avaulable modules. Here is just one example of Ecommerce module for Drupal. Drupal itself is a bit strange but once you get used to it the customization options are limitless.
URL: http://drupal.org/
Price: Free, open source. Some modules are paid, but most are free.
Type/technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL
Who is this for: mostly small drop shippers. It's very good for these who want to combine it with content site. Using ecommerce module is great way to add drop shipping to existing community portal.
7. Wordpress
Wordpress is a lot more than the most popular blogging software. There are tens of ecommerce plugins that can turn it into a fully functional shopping cart software. Here is just one of the most popular extensions that can do it. The big advantage of Wordpress is that it's very easy to install and upgrade, so are its extensions.
Price: Free, open source. Some extensions are paid, but most are free.
Type/technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL
Who is this for: Very good for bloggers who are already familiar with wordpress. Setting up your dropship section on your existing blog or entirely fresh Wordpress based dropship store will take minutes. Good solution to combine content with selling.
8. Joomla
Joomla is also content management system but the supply of ecommerce extensions is abundant. Just see here. Based on my experience developing extensions for Joomla is really easy so you shall be able to fully customize your Joomla based store if you have to. Plenty of programmers are available at affordable rates.
Price: Free, open source. Some extensions are paid, but most are free.
Type/technology: Self-hosted, PHP/MySQL
Who is this for: everyone who is familiar with Joomla. It's good also for any small drop shipper who is on budget and wants free or nearly free solution. Your store can be combined with a community portal.
I'll finish with a couple of hosted solutions. The good thing about them is that you don't have to worry about installing software, updates, or hosting. You will have to pay monthly fee for these solutions however.
9. Volusion
This is hosted ecommerce solution for any size of web store. Almost like all hosted versions it's nearly hassle free.
Price: $19 - $149 per month
Type/technology: hosted
Who is this for: Any size of dropshipper who doesn't want to care about hosting, installations, and upgrading software.
10. Shopify
Shopify is another hosted solution. It's very hip and easy to use, includes also mobile-friendly store.
Price: $26 - $160 per month
Type/technology: hosted
Who is this for: Just like the above, suitable for any dropshipper who wants to outsource the technical stuff of running a web store.
Any other solution you can recommend?
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