What is the Cheapest, Cost effective Ecommerce Platform?

Guys. Need to know something.

I am into dropshipping for few weeks in amazon. But Its very competitive. Now I want to sell products directly on my eCommerce store. now I want to know.

1. What is the Cheapest, Cost effective Ecommerce Platform?

2. How can I make sure that my buyer get a receipt with my E-Store's name and the price that I show in my E-store, not the real wholesale price?

3. or is it possible to not send any receipt to my buyer so he remains unknown of drop shipping, the real supplier and the real price?

Thank you.

 

Use wordpress + woo commmerce. Stuff is awesome and its very fast to deploy the site.

hope that helps,
Nigel

 

Just like what @Nigel Lew said, Wordpress + Woocmmerce would be great for you to use as a platform.

Host your own eCommerce store for only $1.99/month only, web hosting comes with a free Domain Name for 1 Year. Free advertising credit from Google and Bing.
Wordpress platform and Woocommerce is 100% free of cost.
So in total you will only invest around $25 though if your don't have a skill to create a website, you will probably hire some web designer and developer to set up the eCommerce store for you.
Price depends on the web designer/developer, base flat rate is $250 - $1000+

But if you need my help, you can have a discount as I am a web designer and developer myself just pm me.

 

What if I don't want to pay even a single penny? Is there anything that is entirely free? No hosting charges, no charges for building mobile application for me.

 

Free platforms such as Woocomerce are free until you want to make your store stand out from your competitors. Otherwise you better stick to Ebay/Amazon. In my opinion custom ecommerce store requires either skills or money. Just my 2 cents.

 

Tell you seriously, I have been following this thread since long. Purpose for starting this thread was to find some true and honest opinions. I am glad that all participants made their generous contribution. However, I would say that all are credible and have their own features. However, I would say that only Tibolli.NET came up with something what I was looking for. This is entirely free and the best thing is, this is offering me free mobile application as well.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Hey Mithchen. I tried Tibolli.NET and created a test store on their platform. I like how smooth the experience was. Creating products, setting up payment methods, etc.
I'm little concerned about their maturity. Ecommerce is a big topic and requires a lot of expertise and experience to do it the right way. And Tibolli.NET is a young player on the market(though I'm not sure when exactly they started). All the features require a lot of time to polish them and fix all the bugs/problems that may occur. In that sense Shopify has more experience and is more mature.

My second concern is that Tibolli.NET provides all the functionality included into their platform. It means they have email marketing, discounts, popups, mobile application, etc. All in one box. On the one hand it's great. But on the other hand it means those features are not the best-in-class and are just 'fine'. I mean they can't compete with standalone email marketing solutions such as Klaviyo and Active Campaign, for example. Those companies have been building their services for years.
Shopify for example, has different approach. They provide just a core functionality and let other third-party applications make integrations for their services.

As for the free mobile application. I like that you are thinking long-term and thinking about future and that you will need mobile app. It's great. I would recommend you to stop for a moment and take into consideration the actual impact for your business. Will having a free mobile application actually impact your business and bring you sales? There are several concerns that I have regarding the mobile app:
1. Design. You will get standard design, similar to thousands of other Tibolli.NET mobile applications
2. Marketing your mobile app and getting downloads. It's the most difficult task. AppStore is very saturated with apps and it's very hard to get people to download your app. That's why things like Facebook Messenger are getting more popular and people are writing integrations for Messenger, rather than writing their own standalone apps.

So the conclusion is the following. When you are choosing ecommerce features, please consider real business impact.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Alex

 

I'm also curious about monetization of Tibolli.NET. Where are they making their money? Unless I really understand how they monetize my account, I wouldn't jump on their platform.

 

Hi,

I had recently started my online store in WordPress platform website and i used WooCommerce. It is an open source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. Moreover, it is designed for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress. I am so happy with it. Using WooCommerce can be an important e-commerce strategies for startup business to get successful in the business. So i would suggest you to use WooCommerce like i did.

 

Great to hear your feedback on WooCommerce. It's not a strategy though. It's a platform.

 

Hi Alex
Thanks for you detailed and analytical answer. Let me ask you, why should I be curious about monetization. After all I want to have something that is entirely free. For instance, why would I leave some platform to take 2.5% per transaction? Only because I am using their platform. While I am already paying them sufficient monthly subscription.
Now let me come toward app. I agree that market is saturated and all your points but won't it look more corporate and professional when you are will be mentioning the logos of Android and iOS along with your online store.

About designs, I would say that all big brands have standard design. If you got your website with white and black, then definitely you won't want your app to be in some other color. And why would I or anyone opt stand alone portal for marketing while, they are getting each and everything in a single suite. This is what the novelty is and that's how things should be evolved. After all, being small business person, I would definitely want one stop solution for all of my concerns.

 

Hey Mithchen
You mention some really good points. My suggestions are only suggestions. You can choose any ecommerce platform you like. And in fact you can make any platform work for you and make a lot of money on any ecommerce platform.
My mindset is to pick the best(free is not always the best).
I'm willing to pay(with my time or money) if I can make more money after that.
I believe that quality ecommerce platform requires time and efforts to build. So it makes sense to pay for that platform if it's really good. So the point of FREE Tibolli.NET lights the red flag for me, because I want to know how the platform works. If it's a black box then I don't wanna put my business in it.
Mitchen, your points are valid as well. It's just a matter of prioirities and values. I value my business security more and I'm willing to pay for it, so it stays secure and I'm confident in its future.

 

Why https://tibolli.net/ is totally (as they claim and I also talked to their help line)? It sounds too good to be true.

 

I use WooCommerce but really if you can not make sales say using ebay your might struggle a little. Competition is a good thing here. When I list items I list items where I see other sellers making sales. Some to the tune of thousands of sales. Just one seller, one product. Those are the ones I like to find.

I run a fishing store the fishermans den and I am using the woocommerce plugin theme. No complaints

 

Hey,
1. I am using shopify, you can have a free trial up to 60 days. I found that they are really optimized for e-commerce and they keep it simple, everything is in automation. For example, they send automatically an email to a prospect who reached checkout but did not purchase. There are some free apps available to source products on your store with images and description.
Moreover you can integrate an autoresponder like mailchimp which is really optimize for shopify, it will make you thing easy for e-mail marketing.
After the free trial the first plan is at $29 a month.

2. There is an app for that. And you can tell your supplier to not include any invoice.

 

Smells like roses on the surface; but having a ecom site is no different then having any other
site; You will need to run fb ads, and hope you reach some level of success quickly, most dont, if
you dont use fb ads, then you will need to do SEO, and that can take many months with no guarantees.

shopify does offer credit card processing; however, I think they hold 25% back if you are drop shipping,
since drop shipping does carry some level of risk due to potential charge backs, and shipping is
completely out of your control; paypal does not like drop shippers; stripe is a good option.

you will just have to weigh the pros/cons; everything is not black and white, and not every
product is going to be a winner; When it comes to fb ads; I have seen people get lucky on
the first round,and I have seen people burn through ad cash looking for that winning product.

at first thought, it seems appealing having your own store, but in fact, it is more complicated
then you think; If you fail to do your due, and ignore the data, and fail to do your research...
then you will just be another store that opens today, then closes 3 months down the road....

Be prepared to have an investment ready...
Be prepared to lose your investment....
not every one gets lucky the first time around....

 

Hi All
I really like that you all participated and spent your valuable time by suggesting things. I do know that FB ads and other things are important but that comes at very later stage. First of all, I would definitely need to give myself a free try. Say I have 500 dollars with me and I invest all in building site and doing customization, buying hosting and other things then what will I have to take things to the next level? Isn't it good for a newbie to start free so that he should be confident enough that at least he is free from the risk of any losses that eventually is a good thing.
Other than this, I have seen and contacted with numerous people to get me mobile application and the development cost is OMG!!!! so I appreciate that they would be offering me free mobile application as well.

I have started my store with them. Once I get mobile application which is on its way, then I will definitely ask further suggestions from you people to rate it and see if I got right one or not.

And Alex I am so grateful for your valuable and positive responses that helped me gaining some more knowledge.

 

dscurlock I absolutely agree. Every platform has its pros and cons. And the website is only a part of equation. The other very important piece is traffic and conversions.
I also think that you should have some strategy. You can't just pick a product and try to sell it. The best strategy that works for me is pres-sell articles. I write useful articles that add value to the customer. The article is usually about some problems/situations and how my product can solve the problem for the customer. It's the best way to convert traffic in my opinion.

Hey Mithchen. You are welcome. I understand that starting ecommerce business can be overwhelming for the newcomer. Especially since there is so much information on the Internet and it's hard to decide what exactly to do and how to start and where to spend the money. The safest way to start in my opinion is to find what strategy works for others and copy that and not risk your money blindly. All the strategies that I recommend I use in my own business and they work really really well. So I hope it helps you as well.

 

Hi Alex
Thanks for being so kind and detailed. I just want to know if you received your application. If so then how's your experience? As I have also established my test store and now I am about to request mobile application from them. So please let me know if you got or not?