Best ecommerce site templates?

[Emma]

What are the best ecommerce site templates? Is it better to have them tailor made or is buying them off the shelf adequate?

[NikHurwood]

Buying them off the shelf is fine if you don't mind the odd chance that someone else has a site looking like yours.

Custom made is the best option, although... my advice to my clients if they are on a budget is to choose a template and let me hack it about a bit.

Another question that gets asked alot in these sort of conversations is what's the difference between "free" and "pro" templates. Pro being the paid for versions. Main difference is support and usually (fingers crossed) a better base to leap from. You could get a freebie hacked and save loads of money not paying for a template, but you will be paying for extra hack time.

[DesignsOnline.co.uk]

Nik is right. You can do it very cheap , but the chances are that your website wont stand out and this will hit you in terms of sales.

If you chose the right company, having a bespoke Ecommerce website designed and built wont cost you too much. And generally once you have done this it is yours to keep without ongoing costs.
(Except of course the hosting and domain renewals which every website has...)

[Paul Norman]

I am an ecommerce consultant, working on a number of projects large and small.

My advice is this. Dont use a template (I am aware of the varied interpretations put on this word!!) Go to an excellent website builder, who understands how to code a site, who takes the trouble to understand your business, who will assemble a product suited for you, who talks convincingly about on line marketing!

And, it probably wont cost very much more, in the long run, less. If you are doing e-commerce, your site is your shop front. Make it a good one.

I can recommend suppliers who will do this, based on experience of their previously highly successful projects.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Paul Norman

I can recommend suppliers who will do this, based on experience of their previously highly successful projects.

Or you could invite them here...

[Sumit]

If you are going for an ecommerce website than never go for a template....Design your website in your own unique look and feel,Though it will b a time taking but yes it will give you long term profit as it helps your website to stand different from other competitive website and website design plays an important role in sales also

[NikHurwood]

One thing not talked about yet here is actual budget. It's a big trend in the ecommerce world to not talk cash up front. But there are big differences between having a full blown ecommerce site built from the ground up and utilising one of the many pre-built ecommerce carts.

My personal view is that prebuilt solutions are great, both for a designer/coder and for the client. Whilst it is easy (yet financially a large outlay) to provide a good specialist to build a storefront from scratch, you may actually be paying for something that is already in existence. The benefits of finding a good specialist who knows how to customise and individualise a particular "off the shelf" solution, is by a more sensible solution.

There will always be situations where a prebult cart cannot perform as needed, such is the generic nature of them. That's where a specialist comes in to play and "makes" it do what you want it to!

My favourite "shelf" cart is currently Magento. I use this for my site, and it has features far superior to many other carts.. although it lacks as well! This is a cart that has been built with development in mind. Great for agencies to use where they have different people that handle the coding, design, administration. Magento is free, with a premium "paid for" support and recommends the use of an "authorised agency" to customise it.

Either way round, if you want something unique you have to pay for it. And for a lot of businesses, new or established, the bottom line on what they can have is determined by what they can pay.

[batespcm]

Of course its all about budget, but with a template your site won't stand out, but that can cease to be an issue, it depends if your sector is saturated or you have identified a niche!

Custom design needn't be expensive, but it really will set you apart from the crowd!

EDITED TO SAY - Just realised the age of this thread!

[Emma]

No problem! All input is good.

[Juliawilliams]

It all depends on one's choice, either you can dowload some free templates and tailor them according to your requirement or you can use some SMS for the whole stuff or you can hire someone for your job to be done

[DambTechComm]

I agree with some of the other comments, if you want templates then the chance is someone else will have a site looking like yours.

We rent e-commerce solutions out and even though some people like to have there own design which we can drop in place for them, this gives them the look and feel they want for there business.

Hope this helps.

[A Web Apart]

The word Template can mean so many different things, different things to different people, and at one end of the scale there is the bad side of templates, at the other end of the scale there is the good side of templates.

This forum website is a good example of good business sense, it is not developed from scratch, it is based on the vBulletin system, and it uses a template, not an off-the-shelf template but one that has been customised. Despite using an off-the-shelf system and a custom template, this forum, IMO, is better than other business forums that have been built from scratch.

[PointandStare]

The best template to use is the default stock install.
The reason being is that this template can then be developed into any design you desire.
When building online stores, we always start with the default as it's the most flexible and then build from there.

What you want the final product to look/ feel like and how much tweaking can be done simply comes down to the clients budget and imagination.

[lancashirerose]

could so a lot worse than ekm

[batespcm]

Originally Posted by lancashirerose

could so a lot worse than ekm

Could also do a lot better EKM great for the novice but it is soon outgrown and like all carts of that ilk not the most convenient when you want to move away

[lancashirerose]

i have trialled a few and imo its pretty good

[Trades 4 Work]

Originally Posted by Emma

What are the best ecommerce site templates? Is it better to have them tailor made or is buying them off the shelf adequate?

Hi emma

We design our own templates if you visit this link Trades 4 Work - Tradesmens Services at www.trades4work.com
you can see a few of them starting from only £450

[mangostudio]

I haven't read all the replies but in my opinion templates are ok but depend on a number of factors.

Have you the budget to employ a web designer / developer? If its an e-commerce site you could be looking at a good job for £3000 - £6000.

If not, what are the chances of seeing you site out there that someone else has? I've never known of this or have never seen 2 sites the same so of course buying a template is safe. There may be hundreds of the same design out there but you're not likely to see them.

Beware of "template" looking sites - by this I mean some sites blatently look like a template and these should be avoided. One site I recommend is Web Templates, Flash Templates, Website Templates Design - Template Monster

We dont use templates in our agency Mango Studio - Mango Studio is a digital agency specialising in e-commerce and e-booking systems but many do and there's nothing wrong with that.

template monster also have e-commerce templates that work perfectly with OSCommerce.

Good luck.

[lancashirerose]

templates are ok, mine has been modified soo many times

Steve

[Wana Bee]

I have been informed that magento is very good. But I think that its always best to have a team of people (or person) to make a custom template for a very well tested admin panel

[matt.chatterley]

As you can probably guess, I'm not really a fan of template driven sites.

Better when customised, terrible when they are visibly recognisable as templates!

The main point I would probably make against them is that with an off-the-shelf setup (I was going to say 'stock system' - but that has other connotations in context!), you are almost certainly getting functionality and complexity which you don't need or want - and probably missing things which you do need/want.

Although we use a framework to deliver eCommerce functionality, it's modular and customisable (plus it's our own in-house property, so fully under our control) - this is nothing more than a compromise between cost and quality - sadly developing a system from the ground up for each customer makes it impossibly expensive for many!

The open-source frameworks, "cheap" frameworks and templates are an extension of this really - and often, the further you go down the "low cost" route, the further away you get from "quality" - or at the least, professional advice and knowledge.

That said, if you are going to use a template driven system, make sure that you get a good template - OR have one built for you, so that it doesn't look like another 500 sites already out there!

[GeekSRV]

I believe to have a successful online shop then you need to be unique and stand out from the crowd, if you just look like any run of the mill website your website will soon be forgotten.

[DesignsOnline.co.uk]

Originally Posted by GeekSRV

I believe to have a successful online shop then you need to be unique and stand out from the crowd, if you just look like any run of the mill website your website will soon be forgotten.

I absolutely agree...


e-Commerce Websites | Ecommerce & Shopping Cart websites

[BillyPOP]

Agree with whats been said so far - if you are serious about it and want to get as much from your project as you possibly can then bespoke is the way to go but make sure you go to a website builder who has had PROVEN project that work in the search engines.

You will find thousands of developers who can build you a nice site but the most important thing is getting that site seen (and making you money).

Good luck with it.

[Createabadge]

Mine is with EKM as well and would recommend them - very good for the 'newbit' who doesn't want to have over there website on a plate to designers (I know there are some very good guys out there!)..... but I can see a point where people can outgrow them...