So I’m preparing to pitch to a potential client for an e-commerce build using Webflow and I hear she’s gone for Magento. Interesting choice I thought, not knowing much about it.
I do some research and start reading all the horror stories. As a designer and developer I can read between the lines and build up a picture of the pros and cons. Though it’s hard to keep all that information in the front of your brain at just the right moment without sounding like you’re a tin-foil hat.
Thanks for taking the time to do this. We have been considering adding ecommerce to our site of hundreds of custom antique lighting reproductions. It’s a big job when considering adding not only pricing but descriptions, measurements and other important pieces. We haven’t done so yet since all of our fixtures are hand crafted and VERY custom, meaning clients will call in, tell us what metal finish, measurements, holder style, tubing style, arm style, shade style, etc that they want. All these Custom Options will alter the price from what is displayed on our site. Our thought is to offer the fixtures “as displayed” and allow visitors to buy as shown.
We did not build out the site as a CMS, since we started the project in webflow before CMS was added.
Question: Can Shopify allow for adding custom code for each product to each product’s respective page? I know Foxy does, as do many others, but we would also like to possibly add a Facebook store as well as add Buy Bow to Pinterest. As I understand, Shopify allows for these “out of the box”.
Sorry for the late reply, thought I’d add my 2c worth.
Just spent last 6 months hotdesking in a Magento specialist outfit. Some things to consider
Those guys are great, top of their game, even they struggled with Magento. Constantly breaking, always need fixes pushed.
Magento 2 released which is NOT compatible with Magento 1, requires complete rebuild
Magento 2 changed pricing model to ℅ of each sale = very expensive
Magento 2 must be run by development team, clients just seem to break it, requiring expensive Dev team work every month. I’m talking average $20k a MONTH
Magento 2 very difficult to integrate with outside advertising and promotional work, campaigns etc. Again requires front and back end Dev. M2 approach seems to be “I’m the centre of the universe, you shall all revolve around me”.
Even worse with social media.
Despite being run by experts still hacked often and badly. And I’m talking the enterprise level version, would be worse with open source.
The only downside I see with Shopify is the lack of control, lack of flexibility, slightly my way or the highway approach. But cheaper and user friendly.
I guess you have to judge the level of flexibility the Clint requires, but for me I’d like long and hard at Magento before recommending.
Like I said, just my opinion, but as far as I’m concerned it’s the IE of e-commerce solutions
Stay away from Magento. It will force you to dive into all sorts of custom coding and workarounds, which is fine if you have a team of expert (about a decade of experience) PHP + Magento specialists at your disposal.
Thanks for the confirmation guys. This is more for her than for me, as it’s a friend of a friend. I have no intention of doing anything with Magento. Sounds like one of those projects I used to rescue back in my early days of coding.
