• I design and work on a lot of websites. Like you, I love WordPress. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to have a store in your WordPress site?

    A plug-in has been developed to put a store in your WordPress site.

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/

    I have just finished working on two different WordPress E-Commerce stores and they will be the last ones that I use it for. I want to share my experiences to help people make the right e-commerce choice for their site.

    I would only recommend the WordPress E-Commerce plugin for the most basic shops. If you have a blog and you want to sell a few things, then it might work out ok for you.

    Otherwise, I do not think it is professional or robust enough to make it a good choice for a serious store. Here are the major shortcomings that I found:

    • Extremely buggy… I encountered problems at every turn
    • Difficult to upgrade… new releases are not thoroughly checked
    • Poor integration with https
    • Limited free support… you are unlikely to get answers to your questions
    • Conflicts with other WordPress plug-ins that you might like to use
    • Time consuming to customize

    I would never recommend this for a client again. On the surface it looks like a quick and easy solution to getting a store up and running, but once you get deeper into it you are likely to be disappointed by the lack of features, and your attempts to customize or enhance it will end up costing you more time than if you went with a more fully featured solution in the first place.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • I must disagree.

    Although some of your points are valid, I am actually on the support forums a lot and help people all of the time.

    Bugs can also be linked to server configurations, user error, etc.

    It is a good plugin and provides a good ecommerce platform for WordPress sites.

    If you need help with something, just contact me through my site. I have many clients with many sites using this plugin with no issues whatsoever, even with https.

    You can reach me through my site if you need help.

    http://www.stasticdesigns.com

    I also disagree.It’s very easy to customize and is only time consuming in the way that anything is time consuming when it comes to getting things to look the way you want them to look.If you are a CSS expert or even if you only have basic CSS skills all you have to do is view the source, note the div id names and open the shop’s theme css file and get cracking. If you love WordPress you know that you must create your own WP themes if delivering to a paying client and isn’t that time consuming?
    Why do people bash this plugin? It’s FREE and it works. I am using it on 4 different websites that generate sales.My clients are happy they did not have to shell out more than 35 dollars for an ecommerce solution that works.Even better it is easy for my clients to add products to their sites so I don’t have to do it for them.

    @ Jamie Voss

    you made your point in this thread. Stop spamming other threads with your agenda or I will have no choice but to ban. In the last 2 days I’ve deleted 9 of your self-serving threads.

    Thread Starter jamie-voss

    (@jamie-voss)

    Self-serving how? I will not benefit in any way from pointing out to people that wp-e-commerce will not meet their expectations.

    I am contributing my experiences and hard-learned lessons to this community, trying to help WP users make the right choice and not waste their time like me.

    If you want to talk about self-serving, how about Shayne tastic? He and his crew are spamming their tech support services for their limp plug-in. If it worked in the first place, not much support would be needed.

    This is the only thread I have started, by the way.

    You obviously have an axe to grind. Other folks love and have no problem with the plugin.
    I left this thread even though it is only your opinion. You may or may not be helping future users. I, myself, have installed this plugin for several sites that wanted a free option. It was simple and easily customizable. So, one more to disagree.

    Thread Starter jamie-voss

    (@jamie-voss)

    There are quite a few threads on here voicing dissatisfaction.

    WordPress is about community and sharing information. Good luck with your moderator’s job.

    And a not to Stastic – thanks for the offer of help for a fee but I am not interested. Good luck promoting your business.

    I also must disagree – – I’ve used WP E Commerce successfully for about 8 months now – – very few complaints…For a plug-in that is essentially free, I had to do some homework to get it up and running, but it was a learning experience for me, NOT because WP E commerce is a “limp” plug-in – – Quite the contrary, it is powerful…My other alternative would be to pay an outfit like Network Solutions around $50 a month as a recurring expense to get the same services (I don’t think so!!)…

    http://www.wattsdigital.com/blog1

    And you obviously don’t know Shayne – He is a stand-up guy…He has helped me on quite a few questions, most of the time free…Yes, I’ve paid Shayne for some help with things, but it was a minimal amount, and I paid him because my time was better spent doing what I do (teaching Photoshop), which is not knowing all of the arcane computer syntax like CSS, HTML, XML, ABC, XYZ, CYA, and any other alphabet soup that you can think of related to website design…

    Jamie Voss: Oh, and speaking of “self-serving”, did you charge your client for putting their website together??

    Just my 2 cents worth – – I will continue to use WP E Commerce proudly…

    Good luck with your moderator’s job.

    it’s not a job – I do it for free.
    and I let you voice your dissatisfaction in this thread. the problem is you went to old threads and resurrected them just to slam this plugin with your opinions which are not the majority.
    this topic is now closed.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

The topic ‘WordPress E-Commerce: a word of warning’ is closed to new replies.