[Chubster]

I know the best way is to have a site designed from the ground up but would be interested in your thoughts of the best ecommerce packages out there.

Which one gives the best all round features?

[awebapart]

There is no 'best ecommerce solution', it depends upon your requirements.

Some solutions try to tick as many features/boxes as possible, but if they don't provide, or don't implement well, the particular feature which is most important to you, then they are not suitable. Depending on requirements, one feature that is absolutely critical to one business, may be seen as unnecessary software bloat to another business.

I also wouldn't agree that the 'best way is to have a site designed from the ground up' without using packages, but this then veers into a discussion about going the packaged route, the semi-bespoke package route, or the fully bespoke custom made route. This isn't just a money thing, even some of the top businesses don't go the fully developed from scratch route, just look at Venda's clients (Venda provides a hosted managed ecommerce platform which is a platform/package customisable to a certain extent, they don't design and develop ecommerce sites from scratch for their clients, and their clients include Superdrug, BBC Online Shop, Focus DIY, Laura Ashley, The Body Shop, etc).

[OldWelshGuy]

There are so many factors, and it depends what you want out of it. I personally prefer to use opensource software (Zen cart), pay for modifications, then release the mods back to the community for the benefit of all

[RedEvo]

There are also third party carts that plug in to any website. Things such as RomanCart.

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