La Belle-tique, Modern Clothes for the Vintage Girl: Lab Assignment #14

To improve your boutique (La Belle-tique: modern clothes for the vintage girl), the three options that would be to your best benefit are Zen Cart, Magneto, and Presta Shop. I am happy to help you find an option that is most suitable for you, and hope that you will feel more at ease about expanding your boutique to the internet after this proposal.
All eCommerce options give the user the chance to give customers sales and promotions on the website. However, the options for how the user may do so vary between softwares. Magneto has the best selection of choices – the user can use coupons, emails, percentages off marked on the website, etc. Whatever the user has in mind to make garments fly out the (electronic) door is pretty much fair game. Presta Shop’s approach is great as well because the user can include free shipping, as well as price reductions and gift vouchers. While Zen Cart’s items can be market as “free” or “inquire for price,” the software does not give the user as many options to choose from aside from a fixed price, a price markdown, or an additional percentage off. I know from experience that online discounts make me more willing to buy items off of a website, because I feel like I am getting a better deal than I would in the store.
SSL Security is important to the consumer when credit card fraud can happen in an instant. SSL security software encrypts, or scrambles, the data about a client, so that if a potential crook was trying to use it, they would have to decrypt everything before they could get what they wanted. Both Presta Shop and Magneto have this feature. Other than having a CVV2 verification feature, Zen Cart does not offer much security for online transactions. While most customers do not think about this when they initially shop on your website, the ones that do will be deterred by the lack of security (I know that I would). It would also be detrimental to your reputation as a business owner if something fraudulent ever happened at the customer’s expense, even if the actions causing the incident were not your own.
Additionally, each brand of software has a PayPal option included for use. This makes it easier for many users to access their credit card information, and therefore, buy more stuff. PayPal completes the transaction for the vendor, and all the vendor has to do is just ship the item and collect the profit. I shop on Ebay quite often, so I find PayPal convenient and easy to use, because I do not have to create a different account for any other website that uses PayPal services as well.
For the technology-confused user, HTML coding and customization of the storefront may be a concern. Obviously, no vendor wants to have a dull website that does not draw potential customers in to buy the product. Zen Cart offers an extensive template customization system, while Magneto does not have HTML-free customization. Presta Shop has a “back office” feature to help the user tweak the look of the storefront. The option that will give you the most creative liberty is important, as I am certain you would like your website to look as creative as your actual store.
As an online shopper myself, I tend to dislike when I am limited on shipping options, or when the least expensive takes a month to get my purchase to me. Presta Shop offers shipment tracking and gift-wrapping, but does not seem to give the customer free reign over how they want their purchase shipped to them. Magneto has the option of adding every possible shipping rate (from UPS, UPS XML, FedEx, USPS and DHL) to your storefront, which is great if you have a picky customer. Zen Shop has multiple options for shipping carriers, as well as a shipping estimator, which the customer can use prior to check out.
To give my opinion, I believe that Presta Shop is the best option, because it will give you a good amount of customization options, while keeping the security and professional aspects of your business at the heart of the storefront.