Factors affecting the "success" There are many online parts stores. But the key one is laid somewhere at the beginning of the path, in the technical jungle – it's a CMS. If you made a mistake when choosing an engine or trusted an incompetent developer, the consequences will not be long in coming.
The article will be useful to owners of "problem" sites, as well as those who are planning to open an online spare parts store and prefer to learn from the mistakes of others
Engine – is it just an engine?
Engine – it's just an engine: a set of rules, functions, tables. Versatility – not an advantage at all. The use of ready-made, free CMS raises a number of complex tasks, the key of which are – get rid of the unnecessary and add the necessary. Choosing an engine out of the box, along with versatility, you get a lot of extra features that will certainly interfere not only with the operation of the site, but also with the process of promotion, assortment management and orders.
At present, the development of online spare parts stores based on free universal CMS is widely practiced. The task is quite simple – connect the catalog of analogues to the site using a ready-made module. An ordinary system administrator will cope with it with minimal ideas about the work of an online store. But will such a site cope with the tasks assigned to it?
This is where the – is CMS so important?
If your store is powered by OpenCart
OpenCart – popular free CMS. To create an online spare parts store, it is enough to acquire a CMS, a linking module and a TecDoc catalog. By assembling this uncomplicated constructor, you will get a relatively decent online spare parts store. Why relatively?
Functionality and performance
Assortment of – millions of product items, respectively, millions of pages that the CMS is required to show to several users at the same time. Each page is generated by querying the database, i.e. TecDoc. At the same time, when making a request, the CMS must "understand" what information you need to take in the database, in our case, these are hundreds of parameters and relationships. OpenCart is not designed for such a number of samples from the Tekdok database. With a large number of hits, a thoughtlessly designed site begins to “slow down” if the load increases — stops working completely. Add to this the potential number of users, crawlers, and other visitors present on the site at a time, and put up with poor site performance, or even a complete loss of performance.
What does this mean for e-commerce? Answer your question – how many seconds you are willing to devote to waiting for the page to load. Two, three, four? Your potential customers are unlikely to wait longer and prefer the faster and more convenient site of competitors.
SEO — promotion
Search engines, similarly to users, will not rank highly an autosite created on the basis of a universal CMS. There are several reasons for this: the requirements of the SEO optimizer cannot be fulfilled without improvements to the software part, the page loading speed leaves much to be desired. Therefore, it does not make sense to invest impressive amounts in promoting a project in search results.
Pay attention to the popular online spare parts stores – none of them work on a free universal CMS. Got something to think about?
Security
Hacking a site through vulnerable scripts running the – reason #1 on the list of security issues. Universal CMS are used by millions of sites, which is why they – "tidbit" for scammers. The vulnerability is quickly becoming known throughout the – it will not be difficult for an attacker to gain access to your database, site files, control panel. It is difficult to predict how a fraudster will dispose of this information, but it is unlikely that he will use it in your interests. Quite often "hacked" sites are used to send spam and other indecency.
After analyzing 760,000 hacker attacks, Google experts concluded that almost 50% of them were successful. One of the most popular reasons – CMS vulnerability.
Cost
The integration of TecDoc with the help of a ready-made module does not require high qualifications. CMS OpenCart is distributed free of charge, the cost of the finished module ranges from $100-300. The final cost of development depends solely on the appetites of the performer.
Pros of OpenCart
- Distributed free of charge.
Cons of OpenCart
- Not designed to interact with TecDoc, can't handle the loadkami;
- Problematic and ineffective SEO;
- Security vulnerability.
If your spare parts store works on 1C: Bitrix
1C: Bitrix – high-quality, licensed CMS without "glitches" and other delights of free solutions. It has a lot of advantages and one huge disadvantage – high cost.
Functionality and performance
Integration of the site with TecDoc is carried out using the same universal module. Omitting technical points, we can safely say that 1C: Bitrix is superior in performance to OpenCart, but it should be borne in mind that Bitrix is still not designed to work with a multimillion-dollar assortment. If a large number of users use the site at the same time, the page load speed decreases.
Specialists of the world-famous Amazon.com in the course of marketing research found out that if the page load speed drops by just 1 second, the company loses over 4% of sales. In monetary terms, these are millions of losses.
SEO – promotion
The reverse side of the multifunctionality of Bitrix – complexity of setup and management. Therefore, in order to promote a resource in the vastness of the network, in addition to an SEO specialist, complete with a CMS, you will have to "purchase" also a programmer. A simple freelancer is no good. This person should understand not only how Bitrix works, but also how TecDoc works, an understanding of the specifics of the auto parts business and at least a minimal understanding of the car’s structure will be a plus. If at least one of the conditions is not met, the project is doomed to failure.
Security
1C Company: Bitrix regularly releases updates for its product, which significantly increases the reliability of the solution. However, installing them without the involvement of a specialist will not work. Therefore, the security of an online parts store will also cost you a lot of money.
Cost
Creating an autosite based on 1C: Bitrix costs an average of $3,000 — 8000$.
Pros of 1C: Bitrix
- Easily integrates with 1C accounting software
Cons 1C: Bitrix
- Difficult to set up and manage;
- High cost.
If your parts store is powered by Joomla, WordPress, Prestashop and any other engine
Read more about OpenCart issues, add development costs, wave your hand and… go in search of a specialized CMS, created with the specifics of the parts business and adapted to work with a large amount of information.
Individual development of CMS – pleasure is not cheap, but in the case of an online auto parts store, this is not necessary. There are many ready-made, proven solutions that are convenient for both the user and the administrator. An engine designed specifically for an online auto parts store — the only option that can ensure the correct operation of the autosite under any load.
